The coaching experience

When it comes to playing in the States vs Sweden you have to take a lot of caution in comparison. At home you can have the option to practice everyday and make yourself better because of the facilities available and people who are at everyday events. Coming ot Sweden for my first summer I learned quickly that this would be far from what I thought would happen. In the 2008 summer I found myself having practices with somtimes only 4-5 players (myself included). Due to the amount of time each player is able to put forth in an effort to better himself has to be taken into account the vacation time they have, family situation, jobs, and overall prioritization of the sport itself in their lives. Some players we had did not start playing until late in their 20's and sometimes not until they were 30 or older.

As a player who was brought to Gavle to help the team I felt that my duties were more geared towards coaching and teaching the players as much as possible, which I found out was a lot (the title of player/coach). Being that I was fresh out of college (3 days removed from graduation) when I first landed in Sweden, and this being my first coaching job I took the approach that the players knew nothing. Not to discredit anything they may have learned in the past, I wanted to make sure that no stone go unturned because there were so many different players on the team. During practice time I found myself taking minimal swings and reps, and more time behind the L-screen, batting cage, and fungo. I found that I answered questions I thought were no-brainers but to people who haven't been around the game for 15 years or more, they have never had a chance to get them answered. So it is really an experience to remind yourself that you know more than you think, and people always want to pick your brain.

Game situations are another experience in itself, as a catcher I have always thought the game as it progressed and looked to what the next move would be, but as the head coach on the field I had to constantly think how I would get people in the game, or who would pitch next, or if I could count on the hitters coming up to get a bunt down.

In my first game in Sweden I was able to be graced with the presence of the man who got me the position in the first place, my pitching coach from Otterbein, Dave Ewing. He was in the country to put on some camps while working for MLB and came up for the day to see how I was doing. In that double header 2 things that don't happen very often (let alone in the same game) occurred, a triple play and a "hidden ball trick". The team we were playing was Alby with 2 men on and no one out they double steal while trying to bunt (great tactics I guess!) and pop the bunt up to me (catcher) which results in a 2-3-6 triple play! Two innings later with a man on second, our second baseman held onto the ball after a single and roamed around waiting for the baserunner to get off second, and sure enough the trick worked.

In 2009 I was much more fortunate to be able to come to Sweden with a partner, long-time friend and teammate Bobby Wright. This time we had more time and each other to feed off of for ideas and coaching. We found this year that the committment from the players was much more than in '08, having at least 10 players at each practice proved for improved practices and moral when it came to game time. We both learned you have to keep your temper under control because a lot of the drills and lessons being hammered out are new to each player. With the differences in age and language we found that the players are much more helpful with eachother making sure that each knows what we expect of them and how things should be done.

Being an American the baseball club wants to get as much out of us as possible with the time we are here. We coach the youth team (16u) as well as the Eliteserien team, run camps, and work with the local schools to recruit kids and teach them the fundamentals of the game.