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As a coach, you can’t preach mental toughness, only to turn around and lose your mind when results don’t go your way. If you believe in the ethic then you model that every day. And your players will follow.
Aaron Tarr
1,083 posts
Aaron Tarr
@AaronTarr4
Former Mount St Mary’s Assistant Coach turned Mount Baseball Superfan.
- When I go to high school games to evaluate players, one of the first things I notice is how passive/aggressive the players are. So many young guys regularly taking first strike FB over the middle third. Hitters hit! Even more important than mechanics. Be aggressive!
- We are a straightforward program: If you’re a gym rat, if you’re a BALLPLAYER, if you study hard, if you love working on your game, if your teammates are your boys, if you love talking baseball, if you love your teammates and you SERVE OTHERS, you are one of us.
- Outfielders hit your cuts! If you bypass the cut man to show off the arm and allow two backside runners to advance, it makes it look like your arm is good but your brain isn’t.
- There is a big difference between ball players and guys who play baseball. If being a baseball player is part of your identity and things that seem like “grind” or “work” to most don’t feel like work to you, we want you.
- What makes college baseball such an amazing game to coach/play is that if you work to win every pitch, every at bat, and every moment of the game for all 50+ games you can have great success. It’s about sheer will and commitment.
- Even if you are a guy who believes they should play D1, if a D2 or D3 (or any) coach calls you, you call them back and hear them out. Many D2 and D3 teams are better than D1 teams, and this decision is about the next four years and beyond, not your commitment announcement.
- If we send you a camp invite or ask you to come to camp, we think you have a legit shot of being recruited and we’re trying to make sure we check the “live evaluation” box. Even our email system targets guys that we view as possible fits based on video or coach recommendation.
- Players constantly jumping teams to get “better exposure” makes no sense to me. Play with your boys and learn to compete as a unit—the fact you actually care about the guy next to you will take you far in this game.
- If I call your coach and he says something to the effect of “is one of the best competitors I’ve ever coached”, that player instantly becomes a must-have. It’s the trait that most predicts success at the collegiate level, in my opinion.
- The things people seem to care about most when getting recruited? The facilities, the field, the uniforms. The thing you will actually care about when you’re there? How easy it is to build a relationship with the coaching staff and how well they teach the game. The daily.
- High school guys: if you DM me, I 100% read it. Immediately, in most cases. If you send me video, I watch it. But if you are genuinely interested in being a Hoya, send an email too and tell me a bit about why this is the school, the culture, and the college experience for you.
- I’ve heard a bunch of guys in Twitter-verse say that it’s tacky to @ coaches when posting videos, and I get that. Honestly, if a player is interested in our program enough to @ me, I am 100% watching the vid. Plus, I get a kick out of seeing who else they tagged. It’s all fun
- I had a prospective recruit ask today what makes a player standout once they’re at a physical level (strength, speed, Velo, etc) equal to others. The answer is: how they compete and how they interact with their teammates. It’s all about mentality and character—winners!