TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

After battling the weather in your season-opening weekend at Delaware State and having the first game of the season cancelled, how exciting was it to pick up your first win as a head coach?

It was very exciting, we’ve been waiting all fall and the last five weeks practicing inside and it was just exciting to finally get out and see if all the hard work has paid off and see where the team stands at this point.

Last week, Chris Ciesla was named MAC Player of the week and James Flatley was named MAC Pitcher of the Week. How exciting is it to have two players earn those honors simultaneously for the first time since joining the MAC in 2000?

I think it’s a great honor for both of those guys, especially two guys who weren’t with us last year, they both redshirted last year, so for both of them to see action their first day out was great for them. To be honored by the MAC, they should be proud of themselves because that’s a great conference and to be two of the top guys for the weekend, I think is great for them.

Last July, you named former major leaguer and former UB star Joe Hesketh as Bulls’ pitching coach. How do you think someone with his experience will help elevate the team’s pitching staff?

I think our guys look up to Joe as a guy that has been to the top and I know my pitching staff, every guy on that staff hopes to someday have an opportunity to play Pro baseball and to be able to have a guy like Joe teaching them and training them is a great help because they look at it as, he’s been there, he knows what he’s talking about. I think it’s just that respect that these guys really see and want to reach that level.

Do you have a Joe Hesketh baseball card and if so, is it signed?

Yes, I do have a Joe Hesketh baseball card. I have nine of them but they are not signed yet. My six-year-old was going to bring them in and get them signed by Joe, Joe claims he only signs three at a time so I’m saving all nine to have my son bring them in and see if Joe will sign all nine of them.

You’ve spent the last seven seasons as an assistant coach before becoming the interim head coach this season. Has the transition to the role of head coach been easier for you having already been familiar with the program, the players and the University?

It has been easier but at the same time, there’s a lot more responsibility, a lot more things as a head coach that I wasn’t used to doing, so picking up those responsibilities has made it a little more busy but at the same time, with my assistant coaches, Coach Koerner, Coach Hesketh, both made it an easy transition, two great baseball guys and Jimmy (Koerner) does a great job with the recruiting so that’s kind of helped ease the transition.

You had the opportunity to coach Joe Mihalics, who was selected by the New York Mets in the 34th round of the MLB First-Year Player Draft. What is it like to have coached someone who was the first UB baseball player to be drafted since the Bulls’ reinstatement to baseball at the Division I level?

It was fun. It was fun watching Joe play for four years, he was a great player, an undersized kid who most people said would never make it and he’s a guy that showed them. He was small, he was quick, he was determined to get to that level and he did what he had to, to do that. It was fun watching him for four years and hopefully we’ll have a few more guys in the next couple of years doing the same thing and getting the opportunity to play at the next level.

How do you approach an event like the Big Four Classic, a tournament that showcases Western NY division I baseball teams and how intense is the competition, seeing how every member of the UB coaching staff has his roots in Western NY?

We approach it as any other mid-week game, to be honest with you. All of our mid-week games are Canisius, Niagara, Bonaventure because of travel purposes. We’re going to approach it the same way, we’re not going to change our pitching rotation to try and steal a game here or there. We’re going to go with our mid-week guys and just hope that we play well and I’m sure the other teams are approaching it the same way too. We need to win conference games and they do too, these games usually are your mid-week starters and it’s usually high-scoring.

You were an All-Western NY player at Nichols High School in Hamburg, NY in both baseball and basketball, later going on to star at Hamilton College in both sports, eventually playing professional basketball in Sweden for the Monsteras Club Basketball team. Before coaching baseball at UB, you were an assistant basketball coach for the Bulls for six years. What is the biggest difference, besides the obvious difference in terms of the actual sport, between coaching the two sports at the collegiate level?

Basketball is a more visible sport, where I think more money is put into it and more people are following it, where baseball is kind of behind the scenes and I think the difference is just in scholarship money facilities, things like that where being the new sport, we’re still trying to build on what we have where basketball was established, they had everything in place that they need and baseball, we’re still trying to put all that stuff in place. As far as working with the student-athletes, a whole lot of that is the same, you’re trying to do the same things for your athletes, you’re still trying to train them and develop them and help them mature, not only as players but as students as well.

You worked with former head coach Bill Breene for seven seasons before he was reassigned within the Department of Athletics as Assistant Director of Development. What parts of his coaching style were you able to learn from and combine with your own?

Coach Breene was always calm, he knew how to talk to the kids and I think that’s important, developing a relationship with the kids. I picked that up from him. As far as our coaching style, we have been trying to change some of the things that we have done in the past, but I’m trying to incorporate that into what we’re trying to do today. We tweaked some things here and there but like I said, Bill was great with the kids and I think they all respected them and that’s what I want to carry on, through that style, developing those relationships where the kids are going to believe in you and want to work hard for you.

What has been your favorite moment at UB?

My favorite moment here has been just developing friendships with a lot of different people here in the department. There has been a lot of change through the years but I have been here, I think, 12, 13 years somewhere in that area, and I have seen a lot of people come and go but there has been a handful of people that have been here just as long as I have and just being able to develop those friendships and spending time with those people I think has been a lot of fun.