Player Diary 1.17.18
Welcome to the 2018 Potomac State Baseball player diary homepage. This season, Sophomore's Mitchell Henshaw (Brockport High School / Brockport, NY), and Jeff Wong (George Washington High School / Charleston, WV) will take the lead on the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary. Note: Wong's entry will be in bold font.
Welcome back Catamount fans to this year's edition of the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary! My name is Mitchell Henshaw, I am a sophomore catcher from Brockport, NY where I graduated from Brockport High School. I recently just signed to continue my education and playing career at St.John's University for next year. My teammate, pitcher Jeff Wong, from Charleston, WV and I will have the privilege of taking you through our season. We will share with you week by week so you can get an inside look at what we do as a team, and our journey hopefully to Grand Junction, Colorado. Well that's enough about this, let's get to the good stuff.
Let's start with a little recap of our fall season. Our season began in early August, where we all came together for our first team meeting. It was great to be back in our clubhouse to reunite with my sophomore teammates, and see all the new freshman joining us. Everyone was very eager to get out on the field and begin practicing, after last season's disappointing finish in the Region XX tournament. We had finished 3rd in the tournament, after a loss to Hagerstown Community College in the semi-finals. This did not settle well with me, or any of the returning sophomores. As we started practicing every day, the vibe in the clubhouse was very professional. Everyone was willing to put in the work to make sure we were as prepared as we can be going into the 2018 season. A typical week in our fall season would consist of practice Tuesday-Friday, followed up by intraquads on Saturday and Sunday. We would also get into the weight room for team lifts 3 days a week. Coach Little had put us to work this fall, as we played 21 games. It is great to get that many game day reps in the fall to prepare us for the grueling spring season. Out of those 21 games, we had faced some outside opponents including some four-year schools. It is a good test for our team to go up against schools like Frostburg State and Fairmont State. They have older, and more experienced players on their team, so those are always fun games to play. We wrapped up our fall season with our annual 100-inning game. This year was a little different from the past as we were battling with the rain to get the game in. We were just over half way through the game when the rain really started to pick up. We ended up tarping the field, and waiting out the rain. It may have been an extended day, but we made sure to get all 100-innings in. Playing in the 100-inning game the last two years is something I will never forget. It is a great experience, and a significant fundraiser for our program.
We just finished up our first week of classes, and practice. As wonderful as it is to be home for the holidays, I could not be more excited about getting the season underway. We had our team meeting on Sunday the 7th of January. We walk into our clubhouse, and have a great surprise there waiting for us. Brand new cleats and turfs by New Balance in our lockers! It was like Christmas all over again. All the players here at Potomac State could not be more thankful for our sponsorship by New Balance. They hook us up big time.
Our first team practice was Wednesday, January 10th and we were outside on the turf.
Yes, you heard that right, we were outside! It was a beautiful 50-degree afternoon, and we were getting work in on the turf field. Coach Little had told us, "Take advantage of today." It is not often that we get to practice outside this early. Having the turf field on campus gives our team such an advantage during the winter season, and early spring. Being able to go practice outside even just for one day can be very beneficial. As a player, it is always more fun to be practicing outside, rather than in a gym. But we know we have to get better every day, and being inside is no excuse for that. Getting practice underway meant, hitters going to the batting cage to hit, pitchers throwing bullpens, and fielders getting reps in at their positions. I can remember Coach Schafer always telling us in the fall, "We can't win a championship today, but we sure can lose one." This seems to be the mentality that I have seen from the team. Guys busting their butts to make sure we are ready for when we head down to Florence, South Carolina in 30 days, but who's counting?
This past Sunday we held the first Potomac State Baseball hitters camp of the winter season. We had 12 kids here ages 6-12. The kids seemed to have a blast. It is great to see young players with such passion for the game of baseball. I thoroughly enjoy running these camps, and helping the young kids. We will be holding another camp next Sunday, January 21st for ages 13-18. It will be great to see the local talent on display in Lough Gymnasium.
Well, I think that is a wrap for the first diary of the season. Stay tuned weekly to catch up with the team as our season gets going. Feel free to follow the team on Twitter
@PotomacStateBB and Instagram @potomacstatebaseball. You can also follow me on Twitter
@mhenshaw4 for some exclusive coverage of the team. If you have any questions or comments about the player diaries you can email me at mjh0025@mix.wvu.edu. Thank you for reading this week's edition, hope you all enjoyed it.
Winter break, in my opinion, is the most important period of time leading up to baseball season. It is time in between the fall season and the real deal, spring time. Over the month that we get off for break, it is vital to maintain the physical gains that were made over the course of the fall semester. Once students report back to class in early January, there is a small window of practice of 30+ days until the season starts, so in order to be physically and mentally ready of the grind that is Spring Season, each and every one of us players must take extra care of our bodies and put forth extra effort in the weight room.
Over the fall semester, a lot of work is put in, whether it be in the weight room or on the field. When players go home for a whole month, touch and feel, for a pitcher, can be lost very easily. A pitcher has to throw almost every day in order to maintain arm strength and feel for his pitches. ‘Feel’ for pitches is how a pitcher’s pitches are feeling when the ball comes out of the hand. When you are active and throwing a lot, feel improves and, in turn, so does command of that pitch. If a pitcher were to take an entire month off from throwing and expect to jump right back into 50 pitch bullpens, feel and command of his pitches would not be there. The pitcher would be wild and wouldn’t know where the pitch was going. Not to mention, the pitcher will probably hurt themselves.
The weight room is the most important aspect of the pitching side of winter break, besides arm maintenance. The long regular season takes a toll on the body when one is pitching every 3-4 days, and sometimes on shorter rest than that. A pitcher’s lower and upper back, legs, and core, on top of accelerating and decelerating muscles and tendons in the arm, all have to be in top shape in order to withstand pitching so much over the span of the season without getting hurt. To get used to throwing every day, pitchers must work their lower body and core out every day leading up to throwing, so the only thing a pitcher has to worry about is feel of his pitches. If a pitcher has to worry about his lower back being in pain, or has a strained quad from lifting after not lifting over break, pitch execution will suffer greatly.
The physical aspect is very important to attend over winter, break. The mental side of things has to be attended to as well. Fall season is long, and spring is even longer. So, to prepare for that grind to begin and not stop for a considerable amount of time, pitchers must relax and reset. Time with family and friends is important in achieving this, and there is usually no shortage of family and friends over the holidays. Each player must be mentally equipped and willing to go power through the long season of long road trips and short turnarounds.
As we all get back to school and get settled back into our dorms and new classes, practice also gets started up, tightening up our schedule like our freshman have never experienced before. The amount of free time we have dwindles and will continue to dwindle throughout the season. Coach Little makes sure that us pitchers are where we need to be at mentally and physically. Bullpens are now every 3 days, and the pitch count of those bullpens will continue to rise into the beginning of the regular season. We condition every other day, usually in the gymnasium, and work on defense on the alternating days. Classes for now are going smooth, as we don’t have to miss class yet, but once games start and season gets busy, we have to put extra effort into our class work as to make up for the few days that we have to miss.
Winter break is, every year, the most important time, in my opinion, for preparation of the body and mind for what the season has to come. A sound workout and diet routine is essential for a productive break. We must soak up family, for the next couple months, our time with them will be far between and brief. The goal of having a successful winter break is to have no distractions, mental or physical when it comes time to start the spring season. It’s time to go to work.