University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Blogging the Plate with Kevin Coker
1/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Jan. 28, 2006
During the 2006 Southern Miss Baseball season, redshirt-senior catcher Kevin Coker will sit down with Southern Miss Media Relations Graduate Assistant Joe Trahan to give Golden Eagle fans his perspective on baseball and life as the season progresses.
January 24, 2006: First Diary Entry
Practice just started this week, but right now we're trying to get on the field as soon as we can. The field is where we play our games, and is where we would like to be to practice, but haven't been able to because of the weather. We've been hitting in the cages; but you can only hit in the cages for so long. The cages are our second home, as what Coach Burroughs calls them. Monday was a big day, and everyone had those first day jitters with those butterflies in their stomach, but we couldn't go out there because it was raining.
The team looks good this year, especially with all of the pitching we'll have back this year. We have Cliff Russum back, and I think that's possibly 10 wins right there as he's going to lead our pitching staff. We didn't lose many pitchers from last season, except for "Big John" (Nicholas). We did lose some good hitters though. We lost "Cutter" (catcher Brad Willcutt), "J-Lo" (outfielder Jason Lowery) and (third baseman) Beau (Griffin). Those guys were tough to lose, but we still have one of the best players to ever play here in (senior first baseman) Marc Maddox, who's going to lead our offense. I think that (r-So. catcher) Trey Cuevas' hitting ability is possibly above anyone's on the whole team. He's going to possibly drive in all of the runs this season. (Sophomore second baseman) Trey Sutton is also back, and he's a tough player who was named Freshman All-American last year.
Overall, practice has been good. We haven't done anything but bullpens and getting into the batting cages to hit. We did some running out on the field of "The Rock" today. The position players took some ground balls on that field turf, which if I was an infielder, I wouldn't want to do that because I don't want that ball coming off of that turf that hot! The way that turf is, the ball comes flying off of that stuff and I don't want any part of that! That's why I wear the gear.
On Monday, our first day of practice, we had a meeting because we couldn't get on the field because of the rain. We've been on the field throwing and stretching, but it hasn't been actual practice yet. You won't know that it's real practice until you get home and your arm is sore, or that you may not be hitting the inside pitch good; or if I'm not able to hit the ball to the opposite side of the field. We haven't been able to feel all of that out yet. Honestly, in the cages, everything there can be good. You're like, 'man, I killed that ball.' It hit the top of the net where it could have been a home run, but it also could have been a pop-up. On the field you can see it, and you can watch that ball fly. You can only be in the cages so long. Eventually, you want to get out there on the field to flap your wings and fly.
I've been catching pitchers the past two days and I've been very impressed. Today I caught (junior) David Clark, who is a junior college transfer from Meridian. He's good, and is going to be tough to keep off the mound. I've caught (junior) Mike Cashion, who's not throwing full speed yet as he's still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. We'd love to have him back, but rehab is a slow process. Mike's a competitor who wants to get out there and throw nine innings tomorrow. So we have to help Mike with his patience, because he doesn't have much right now. As teammates and brothers, we have to work with him and tell him to chill out because we will need him this year if we can have him. I've caught Cliff, and Cliff is Cliff. He's getting back to his old, dominant self again. I've been watching a lot of our guys, and we've looked good. I caught (r-So.) Barry Bowden today and he looked well too. If you look at our rotation from last year after Cashion went down with his injury, we had Bowden, (senior) Matt Caire, (senior) Brad Owen and (junior) Patrick Ezell. We have a whole different group of pitchers with our new guys and junior college transfers this year, along with Cliff and Mike. Roles are going to be changed a little bit this season, but I believe that whatever situation we get put in that Coach Palmer is going to be able to look at our pitching staff and say, 'I want you. It's your turn, now take out two hitters.' And then he'll be able to pass it on to the next guy, and the next guy. If we can get to (senior) Daniel Best, it's curtains because he is the real deal. I caught him the other day too. Talking about a fast bullpen, the maximum amount of pitches you can throw in a session is two inside, two outside, two changeups and two curveballs for five sets, which is forty pitches total. I think he threw 41, which is how well he's hitting his spots.
