Advice

What a wonderful life you have chosen! Best of luck!

You will be working with young guys who could be your little brother. You should focus on setting a good example. By this I mean, show up on time, be prepared and work hard. Focus on the teaching aspect. They will frustrate you at times, but don't reciprocate that frustration. Remember, you are the adult, and you have a tremendous opportunity to have a positive impact on their development.

As far as coaching baseball, be a loyal assistant to the head coach. Offer your opinions in a respectful and thoughtful manner. Be a sponge and make everyday a new learning experience.

Go get 'em!

Congratulations. The most difficult thing may be developing a coach/player relationship with players that might well be campus buddies or frat brothers next semester. Some players will like you, some players will not but all of the players should respect you. As a coach everyone notices everthing (sighs, moans, groans, smiles, grins and laughs) that you do.

Best of luck to you.

So far this is great advice. I wish someone would have told me this stuff when I got started. I was in the same situation as you because I got started coaching when I was 20 (now 33). I gave up playing to take this coaching job so it was a bittersweet decision but a good one.

One thing I would say is make them call you "coach". That is your first name on the field and not whatever your real name is. You will establish credibility by doing that. Also, make sure the other coaches call you that on the field. That shows the players the other coaches respect you as a colleague.

Please remember yelling and criticizing is not coaching. The more you do it the more they tune you out. I see that in a lot of young coaches - they believe yelling and screaming and always telling the players what they did wrong is coaching. If a player is doing something wrong - just correct it. No need to get on a stage and make a show. Just tell them / show them what to do.

Best of luck and no matter how bad it sometimes gets it's still better than working for a living.

baseball26

you said you are a college student. Do you play baseball at college? Do you have any experience coaching baseball at any level?

Good advice so far.. I'll add a few tidbits.
1. Go watch a college team practice... also watch their pregame to the first home game you can get to. If you can't stay for the game, so what, get to that pregame and watch them work for about 80 minutes before gametime. You will learn a lot.
2. Ask yourself this: What do I want my head coach to say about me at the end of the season?
3. I've had lots of student teacher asst. and some of them knew baseball and some didn't. What your head coach needs is for you to be dependable. You need to communicate with him. Don't blindside him with stuff that's 3 weeks old. If you can't hit fungos worth squat get out with a couple of your college buddies or your girlfriend and start practicing right now! Play catch too because they need you to be able to throw BP.
4. People will come to you. A dad or a player wanting more playing time... or wanting to know why the head coach did something. You need to start thinking about how you'll respond.
5. Congrats. You are taking a great step in what can be a very fun, rewarding and worthwhile endeavor. Best wishes from the trojan-skipper.

Try to make practices into game type situations as much as possible. Of course you will have to do some fundamental drills but try to minimize them and do your teaching during practices that are game speed. When there is a lesson to be learned, stop the action and first ask them what went wrong and how it should be corrected.