Matlock fired-up over Flacon baseball
“Winners work and workers win,” new Falcon head baseball coach Derek Matlock said Monday in a meet and greet session at Lake Dallas High School.
Matlock told players and parents he is “totally fired up” about coming to the school as the head coach. During his presentation Matlock said his favorite concept is that of “common people doing uncommon things.”
Matlock gave several examples of former players who were “just average kids, kids you would find in any neighborhood in America,” who put in the reps and put in the work to achieve greatness. Taylor Teagarden, a catcher coached by Matlock on a summer league team who attended the University of Texas and now is a member of the Texas Rangers organization was one such example. “He practiced in his garage with a sock net and tee on his own from the time he was a freshman until the time he was drafted by the Rangers,” Matlock said.
The second example was of Craig Italiano, Matlock’s former player from Flower Mound High School who during his senior year of high school was named to Baseball America’s High School All-America Team and later taken by the Oakland A’s. “Italiano threw long toss every other day on his own for hours until the day he graduated. He worked hard. When he was a freshman, he did not make the J.V. team, when he was a sophomore, he didn’t make the J.V. When he was a junior, he was throwing 98 miles an hour, and as you can guess, he did make varsity,” Matlock said.
Matlock said he philosophically disagrees with coaches placing players on higher-level teams than the level in which they can play, where they sit on the bench and see no playing time.
“You just cannot get better as a player if you are not playing. That’s why I want everyone to understand that you will be placed on a team where you will play. There’s no glory and no point of ever moving up just to sit on the bench and not play,” Matlock said. “You’ve got to get the reps.”
Matlock told players and parents he has an open door policy and is readily available to talk by phone. He gave his cell phone number to parents and invited parents to ask any questions they choose concerning his coaching decisions or how the program is run. He said the practice for each team will be brief yet intense.
“There is no reason to hold a three or four hour practice, but when we practice we will be serious about getting the needed work done,” Matlock said. According to Matlock, freshman practices will be held before school and junior varsity and varsity practice will be held after school.
Matlock said the players who start on their team will be the same ones who perform well during practices. “It will not be a mystery as to who starts. It will be an easy system; the players who work hard and score high on the charts during practice will start. It won’t be about who likes whom or who your dad is. It will all be about your performance,” Matlock said.
