Well-Schooled : Lundahl Makes U.S. National Junior Team With a Little Help From His Friends

There are well-coached athletes. And then there is Chad Lundahl.

The 12-year-old from Westlake Village has risen to the rank of Little League star with the help of an entourage of coaches, including Dodger hitting coach Reggie Smith.

Lundahl, who will play shortstop and second base for the U.S. national team at the Junior Pan Am Baseball Games Oct. 18-30 in Argentina, recently described how he acquired eight local coaches who work with him on everything from pitching to fielding.

“It started off with one,” Lundahl said. “Then another one became my baseball traveling coach. Then I ran into Reggie Smith and I took a lesson from him. Then. . . .”

OK, we get the picture. Columbus didn’t have this much help discovering the new world.

Lundahl has received most of his individual instruction at the West Coast Baseball School in Agoura, where he works with former minor leaguer Nez Balelo and Bryan Maloney, co-owners of the business, and pitching coordinator Dave Weatherman.

“If he grows, he has good potential,” said Weatherman, a former minor league pitcher who played on Cal State Fullerton’s NCAA championship team in 1979. “He’s small for his age, but he has great hands and great knowledge of the game.”

Lundahl works with Smith at an instructional school in Van Nuys, where he has his hitting mechanics videotaped.

All the coaching has apparently paid off. Lundahl already has enough trophies to full a dugout, most acquired while playing on various all-star teams in the Thousand Oaks Little League.

“He’s a definite prospect,” Weatherman said.