Former NAIA football player now assisting USU

Jason Turner

Four years ago, Jason Salz was playing football and baseball for the University of Mary – an NAIA school located in Bismarck, N.D. What a difference a few years can make.

Salz, who has been involved in sports his entire life, now finds himself in his first season as the new assistant softball coach at Utah State.

After graduating from the University of Mary in 1997, the opportunity to coach women’s softball was totally unexpected for the social and behavioral science major. According to Salz, the “doors just opened up.”

“I had the opportunity to coach with a guy who was a student assistant when I was going to school,” Salz said. “He gave me the opportunity to be a graduate assistant [in 1998].”

In the two years Salz was assistant coach for his alma mater, the Marauders went a dominant 83-10, and the coaching staff was named the 2000 National Federation Coaches Association (NFCA) Midwest coaching staff of the year. Not bad for a second-year assistant coach.

Then again, playing baseball for a number of years was a big help in making the transition to coaching softball less difficult, he said. His experience playing baseball has been important, but football helped him develop a winning attitude, he said.

“Football gave me the attitude to play baseball hard-nosed,” he said.

Success in athletics is nothing new to Salz. As a first baseman and pitcher for the Marauders, Salz was a two-time all-North Dakota Collegiate Athletic Conference (NDCAC) first-team selection, including the NDCAC player of the year his senior season. He was also a second-team selection as a tight end for the football team in 1996.

“Baseball has always been my first love, but I ended up going [to Mary] on a football scholarship,” Salz said.

Now, in his first season as an Aggie, Salz’ main responsibilities are to help the team improve at the plate and coach the team’s outfield.

He said he would consider helping the team improve at the plate his specialty.

“I enjoy working with hitting, because it is such a hard thing to master,” Salz said.

He said becoming a good hitter not only entails developing a good swing and executing the fundamentals, but developing mental toughness. To put this in perspective, he said a lot of failure is involved with hitting.

Because the odds of collecting a hit in softball are against the batter, the most successful players learn to take the failure involved with hitting in stride, he said.

“If you bat three or four out of the 10, that’s considered good,” he said.

Though the Aggies have struggled through a difficult season, Salz is confident they can compete against the big guns in the Big West Conference. Once the Aggies correct minor execution problems like laying down a bunt and picking up a timely base hit, the team will be difficult to beat, he said.

“If we start tasting success in those situations, I think it’s going to carry over,” he said.