Coaching Management 12.7

Coaching Management VOL. XII, NO. 7

B A S E B A L L

P O S T S E A S O N

E D I T I O N

ARMS CONTROL Avoiding pitcher overuse

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Collaborate for a Dream Field

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Coaching Management Baseball Edition Postseason 2004

CONTENTS

Vol. XII, No. 7

LOCKER ROOM

Bulletin Board

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Will the North-South divide be closed or widened? ... A formal unsportsmanlike-conduct warning system ... A wood bat renaissance? ... Fundraising by position ... Not one, but two Major League dads as assistant coaches.

HAMMER STRENGTH

Player of the Year

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2 COVER STORY

Arms Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Pitch counts help coaches avoid overworking their hurlers, but there’s more to keeping them healthy than numbers on a chart.

YOUR PROGRAM

Dugout Raising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Can’t afford the facility your program needs? The solution may be community collaboration to turn your field of dreams into reality.

Andy Goff, Mt. Lebanon High School.

Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

OFF THE FIELD

Peter Ambrose pays attention to the student, and the athletes take care of themselves.

Good Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

ADVERTISERS DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . 42

Uniforms & Apparel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Team Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Hitting & Pitching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Web News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Publisher Mark Goldberg Circulation Director Mark Shea Art Director Pamela Crawford Art Assistant Dina Stander Business Manager Pennie Small

Editor-in-Chief Eleanor Frankel Associate Editor Dennis Read Assistant Editors R.J. Anderson Kenny Berkowitz David Hill Greg Scholand Laura Smith

Cover photo: Steve Woltmann Photography

Production Manager Kristin Ayers Asst. Production Manager Kristi Kempf Prepress Manager Adam Berenstain Prepress Assistant Steve Rokitka Ad Materials Coordinator Mike Townsend

No matter your communications system, your athletic director is a person you want to hook up with. Here’s how.

IT Manager Mark Nye Production Assistant Jonni Campbell Special Projects Dave Wohlhueter Administrative Assistant Sharon Barbell

Catalog Showcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Baseball Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Baseball Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 More Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Advertising Sales Associates Diedra Harkenrider, (607) 257-6970, ext. 24 Sheryl Shaffer, (607) 257-6970, ext. 21 Business and Editorial Offices 2488 N. Triphammer Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850 (607) 257-6970, Fax (607) 257-7328 info@MomentumMedia.com Mailing lists for Coaching Management Baseball are provided by the Clell Wade Coaches Directory.

The Coaching Management baseball edition is published in February, September, and December by MAG, Inc. and is distributed free to college and high school coaches in the United States and Canada. Copyright © 2004 by MAG, Inc. All rights reserved. Text may not be reproduced in any manner, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publisher. Unsolicited materials will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Coaching Management is printed by Banta Publications Group, Kansas City, MO. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Coaching Management, P.O. Box 4806, Ithaca, N.Y. 14852.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

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bulletin board D1 Start Date May Emerge Thirty-eight years after a Northern school last won the NCAA Division I College World Series, the issue of competitive equity between warm-weather and cold-climate schools may be addressed in legislative action as early as this fall. It would be a stretch to say that there is a consensus, but for many coaches the compromise is

■ Establish a nonchampionshipseason window during the fall.

Bob Todd, Head Coach at The Ohio State University and the only coach on the committee, is among the most outspoken advocates of some kind of change. Of the 40 teams that have played in the last 20 College World Series Championships, only three have been from the Midwest or the Northeast.

June 21 there are only eight schools in the NCAA still playing baseball.”

Two Strikes, You’re Out!

Many coaches, usually from Sun Belt schools, say they would like the sport to be successful nationally, but not at their expense. They predict potential attendance dropoffs, increased costs of housing student-athletes after the school year is over, and worries that scheduling changes

When the number of high school baseball coaches ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct hit 16 during the 2003 season, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association decided enough was enough. The association’s baseball and sportsmanship committees met to work on a solution, and the “Strike Two” program emerged.

Under the program’s rules, an umpire can issue a “strike one” to a coach who engages in inappropriate verbal or nonverbal behavior. The strike is recorded in the official scorebook, and both coaches are notified of the infraction. A second instance of bad behavior—strike two—and the coach is ejected. Umpires are still free to eject a coach immediately for flagrant misbehavior.

Ohio State third baseman Jedidiah Stephen lunges to snag a ball during a 3-1 win over Penn State. Ohio State Head Coach Bob Todd is among coaches who favor delaying the start of the NCAA Division I season and College World Series in hopes of altering the North-South competitive imbalance. simple: Delay the start of the season to mid-February and the College World Series to late June.

The uniform start date and a slightly later College World Series were among the four concepts outlined by the new Baseball Issues Committee in a survey given to Division I athletic directors and head coaches. The survey sought input on these four concepts: ■ Establish Feb. 1 as the first permissible date of practice in the championship season.

■ Establish March 1 as the first date of competition.

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“To move the College World Series back would be advantageous to nearly every school,” Todd says. “Would the advantage remain with the warmweather schools? Absolutely, but we have to show people around the country that we are trying to equalize the competitiveness of the sport.

“June 21 is the first official day of summer, and the way the season is set up now, by

could injure USA Baseball or summer leagues sponsored

by Major League Baseball.

“But if we are going to follow the NCAA creed, which is to give every student-athlete the right to compete for a national championship,” says Todd, “then it’s the NCAA’s obligation to create a competitive, equitable playing field.”

The Issues Committee will forward a report to the NCAA Championships/Competition Cabinet in September. That panel could sponsor legislation for the NCAA Management Council to vote on, possibly for 2006, according to Dennis Farrell, Committee Chair and Commissioner of the Big West Conference.

When it was first proposed, the rule met with skepticism from coaches and umpires alike. “A lot of coaches thought that this suddenly put a lot of power into the hands of umpires who would be making very subjective decisions,” says Bob Ashley, President of the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches’ Association and Head Coach at Stoughton High School. “There were coaches who thought, ‘I know this umpire doesn’t like me very much, so the first time I say anything, he’s going to give me a strike one.’”

Coaches were also worried that behavior they’d always considered acceptable would suddenly be earning them strikes in the scorebook. “To

JAMIE SABAU

■ Delay the start date for the Division I Baseball Championship for two weeks to late June.

Ohio State was the last champion from the Snow Belt, in 1966. Todd cites a survey by the American Baseball Coaches Association several years ago in which 77 percent of the Division I coaches responding favored moving the season back three weeks.

The program was adopted for the 2004 season as an experimental rule. While the final results aren’t in yet, the program seems to have worked: Ejections are down.

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bulletin board get a strike one, you don’t have to run out onto the field and have an argument with the umpire,” says Paul Wetzel, Media Spokesman for the MIAA. “There is a certain amount of moaning and groaning from the bench that has become part of baseball culture. I think that there was some concern about where the line was going to be.”

about that aspect of the rule, because I think it puts too much responsibility on the coach for crowd control.”

However, he didn’t see that scenario happen last season.

“I think umpires will continue to talk to the athletic director on site if there is a problem with fan behavior,” he says.

“I think common sense will prevail.”

Umpires were uncertain as well. “Frankly, I didn’t think I was going to like it,” says Mike Evans, President of the Massachusetts Baseball Umpires’ Association. “I didn’t like the terminology, I didn’t like the way it was presented to us, and I didn’t think we had been given enough input in coming up with the program.”

After living with Strike Two for a year, though, both Ashley and Evans say they support it.

“We had the most ejections of any sport in Massachusetts prior to this,” Ashley says.

“That really makes baseball look bad, and something had to be done.”

“The more I thought about it, I decided this isn’t a bad way to go,” Evans agrees.

A perfect example involves what Evans calls “chipping away”—a coach who constantly questions balls and strikes.

“That gets annoying and makes it hard for the umpire to con-

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Massachusetts umpires now have the authority to issue a “strike one” warning to coaches for the first offense of unsportsmanlike conduct. “Strike two” results in an ejection. centrate, but it’s probably not something we’re going to eject a coach for,” he says. “Yet, the rulebook does say that you cannot question balls and strikes, and now we can turn to a coach who’s chipping away and tell them it’s ‘strike one.’”

Coaches and umpires discussed the program in preseason meetings and Evans says umpires reminded coaches of it in pregame conferences. With three weeks to go in the season, there had only been three or four ejections, according to Wetzel. No data are available yet on how many times a “strike one” was issued, but Ashley says the added awareness, as much as the rule itself, prompted better behavior this past season.

Head coaches also spent more time this year mentoring assistant coaches about sportsmanship. “Many of the assistants were young, first-time coaches

who don’t usually work in an educational environment and don’t know what’s appropriate there,” says Ashley. “They were making comments from the bench that were getting head coaches ejected.

“Head coaches have a responsibility to watch their own behavior and make sure their kids and assistants carry themselves in the correct manner,” he continues. “I think this rule made head coaches more aware of that.”

One question is how much that responsibility extends to the stands. Technically, an umpire can issue a “strike one” against a coach if a fan makes inappropriate comments. “You could have a rabid parent in the background yelling at the umpire, the umpire could issue a bench warning, and if the parent yells again, the head coach could be ejected,” Ashley says. “I’m not too crazy

Coaches Like Using Wood Bats For the past two years, Bryant College Head Coach Jon Sjogren’s team’s batting average has been falling dramatically.

Four years ago, Lewis University Head Coach Irish O’Reilly’s team hit nearly 50 percent fewer home runs than the year before, and the number hasn’t gone back up much since.

Neither coach could be happier.

Both NCAA Division II schools play in wood bat leagues, and both coaches say the switch to wood has made the game purer and safer. They also say it’s made their jobs more challenging, enjoyable, and rewarding.

Bryant College is a member of the Northeast-10 Conference, which switched to wood for the 2003 season, continued the rule during 2004, and after a unanimous vote of the league’s coaches, will bring it back again for 2005. Lewis’s league, the Great Lakes Valley Conference, has been using

RICHARD ORR SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

The program gives umpires a way to deal with marginal infractions—behavior that is inappropriate and shouldn’t be ignored, but that doesn’t warrant immediate ejection.

“In basketball, a technical foul serves as a heads-up before any serious action is taken,” Evans says. “In baseball, we’ve never had anything like that to use. Nobody likes having to eject a coach, so this is a way of saying, ‘Okay, coach, let’s calm down and start thinking a little bit more,’ without having to eject him.”

The MIAA baseball committee will go over the numbers of 2004 “strike one” warnings when they meet in September to review the season. The association will likely experiment with the rule for one more year before deciding whether to make it permanent at the next rules changes meeting in May 2005.

Request No. 102

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bulletin board wood for the past four years and will also continue in 2005.

A coach for 35 years, O’Reilly says veteran coaches appreciate the way wood bats return the game to its traditional form, but younger coaches are equally enthusiastic. “In our conference, the younger coaches are some of the ones the most excited about it, because they are doing more coaching and managing now,” he says.

The Great Lakes Valley Conference and the Northeast-10 switched to wood for different reasons. In 2000, safety was paramount in the Great Lakes Valley decision. “We were witnessing a lot of balls coming off aluminum bats at speeds that were too fast to be fielded or defended against—not just in games, but in daily practices,” O’Reilly says.

The Northeast-10 had another motive. “For us, it wasn’t a safety issue,” Sjogren says.

“We did it for the sake of the game, to make it cleaner and return it to the way it was meant to be played. We certainly feel it has done that.

“A few years ago, it didn’t matter where you threw the ball or how many unearned runs you gave up, because you always knew there was a three-run home run waiting around the corner,” he continues. “That doesn’t happen anymore. One run, one base runner, one stolen base, or one sacrifice bunt can mean the game. Now the emphasis is on fielding your position, throwing the ball to the right base, turning double plays, and getting yourself out of innings. It’s brought back the finer points of the game.”

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Pitching strategy has also changed, since pitchers are no longer afraid to throw inside. “Pushing hitters off the plate when they are being too aggressive has always been part of the game, but we were losing that with aluminum bats,” O’Reilly says.

“Now, our pitchers have one more weapon back in their arsenal. The bunt also becomes more of a play, so you see the pitcher involved with fielding again.”

“It lets the strike zone be the strike zone,” adds Sjogren.

“Before, the umpire had to expand the strike zone on either side of the plate just to keep the ball in the park.”

The change has also made games shorter—which has gotten the thumbs-up from fans. “In the Midwest, we play a lot of doubleheaders. When we were using aluminum, those games would each go on for three hours,” O’Reilly says.

“Now we’re playing nine-inning games in less than two hours, and seven-inning games in less than an hour and a half.”

But won’t fans stay away if there are fewer home runs and less scoring? No, according to O’Reilly. “Our scores are in the neighborhood of 5-4 and 3-2,” he says. “Our fans have told us they appreciate it because it’s good, competitive baseball being played the traditional way.”

Both coaches have found that adjusting back to aluminum for non-conference games is easier than they expected.

Sjogren’s team advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2004, and had to prepare to use aluminum after playing the previous 34 games with wood. “I think it gave us an advantage,” he says. “When we got to the national tournament, having played with wood bats for as long as we had, the offensive adjustment was fairly easy. “We hit more home runs in the first 15 minutes than we had all year. All of my hitters had big smiles on their faces.”

shipping costs. There is a budget adjustment, but it’s not as big as people would think.”

Perhaps the biggest advantage is for players who want to advance to the next level. “In our conference, we’ve seen a couple of players who would

Defensively, the adjustment required more preparation to again field balls off of aluminum bats, Sjogren says. He had his players use The Northeast-10 Conference is among several conferaluminum ences using wood bats during league play. Shown is bats in practhird-team NCAA Division II All-American Mickey Ryan tice for live work and of Bryant College. Bryant used metal bats during its fungoes, postseason run to the D-II College World Series. concentrating on fielding balls that went over have gone unnoticed before outfielders’ heads and on getting picked up because double relays. scouts were able to evaluate them better,” O’Reilly says. “I Wood bats placed less strain think it will help the progress on the budget than commonof those who do get drafted, ly feared, according to both because they will already have coaches. “For us, there was a the skills they need. They’ve small increase, because we been hearing for a number of have to buy both wood and years about moving the ball aluminum now,” Sjogren says. and playing for that one run “But we work with our bat and doing the things defencompany as a league and sively that professional ball will we’ve been able to get sperequire of them.” cial bulk-rate prices and lower

DAVIS SILVERMAN

“The bottom line is, when we went to wood, most of the players started looking a lot more like baseball players

than they did when we used aluminum,” agrees O’Reilly.

“Infielders are making plays we hadn’t seen in a while.

Our shortstop gets 35 to 40 more assists a year than anybody playing in an aluminumbat conference. Our outfielders are making more plays because balls don’t leave the yard as often.”

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bulletin board Most of O’Reilly’s players arrive with some experience hitting with wood bats, thanks to a growing tendency among high school coaches to use them in the batting cage. Mike Hayes, Head Coach at Beech High School in Hendersonville, Tenn., says his players have definitely benefited since he started having them swing wood bats in the batting cage and in drills. “It teaches them to hit the ball in the right spot, because if you don’t hit the sweet spot with a wooden bat, you’re either going to break the bat or you’re going to hit the ball badly,” he says.

“If you can hit with a wood bat, you can definitely hit with an aluminum bat, and it’s helped our hitters tremendously.”

“When the kids only hit with aluminum, their swings

suffer,” agrees Sjogren.

“When you have them hit with wood, instead of seeing how far they can hit it, they start working on a good quality swing and getting the good part of the bat on the ball.”

Raising Money, Spot By Spot At Cornell University, where the baseball program is entirely self-sufficient, athletic administrators have come up with a new spin on an old idea.

Instead of creating endowments for athletic scholarships, which don’t exist in the Ivy League, they’ve launched a campaign to raise money for 12 “Player Position Endowments” at $150,000 apiece, and have succeeded so far in filling 10 of the slots.

“We were looking for creative ways to market giving to endowments,” says John Webster, Director of Alumni Affairs and Development for Athletics. “We decided that creating these opportunities— where donors could name a player position—would appeal to some of our former players and be a fun way for them to participate in our endowment effort. And it’s worked very, very well.”

To find the endowments’ first donor, fundraisers approached alum Richard L. Booth Jr., who had endowed the head coach’s position two years earlier. A former Big Red pitcher and current managing director of HBK Investments, Booth agreed to endow 10 player positions, naming one for himself and nine for his 1980-82 Big Red teammates.

Since then, the department has continued to search for additional donors to fill its two remaining positions, concentrating its campaign on long-term donors.

