Conversations with College Coaches: Hofstra University
Baseball Factory is privileged to work with programs from every level of college baseball. We strive to educate and guide our players when it comes to choosing the right school. The more information a player knows about a school, coach and program, the better. Recently, Dan Mooney went one-on-one with Patrick Anderson the head coach at Hofstra University.
Check out our list of College Alumni and see what alumni played last year at Hofstra and other Division I programs.
1. How long have you been coaching? How long at the Hofstra University?
16 years, 3rd year [at Hofstra].
2. Who are some of your mentors or coaches that you look up to?
John Mizerock coached numerous years in the Big Leagues with [the] Royals. Ron Clark coached 30+ years in professional baseball in Big Leagues and Minor Leagues. Joe Jones coached 30+ years in professional baseball in Big Leagues and Minor Leagues. Bucky Dent who played, coached and managed at all different levels of [the] Minor Leagues and the Major Leagues. Kevin Long currently the Big League Hitting Coach with the NY Yankees. Bob Hirschfield currently Head Coach at NYIT, [a] Division I in Long Island, and most importantly Dr. Thomas Egan who is a Dentist and was the Commissioner or Montgomery County Baseball Association located in Silver Spring, MD. All of these people have touched my life and still help me out personally with any issues or questions I might have with regards to baseball and life in general.
3. What is the first thing about your school and program that you’d want a recruit to know about?
I want recruits to know that you will know where you stand from the first day we recruit you to the last day of your career in our program. We tell you the truth about what we do, how we do it and why we do everything which involves everyone in our program. Knowing where you stand, what you need to do to get better and to get on the field or stay on the field is very important for every recruit/player when they look for a situation that best suits them for four years.
4. What do you look for in a prospective recruit for your team?
We try to look for kids with character! We want a disciplined student-athlete that can handle the workload in the classroom and the workload on the field. We also want players that have the inner desire to get better everyday no matter what the consequences are. Kids say they work hard but I’m not sure many really understand what it takes to be the best. We look for self motivated kids with baseball IQ’s and obviously kids with talent.
5. What qualities do you look for in a prospect on the field? Off the field?
As I alluded to [in] the previous question, we look for a disciplined young man who can find a way to get the job done, whether it be in the classroom and on the field. We look at how each kid communicates and interacts with his parents, friends, teammates and family members. We need leadership qualities form these individuals so we can build a team that can grow and adapt to whatever trial or tribulations come their ways. If these student-athletes have the blue collar mentality of grinding every day to find a way to get better then we have a good chance at being successful.
6. Where do you try to see a lot of your recruits?
We travel to a lot of tournaments and some showcases mainly in the east coast. Obviously, we start with our back yard in Long Island and branch out to all of the northeast areas, down to Maryland, Virginia, Florida and even Georgia. We have extended out to Arizona and California, along with Illinois and we have even looked into Canada as well. Our draw of playing Division I at such a high level of competition in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and the non-conference schedule we have played are all very inviting recruiting tools for every recruit. We have contacts all over the country that help us by referring players to us. The Baseball Factory has been very helpful to us since I’ve been here at Hofstra. It is beyond helpful to have reliable contacts like the Baseball Factory to assist us with the recruiting of quality DI players.
7. Do you recruit from Junior Colleges?
We have expanded out to the Junior College ranks to bring in players. We have brought in JUCO players from our backyard in Nassau CC, upstate NY at Corning CC and numerous JUCO schools in California, Cuesta CC, College of The Sequoias CC, Bakersfield and Cypress CC as well.
8. Can you break down your fall practice schedule? What do you try to accomplish?
Our fall has been different in the last two years due to just taking over the program. This fall we started off the first few weeks with individuals so we can get to know each of our new, young players in a controlled environment. We then start with team practice in which we try to implement a routine in which we work on [a] throwing program, infield/outfield pre-game, BP routine, team fundamentals are switched up each day (pop fly priorities, bunt coverages, double cuts & relays, picks, 1st and 3rd’s, rundowns, etc.). During team practices we play numerous intrasquads so we can simulate game speed practice as much as we can. We have scheduled 2-3 outside competitions during the fall with local JUCO’s so we can play someone else and have our young freshmen experience a different level of competition in a relaxed atmosphere. We end up team practice with a blue/gold world series and then we get into our strength and conditioning phase of the fall. We will lift and do agility work 4-5 days a week. A lot of our players work on their individual skills with and without coaches during this phase as well. We give them a program in which they need to follow during our winter break and we have end of the fall meetings with each player to discuss their standing as we go into the spring season. This concludes our fall.
9. Do you have a strength and conditioning coach?
Yes we have a strength and conditioning coach. His name is Jimmy and he is unbelievable! His program is sports specific and he really breaks down our movements in baseball and strengthens each of our players individually. He identifies each kids’ strengths and weaknesses structurally and he gets them faster and stronger to the best that he can. Jimmy has different programs for pitchers and hitters and for our dual guys as well. Our strength and conditioning program is top notch.
10. What is your favorite away game, series or ballpark?
I personally enjoyed having our kids play at Florida State University in front of 3,000 plus fans. I thought Penn State’s ballpark was the best facility but series wise, I enjoy having our kids play at NYIT. For some reason we have shown passion and fight at that facility playing them.
11. What part of the 2011 schedule are you looking forward to the most?
I look forward to every opening day because the excitement of season freshmen and other new and young players’ reactions is one big reason for me getting back into college coaching.
12. What do you think of the new BBCOR bats?
I think the BBCORE bats are a step in the right direction for college baseball. The games are faster and you can tell who really can swing it. Evaluations of hitters for the next level is better and more accurate along with the teaching of the short game is more prevalent. The art of bunting is back and situational hitting needs to be more of a factor in the outcomes of these games. You do not have too many Earl Weaver style offenses, where they sit back waiting for the 3-run homerun. The only thing I do not like about these bats are the fact that it will be harder for these next crop of kids to break records and put their names on the map in the college game like others have done through their stats alone. It sticks out when you hit 17-20 HR’s with 70+ RBI’s.
13. Anything planned for your facilities (upgrades, changes, etc.)?
We just finished a bricked in, all chair-backed seat grandstand and we have pushed our fences back in LC to RC and added a 30 foot high fence in CF to allow us more of a playing area. Our ballpark was a “hitters haven” and now it has evened things out a bit for us to attract more pitchers.
14. Is there anything you would like to add about your assistant coaches, recruits, parents, or program that we have not asked you about?
I’d like to add that I am very happy with our staff and what they have done in such a short period of time, John Russo has worked diligently on bringing new players in here from all over the country. James Lally has done an outstanding job of getting our pitching in the right direction and we just hired Jeremy Hill, who just retired from playing 15 years of Minor League baseball and spent a short stint in the Big Leagues as a RHP. Jeremy was originally drafted as a catcher and six years into his professional career he was converted into a pitcher. Jeremy has worked with our catchers and helps James with our pitchers as well. All my assistants have worked hard every day in efforts to turn this program around and I am thankful to have them here.
