Most of my friends from home seem to think being a baseball player at Texas A&M Corpus Christi is a life full of beaches, bikinis and baseball. Well, not so much… So far this fall, it’s been a life full of books, barbells and bullpen sessions. The fall is a time to get bigger, stronger and faster; and that means 6:00 a.m. weightlifting groups, enough conditioning to make the cross country team look out of shape, and countless individual drills in the bullpen or batting cage. Add about 15 semester hours of classes into the mix and you will find that most of my teammates and I spend about 12 to 14 hours per day in the weight room, classroom and on the field. Although the workload is heavy, morale is extremely high and we’re all looking forward to getting on the field for the first official Islanders team practice.
The grind of the fall off-season reveals a lot about your teammates and yourself. There are obvious things like physical strength and athleticism that are on display every day, but the biggest intangible begins to show up about two weeks in; work ethic. Everyone is excited and works hard for the first week or two, but how many guys can sustain this pace? Do your teammates have the guts to not only embrace the grind, but to thrive on it? Every NCAA Division I program has talent, but the big question is who is willing to pay the price to become champions?
If this fall is any indication, character and work ethic are two resources that the Ders have in abundance. Walking on campus between classes, I always recognize a distant “crack of the bat” coming from guys getting some extra work on the field. I’ve yet to walk past the Dirty Chap, day or night, and not see a handful of Ders in the cage getting some extra BP, and a few more long-tossing in the outfield. I went to the weight room the other night after class and there were several freshmen who were there “getting an extra lift in.” The Islanders team culture and mentality is different this year. Doing what’s required is simply not enough; the expectation is to do more. The expectation is to exceed expectations. “Extra” has become the new norm.
Doing more than is expected extends beyond the field and into the classroom at TAMUCC as well. Coach Malone has always emphasized the fact that we are students first and athletes second. Just as expectations on the field are high, the bar has been raised for the Ders performance in the classroom. Prior to the 2013 season, there were only four all-academic selections in Islanders program history. The 2013 squad produced four academic all-conference players, then last spring, senior catcher Russell Vaughn was named a first team academic All-American and 15 Ders were named to the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
The first official team practice is next week, and the excitement throughout the entire program is palpable. We’ve all been working hard and are anxious to take the field as a unit and see our hard work pay some dividends. The competition for playing time will be fierce this year, as the roster is stacked with talent at every position. There are no “givens” with this team; just because you were a starter last year doesn’t mean that your spot in the roster is secure this year. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see who steps up and earns their stripes next week when the lights of the Dirty Chap come on for the first time this fall!
– Jacob Dorris