Starting in 1998, when the university decided that baseball needed to cover all its own expenses, responsibility for funding the program has increasingly shifted to alumni.

That year, Cornell baseball began a general endowment fund, followed in 1999 by Booth’s head coaching endowment and an estate gift to endow the team manager’s position in the name of the Class of 1926’s Walter Buckley Sr. A gift of $10 million, spread out over five years, allowed the program to keep reinvesting the interest from its endowContinued on page 12

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By Dave Wohlhueter

It was August 1, two weeks before Andy Goff was to begin a new chapter in his life, as a student-athlete at Wake Forest University.

Thousands of recent high school graduates in the same situation as Andy were spending the weekend soaking up the last rays of summer. Where was Goff? In Mississippi, soaking up an extra dose of the 2004 baseball season by competing in the National Amateur Baseball Federation championships.

“Baseball is the greatest game ever created, and when it was created, it was done so with people like Andy Goff in mind.”

— Mark Saghy, Head Baseball Coach, Mt. Lebanon High School, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Goff had extra motivation for playing in this year’s NABF championships: He played on last year’s Pittsburgh area team that won its NABF regional and eventually won the competition, but he couldn’t make the trip to the final round because of another commitment. So Andy was determined to make it to the finals this year, and he helped the team repeat as national champions by going 7for-17 at the plate and sparkling in the field.

Loving the game of baseball and possessing the talent and work ethic to succeed on the diamond pretty much describe Goff, a graduate of Mt. Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh, who is the 2004 Hammer Strength Baseball Player of the Year.

The award was established in 2001 to honor a high school baseball player who exemplifies the outstanding qualities and determination of New York Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi. Both players share a tremendous passion for the sport backed up by a work ethic that exceeds 100 percent.

In addition to honoring Andy specifically, Hammer Strength will present Mt. Lebanon High School with a piece of strength-training equipment of its choice.

Nominations were submitted by high school coaches from around the United States. The candidates, from a highly competitive pool, were considered based on their qualities in the areas of academics, leadership, dedication, and integrity.

“You may find more talented players, or better students in this country,” said Mt. Lebanon High School Head Baseball Coach Mark Saghy, “but you will never find a finer student-athlete who personifies the reasons why high school baseball is one of the greatest experiences in a lifetime.”

Goff backed up Saghy’s praise this spring by being named All-Section Seven and WPIAL District on the diamond at shortstop, after winning All-Section honors as a quarterback in the fall of 2003.

He was also named the Pittsburgh PostGazette Athlete of the Year. In the classroom, he carried a 3.8 cumulative GPA, and received the YMCA Baseball ScholarAthlete Award.

Goff learned at an early age about the importance of excelling in both venues.

“Right from the start, my mom said that if I didn’t get good grades, I wouldn’t be able to play baseball,” he says. “That was all I needed to hear, and I started working in the classroom.”

His favorite motto is: “You have to make the grade to make the field.”

Maintaining that attitude helped him to meet the tough academic standards of Mt. Lebanon High School, and the expectations of Coach Saghy. “If you get it done in the classroom, then you get to play, and that’s been my motivation all my life,” Goff explains.

He says winning the YMCA’s scholarathlete award was a testament to the commitment of his parents as well as himself. “They’ve always pushed me to do well in the classroom, and baseball just took care of itself,” he explains.

His success in baseball, though, didn’t just happen. It took many years of hard work for Goff to be a four-year starter on the diamond in high school. “Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to play professional baseball,” he says.

“When I was younger, my dad told me, ‘Every day, do something to make yourself better, whether it be mentally in the classroom, or physically in the weightroom or by running. Even if you are watching TV, do pushups or something during the commercials.’ My parents have always been supportive of everything I have attempted to do.”

The game of baseball further

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strengthened Goff’s commitment to discipline. “You have to work every day at discipline,” he says. “Baseball is not a game where you can succeed all the time.

If you went 3-for-10 every day, you would be in the Hall of Fame. You need to deal with the failures and keep persevering.”

“Ever since his freshman year, Andy has been a leader,” says Coach Saghy. “He knows when to lead by example, and when to speak up to ‘jump start’ a team, but he never yells.” He also makes sure no one is ever down on his team, and that everything is always positive. “You never want to get too high,” Goff says. “If I’m 4-for-4, you would never be able to tell. Lead by example, show no emotion, and play 110 percent all the time.”

Although he had a .707 on-base percentage in the spring, Goff considers hitting to be the hardest part of the game.

“It’s harder than anything you do in all of sports, because you are hitting a moving object with a moving object,” he says.

“I need to learn to hit with power and to hit the other way. Hopefully at the next level, I can work on those aspects of the game.”

Goff will get his opportunity to play on the collegiate level when he enrolls at Wake Forest in the fall. He says that when

choosing a college, he received sound advice everywhere he visited, but he especially liked what the Xavier University coach told him during the recruiting process. He said: “Andy, the biggest thing is that you have to sit down one day and think about where you see yourself, and where you are going to feel comfortable, even if it is not Xavier. I want you to go where you will be the most comfortable.” Wake Forest, in WinstonSalem, N.C., turned out to be that place.

In addition to getting a degree in either business or education, Goff hopes that playing for the Demon Deacons will be the next step on the path to a professional baseball career. This past summer, he was selected in the 50th round of the Major League draft by the Colorado Rockies, the same team that chose last year’s Hammer Strength Player of the Year, Ian Stewart.

“If pro baseball doesn’t work out, I would like to come back home and be a coach,” says Goff. His coaching may have started already, as he has been a tremendous influence on his younger brother, Pat. “We have a lot of fun together,” he says. “Pat tries to emulate me in everything he does—taping his wrists, wearing eye black, and kicking the dirt around.

It’s so much fun to watch because he looks like a mini-me.”

One attribute that makes Goff a great baseball player is his love for all aspects of the game. “Andy’s the only kid I’ve ever seen who enjoys taking ground balls as much as he likes taking batting practice,” says Saghy. “Baseball is not a job. Practice is not work. It’s just doing what he loves to do. His passion and love for the game makes it seem like he’s just going out and having fun.

“I’ve had a lot of kids who have passion,” Saghy continues. “I’ve had a lot of kids who had tons of talent, but he’s the first I can say that had the combination of both, and that sets him apart from all his peers.”

AWARD RUNNERS UP The selection of the Hammer Strength Baseball Player of the Year Award winner was a formidable task due to the high quality of the candidate pool. The following are other finalists who deserve an honorable mention for their outstanding achievements.

MACK BROWN, Shawnee Mission North High School, Shawnee, Kans.

Coach Joe Gunderson. A junior first baseman, Mack batted .435 with 15 RBIs in the cleanup spot. He is a three-year letterman in baseball, basketball, and football, and was AllLeague in all three sports. He is a member of Leadership 20-20, which includes the top academic students at his school, and is a peer mediator for his class.

EVAN COOK, Sebastian River High School, Sebastian, Fla. Coach George Young. A junior catcher, Evan captained his team to an undefeated season in the Treasure Lake Conference.

He hit .371, with a team-leading 21 RBIs and .622 slugging percentage.

Defensively, he threw out 55 percent of opposing base stealers. He made an amazing comeback after breaking his leg in the summer of 2003. An honor roll student in the rigorous Medical Academy at his high school, he plans to pursue a career in sports medicine.

CASEY HERALD, Tazewell High School, Tazewell, Va. Coach Lucian Peery. A senior pitcher-outfielder who was named All-Southwest District Player of the Year, Casey was chosen to the district and regional teams at both positions. He was All-League and All-Region in three consecutive years.

As a senior, Herald was 7-1 with a 0.80 ERA, and 103 strikeouts in 52 innings. He batted .364 with 10 RBIs. Herald has compiled a 3.7 GPA, volunteers at a local hospital, and plans to study pre-med at Virginia Tech.

CASEY HUGHES, Cameron High School, Cameron, W. Va. Coach Eric James. Casey was a senior infielder who hit .455 with five homers, 10 doubles, 42 RBIs, and 24 steals in 31 games. He was All-State in football and baseball, and won two state wrestling championships. The treasurer of his senior class, Hughes finished in the top 10 of his class with a 3.8 GPA. ROBBIE KELLEY, Springboro High School, Springboro, Ohio. Coach Mark

Pelfrey. Robbie played shortstop in his senior year, batting .484 with an onbase percentage of .619. He scored a school-record 49 runs in 28 games, and was hit by a pitch 12 times for another school record. Kelley has outstanding range and a strong arm. A three-time All-League performer on the diamond, Robbie was named league Player of the Year in soccer, while also starting in basketball. He captained all three sports. Kelley carried a 3.9 GPA in college prep courses and was nominated for Academic AllState. He will attend Xavier University on a scholarship.

senior class, he had a 3.91 GPA and was a delegate to Buckeye Boys’ State in the summer of 2003.

CORY MYERS, Newcomerstown High School, Newcomerstown, Ohio.

Coach Jeffrey Guilliams. A three-year starter at first base, Cory batted .354 and fielded .967 in 21 games. He received his team’s Ironman Award for never missing a practice or a game. He also spends time at the local senior center, playing cards with elderly members of his community.

Myers is a leader in many student organizations. Ranking fourth in his

KEVIN ROCK, Warren Mott High School, Warren, Mich. Coach Shawn Maloney. Playing through a wrist injury, Kevin hit .311 with 18 RBIs in 26 games. He earned All-District for the third straight year, and was also All-League and All-County as a third baseman. He also played shortstop and did some relief pitching. Rock was chosen Academic All-District and All-Region. He will attend community college in the fall.

CAMERON PETTY, Crane Tech Prep, Chicago, Ill. Coach David Penn. This junior pitcher went 5-2 this past spring, pitching 68.3 innings with 94 strikeouts and just 23 walks, and he received All-Conference honors.

Cameron is always a leader—on the field, in strength training, and in the classroom. He is a member of the National Honor Society with a 3.5 GPA, and plans to enroll at Clark Atlanta University in 2005.

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ment funds, and helped cover the transition to complete self-sufficiency, which was reached last year. Other contributions have followed, including a new tarp, windscreen, tractor, and scoreboard. This year, Cornell baseball reached its goal of $120,000 in gifts.

“If it weren’t for our alumni, the baseball program wouldn’t be around,” says Head Coach Tom Ford. “We have people who are very loyal, with a passion for giving back to the programs that touched them.

It’s just a matter of finding them.”

Cornell baseball folds all its endowment monies into a single operating fund that covers salaries, recruiting, equipment, travel, meals, and other expenses. The program’s

combined endowments are currently worth $2.89 million, and are earning an annual return of about four percent.

“Marketing player position endowments is a great idea, and I wish I could take credit for it, but we were simply employing an existing idea that other schools had used to raise money for scholarships,” says Webster.

“There’s no downside at all.

We have a beautiful plaque on the dugout that recognizes all the people who have created endowments,” he continues.

“We want our students to know they’re playing baseball at Cornell because those who came before them have been very generous and wanted to ensure that today’s athletes have the same opportunities they had.”

Cornell University’s baseball team is among programs that have successfully attracted alumni donations by establishing endowments named for each player position.

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12 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Major Dads Handle Pitchers When East Coweta, Ga., High School Head Coach Franklin DeLoach looked at his coaching staff this past spring, he saw stars. When it came time to make a pitching change, DeLoach called on former major league reliever Rick Behenna to visit the mound.

When he looked in his bullpen, warming up his pitchers was 1987 National League Cy Young Award winner Steve Bedrosian.

headed to Mercer University in the fall, and Brandon Behenna, a sophomore righthanded reliever and spot starter, helped lead East Coweta to the Georgia 5Astate championship game while compiling a 31-win season. This season was Behenna’s third as the team’s pitching coach and the first year Bedrosian was officially a member of the coaching staff.

Bedrosian made his services available after his hunting and fishing show on ESPN2 was cancelled prior to the 2004 baseball season.

Along with being volunteer coaches for DeLoach’s program, the former Atlanta Braves teammates were also fathers of two of East Coweta’s strongest arms.

Bedrosian’s son Kyle, a senior left-handed starter who is

“Three years ago, when Rick joined my staff, I completely turned the pitching staff over to him, and when Steve came aboard they began sharing the responsibilities,” says DeLoach. “And when I say completely turning it over to

them, I mean it. Everything from conditioning and workout schedules to choosing who would start the next game. They handled everything regarding the pitchers. When you’ve got two ex-major leaguers, it’s a no brainer—they’ve forgotten more about pitching than I’ll ever know.”

Once it became public knowledge that he would have two ex-major leaguers on his staff, DeLoach began hearing whispers that the ex-teammates— both fiery competitors in their professional days—might have trouble suppressing their egos and sharing power.

And DeLoach admits that in the beginning, even he had some doubts as to whether having two pitching coaches would work. So he vocalized his concerns.

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“I wanted to make sure each man was operating in his own space,” says DeLoach. “So we established roles. And it went real well.”

Behenna’s role with the staff basically remained the same as in previous years: He called pitches and visited the mound during varsity games. Prior to and during games, Bedrosian worked in the bullpen, getting the pitchers loose and critiquing their form. Both men took turns throwing batting practice, a treat for both DeLoach and his players.

“Every high school coach in the country can appreciate that,” says DeLoach. “It was priceless—instead of me throwing B.P., and at the same time trying to watch the players hit, I’m able to concentrate on the hitters

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bulletin board and evaluate their swings a lot better.

Besides, how many high school players can say they took B.P. off a Cy Young winner?”

DeLoach says both men worked very well together, spending a lot of time during practices and games bouncing ideas off one another. And because they had grown up playing baseball with Kyle and Brandon, East Coweta’s players were not awestruck or intimidated by having to perform in front of the ex-major leaguers—even though they often had to watch their assistant coaches sign autographs for fans, players, and even opposing coaches before and after each game.

When asked how the Bedrosians and the Behennas dealt with the inevitable fatherson friction that can appear when one is coaching the other, DeLoach says he saw something interesting transpire. “Both Steve and Rick admitted that it was tough at times to get through to their own sons, which I can relate to because I grew up with my dad coaching me. They would often ask each other to talk to the other’s kid,” says DeLoach. “It was really funny, but it seemed like Kyle Bedrosian would hear Rick Behenna better than he would hear his dad—Brandon Behenna would listen to Steve better.”

confident that Steve will remain an integral part of the East Coweta program for years to come.

“I am very thankful for having had them around,” says DeLoach. “I enjoyed learning from them, hearing their stories and just plain being around them. And I know the players did too.”

Standards Issued For Warning Tracks In the decades he’s spent inspecting baseball fields, Bud Cosgrove has seen warning tracks that are improperly designed, badly constructed, and poorly maintained. He’s testified as an expert witness in cases involving serious injuries caused by collisions with outfield fences. Now, as part

And both fathers made a point of drawing the line between being a father and being a coach. “There were a couple times when I heard Steve Bedrosian say to Kyle Bedrosian, ‘It’s not Dad out here Kyle, it’s Coach,’” DeLoach adds. “It’s really hard to find that line, but they always did.”

Bedrosian and Behenna not only made their mark on the team’s win-loss record, but also on the program’s player development. This fall, seven of East Coweta’s eight seniors from the 2004 team will be playing collegiate baseball. Three of those players are pitchers, and two, including Kyle Bedrosian, will be competing at the NCAA Division I level.

Request No. 108

14 COACHING MANAGEMENT

of a task force that’s written a new standard for warning tracks, he’s continuing to push for greater safety in the ballpark.

“If you have a fixed, permanent fence for baseball, the prudent thing is to have an appropriate warning track,” says Cosgrove, Director of Sport and Recreation Safety for the InterCity Testing & Consulting Corporation and a member of ASTM International’s Committee on

RICHARD ORR SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

Next season Brandon Behenna will be a junior, and DeLoach expects the elder Behenna to retain his duties—and that he will continue in that role as long as Brandon is playing at East Coweta. But with the graduation of Kyle Bedrosian, he isn’t sure if Steve will stay on his staff. Though with two more Bedrosian boys coming up—one an incoming freshman, the other a middle school student—DeLoach is

Player safety is the primary aim behind new standards developed by ASTM International for designing, building, and maintaining warning tracks.

Sports Equipment and Facilities. “If you’re going to have a warning track, it has to be smooth, even, and compact. It can’t be riddled with ruts and holes, because the ballplayer will be looking up, chasing a fly ball. His footing has got to be consistent, and he has to rely on the change in surface texture as the cue that he’s approaching the fence.”

Created by ASTM International, the “Standard Guide for Construction and Maintenance of Warning Track Areas on Sports Fields” covers construction issues such as the physical and chemical properties of materials used, optimal dimensions, and surface and internal drainage.

