Welcome back Catamount fans to this week’s Potomac State Baseball player diary! We just finished up our first week of classes for the spring semester, and I must say there was a lot of readjusting. However, the first week is usually not too hard because most teachers usually just go over syllabi for the upcoming semester, and there isn’t usually too much work to do. However, as a veteran collegiate student, I am aware that in the next coming weeks the work load is going to start piling on, and you must either keep up or run the risk of falling behind.
The first steps to becoming a great team in the spring began last Wednesday when a couple teammates and myself did some defensive drills down on the turf field. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day in Keyser, West Virginia. The weather was sunny, and the temperature was in the upper 50’s, so the conditions were almost too good to just sit inside and do nothing. Aside from that, others, as well as myself, were very eager to get started working towards that National Championship. Also, there were some pitchers doing some throwing to get ready for the many many bullpens that take place during the winter. It’s safe to say that the Potomac State Baseball Team was taking full advantage of the perfect day. However, the next day couldn’t have been more opposite.
Thursday January 10th marked the first official team practice of the spring. And much like many days in spring baseball, the weather was far from ideal. The weather for the first practice was a cold, cloudy winter day, in the 20’s. Because of the adverse conditions, we were forced to hold our first indoor practice of the year.
Our indoor practices take place in the school gymnasium, the Lough Gym. Indoor practices can be very hectic at the beginning of the season just because freshmen aren’t too sure how to set things up. The setup is very simple yet complex at the same time (if that makes sense). There is a lot of equipment set up in a very little space. This year is more complicated than last year for one main reason. In the gym, there are two sets of bleachers, and when the bleachers retract, we can pull out extendable nets, as well as set up other side nets. This year, one of the bleachers sets is broken and doesn’t retract. This leaves us only being able to use one half of the gym for hitting. It is a huge inconvenience, and makes the space uncomfortably tight but we are surely making the most with what we have.
When we’re in the gym, we usually have a very large hitting rotation that encompasses the whole gym. The rotation changes daily, but usually there is a lot of tee work, soft toss feeds, batting practice, as well as different variations of those drill to work on specific parts of the hitting process. Coach Schafer always says, “each practice, the walls of the gym get tighter and tighter”, and with, I couldn’t agree more. Hitting in the gym can seem monotonous at times, but there is no better way to get better during the offseason. And with the group that we have, I am sure that everyone will always show up to practice ready to put the work in.
Good thing is that there are other things that we do in the gym to break up the hitting cycle. On most days, the outfielders or infielders will run through some defensive drills to work on that aspect of the game as well. Also, we do baserunning stations to work on that aspect as well. And of course, at the end of practice, on somedays, there is the dreaded conditioning.
Aside from the hitters, the pitchers also get a lot of work in. During the winter, Coach Little has the pitchers on a throwing program that encompasses conditioning, throwing, and lifting. Each day, a certain group of pitchers will throw bullpen sessions in the gym, whether it is off of flat ground or off of a pitcher’s mound. The bullpens vary on progressions. The pitchers will start at half speed and work their way up to full speed as the winter goes on, through coach’s program. When they aren’t throwing bullpens, they have to condition. Coach Little is like a mad scientist with these drills, choosing and devising ways to torture the pitchers with whatever conditioning drill he chooses. But, the pitchers always put in the work and sweat to get better. Also, they will do our Cross-over band training program to develop their arms and make them more flexible and ready for the season.
The weather during the winter isn’t always ideal for practice, so to be a great team we need to adjust to whatever we get and surpass the elements of weather.
To go along with our hitting, we are also continuing our Volt strength training program with lifts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And to get even more hitting in, hitters are put in hitting groups that hit for an hour each Tuesday and Thursday up in our rec center (see Berry’s video for tour).
Coming up this weekend will be our first hitting camp that the team holds. At the camp kids from various ages are welcomed and instructed on the many aspects of hitting and put through many drills to improve their game. It’s always something to look forward to because it feels good to help the younger generation of ballplayers, and it serves as a huge recruiting tool for older, upcoming players.
ATTENTION COFFEE ENTHUSIASTS! For this week’s player diary video, I chose to do a video profile on one of the many hidden gems here in Keyser. Since the beginning of the school year, some teammates and I would go get coffee at the local coffee shop every Monday, and at this point it has become a tradition. The coffee shop is called Queen’s Point Coffee, and it is in downtown Keyser. It is a fairly new shop that opened briefly before the school year started. It is a great coffee place, right up there with Starbucks. It has that homey country setting, along with great food, pastries, teas, coffee and more. I would highly recommend stopping in anytime you’re in Keyser. Check out my video profile on our Coffee Monday Tradition!
