First pitch in one week!

We are now exactly one week from our opening game of the season.  In Demorest, Georgia next week, we (Adrian College) will play against Blackburn College on Sunday, Christopher Newport University on Monday, and Piedmont College on Tuesday.  Two of those teams are ranked in the DIII pre-season polls, so we have an opportunity to test ourselves right away.

As has been the case for a few decades for me, this is an exciting time of the year.  We have had the unusual  situation of being able to have several practices outside in February this year, so the anticipation of being able to compete against other teams in warmer weather is exciting.  In addition to our first games approaching, our good friends Luke Harrigan and Xander Younce at Alderson-Broadus College in West Virginia have played games for two weekends now and we have cheered them on from Adrian as they earned their first victory yesterday.  Next weekend they will host Hillsdale College and my son Eric Theisen and of course for me that will be a win-win situation.  I try to give each of them scouting reports on the other......right Luke????

This week in our final preparations we will continue to have our pitchers throw live to our hitters in the batting cages.  Some of the pitchers will have their mound days adjusted according to the projected pitching schedule during our first week of games, which includes seven straight days of varsity games in Georgia and Florida and an additional five days of junior varsity games.  Some of the pitchers will throw up to 90 pitches in their sessions this week, others will throw 60-80, and a few may throw multiple times this week at 20-30 pitches per session.  They know that what I am hoping for is that they will all be as close to 100% when we step on the field next weekend.

During this last week of preparation I also try to pull back the reigns a bit on their conditioning, although we still have to maintain our strength and endurance, and hopefully the pitchers will continue to get their own work done in the weight room outside of practice time.

This is also a week to remind them of some of our team pitching goals and how we can achieve those goals during each game, inning, and at-bat.  The goals are meant to help us focus on what is important for pitching success and for giving the team the best chance possible to win each game, one at a time.

A big part of achieving these goals has to do with the mental approach as individuals and as a team.  We can't underestimate the importance of confidence, body language, positive self-talk, visualizing success, and selflessness when it comes to being team players.  Trusting ourselves and our teammates and believing in each other is perhaps the most important function of winning teams, so this week there will be many reminders of the mental aspects of team play as well as being physically competent and ready to play next weekend.

Good luck to Luke, Xander, and Eric as friends battle from opposite dugouts next weekend!!!

Live pitching and living in college

We are now almost two weeks into our pre-season practices and just over two weeks from opening our season in Georgia.  I have to admit that I am pretty excited about the depth and talent that we have on our pitching staff again this year.  Even though we lost our two senior aces from a year ago, it seems like we have more depth than ever and we're going to need it to achieve our team goals.  One thing that is so true in college sports is that every team has seniors who graduate, move on, and need to be replaced.  As much as I love the guys we had last year and in so many previous years, it is important in every season to focus on the players we have now rather than the ones whose positions we are trying to fill.

In saying that, something that can be easy to forget when we get out on the field for practices and games is that the game we play is only a part of the lives of our players.  Sure, for most of them it is a big part of their lives, but as college students they often find themselves in stressful situations academically,  financially, with roommates and significant others, and with their family members.  They may have loved ones with illnesses or other hardships, sometimes have to deal with family deaths or tragedies, and of course they are still expected not only to come to practice with a focus on improving and being team players, but they re also trying to progress toward their educational goals/degrees and maintain high standards of conduct.

For many years I have tied to make the point that since our student-athletes love the sports they play, they can use their practices and games as a time to be free from the stresses of the rest of their lives.  They can spend a couple hours each day working toward team goals without worrying about the other things that may keep them pre-occupied or up at night.

As coaches, we hope that our athletes are able to use their sporting activities as a type of temporary escape from other potentially stressful situations.  At the same time, we often don't even know what those circumstances are for many of our athletes.  Additionally, we hope that the way they choose to spend their free time doesn't increase the stress in their lives, but instead that their chosen activities help to free them from an unnecessary burdens they think they must carry.

We never know for sure the burdens that may interfere with our players, or even with other people we spend time with at work and home.  All we can do is try to care and in our own ways try to show that we care.

Tomorrow we will have eight pitchers throwing 60 pitches apiece to live hitters in the batting cages.  I know they will all do pretty well, and that some of them may have some anxiety about doing it or the first time this winter.  It's just possible that any nervousness they have tomorrow will seem like nothing compared to some of the other things they deal with in their daily lives.  All I hope for is that they have fun, improve, and understand that their teammates have their backs!

"It's Time"

Tomorrow is the first day of practice for the 2012 College Baseball Season!  This is always one of the best days out of all 365 days on the calendar.  Everybody that begins a season has high hopes of team and individual success, but where there is team success, there is a tremendous amount of individual success.