The guide also focuses on maintenance issues, including edging, dragging, rolling, watering, vegetation control, and removal of stones and debris.

ASTM standards are bestpractice guidelines used widely in industry and construction.

Manufacturers and builders use them as a way of certifying their work for potential customers, in much the same way that NOCSAE-certified sports gear is recognized as meeting certain standards for use in athletics. ASTM’s warning track standard, labeled F2270, can help coaches choose materials and builders for new or reconditioned warning tracks, and learn how to maintain them.

“There’s no consistent way in which warning tracks are constructed,” says Michael DePew, Chair of the ASTM International Committee on Sports Equipment and Facilities. “We felt this needed to be addressed, and we hope this standard will highlight the need for warning tracks and clarify how

they should be constructed and maintained in order to be effective.”

The standard applies to fields with fixed, permanent outfield fences, recommending a warning track at least 15 feet wide, with adequate drainage and a mixture of fine gravel and sand. The standard makes no recommendations for fields without fences, fields with flexible or portable fences, or fields with synthetic warning tracks. And though the standard isn’t mandatory—at least, not yet—coaches and schools may be held liable for injuries that occur on improperly built or maintained fields.

“Coaches should make sure their facilities meet the current standards, because doing so protects them legally in the event of an accident,” says Jon

Masone, Deputy Commissioner of the Town of Hempstead (N.Y.) Department of Parks and Recreation, and a member of the ASTM International Committee on Sports Equipment and Facilities. “There’s a big misconception that schools are grandfathered in. They’re not.”

“The first line of defense is the coaches, because they’re with the kids all the time,” adds Cosgrove. “In my opinion, if there is a rigid fence on the baseball field, coaches have a professional responsibility to require that the school add a warning track.”

For a summary of the standard, go to www. astm.org and enter “warning track F2270” in the search window.

Request No. 109 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Peter Ambrose Cardinal Spellman High School (Mass.)

Peter Ambrose is the only baseball coach Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton, Mass., has ever had. That’s not uncommon in places where schools seem to sprout up every few years, but Spellman was founded 47 years ago.

Along the way, Ambrose has also been the school’s head football coach, athletic director, and dean of students. Retired from other duties since 1998, Ambrose remains the volunteer head coach of baseball and football.

Ambrose has spent his entire coaching career at Spellman, a private, co-educational, collegeprep Catholic school of about 650 students near Boston. A 1986 inductee into the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, he’s also among the half-dozen members of the state’s 500-victory club. His 2004 team made its division’s sectional semifinals.

In this interview, Ambrose discusses how he’s kept the focus on the athletes.

Why have you stayed in coaching so long?

I don’t believe in getting burned out— not if you enjoy something, which I still do. The old knees don’t work as well as before, but I still enjoy seeing the kids progress as athletes and as people. I still look forward to practice each day, and I still enjoy helping the kids overcome their personal problems. Some of my fondest memories are of kids who have turned around.

COACHING MANAGEMENT

Most important, you’ve got to take the time to listen to them and let them take the time to listen to you. Let them weigh things and make choices. You have to respect that there are a lot of distractions and choices in the high school years.

There’s no set thing that turns kids around.

Some of them just want attention, to know that you care about them. Some need to know that if they make a mistake, they need to learn from it and keep going.

I’ve had youngsters who were just pains in the neck when they first came out, and they were like sons to me when they left their senior year. They knew I cared about them.

As students at a tuition-based school, Cardinal Spellman athletes often must fit sports around their part-time jobs, but that matches Peter Ambrose’s emphasis on self-discipline.

It also takes good coaches to get kids to play. We need coaches who aren’t in it for the money or just the winning, but who are interested in the kids as people and who show it.

How do you compensate for today’s kids playing less on their own?

NED COSTANTINO PHOTOGRAPHY

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But there must be times that players have to be corrected and disciplined.

How do you do that?

I like the youngsters to know first of all that I really care about them. I care more about them as a people than for their ability. They know I’m fair. And I’ll listen.

Even when I was handling discipline at the school, if a kid was right and a teacher was wrong, I’d back the kid. They have to know up front that you’ll treat them as adults and that you want them to treat you as an adult.

How do you deal with declining interest in baseball relative to other sports?

When I was a kid, on a Saturday morning you had to get down to the park early so you could reserve the diamond. Now you could fire a cannon down there and you wouldn’t hit anybody. There’s too much specialization—camps and playing yearround in one sport. I don’t think that’s good for the kids, even if all they play is baseball. If you’re capable of playing two or even three sports, and if you can handle the academic work, I think you should.

There’s a lot you can get out of being on a team that can’t be counted in wins and losses.

How do you deal with problem kids?

You have to sell them. We try to sell them on the philosophy of “we and us,” teamwork, knowing the rules, playing by the rules, and knowing the sacrifice you have to make to be an athlete. I’m at a tuition school, and some of these kids have to go to work after practice and around games, and it’s a hardship for them, but they make that sacrifice. I think that’s important. Kids have to know that they have to be accountable to themselves, their parents, their teammates, and their school. And I think athletics does a lot toward that.

I don’t have any discipline problems on my teams. They know up front where they stand with me. If they screw up in the classroom or are disrespectful to their teachers, we don’t want them on the field. They know that they’re going to

have to conform to the rules and be respectful to the coaches, their teammates, and themselves. Those who do not conform to the rules usually quit on their own.

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Well, we spend 80 percent of our practice time strictly on fundamentals. We can practice only two hours a day, so we stress defense and hitting—and situations.

If you get into a situation you haven’t been in before, that’s when you break down and make mistakes. I strictly follow

them in a cage and tell them to hit for an hour. So we break them up into two squads for hitting contests and things like bunting drills where there’ll be Gatorade, a T-shirt, or some other prize. It’s also important to let them see their progress: How many hits out of 50 can they get today? How many tomorrow? How many the day after that? fundamentals help us

back. It’s a variety of people—captains in the fire department, corporate CEOs.

To deal with them, I let them know I won’t put up with it. When they start getting too vocal, I take them aside and speak to them. I have some who can’t watch the game from inside the fence, so they go outside and get out their screaming and hollering where no one can hear them.

my practice schedule—I know what I have to cover each day, and I focus on going from point A to point B.

I also talk to them about how the fundamentals help us win. I go over each game, usually right after it ends.

If we lose, I’ll say, “We’re back at practice tomorrow, and this is what we’re going to do.” I help them see the little things that they may not see themselves.

How do you keep kids interested in learning the fundamentals?

Even though they’re 17 or 18 years old, they still like games. You can’t just stick

How do you find assistant coaches?

I use volunteer assistants. I get people who played for me, went on and became successful, and want to give something

“I talk about how the win. I go over each game, usually right after it ends. If we lose, I’ll say, ‘We’re back at practice tomorrow, and this is what we’re going to do.’”

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How have parents changed?

They’ve become worse. If the parents had the intelligence of their offspring, we’d be better off. They put too much pressure on their kids. And if a kid strikes out, they blame the umpire. The way some parents act, you’d think these kids are getting paid.

As coaches, we try to demonstrate the opposite way to handle it. If a youngster strikes out or makes a key error, we never, ever, ever humiliate the kid. We’ve lost games where kids have dropped pop flies that an 8-year-old could catch.

But they’re not doing that on purpose, for heaven’s sake. You can’t be screaming and hollering at them.

ARMS CONTROL

Pitch counts help coaches avoid overworking their hurlers, but there’s more to keeping them healthy than numbers on a chart.

BY DENNIS READ

COVER STORY

B

aseball is a game of numbers. A few simple digits can instantly evoke a wave of emotions. Say “56” to baseball people, and they’ll see Joe DiMaggio in his streak. Mention “714” and the image is Babe Ruth in his home run trot.

But few numbers carry as much emotion as one that won’t be found in any record book: pitch counts. While some major league teams set firm limits for pitchers in the minors, other people reminisce about the way pitchers used to throw all day, and they cringe when they see a pitcher sent to the dugout for no other reason than his number got too high.

Pitch counts, however, are really nothing more than a tool, and ideally, only part of the usage equation.

Worshipping one firm number for everyone will overtax some pitchers and under-work others. Most coaches have a bigger tool bag to keep their pitchers healthy and effective, one that also includes developing a full staff to spread out the pitching load and training them to handle more pitches.

“You don’t want to mess with good arms,” says Clark Jones, Head Coach at Elmhurst College. “They’re too hard to find.”

How Much Is Enough?

Pitch counts have a certain appeal because they’re concrete and straightforward. A strict limit makes the decision easy. Most coaches who use pitch counts, though, say the number is more effective as a guidepost, be it for an inning, a game, a week, or a season.

“The health performance equation from Little League to the big leagues is basically mechanics, usable or functional strength, and workloads or pitch totals,” says Tom House, former major league pitcher and pitching coach, and cofounder of the National Pitching Association. “A high school or college coach knows from looking at a pitcher if he’s got good mechanics and will have a read on the pitcher’s level of functional strength. Then you monitor how many pitches he throws per inning, per game, per week, and per season.”

Setting an exact pitch count is more an art than a science, but House offers some guidelines. “At the National Pitching Association, we have a conservative approach to pitch totals,” he says. “At the high school level, you can usually go 75 to 100, which is about the same as a college kid who has marginal strength and mechanics. When you get into the college and professional ranks where you know the kids are strong and they have reasonable mechanics, then you can start talking 105- to 120-pitch outings.”

House says that how a pitcher compiles his pitches is as important as the number. “The key is getting there at 15 to 20 pitches per inning,” he says. “A long inning, say 30 or 40 pitches, puts a kid in as much muscle failure as a 75pitch game at 15 to 20 pitches per inning.”

Many coaches keep a short leash on pitchers early in the season, then raise their pitch counts as the year progresses. “On opening day, they can go 75 pitches or five innings, whichever comes first,” says Bill McDonald, Head Coach at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, Kan. “If you take a person early in the season and run him up to 135 or 140 pitches, he will never get back the arm strength that he should have late into the season.”

The right count for one pitcher may be far too high for another. Knowing what’s right comes from a combination of trial and error and knowing your athletes. “We have a guy who throws hard,

yet the day after a game, he is hardly ever sore,” says Bret Warnack, Head Coach at Ryan High School in Denton, Tex. “Then we’ll have guys who throw 75 or 80 miles per hour, and the next day they can hardly pick up a ball. So you have to get to know your kids. Different kids will respond in different ways, and a lot of it has to do with mechanics.”

Once a number has been set, the question becomes what to do with it.

One approach is to bring in relief once the pitcher hits the limit. But former major league pitcher Geoff Zahn sees the pitch count as less of a red light than a yellow.

“Over time, you begin to see the capacity of a pitcher and his arm,” says Zahn, Owner and President of the Master Pitching Institute and former Head Coach at the University of Michigan.

“Then right around the time he begins to approach that pitch count, you’d better be watching closely and getting somebody loose in the bullpen.”

Zahn usually based his decision on what he saw on the mound rather than a number on a sheet of paper. “If they’ve pitched long enough that their mechanics begin to break down, you want to get them out of the game as soon as possible,” Zahn says. “And this is a little controversial, but I believe that if you have a pitcher with good mechanics and he recovers pretty quickly, I don’t think it’s wrong from time to time to let him throw some extra pitches.

“But the converse is true, too,” Zahn continues. “You may have a guy who is normally pretty sound, and then one day he’s all messed up. His normal threshold might be 100 pitches, but on that day it might be 50.” Once mechanics drop off, he says, it’s time to change, regardless of the pitch count.

Other coaches use a similar approach.

“I look for arm speed,” McDonald says. “If his arm speed is still good, I’ll often let him Dennis Read is an Associate Editor at Coaching Management.

COACHING MANAGEMENT

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stay in. In our last regular season game, my starter was throwing 84 in the first inning, and he was 84 to 86 in the sixth. His arm speed was still good, and his body motion was still fluid, so he finished with 121 pitches. But I could see he was as strong in the seventh as he was in the first.”

Jones also doesn’t mind if his pitchers occasionally stay on the mound past their planned pitch curfew. “If it’s an important game and the pitcher is feeling good and he’s still getting people out, I think it’s okay to leave him in there for a while,” Jones says. “But I also

think you have to be very careful and check with him after each inning to see how he’s feeling.”

Don’t be fooled by a quick one-twothree inning. “It gives you confidence,” McDonald says. “But the pitcher may well be maxed out. So when I see a guy go bing, bing, bing in the fifth and he’s reached his pitch count, I send somebody to the bullpen to start getting ready.”

In this way, pitch counts serve as a backup device, warning a coach that his pitcher may be headed toward empty.

Then he can look more closely at how

PA RT- T I M E P I T C H E R S

M

ost high school and many college baseball coaches don’t have the luxury of working with pitchers. Instead, they’re working with baseball players who may pitch every fifth or sixth day and assume a regular spot on the diamond the rest of the time. While the demands placed on the arm by these other positions pale in comparison to those created by pitching, most coaches try to keep those demands as low as possible.

“A lot of times in high school, the pitchers are the kids with the best arms, and when they’re not pitching they’re at shortstop,” says Geoff Zahn, Owner and President of the Master Pitching Institute and former Head Coach at the University of Michigan. “If you’re in the northern regions of the country it might be 45 or 55 degrees with the wind blowing like crazy. He’s standing out there and doesn’t get a ball for three or four innings, then he gets a key groundball in the hole with a man on third and he has to get the batter at first for the final out. If he’s pitched six hard innings the game before, that could present a serious problem. For protection, I think that a guy who throws a certain number of pitches should be limited to DH or maybe first base for the next game.”

Some coaches protect their pitchers in just this way. “I slot my pitchers into third base, left field, and first base,” says Bill McDonald, Head Coach at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, Kan. “I try to never let a pitcher play right field, center field, or middle infield. On occasion I have had to use a pitcher at shortstop, but when I do, he is a pitcher first and shortstop second. So when he’s taking infield, he simply flips the ball back or rolls it back, because you only have so many throws you can possibly make. Or when we use a pitcher in left field, he can throw from the outfield no more than five times in drill work. The other times when we’re doing situational drill work, we have our cutoff man go out well beyond third base to receive the throw.”

A pitcher’s mound role can also be adapted to accommodate his other duties. “We have an outfielder who pitches, and we try to avoid having him pitch the second game of a doubleheader,” says Stan Sanchez, Head Coach at Colorado State UniversityPueblo. “We also usually give him seven-inning games instead of nine-inning games, and we monitor his conditioning a little more closely.”

Despite all of a coach’s efforts, sometimes the demands of pitching and playing another position can be too much. “Our center fielder last year was also our numbertwo pitcher,” says Bret Warnack, Head Coach at Ryan High School in Denton, Tex. “We stressed to him on a daily basis that he had to take it easy in the field and put some air under his throws. But he was a tough, full-speed-ahead type of guy and he wanted to let it go on a daily basis. Some days we were successful in getting him to take it easy and other days we weren’t. He ended up getting a sore arm toward the end of the season and because of that became our number-three pitcher instead of number-two.”

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the pitcher is getting hitters out instead of just that he is getting them out.

Other Signs So what are the signs, beyond a rising pitch count, that it’s time for someone new? “The number one thing is how he feels,” Warnack says. “We’ll ask, ‘How do you feel? Are you getting tired?’ We also monitor velocity with a radar gun throughout the game. A drop in velocity is a big sign a kid is getting tired. The ball getting up in the zone is a pretty good indication as well.

“We also watch mechanics,” Warnack continues. “If the elbow starts getting down and he’s fighting and muscling the ball to the plate, that’s a pretty good indication that he’s getting fatigued and that you have to get him out of the game.”

Jones looks for more subtle signs of fatigue. “Sometimes you can look at their face and body language and see that they’re tiring,” he says. “They’ll start slowing down between pitches and laboring a little bit. You can also ask the catcher, ‘Is he hitting his spots? Is his ball moving? Is he losing velocity?’ Plus, you can see if they are falling behind in the count. If for four innings they got ahead of hitters, and the next two they’re consistently falling behind, it often means they’re tiring.”

It’s also important to look at the bigger picture when deciding whether to leave a pitcher in the game. While most coaches will, under the right conditions, let a pitcher exceed his pitch count from time to time, it’s not something you want to make a habit of.

“It’s okay for some pitchers to throw 130 or 140 pitches occasionally,” Jones says, “but the key thing is remembering that the next time he throws, you can’t run him out there for 130 or 140 pitches again because that’s going to catch up with him.

So the next time he throws, it becomes critical to keep him at 100 pitches or less.

