New Head Baseball Coach @ UNCA

[uncafan]

I was talking to a Mars Hill player yesterday and he said he had been told by his coach that Dan Taylor (Mars Hill Coach) had been advised that he did not get the job.

thanks dogs...and everyone else posting information we've already known and have been talking about here for a week.

Sorry -- a bit cranky today. Tommy Smith is the new head coach guys--in case you missed the 100 other posts about this.... No other coaches are 'throwing their hat in the ring' no other interviews are taking place. Thus the reason this particular thread exists... "New Head Baseball Coach".... Its no wonder you guys won 9 games considering the overall intelligence shown by the players posting here...yes, i said it....you like that one Cats?

[bball25]

I believe the candidates all know what is going. Pretty sure they contacted all the coaches last Monday. Unofficially but from pretty reliable source- Tommy Smith will be introduced as head coach on Monday.
Too bad. The baseball program is in the toilet and had a chance to get out of it and we make this hire. Unbelieveable.

[WhatAJoke]

This thread is getting good.

[POP13]

It's official... like was said, Coach Smith can't do it alone. The next question is who will he bring in to assist?

Reading between the lines... returning players had better be ready to hustle or they may not be a part of the program for long. When a new coach is working with limited scholarships he ain't gonna waste them on old problems when he can go out and fill those spots with his own recruits.

[sadsite]

POP13, you're right... any head coach can't do it alone ... While Coach Stewart had his shortcomings, he sure could have used some great assistants to work hard to help him! ... maybe coach Smith will hire a good assistant ... oh wait - Tom Smith was Stewart's assistant. Let's hope Coach Smith hires someone who will be a better assistant than himself! What a mess!

[kingaling42]

I like how Janet said that Smith's a "proven recruiter"...

Ummm.. When did he prove this?? At TC Roberson, kids go to the HS from that area, you get pretty much what you get, with some reasonable exceptions of trying to get a kid to enroll at the HS which he did not do with the MLB players that always get mentioned in the same breath as Tommy's name... let's face it though that's not the same as the D-1 with not much to offer.. Janet continues to show that she's full of sh!t & has no idea what she's talking about or doing most days.. Hell I'd settle for her supporting the men's & women's teams equally, but that will never happen either..

[TheThrillaNamedZilla]

hey guys

torry zorilla here...wait...nope, not him

i see 'sadsite' is back online...think he's still blushing from making such a fool of himself in his first post?

he is right though, it's a terrible hire, and joke of a hire.

i tell you what, smith is a proven recruiter: Darren Holmes, Narveson, and Mayben all committed to TC Roberson RIGHT OUT OF MIDDLE SCHOOL!

amazing, and to think, they were all considering the GED to Junior College route of Bryce Harper before Smith's in-home-visit.

as my first donation to UNCA, i'd like to put together a fund to install a portable defibrilator for the UNCA bulldog program so that just in case any of the elderly coaches have a heart problem, we can revive them during the 7th inning stretch.

on the subject of scholarships, smith should cut this class to bare bones, increase the scholarships of current players, then inform them they will all be stripped of their scholarships so he can recruit his guys, guys who dont have 15 era's or bat .180.

in closing, a dark day for unca, or actually, just another day in the life. can't wait for those fund raising calls to start rolling in..oh wait...they dont do that either

ZILLA!

[TheThrillaNamedZilla]

i'm not softening my stance, but i want to clarify my position on coach smith.

he's only a bad hire because his resume doesnt match up with the guy from winthrop

i'd rather have him than the d2 guy or the other high school guy, but i'd rather have mcguire, any day, than smith

i hope he does well, i really do, i'm tired of being embarrassed about my school, and my spelling

hopefully he does better than i think he will, or than the other coaches we've had in the past decade.

good luck coach smith

[UNCA Alum]

what up zilla! nc state sucks.

i'm kind of indifferent on the hire. would've liked to have seen mcguire as well, but who knows what went down with that ordeal. i think smith can be a decent answer for 3-4 years and maybe make us somewhat respectable. at the very least, his name alone will make us more relevant in the asheville area.

