A goal of mine is to become a head coach at the college level. This has been a goal of mine ever since I entered the profession. There are many reasons as to why but the main reason is that I’ve been in control of how things have gone in my coaching life ever since my sophomore year of college. If you’re not familiar with my path while I was in college you should read this blog, How Baseball Made TJ Wharton. Up until this point I have been so lucky to work for coaches who have supported me in my vision to reach this goal. I couldn’t ask for a better experience than I’ve had. They have taught many lessons that I hope to take into my first head collegiate coaching job. I have listened to many audible books of the greats of the coaching profession. Some of them being Phil Jackson, Pete Carroll, John Wooden, Joe Maddon and more. In these books their coaching philosophy is very clear. I have also been a head coach in 3 different summers for college baseball players. Using all of these past experiences I have made my own coaching philosophy. I want to talk about the main point of coaching philosophy. Be You, Aligned With Us. It’s 2024. We cannot escape the importance of someone’s individual goals. Social Media, NIL and the transfer portal have forever changed how we have to look at student-athletes. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. So what is “be you”?

“Be you” means something different for every student-athlete. The main difference has become that the goal of many is to get to the D1 level athletically because that is where the most opportunity for scholarship money, NIL, and professional opportunities come. At the small college level it is different. At Florida Tech many of our athletes are looking to have the best athletic career possible while getting a high level degree. The combination of playing level and amateurism in the Sunshine State Conference is tough to find. I think that it can be said that it is the highest level of baseball where the majority of the athletes are playing just for the love of the game. I love that we can still find this at the NCAA D2+3, NAIA and Junior college levels. That is why I want to be a head coach at this level. It is what I needed in my life and I believe that kids need what these levels provide to figure out who they are. It’s the conversation about transactional vs. transformational. It’s becoming harder and harder to be a transformational coach/program at the D1 level because of the amount of money involved. I think you can find more transformational programs at the small college level. My life was changed by a transformational coach/program and I look to do the same in my career. 

Now what is “us”? Us should always be similar at the college level. That is winning championships and getting degrees. At different levels you could add different things. If you are at the junior college level, then you add getting to your 4-year program. At the D1 level, more players could add to the professional level. At the D2 level you could sign contracts for work. I say the last one because all the athletes I’ve seen at Florida Tech get amazing jobs before they are even done playing baseball. These are all great goals but now how do you create the “Us”. That’s in the rest of my coaching philosophy. I’m going to hold onto the rest of what I’ve created for the teams that I will be coaching now and in the future. If you would like to see the rest of it, just reach out!