“Or say he throws 140 pitches on Saturday and the next game is on Wednesday,” Jones continues. “We may give him a few more days rest and not throw him on Wednesday.”

Zahn learned as a player the importance of recovery time. “I can still remember,” he says, “that when I pitched a complete game in high school, I would come home and struggle with the milk carton because my arm would be shaking.

If you asked me to throw 200 pitches, I

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COVER STORY

could do it. But don’t ask me to throw for three or four days after that. I was that way throughout my career.”

Plan For Recovery Keeping pitchers healthy means more than simply pulling them from a game at the first sign of fatigue. By training them to be stronger, coaches can help their athletes throw more in each outing and become better pitchers.

There is no one right way to train pitchers, however. What’s most important is developing a plan that players and coaches alike can follow.

McDonald writes detailed plans for pitchers for the season and preseason.

“They get a sheet called ‘game day routine,’ and I also have a between-starts routine,” McDonald says. “In the preseason, every day from March 1 to March 27 is scripted, so they know all the drills and all the running they’re going to be doing each day.”

McDonald’s between-starts routine is based on his top pitchers getting one starting assignment a week. “The day

after he pitches, he does not throw,” McDonald says. “He has long runs of up to two miles, sprint work, surgical tubing exercises, and a lot of sit ups. Day two is long-toss and surgical tubing exercises.

Day three is short-toss, which will be no more than 90 feet, and drill work.

“I let him decide if he gets back on the mound again on day four or day five,” McDonald continues. “If he does go back on day four, I do not let him go over 28 pitches. But he will only go back on the mound one time before that next start, so if he pitches on day four, day five will be drill work and sprinting.

Day six is just some short-toss, and then he pitches on day seven.”

Although the details of each coach’s plan may vary, a key component is allowing pitchers to recover between outings.

“The process is you prepare, you compete, and then you repair and recover,” House says. “You have to pay attention to all three steps.

“For every one minute of ice, there should be two minutes of aerobic activity,” House continues. “So if a player ices

his shoulder for 20 minutes, he is responsible for 40 minutes of aerobic activity. The aerobic activity circulates the blood to push out the lactic acid and the ice addresses the microtears from the trauma of throwing down from the mound. They need to at least get the heart rate and breathing rate up and sustained. There is about a threehour window to get that done. He can ice on the bus home and when he gets back to the school, do some stationary bike, soft jog, brisk walk, or any other aerobic activity.”

Part of repair and recovery is rest.

But resting does not mean relaxing. “I believe that pitchers should pick up a ball almost every day,” Zahn says. “We have drills where they’re not throwing very hard at all, but they’re keeping a feel for their pitches and mechanics.”

Jones concurs. “Pitchers nowadays baby themselves too much,” he says.

“The second day after a start, we have our midweek bullpen day, but it usually isn’t going 100 percent at 60-feet sixinches. We throw 25 to 40 pitches,

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COVER STORY

depending on the pitcher. But it could be 45 feet or 60 feet, throwing off a flat surface—whatever the pitcher feels comfortable with, usually at about 75 percent effort. It’s basically a practice day where they can work on changing speeds, on their grips, and on location.”

While this may seem to conflict with making sure pitchers don’t hurt themselves by pitching too much, House promotes a similar philosophy. “The NPA preaches that kids in today’s game pitch too much and they don’t throw enough,” House says. “When I was growing up, kids were always throwing something—tennis balls, rocks, whatever. We were throwing all the time. The only time that kids throw today is when they’re in a structured practice or game.”

The biggest difference between pitching and throwing is that pitching occurs on the mound while throwing is usually done on flat ground. “Maybe 80 percent of our work is done on flat ground,” House says, “because you can teach the mechanics of pitching with less stress than when you’re pitching

Request No. 115

from a mound. In some cases going down the mound can create four to six times the stress of throwing on flat ground.”

Coaches also use a variety of nonthrowing ways to strengthen their pitchers, such as towel and surgical tubing drills or merely practicing the pitching motion. “We do a lot of drills where they simply put their bodies through every pitching position that they could possibly be in,” McDonald says. “That is the foundation of how to pitch.”

Strong-Arm Approach Then there are the overall strength and fitness programs that some coaches rely on to keep their pitchers in shape throughout the season. “One of the important things is that you keep them in good cardiovascular shape,” Warnack says. “And when those innings start adding up toward the end of the year, that’s where the danger comes in, because they just keep getting weaker and weaker through the year. So we keep them doing rotator cuff exercises

during the season and incorporate some other weightlifting and shoulder exercises, like seated rows, cleans, and even light dumbbell bench work throughout the season.”

Jones makes sure his players are prepared on the road as well as at home.

“When we’re on the road, all of our players are instructed to either have a 2 1/2- or five-pound dumbbell or we tell them to get a tennis ball canister and fill it with sand or rocks and tape it up,” he says. “We also have stretch bands and towels, and our kids have a workout they’ll do each day when they come to the park with the stretch bands and tennis canisters as a pregame warmup.”

A classic spring training image is pitchers in the outfield jogging near the fences as the games go on. But in recent years, there’s been a shift from the longer, slower runs to shorter sprints.

“We’ve totally revamped our running for our pitchers,” Jones says. “We’ve taken all the long-distance work out of pitchers’ routines and now we’re doing sprint work. We’re trying to train fast-

Request No. 116 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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COVER STORY

twitch muscle fibers because we want them to throw with more power. Pitching is a bunch of quick bursts—the pitcher catches the ball and throws it, then he rests, gets it back, and throws it again. I think your training regimen and conditioning have to be game-like.

“You can vary them from day to day, otherwise they get bored,” Jones continues. “One day, we may have them do pole-to-pole sprints. Then we’ll have them run 60-yard sprints and 30-yard sprints. Some other days we have our pitchers running 50 to 75 10-yard sprints. But it’s always quick bursts of speed. I swear that it’s helped our kids’ velocity and helped them stay healthy.”

McDonald follows a similar path, but has kept one distance session in the mix.

“We run a lot, but we only have one day where we do distance work,” he says.

“Distance work for the pitcher is of no benefit other than mentally making him tougher to grind through something. It’s the sprint work that is key for him to give him the explosion that he needs off of the mound. And we run before practice,

Request No. 117

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

so the running is done and they don’t have to worry about it afterward. They learn how to practice when they’re a little bit tired and it’s amazing how it doesn’t even faze them.”

Spread The Load One way to avoid overusing your best pitchers is to develop a deeper staff.

Breakdowns most often occur when a couple of pitchers are expected to carry the bulk of the load.

Jones seeks to have six players prepared to take a starting assignment.

McDonald seeks four. “In my opinion you can’t win the state championships unless you have four kids who have pitched at least 20 innings,” McDonald says. “If you try to go with just two guys all RESOURCES National Pitching Association: www.nationalpitching.com.

Master Pitching Institute: www.masterpitching.com.

the time, then you never have a guy for that third game.”

For Warnack, a deep staff also helps him find pitchers who’d otherwise go undiscovered. “We probably run 25 to 30 pitchers across the bullpen each day for our three teams,” he says. “Some may never take the mound in a game, but you might find one that by his junior year becomes pretty good at it.

“We actually had a kid like that three years ago,” Warnack continues. “He hardly pitched at all as a freshman or sophomore, but was the ace of our staff and MVP of our district his junior and senior years.”

But developing a deep staff or closely counting pitches won’t mean much unless a coach is willing to take a tired pitcher out, even at the risk of losing a game. “Taking a good pitcher out can be very difficult, especially if you don’t have a good reliever,” Zahn says. “There’s a tendency to stay with that good pitcher.

But for me, I just decided that I wasn’t going to win a ballgame at the cost of a pitcher’s arm.” ■

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YOUR PROGRAM

f there is one essential element of a successful baseball program, it is a sound facility. A safe and attractive field is not only a place to practice and compete, but a rallying point and source of pride for players, coaches, parents, fans, and the community.

But such a facility takes money, and in this era of tight budgets, that’s not a given. Upgrading a field, let alone starting from scratch, can seem an impossible task for a coach.

The solution is to make your facility a community project. Communities seem to always need athletic facilities for school sports and youth and adult recreational programs. It’s possible to use that demand to share the burden and create win-win situations for groups

DUGOUT RAISING Can’t afford the facility your program needs? The solution may be to collaborate with your community to harness the resources for turning your field of dreams into reality.

otherwise at odds. Action comes out of collaboration. Think of demand as a way to leverage assets, whether they’re materials, money, or manpower. If you ask the right people the right way, you’ll more often than not get what you need.

At Anacortes (Wash.) High, where I used to coach, we wanted an aesthetic wooden fence for the baseball field. We asked a contractor to help with plans, but would use volunteers for the work.

After providing a materials list and plans, the contractor offered to have his workers do the installation. He wanted to make sure it would look good when finished, and it was his way to give something very visible back to the community. The attractive new fence inspired others to get involved in later improvements. The lesson is that peoLem Elway is the Head Baseball Coach at Black Hills High School in Tumwater, Wash., and former Head Baseball Coach at Anacortes (Wash.) High School.

BY LEM ELWAY

A safe, attractive, and low-cost facility can be the result of community collaboration tying together fundraising, volunteerism, and contributions from local business donors.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER KUHNLEIN/KP STUDIOS

COACHING MANAGEMENT

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YOUR PROGRAM

ple and businesses usually exceed your expectations, especially when your reason for asking is community pride and to help the kids. A lot of mistakes are made by simply not asking.

It’s not easy. But I’ve found that after a period of frustration, people will decide to act because they’re shown community needs or a clear plan of positive improvement. Donors come forward. Volunteers join in.

In Anacortes, we used private donations as seed money to leverage free or at-cost materials, professional expertise, and volunteer manpower to build our field of dreams. The result is a facility rated among the top 10 scholastic baseball fields in the state of Washington.

Plan of Attack When I became the Head Baseball Coach at Anacortesl, I was quoted in the local newspaper saying that I wanted to build a baseball field the whole community could use and be proud of. The next thing I knew, a wealthy donor contacted me with a pledge to help. What

attracted the donor, I believe, was that I had stated a community need and a desire to meet it. That is the first step in forming a plan.

A detailed plan is essential. While you will inevitably need to refine it and shift your strategy as circumstances dictate, it pays to outline the process into these five parts: stating the need, identifying leadership, taking input, establishing priorities, and writing a timeline.

Use facts and figures to show why more facilities are needed. In Anacortes, the need was simply a field the school and community could be proud of and that would meet the scheduling demands of the youth sports groups for practice and playing facilities. The need evolved as other organizations joined the effort, but my program’s original statement started the process.

Who will lead the project? The supporting cast should be wide and varied, but someone with organizational and leadership skills has to coordinate the multitude of things that have to happen. I was able to devote time to the

project, but many other coaches may not be so fortunate, or they may lack the skills needed to spearhead the effort. In that case, should the leader be an athletic director, a school administrator, the president of a booster club or youth organization, or a community political leader? One option might be for the head coach to get the project started, then turn it over to someone better situated to carry it to completion.

What’s needed in leadership is someone who knows when to push and when to be patient. He or she must have time to devote to the project, the ability to stay with it to completion, attention to detail, and the willingness to delegate so that as many people as possible can share in the ultimate success.

The next step is to identify the permits required by the appropriate authorities.

You’ll have to go through government channels. Tell elected leaders that they’ll be welcome to stand in front at ribboncutting ceremonies and any other opportunities for recognition that might arise as long as they help avoid the obstacles.

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YOUR PROGRAM

Officials and civil servants are more likely to join if you can show them how your plan meets their needs. For example, local governments are often required under certain federal and state programs to provide a specified amount of public recreational space. A plan that shows how your project can fulfill this obligation makes it easy for officials to support you.

Establish ways for anyone involved, or who would like to become involved, to have input. This will build support and helps present a united and positive front. There is power in numbers.

Who should you consult? It’s imperative that professional contractors be tapped early to head-off problems. These include professionals who deal with site and soil evaluation, heavy equipment operators, lumber yards, fencing companies, and landscapers. Some might donate expertise. In addition, government agencies must be given an opportunity to analyze the plans to see that all current building codes, land-use regulations, and environmental laws are followed. Asking for their input before plans

are finalized can avoid big headaches after the fact.

As with any complex undertaking, some tasks take precedence. The number one priority is to construct—as soon as possible—a playable, safe field. This enables the facility to be used, which in turn generates further enthusiasm and

and providers involved, and a catch-up window if things should fall behind.

Keeping everyone posted is imperative. I suggest a Web site. Update it frequently—every two days if you are able—and include pictures of as many contractors and workers as possible as it progresses.

Many parents may be in organizations that provide community service. They are often well-connected, experienced people who can get things done. confidence. Amenities and upgrades can come later.

Similarly, the final part of your plan, the timeline, will help keep things on track and maintain enthusiasm. This should contain a detailed list of work to be done, who will do what, the materials that must be obtained at certain junctures, projected completion dates of each phase, the names of the workers

Finally, establish a tax-exempt organization under Section 501 of the federal tax code. If a local government is involved, it may already have a process in place for receiving tax-exempt donations. A little inquiry into the mechanics can save a lot of jumping through hoops later and be a determining factor in whether certain business people get involved in an enthusiastic way.

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Selling Involvement If you have a good plan and present it positively, people will usually want to take part. The trick is to think up good leads. Don’t be hesitant to ask, and don’t take being told “no” personally.

The most obvious source is the parents of kids who’ll use the facility—both immediately and in years to come. But don’t stop at your own program. Call every baseball team in town. You may find that the local Babe Ruth League

needs more field time. We learned that by adding lights—the high school team played all our games in the afternoons—the youth leagues could finish three games a day at the height of their season, and would be happy to join.

With imagination and design knowhow, you could share the facility with other-season activities. Soccer and football programs need only a wide, leveled field—you instantly have two more groups on your side.

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32 COACHING MANAGEMENT

Another key tactic is to find out where your students’ parents work and what kind of organizations they belong to. Their employers may be willing to help directly or through their connections. Some companies can’t give materials but could provide supplies at cost or approach their suppliers for donations or price breaks. It’s worth asking.

Remember, it’s for the kids.

Many parents may be in organizations—Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, for example—that provide community service as part of their charters. They are often well-connected, experienced people who can get things done.

When we sought additional amenities for our multiple-use baseball park, I asked a service club if they needed a community project. We presented our proposal, and the club agreed to take charge of completing the upgrade. In their organization was an architect and some city employees. I gave them the measurements and other information, and in return I received a materials list and bought the materials needed to complete the job at a very favorable price. The project took three weekends, and along the way I took pictures the club could use at its state convention to show its community involvement. It was truly a win-win situation for everyone.

Another source of help is labor organizations. The local electricians’ union worked for us one day a month, with volunteers helping pull wire for them. We were even able to obtain some used lighting fixtures when a local supermarket remodeled.

You can even turn the inevitable negativity to your advantage. When some parents objected to having to use portable toilets at the field, we told them we couldn’t afford to connect to the sewer system. They got on it and raised the money, and we built bathrooms.

Never underestimate the power and influence of people.

Individuals and groups have many things to offer, and sometimes just by asking, you’ll uncover key resources.

One lead will lead to another. Energy starts to build. The key is to create enthusiasm and the attitude that things can happen. A lot of people and organizations will sit back at first, but once they see things happen and people start to talk, the sky is the limit. ■

OFF THE FIELD

Good Connections No matter your communications system, your athletic director is a person you want to hook up with. Here’s how to partner with this busy, behind-the-scenes boss.

D

BY DR. DAVID HOCH

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHRIS MURPHY

uring a lull at one of your games, you may occasionally look up and see me, the athletic director, in the stands. And you may wonder, what exactly is he watching? What exactly does he do, besides making sure the officials get paid?

I am the consummate “behind-thescenes” guy, and like most athletic directors, I enjoy that role. I perform a wide variety of tasks, from checking athletes’ eligibility forms to writing up coaching evaluations to answering phone calls from parents.

The goal behind everything I do is helping all my coaches perform their jobs better. That’s really why I’m here.

When a coach does something wrong, my job is stressful. When a coach does something right, my job is the best in the world.

But I can only help coaches avoid mistakes and develop into better coaches when they partner with me—when they understand my job and my role. In this article, I’d like to share some tips on how to develop a partnership with your athletic director and how to make that relationship work to your benefit.

Expectations The first thing you need to know about your athletic director is his or her expectations. Every situation is different, but here is what I expect from my coaches.

