Opening Weekend a Success

When I originally scheduled the opening weekend against Regional powers like North Park, Webster, and Wash U (we were supposed to play North Central who has been a very strong program as well), I was a little concerned about our ability to pick up some wins and wondered how we would handle the disappointment if things didn’t go well.  To make matters worse, of the three teams we played, all of them had already played a weekend series. Webster, coming off a World Series, North Park won the CCIW, and Wash U. handled us in 2012 and played in the Regionals was a daunting task for our guys who had yet to practice outside of the Lamberti Rec. Center.

So, here we sit at 2-1 and I feel that if our line out in the 1^st inning of the Wash. U. game had somehow gotten through to the outfield rather than leading to a double play, we could be sitting at 3-0 with 3 quality wins.  The best thing about the weekend is that we still made a ton of correctable mistakes and still played well enough to beat some good teams.  We had a ton of highlights and everyone contributed to our success, but here are a few highlights.

Jake Bjorkgren (Soph., Urbandale):  Came in and recorded 2 saves, including striking out the last 2 Webster hitters with the bases loaded.  He showed a lot of poise and he has really explosive arm strength.  After playing basketball last year, we knew we had added some depth in our bullpen after a great fall season.

Joe Paletta (Junior, Millard South):  Had tremendous at-bats all weekend and looked like the best hitter of any of the teams we played this weekend.  Hit everything that would have crossed the plate.  Including the conference tournament last year, Joe is now 21 for his last 37 at-bats. 

Weston Foxx (Junior, Elkhorn):  Had 6 hits, scored 5 runs, stole 3 bases, and had great at-bats the entire weekend.  Weston has become very comfortable being our leader on the defensive end.

Dillon Plath (Soph. Omaha Burke):  Had 6 hits, including the biggest one of the weekend, an RBI triple off a tough left-handed pitcher vs. Webster. 

Andrew Marshall (Jr. Sheldon) and Scott Harris (Soph. Dallas Center-Grimes):  Helped shut down a very good Webster team.  Very proud of all the hard work they have put in over the last few months.  They both deserved to get the win, especially since it took our offense a while to figure out the opposing pitcher.

Brennan Holm (Sr. Fairmont, MN):  His longest and best outing of his career.  He kept Wash U. scoreless for over 3 innings, giving us a chance to try to make a comeback.  We had a few tough at-bats when we had runners in scoring position, but because of our bullpen, we continued to stay in the game. 

Again, those are just a few players I wanted to highlight.  Everyone contributed over the course of the weekend.  We now have a small break to get everyone healthy, and hopefully get out to the field towards the end of next week.  We then travel to Nebraska Wesleyan for, what is now, a 3-game series.      

Preseason = Exciting Time of Year

I have had the opportunity to attend a couple of baseball clinics for coaches the past few weeks.  The attendance of both was amazing.  This time of year is exciting as both high school and collegiate coaches get ready for their upcoming baseball seasons with the mix of enthusiasm and worry.  The excitement of working with young athletes who want to get better is the driving force of most coaches.  The worry is keeping everyone healthy, keeping everyone enthused about the game and making sure everyone realizes it is a team sport.   One needs to remember that this great game has been going on for over 150 years and it is up to us to keep it going for another 150.   

I recently attended a high school baseball ‘show case’.  It was very well run and did some things that are not the ‘usual’ type of drills that one normally sees at those camps.  I thought the different drills were great.  Besides the normal 60-yard dash and throwing velocity checks, the camp did home to first times, pro-agility and other movement timing along with standing broad jump and med-ball throws.  What they were trying to emphasize is that baseball is requiring players to be better all-around athletes.  Kudos to the camp director.

The camp director did provide a profile of each participant in attendance.  I gleaned through the booklet page by page to view grade point averages, high school they are attending and what positions each one prefers.  Being at this a while, I recognized several campers from viewing them previously.  It was clear that the information on those profiles had been given by each high school participant.  However, one did catch my attention of which had been obviously written by a parent.  When I got to this person’s (a senior in high school) position(s), it said besides pitcher: “prefers right field, but will play left and center as well”.  I started to smile a bit and then read: “…it is imperative that he get in front of major league scouts to see if he can be drafted out of high school.  More than anything, he wants to play in the majors.”  How sad is that?  Detect a little pressure here??  Yes, that is the aspirations of everyone there.  Hopefully his (or his parent’s) dreams will be fulfilled.  I hope that family realizes that baseball is JUST A GAME and everyone needs to play the great game of LIFE as well.  It is a small wonder that the average age of retirement from baseball is 13 years old.  Please keep things in perspective. 

Coach Sonka

                   

Intersting Times in the World of Sports

The super business known as Division I athletics and the entities that create it’s power (ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS, and ABC just to name a few) continue to create larger than life news stories. The details of the crimes being accused against a former football coach are grotesque to say the least, as well as the cover-up by soon-to-be-named, money driven administrators. But the numbers of people who are guilty, or should share some of the guilt, in this story go beyond the names that we have been exposed to by our media outlets. So, who is to blame in all of this?

The vast majority of people believe what they hear on Sportscenter is the latest in breaking news and that everything they report is current. The personalities at ESPN are paid to get the latest information on everything, and for college football, they are allowed special access to facilities, coaches, and players. With their popularity, they also have tremendous ties to former players and now NFL players. They are about as connected to the major programs as any booster or friend of the program. Football programs use ESPN for coverage which will help recruiting and ESPN pays an incredible amount of money to these institutions which help run programs like baseball, softball, tennis, and golf. So…with this access to all of these types of players and staff over the last 10 years, do you really believe that ESPN (or other news agencies) wouldn’t have heard anything about these accusations long before the news was actually reported on its air waves? I have no way of knowing if they did or not, but I do feel that they withhold information or do not completely investigate a lot of the potential stories that are out there. You can’t tell me they couldn’t have found something illegal going on at Auburn last year. But destroying the SEC would kill ESPN’s revenue for advertising and viewing ratings cannot be compromised. So again, I wonder, did they know something about the Penn St. scandal…if so, they are as much to blame as Joe Paterno.