Thank you for tuning into the first player diary of 2019! Please join in each week for updates on the team, as well as some exclusive team videos. Also, for more coverage follow the teams twitter (@PotomacStateBB) and Instagram (@potomacstatebaseball). If you have any questions or suggestions on videos, please email me at jts0033@mix.wvu.edu.
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Welcome back Catamount faithful to this week’s edition of the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary. In this week’s edition, I decided to talk about our new indoor practice facility (The Lab or Lab 107). It is located on campus, in the J. Edward Kelly Rec Center, right up the hill from beautiful Golden Park.
The Rec center here at Potomac State College opened in the fall of 2016 and has been serving students and athletes since. Prior to becoming the college’s rec center, the building served as the National Guard Armory in Keyser for many years. The connection to the United States military is what sparked the idea for the name of the recreational center. J. Edward Kelly is a local war hero who served in World War II and in honor of him the school decided to name the building after him.
Since its opening, the Rec center has had many upgrades done to it. At first, the only resource available to students was the basketball court and a small selection of weight equipment. Over the past three years, the school has upgraded weight equipment, added a cardio room, and built a yoga room. In addition, two big additions were made to the Kelly Center in the past year. Over the summer, the college opened the brand-new Nursing program and renovated the unused half of the old armory into classrooms and a mock hospital for students. This addition was huge for the college as it added a 4-year program to the possible programs of study here at WVU Potomac State. If you haven’t been on campus to see the addition, I would highly recommend it! It is a state-of-the-art facility!
The second addition came during the fall semester. Coach Little, Schafer, and Kowalo came up with the idea to turn the old armory shooting range, into an indoor hitting area for the baseball team. At the time, the range was used for nothing other than storage of things like lockers, old shower fixtures from our dorm rooms, and other miscellaneous items. One morning during the weeks after our fall season ended, coach gathered up available players to clear out the range. It was very difficult work for each one of us. The lockers and equipment stored in there even took a couple players as victims! My fellow teammate Nathan Kerr (Harpers Ferry, WV/ Washington), was attacked by one of the old weight machines and had a nasty cut to show for it! Lucky for him, chicks dig scars, so I don’t think it bothered him too bad. It may have even helped him out! I also fell victim that morning when I was carrying a locker. As I was moving the locker out of the range, it slipped out of my hand and proceeded to make a huge gash in my favorite pair of sweatpants. I was not happy. Once we finished clearing out the range, the work had just begun. Our coaches then worked the following week and over our thanksgiving break to lay the turf down, hang the cages, and get the room ready for player use.
When we returned from break, “The Lab” was finished and ready for use. This was awesome news for our hitters as it meant we could participate in our hitting groups every Tuesday and Thursday until Christmas break. Most years, when the fall season ended, the groups would only occur for about two weeks until the winter weather hit and made it impossible to hit outdoors. Now, with this new facility, we can do our hitting groups all the way until finals week! This gave us a huge advantage compared to teams in our area without the resources to allow them to get work in during the cold winter months. In baseball, every little thing counts and all the extra reps our players are able to get in can be the difference between winning and losing a number of games in the upcoming spring season. Below, is a video of Sophomore Outfielder Juwuan Weaver (Virginia Beach, VA/ Tallwood) giving you all a behind the scenes look of the rec center and “The Lab.” Feel free to check it out!
The past week has been an eventful one for the team, our practice and preparation is in full swing as we prepare for our opening weekend which is only 31 days away! Unfortunately, because of the cold weather and snow we have received, we have been unable to practice outside yet. We are hoping that in the next couple of weeks we will have a nice weekend where we might be able to sneak onto Stayman Field and get outdoors before we begin the season. Until then we have been getting our work done in the Lough Gymnasium. Even though a large majority of the team would rather be outside, gym practices are great for getting in a ton of reps. This makes the gym practices very important for each of us to improve and makes strides as individuals. Whether it be getting all kinds of swings in, working on baserunning, or doing some fielding drills, we are always doing something. If we slack off during the gym practices, we will not get in the reps we need to truly be ready for the season. Like Coach Schafer always says before our indoor practices, “Today’s practice is the most important practice of the season.”
That’s all for this week’s edition. If you have anything you would like to see in the diaries or learn more about, you can contact me thru email (akb0019@mix.wvu.edu) or twitter (@andrewberry_15). I would also encourage you to follow the team on social media. Thank you for reading, and until next week, Go Catamounts!