Good Role Model: Because you are a hugely important figure in many young

people’s lives, your actions and choices must be at the top of the ethical score chart. I expect my coaches to have integrity, be dependable, possess emotional control, and have compassion. I also expect them to set high standards and be consistent and fair. I need them to exhibit the characteristics we are proud to see in our student-athletes.

David Hoch, EdD, is the Athletic Director at Loch Raven High School, in Baltimore County, Md. He is the former Athletic Director at Eastern Technical High, also in Baltimore, and was named the Maryland State Athletic Directors Association’s Athletic Director of the Year in 2000.

COACHING MANAGEMENT

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OFF THE FIELD

Coaches who don’t follow directions, turn in forms late or complete them incorrectly, or don’t follow a department policy are my biggest headache. If you want your athletic director to support and respect you, pay attention to your administrative duties.

Professional Growth: It is a given that you know the basic techniques and strategies involved in your sport. But I expect my coaches to add to these basics every year by taking charge of their own professional development.

First, they have to buy into the premise that learning is a life-long pursuit. It doesn’t matter how much experience you have—there is always something else you can learn. I attended at least one clinic in each of my 24 years of coaching, and always came away with a new idea or a dif-

Educational Environment: Athletics is successful only when it has educational value. Winning is secondary. I expect my coaches to focus on helping young people mature into adults—to contribute to team goals, learn to work hard, persevere, and experience life-long lessons through their athletic participation.

I also expect my coaches to remain positive. Not that a coach can’t ever yell, but I really believe that positive, encouraging coaches are best for our kids.

Sportsmanship: Coaches often are totally unaware of the impact they have on the behavior of their players and fans at a game. Yelling at officials gives license to the players and fans to do the same.

A coach should always extend respect and courtesy not only to officials, but also to the opposing team. He or she should

AN INEFFECTIVE AD This article assumes that your athletic director is a professional, dedicated, hard-working leader. But what if your athletic director is not a good supervisor?

Then how do you get what you need?

Above all, step carefully. It is important to understand that this poorly functioning athletic director is still your boss and you need to be careful about circumventing the chain of command. In other words, do not use parents or athletes as a wedge to enact change. These techniques could totally backfire and you could be branded as a malcontent or a troublemaker.

What you can do, to start, is keep good records. Retain copies of everything you turn in, such as eligibility forms, budget

teach the nuances of good sportsmanship and praise it at every turn.

Adherence to Policies: Administrative chores are a part of coaching. When coaches don’t follow through on each athlete’s paperwork, there can be ramifications. I must then chase down these forms—giving me less time to communicate with my coaches. Late forms can mean the suspension of practice sessions, fines, or even disqualifications and forfeits.

You must attend rules interpretation meetings. Athletic directors get a list of any coaches who have missed these meetings, and believe me, we pay attention to who doesn’t show up.

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requests, inventories, and tournament entries, and use e-mail or take notes on your communication with your athletic director. This ensures that you have proof of your professionalism and also allows you to document those times when your athletic director has not followed through.

At all times, it is still best to maintain a positive, loyal front with respect to your athletic director and continue to be courteous and respectful. You might need to repeatedly ask the athletic director if he or she has remembered to turn in that tournament eligibility form, but do it politely.

You might even ask the athletic director if there’s a way you can help him or her.

Remember, you will always be judged by your actions, even in difficult situations.

ferent way of teaching something. Even though I have a doctorate in sports management and many years of experience, I still attend seminars, take courses, and read professional publications in athletic administration. Our athletes deserve that much.

I encourage our coaches to take the NFHS Coaching Principles Course (and consider going on to complete the NFHS Bronze Level national certification program), work at summer camps, read professional coaching publications or books, watch coaching videos, and attend college teams’ practice sessions.

Enthusiasm: While it is essential for sports that are struggling to attract par-

ticipants, I like “Pied Piper” individuals for even the most popular teams. This is a coach who exudes enthusiasm and energy—someone young people are attracted to. This should not imply, however, that they don’t run a tight ship or don’t employ discipline.

I want our teams to win, too. But my directive is to make sure that educational objectives are being met in the athletic program. That is my job description and that is my priority. However, if you excel in the above six areas, I can assure you, winning will take care of itself.

Beyond these basics, ask your own athletic director what other expectations he or she has. Your athletic director might want you to get involved with local youth programs in your sport. He or she might want you to help your athletes get college scholarships, start an off-season conditioning program, fund-raise, or run a summer camp. If you don’t know, ask.

Sometimes, an athletic director assumes you know the expectations of your school, but if you’re new, you can’t know its history and culture. Asking your athletic director to identify the athletic department goals can help start your partnership on the right foot.

Communication The question a new athletic director most frequently poses to a veteran one is, “Do you ever see your family?” This is important to know, because while I’ve suggested you start a dialogue with your athletic director on expectations, you also need to know that he or she doesn’t have an hour to discuss it. But a 15minute conversation is doable and appreciated. Therefore, a key part of partnering with your athletic director is knowing how to communicate with him or her. Here are some tips: ■ If you want to talk for more than a couple of minutes, set up an appointment. That way, your athletic director can arrange to meet at a time that will be free of other obligations. Of course, if it is an emergency, come on in.

■ If you know there have been other problems that the athletic director is handling, hold off on scheduling your meeting. Timing really is everything.

With another problem looming, your athletic director may not be able to give you the attention that you deserve.

■ Get a feel for your athletic director’s down times. Some prefer early

OFF THE FIELD

mornings, and others may like early afternoons, right before practices start.

■ Use e-mail. This advice is not universal, but for me, e-mail is by far the most efficient form of communication.

Regardless of when something happens, your message will be there waiting for me in the morning. It is, therefore,

especially important that the coach fill in an accurate subject line that, when coupled with the sender’s name, leads me to which messages I deal with first in the morning. An e-mail also allows me to easily save or forward your message.

Know what to discuss and what not to.

I don’t need to hear how every practice is

SHOW YOUR STRENGTHS If you’re a conscientious coach, good things are happening in your program every day. Why not let your athletic director know about them? This can work wonders for furthering your partnership.

Here are some ways to let your athletic director know you’re doing a good job—which are not time consuming for you or your athletic director: ■

Forward or copy any congratulatory and thank you notes that you receive. You can simply write a little note on the top, “Thought you might be interested.”

■

Tell your athletic director about the clinics you have attended and your other professional development activities.

■

Invite your athletic director to visit practice when you’re discussing team goals or when your athletes want to show off something they’ve just mastered.

■

Send an e-mail about a solution you found to a problem that your athletic director might send on as advice to the rest of the coaching staff.

■

Complete a self-evaluation at the conclusion of your season. Talk about some of the goals you accomplished that your athletic director may not be aware of.

Let your athletic director hear about all of the good, positive things that you are doing with your program!

You will be surprised at what good, positive resources you receive in return.

Advanced Skills Tee

The Power Bag

Used by over 1200 colleges & high schools.

• Eliminates both dipping & casting • Teaches with every swing. A silent coach.

• Very portable.

• Durable polyurethane construction & a two year warranty.

going, what your next game plan is, or complaints about something we’ve already covered or that simply can’t be changed. I want to know if a problem has arisen or is looming. I also love to hear about your successes.

Inform your athletic director immediately of any injury at a practice session

Develops strength at contact & promotes staying strong through the ball!

Baseball & Softball

Easily attaches to any pole. Indoor stand available.

Practice Makes Perfect.

Muhl Tech Will Make You Better!

The best skill specific, highly durable training aids are online at:

www.muhltech.com Or order by phone: 1-888-766-8772 Ask for a free demo video and brochure.

Endorsed by Houston Astros Lance Berkman

Request No. 126 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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OFF THE FIELD

or game. Tell me the name of the athlete, the injury, how it happened, how it was handled, and whether the parent has been notified. No one likes to be caught off- guard when that phone rings with, “What happened to my daughter?”

It is important to let me know about any potential problems. If a parent voices even a small complaint, if you think upperclass athletes may not be welcoming newcomers, if any type of hazardous situation has arisen, if the athletes seem to be disrespecting your approach—I need to know. Coaches sometimes don’t

want to say that something isn’t going right for fear of seeming incompetent.

But my job is to help you through problem situations. If you tell me before it gets big, I can help you find solutions that complement your coaching style.

But if you don’t tell me about the problem and it gets bigger, then I may have to step in and resolve the situation my way.

Even if you know the solution you want to use, relay your thoughts to me.

Maybe I can reinforce what you’re trying to do.

Request No. 127

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

Of course, share problems that are my responsibility, too. If the bus driver gets you to a game late, let me know the first time this happens—don’t wait for the second or third time.

And because I mainly deal with fixing problems, I truly appreciate and and all good news. Brighten my day by talking about a student’s display of sportsmanship, your team’s mastery of a complicated play, or a teachable moment that happened at practice.

The Benefits You might wonder, “Why is it so important to keep my athletic director in the loop? I can handle my own team.

How will it help me?” There are three ways that developing this partnership can benefit you.

First, it puts you on my radar. I try to be in tune with everyone in my program, but to be honest, those coaches who communicate with me effectively are the ones I think of first when a new opportunity arises.

Being on my radar helps when you have a request. If you’ve already communicated that you’re working extremely hard to upgrade your program, I will pay more attention to your request for additional resources when the time comes for that decision.

At my former school, I put out a weekly department update. I already knew the opponents, the final scores, the leading scorers, and other standard details. However, coaches who were on the ball would also e-mail me some quotes or comments about the game.

Then, their team would get a longer write-up and more prominent placement in the weekly update.

Communicating with your athletic director also gives you an on-hand mentor. Most of us are athletic directors because we were successful coaches, and just because we didn’t coach your sport doesn’t mean we can’t help.

I seldom offer unsolicited coaching advice. But, if asked, I am happy to open up my 24-year book of coaching experience and take the time to help.

My primary responsibility as an athletic director is to serve as the coach of coaches. Just as athletes need direction and mentoring by coaches, so do most coaches need help from an experienced athletic director. I’m glad to help, if you only ask. ■

Uniforms & Apparel JET Sportswear 866-538-9327 WWW.JETSPORTSWEAR.COM JETWear Bomber short sleeve shirts offer moisture migration and anti-microbial qualities that make athletes more comfortable and prevent the locker room odor that’s common with other types of “wickwear.”

They feature high-quality fabrics that wear well and are extremely comfortable—they don’t chafe, itch, or scratch. Both tight- and loose-fitting shirts are available. They come in a variety of team colors and in sizes S to XXXL. Circle No. 208

growing team sportswear company in six years for one reason: fully custom, quality uniforms. Most companies limit your choices to a few styles made from sub-par materials.

Pro Look’s uniforms are made of the finest materials available; cut, trimmed, and sewn to your exact specifications.

There are no additional costs for embroidered logos or for soft tackle-twill names and numbers. Additionally, all work is backed by an unprecedented two-year guarantee. If you can think it, Pro Look Sports will do it for one inexpensive price.

Go Pro. Circle No. 209

Pro Look Sports 800-PROLOOK WWW.PROLOOKSPORTS.COM Pro Look Sports has become the fastest

“Just wanted to let you know that we received our uniforms today, they look fantastic.

Thanks for everything.

The kids are extremely

excited. I will be in touch regarding my summer team.”—Keith Williams, Head Baseball Coach, Rutgers-Camden. If you want to feel the same way about your team’s uniforms, call Pro Look Sports. Go Pro. Circle No. 210

Russell Athletic WWW.RUSSELLATHLETIC.COM While your team is warming up before the game, this lightweight Russell Athletic Batting Practice Pull-Over will keep them dry and cool with its moisture-wicking stretch fabric. Made with 86 percent polyester and 14 percent stretch, this new 2005 style is soft and comfortable, and allows increased freedom of movement for your team. It also features mesh inserts for increased breathability, and notched ends so players can wear it under or over their uniforms.

Circle No. 211

HOME RUN, LLC d/b/a

Field Maintenance Equipment

HOOSIER BAT COMPANY

www.Infield-Drag.com

Fast becoming THE name for bats.

We have what the players want!

WOOD FUNGO Guaranteed Never to Flake!! With No Taping Required!

GAME BATS Major League Stock • Minor League Stock

WOODFORCE 2000 Hickory Hitting Area – No Taping Required Game Use Approval for: Short Season A and Rookie League NCAA BESR CERTIFIED

28 B.P. 3-Piece Bat for One Hand, Soft Toss and T drills

ORDER YOURS TODAY 1-800-BAT-ERUP (1-800-228-3787) FAX (219)465-0877 • e-mail: baseball@netnitco.net

www.hoosierbat.com Request No. 128

PRO GROOMER

PR72

TM

Level the Playing Field !

Keep your granular playing fields level, well-groomed and in safe playing condition every day with the “Pro Groomer”TM. Infields, warning tracks, etc. It cuts off high areas, keeps material mixed, fills in low areas, and breaks up hardcompacted surfaces all with one machine! Also use to spread new material.

Saves labor, reduces water puddling problems, weeds, etc.

Drag Mat 6 ft. wide. Steel welded construction. Articulated tongue and attachment hitch adjust quickly and easily. No tools needed to adjust.

No need for hydraulics or three-point hitch. Drag Mat attachment option also available. Complete info. available on web site. Now available with Electric Lift option.

ALL-STAR CHISEL-DRAG

TM

AS58

Break up hard-compacted surfaces better than standard nail drags with the “All Star Chisel-Drag”TM. Depth adjusts easily from 0” to 3”. Steel teeth are easy to replace when worn. Tongue and hitch adjust quickly and easily. Quickly raises up for travel off the field. Broom and Drag Mat attachments available.

PR-AS-25,c Complete Info. at: www.Infield-Drag.com Heying Co. 515 6th Ave. Alton, Iowa 51003 Ph. (712) 756-8847

Request No. 129 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Team Equipment BetterBaseball 800-997-4233 WWW.BETTERBASEBALL.COM BetterBaseball is a total baseball supply house, specializing in custom cutting of any size net or batting cage you might want. The company provides quick, friendly customer service.

BetterBaseball supplies everything, including bases, plates, mounds, gear, and hardware, and it can all be found at BetterBaseball.com or by calling the company.

Circle No. 200

Markwort Sporting Goods 314-652-3757 WWW.MARKWORT.COM Heart-Gard® is designed to reduce ball impact to the chest area. It absorbs impact energy and directs that energy away from the heart. HeartGard’s size allows it to cover the vital area of the chest while not restricting movement. Children can play without the fear of getting hurt, allowing them to learn faster and with greater confidence.

Circle No. 201

Miken Sports 877-807-5291 INFO@MIKENSPORTS.COM The Freak baseball bat was created using E-Flex technology, a process which generates maximum flex throughout the entire barrel. It harnesses as much energy as possible on impact with the ball, rather than losing it through unnecessary ball deformation. You have never swung a bat with a sweet spot as big as this one. The Freak has absolutely the most massive sweet spot of any bat ever made.

Circle No. 202

Power Systems, Inc. 800-321-6975 WWW.POWER-SYSTEMS.COM Power Throw Balls are durable, weighted balls that develop dynamic strength in the throwing motion. They are available in three sizes: 7 oz., 14 oz., and 21 oz. They can also be used for upper-body rehabilitation exercises. As your exercise program progresses, you can gradually increase the

38

COACHING MANAGEMENT

Testimonial weight of the ball. Power Throw Balls are offered in baseball and softball sizes.

They are made of a rugged vinyl shell and filling, and are color-coded by weight. An instructional manual and video are also available.

Circle No. 203 The Baseball Power Program, exclusively from Power Systems, is a baseball-specific, 12-week training program designed to enhance speed, agility, quickness, and explosiveness.

The package includes all the necessary equipment to help develop fundamental baseball skills, plus a video and training manual to take you step-by-step through the program.

The Baseball Power Program includes the following: agility ladder, 6 lb. power medball, lateral stepper, balance disc, power chute, power throw-ball set, nylon carrying bag, and the Power Program manual and video.

Circle No. 204

Schutt Sports Group 866-4-SCHUTT WWW.SCHUTTSPORTS.COM Schutt Sports’ Coach’s Bag with Back Rest is a shoulder bag designed for comfort, with a cushioned seat and a supportive back rest, a padded shoulder strap, and a grip-wrapped carry handle. It comes with storage compartments for your scorebook, headphones, cell phone, PDA, and water bottle, as well as an insulated side pocket for keeping refreshments cool.

Circle No. 205 Schutt Sports’ 2800 Elite Batter’s Helmet for high school, collegiate, and professional play offers quality with a two-year warranty. It combines elements of Schutt’s Football Helmet System to provide for the ultimate in comfort and fit. Available in an unlimited number of Pro Gloss® paint finishes, including Gold and Silver Metallic Flake and new Kandy™ finishes. The helmet is also available with custom bill and shell painting.

