Day One - Kid in a Candy Store

Coach O'Connor brought me in to club house and introduced me to his staff.  He showed me around the facilities and let me observe practice.  We started out in the indoor cages.  I observed bunting drills and players hitting off the tee.  We then moved outside and I helped the Operations Assistant, Billy Messer, set various parts of the field up.  One of the things I quickly learned was the amount of preparation that has to go into getting ready for practice.  Something else that I learned was the differences in coaching styles and preferences for utilizing on-field techniques.  The baseball program that I am a coach for rarely, if ever, takes batting practice on the field.  The UVA program does utilize it as a matter of being able to have the players see specific results to drills they are working on.  This isn't to say that working in a cage can't be beneficial.  It is just a different philosophy.  A second right answer.  And,of course, shortly after the field was set up for practice, it started raining.  Well, wanting to show that I was part of the team and willing to contribute regardless of the task, I jumped in and help pull the practice equipment off the field and put the rain tarp on the field.  My wife was none to happy with this effort because a pair of my good short got ruined by the mud.  Oh well, I loved every minute of it.