• Mike Forman •
• Originally published January 7, 2009 at 12:11 a.m., updated January 7, 2009 at 12:11 a.m.

Chris Clemons got his first look at Riverside Stadium on Tuesday, but he's not sure who will join him there this summer.

Clemons took a break from his duties as an assistant baseball coach at McLennan Community College in Waco to visit the field where he will be the head coach for the Generals, who will play their inaugural season in the Texas Collegiate League.

But even as Clemons and Brad Haynes, the Generals' vice-president of baseball operations, looked over the stadium, they were working toward putting together the team.

"I've been exhausting my resources," Clemons said. "All the coaches I played with or coached with, even the players I played with that are now coaching, calling to see what has not been promised out. The contracts for most summer leagues were signed in the beginning of fall. That's been our biggest uphill battle.

"The guys I have been talking to from the Northeast come with great resumes. Now, my goal is to find guys within the state of Texas, the Big 12, the Southland Conference and the Juco guys around here that know Texas, like Texas and want to be somewhere close to home, but are also quality athletes."

The Generals announced the signing of four additional players on Tuesday, including infielder Jesse Santo and outfielder Justin Klusak from Eastern Oklahoma State, and infielder Zach Tobolowsky and outfielder Andrew Moore from Yale.

Tobolowsky is from Dallas and Moore is from Houston.

"It's the idea of trying to get guys who have some ties to this area and it's kind of a hurry up and wait type process," Clemons said. "I want to be picky about who we get. There's enough guys out of the Houston area that want to come down here and play."

Clemons earned all-Southwest Conference and all-American honors while pitching for Texas A&M and was a first-round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox in 1994.

Clemons pitched for the White Sox in 1997 and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998 before his career was cut short after undergoing reconstructive shoulder surgery and he decided to go into coaching.

Clemons admits coaching a summer league team for the first time will be a learning process for him and his players.

"I will come in with a different coaching philosophy than probably what they've seen," Clemons said. "There's a million different ways to do it. As a coach, if I have a guy who goes off to summer league and he's doing it a different way that's more successful, I have no problem with it. I don't think their coaches will have a problem with it either.

"The deal is to try and communicate with these kids in a way that will benefit them. I've got to find a way to reach each individual guy and that's our goal to get individually better an win some ballgames."

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