Entry #57 - 2/5/06

I have always described the coaching profession as "Crisis Management". If you're lucky, most of the dilemmas you deal with will be minor, but every once in a while you are bound to have a major crisis. That is just the nature of the business, especially when you are dealing with thirty, 18-22 year olds. Our "game week" preparation for our first series of the season definitely had some humps and bumps in it, off the field and on the field. In our program our main objective as a coaching staff is to try to prepare our players to be successful for the remainder of their lives once their baseball career is over. Making our players better baseball players while they wear the Blue and Gold is the easy part, mainly because our kids work very hard and we take baseball very serious, but we also want to give them a foundation to hold onto once they venture into the "real world". Two of the things we try to hammer home with our players are the importance of family and the importance of taking care of your health. Our program is a family and in dealing with a family of 30, you have to sift through a wide variety of personalities, mood swings and emotions. And just like any other family, sometimes things are smooth and easy and sometimes things are not as easy.

This past week, one of our freshmen, Ben Allen had to deal with the burden of his father, Greg having cancer surgery. As I spoke with Ben about his father's condition I could see the concern and uncertainty in his eyes. What a difficult situation for anyone, but especially an 18 year old kid to have to deal with. Ben is a great young man and loves his father very much. As a coach you hate to see this kind of fear or pain in your players' eyes. On Thursday morning Ben came back to campus and I am happy to report that his father's surgery went well. Our program/family will continue to pray that Greg will make a full recovery and hopefully he will be back out at the ball park in no time at all.

Last Saturday as we were playing our final intersquad scrimmage, our All-American shortstop, Chuck Hargis injured his ankle. After talking with Brian Johnston, our head trainer it looked like Chuck would have about a 20% chance of playing on Friday. As I spoke with Chuck, I could see that he was not happy with the prognosis. He wanted to play. So he and Brian went to work and started a very aggressive rehab routine. On Monday the prognosis was still about the same. On Tuesday, just a little better, but they continued to attack that ankle with treatment. Then on Wednesday, we had our last tough workout before our first game and Brian and Chuck wanted to see what he could do. It was amazing but Chuck moved around about at 90-95%. I couldn't believe it but he would be ready to go on Friday. Brian, Chuck and John Tunney (our assistant trainer) had worked a miracle. I went to sleep feeling very good that night.

On Thursday morning I woke up with a ton of last minute preparations running through my mind. After I dropped my boys off at school my phone rang and it was Brian. He said he had to take Chuck to the emergency room. I thought he must have stepped in a hole or re-injured his ankle. But Brian said that he was having some stomach problems, maybe food poisoning. Then around lunch time Brian called and said it was his appendix and he was going to need surgery. My heart just ached for Chuck. Here he is, having done all this rehab to get ready for our first game and then out of nowhere this happens. So Thursday night our team waited at the hospital for him to get out of surgery. His surgery went well and he his going to make a full recovery, but could be out for at least four to six weeks. It will be nice when #10 is out on that diamond again.

When Friday arrived we had a beautiful day to open our 2006 campaign. Our kids were eager and excited to start the season. Understandably our players were a little tight. Our opponent, Eastern Michigan is a program with lots of tradition and they are very well coached by Roger Coryell. I knew it would be a good challenge. Jeremy Hall started on the mound for us and gave us a great start throwing six innings of 1 run baseball. Offensively Shane Byrne, C.J. Lee, John Weddle and Anthony Russell had RBI's to give us a 5-2 advantage going into the ninth. Then in the ninth we made it interesting. We struck out two, walked two and made two errors to load the bases. Then before you know it, bam! A grand slam and now we found ourselves down 6-5.

In the bottom of the ninth, I was disappointed because I could see our players with their heads down. If we are going to accomplish our goals we must be tough when we face adversity. This was our first taste of it. Good baseball teams must respond and recover to sudden change if they are going to be a championship team. Our first two hitters were retired in order, so now it came down to our second baseman, Michael Courtney. "Court" is one tough competitor and a guy you definitely want in your foxhole. With two strikes and our backs against the wall, Michael delivered a lightening bolt in the shape of a blast over the left field wall. Now we were tied 6-6 and heading into extra frames.

In the extra innings, we just had a series of terrible at-bats and fundamentally we didn't execute in all areas. I give Eastern Michigan credit because they hung in there and got it done when they had the chance. They ended up scoring three runs in the 13th inning and we had no answer for that.

Of course I was disappointed we lost, but I was even more curious to how we would respond in game two. Ryan Howe came out and gave us a solid start on the mound and then, Darren Caldwell came in and did a stellar job. Darren is going to be very good for us. He has a quiet persona, but is a fierce competitor. He did not look like a freshman out there. Joey McCown came on in the ninth to earn the win. I was proud of Joey as this was his first time on the mound since knee surgery. If Joey can stay healthy, he will play a huge part on our pitching staff.

Offensively, Shane and CJ (who hit a huge 2 run homer) had great days. Blake Church drove in the winning run in the ninth also had a good game. I was extremely proud of Anthony Biello, who made his first collegiate start at shortstop. Anthony loves to play and loves the game and I wish I did not have to rush him out there so soon, but he settled in and did a nice job. Anthony's play was a great example of don't try to do too much, just play within yourself and execute. His play was a big factor in us getting our first win.

Although you always want to win every game, the weekend was a very productive one for our club. Twenty players actually saw action, which is a tremendous amount. I think our boys learned many valuable lessons. Before game one when we walked onto the field, I think our guys felt like they just had to show up and we would win. We learned no one is going to roll over for us. We also learned that we must play an entire game, all 27 outs. This is something we have been stressing to our guys all preseason. During the course of a game, no matter what inning, you never know when an at bat, a pitch, a base running opportunity, or a defensive play could be the difference in the game. From a fan's standpoint it is easy to look at game one and say we lost that game because of the grand slam in the 9th inning, but realistically if we execute offensively and make the routine plays throughout the course of the game, then that grand slam never would have been a factor.

This weekend we have another great challenge. We are on the road to Charleston, South Carolina to face Missouri (ranked #10 in the country), Washington State and Charleston Southern. It will be a great test for our program. I am excited and looking forward to the trip. We need to have a couple of good days of practice and when we board the bus on Wednesday for Charleston, I'm sure our guys will be ready to lay it on the line once again. The season is long and as we progress through it one game at a time I hope our players continue to learn that our program (like their own family) is the compass that guides them. We want their teammates (like their own brothers and sisters) to be their inspiration to reach great heights, and also to provide comfort when we occasionally falter. That is what being a family is all about. Until next time.....

GO STATE!

COACH SKOLE