Posted: 02/07/07

Baseball team enters new season with new coach, spring trip
Team prepares for first full year with Coach Seth Cole and a training trip to Florida

Deanna Kaiser | contributing writer
dkaiser@smcvt.edu

The Men's Baseball team is continuing its first full year with Head Coach Seth Cole this spring. (Deanna Kaiser, photo)

As snow flurries fall outside, fastballs fly inside as the St. Michael's College baseball team gears up for another season. With winter underway, the team is wasting no time preparing for a season full of changes. A new coach, the first training trip in three years, and several new team members are just a few of the changes the players will have to acclimate themselves to.

From captain to coach

Having played on the baseball team for four years before graduating from St. Michael’s in 2001, Head Coach Seth Cole is no stranger to college athletics. As a four-year starter, he played second base and was also a team captain.

Cole, who is also the sports information director, was named the new coach of the team on Dec. 2, 2005, making him the 18th head coach in the history of St. Michael’s baseball.

He replaced Perry Bove last spring and closed out the season with a 9-12 record. Cole says stepping into his first full year will be no easy task.

“He was a one of a kind coach which I had the privilege of playing for,” Cole says. “I won’t try to fill his shoes. I feel if I’m my own person and honest with the players, they will in return be honest with me and work hard for the team.”

Cole says he isn’t daunted by the fact that he doesn’t have many years of experience. He has worked with players at a wide spectrum of ages and feels he is well suited for the position.

“It’s been a couple of years since I’ve coached at a serious level,” Cole says, “but I’ve played here, so I think I know what the players want to get out of their experience playing baseball for St. Michael’s College.”

With the help of new pitching coach Aaron Ciullo, a 2006 graduate of St. Michael’s, Cole says he has expectations of seeing improvement right away.

“It is our first and foremost goal to represent St. Michael’s baseball well,” Cole says. “We want to be really strong defensively, and offensively we will have to work hard to make runs.”

Cole says he keeps an optimistic attitude regarding the fact that the team isn’t in a conference, which can be difficult when it comes to finding other teams to play. He has worked to schedule 52 games for the upcoming season in contrast with the 21 played last season.

“We get to create our own schedule because we are an independent team, ” Cole says.“I like getting interesting teams to play that fit us.”

As for the baseball team this season, Cole says there is a lot of promising talent. Although the team saw a loss of seven seniors who graduated, there are six new freshmen that Cole says are practicing with the team regularly. There are cuts he is expecting to make early next week to satisfy the requirement of 24 team members.

When asked about expectations, Cole says he expects the team "to deliver right away this season."

Spring training trip bound to be a success

Captain Evan Grenier says the training the team gets from the Florida trip will give them an edge against competition. (Deanna Kaiser, photo)

One highlight of this year ’s season is the spring training trip to Florida, which is the first trip the baseball team will have been on in three years. Cole says the training trip was always one of his priorities while he played baseball for St. Michael’s, and he wants it to be an annual trip for the team.

“It’s valued by the team, and the opportunity is right there in front of us, we just have to work hard,” Cole says.

To make the trip possible, the team members entered into a contract with the South Burlington packaging company Resolutions, working to fund the trip. In addition, the team is teaching baseball clinics every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. to help pay the estimated $20,000 price tag of the trip.

“ It’s almost as if this trip will make us a legitimate team with real meaning,” junior Andrew Urquhart says.

Evan Grenier, a junior first baseman and captain of the team, agrees with Urquhart and says the training the players will get in Florida is a necessity, giving them an edge against the competition.

“In the past, it was hard going to Connecticut or Massachusetts and playing against teams that had been training outside for weeks when we’ve been training inside.” Grenier says.

The trip will last for nine days. The team will practice in Port Charlotte, Fla., at a facility where the Texas Rangers once held their spring training. Within the intense eight days of training, the team will play in 10 games, requiring two days of doubleheaders, and allowing for one day off.

Team is adjusting to new coach, new goals

“ [This season] the pitchers will work to stay focused and remain level-headed when the games get intense,” Andrew Urquhart says. (Deanna Kaiser, photo)

The players have faith in Cole's abilities, and being coached by him last spring gave the players an idea of what this year would be like, Urquhart says.

“His energy level is high, he knows the way things work around here, and he is very structured,” Urquhart says. “Even in the off-season he scheduled workouts and things the team could do together.”

For sophomore catcher Joe Gil, one expectation for the upcoming season is that the team be scheduled in more games, and Cole already did just that.

“He did an incredible amount of work scheduling us games,” Gil says. “It was time for a new coach.”

Grenier says that since Cole is also the sports information director for the college, the contacts Cole has made through his position have helped to schedule more games with other teams.

Some of the frustrations with scheduling games comes from the issue that the team does not belong to any conference. Grenier explained that the long traveling time to games, days missed from school, and the playoff schedule attributed to the reasons the team withdrew from the Northeast 10 Conference in 1998.

As far as entering a conference, Grenier says the chances right now are slim, but it’s always a goal that the team is working towards. Keeping the conference in the back of their minds, the team has a lot of work to get done to prepare for their upcoming season.

“I think that the effort we put in this winter will pay its dividends,” Gil says.

Practices started Jan. 15 and the team will begin practicing outside as soon as the weather permits.

The team has very specific goals and expectations outlined for the upcoming season both offensively and defensively.

Urquhart says the team is working on utilizing outfield space and “small-ball” ability. Aside from performance on the field, Urquhart also understands the importance of composure.

“The pitchers will work to stay focused and remain level-headed when the games get intense,” he says.

Grenier says this will help lead the team to one of the ultimate goals set forth for the season.

“We want to set the program record for the most wins in a season,” he says.

In order to set the program record, the team will also need to work well together to cultivate and incorporate the new talent found in the first-year players.

“By in large the first-years have fit in really well with the team and the upperclassmen,” Cole says. “They aren’t treated like they are the typical first-year players.”

As far as team chemistry, Grenier agrees with Cole and says everyone gets along well and does their own work that ’s needed to fill in the spots left by the seniors.

With Cole’s coaching skills, only time will tell if the team’s training efforts will prove to be what they need for a winning season.

“Even though Cole hasn’t coached for too long, he first and foremost knows his baseball,” Grenier says. “All great coaches have to start somewhere, so why not here?”