[Dogs]

Coach Smith will determine if he is a good hire. If he can bring in a couple of quality assistant coaches to handle the hitting and pitching, he can be successful.
If he can do the things a HC does, like plan the practices, interface with alum and admin, have the final say on recruiting, prepare game plans, and run & oversee the program and not get bogged down in all the minor day to day activities, he can be a good hire.

Dick Sheridan was a HS football coach before Furman hired him and he took Furman to a National Championship Game. It all comes down to how good a manager you are.

[GoUNCA]

I've decided to be pessimistically optimistic. I guess you can never tell.

[POP13]

with apologies to Coach Smith... that defibrillator comment was funny!

[pullin4thesparkplug]

thanks to torry zorilla's live audio feed via cell phone, i was able to capture the magic that was the unca press conference at 10 am today (and why so early? 10 am est means the entire west coast was left completely out of the loop. what a shame).

notable highlights:
- coach smith = an engine part
- implications of coach smith recruiting people to a public high school. this apparently was not red flagged in the hiring process as a warning for future ncaa recruiting violations. say what you want about TP, but extinguishing the school budget on golf and booze will hurt the programs performance, but the program will at least continue to exist. signing darren holmes might get the ncaa's attention.
- mike gore was fired up. anyone else notice his super aggressive introductions?
- finally, the Q and A session consisted of 1 question. 1. (cue: three dog night "one is the loneliest number" as i gulp cheap bourbon thinking about how fitting it is a joke of a program holds a joke of a press conference where one joke question was fielded. guh).

i played at unca, but before coach smith was there so i have no idea what kind of coach he is, and ive heard mixed comments from guys who recently graduated. like many of you, i think his resume paled in comparison next to mcguire's. however im hoping for the best, and i think the best case scenario out this hire is this: smith gets unca to a respectable level. whatever money exists is used more wisely, and some better talent streams in as a result. may be smith can use his pull in the western carolina/eastern tenn area to lure some people here. gone are the days of ~10ish wins and the baseball program can be counted on to deliver 20-25 wins minimum by playing better fundamental baseball under a more disciplined program. after a few years, (unless zilla also buys replacement batteries for the defib to go with the actual kit), he'll retire and perhaps a more respectable program with hopefully a bigger budget can hire the next mcguire type applicant.

i didn't vote for obama, but nevertheless he's my president so im pulling for him. i didn't want coach smith as the next guy, but nevertheless he got the job so im pulling for him.

pulling4thesparkplug out!

[kingaling42]

I agree with the support comment you left on SparkPlug- I also don't agree with the hiring of Tommy Smith, but at the end of the day- I'm still a supportive fan of all things Bulldog (except Janet Cone who should be buried under Kimmel after this move).. I think it's obvious that most of us feel that the AD & search committee processes were a joke & mockery of what a good program should do.. My support is there for Tommy right now, but I certainly have a short leash & expect him to make some immediate changes to the way things were done.. Assistant Coach selctions would be a good indicator of his priority list I would think...

I don't know what McGuire might've requested or did request in terms of financial support for the baseball program or whether or not it was something that was reasonable for UNCA to even consider.. I do know that releasing the names in the C-T was a stupid move by the Athletic Department, regardless of what old Tyler thought- maybe you release the names of HIGHLY QUALIFIED applicants/finalists, but that group?? Come on- get real, or stop doing press releases after going to the bar/Thirsty Thursday because I have no idea why you'd even want to do that...

We don't really know what kind of Head Coach Tommy Smith will be- he wasn't a very good assistant coach & that's easy to support, hopefully he will add some needed stability to the program but he's got some work to do in that regard being associated with and having been on the previous coaching staff.. Recruiting at least locally should be a lock for Tommy- he's well respected by the local area HS coaches, but often times kids want to get a little bit away from Mom & Dad to go to college- I'm not sold on what his recruiting will actually entail.. time will tell & then we can have more people who visit for 1 or 2 posts meet back & bash everyone again...

