Sam Wasson, College Baseball Daily correspondent and editor at bleedCrimson.net, interviewed newly named head coach at New Mexico State, Brian Green on Thursday after the school’s announcement. This is Green’s first head coaching position as he returns to his alma mater where he played in 1994 and was an assistant in 1995. Below is an excerpt from the interview. You can also read the interview in its entirety at bleedCrimson.net.
bleedCrimson.net: This is your first head coaching job obviously and coming back to your alma mater and being able to bring your wife back to the area that she’s from has to a huge plus for you.
Brian Green: Yeah. When this thing first happened and it was one of the earlier jobs to open up this summer, I prayed, I hoped, I did everything I could to prepare to put myself in a position to be a candidate of quality for Dr. Boston. I have always to be the head coach of this program. The fact of bringing Becki back and seeing her family and being close to my family in California is icing on the cake. My heart is here within this community and this program. I loved it here. I’m excited to get out and recruit because I’m going to be really passionate about bringing people here. It’ll be an honest sell.
bc.net: Over your various stops at other schools, at Kentucky most recently, out at Hawai’i and UCLA and also your time at New Mexico State as a player and a coach, what are some things you’ve taken away from those head coaches that you’re really excited as a first time head coach to put into practice?
BG: There are really four coaches that have really impacted me and there are things that are so measurable that I’ll take from them. First is Coach Avent. When I played for Elliot and coached with him, it was all about team. It was all about unity. It was all about being aggressive. I shared a story today about Elliot. I was one of the new players and we were running up the hill on the back of Aggie Memorial and I was leading the running, I was up in front, I thought I was doing a good job, I was going as hard as I could and Elliot pulled the team together and he said, “We’re not going to be great if we just have guys who are interested in being first. We’re going to be great if the guys who want to be first understand that being first actually means pulling people with you and if we get that we’re going to be a great team.” That’s how he coached. That’s what I took from him and that’s what’s always stuck with me.
Rich Hill at University of San Diego, he’s probably one of the biggest mentors of my coaching life. His entire thing is about the emotional contagion, positive energy, family, culture and he’s been extremely successful. That was a very unique and different environment when I worked for him which I’ll take from him.
Coach Savage when I coached at UCLA, just the epitome of a class program and really taught me the value of how to recruit in terms of having a recruiting system. From evaluation to communication amongst the staff to networking and just actually evaluating players and how you do it. That is huge.
With Coach Henderson, being in the SEC, he’s really taught me the concept of staying close with your players because when it gets tough if you don’t have that relationship with them they’ll leave you and they’ve gotta stick with you when it gets tough. Those are the four coaches that have really impacted me and really sucked things into my head and my brain and said make sure you’re doing these things when you get your chance some day.
