Baseball Club president doubles as player
He had an aluminum baseball bat in one hand and a roster in the other as he walked off the infield at Zollinger Park. The cool near-winter breeze whispered the end of the Utah State club baseball team’s fall season, but the newly fallen snow signaled a change in responsibility for club president Garrett Schiffman.
Schiffman ended the fall season as the team’s acting manager, but next spring he will walk back onto the field as just another one of head coach Norm Doyle’s dedicated players.
“He’s got a great background in baseball,” Doyle said. “He’s played at many different levels for many different years. He’s just baseball smart. We just wanted someone that would be very reliable and very responsible. Someone that could get a lot accomplished for us.”
Because of Schiffman’s position as club president, he spent the fall season not only playing but managing the Utah State baseball club during the fall season.
Doyle spent the fall season out of town for his career and needed someone to fill the role of coach while he was gone. He said he let Schiffman know being club president would entail a little more responsibility.
“It’s easy to play on the team in the fall because everyone plays a lot,” Doyle said. “In the beginning of the spring, everyone will play a lot again, but as the season continues, we’ll get our lineup set.”
The games in the fall are primarily for the team to accept new players and give everyone a chance to play in new positions.
“With the fall, it’s a good time to evaluate the guys’ talent, see how they respond in certain situations and have fun,” Schiffman said. “It’s really exhibition. We could go 0-16 and it wouldn’t mean anything. It’s a little bit different come the spring time.”
Although he knew the balance between coach and player would be difficult, Schiffman said he jumped at the chance to lead the Aggies during the fall. The team ended the 2012 fall season Oct. 20 by sweeping a doubleheader against Weber State.
“The first game, Weber threw extremely well,” Schiffman said. “it was a really tight baseball game. We mostly put our older guys out there with more experience. They were able to focus and compete. I was really impressed with the situational awareness of our team – up to bat, running the bases.”
Schiffman said he found new perspective about the game he loves.
“As a player you think of that specific at-bat, but when you’re coaching you look at the whole scheme of things or how the whole thing is gonna play out,” Schiffman said. “That’s the move you make. I haven’t had anybody get too upset about it. When I make a decision, I try to make sure that I’m clear and that we’re moving. People understand a lot of the times why we make the decision that we do.”
Schiffman said any doubts present when the season started were put out of mind, and the experience of coaching and playing has given him and the team an opportunity to grow closer together.
“From a player-manager standpoint, yeah, it is a little difficult,” Schiffman said of his time coaching the Aggies. “But it’s a learning experience and it has given guys the opportunity, not only them but myself, to mature.”
Schiffman said he sometimes struggles finding the balance between being a player with his friends and being a coach. Fortunately, his teammates from previous seasons have given him support in the coaching decisions he made.
“A lot of times I want to be a player, and so I want be guys’ friends,” Schiffman said. “I feel like I’m still their friend and teammate, but I feel like it’s hard when you have to make a coaching decision to make a move and I’m the guy that does it. I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, but we’re still out there trying to win.”
Doyle is confident in Schiffman’s attitude.
“He didn’t want players thinking he was putting himself first,” Doyle said. “In reality, he’s one of our best players.”
The Aggies have 30 players on their roster this fall and 12 of those are returning players. Coach Doyle plans on having up to 24 players for the spring roster – the team will have another cut.
Doyle is confident in his team’s abilities, but tells his players, “It’s more than just talent.”
“I would give our team as good of shot as any team at the region title,” Doyle said. “It takes a whole lot more than just talent to win a championship. We have to play together as a team. There are a lot of intangibles.”
The Aggies had a 10-6 record for the fall season, but Doyle said he’s expecting to see good things out of the team after the winter break during the more-important spring season, which begins Feb. 15 at the College of Southern Idaho.
He thinks it is likely the Aggies will repeat this season as conference champions.
“We’ve got 12 of our 15 players returning and added some more good players,” Doyle said. “We’re just as good talent-wise, maybe even better.”
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Twitter: @daniellekmanley