Coach Angel Lugo opened Trugo16 Athletics in 2007 after completing his professional baseball career, with one purpose: to give players the development, structure, and honesty he wished he had growing up in the game. A Brooklyn native, Lugo starred at Grady High School, earning All-City shortstop honors for three consecutive years. He was drafted in 1988 by the Minnesota Twins as a shortstop before transitioning to pitching in professional baseball, spending time in the Florida Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays organizations. That dual background—position player and pitcher—shaped his complete view of player development. 

In 2012, Coach Lugo was certified by Brent Pourciau in the Top Velocity Pitching Program and has since become one of the program’s most trusted instructors, earning recognition as a 3x Top Velocity Coach. He has designed every development program around teaching players how to feel, understand, and control their movements while playing the game. Rather than chasing mechanics in isolation, his approach educates athletes on how their bodies move, load, rotate, and transfer energy during real baseball actions.  Players are taught the importance of mobility and proper stretching, not as an add-on, but as a foundation for durability and performance. Baseball skill development - pitching, hitting, fielding, catching, and running - is trained through movement patterns that directly translate to game execution.  Strength training and explosive training are purpose-built to support baseball movements, not generic workouts. Every drill, lift, and progression is designed to improve body awareness, efficiency, power transfer, and long-term arm and body health, helping players perform at a higher level while staying on the field.

Taking development from the facility to real competition, Coach Lugo founded his own college-prep travel baseball program in 2014, known as Cadets, which was designed to prepare players for the demands of high-level baseball and the recruiting process. Recently he has teamed up with a nationally recognized organization, ZT, partnered with Joshau Bini to run the Northeast region.

In 2016, Coach Lugo was named Northeast Coordinator for USA Baseball’s Northeast National Team Identification Series (NTIS), further solidifying his role in national-level player identification.

In 2017, he founded the Hudson Valley RBI Program, a mission-driven initiative focused on reintroducing inner-city athletes to baseball and softball through access, structure, and mentorship.

Today, Coach Lugo continues to lead Trugo16 Athletics with a discipline-first, development-driven philosophy, combining traditional baseball values with modern technology and data driven evaluation system—helping players prepare not just for the next level, but for the reality of the game.

Coach Angel Lugo

Director of Player Development