[sadsite]

people on this site are making Mike McGuire out to be something special ... has anyone ever met him? has anyone ever spoke to him? the guy has NO PERSONALITY & is far less capable of being a head coach than Tommy Smith. Argue all you want about bringing in a more qualified coach... but McGuire, please... just because he is ASSociated with Winthrop doesn't make him Skip Bertman. If JC didn't get pressure to interview him he would have been axed after the first five minutes of a phone interview. Hudak at Winthrop is in charge of everything & everyone knows that.

[uncafan]

people on this site are making Mike McGuire out to be something special ... has anyone ever met him? has anyone ever spoke to him? the guy has NO PERSONALITY & is far less capable of being a head coach than Tommy Smith. Argue all you want about bringing in a more qualified coach... but McGuire, please... just because he is ASSociated with Winthrop doesn't make him Skip Bertman. If JC didn't get pressure to interview him he would have been axed after the first five minutes of a phone interview. Hudak at Winthrop is in charge of everything & everyone knows that.

actually I know Mike quite well, he is a very respected coach, has had tremendous successs both at Lander and as the recruiter at Winthrop. Take a look at former Winthrop players (Slowey, Carte, Rollins, Dempsey) having great pro careers, not to mention all the great college players he recruited.

Your comment regarding Hudak is completely un-informed... McGuire DID get a phone interview, and then got an on-campus interview. The decision was based purely on money -- several if not most of the committee members preferred McGuire but the funds were an issue.

Unlike Tommy McGuire actually WAS a succesful head coach at a nationally ranked school... And how, pray tell, are you so qualified to discuss such things? Clearly you don't know much about college baseball in the Big South.

[sadsite]

SInce you are so "qualified" ... Mike MacGuire wasn't even at Winthrop during the majority of these players careers that you mentioned: Rollins (05-06), Dempsey (03-06), Slowey (03-05), Carte (03-05). Mike MacGuire was not at winthrop from 02-06. Hudak, although getting up in years & delegating a bit more responsibility to his assistants recently has always been responsible for the success or failure of that program. Give anyone the best facilities in a conference and they better be at the top every year! Running a message board doesn't give you the qualifications that you think you have.

[TheThrillaNamedZilla]

man sadsite, you're on a roll

first you crack on torry gorilla, just a mean spirited and stupid post

then you bang on mcgwire, who you clearly dont know based on what i'm told about him

are you related to coach smith or something? geez...

let me be clear, NO ONE IS BANGING ON COACH SMITH...all we're saying is that he doesnt have the resume of mcguire...if you can figure that out than you just cant read

also, on the subject of mcguire compared to skip bertman, he WOULD be skip bertman when compared to the jokesters we've had running the program

myres? great pitching coach/recruiter, his personality was so bad and annoying that he lost his job at auburn

willie? where to start...dui, his players getting in trouble constantly, terrible team gpa/behavior, hiring tim perry, not firing tim perry, supporting tim perry...

hillier? didnt he get fired at duke for a steriod scandal? or was that a different coach, i'm asking cause i'm not sure

mcguire would be the most qualified coach at unca since eddie beidenbach (resumes, eddie b played in the acc and then in the NBA and an injury ended his carreer)

i hope tom smith does well, reaches out to allumni, and does the things he says he's going to do...we'll see

and i hope sadsite gets it together...the only thing sad about this site is clowns like you man cause you're not even funny when you post...just misinformed

[uncafan]

SInce you are so "qualified" ... Mike MacGuire wasn't even at Winthrop during the majority of these players careers that you mentioned: Rollins (05-06), Dempsey (03-06), Slowey (03-05), Carte (03-05). Mike MacGuire was not at winthrop from 02-06. Hudak, although getting up in years & delegating a bit more responsibility to his assistants recently has always been responsible for the success or failure of that program. Give anyone the best facilities in a conference and they better be at the top every year! Running a message board doesn't give you the qualifications that you think you have.

and when do you think Carte, Slowey & Dempsey were recruited? hahaha, oh I'm sure they all walked on right after their senior year, none of them would've been recruited by the recruiting co-ordinator during their junior or senior years in high school (when McGuire was there)....

