107 - Liam Bowen; University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)

Bio

• 5th head coach in UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) history
• 8 years as an Assistant coach before being named HC
• AC during America East Championship run in 2017 while he was pitching coach
  • surrendered just three runs per game
  • schools first America East Championship 
  • third NCAA Tournament appearance
  • Bowen recruited the 2017 America East Rookie of the Year, Christian Torres.
• lowering the team ERA from 9.01 in 2012 to 3.30 in 2015, the best improvement in the country over that span. 
• Bowen has recruited and coached four freshman All-Americans, 33 All-Conference selections and 15 All-Rookie team selections
• Well respected coach and person

 

Notes

• Fit a need on our roster
• Academic fit, high level enough student that can succeed in our school
• People we can trust in our program
• Find the player that excites you on the field first to be sure they can play in our conference
• There is way more to baseball a D1 player than just playing baseball
• Being a d1 player, there is a lot going into it
• Keep the schedule consistent
• Master the routine
• Give the assistant their time
• Hire the right guys
• Make umbc the best place for assistant coaches
• How do I get our coaches in the best position to impact the players?
• How do I make that strength relevant for my assistants?
• This is what I am good at, how can I make an impact on my guys?
• Division of labor - everyone gets to do some work and people get to do what fires them up
• Common character traits
  • Selfless - we win and lose together
  • If you get the right characters you can get everyone working together
• Selfless and reliable people
  • Define them 
  • Reliable - delivery their skillset on the field consistently. “What do you look like on your bad day?”
  • Selfless - genuine joy of serving others. Can you find joy in your team and teammates' success?
• A team with true chemistry is guys who have a high regard for the team.
• If your not good when you are on, you better stop pitching.
• You got to clock your outs
• Each moment is important and how it affects your future, innings, result, season, next year, etc
• You don’t want the guys to feel like you are taking english 101 for 4 years. You use what the team needs.
• The most important scouting is your own practice time
• One practice a week, during the spring, we run practice like individuals and small groups
• You got to make time to use all the tools
• Respond to your own ball flight
  • Everytime I throw the ball it needs to have the same shape
• Play a high level game of catch
• Hitter find the ball flight that will make you the most successful
• 10/80/10 - 
  • 10 percent will scrap
  • 10 percent will be very good
  • 80 percent who knows themselves the best
    • How do I take my strengths into winning baseball and helping the team
• Know your identity and find a way to delivery it everyday through their reliability
• Let yourself be ok with not being the top 10%
  • It is so impactful for our team and for their future
• We have a unique opportunity in our sport to teach these values because our game is so hard.
• Find a time to pick your spots where the player will be ready to listen
• If you are pushing yourself everyday you deserve honesty from the coaching staff
• Players give effort, coaches give the truth - if anyone falls on that scale things fall
• We will use every avenue available to help our team get better
• Portal is a compressed process
• Roster is smaller to be sure we can make an impact on all our players. 
• What are the players going to remember about you?
• How do you learn and grow your own process
• How are we going to respond to this new environment?
• I know we are going to be selfless and reliable. It is our north star
• Twitter and come see us play! @UMBCbaseball 
• League plays Fri-Sun
• Come in for free and enjoy!