Keys to Building a Successful Program

BY DAVID ROGERS HEAD BASEBALL COACH - PEARLAND HIGH SCHOOL

As every coach knows, many elements go into creating a successful baseball program. Cultivating community support, fostering positive parental involvement and creating a culture of competitive respect among the players can help develop a culture that can be sustained well into the future. These elements are essential to a winning program -- and yes, winning helps!

At Pearland High School, we believe all three elements are necessary to not only win games, but to help raise our young men to be leaders.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

In our area, we are fortunate to have a very supportive community. Parents and the local community consistently attend our games and events, and our players and coaching staff understand that this is a reciprocal effort. Our players often spend time at the elementary schools in the mornings to assist with dropoffs, opening car doors and greeting students. During the holidays, our team participates in Toys for Tots and Forgotten Angels programs. We assist with our local Little League with free camps and player appearances.

One of the most anticipated events is our Hero’s Day Jersey Presentation. Held on a Saturday in between our two weeks of pre-season scrimmages, we make an event out of introducing the players in our program. The on-field event begins with the announcement of the Sophomore team, followed by the JV team. Each player is announced, comes to home plate for a picture, and then walks to the side to stand as a team. The highlight of the event is the announcement of our Varsity team. A military veteran is escorted to home plate by one of our Diamond Darlings, our game-day hostesses. As each veteran walks to the plate, his or her military bio is read, and they present their player with their game jersey. Often, this veteran is a relative, but when a player doesn’t have a veteran family member our local community, or veteran organization helps provide a veteran for them. We have had grandparents, parents, siblings, Gold Star Families, and even a retired military dog as a part of the jersey presentation.

First Pitches are also a part of our communitysupport. We generate interest with special nights, highlighting an organization, a club, a team or a person with a first-pitch opportunity. When you have someone from the choir sing the national anthem and the JROTC Color Guard present the flags, honoring someone with the first pitch virtually ensures a high attendance for game day.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Parents are always going to be a part of your program. It is up to you how involved you let them be; they are not always your enemy. In fact, good ones are the lifeblood of your program. Other than community advertising, where does the bulk of your fundraising come from? Who runs the concession stands and booster clubs? Who sells your team apparel, operates your scoreboard or makes announcements?

In our program, we are pretty transparent about our expectations. We give parents a wish list, tell them how we think this will help their athlete, and then put them the charge of helping us achieve the goals. In the past few years we have installed a new video scoreboard, put in new nets in our batting cages, purchased the new TrackMan and regraded our infield. None of this could be accomplished without the support of our parents.

COMPETITIVE CULTURE

Players usually like being a part of the events, but their main form of commitment to our culture comes through the discipline of practice. Our practices are competitive and scheduled. We may have competitive bullpens for throwing breaking-ball strikes, or we may break into teams for games or batting practice contests, bunting contests or opposite side base hit contests. Some days, we do infield drills to see who can turn the most double plays between shortstops or 2nd basemen or drills for short hops at first for the most picks for 1st basemen. We challenge our outfielders to see who can hit the target for throws to a base or plate.

Our goal is to find a way to create competition where every way, every day, there is a winner and a loser. On our lifting days, we conclude by picking teams and having an agility contest, a race or strength contest that has a winner and a loser. In all these events, the loser has a consequence. It might be 50 jump squats, a triangle or something that is annoying enough to make an athlete not want to be on the losing side. We also shuffle our teams around so it’s not the same people on the same team all the time.

Our goal is to instill in our student-athletes that in competition, there is a winner and a loser. We are going to create a competitive atmosphere, and we want to win those competitions. The hope is that in games, that competitive drive translates into wins.

Recently, I spoke to a college coach, and he was telling me that he was recruiting a student, who asked him what the coach had to offer him. He asked if he had TrackMan, what the locker room was like, information about the facilities, access to the cages, etc. The coach answered all the questions and then told the recruit they also offered competition. He explained that other players on the team would want his spot, and every day would be a competition. He said he never heard from the recruit again. Hopefully, our culture fosters the experience where every day is a competition that is embraced not only for today, but for whatever tomorrow brings our athletes as well.

Read the entire December 2024 Issue of Texas Coach here: https://issuu.com/thscacoaches/docs/dec24upload?fr=xKAE9_zU1NQ