Priority One: Establish Your Culture
By-Rick Carpenter
Retired Head Coach from Texas
In the early 90’s my science department head was a tough older lady who was a former coach and she was known for running a tight ship in her classroom. She came into my class one morning and when she got to my desk she asked me how I kept my classes so quiet. I consider myself fairly quick witted but she knocked me off guard and I really didn't know how to answer. I just do it. A few years later in the early 2000’s an opposing coach asked me why my teams won even on lean talent years. Again, I really didn't know how to answer. I wasn't going to say I am a great coach and a great teacher because I was raised to be humble and I was not sure if I was even good at either.
These things just happen and I couldn't put it into words until the last 10-15 of my career. It wasn't because I got smarter, I just heard a word that summed it up. The word is CULTURE. That’s the reason I had quiet classes. I set expectations early and didn't waiver from them so the kids knew how to act. My teams knew what was expected and there would be little wiggle room when it came to meeting those expectations. Below are a few items in the culture of the program I ran during my career.
I will list these items in no particular order:
Do the right thing. I did not have a handout to give the kids so I just told them the we will follow school rules plus anything that I thought was wrong will not be tolerated. This may sound a little arrogant or even vague but you can’t possibly put every offense on paper that could possibly happen. I just tell the kids early that they know the difference between right and wrong and I expect them to live by it. I also tried to be extremely fair with the kids and they have realized that over the years which make discipline the much easier.
Get good grades. In Texas, you have to be passing all of your classes in order to play. I tell the young kids that if they are a constant grade problem then they better be a star or we will cut you. We will cut the star if it continues. Education comes first
Behave outside of the program. We want teachers, administrators and community to know we are part of the baseball program. Giving the program a black eye will not be tolerated. You must be consistent, fair and stick to your guns when dealing with discipline. If you have to suspend your best player, it may cost you a win at the time but it will strengthen your program. I learned that the hard way but did not make the same mistake twice. The last state champion I had, we had to kick the best pitcher off the team. That event ended up being what set the great chemistry that team had.
Be accountable. If a kid is going to be absent we demand that they call or text us before the fact. This teaches the kids responsibility plus gives us a chance to adapt practice if affected by his absence. We try to hold the kids accountable in all these phases of our culture.
We will outwork our opponent. I ask the kids everyday if they out worked one of our district opponents. I ask them everyday if they got better or got by? If the kids hear positive things everyday they will start to do them and believe them. One of my fellow coaches years ago told me that if you tell a cat that he is a dog enough times, he will start to bark.
We did some sort of community service each year to teach the kids that it is a great thing to do for the less fortunate of our town.
Be humble. I learned early on in life that if I got too big for my britches, God would knock me down a notch. I also told them to be humble when they did community service or a good deed. It is now longer a good deed if you seek personal glory from it. I would not tell the kids good deeds I have done because of the previous sentence but I did tell them how good it made me feel when I did something for others less fortunate.
Dive for any ball that you can. We made up t-shirts that said “Lay out, Nothing Falls, Nothing Gets By”. We also put an image of a player diving full horizontal. The kids loved that shirt and took pride in it. They also took pride in the message and would actually hold each other accountable if they didn't dive for a ball that they should have. You are right where you need to be if the kids are on each other in a positive way off course.
Always hustle. It takes no talent to hustle. That’s the one thing that everyone on the field can do. We demand that out of our players and I pass down stories over the years of examples of how extreme hustling plays have won us games.
We teach and demand that the kids control the inside part of the plate as a hitter. We actually teach the kids to get hit by pitches by putting soft balls in our bp buckets. Whenever the coach pulls one of those out, he hits the kid with it between the thigh and mid torso where it is padded. We tell the kids not to get hit in the head, knee or elbow. Trust me, the kids love it when they get hit because the dugout erupts and they are a hero at the time. It is quite the opposite if they get out of the way of an inside pitch. The guys will let em have it from the dugout. They end up taking pride in this and you will end up with 50 or so extra base runners a season.
Our kids throw strikes and change speeds. My program was well know for throwing a quality change up which is very hard for a high school kid to not only hit but to recognize in time. We demand that our pitchers use the change up grip every other toss while warming up. Just think of how many times you will play catch during a typical season and how many throws a kid will make. Now imagine half of them being change up grips. The pitchers learn quickly to get a good feel for it. That is one of the most important things we do during our daily routine.
We throw the ball around after an out with authority and hustle back to our spots. We actually spend time working on this. I feel it is important for 3 reasons. It is a distraction for our opponents. They spend time watching us do this and making comments I’m sure which takes focus off their game. It can be intimidating and looks good too. I’ve gotten lots of positive comments about this over the recent years. It is also a thing of discipline with the kids. I learned this watching Matt play at TCU. They started doing this during his senior year and I loved it. It keeps the kids in the game and attentive.
We demand great defense. I keep a chart everyday at practice for great plays and errors. If a kid makes 3 errors and 2 great plays then he runs one triangle. If he has 3 great plays and 1 error then he gets to go in after practice. It keeps the kids focused knowing there are consequences for bad defense. I told the kids if they can play great defense , they will play for me regardless of their hitting ability.
We keep a stat for quality at bats. I put a lot of stock in that and it effected how I made the lineup out at times. That plus on base percentage were 2 things I looked at hard on the stat sheet. We really preached the importance of both these stats and kids were aware of that and worked at it.
Our kids expected to win. Once you get your culture in place and your tradition establish, the program will take care of itself in a lot of ways. Winning is one of them. I would always worry during district play because early the race was always tight but we always had a way of pulling away from the pack. I learned to relax a little and enjoy watching that take place late in my career. The kids knew that not making a run in the playoffs was unacceptable.
Again, these are a few but kids need something to believe in and to associate with. They want to be a part of something special and if you can achieve this then you will reap the joys of having a quality program that you, the kids, community , etc… will be proud of.