BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU head baseball coach Skip Bertman leaves for Mexico City Thursday morning to serve as the head coach of the United States team for the Pan American Maccabi Games.
The Games, designed for Jewish teens ages 13 to 16, are held every four years in a country in the Americas. Participants include athletes representing North America, Central America, South America and Israel.
The U.S. team is sponsored by Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel, which is dedicated to enriching the lives of Jews through a variety of athletic, cultural and educational programs.
Bertman has a wealth of international coaching experience, having served as head coach of the 1996 United States Olympic team which claimed the bronze medal in Atlanta. Bertman also worked as the pitching coach of the 1988 U.S. Olympic squad which won the gold medal in Seoul.
Bertman is scheduled to return to Baton Rouge on July 20 to supervise his summer baseball camps.
In other baseball news, LSU signee Terry Byron, a pitcher from Indian River (Fla.) Community College, has signed a contract with the Florida Marlins. Byron, the Marlins second-round pick, is the second LSU signee to sign professionally since the June draft. The other was shortstop Josh Wilson of Pittsburgh, who also signed with the Marlins after he was selected in the third round.
Three other LSU signees are still negotiating with major league clubs, including catcher Rob Bowen of Fort Wayne, Ind.; pitcher Josh Teekel of Belaire High in Baton Rouge; and infielder Mike Fontenot of Salmen High in Slidell. Bowen was second-round pick of the Minnesota Twins, Teekel a sixth-round selection of the St. Louis Cardinals and Fontenot a 21st-round selection of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The deadline for the players to either sign a contract or enroll in school is August 23, the first day of fall semester classes at LSU.