{"id":391,"date":"2026-03-02T00:45:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T00:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/?p=391"},"modified":"2026-03-18T22:17:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:17:48","slug":"moore-or-less-why-try-the-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/2026\/03\/02\/moore-or-less-why-try-the-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"Moore or Less: Why Try The Impossible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Merv Moore<\/strong><\/span>
\nSports Director & Head Baseball Coach<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone tells me it can\u2019t be done. Build an elite baseball academy in the jungle? With no corporate sponsor and no promise of a paycheck at the end of the rainbow?<\/span><\/p>\n

They are probably right. It probably is impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why am I doing it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Baseball is my passion. It\u2019s the thing that got me out of bed at 6 a.m. as a kid, biking to my coach\u2019s house for games that wouldn\u2019t start until noon. It\u2019s the thing that took me across oceans, from Switzerland to Brunei, from Nepal to the misty mountains of Bhutan.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Bhutan? I actually paid my own way there. Airfare, housing, food\u2014all out of my own pocket. When I tell people that, they look at me like I\u2019ve grown a second head. You paid to work?<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes. And it was the best investment I ever made.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Because those Bhutanese kids, waiting for me in the fog at 6:55 a.m. with nothing but raw talent and burning desire, they restored that fire inside of me. They reminded me why I fell in love with youth baseball development in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

I love turning unconfident little boys into talented, confident teenage ballplayers. That\u2019s not a slogan. That\u2019s the fuel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
A group of young boys sit bored in Barangay Cambanac on a Sunday afternoon. (Photo by Lerma Moore)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Switzerland, I accomplished things\u2014national team transformations, club championships. But it always felt incomplete. Why? Because it was part-time. Kids would show up twice a week, do their drills, then disappear back into their regular lives. You can build a good player that way. But an elite player? A future MLB superstar?<\/span><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t shortcut greatness.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m headed back to Bohol next month. Because we\u2019re building something different. Something full-time. Something special.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to see kids who have been in my program for five or six years. That\u2019s what excites me. To see a boy arrive at age 10, shy and unsure, and watch him grow into a 16-year-old who can compete with anyone in the world. That\u2019s the dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it hard? This is the hardest thing I have ever done. No question.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Coach Merv leading infield drill at the 2023 Youth Camp in Thimphu, Bhutan. (Photo by Bhutan Baseball & Softball Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The heat. The humidity. The power outages. The typhoons that knock down coconut trees and force us to start cleanup before we can even think about practice. The doubters who shake their heads and whisper about crazy Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then I look at the kids. Their faces. Their hunger. Their resilience\u2014forged not on manicured fields with air-conditioned clubhouses, but in a place where life doesn\u2019t hand out participation trophies.<\/span><\/p>\n

These kids are worth it.<\/strong><\/span> Every mosquito bite. Every sleepless night worrying about funding. Every impossible obstacle.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not doing it alone. My wife Lerma shares this vision just as deeply. While I focus on developing elite baseball and softball players, she\u2019s focused on something equally important: academic excellence. Because talent alone won\u2019t save these kids. They need education. They need options.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Lerma\u2019s vision goes even further. She\u2019s dedicated to helping parents\u2014especially mothers\u2014find more income opportunities for their families. Because when you lift up a mom, you lift up an entire household. When you give a parent hope, you give a child a future.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why try the impossible?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
A group of Filipino students from Montana Elementary School attend Mass recently on Scout Day 2026. (Photo by Lerma Moore)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because someone has to. Because these kids deserve to know what they can become if given the chance. Because the Philippines already won the first Asian Baseball Championship in 1954\u2014beating Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The talent is in the DNA. It just needs the ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to be part of building that ecosystem. I want to see the first Filipino MLB superstar emerge from a program that started in a jungle clearing. I want to prove that the impossible was only impossible until someone tried.<\/span><\/p>\n

And if I fail? At least I tried. At least I can look those kids in the eye and say: I believed in you enough to risk everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Marvin \u201cMerv\u201d Moore is the head coach of the Bohol Coconuts Baseball and Softball Club. He has coached in both Europe and Asia, and was a founder of both the Mister-Baseball and BaseballdeWorld international baseball websites.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Merv Moore Sports Director & Head Baseball Coach Everyone tells me it can\u2019t be done. Build an elite baseball academy in the jungle? With no corporate sponsor and no promise of a paycheck at the end of the rainbow? They are probably right. It probably is impossible. So why am I doing it? Baseball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,30,16,27,35],"class_list":{"0":"post-391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"tag-bohol-coconuts","9":"tag-bohol-coconuts-baseball-and-softball-club","10":"tag-bohol-island","11":"tag-coach-merv-moore","12":"tag-moore-or-less"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohol-coconuts.com\/founders-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}