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I was reading an article the other day about one of the coaches who did a presentation on hitting to the ABCA. Turns out he is a very successful DIII coach.
The article described how overwhelmed the the coach was to do the nearly 1 hour presentation, especially having been asked to do the presentation on hitting by one of the deans of DI baseball coaching.
This article led me to think about this site.
We often talk about the difference between DI, DII, DIII, NAIA and JC but rarely is there ever a mention about whether there is a difference in the "quality" of the coaching at those levels.
That made me wonder: are players better coached/instructed at DI as opposed to DIII, for instance?
We also talk about why players make decisions on schools. I reviewed some past threads and often time the coaches are referred to as "good guys," "good recruiters," very nice people, and the like.
I could not find a thread that actually described the skills we should look for/do look for in deciding if this is a "good college coach."
Would be very interested in all thoughts about whether the quality of coaching is dependent on the level at which you coach, and, more importantly what does make a good college baseball coach.

'You don't have to be a great player to play in the major leagues, you've got to be a good one every day.'

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For me, a successful HC coach is one that has a larger win than loss record (relative to his years in coaching) no matter what level he is coaching.

On a more personal level, he met the citeria we felt necessay to be a good coach, maintaining high GPA for team, interest in son off the field as well as on and being honest in how you earn your playing time and expectations of who wears the team uniform (extremely high standards).

As far as who son would work directly under (pitching coach), he had to be one of the best in his specialty.
I looked at a coach's record and his ability to develop players for the next level. It did not matter whether it was D1 or D3 etc. Coach Fox at UNC was a very successful coach at a D3 in North Carolina before getting the gig at UNC. I doubt his coaching methods changed after getting the UNC job. His recruiting methods probably were much different however. Niceness did not have much to with things either imho. We both were looking for someone who would be honest with the player and attempt to get the most out of their ability.

Here is one of the all time greats that probably many have not heard of before. He developed big leaguers Terry Mulholland and Kent Tekulve and won several National Championships at the D3 level. He is a legend here in Ohio and sadly missed by his community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Schaly
I believe there are wonderful coaches at all levels and have been privileged to meet several of them.

When evaluating college programs, my family tended to look at individual and team results, plus we listened to what others said about the coaches.

Son's future fielding coach instructed a freshman All-American shortstop this past year and another shortstop who is now playing in the Majors, so we figured he must be doing something right! Wink

Son's future hitting coach has been called one of the best hitting instructors in the country by Jerry Ford and his team has the stats to back Mr. Ford's comments up.

The best part is, these men are not only great coaches but also "good guys, good recruiters, and very nice people" as well!
I am in agreement with the previous comments; especially those of flintoide and Coach May. But I would also be looking for a head coach that played the kind of baseball my son and I were excited about playing and watching. Is the offense hit yourself on bae and wait for the three run homer or do they like to manufacture runs by a speed game or some version of a short game? Do the hitters take pitches in a strategy designed to wear the opposing pitcher out or do they do a lot of first pitch hacking? Do they have any idea what is meant by the words "moneyball" or "sabermetrics"?

That is just my particular interests. You may have other specific interests that you feel are important. After all, odds are that 50% of the coaches had a winning record last year.

TW344

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