Crown Baseball

By Nancy C. Zugschwert MA

Florida Tournament Prepares Team To Continue Winning Tradition n yet another below-zero day in Minnesota, Head Baseball/Golf Coach Ryan Doheny is thinking about Florida. Planning a dream vacation? Not exactly.

Doheny is planning for a team of 51 baseball players and several coaches to spend spring break near Orlando, where they will participate in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational Tournament during Crown’s spring break, March 5–12. While a spring-break baseball trip to Florida is a longstanding Crown tradition, this will be the team’s first “normal” tournament appearance since 2020.

Recalling the chaos that ensued in 2020 when the team was summoned home from Florida due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Doheny is excited about this year and anticipating a smoother ride.

“Two years ago, when COVID hit in March, we had just landed in Florida,” Doheny explained. “I think we played four games, and then we had to get everybody—it was almost like an emergency— back to Crown. I sat on the phone with Sun Country Airlines for hours, just trying to get everybody home, switching flights and handling all the logistics amid uncertainty and chaos.”

Extraordinary Growth

Going to Florida isn’t the only thing Doheny is excited about. The Crown baseball program has experienced extraordinary growth under his leadership, and he believes the team is poised for its best season ever.

When Doheny stepped from an assistant to head coaching role for Crown’s baseball team in 2017, he knew he had his work cut out for him, but he also knew he wasn’t alone. “It’s really been a miracle to see God work,” Doheny said. “When I first started, we only had 11 players!”

But Doheny had a dream. “I believe when God has a purpose and a plan, it’s going to happen,” he said. “A lot of it is the right people—our assistant coaches have been tremendous leaders.”

In addition to giving the credit to God, Doheny said two players had pivotal roles in the team’s turnaround over the past five years: Brooks Repking ’19, M’21, who was recently named Associate Head Coach for Crown’s team, and Seth Betts ’21.

Repking came to Crown in 2017 as a junior transfer student. He was looking for a different type of program after two years at a state school in Wisconsin. On his first day as head coach, Doheny called Repking to invite him to Crown. “Brooks was my first-ever commit,” Doheny said.

Repking recalled, “I saw his vision for the program and jumped on board.”

Catching The Vision

Doheny believes Repking did more than just “jump on board”; he became a catalyst for the team.

“With Brooks’s leadership as a ballplayer,” Doheny said, “and a handful of guys that had that vision, they were tremendously motivated to win at life and to help those around them. When your best players on the team are also your hardest workers—in the classroom, on the field, in the community—guys want to be a part of that.”

Repking reflected on his first year at Crown and why it was good even though it might have looked bad. “We had 15 guys, and we were not very good,” Repking said, “but we really believed in Coach and where the program was going.”

Doheny said a couple of weeks after signing Repking, he contacted Betts,

Doheny recalled, “Seth was looking for a place to play and took a chance—never even visited—and came to Crown.”

Betts now shares Repking’s assessment of the team. He sees Coach Doheny as a driving force for the changes on the team in the past five years. As an unlikely recruit from Utah, Betts said there are many reasons he could have called it quits.

“I got here, and there were not a ton of guys, we didn’t win many games, we didn’t play good baseball,” Betts said candidly. “There were a lot of tough instances that first year, but I realized Coach Doheny would do anything for us. I knew after that first year he would do everything in his power to provide the best baseball experience he could. I could see was dedicated and had the perseverance to become an excellent team.”

The Power of Consistency

Betts is currently a graduate student at Crown (Sports Performance) and can continue on the team with extended eligibility granted players due to COVID-19’s impact on their regular college seasons. As a player living the team’s transformation from marginal to conference champions, he said no one magic or miracle moment made it happen.

“It was a lot of things,” Betts reflected. “You want to attribute it to some pivotal moment, but it was so many small things, one after another. To me, it was the consistency and willingness to show up every single day and just get a little better as an entire team, not just at play, but on campus and in the quality of practice, improving our roster. Sometimes it seems it was just a grain of sand better, but after a few years, it starts to look like a lot.”

Doheny believes in the value of small changes making a big difference but credits his team for the positive trajectory they’re on. “It's an amazing group of guys—” he said, “how they go about their daily approach to life and the game. We expect to win our conference and represent well at the regional and potentially national levels. Still, you’ve got to take each day at a time, really focus in on the moment, and have more of that day-by-day mentality.”

Training Ground For A Winning Team

Vice President of College Relations

Travis success going well beyond the playing field. “I appreciate their approach to recruiting and being relentless to ensure they grow the roster,” Whipple said. “The efforts of the coaching staff have had a significant impact on our enrollment. They also take great care in finding the right fit for the program and our institution.”

Whipple noted that upon return from Florida, the team will compete at Missile Park (just minutes from campus) in a new collaborative partnership with the City of Saint Bonifacius. “This program continues to grow in a variety of ways,” said Whipple.

Doheny looks forward to their time in Florida as an opportunity to build team culture. Repking is excited for the team to have so many opportunities to play —upwards of 10 games during spring break—while they’re in Florida.

Betts sees the trip as a time to become a team instead of individuals. And he also may have the best handle on the value of the experience for the team. “I have told the new guys it’s one of the greatest weeks of your college career. A week straight of playing baseball and hanging out by the pool? It’s all you can ask for as 1822-year-olds.”

Whatever Doheny, Repking, Betts, the coaching staff (Maris Blanchard, Andrew Kemper, and Jon Cerney) and a group of 51 players are doing as a team, it’s working. As they head to Florida, they look forward to warm weather, time with the team and family members who join them there and gearing up for the next winning season.