Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Diamond Diary by Kevin Cooney
11/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Nov. 16, 2002
Not A Fun Day
People look at coaches and say that we have great jobs. We get paid to be around athletics and compete in games, the same games we played as children. There is a certain Peter Pan aspect to the profession. The field is Never Land and we don't have to grow up. The problem is Peter Pan never had to cut any of the Lost Boys.
The clich? in sports is that this is the hardest thing that a coach ever has to do. Well, the truth is that there is nothing clich?d about it. Nothing I do is more difficult than what had to be done yesterday.
Last season I shared with you some of my feelings about playing time and how that problem affects a team and the coaches. Cutting or red-shirting players who have the hope to be active participants on the team is hard to do. I always dread the day that it happens, but realize that it is part of the process.
Sometimes it is a matter of sheer numbers. You can only use so many players. We do not have an imposed maximum as do some other schools, but a coach knows what a realistic, workable number will be.
Other times it is a matter of opportunity for the player to improve enough to play regularly. What prevents a player from being in the lineup daily can sometimes only be corrected by being in the lineup daily. It is a Catch-22. FAU is in a position, because of our recent success, to have greater depth than in past years. It is much harder now for a player to struggle in our lineup as he tries to overcome the weak part of his game. There are other schools where that young man can play and develop. He then could go on and have a great career.
The bottom line for the player is realizing that the most important game of the day is the one in which he is playing. That isn't a selfish philosophy. If you are talented and are faced with a logjam of players at your position, there is no disgrace in moving elsewhere. The decision must revolve around what the player truly wants. If being a baseball player while he is a college student is how he views himself, then he needs to be playing.
As water seeks its own level, so too does talent. Some kids come here in the hope of developing enough to have a chance to play. Others are at that level already. If a player can't get to play, he will not develop. Lately, there has been a lot of talent here from which to choose, so it is harder for a kid who has to work his way into the lineup.
Because I am a baseball man, I believe that most kids grow up with their fathers (and mothers) throwing balls to them as toddlers and taking them to T Ball games. Then it's Little League, travel teams, and high school. That is a lot of baseball. The youngster grows up seeing himself as a baseball player and then I sit him down and change everything. The phone calls home on days like yesterday must be terrible for parents and their sons.
All I can say is that it is a day I don't take lightly. KC
