This story originally appeared in the Arcata Eye:

 

Q- What is your main role with the Crabs?

A- I’m the head coach and recruiter. I put the team together on the off-season and get all the guys signed up to play for the Crabs. I go to a lot of college games on the off-season to scout guys and figure out the guys we want on the team. I also work closely with the college coaches to get them signed up and get them up here.

Q- Any changes to your role this year?

A- I’ve been the third base coach for the past 7 or 8 years and I turned it over to coach Jordt so he can get some experience over there and I’m going to be working more with the pitchers this year than I have in the past. That’s my specialty; I was a pitcher so that’s where my specialty is.

Q. When do you start recruiting?

A- We start recruiting as soon as our season ends for the summer. The guys we want to come back that are on the team we ask them before they even leave if they are interested in coming back. Then I start calling college coaches and identifying the guys we want to get. Really end of August early September it’s off and running. We start recruiting and we’re still dealing with recruiting stuff today, all the way up until were going. There’s a lot of different factors that play into it: injuries, the draft, grades, summer school, it’s always changing. The roster changes the whole year. The 12 months I’m recruiting it’s changing the whole time.  And then the guys we get here were lucky to have them and were happy to have them.

Q. What’s your opinion of the 2011 Crabs Team?

A- So far so good. Were waiting for 10 or 11 more players to get here that aren’t here yet. We’ve got guys at Cal State Fullerton and University of San Francisco that are playing in the NCAA regionals and guys at UC Davis, University of Oregon, University of Washington, Seattle University and Bakersfield that are on the quarter system so they have another week of school. They have finals this week and then we’ll get them hopefully next weekend. The guys we have here though have been doing a great job this weekend and I think it’s going to be good. We’re going to pitch well and were going to score some runs so it should be a good summer.

Q. What’s your favorite part about coaching the Crabs?

A- Getting to know the guys and getting to spend time with them and the relationships you build that last a long time. There are a lot of guys I coached that I get calls from. I got calls from 4 or 5 of them this weekend that are like good luck coach and good luck starting the summer. Just getting to know these guys and being lifelong friends after they spend a couple summers in Humboldt. It’s really cool to see how they doing and how their lives are going as they get older and move on in life whether it’s in baseball or family and a job. So that’s the coolest part, just seeing them grow up and become men.

Compass Credit Union Ad
Crusty Crab Logo

Good Friends. Good Times. Great Baseball. Since 1945.

Humboldt Crabs Baseball, Inc. | P.O. Box 4422 | Arcata, CA 95518 | (707) 840-5665 | Contact Us