Circle No. 206

The Fastest Rehabilitator for Heat Stress

“The portable COOL DRAFT is simply the best rehab unit we’ve ever owned.”

John Norwig, Head Trainer Pittsburgh Steelers “I wish I’d had the COOL DRAFT fans when I was with Miami and Jacksonville. I have been taking them on the road with us.”

Bobby Monica, Equipment Manager Cleveland Browns “The COOL DRAFT is the fastest rehabilitator to help our players overcome heat quickly.”

Tank Connerly, Head Trainer University of Alabama Crimson Tide “We use four COOL DRAFT units set up in a half moon to create a large area for sideline huddles. I can refresh the whole line quickly between series.”

Tom Kuwinowski, Equipment Manager University of Kentucky Wildcats “Absolutely fantastic—We are presenting the COOL DRAFT to coaches for all team sports at our university.”

Rudy Garcia, Equipment Manager University of New Mexico Lobos

Cool Draft Scientific 66059 McGregor Road, Bellaire, OH 43906 866-676-1636 info@cooldraft.com WWW.COOLDRAFT.COM

Hitting & Pitching CagesPlus 866-475-9148 WWW.CAGESPLUS.COM

Coach Dave’s Pitch Count 703-569-5858 WWW.PITCHCOUNT.COM

Glove Radar 800-589-3805 WWW.GLOVERADAR.COM

The portable batting cage with L-screen features durable, UV-treated knotted nylon netting. The cage can be assembled by two people in just 30 minutes. The netting that surrounds the cage is not attached to the frame, a design feature which prolongs the life of the net by minimizing stress and wear due to impact. This product can be used indoors or outdoors, and is made in the USA. Circle No. 213

Coach Dave’s Pitch Count™ gives coaches instant access to valuable information about their pitcher and the opponent’s pitcher. This easy-to-use, durable coaching tool for practices and games allows a coach to track two pitchers. It displays total pitches thrown, total balls and strikes thrown, and percentage of strikes thrown. It also alerts the coach when a pitcher reaches 50, 75, and 100 pitches. Pitch Count is licensed and approved by Little League Baseball, Inc. Circle No. 214

Turn any ball glove into a radar speed gun with Glove Radar®, featuring improved sensitivity, from Sports Sensors, Inc. It’s the ideal aid for developing the throwing skills of infielders, outfielders, pitchers, and catchers. Glove Radar is easily attached to either a baseball or softball glove and is worn by the receiver of the ball—or multiple partners—in nongame situations. It utilizes Doppler radar, like conventional handheld radar speed guns. It is not an impact sensor or timer.

Glove Radar "sees" through the glove and measures the speed of the ball as it approaches the glove. Unlike most radar speed guns, a long-range capability is not required—Glove Radar performs accurately at any throwing distance.

Circle No. 215

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

IT’S A DOPPLER RADAR DOUBLE PLAY! Developing Hitting and Throwing Skills Has Never Been So Convenient or Affordable!

GLOVE RADAR ® is the ideal aid for developing the throwing skills of infielders, outfielders, pitchers, and catchers. Use it for training, tossing, warming-up, or just having fun!

Easily attached to virtually any baseball or softball glove, GLOVE RADAR’s accurate to within 1 mph of radar guns costing considerably more. Its low cost, compact design, and remarkable versatility make GLOVE RADAR ® the smart choice for teams and individual players.

From the inventors of the Glove Radar,®the NEW Swing Speed Radar ™ determines your optimum swing speed for your best distance, quickness and bat control/ball contact. You can determine swing and bat characteristics that achieve the best results. The Swing Speed Radar ™ features simple one-button operation and a large LCD display.

Rugged, compact design makes it convenient to carry and use.

It’s not how hard you swing, but how well you swing!

Works great for golf, too!

For more information, call toll-free: 1-888-542-9246. Or, visit our websites at: www.swingspeedradar.com or www.gloveradar.com SPORTS SENSORS, INC., P.O. BOX 46198, CINCINNATI, OH 45246-0198 Request No. 130 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Hitting & Pitching Granada Pitching 800-547-5032 WWW.BATTINGPRACTICE.COM Granada baseball and softball pitching machines offer a true pitch indoors and outdoors. No nets are needed. The Granada system has been proven to increase a batter’s hitting on the field and in laboratory testing. Good batting practice should include at least 200 cuts a day without

fear of the ball. Aggressive hitters will get 1,000 or more cuts a day. Granada has been improving hitting for more than 40 years.

Circle No. 216

Grand Slam Pitching Machine 800-GRAND SLAM WWW.AGRANDSLAM.COM Grand Slam is the most effective pitching machine on the market for developing a hitter’s hand-eye coordination. Its reservoir holds up to 100 golf-ball sized Wiffle®

balls and fires a pitch every eight seconds. Each pitch is guaranteed to hit the strike zone, but in varying locations.

Standing 16-20 feet from the Grand Slam, a hitter can experience pitches of over 90 mph. Pitch speed is adjustable. The Grand Slam is great for indoor and outdoor practice and is safe to use. Powered by a durable blower motor, the Grand Slam will last for years, because there are no moving wheels to wear down. The product includes 48 golfball sized Wiffle balls and a three-month satisfaction guarantee.

Circle No. 217

Jaypro 800-243-0533 WWW.JAYPRO.COM

Request No. 131

Coaching Tool for Games and Practice Coach Dave’s

PITCH COUNT™ Easy to Use Battery Operated Displays Total Pitches Thrown Displays Percentage of Strikes Thrown Displays Balls and Strikes Thrown Alarm “Charge” Tune Alerts Coach at 50, 75, and at 100-Pitch Mark Helps Prevent Injury From Overuse

U.S. Patent No. 5,153,826

$49.95

Tracks Two Pitchers “Simple. Get’s the job done. We want it!”

Plus $8.95 S/H

Chuck Hartman, Head Baseball Coach American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Virginia Tech (Over 1300 Division I Victories)

“I find PITCH COUNT™ to fill an empty niche in baseball. This gives the coach and/or pitching coach instant access to valuable information pertaining to both his pitcher and the opponent’s pitcher.”

Larry Sudbrook, Head Baseball Coach (Atlantic 10 Champions – ‘04) St. Bonaventure University

Licensed and Approved

by Little League Baseball

To order go to www.pitchcount.com PITCH COUNT LLC

•

PO Box 1362

•

Springfield, VA 22151-0362

Request No. 132

•

1-703-569-5858

Jaypro's Grand Slam Professional Batting Cage offers heavy-duty construction and a full line of features. Designed for semi-professional or collegiate use, it measures 17'6" wide by 18' deep by 12' high.

Constructed of 2" heavy wall aluminum, it is easy to fold and collapses to just 5' high. It includes a climatized nylon net and ricochet cushion to reduce rebound and frame damage. For more information, visit Jaypro's Web site or call the company.

Circle No. 218 Jaypro's new Professional Pitcher's Safety Protector protects your pitcher during batting practice. It is an excellent choice for professional, collegiate, or high school use. It features a durable powder coated finish, heavy-duty stable legs, and a slip-on nylon net. For more information, visit Jaypro's Web site or call the company.

Circle No. 219

Hitting & Pitching Master Pitching Machine 800-878-8228 WWW.MASTERPITCH.COM

Sports Attack 800-717-4251 WWW.SPORTSATTACK.COM

The “Iron Mike” Pitching Machine, from Master Pitching Machine, features a throwing arm that allows the batter to see a full windup before the ball is pitched. This allows the batter to properly develop the fundamentals used when facing a live pitcher. This capability makes the “Iron Mike” the preferred pitching machine of professional and amateur players and coaches.

All machines are self-feeding, include an 80’ remote control, and carry a manufacturer’s warranty.

Circle No. 220

The Hack Attack Baseball Pitching Machine features an exclusive design that allows the hitter to see the ball clearly all the way through the feeding motion, acceleration and release, just like from a live pitcher.

This visual arm action signals the hitter when to stride and the angle of release, giving him a live arm sense of timing and location. The Hack Attack will throw unmatched right- and left-handed major league fastballs and breaking pitches, including curveballs, sliders, sinkers, and knuckleballs. All this is accomplished by simply changing the speed of the wheels with three dials, eliminating time-consuming adjustments of the throwing head. It instantly switches to

Muhl Tech 888-766-8772 WWW.MUHLTECH.COM

fungo work, pivoting in any direction and with real game-like spin, t simulate grounders, long fly balls, deep line drives, towering infield flies, and popups for your catcher.

Circle No. 223 Sports Attack has introduced the Track Attack Vision Training Machine, a quality year-round major-league training tool for hitters. Track Attack uses soft, limitedflight pitching machine balls that are 20% smaller than a baseball. It is a valuable hitting station because it forces the hitter to track and focus on the center of the ball, and keep his head down causing the front shoulder and hips to stay in. Use it on indoor or outdoor surface, gym surface, or at home. A ball feeder is also available.

Circle No. 224

The Advanced Skills Tee is the most versatile, durable teaching tee available.

Molded of tough polyurethane, the forward arm and outside barrier enforce a tight, compact swing, eliminating “dipping” and “casting.” The unique brush-cup ball holder is replaceable, and lasts two years or more under heavy use by high school and college teams, making it a great choice for everyday use. The Advanced Skills Tee is used by over 1,200 high schools and colleges.

Circle No. 221 The Power Bag, from Muhl Tech, has a unique design that allows the hitter to strike the foam-filled, polyurethane-covered bag and still finish the swing. This develops strength in the hands and arms and promotes a proper follow through.

Develop greater strength on contact for more pop on the ball. The Power Bag comes complete with mounting brackets to attach to most poles 3” or smaller.

Larger brackets are available upon request. An indoor stand is available for winter training.

Circle No. 222 Request No. 133 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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ADVERTISERS DIRECTORY CIRCLE NO.

COMPANY

PAGE NO.

141 . . . . Aer-Flo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC 111 . . . . Bannerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 119 . . . . Barry University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 124 . . . . Beacon Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 137 . . . . BetterBaseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

241 . . . . Bannerman

(Diamond Master)

. . . . . . . . 47

263 . . . . Barry University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 243 . . . . Beacon Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 200 . . . . BetterBaseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 235 . . . . BWP Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 213 . . . . Cages Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 264 . . . . Card Emporium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 245 . . . . Diamond Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 265 . . . . eFundraising.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

118 . . . . BWP Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

247 . . . . Game-On Field Conditioner . . . . . 49

125 . . . . Challenger Industries

. . . . 32

248 . . . . Game-On Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

121 . . . . Diamond Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

266 . . . . Gatorade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

141 . . . . eFundraising.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

215 . . . . Glove Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

114 . . . . Game-On Field Conditioner . . . . . 24

216 . . . . Granada Pitching . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

101 . . . . Gatorade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

217 . . . . Grand Slam Pitching Machine . . . . 40

130 . . . . Glove Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

246 . . . . Heying Company

(DuraPlay) .

131 . . . . Granada Pitching . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 129 . . . . Heying Company

(Infield Drag)

. . . . . . 37

128 . . . . Hoosier Bat Company . . . . . . . . . . 37 104 . . . . Jaypro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

(Infield Drag)

. . . . . 48

236 . . . . Hoosier Bat Company . . . . . . . . . . 46 218 . . . . Jaypro

(Batting Cage) .

219 . . . . Jaypro

(Pitching Net)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

208 . . . . JET Sportswear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 249 . . . . M.A.S.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

116 . . . . M.A.S.A. Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

250 . . . . Mar-Co Clay Products . . . . . . . . . 49

108 . . . . Mar-Co Clay Products . . . . . . . . . 14

201 . . . . Markwort Sporting Goods. . . . . . . 38

117 . . . . Markwort Sporting Goods. . . . . . . 26

220 . . . . Master Pitching Machine . . . . . . . 41

135 . . . . Master Pitching Machine . . . . . . . . 43

238 . . . . Miken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

100 . . . . Miken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC

202 . . . . Miken

122 . . . . Millcreek Manufacturing (Spin Groomer) 30

251 . . . . Millcreek Manufacturing . . . . . . . . 50

126 . . . . Muhl Tech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 138 . . . . Old Hickory Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 134 . . . . Partac/Beam Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 132 . . . . Pitch Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 102 . . . . Pro Look Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

(The Freak)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

221 . . . . Muhl Tech

(Advanced Skills Tee)

222 . . . . Muhl Tech

(Power Bag)

. . . . . . . 41

. . . . . . . . . . . . 41

237 . . . . Old Hickory Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 254 . . . . Partac/Beam Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 214 . . . . Pitch Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 204 . . . . Power Systems (Baseball Power Program) . . 38

113 . . . . Pro Look Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

233 . . . . Power Systems

(catalog)

127 . . . . Promats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

203 . . . . Power Systems

(Power Throw Balls) .

112 . . . . Pro’s Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

209 . . . . Pro Look Sports

(sportswear) .

110 . . . . Russell Athletic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

210 . . . . Pro Look Sports

(uniforms)

142 . . . . Schutt Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC

252 . . . . Pro’s Choice

123 . . . . Seating Services, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 31

253 . . . . Pro’s Choice (Soilmaster Select) . . . . . . . 50

106 . . . . Southern Athletic Fields . . . . . . . . 12 140 . . . . SPI Nets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 143 . . . . Sports Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 107 . . . . Sports Tutor

(HomePlate)

. . . . . . . . . . 13

. . . . . . . . . . 45

(Pro Mound®)

. . . . 38

. . . . . . . 37

. . . . . . . . . 37 . . . . . . . . . 50

. . . . . . . . . . . . 50

257 . . . . Promats

(field wall pad)

258 . . . . Promats

(protective padding)

. . . . . . . . . 50

211 . . . . Russell Athletic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 206 . . . . Schutt Sports

(Batter's Helmet)

205 . . . . Schutt Sports

(Coach's Bag)

. . . . . . . 38

. . . . . . . . . 38

139 . . . . Sporturf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

267 . . . . Seating Services, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 51

109 . . . . Swift Stik

259 . . . . Southern Athletic Fields . . . . . . . . 51

(PIK Products)

. . . . . . . . . . . . 15

115 . . . . SwingBuster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

223 . . . . Sports Attack

(Pitching Machine)

103 . . . . Turface Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

224 . . . . Sports Attack

(Vision Training Machine)

120 . . . . Turfco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

225 . . . . Sports Tutor

105 . . . . Vantage Products Int’l.

226 . . . . Stalker Radar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

(VPI)

. . . . . . 12

136 . . . . WeatherBeater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 133 . . . . Zingbat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

227 . . . . Swift Stik

(HomePlate)

(PIK Products)

. . . . . . 41 . . . 41

. . . . . . . . . . 43

. . . . . . . . . . . . 43

228 . . . . Swing Speed Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 229 . . . . SwingBuster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 256 . . . . Turface MVP®. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

PRODUCTS DIRECTORY CIRCLE NO.

COMPANY

255 . . . . Turface Pro League® . . . . . . . . . . 50 PAGE NO.

260 . . . . Turfco (Edge-R-Rite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

230 . . . . Vantage Products Int’l. . . . . . . . . . 44

261 . . . . Turfco 240 . . . . Aer-Flo

(Bunt Zone) .

239 . . . . Aer-Flo

(Wind Weighted Tarps) .

242 . . . . Bannerman Request No. 134

(Ballpark-6) .

(Mete-R-Matic XL)

. . . . . . . . . . . . 51

. . . . . . . . 47

244 . . . . WeatherBeater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

. . . . . . . . . . . 47

231 . . . . Zingbat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Hitting & Pitching Sports Tutor 800-448-8867 WWW.SPORTSMACHINES.COM

Stalker Radar 888-STALKER WWW.STALKERRADAR.COM

Swift Stik 877-845-7845 WWW.SWIFTSTIK.COM

The new HomePlate machine is the first programmable pitching machine designed for both batting cage and on-field use. The HomePlate machine can simulate almost any pitcher you are likely to face. It can throw a 90 mph fastball, followed by a 75 mph curve, followed by a changeup, followed by a slider with only seven seconds between pitches.

You can store up to eight different pitches in each of eight programs. The programmed pitches can be thrown either sequentially (for specific hitting drills), or randomly (to simulate game conditions).

HomePlate models start at $2,995.

Circle No. 225

The ultra-high performance Stalker Sport Radar Gun precisely measures the speed of a baseball both when it leaves the pitcher’s hand and as it crosses the plate (these speeds can be up to 12 mph different). The Stalker is three times more powerful than any other sports radar gun, and can accurately clock pitches from over 300 feet away. A new double-capacity battery handle is available that provides up to 40 hours of use between charges. About 90 percent of Major League Baseball teams use the Stalker.

