I believe that my coaching philosophy is rather simple. I do not profess to be well versed in psychology, nor do I think that I know every aspect of coaching baseball. However, I do believe that the past 30+ years that I have devoted to youth and high school sports has provided me with some insight into ideas that not only allow me to help create better baseball players, but also facilitate individual players growth and maturity.
Academics are the most important aspect of life. You may love baseball. You may plan on playing in college or professionally someday, however you must also prepare yourself for other aspects of life. Academic success is a rigorous process at any level of education and students will be required to learn how to time-manage, study, problem solve, and prioritize. I am willing to provide my student-athletes with as much help as they need. I believe that academic success is a prerequisite to athletic opportunity. I believe that a team should set goals that they want to achieve each year and our team goal would be to maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA.
Accountability is another important aspect of life. I believe that a player should be provided the opportunity to make decisions, both good and bad. It would be much easier to demand specific actions from players at specific times or situations, I know there would be fewer costly errors. Unfortunately playing in that manner would also negate the opportunity for the spectacular or wisp of creative flair that makes the game of baseball so special. I will try to provide my players with situational recommendations, but insist that they make decisions. It is my job to analyze their results and provide feedback (both positive and negative) and try to assist them in learning from their past experiences so that in the future they might make the best decisions available to them. I believe that the best one can hope for in life is to be held accountable for the actions and decisions one makes and to reap the rewards or accept the criticisms.
Another principle I adhere to would be that you must deserve to win. When push comes to shove, when you are truly tested against someone who is either your equal or superior, you must honestly know that you deserve to win – know that you trained harder, longer, endured more hardship, risked more of your heart. I believe this approach will sustain you in your darkest moments. I believe this feeling will allow you to look at yourself in the mirror after a loss and say that there was nothing else that you could have done. The time and effort required to achieve such a mental strength is immense. I will demand such time and effort from every player, but ultimately it is the player who must provide the motivational desire to travel such a path in life. As a coach, I can only help them by providing the direction to explore.
Competition must be the basis upon which the team's mental and physical training is based. As a team, we should chart everything that we do. Every pitch, at bat, scrimmage, and game. This information should be available to every player on a regular basis and continues to show where players need to work on and what they are doing well. I want my players to train in an environment that is demanding – an environment that replicates the game. Games are competitive, practice must be as well. I ask my athletes to learn to solve problems that various situations pose so that the team can win.
Players must always remember that practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
The last subject I will touch on is Teamwork. A team is a collection of individuals, but in order for a team to be successful it must be much more than that. A successful team is a group of individuals driven by a common goal. Our ultimate goal as a program is to be the very best that we can be! I try not to compare myself with the accomplishments of others, and I attempt to take the same objective with my players. I evaluate them. I try to get to know them. I try to understand where they are and where they come from. I then try to put them in varying situations to get the most out of them. I ask not for them to be great at everything, I only ask them to try their very best. Players will be asked to set their own personal goals and players will establish their own limits. But, ultimately I want players that put the team first. They must be willing to sacrifice individual glory in order to help strengthen the team. When you go out and compete on that field you are not competing as 9 individuals, but one unit or FAMILY.
Coach Brian
Academics are the most important aspect of life. You may love baseball. You may plan on playing in college or professionally someday, however you must also prepare yourself for other aspects of life. Academic success is a rigorous process at any level of education and students will be required to learn how to time-manage, study, problem solve, and prioritize. I am willing to provide my student-athletes with as much help as they need. I believe that academic success is a prerequisite to athletic opportunity. I believe that a team should set goals that they want to achieve each year and our team goal would be to maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA.
Accountability is another important aspect of life. I believe that a player should be provided the opportunity to make decisions, both good and bad. It would be much easier to demand specific actions from players at specific times or situations, I know there would be fewer costly errors. Unfortunately playing in that manner would also negate the opportunity for the spectacular or wisp of creative flair that makes the game of baseball so special. I will try to provide my players with situational recommendations, but insist that they make decisions. It is my job to analyze their results and provide feedback (both positive and negative) and try to assist them in learning from their past experiences so that in the future they might make the best decisions available to them. I believe that the best one can hope for in life is to be held accountable for the actions and decisions one makes and to reap the rewards or accept the criticisms.
Another principle I adhere to would be that you must deserve to win. When push comes to shove, when you are truly tested against someone who is either your equal or superior, you must honestly know that you deserve to win – know that you trained harder, longer, endured more hardship, risked more of your heart. I believe this approach will sustain you in your darkest moments. I believe this feeling will allow you to look at yourself in the mirror after a loss and say that there was nothing else that you could have done. The time and effort required to achieve such a mental strength is immense. I will demand such time and effort from every player, but ultimately it is the player who must provide the motivational desire to travel such a path in life. As a coach, I can only help them by providing the direction to explore.
Competition must be the basis upon which the team's mental and physical training is based. As a team, we should chart everything that we do. Every pitch, at bat, scrimmage, and game. This information should be available to every player on a regular basis and continues to show where players need to work on and what they are doing well. I want my players to train in an environment that is demanding – an environment that replicates the game. Games are competitive, practice must be as well. I ask my athletes to learn to solve problems that various situations pose so that the team can win.
Players must always remember that practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
The last subject I will touch on is Teamwork. A team is a collection of individuals, but in order for a team to be successful it must be much more than that. A successful team is a group of individuals driven by a common goal. Our ultimate goal as a program is to be the very best that we can be! I try not to compare myself with the accomplishments of others, and I attempt to take the same objective with my players. I evaluate them. I try to get to know them. I try to understand where they are and where they come from. I then try to put them in varying situations to get the most out of them. I ask not for them to be great at everything, I only ask them to try their very best. Players will be asked to set their own personal goals and players will establish their own limits. But, ultimately I want players that put the team first. They must be willing to sacrifice individual glory in order to help strengthen the team. When you go out and compete on that field you are not competing as 9 individuals, but one unit or FAMILY.
Coach Brian