Thursday, July 28, 2011

I'm a published author!

As of this afternoon, I can now say that I am a published author.  It's a good feeling knowing that I have spent so much time and effort working on this project!  I feel that players or coaches at all levels will be benefit from reading CATCHING-101: The Complete Guide for Baseball Catchers.

I started writing the book when I was in college, and at the time I didn't know that it was going to grow into a book.  I was simply keeping notes on the things that I was learning and what seemed to be working, and not working, for me behind the plate.  I continued to do this throughout my time with the Braves, saving notes in a folder on my computer.  The folder grew and grew and before I knew it I had amassed a lot of information!

When I became a coach in the fall of 2006 I continued to write notes for myself so that I could reference them later in my coaching career.  After a few years of doing this I realized that I should put it all together into a book so that others will be able to benefit from my knowledge.  So, about a year and a half ago I started spending a lot of time organizing my notes into very specific thoughts and saving them as chapters.

Today, the final edition of of my book is available for purchase!  It has been a lot of hard work, but it was fun and exciting work writing this book.  I hope you get as much enjoyment out of reading the book that I got from writing it!

To save $7 off the retail price, order your copy of CATCHING-101: The Complete Guide for Baseball Catchers directly from my publisher AuthorHouse.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

I'm now a Buccaneer!

I have been named the recruiting coordinator at East Tennessee State University after spending the past 5 seasons with the University of Louisville.  This is something that I am extremely excited about!  I will have new opportunities and responsibilities, and I believe that it will help me grow as a coach.

One of the most important responsibilities a college coach has is recruiting the players and I will now get to serve a much more active role in doing this.  This is something I wasn't able to do as much as I would have liked to at the University of Louisville because of the NCAA's rules about which coaches are allowed to go off campus to recruit.  I am now able to go on the road and watch as many games as I want to (within NCAA guidelines).

The baseball program at ETSU has been on the rise the past few years and the athletic department has shown tremendous support by breaking ground on a beautiful new stadium!  ETSU is in the Atlantic Sun conference which is very strong in baseball.  There are a lot of exciting things going on around the baseball program there and I'm glad to be a part of it!

One of the most important lessons that I've learned in life is that you should always surround yourself with great people.  I was surrounded by quality people at Louisville, and I'm not taking a step backwards by going to ETSU.  Our head coach, Tony Skole, is a great coach, and he is also very passionate about building a relationship with the players and helping them develop into quality young men.  That is what coaching is all about and I'm looking forward to spending time with him!

I would like to say thank you to all of the coaches, fans, staff, and administration at Louisville for making the last 5 years so great.  I have many great memories from my time at the Ville that I will never forget.  Some of them include going to the College World Series in 2007, winning the Big East Tournament in 2008, winning the regular season and the tournament in 2009,  and winning the Big East regular season again in 2010.  The past five years have been wonderful, but I'm excited about taking the next step and making new memories at ETSU and winning championships there!