Circle No. 226

Swift Stik is the fastest way to improve your swing. This easy-to-use, lightweight training bat is great for baseball and softball, letting you take hundreds of extra swings. You’re guaranteed to get results

Request No. 135

quickly. Swift Stik improves hand-eye coordination, builds muscle memory, helps increase bat speed, and teaches the hitter to hit the “sweet spot.” Swift Stik is endorsed by Professional Hitting instructor Mike Epstein and University of Tennessee Baseball Coach Rod Delmonico. It is available in 34” and 30” sizes and has a patented, adjustable foam sweet spot.

Swift Stik is packaged with an instructional video and four golf-ball sized Wiffle® balls. This product should be used only with tennis, Wiffle, or soft foam balls. Visit the company’s Web site for testimonials.

Circle No. 227

Request No. 136 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Hitting & Pitching

Testimonial

Swing Speed Radar 800-589-3805 WWW.SWINGSPEEDRADAR.COM

Vantage Products International 800-244-4457 WWW.VPISPORTS.COM

The new Swing Speed Radar™ is a small, inexpensive microwave Doppler radar velocity sensor that measures the swing speed of baseball and softball players.

The Swing Speed Radar aids baseball and softball players in developing their optimum bat speed for distance, quickness, and bat control to encourage consistent ball contact. The Swing Speed Radar provides real-time velocity feedback that assists players, coaches, or instructors in measuring performance improvement and in trouble-shooting swing mechanics. The Swing Speed Radar also works great for golfers.

Circle No. 228

The Big Bubba Professional Portable Batting Cage is the premium choicein batting cages for high school, collegiate and professional baseball programs at considerable cost savings.

The heavyduty aluminum construction, easy portability, and collapsible design make it the perfect backstop for any level. It is 18’ W x 22’ D x 12’ H and collapses to only 5’ high helping it adhere to storage space limitations. Sixteen-inch pneumatic wheels make relocation simple. Forty-two feet of ricochet cushion helps minimize ball rebound and the coaches’ observation bar provides for safe, elevated viewing.

Circle No. 230

SwingBuster 877-422-8292 WWW.SWINGBUSTER.COM

Zingbat 866-ZINGBAT (946-4228) WWW.ZINGBAT.COM

The SwingBuster is one of the most innovative and effective swing trainer ever built. This “hands-back hitter” ingrains the absolutes of hitting with every swing.

SwingBuster took the key elements common to all power hitters and created an affordable, portable batting station that transforms the flawed swing into the perfect swing in four easy steps, guaranteed. Professional Hitting Instructor Mike Epstein says, “Finally, a fun hitting trainer that reinforces good mechanics.” To see how it works check out the company’s Web site.

Special camp packages are available by clicking on the “Coaches” button.

Circle No. 229

Zingbat™ has recently introduced the new “16 oz.” one-hand isolation trainer. The batter can now practice lead-arm and tophand drills to isolate proper arm path and hand action. With each swing, the isolation trainer forces the arm to take the correct path, keeping the hand inside the ball.

The wrist must snap the barrel at the correct instant or the patented Zingbat™ "click" will occur before contact. Coaches and players across the country are welcoming this new addition to the Zingbat line. Call for a free instructional video or see a demo on the company's Web site.

Circle No. 231

Quality products and innovative design

“The folks at Dynamic Team Sports are easy to work with, and they provide a quality product. Our uniforms look good on the field and are as durable as iron.

To play your best, you have to look your best. And you definitely look your best when you choose Dynamic.”

George Greer, Assistant Athletic Director Wake Forest University “Our players love these jerseys. The lightweight fabric is fantastic, and we love having the unique opportunity to create innovative designs without the usual restrictions. We’re already planning next year’s uniforms.”

Michael Gaski, Head Baseball Coach University of North Carolina-Greensboro “We are very pleased with the Dynamic jerseys. They are lightweight, durable, and great looking! The Dynamic staff gave us the chance to be creative with our design, and they were very easy to work with throughout the whole process. I highly recommend Dynamic Team Sports!”

Jim Farr, Head Baseball Coach College of William and Mary

Web News MARKWORT OFFERS INFORMATION ON ALL ITS PRODUCTS ON-LINE Consumers visiting Markwort’s Web site can explore a wide variety of products. Detailed product descriptions and suggested retail prices are available for baseball, softball, football, and basketball products, as well as athletic equipment, training aides, and protective accessories. Volleyballs, bats, shoes, socks, kicking tees, whistles, and inflation pumps are just a few of the thousands of products you can review. Contact your local sporting goods dealer directly to purchase the company’s products. www.markwort.com

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

Dynamic Team Sports 419 Boot Road, Downingtown, PA 19335 800-437-6223 info@dynamicteamsports.com WWW.DYNAMICTEAMSPORTS.COM

Catalog Showcase

Testimonial

Partner with a proven leader The most successful high school, collegiate, and professional athletic teams have already made Life Fitness their number-one cardiovascular and strength-training choice. Those teams include: Boston Bruins Boston Red Sox Brigham Young University Brownwood High School, Brownwood, TX Drake University Georgia Institute of Technology Kansas City Chiefs Michigan State University Minnesota Timberwolves Mt. Carmel High School, Chicago, IL New England Patriots New York Yankees The Ohio State University Rice University San Antonio Spurs Seminole High School, Seminole, FL Tampa Bay Lightning Texas Tech University University of Kansas University of Notre Dame

Life Fitness 5100 River Rd., Ste. 300, Schiller Park, IL 60176 800-634-8637 commercialsales@lifefitness.com WWW.LIFEFITNESS.COM

Power Systems, Inc. 800-321-6975 WWW.POWER-SYSTEMS.COM Since 1986, Power Systems has been a leading supplier of sport training, health, and fitness products. The company prides itself on being the one resource for all of your training needs. Its 2004 catalog has a new look, with better graphics and photos. Categories include core strength, medicine balls, speed, plyometrics, agility, strength equipment, strength accessories, and flooring. The catalog is full of hundreds of new products and dozens of products available exclusively from Power Systems. The company has lowered some of its prices, enabling the customer to get premium products at great prices. Go on-line or call Power Systems to request a free 2004 catalog today.

Circle No. 233

Better Baseball

TM

Your Complete Baseball Supply Headquarters We specialize in secure online sales of sporting goods and sports equipment for individuals, teams, and schools.

• Netting • Baseballs • Bags • Bats • Gloves • Field Equip.

• Mounds • Softballs • Bases & Plates • Batting Cages • Pitching Machines • Training Aids/Books/Videos

Quick service and quality products are our trademark.

We have been in business since 1993. We have 10,000 customers, and we would be honored to add you to our list! We ship by UPS and get most orders out in 24 hours, so come join our team, and help us play BetterBaseball!

1-800-997-4233 www.betterbaseball.com Request No. 137

COACHING MANAGEMENT

45

Wood & Metal Bats

Company News

BWP Bats 814-849-5679 WWW.BWPBATS.COM

Old Hickory Bat Company, Inc. 866-PROBATS WWW.OLDHICKORYBATS.COM

Custom Features: Various models, colors, and personalization available. Superior wood quality, quick delivery, and economical pricing.

Custom Features: All Custom Pro bats are cut to player's specs: model, length, weight, color, cupped or solid end, and personalization.

● NCAA

● MLB

● Major

Approved & Minor League Approved

Approved

Type of Training and Fungo Bats: Solid maple fungos: lightweight, durable and available in team colors and personalization. Solid maple training bats available: one hand, bunt trainer, and flat bat.

Type of Training and Fungo Bats: Training bats for swing mechanics and overall hitting skills. Pro Fungo is available in 33" and 37" lengths and in team colors. Made of silver maple for excellent feel and balance.

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Circle No. 235

Hoosier Bat Co. 800-228-3787 WWW.HOOSIERBAT.COM

Miken Sports 877-807-5291 INFO@MIKENSPORTS.COM

Custom Features: Colors are black, natural hickory, and burnt orange.

Top-quality ash; Wood Force 2000 is ash handle and hickory hitting area.

The Freak baseball bat uses E-Flex technology to create flex throughout the barrel and harness maximum energy on impact. You’ve never swung a bat with a sweet spot this big.

● NCAA

● NCAA

● NFHS

● NFHS

Approved Approved ● Major & Minor League Approved

Circle No. 238

Circle No. 236

WOOD BATS Wood Type

BWP Bats BWP-243 Maple BWP-Nasty Maple BWP-271 Red Oak

At Russell Athletic, we continually listen to the needs of athletes and respond accordingly by creating innovative uniforms and training gear to enhance their performance. For decades Russell Athletic has developed industry-leading technologies and cutting-edge products like the Tear-Away jersey, the StretchMesh™ uniform (worn by Washington State in the 2002 Rose Bowl), and Sweatless Sweats™, the first moisture management sweatshirt that keeps athletes dry, light, and comfortable during workouts.

Innovations like these were born on the fields of play and have been tested at the highest levels of competition.

Generations of athletes have trusted the performance of Russell Athletic products, including every Little League Baseball World Series team for over 30 years, 34 college football National Championship teams, and 25 Heisman Trophy winners.

Approved Approved

Type of Training and Fungo Bats: Wood fungo with no taping required on barrel.

28" B.P. for strength and hitting skills.

Company Models

A history of innovative apparel

Lengths

Handle

Barrel

L/W Ratio

Warranty

31-35” 32-34” 32-34”

29/32” 29/32” 1”

XL XXL Large

-2 to -3 -2 to -3 -2 to -3

No No No

Hoosier

HB105 Ash 32-33-34” 15/16” HB325 Ash 32-33-34” 1” Wood Force Ash/Hickory/ 32-34” 1” Maple

2-13/32” -3 2-1/2” -3 2-1/2” -3

Barrel won’t flake

Old Hickory

Custom Pro

Maple

-

Custom

Custom

Custom

Diamond Series

Maple

-

-

2-7/16”

-2

N/A *Big League Wood* N/A

No matter the level of play or budget constraints, as the #1 supplier of high school uniforms, we are confident Russell Athletic can offer high quality and innovative uniforms and practice gear to meet the needs of your team. I personally wish you and your team the best of luck this season, and thank you for your continued support of our products.

Matthew Mirchin President, Russell Athletic

NON-WOOD BATS Company

Model

Bat Material

Finish

Grip

L/W Ratio

Warranty

Miken

Freak (MBF)

Composite

-

Leather

-3

1-year

46

COACHING MANAGEMENT

WWW.RUSSELLATHLETIC.COM

Baseball Field Aer-Flo, Inc. 800-823-7356 WWW.WINDWEIGHTED.COM Wind Weighted™ Baseball Tarps are virtually wind-proof. These patent-pending covers for the mound, home base, and bullpens have a steel chain in the edge hem, allowing them to stay down in windy conditions making stakes and sandbags unnecessary. The installer device allows for installation by two people in just 25 seconds. Tough, waterproof 14oz. vinyl-polyester fabric is UV- and mildewtreated. Wind Weighted Baseball Tarps and Installers take the drudgery out of the game.

Circle No. 239 The Bunt Zone™ Infield Protector, by Aer-Flo, doubles as the perfect target-training system for bunting practice. It uses three color-coded zones: yellow is the

bunt-for-hit target area; green is the sacrifice bunt zone; and red is the bad bunt zone. Players get instant feedback at every practice. Tough 9-oz. vinyl-polyester mesh survives spike traffic. The Bunt Zone provides maximum turf protection while improving team bunting skills. Ground staples are included in the package. Patents are pending for this product.

Circle No. 240

Bannerman Ltd. 800-665-2596 WWW.SPORTSTURFMAGIC.COM Restore your diamond's luster in 20 minutes or less with the BDM-6 Diamond Master®.

Bannerman Ltd. manufac-

PITCHERS BEWARE!

tures groomers that will level and care for baseball diamonds, warning tracks, and walking trails. The B-DM-6 Diamond Master® has five grooming tools, including: Ripper Blade, Rake, Leveler, Roller, and Finishing Brush. Options available include: Extension Wing Brush Kit, Hydraulic Tractor Top Link, 50-gallon Water Tank with spray nozzle, and Long Tine "Fluffing" Rake.

Circle No. 241 When your players' safety comes first, look to Bannerman Ltd., which manufactures groomers used to shape, level, and care for baseball diamonds. The B-BP-6 Ballpark6® model has five grooming tools, including: Ripper Blade, Rake, Leveler, Roller, and Brush.

Accessories available include: Extension Wing Brush Kit, Hydraulic Tractor Top Link, 50-gallon Water Tank with spray nozzle, and Long Tine "Fluffing" Rake.

Circle No. 242

Does Your Grass Need Plastic Surgery?

Sporturf has all the options !

• Full TrueGrass Synthetic Fields

The Choice of the Pros Customized Maple cut to your Specs Training Bats & Fungos also available TOLL FREE

( 8 6 6 ) P R O - B ATS

www.oldhickor ybats.com Request No. 138

• Artificial Turf Halos • Over 3500 International Dealers • Baseball and Golf Stance Mats Buy Direct at

www.sporturf.com/factory-outlet Request No. 139 COACHING MANAGEMENT

47

Baseball Field Beacon Athletics 800-747-5985 WWW.BALLFIELDS.COM Perform two jobs with one machine when striping your fields. The Beacon Streamliner 70 and the new Beacon Streamliner 353 can use the optional Beacon Double Play Aerosol Attachment to stripe fields with chalk or paint quickly and with no mess. The Double Play Aerosol Attachment grips the base of the handle and allows for up and down adjustment to ensure proper line width. The attachment can accommodate almost any brand of athletic aerosol field marking paint.

Circle No. 243

WeatherBeater® by Colorado Lining International 888-546-4641 WWW.COLORADOLINING.COM The big tournament is this weekend.

You’ve been planning for months and hundreds are expected to attend and rain is forecasted for the next few days. What you need is WeatherBeater’s Workhorse Baseball Field Cover. Fabricated from 12 mil White Tarpaulin with user-friendly perimeter rope hem and gusseted lift loops, it’s one of the best field covers on the market.

“WeatherBeater…anything less is just a tarp!” For more information, please contact your WeatherBeater Specialist.

Circle No. 244

Diamond Pro 800-228-2987 WWW.DIAMONDPRO.COM Diamond Pro offers a complete line of professional groundskeeping products: infield conditioners, calcined clay, mound and homeplate clay/bricks, marking dust, infield and warning track mixes. All are available with fast and convenient delivery. Diamond Pro’s vitrified clay RED infield conditioner is

available in bulk nationwide and is easy to handle and apply. Truckloads are available in 10, 15, and 24 ton loads that save you both time and money. Enjoy bulk savings nationwide and create an all-around safe professional infield playing surface.

Circle No. 245

Heying Co. 712-756-8847 WWW.INFIELD-DRAG.COM Keep your granular playing fields level, wellgroomed, and in safe playing condition with the PR72 Pro Groomer™. Use this product on infields, warning tracks, granular running tracks, and more. Cut off high areas, keep material mixed, fill in low areas, break up hard-compacted surfaces, and spread new material—all with one machine. The Pro Groomer saves labor, reduces water puddling problems,

Why do more than 13,000 unique users each month rely on AthleticBid.com?

Q

uite simply it saves them time! Athleticbid.com is a free service to help buyers at schools and athletic organizations contact many companies in the most efficient fashion to request product specs and pricing information. It used to take hours to contact dozens of companies to research products and plan purchases. But by using athleticbid.com, it now only takes minutes.

One option for researching products and companies is the on-line Buyers Guide. You may: View the complete product lines of companies listed.

View catalog pages or spec sheets from many of the top companies. ● Read a profile of description of select companies. ● Send an e-mail directly to a supplier or make a request to be contacted by a company representative. ● Request catalog and sales literature from companies. ● ●

Quickly find the products, services, and deals you are looking for

a t h l e t i c b i d . c o m 48

COACHING MANAGEMENT

Baseball Field and helps to eliminate weeds. Constructed of welded steel, it adjusts quickly and easily without the need for tools. A drag mat and electric lift are optional.

Circle No. 246

Hydraulic Press Brick Co. 888-593-0395 WWW.HAYDITESOILCONDITIONERS.COM WWW.HAYDITEGAME-ON.COM GAME-ON is a brand new sports field soil conditioner that will not break your budget, but will provide excellent results. It is a lightweight, expandedshale product that absorbs over 20 percent of its weight in water. Game-On is more durable than clay and does not breakdown into fine particles.