All of this has really made me realize that we put way too much stock into some of these so-called ‘icons’. What do we really know about guys like Joe Paterno other than he won a lot of football games, and he donated a lot of his outrageous salary back to the university to build a library? What do we really know about him as a person or his morality? So, while I believe I really like some coaches out there (I believe Kirk Ferentz and Paul Rhoads are good men who seem to set a good example), I’m hesitant to go all in with them. We have people like Jim Tressel, Joe Paterno, and Bruce Pearl who ruin it for me.

So, it makes the answer to the following question pretty easy…”Why do you like Division III?”

2012 Seniors

Seniors at a Glance

The 2012 baseball team will be led by a group of guys that have been a little overshadowed over their first three seasons, but they have played critical roles in the success of our program. While they are short on numbers, their impact on the younger guys in our program has already been valuable. In fact, their leadership during our first ‘end of the year’ meeting in May, played a critical role in how we approached the Regional tournament. On Selection Sunday, we held a team meeting to discuss our goals for 2012. What was said in that meeting by our seniors (at that time, they were just finishing their junior year), was exhilarating. This group of guys hasn’t really been forced into a leadership role amongst our team. When they spoke up about our expectations for the 2012 season, it really hit home with all of our younger players. I walked out of that meeting knowing our leadership was going to be as strong as ever. What turned out, and what we saw when we were awarded a bid for the NCAA tournament, was the perfect balance of intensity and composure.

While we have four seniors, we are waiting to hear from our conference office about gaining another year of eligibility for Ryan Wuebker who suffered a season ending injury in April. If granted, Ryan would technically hold junior status as a player, but for the sake of this blog, we will consider him a senior. Here is a little information about a group of guys that have enjoyed three amazing seasons at BVU:

Ryan Wuebker (Emmetsburg, IA HS). Webby has been one of our top two starters since arriving as a freshman. We tested him early in his career by throwing him against #1 Eastern Connecticut St during his first season. He took a no decision against an amazing lineup, I think we all knew he was going to have a tremendous career. During his sophomore year, he tied a school record for wins in a season…a record that was originally set in 1976. He would have broken the record had we not taken him out of the Regional game vs. North Central in 2010, with two outs in the 5^th inning. After the game, I felt terrible about doing this but I had no idea he was in that situation. Facing elimination from the tournament, I made the change and it’s something that is unfortunate, but it was a situation where I did not want to take a chance on losing a lead. He holds a 14-6 record, often pitching against our opponents’ best pitcher. We are hoping to have him back in 2012.

Michael Dirkx (Carroll, IA HS). “Michael is the perfect child”, that is the best way to describe him. People may have been surprised when he won the NCAA Elite 88 Award, which goes to the player with the highest academic credentials of any athlete in their respective Championship. My thoughts were that it would have been a travesty if he didn’t win the award. As a pitcher, he has made tremendous strides through each of his first three seasons. From a JV pitcher his freshman year to beating Webster in the 2010 Regionals, to winning critical games in the 2011 Regional tournament and World Series, Dirkx has obviously been one of our best pitchers. Returning as a senior, I am anxiously awaiting to see what improvements he makes this year.

James Stone (Johnston, IA HS) As much as I would like the guy to cut his hair, I cannot complain about what James has given our program. Shortly before James came to BV, we made a decision to utilize our bullpen much like the major leagues. Using set up guys and closers have made it easier for our teams to win games late. When James made the commitment early in his career, to become an often used reliever, he made our team better. He appeared in half of our games in 2011, with 26 relief appearances. He will break the career record, set last year by Kyle Dupic and is our career record holder for saves in a career. None will ever be as exciting as the Regional Championship against Carthage, when he received a throw from Ryan Scheetz on a game ending ground ball to first base.

Brock Yossi (Dallas Center-Grimes, IA HS) We tease Brock about being the 2^nd best athlete in his family, behind his sister who just began a basketball career at Wayne St. But Brock has had a great career at BVU, solidifying our defense at third base and generating runs, whether he is setting the table or getting himself into scoring position. We will rely on Brock to lead our position players and will need to generate a few more runs if we are going to have a great season. As a former quarterback and point guard in high school, I think we are going to be in good shape.

The 2012 seniors have accomplished many things while at BVU, but I believe they feel an increased sense of ownership of this year’s team. Based on the meeting we had in May, they are ready for the challenge.

Championship DVD Order

Thank you to all BVU supporters who made the trip to Appleton in May, and to those who watched the live feed on the NCAA website. I’m not sure what the cyber-attendance was for these games, but by the conversations I’ve had with members of Beaver Nation, it had to be in the thousands. During the summer, I emailed the NCAA representative who ran the tournament, a guy I have met many times at the ABCA baseball coaches’ convention. I wanted him to know how much we appreciated the effort they put into the video and making the experience enjoyable for our fans that were unable to make it to Appleton.

I also asked about the process for ordering the DVD’s. He said Turner Broadcasting holds the rights for the video, and we would need to order 25 before they would ‘burn’ us copies. I believe each video costs around $30. I will be in contact the company and will attempt to negotiate the minimum order number. In the meantime, please send me an email if you are interested in purchasing these videos (eddies@bvu.edu). I would like to get these ordered before October 1^st in hopes of receiving them before October 29^th. We will worry about accepting your payment until we receive the videos.