My roles at Maryville College are strength & conditioning coach, recruiting coordinator and hitting coach. It may seem like this is a lot to put on one coach’s plate, but I absolutely love it. The way that the coaching profession is progressing, it is easier than ever to see why all three of those jobs intertwine. If you want to be the best college baseball coach in the country, then you better have an understanding of the entire game. I do want to be the best baseball coach and I want people to know that. I never understood the hyper level of modesty because of what we ask from our players. We want to coach the best players, wouldn’t it make sense that the best players want to play for the best coaches? This goes directly into the topic of what this blog is all about. We are there to hold our players accountable, I believe that we should let our players hold us accountable as coaches as well. 

Gone are the days where coaches can answer the question of “why?” With phrases like, “because I said so”, “we’ve always done it this way” and “just do it”. Players are very informed and we need to have answers for everything that we do. If you are able to do this, then that is the first step to building buy-in with your team. These are topics that have been talked about by numerous great coaches. The topic of letting players hold you accountable is not talked about as much as it should be. Many coaches that I grew up playing for did not feel like they could have that type or relationship with their players. I have spoken in my blogs before about how unique of a time we are in because of how rapidly technology is evolving. This technology is changing our game on the field…but it is also changing the players that we have. Something that really bothers me is all the talk about how millennials or gen z are soft. They say it as if it’s these generations’ fault that they are soft. Who raised these kids? The SAME people who are saying it! If we as coaches cannot take accountability for our own actions, then how do we expect our players to do so? I want to take this time to share some examples of how I came to this thinking and what I am doing, so that my players feel comfortable holding me accountable. 

I love working out with my players. It is something that I try to build into my programs as much as possible. I do this mainly with older players that understand what is expected of them in the weight room. This process started when I was at Catawba in the fall of my senior season. I was not able to participate in the fall of my junior year so this was my first time going through fall practice at Catawba. We had one workout a week that would be on the field. This was the most transformative period in my life, and it is right when I started to be more open minded in my thinking. So we start this workout on the field and Coach Gantt jumps in with us. In between one the stations coach was squatting down, catching his breath. I noticed that he got down into the squat better and easier than I could. I thought to myself, “How is it that my coach, who is 50, can squat better than I can?” That thought stuck with me and has til this day. I fell in love with the weight room because it’s what allowed me to play the game of baseball as long as I did. The first time it propelled my game was my sophomore year of high school. It was the summer after my freshman year when Chris Waggoner led our team through the first workouts of my life. At this time I could not even do one push-up. My game took off and I crushed workouts till I made my commitment to UNCG. After that commitment and love for the weight room slowly faded till I had that second realization. This fueled my drive to getting to the national championship and year of professional baseball. 

Knowing and applying information are two completely different things. No one is perfect and there is always something that we can work on. The best of the best in any field has things that they can work on. Mike Trout can become a better hitter, Lebron James can become a better shooter, and Tiger Woods can drive the golf ball better. This is why having a group of young, hungry men being able to hold you accountable is huge. When I was given a platform as a player to be able to speak my mind when I was upset, we were successful. Coming into Maryville College I was fairly confident in my coaching philosophy. I am going to error on being more of a friend than a coach. I am always going to be a “players coach”. It blows my mind that this has a negative connotation in the coaching world. My job as an assistant is to have a pulse of the team that the head coach can’t always have. So, as of now, the needle will go in the direction of being more of a leader than a friend as I get older. Right now, I know that I can relate to these players on numerous topics. I built relationships with my players and then I started to get to work. 

The players that I am coaching grew up in a world with instant gratification and being told they were the greatest. This combination is not conducive to building leaders of tomorrow. It is my job to teach these guys what a true friend is. It is easier to tell our friends what they want to hear and not what they need to hear. It is my job to tell these players, my friends, how to have these tough conversations. I’ve always had this mentality and it goes back to my freshman year of high school. My teammate picked me up to go to the field to get some work in. We started to throw and he brought up what schools he wanted to play at. He then asked me if he thought that he could play at one of the schools that he mentioned. I gave him the honest answer and said no. He lost his mind and said we were leaving. He drove me to his house, dropped me off and stormed out. I gave the honest answer and got hell for it. Would I do the same thing again? Yes. I have lost friends because of this mentality but this is just part of the course. If you want to become a leader some day, you will probably have just as many enemies as you do friends. This process is not easy and that’s why no one wants to be a part of. I’m sitting here on the couch with a Lebron James documentary on and this what he just said. “If my music sucks, they will tell me my music sucks, that’s why they are here.” You’ll hear this about the inner circle of any successful people in life. Kevin Hart has the same devoted friend group. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking sports or being an accountant. The people that you are closest to have to be able to call you out on your bullshit. 

To summarize all of this, we all need to be held accountable and it doesn’t matter who you are. My hope is that I can have tough conversations with every player that I coach going forward. I was so lucky to play for coaches that allowed me to have the tough conversations even when I wasn’t ready for it. I was also lucky to play for coaches who showed how things should be done in not only baseball but in life. It is my job to set the same example and have these tough conversations with my players. I want nothing more to win games but I MUST get my players ready for a life after baseball and this is one way of doing so.