Game-On is manufactured in Cleveland, Ohio, and is available in bags or in bulk.

Circle No. 247 Game-On has introduced its newest product, GAME-ON Red. Game-On Red is an infield

topdress with a brick red color, to give your field a finishing touch and that Major League look. This topdress product will give you a more consistent bounce, and the deep red color will allow infielders to see the ball more easily. GameOn Red is available in bags or in bulk.

Circle No. 248

M.A.S.A., Inc. 800-264-4519 WWW.MASA.COM Poly Cap® has been designed with both the players and fans in mind. When applied to the top of chain-link fences, Poly Cap covers the sharp barbs that can damage uniforms and cause player injuries. Its advantages also include field beautification, increased visibility, and durability. The product’s optic-yellow color clearly defines the field for players

and umpires alike. Poly Cap is weather-treated and UV-protected with a patented formula to withstand the most severe conditions.

Circle No. 249

Mar-Co Clay Products, Inc. 800-950-2555 WWW.MARCOCLAY.COM Mar-Co Clay Products, Inc. makes a wide variety of conditioners for baseball diamonds. The company offers a free Material Assessment Program to analyze your existing field material and determine your precise needs. MarCo can then prepare an Infield Custom Blend that delivers optimal performance for your field.

Also available is Diamond Clay Conditioner, an orange-red clay product designed specifically as a conditioner for heavy clays. For pitcher’s mounds, Mar-Co’s Mound Clay Fortifier firms up loose material and strengthens the mound.

Circle No. 250

Request No. 140 Request No. 141 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Baseball Field Millcreek Manufacturing 800-311-1323 WWW.MILLCREEKMFG.COM Wet material is notoriously difficult to spread because of its tendency to clump and clog spreading equipment. Millcreek Manufacturing Co. has introduced the Turf Tiger™, a large capacity topdresser that applies sand/peat topdressing, compost, infield mix, soil conditioners, and other bulk materials even when wet. The Turf Tiger has a 7,500pound capacity, and features a patent-pending SaberTooth™ spreading mechanism that applies wet material in a uniform 8’ to 12’ wide pattern, depending on material conditions.

Circle No. 251

Pro's Choice 800-648-1166 WWW.PROSCHOICE1.COM Pro Mound® packing clay is the choice of professional teams, universities, municipalities, and Little Leagues worldwide. When used at the mound and batter’s box areas, it bonds to form a solid sub-surface foundation that allows the pitcher and batter to establish firm footing without creating large wear holes. Pro Mound installs quickly, and more importantly, lasts. Experience safer playing conditions and reduced mound and batter’s box maintenance by choosing Pro Mound. For more information, call Pro’s Choice®.

Circle No. 252 For premium performance and a color that will set your field apart, choose the Soilmaster Select Series from Pro's Choice. Scientifically engineered to meet daily maintenance challenges and give your field a professional look, Soilmaster Select is the true choice of groundskeepers for building and maintaining winning ballfields. Available in four distinct colors (red, green, brown, and charcoal), the uniform granules in Soilmaster Select manage moisture and alleviate compaction to keep your field in

50

COACHING MANAGEMENT

top playing condition. Pro's Choice delivers a full line of sportsfield products for conditioning soil and infield mix, topdressing infields, quickly drying puddles, and revitalizing turf.

Circle No. 253

Partac/Beam Clay 800-247-BEAM WWW.BEAMCLAY.COM Partac/Beam Clay® makes mixes for infields, pitcher's mounds, home plate areas, and red warning tracks that are used by more than 100 professional teams (including eight of the last 10 World Series champions), more than 700 colleges, and thousands of towns and schools from all 50 states and worldwide. Beam Clay offers more than 200 infield products from distribution centers nationwide, including regional infield mixes blended for specific climates and every state.

Circle No. 254

Profile Products, LLC 800-207-6457 WWW.TURFACE.COM TURFACE® offers a complete line of infield conditioners featuring newly patented Pro League®. Manufactured with smaller, uniform particles, Pro League is the only patented calcined clay infield soil conditioner.

Pro League provides infield conditioning benefits, creating superior sliding and fielding surfaces. Pro League is unmatched in drainage and absorption qualities for maximum rainout protection. Pro League outperforms crushed aggregates by absorbing more water and conditioning the infield soil. The preferred soil conditioner of many Major League groundskeepers, Pro League is designed to increase safety, playability, and drainage for baseball and softball infields at any level.

Circle No. 255 For more than 40 years, PROFILE Products LLC has been the leading manufacturer of soil modification products, including the TURFACE® line of infield and sports turf conditioners and mound clay products.

PROFILE offers TURFACE MVP®, which

eliminates compaction, bad ball hops, and rainouts on skinned infields; TURFACE Quick Dry®, designed to absorb excess water during wet conditions and to become a part of the infield mix; TURFACE Gray and TURFACE Red, infield conditioners manufactured in gray and red tones for a non-glare surface for greater ball visibility; and TURFACE Mound Clay.

Circle No. 256

Promats, Inc. 800-678-6287 WWW.PROMATS.COM Promats, the leader in stadium field wall padding with nearly 400 major installations worldwide, has introduced a revolutionary new field wall pad that utilizes superior SKYDEX™ Smarter Cushioning materials.

Promats field wall pads with SKYDEX technology are much more durable, almost 60 percent lighter, and more impactabsorbent than standard pads. Like all Promats products, Promats field wall pads with SKYDEX Smarter Cushioning can be customized for your stadium or arena. Call or email Promats for more information.

Circle No. 257 Promats, Inc. has supplied protective padding for more than 350 teams or stadiums and arenas with affiliations in Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, World Cup Soccer, Indoor Arena Football, College Baseball, College Softball, College Football, and Canadian League Football. Each facility is unique in its requirements, and Promats offers many different types of padding to fill those needs. Just call the company and its staff will help you design a padding system that will work for you.

Circle No. 258

More Products Southern Athletic Fields 800-837-8062 WWW.MULEMIX.COM Southern Athletic Fields (SAF) specializes in a wide variety of products. Some of these products include: infield mixes; mound and packing clays; soil conditioners/calcined clays and drying agents; infield topdressing and warning track materials; and field maintenance accessories. SAF is the one-stop source for your entire athletic field needs.

Circle No. 259

Turfco Manufacturing 800-679-8201 WWW.TURFCO.COM Unlike traditional rotary edgers, the Turfco Edge-R-Rite’s unique oscillating blade cuts turf without throwing debris, making it safer to use in hightraffic areas and easier to cleanup. The edger eliminates spade or shovel edging and leaves a professional-looking edge. The right angle blade edges golf course bunkers, baseball diamonds, or flowerbeds. Additional blades can be added to edge sidewalks, curbs, and driveways, and to cut in drainage or install all sorts of edging. Depth control can be easily adjusted up to 4”. The Edge-R-Rite is built with a solid-steel frame and a traction-assist drive.

Circle No. 260 The Turfco® Mete-R-Matic® XL tow-type topdresser offers increased hopper capacity to cover larger turf areas on sports fields.

The Mete-R-Matic XL combines Turfco’s patented Mete-RMatic chevron belt design and ground drive system to ensure even distribution of topdressing materials, regardless of moisture content and vehicle speed. As a result, the Mete-RMatic XL is the easiest to use, most consistent large-area topdresser available. With a hopper capacity of 2.25 cubic yards (1.72 cubic meters), the Mete-R-Matic XL can carry a load of up to 6,000 lbs.

Circle No. 261

Barry University 800-756-6000 WWW.BARRY.EDU/HPLS Barry University's MS in Movement Science program offers a variety of specializations to prepare you for a future in athletic training, biomechanics, exercise science, or sport and exercise psychology. You can also choose our new general option where you can customize your MS program using classes from all four of the other specializations. Whichever specialization best meets your needs, you will benefit from state-of-the-art laboratory and research facilities; internationally respected faculty; and Barry's ideal South Florida location with access to challenging opportunities for graduate clinical placements.

Circle No. 263

Card Emporium 800-521-7632 WWW.SPORTBEADS.COM Looking for a new and exciting fundraiser that students will love to sell? Want to raise school spirit and money at the same time?

Sport beads are sweeping the nation in popularity. Just watch any sporting event on TV and you will see Card Emporium's Sport Beads. Kids of all ages will buy Sport Beads and “Show their Colors” at your games. The company also has many other game day products available. Call and mention Coaching Management and receive a free gift with your purchase.

Circle No. 264

eFundraising 866-825-2921 WWW.EFUNDRAISING.COM Try eFundraising’s new On-line Fundraising Program—a new way to raise money quickly and easily. With your free personalized Web site, complete with magazine store, your supporters can purchase magazine subscriptions online and 40 percent of each purchase amount will go back to your group. Simply

enter and send emails to friends and family across America inviting them to visit your on-line store and buy, renew or extend their magazines subscriptions to help support your group. They’ll save up to 85 percent off the newsstand prices on over 650 magazine titles while you’ll earn 40 percent profit.

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Gatorade 800-88GATOR WWW.GATORADE.COM Gatorade Thirst Quencher’s optimal formula contains electrolytes and carbohydrates. It is based on more than 30 years of scientific research and testing. Nothing rehydrates, replenishes and refuels better than Gatorade® Thirst Quencher—not even water. REHYDRATE—Gatorade has the flavor to keep your athletes drinking—and a six percent carbohydrate solution that’s optimal for speeding fluids back into their systems. No fluid is absorbed faster than Gatorade.

REPLENISH—If your athletes don’t replace the electrolytes they lose when they sweat, they risk becoming dehydrated, which can take them out of the game. By putting electrolytes back, Gatorade helps athletes drink more, retain fluids and maintain fluid balance.

REFUEL—Unlike water, Gatorade has the right amount of carbohydrates (14 grams per eight ounces) to give your athlete’s working muscles more energy, help athletes fight fatigue and keep their mental edge.

Circle No. 266

SEATING SERVICES 800-552-9470 WWW.SEATINGSERVICES.COM Seating Services introduces the Cardinal Model Series 3500 tip-up chair for use on row spacing that is as small as 27”. These blow-molded chairs are gravity tip. They have no springs and/or pins. This saves money beacuse they are less expensive to manufacture, install, and maintain.

The chairs have been designed for installation on concrete or steel/aluminum grandstands. Seat widths can range from 18-22”.

A wide variety of colors and options make these an excellent way to seat more fans in a limited space.

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Company Q & A

eFUNDRAISING REALLY IS THE WORLD’S LEADING FUNDRAISING COMPANY The founder and President of eFundraising, Eric Boyko, graduated from McGill University with a degree in accounting, and in 1997 earned his Certified General Accountant title. Always the entrepreneur, Eric strives to develop and manage his young corporation by combining the structure of a large organization with the philosophy and dynamic team spirit of a newly established company. In 2000, Eric led the venture capital financing and sale of eFundraising to ZapMe! for $27 million. He then went on to negotiate a deal to be acquired by QSP Reader’s Digest in 2001.

Q. WHY SHOULD A NON-PROFIT GROUP CHOOSE eFUNDRAISING OVER OTHER FUNDRAISING COMPANIES? We offer a large selection of proven fundraising programs, as well as competitive profit margins on all our products. We also have a great team of experienced fundraising consultants and friendly customer service representatives available throughout the entire fundraising process, to help clients choose the right program, answer all their fundraising questions, and respond to their needs.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

In May 2001, eFundraising was acquired by QSP, a subsidiary of Reader’s Digest. This partnership has allowed eFundraising to add over 100 years of traditional know-how and expertise to our cutting-edge fundraising technology and experience.

QSP is the fundraising division of Reader’s Digest. Since 1964, QSP has helped students raise over $2 billion in profits for enrichment programs and worthwhile projects that are essential to a meaningful, wellrounded education. As for Reader’s Digest, everyone recognizes that name, especially from its flagship publication, Reader’s Digest magazine, which is sold in more than 60 countries.

Q. IF A GROUP DECIDES TO CHOOSE eFUNDRAISING, HOW DO THEY START THEIR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN?

Q. HOW LONG HAS eFUNDRAISING BEEN IN BUSINESS?

WWW.EFUNDRAISING.COM

Q. HOW DOES QSP READER’S DIGEST FIT IN?

Q. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT QSP READER’S DIGEST?

Once our clients have had a chance to look through the information offered in our free Fundraising Guide, a fundraising consultant will contact them to discuss their fundraising needs and answer any questions they have.

Clients can also call 1-800-561-8388 for more information about any of our programs.

They can then place an order over the phone and start raising money for their group.

eFUNDRAISING.COM 33 Prince St., Ste. 200 Montreal, PQ H3C 2M7 800-561-8388 info@efundraising.com

accomplished: eFundraising has already helped thousands of students, educators, athletes, communities, and other non-profit groups raise millions of dollars by providing personalized ways to achieve their specific fundraising goals.

eFundraising was established as the Universal Fundraising Group in 1991 and has become one of the leading figures in the North American fundraising industry. My vision was to create a business to provide non-profit groups with a large selection of quality fundraising products at competitive prices. And that mission has been

Q. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH WORLD’S FINEST CHOCOLATE? QSP has a longstanding partnership with World’s Finest Chocolate, and is the fundraising industry’s exclusive distributor of WFC products. So when we joined QSP Reader’s Digest, we were able to benefit from that alliance. For over 50 years, WFC has helped schools and non-profit organizations raise over $2.5 billion in profits, which is unmatched in the fundraising industry.

Q. WHERE DO YOU SEE eFUNDRAISING GOING IN THE FUTURE? Right now, we are working on establishing alliances with relevant companies that can help us broaden the scope of our market.

Our goal is to reach as many non-profit organizations as we can and help them reach their own goals. We are the world’s leading fundraising company and we want to make sure we stay that way.

Innovative Baseball Products BUNT ZONETM Infield Protector

WIND WEIGHTEDTM Baseball Tarps MULTIPLE PATENTS PENDING

Optional Wind Weighted INSTALLER device lets two players cover a mound or home plate in less than 30 seconds.

Bunt Zone Protector stimulates a natural competition between players. It can significantly improve team bunting skills if used at every practice.

Mound and Base Covers that STAY PUT in WIND WITHOUT stakes or sandbags.

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Galvanized steel chain in the edge hem all around keeps wind from getting under, so they stay down even in high winds.

FEATURES

• RED is the “bad bunt” zone • GREENS are the “sacrifice bunt” zones • YELLOW is the “bunt-for-a-hit” target zone FEATURES • Industrial grade 9 oz. vinyl coated polyester mesh • Protected by UV & mildew inhibitors • Tolerant of spike traffic, virtually tear proof • Fusion welded seams • Grommets and stakes included • Sizes for all infields and batting tunnels • Multiple patents pending • For indoor use: combined with solid vinyl polyester fabric to protect gym floor in batting cage Coach Tholen says, “The Bunt Zone Infield Protector is an exciting baseball teaching aid that will help batters learn the lost art of bunting.

Visualization is the key. We coaches tell batters where to bunt, but not everybody responds to verbal instruction. With Bunt Zone Protectors, players can see exactly WHERE to bunt successfully. It gives immediate feedback with no coaching help needed. And best of all, it·s built into a tough mesh infield turf protector that we can use everyday at practice. This is a permanent, always-on training system, not like the cones and other gadgets we·ve used occasionally. The Bunt Zone Infield Protector can improve bunting skills at all levels of baseball.”

Harry Tholen, Head Baseball Coach Santa Fe Community College, Gainesville, FL, President NJCAA Baseball Coaches Assn., NJCAA Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee, ABCA Director

Aer-Flo, Inc.

• Industrial grade 14 oz. vinyl polyester fabric • Protected by UV & mildew inhibitors • Virtually wind-proof, tear-proof and rain-proof • Fusion welded seams • Repairable if spiked • Custom sizes & colors • Factory warranty • Stock sizes: 12·, 18·, 20·, 26·, 30· • Squares 6·, 8·, 10·

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Put Simply: Why buy an old-style infield protector or rain cover now that Bunt ZoneTM Protectors and Wind WeightedTM Covers are available?

EXCLUSIVE Authorized Dealers sell Aer-Flo sports products. Call for dealer nearest you or circle reader response number.

Aer-Flo, Inc. manufactures many nationally distributed products for various industries. Our sports products also include Bench ZoneTM Sideline Turf Protectors and Aer-FloTM Wind Screens. We are a privately held company blessed with extraordinary employees and dealers. Our products are proudly MADE IN THE USA!

Bradenton, FL 34203

800-823-7356

www.aerflo.com All trademarks noted are property of Aer-Flo, Inc. © 2004: Aer-Flo, Inc.

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