The latest addition to the 4 The Record column is Aurora head baseball and head softball coach James Hoffman. It's the chance for you to learn a little bit more about our coaches and the future of their programs:
1) Which is more challenging, coaching girl's softball or baseball and why?
I wouldn't say that one is more challenging than the other. They have their similarities as well as differences. The biggest differences being the pitching styles, size of field and pace of the game. Obviously with pitchers in baseball, we have to be careful with pitch counts and rest between outings. With softball, the pitching motion is more of a natural movement where the pitcher is not fighting normal movement patterns. They don't continually throw in a violent overhead motion as they do in baseball. If a softball pitcher has arm trouble or issues related to pitching, you can usually trace it back to their mechanics when they are throwing overhand. A softball pitcher can throw multiple games in a single day and you worry more about their legs and core wearing out before their arm.
The size of the field really speeds up the pace of the game in softball. A lot of times, when both teams are playing well, you can finish a game in less than an hour. With baseball, you have 90' bases, and fields of 300'+ down the lines, as deep as 400'. With softball, you are looking at 60' bases and outfield fences that are typically 200'. Your strategy in both sports is always going to be based on your personnel. Fortunately, in both softball and baseball we have two of the fastest kids in the conference on the base paths in Morgan Montgomery and Billy Meredith. Both are speedsters and run the bases aggressively and intelligently. These two kids have already made their mark on the base paths throughout the area and are just completing their freshman and sophomore years, respectively. The short game comes into play a lot more in softball because of the short distances of bases. You are put in a situation where you have to make plays without bobbling the ball or second guessing yourself, or the offense will make you pay. If you have a team that is blessed with speed and can execute the bunt, you are going to be very effective offensively. You can really jump out on a team quickly if you have speed and can execute the short game. With baseball, you tend to let guys swing away a little more and attack the alleys. For me, I find both of them pose challenges on a daily basis, whether it is working with a player's individual skills, team situation or a mental aspect of the game.
2) With this year's team struggling to get wins, what is your outlook towards 2015's team?
Our society places a lot of emphasis on wins and losses in regard to measuring the success of a program. While I would love to win a lot more ball games, I think there are better ways to measure the success of our athletes. We have implemented training and strategies to improve our long-term success. In our program, we are process based, not outcome based. If we focus on the little games within the game, usually be the end you are in a position where you have the opportunity to win the ball game. For instance, an outcome based goal for a hitter would be to get a hit. This is a goal that is uncontrollable for the hitter. Once, the ball leaves the bat they have no control over what the fielders do. You can't control if a fielder makes a diving play on a hard hit ball or if you square a ball up and it happens to go right to them. Our process at the plate is to hit the ball hard. To do this,you have be disciplined and know what pitches you are capable of hitting hard. If you go to the plate with the with an outcome based goal to get a hit and you do everything right and line out, you have not met your goal. With this type of approach you put yourself in a position to view your at bat as a failure. We teach to play the game one pitch at a time, with a W.I.N. (What's Important Now) mentality. With such a young team, it is extremely important for them to understand our process and learn to deal with adversity for them to be successful down the road. I think this group has really done a descent job grabbing a hold of this process, and if they can continue to work the process and improve their skill level, they will be pretty successful players and individuals.
I really like what we have returning for the 2015 team. We will miss our two seniors, Kelyn Baker and Kage Etherton. They have done an excellent job of welcoming these young players into the program and showing them what is expected of an Aurora baseball player. They have helped set the groundwork for the future of this group, and I truly believe their impact on this team will be felt for years to come. We had a majority of our underclassmen playing in key positions this year and performing extremely well. We have the ability to do some great things. It will depend on their work in the off-season individually and what their attitude is like when we return to our off-season work. We put up better offensive numbers this year than any other team I have had here. This year we had 5 kids with over 20 hits and 1 with over 30. We had 175 hits as a team, which is 50 more than the previous year. With an improved approach and continued fine-tuning, these numbers should go up. Defensively, we will return kids at every position that have another year of experience under their belt. On the mound, we will have to replace Kage Etherton, who competed extremely well every time he took the mound this year. We have all of our other pitchers returning, and again our success will depend on how much work they put in during the off-season. I have every reason to believe that this team will be very successful in the future.
3) What is your opinion as to why the majority of high school athletes don't seem to play a sport all the way through their senior year?
I would have to disagree with the statement that the majority of high school athletes don't seem to play a sport all the way through their senior year. NFHS studies show that sports participation levels at the high school level have continued to increase for the past 23 years. It also shows that on average 55% of high school students are involved in some type of extra curricular activity. There are a multitude of factors that can come into play, and each individual has their own way of thinking. In today's society, there are an enormous amount of opportunities and distractions that can influence a kid to play or to choose another endeavor. I am sure there are plenty of people who have their own opinions and beliefs that would disagree with the statistics. I really don't have much of an opinion as to why some students don't choose to play all of the way through their senior year. If we have a player who has played in the past and chooses not to play anymore, that is their decision. I don't think it is my place to question their decision or criticize them for their decision. I just want the kids to be comfortable with whatever decision they make and not have any regrets.
4) What have you found is the best way to motivate high school athletes?
I don't know that I have found the "best way" to motivate high school athletes. I take the approach that you have to be brutally honest and hold them accountable at all times. They may not like what you have to say, their parents may not like what you have to say to their child, but they have to understand that it is about what is best for the team as a whole, not what they want. More times than not, they will understand where you are coming from eventually, and there will be a trust and understanding developed between coach and athlete. Trying to get the athletes to focus on the process and getting them to play the games within the games, helps to keep them more focused. These kids are so different, you really have to get to know them and find out to what approaches they respond.