Success in college athletics comes in many different ways.  In addition to the challenges of winning games and championships, relationships that develop among team members are nothing short of spectacular!  That happens as a result of team members respecting each other, caring about each other, and putting the team ahead of themselves.

When each team member can take an unselfish attitude into each day's practice and each game, and tries to be the greatest teammate he can possibly be, a team has a much better chance of achieving goals and enjoying every step in the season's journey.  Most of us coaches have certain words and phrases or ideas that we talk to our teams about regularly.  One thing I like to remind our pitchers every season is to try to give everything of themselves, and expect nothing in return. Daily attitudes similar to this among a group can lead to exciting experiences.

I can't wait to get out there for tomorrow's first practice.  As my friend, Coach Tim  Bauer would say, "It's time!!"

What can we learn from Penn State?

Yesterday Joe Paterno was fired by the Board of Trustees at Penn State University, having been the head football coach for 46 years.  JoePa leaves with more victories than any Division I football coach in the history of college football, but his departure has left college sports fans across the country wishing things could have been different, not only for Coach Paterno, but especially for the many innocent boys (many are now men) who were victimized by a former Penn State assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky.

Having been a coach for my entire adult life, the definition of success occasionally rises to the surface in conversations with others as well as in self-reflection.  Success on the athletic field is something that is rewarding and fun, and victories very often used as a measuring stick of success.  But after the victories, what does one really have?  Are the victories and championships worth the price that was paid in State College, PA?

Coach Paterno is 84 years old and has been a symbol for doing things the right way in college sports, and even though we still don't know the whole story, it seems that one terrible decision (the choice to keep quiet), which seemingly was made by Paterno and several others every day for the past 10-12 years, has erased so much of the good that he has done.

I have often said to my own kids as well as to my athletes over the years, that before you do something, if you aren't sure if it is right, then just don't do it.  In the circumstances at Penn State, I guess we could say that if you think you should do it, just do it.

Most of us, certainly myself included, have done some things that we eventually wished we didn't do.  Some of us, including myself again, have neglected to do something and then in retrospect wish we would have done it.  When we fail at something, it doesn't make us failures.  It's when we don't admit our mistakes and failings that we become failures.  Skeletons are much heavier than they would appear.  We can all lighten our loads by removing them.

Tomorrow is a new day, no matter what happened today or yesterday.  As long as we keep our closets clean, we can be present and enjoy each moment of tomorrow with a lighter burden than we might otherwise have to carry.

Strength in God's Love

Earlier this evening I want to a visitation at a local funeral home.  Tomorrow is a funeral for a young man who died before reaching 30 years old.  As is usual when somebody that young dies, I was shocked when I heard the news over the weekend.  I admit that I cried a bit when I first heard the news, then again today at the funeral home.  I really don't cry very often anymore, but to think of the pain of the family members and close friends, not to mention the pain and turmoil that I suspect led to this unfortunate death, I was indeed brought to tears.

This young man was a wonderful and always smiling kid.  He was from a beautiful Catholic family; one brother is a Catholic priest.  I can't claim to have known any of them real well, though I did know John and his parents through church.  As a matter of fact, John was in my religious ed class back when he was in 8th and 9th grades.  He and his parents have always been more friendly to me than I could expect them to be, and I suspect they were like that with everybody.  I shared big hugs with his parents, and of course, I had no idea if anything I would say would be the right things to say.  I can only imagine their grief.  His mom did say to me that they know that John is finally with God and that John is giving them the strength they need to deal with their loss.

When I got home and was eating dinner, an ESPN show told me the story of former football player Randall Cunningham and the loss of his two year old son to an accidental death.  Cunningham is now a minister, and he said that he thanked God for the 2 1/2  years that he and his wife were able to spend with their son, whose name was Christian.  God gave Randall Cunningham the strength and love to have such a wonderful perspective.

I know God gives us all the strength we need to deal with everything that life brings us, but strength of heart certainly cannot be measured until we really need it.  I pray that God can continue to help bring peace to the hearts of all the lonely people, the people who lose their loved ones, to those who wonder why they suffer, and to those who doubt their own value.  Our Lord did put us on this earth together with others, so that we can share His love and thus multiply our strength in the comfort and support of each other.

End of Fall Baseball 2011

A couple weeks ago we completed our fall baseball schedule at Adrian College.  In my previous seven years we were allowed to have only nine practices during a four week period in the fall due to Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) rules.  The conference now allows us to have a fall season that equals what the rest of the country's Division III baseball teams can do, which is to have 16 practice dates during our fall season, with one of those dates being a competition date.