As far as me, this is my last year, and though I'm excited, I'm also sitting back and watching different stuff then I would normally watch. I'm starting to appreciate this stuff more. I'm appreciating running the poles that we run after practice, because I won't be doing this the same time next year. Instead, at four o'clock in the afternoon I'll be working, looking at the clock waiting to get home! As opposed to four o'clock in the afternoon here, where I'm free playing baseball; doing what I love. This semester I'm taking some nice "athlete" classes. I just got out of my introduction to golf class. I told them that in order for me to take this class, you have to help get rid of this hook. If I can't get rid of this hook, then you fail as an instructor! So I have a couple of those classes, which allows me to be laid back this year and not have as much pressure on myself.
As a person, I'm laid back in a sense, but at the same time, I'm also a deep person. I've found myself being caught up in a lot of moments, appreciating things like watching Coach Berry working with a pitcher where I see that after he works with them, in the drop of the hat, this guy is pitching well again. It's incredible to watch that. I also watch my teammates, as I learn as much from them as I do from my coaches. I can watch a hitter like Trey Cuevas, and I'll be thinking, 'this sucker can hit!' So as I'm throwing to him, I'll watch how he's hitting. He could be hitting a pitch that I've been struggling with, so I watch how he hits it and then I try to go do the same thing myself.
A big part of this team is roles, and everybody on the team plays roles. As a fifth-year senior, I'm loud and I'm a talker. I'm a catcher, so obviously the leadership role is going to fall on me and I'm going to do the best I can at that. You have to lead as a catcher, because you shouldn't be catching if you're not a leader behind the plate. We have four guys this year who have been with Coach Palmer for four plus years that are seniors: Me, Cliff, Marc, and Daniel, and we each lead in a different way. I'm the talker; Cliff and Daniel lead by example on the field more than anything else; and Marc is more of a leader that obviously leads on the field, but his numbers far outweigh the numbers of anyone on our team. His name is going to be beside Jeff Cook's name when it's all said and done, in terms of what someone has done for this program. Marc Maddox is what Southern Miss baseball is all about: he's hard-working, hustles, leads, good in the classroom and off the field. He's the guy that everyone should look up to, and I'm more of the guy that's wild and crazy.
Another thing going through my mind this year is that I'm engaged. I got engaged this past fall. My fiancé lives in Atlanta, Ga., so all I can do is talk to her on the phone. Our relationship is going to take a hit when this season starts because of the nature of the game, and how busy I'll be. We've talked about it and we both realize that it's going to be hard, but I love her to death and we're going to exchange vows on October 7 of this year to be together forever. But baseball isn't going to last forever, and baseball's got one year left of college for me. I think that college baseball is the greatest game on earth. Not just baseball, but college baseball because we're not playing for dollar signs or to build up our stock to become free agents to make more money. We're playing because this is what we love to do. No matter what happens at the end of this year, all of us seniors talk about having one more year left of college baseball to play. I think that those three guys (Best, Maddox, and Russum), will play past college for sure. I don't know what will happen for me after this year. It would be the coolest thing ever to be drafted to play professional ball, but I don't think about it that much as I'm not looking down the road that far.
As a whole, it's good to be back. Christmas was too long this year. You know that there is something special waiting on you if you can't wait to get back to it, especially when you're ready to leave your family and your holiday to go back to school for it. Baseball is so exciting to me that it didn't matter what classes I had to take this year to get back to it. Everyone is excited to be back this year. The overall atmosphere is perfect because we're not playing to go to a regional; we're playing this year to go all the way. College baseball teams usually measure themselves on records or postseason play, but we've conquered that and won 40 games the last three years in a row. We've gone to a regional three years in a row, and have gone to the C-USA Tournament and succeeded in it. All of that is over, and we're going to go past that this year.
We want to go to Omaha, Nebraska this year, and anything short of that is a failure. I was watching Remember The Titans the other night, and at halftime of the last game in the movie, Denzel Washington comes off with that hard coach attitude of 'no matter what happens, you're going to be winners and that it's okay.' But then the big linebacker says, 'no it's not coach. You demanded for us to be perfect.' That's how we feel, because we've changed our attitude. For us, regionals were good, but not enough. It wasn't that we didn't want to go to Omaha, or that we only wanted to go to a regional, but we only emphasized getting to the postseason because Southern Miss hasn't had postseason play that much. We've built a tradition that a regional isn't good enough anymore. We want a super regional, and then the College World Series. That's what we're looking to do, and anything short of that is a failure in the eyes of every coach and player. We have a group of guys here this year that should win 40 plus games this season, get hot at the end, pack our bags and head to Omaha. So that's it; let's go and get it started.