[kingaling42]

Sadsite... I would think that before you run off at the mouth about people- can you at least spell their name correctly? Who is Mike MacGuire anyway?? We all have the occasional typo, but when you continue to throw the "a" in the same misspelling.. Really??

It may seem like a little thing but it really starts to undermine your "knowledge" in my eyes...

All I know about McGuire is from his bio on the Winthrop site- seems rather impressive to me, far more than Tommy's relative to comparable D-1 baseball experiences.. Ask any coach in almost any sport- the way you coach a college athlete isn't exactly the same as you would coach a HS athlete, just my $0.02..

[pullin4thesparkplug]

I pretty much agree with all things not named sadsite.

If you take the names away, b/c that's all they are to me considering I've met neither, and you look at resume A vs. resume B, there isn't even an argument in my eyes that MacGuwire's (combo of all the misspellings..) trumps Smiths.

But that is a moot point now. Turn the page sadsite.

[POP13]

Darren Holmes to be volunteer asst. coach working with pitchers. This could be a good addition!

[kingaling42]

POP- I think that is of course a positive thing for the program, particularly a sad & sorry pitching staff that we have fielded for some time now (yes, that would include all of the pitchers when the best ERA is at 4.44- top 5 at 8.44).. makes you kinda wonder why Holmes never volunteered before though doesn't it??

Maybe that's just me...

[TheThrillaNamedZilla]

if the volly isnt there at every practice and every game, then he's not a real volunteer

i've worked with college programs, for free as a 'volly'...but not been the 'volly coach'

not the same thing and not nearly as important or helpful

him coming sometimes to practice is cool...but not important...it's like having a guest lecturer in class...he aint the teacher...he's just some joker whose lecture you wish you'd cut, and the bottom line is if his techniques arent practiced and repeated, they're just more things that are heard and tossed out.

hopefully he'll help out and do well, but if he's not a true 'coach', then he wont be much help, and that's the real truth

i do hope that coach smith really does reach out to the alumni, as there are some good baseball people available to him that didnt just play at TC Roberson. unca has former pros and currently successful coaches/business minds that could help in a variety of ways.

I'm hearing coach smith is open to the alumni coming back, becoming a part of the program and helping out...now, him just asking us back is not enough, and if he thinks it is, he'll fail.

he needs to apologize to many of us for the faults of the past regimes, even if he had to part of it, and demonstrate that he is really different in how he'll respect and treat the players of the past, good or bad. you never know who'll become a ceo or successful coach in the future...

i'm excited to see who he names his assistants, and i implore others to be open minded as this process and year unfolds

ZILLA!

[uncafan]

Besides Holmes I'm hearing that Aaron Rembert is a favorite to be tapped as the new Pitching Coach/Recruiting guy... Obviously Aaron is an alum and is currently at Mars Hill, and from what I hear coach smith likes his work ethic and what he's done over there.

This is one case where I DO think they could possibly get a more impressive hire (I know the funding isn't great -- but there are still a lot of good young assistants out there that would gladly jump from a voly or 2nd assistant job to one making nearly 30k) , but I really don't have a problem staying 'in the family.' I think Aaron would be a good choice...


2nd assistant....who knows...Would he go with Kenny (Smith)? I'm not a huge fan of that idea but I'd say there's a decent chance he will....

[CoachMann]

You guys need to remember a popular quote" if you are not part of the solution- then you are part of the problem." Get out there and do something if you want your school to do better. How much money have you donated? How much money have you raised? How many hours have you volunteered ? How many recruits have you sent referrals to?

The difference in this guy and all the rest is he actually has the job. All this guy wants is a job. He's probably happy to get it.