As a coach, this gives us some benefits that we didn't have in prior seasons.  This allows us more opportunities to teach, evaluate, reinforce what we are teaching, and ultimately to better prepare our team for the spring season.  Since we won't be able to teach baseball skills to our players until practice resumes again in January, the added fall practice dates have allowed us to especially teach our new players the way we want to do things in preparation for the 2012 season.

Our pitchers, for example, have gone through their daily stretching and drill work significantly more than we were ever able to do in the past.  Our daily practice routine will be easier to repeat on day one in January and it won't seem as though we are starting so much from scratch as it had always seemed in past seasons.  In addition, as I was able to learn the strengths and weaknesses of our new pitchers, they in turn were able to learn what is important to me.  We were able to have enough simulated games to be able to work on new pitches and tweak other pitches as well as having our new guys become accustomed to our conditioning routines in between game appearances, among other situational things.

This week I have been going through the pitching charts from fall intrasquad games and the competition date that we had on our last fall Sunday.  By looking at these charts and taking information from them, we will be able to see which specific things our pitchers did well, what they didn't do well, and be better prepared to establish some individual and team goals in preparation for pre-season practices in January.

It is usually easier to establish some team pitching goals than it is to decide on individual goals.  Individual goals of the pitchers are based on each guy's strengths and weaknesses in addition to their own ambitions for the season and the potential roles that they may fit into in the spring.  Our team pitching goals don't change a whole lot from season to season, other than the fact that as we continue to become more successful, some of our goals become more challenging, which is a good thing.

Anytime we set the bar higher, it is done so because of quality accomplishments in the past.  In saying that, it is important to understand that the past is over and the future is greatly determined by what we do in the present.  The only day that we have any control over is the current day, and if each team member works on improving each day, the entire pitching staff and the entire team reap the benefits.

Youth sports----evolution and purpose

The youth sport culture in our country has changed in the 24 years since I became a college baseball coach.  My kids, at the ages of 26 and 24, participated in sports throughout most of their lives, and every year the youth sports landscape continues to evolve.

One of the changes that has had an effect on youth baseball and softball is the evolution of the travel teams.  I'm sure there have been similar changes in many other sports due to the same phenomenon.  Twenty years ago most of the young baseball players (especially pre-teens and pre-high school) played in local youth leagues in their home towns.  Throughout the season they competed with and against many of the kids the see in their neighborhoods and school, only competing with athletes from other towns when they advanced to post-season tournaments.  Today, it is not uncommon for these young athletes to play on the same team with peers from cities and towns several miles away.

This evolution led to some problems for local leagues, as the participation numbers and the level of competitive play tended to drop considerably.  Ultimately, so many kids became members of travel teams that the level of talent that was once seen on travel teams began to get somewhat watered down.  Now we have an abundance of traveling teams, with an occasional 'elite' team that may have to travel to more national tournaments in order to have competitive games.

There was a time that I tried to figure out if the development of youth travel baseball and softball would last very long, and if so, considering the negative effects it has on local youth leagues, what positive results would come of this evolution.  Of course, with progress there ought to be something that is good.

Eventually, I tried to compare the phenomenon of travel baseball to what was happening at the college level.  From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, I made the most challenging schedule I could possibly make as the head coach at Siena Heights University.  I always had some outstanding players, several of whom went on to play professional baseball, some even getting drafted in the Major League Baseball annual Amateur Draft in June.  I would usually schedule a 16-18 game southern trip, with almost every game being played against nationally ranked NAIA and NCAA DII teams and some DI teams from around the state of Alabama.  We played those games in an 8-9 day period.  Then our team also usually ended up playing 7-10 games against DI teams once we traveled back to Michigan.

What eventually happened is that my players had an opportunity to compare themselves with other quality athletes from other parts of the country.  Even though I often had one or two pro prospects on my teams, most of the guys were not considered pro prospects.  Playing against top shelf teams allowed our guys to see how much harder they really needed to work, how much they needed to improve, and that since they left their high schools they were now just small fish in a real big ocean of players.

I suppose travel baseball, fall baseball, and elite travel baseball have now allowed our kids, and maybe their parents, to see that there is a big world of great young athletes out there, and that achieving dreams in the field of athletics is not something that is easy.  Every town has its best athletes, every travel team and elite program has top athletes, and when they have opportunities to compete against similar programs, it becomes easier to see that one's success is not only determined by God-given ability, desire, or the amount of trophies earned before entering high school.

The purpose of participating in youth sports, whether at the local, state or national level, is still the same as it always was.  That purpose is to learn skills that are beneficial on and off the field, develop the ability to effectively communicate with peers as well as superiors, to learn how to be a part of a team, understand how to handle success and disappointment, and to have fun.

No matter how the youth sports culture changes and evolves, these purposes have not, and should not ever change.