smalltownmom- Good topic. Your son's college choice I'm sure has an unbelievable set of alumni, and they will be outstanding resources for him moving into the future.
I have a few stories.
My high school experience was not very pleasant, as I've documented a few times in posts here on this website. My high school coach provided very little help for anyone in terms of the next steps in life, and he and I often clashed. I was very fortunate to have found a place on a local travel team. It was highly competitive, and many of my teammates were going to top-notch colleges and being drafted out of high school.
I instantly hit it off with the coach of that team, who has been an associate scout for several different MLB teams over the years. We had a connection through the game and had a similar mentality about the way in which we approached situations on the field. I played for the organization for three seasons and this coach was vital in me obtaining a spot on a collegiate baseball roster. To this day, I consider him a very good friend.
I recently have been speaking with several MLB teams about obtaining employment in a front office position. The coach was kind enough to volunteer to write a letter of recommendation for me, and forwarded it to me. Here is an excerpt:
quote:
As a player, Josh is a collegiate average LHP who is presently finishing his studies at Georgetown University. With the New York Nine, a nationally recognized summer baseball program, Josh was a cornerstone in rotations containing multiple draft picks, including one of your selections this year - (Player's name deleted for anonymity reasons...don't want to disclose employment information until it is set in stone). Josh was always able to process and recognize in-game situations and "pitch" through some of the nation's toughest lineups, consistently winning games that someone with 30 stuff across the board should not have been able to win. However Josh competes at a 60 level, and believes that there is no game he can't win, or task he can't accomplish. He is also a tremendous student of the game with a vast knowledge of present and past, and thirst to be a part of the game's future.
The second coach I'll speak of was my coach during the summer of 2010. My relationship with this coach was documented in a thread here entitled "Summer Ball". Here is an excerpt from a post I made in that thread:
quote:
The coaching staff thus far has been great. I have worked hard with the pitching coach (former DI pitcher and a member of the 2004 Greek Olympic team) on mechanical aspects of pitching, as well as many conditioning aspects. The head coach, Jay Bergman, has a career coaching record of 1,300 wins at the DI level and is truly one of a kind. In a short amount of time he and I have delevoped a great relationship. While his past has been surrounded with controversy, his passion for the game and caring for his players is unparalleled from what I can tell and is greatly appreciated by his team. Here is a quote from Coach Bergman in the locker room after one loss that we had:
"I've coached this game for 42 years. If I quit tomorrow, the game would move on. Nothing would change in the game. But if I quit tomorrow, I couldn't go on. I'm 71 years old and I need this game now more than ever. I couldn't go on without this game. You need to decide if you need this game. If you do, then you need to play like it. If you don't, then hand in your uniform now and go home, because the game doesn't need you."
I still exchange text messages with "Bergie" once a week or so (which is sometimes a bit humorous as a 73 year old man sometimes tends to abbreviate things that make no sense to me...he claims he does it "because I'm a cool dude"). He has meant a lot to me thus far in just the two+ years that I've known him, and was very instrumental in assisting me in obtaining a roster spot here at Georgetown. Here is an excerpt about him written in the Orlando Sentinel a few years ago:
quote:
Mike Bono, whose twin sons Ryan and Kyle played for Bergman at UCF from 2003-06, said Bergman cultivated a warm relationship with his sons that went beyond baseball.
"I remember during the recruiting process, he told us that at the end of your career, if a player chose to invite him to his wedding, then that would be pretty special and he knew he did a good job as a coach," Bono said. "Kyle decided to invite Jay to his wedding and it was pretty special. So that tells you a whole lot about what Jay meant to our family."
Derek Wolfe, who was one of Bergman's assistant coaches at UCF for seven years, said he considered Bergman to be a father figure.
"He was the first person at my parents' funerals," Wolfe said. "My mom died of cancer and my dad died two years later of a heart attack. He really helped me through one of the worst times in my life."
I don't know when I'm going to get married, but rest assured that there will be a "Jay Bergman +1" invitation sent out for the groom's side of that ceremony.
There are a few other coaches I've had that have been very instrumental to me and that I still keep in touch with, but I felt compelled to specify these two individuals because they have been so extremely instrumental in my life and continue to at a very high level to this day. I'd be happy to share more stories, and I'm equally as excited to read some stories from other people here. This could have the makings of an absolutely outstanding thread.
...one that got him the job...in the offseason every year.