He does not owe anyone an apology for taking a job that was offered to him. He doesn't owe an apology for what happened before him. He just needs to get to work and teach a few cats how to knock in some runs and make a throw to first on a rope. Work with the guys he has to make them better and bring in some new talent and all will be good.

The AD seems to be the one that is incompetent. But thats not the coach's fault.

Paul

[UNCA Alum]

I always liked Aaron. Don't know him very well as he was a bit older, but he seemed like a real solid guy.

I can't remember who we were playing (maybe ETSU?), but my freshmen year Aaron was on the mound and a guy at the plate said something about the pitcher, apparently oblivious to the fact that his little brother was behind the plate. Things got a little out of hand.

[TheThrillaNamedZilla]

He does not owe anyone an apology for taking a job that was offered to him. He doesn't owe an apology for what happened before him. He just needs to get to work and teach a few cats how to knock in some runs and make a throw to first on a rope. Work with the guys he has to make them better and bring in some new talent and all will be good.

this is my first attempt at replying with a quote at the begining of my post...we'll see how it goes

Paul...YOU'RE NUTS

if unca thinks that its past allumni will just forget all the bullshit that we had to deal with as a part of an incompetant and embarrassing program you have another thing coming.

recruits that were referred werent wanted, and then committed to and starred at better schools

efforts to help at camps were turned down (even by kevin mattison and alan derrat) by former coaches

money spent to the program was spent on allumni weekends that LOSE MONEY and golf for perry

so willie and perry are gone, it's a new day, turn the page...

guess what, the old pages are the only ones most of us got to read. and all i see now are the same promises that willie made, and i'm sure myers made...there's no built up credit in this program or this regime of yet.

when you apply for a loan, you cant just say, 'well, i know i didnt pay my bills in the past, and i know i've burned you before, but this time it's different' and they give you the cash...unca wont get a dime from me, and many former players, until some 'goodwill credit' has been established and he shows he can really involve the allumni in a positive way and push the program forward.

you donate your time and money like some of us did in the past and get treated the way were were and see how you like it. they do owe us some things, and if they dont make the mistakes of the past right, they will have lost years of allumni (and possible doners) in the process

ZILLA!

[Dogs]

"2nd assistant....who knows...Would he go with Kenny (Smith)? I'm not a huge fan of that idea but I'd say there's a decent chance he will...."

I think they need a 2nd assistant that knows the baseball swing. Not just somebody that could hit but someone that really knows the baseball swing and hitting mentality and can help some of the guys with their approach at the plate, being prepared by where you are in the lineup. I have no clue who that should be but Coach Smith knows how to plan and run practices and he should be busy smoothing things over with the alumni and interfacing with the administration and it appears they are addressing the pitching.

[pullin4thesparkplug]

1. i've heard his son kenny might be an assistant. don't know good he is at teaching/coaching, but at least his resume is more respectable than a lot of the d2, d3 coaches that have taken that position the past few years (with a few exceptions).

2. coach smith definitely owes something to alumni, and an apology would be best. it wouldn't be an apology from him per se, considering he probably hasn't wronged anybody. however, the program has (for some of the reasons zilla listed plus many others), so the apology would be from the program. people have tried to reach out the past few years, but these attempts never showed because the previous staff wasn't interested in listening to any of it. i'm not trying to say there was a gigantic outpouring of support, but there was some and it was shot down. this undoubtedly discouraged others from even trying. as the new face of the program, and given the program needs to apologize, smith should do so because of what the program was the past 5-10 years, and then promise change. this will get the attention of the alumni. if he then begins to deliver on those promises, the support will follow.

given the bad taste left in everyones mouth from the past few years, people are tentative to give support (as they should be) and will not pledge any support until it looks like things are changing. moreover, there are a lot of recent unca baseball alum who are just beginning their post college lives and only have the willie/TP experience to draw on. they are not in position to give back financially at this time, however they will be down the line and mending the wrongs that were witnessed during their time would be a great way to build for the future. i think an apology is a great way to get the ball rolling.