It’s been a long summer on the bus traveling all around the New England Collegiate League and my summer club the Mystic Schooners. This was my third year in the N.E.C.B.L. running a team as the past two seasons I was with the New Bedford Bay Sox, this make my summers a little different most assistant coaches. I really enjoying the recruiting aspect of coaching, going from showcase to showcase or field to field to try to find the next player to help your program take the next step. Coaching in the N.E.C.B.L. gives me the ability to run an all-star team composed of the top players in the country and get them to gel over the summer and hone their skills with a wood bat over the course of 42 games and hours on the bus. You really get to know these guys and admire how hard they work on an every day basis.
We finished the summer a disappointing 18-24 on the season but had many positives that occurred as well as playing the Team USA national team and seeing the top players in the country up close and personal, that was the top highlight of my coaching career so far to have the national anthem being played and seeing the Team USA uniform across from you was a truly special experience.
The players are what really makes the summer special. They give up their summer which they could be spending in summer school, at home working out, or just resting up until the fall season but they come from all over the country spending time in the weight room, doing early work, going out into the community and being great role models for the kids. It’s always like going to summer camp when these guys do not know each other than turn into best friends and not want the summer to end. Jackson Geary, a pitcher from Coastal Carolina, became one of the best pitchers in the league and one of the funniest human beings I have ever been around in my life. He kept the team loose over the course of the season as well as his family supplying an unreal lobster dinner for the team on the way to play the Newport Gulls. The whole team was talking in the Borat voice thanks to international man of mystery Simon Kundernatsch (U. of Hartford) who is from the “Chek Republic” (Very Nice). We also might have had the smartest team GPA, ACT, and SAT wise in the country with our players from Stanford, Duke, Harvard, and Columbia one of our players was even proof reading for Boeing, so if myself or pitching coach Travis Turgeon needed to know anything that was going on with the world we never had to use google to figure it out. It’s great being in such a prestigious league with so much talent on each roster knowing that one of these guys will certainly play in the big leagues is a great experience.
Our top prospect was Notre Dame catcher Joe Hudson. It was a pleasure getting to watch him catch every day as he was in my opinion the best catch and throw guy in the league and should have his name called next year in next June’s draft.
As soon as the last out was recorded this season, I gave myself a day to play golf and a day at the beach then it was time to start preparing our team for next year. I love the recruiting aspect in college baseball whether for Post University or for my summer team. It’s great being able to pick out the top players from around the country to hopefully bring a championship to Mystic or Post and help develop them further in their baseball career. People outside of college baseball have no idea the time that each coach spends recruiting,mentoring, and coaching our players to realize how fulltime this job really is, it is however the greatest job you could ever have and why after those two days it was back to the showcase grind of recruiting and I couldn’t think of a better place to spend a day then the ball park. Thanks for checking back into my blog hope you all enjoyed your summer as you are getting ready for Fall Ball on your campus. As always you can follow me on Twitter @CoachRix8
