Corey Thurman has spent nearly half his life playing baseball professionally, and has reached the top. Thurman is a 13-year veteran of professional baseball, which includes parts of two seasons in the Major Leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays. Thurman appeared in 49 games for Toronto between 2002 and 2003. He spent the entire 2008 season with the York Revolution, making a team high 29 starts, throwing a team high 165.1 innings. Thurman finished the season tied for fourth in the Atlantic League in strikeouts with 129. 

Corey Thurman will forever carry the distinction of being the first Revolution player to be honored with a league monthly award, after being named Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month for June of 2008.

In the month, Thurman was 4-0 in six starts and 38.1 innings pitched.  He allowed just seven earned runs in June, for a microscopic ERA of 1.65.  He also struck out 30 batters while walking just nine in those six starts.  In two of the outings, June 6 at Camden and June 12 versus Somerset, he allowed no runs in seven innings of work. 

Born in Augusta, Georgia, Thurman first signed with the Kansas City Royals out of high school in Texarkana, Texas after being selected in the fourth round of the 1996 amateur draft.  He would make his professional debut later that summer at the age of 17.  In addition to his Major League experience with Toronto, he’s also spent time in the St. Louis Cardinals, Montreal Expos and Milwaukee Brewers organizations. 

Daryl played college ball at San Diego State University under head coach Tony Gwynn. During his college career, he was an All Conference pitcher and was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 23rd round of the 2004 draft. He made his way to AA level in 2008 for the New Hampshire Fishercats, leading the league in appearances and holds. Harang pitched for the York Revolution in 2009 and ended the season with a team leading 10 wins. In 2010, he split time between single A and double AA in the Cincinnati Reds Organization, and the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. 
Along with pitching, Harang is also going to teach hitting. He is the head coach of the 16u Backyard University Gamers.

 Tyler Page is a local to York county and graduate of Northeastern High School, class of 2008. While at Northeastern, Tyler played 3 years of varsity baseball, winning the Division Title in 2008. He decided to take his baseball career to the next level, and joined Penn State York's baseball team, where his amazing athletic ability brought him to lead the team in batting statistics, with a .500 batting average. Tyler will be entering his 4th season for Penn State Baseball, and is pursuing his certification as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Tyler is a Business Major and is hoping to take baseball to the professional level after college.

Backyard University is proud to announce our newest staff member, David Kloser!

Certified Mental Game Coach (graduate of Dr. Patrick Cohn's, Peak Performance Sports), works with teams and athletes of all ages on overcoming negative, defeatist self-talk, keeping proper focus and building confidence to develop a winning mindset for success. He is the author of, “Stepping Up to the Plate: Inspiring Interviews with Major Leaguers” where he personally met with Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Roy Halladay, Tony LaRussa, Al Kaline and more than 300 current and former MLB players, coaches, managers and Hall of Famers. They revealed to him tons of useful information on the type of character and mental approach it takes to achieve success, handle adversity, and a lot more! Coach Kloser has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, MLB.com, and numerous national radio shows. He's spoken throughout the country; most notably at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is currently the pitching coach at Penn St. York.

Josh Hildebrand is a 2006 graduate of Red Lion High School, in Red Lion Pennsylvania. After high school, he attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which was the beginning of a successful baseball career. Hildebrand won the PSAC West Coast Championship in 2010, where he threw a two-hit shutout against California in the Championship Series. Josh then went on to play baseball at the professional level for the Normal Cornbelters of Normal, Illinois, the Lake County Fielders of Deerfield, Illinois and the White Sands Pupfish of Alamogordo, New Mexico. During a game for the Lake County Fielders, Hildebrand was faced against Jose Canseco, and he struck out the former MLB player.  Hildebrand is a certified instructor of the Ripken Way of Baseball Coaching and has coached for Cal Ripken Jr. at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen,Maryland.

Clay Smeltzer began his baseball career at a young age, and pursued it as he moved on to high school at Red Lion Area Senior High, where he was a catcher and pitcher. Clay was recruited by 75 different schools, with the majority of schools recruiting him for pitching. He chose Kutztown University, where he became the starting catcher as a freshman. Clay excelled on the Kutztown Baseball Team until injuries forced him to retire as a sophomore. The turn of events lead Clay to take a step toward coaching, as he began assisting his father, who was the pitching and catching coach at Red Lion and York Suburban high schools. Clay has also coached Kennard-Dale Varsity Baseball.