A 1992 graduate of The Ohio State University, Lenny is entering his 35th season with The Original
Florida Pokers. Roberts was an assistant to his father Mike, who founded the program, from 1990-2005. The program sent over 400 players on to play baseball in college and another 4 dozen into professional baseball with 10 players reaching the Majors.
Lenny took over running the program in 2006 and has seen the program grow over the past 18 years.
Roberts 14u team won the programs first National Championship as The Original Florida Pokers won the 2014 PG World Series (14u).
He has helped players earn over $2 million in scholarships (Academic & Athletic) over the past 5 years at universities all across the country.
He spent four years as a student assistant with the basketball program at Ohio State (1988-92), two
years as Graduate Assistant Basketball Coach at The University of Miami (1993-94) and two years as
Assistant Basketball Coach at Nova Southeastern University (1995-96).
“I am excited to see the program expand and help more student-athletes out providing them the platform to show what they can do on the field. The goal when we started was to help as many student-athletes go on to college and earn a degree through the game of baseball. We are now in a position to help even more players do so and 2024 marks the start of some major growth to our tradition rich program”.
Lenny is married to Kim and have 2 sons Caleb (Fla Pokers 2006-2017) and Brett (Fla Pokers (2008-2012). Caleb was player of the year in the state of Florida for St. Thomas Aquinas state title team in 2018. He then played 3 years at North Carolina (2019-2021) and was drafted in the 5 th round of the 2021 MLB Draft to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Brett, also a player of the year for Golf at St. Thomas Aquinas in 2018 is now a senior golfer at Florida State where he is a 3x All-American.
Coach Todd Fitz-Gerald is entering his 24 th season with The Original Florida Pokers as he spent 10 years as top assistant to program founder Mike Roberts.
Currently, Coach Fitz-Gerald is entering his 29th season coaching high school baseball, his 21st as Head Coach. Fall 2021 marks his 11th season as Head Coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, prior to which he served as Head Coach for 10 seasons at his alma mater, American Heritage in Plantation, FL. Throughout his coaching career, Coach Fitz-Gerald has led his teams to an impressive overall record of 446-119 – a remarkable .789 winning percentage.
Coach Fitz-Gerald’s baseball teams have competed in the state playoffs for 19 consecutive years and
have ranked in the top 50 teams in the country 12 of those years. During that time, his teams have won 15 district championships titles, six regional championships, three state championships, and in 2008, 2016 and 2021, three national championship titles.
Coach Fitz-Gerald was named “Coach of the Year” nine times in the past 13 years, and he was awarded National High School Baseball Coach of the Year 5x by the ABCA, Baseball America, and USA Today.
“The American Baseball Coaches Association’s All America and Coach of the Year Committee selected
Coach Todd Fitz-Gerald for the highest honor in 2021, not only for being a top-notch champion, but also because he’s a man of integrity, high moral character, sportsmanship and he cares about teaching his players these important life lessons that will make them future stewards of our great game of baseball and the caretakers of our families, communities, and nation,” said Craig Keilitz, Executive Director of the ABCA.
In addition to these prestigious nods, Coach Fitz-Gerald is proud that 32 of his players have been drafted in the professional baseball draft, with his most notable players including Eric Hosmer, Jesús Luzardo, Colton Welker; Deven Marrero and Coby Mayo.
A longtime resident of Broward County, Coach Fitz-Gerald and his wife, Colleen, have been married for 26 years and have two sons, Hunter 22 and Devin 18, both of whom have earned notable achievements as MSD Eagles baseball players. In 2019, Hunter’s home-run record earned him “Player of the Year” by the Sun-Sentinel, after which he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies, but elected to play college baseball, he is now with the Seattle Mariners. Devin currently plays shortstop for the Varsity team at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and is committed to NC State. Coach Fitz-Gerald also has a notable history playing baseball. As a left-handed pitcher in high school at American Heritage, he went on to play at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, where he earned a degree in Education and was recently inducted into the College’s Athlete’s Hall of Fame.
Roberts on Fitz-Gerald:
“There is no one that I trust more to lead our program on and off the field than Coach Fitz-Gerald. His success as a head coach is directly tied to how great a teacher of the game he is. A true testament to any coach is measured by how many of his former players return. I can honestly say that I do not know any other coach that has more former players return to say “Thank You” for helping them mature on and off the field. Combine that with the fact that he fully understands what it means to put on the Pokers jersey everyday makes him the perfect choice to run our program”.
Coach Von Stertzbach was a State Champion and High School All American in 1999 while playing for
Coach Mike Roberts and the Original Florida Pokers as a pitcher and infielder for 3 summers from 1997-1999. Following HS he pitched collegiately at the University of Central Florida where he led the nation as a reliever and starter in ERA for parts of the 2002 season.
Stertzbach was drafted in the 9 th round by the Anaheim Angels in 2003 and stayed in the highly touted Angels organization through 2008 being a non-roster invitee to MLB Spring Training in 2004, 2005 and 2008. His many mentors and ex- coaches include, Mike Scioscia ( Anaheim Angels Manager), Mike Butcher (Arizona Diamond Backs Pitching Coach), Bud Black (Colorado Rockies Manager), Joe Maddon (Chicago Cubs Manager) to name a few.. Coach Von Stertzbach was invited to MLB’s Arizona Fall League in 2007.
From 2009 – 2016 Coach Stertzbach was the Pitching coach for Coach Fitz-Gerald while at American
Heritage and at Stoneman Douglas. The duo has successfully sent numbers of kids on to both college
and professional baseball and takes a great deal of pride on the development first, as a young man as well as a student athlete and quality player.
Coach Stertzbach led the 2016 Stoneman Douglas Eagles Pitching staff to a National Championship
under Todd Fitz-Gerald and was named as one of 8 Assistant Coaches of the Year for the region by the
BCA.
Today, Stertzbach coaches the 14u and 12u teams and is married with 2 boys (Tyler and Mason) and is the Vice President for EmpHire Staffing and serves on a few boards within his industry.
Coach Roberts on Stertzbach:
“Von provides The Original Florida Pokers tremendous leadership at the top from a business perspective to a player personnel level. Von deeply cares about helping the student-athletes on and off the field, which has been one of the hallmarks of the program from the start. In addition to his COO role. We are very fortunate to have Von back on board with us as the program expands, there is no one that exemplifies what it means to be an Original Florida Poker than Von”.