What does four and 29 mean to you? To the baseball team at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, four and 29 means nothing either. On paper, it was the Owls\u2019 win-loss record. Many people might see that and make assumptions about the team\u2019s ability to compete. The Owls want people to look past it. Teams aren\u2019t built or coached on paper. Competition brings effort, and effort brings pride. UMPI baseball Coach Roger Stinson wants people to see the pride and not the record. He takes pride in coaching. \u201cI love the sport, but it\u2019s more about working with kids.\u201d Roger is now in his first full-time season with recruiting and trying to build a culture at UMPI that emphasizes competing, responsibility and taking pride in being a baseball player.<\/p>\n
The competitive culture that Roger is trying to instill started last season. He faced a lot of adversity during his first season. \u201cI joined five weeks into the preseason. \u00a0When I came on board, we had a week and a half to get ready for our first games.\u201d \u00a0He told a story of a game from last season demonstrating the team\u2019s pride and competitive spirit. \u201cWe went up to New York and played Baruch. When we got off the bus, I asked my captain, Matt Cauchon, \u2018What\u2019s the matter?\u2019 Matt said, \u2018They\u2019re laughing. They think we\u2019re a joke.\u2019 We ended up giving them two great games and their coach was shocked,\u201d Roger said.<\/p>\n
Junior infielder Christian Mumley also talked about the Owls\u2019 competitiveness last season under Roger. \u201cOur record was four and 29 but that doesn\u2019t show the talent and how much he is trying to change the program,\u201d Christian said.<\/p>\n
This season will be a major transition because the Owls are now in the Northern Atlantic Conference. It gives them more opportunities. \u201cIn the NAC conference, you are playing for the chance to win the conference and go to the D-III playoffs. I\u2019ve said that our ultimate goal is to go to the playoffs and have a chance to go to the D-III world series,\u201d Roger said.<\/p>\n
Learning to recruit has become stressful for Roger, but he has done his best to understand it. \u201cWe didn\u2019t start chasing anybody until the end of last April. We didn\u2019t know if we were going to keep our jobs.\u201d With his job secure, Roger has tried to recruit players from across the country. Selling Presque Isle and D-III baseball has been difficult. \u201cThere\u2019s still people out there who believe they are D-I athletes. There are a lot of potential D-III baseball players in Maine who decide they don\u2019t want to play. I have three new players from Texas possibly committing next year. It may only be D-III to some, but to me it is as important as any other level,\u201d Roger said.<\/p>\n
Baseball involves smart decision-making and players who fill certain needs for a team. Roger is confident, not just in some of his starters, but also his bench. His captains, shortstop Ryan Sanderson, catcher Will Stinson and centerfielder Brad Patterson, are the players who he looks to as leaders. He also praised the team\u2019s bench players for their versatility. \u201cI can give you a list of guys on the bench who could start. Last year I would look at the bench when I needed something, and I didn\u2019t have it. Now I have guys who could start,\u201d Roger said.\u00a0 Christian also talked about the team\u2019s depth. \u201cThis year we\u2019ve got a lot of good incoming transfers and freshman. Coach has done a good job recruiting players for depth; not just to be our star players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing baseball is fun but being a student athlete takes responsibility. That is a part of the culture that Roger is trying to bring to his players. \u201cStudent comes first in the program. Athlete is second. I want them to understand it may not be D-I, but you\u2019re going to act like it\u2019s D-I. I want them to have pride when they are recognized for being on the UMPI Owls baseball team,\u201d Roger said. Christian talked about the players\u2019 responsibilities. \u201cHe expects us to do our offseason work. He\u2019s done a lot of different drills that help us. He\u2019s also making us accountable. If you plan on missing a class, you email the professor and forward to him, so he sees it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the diamond this season, Roger and his team are trying to improve on their pride and competitive spirit. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get there, as many times as I have to correct them.\u201d He may sound tough, but at the end of the day he wants his players to be recognized. \u201cI want them to be proud of themselves. It\u2019s about them, not me,\u201d Roger said. UMPI starts its season against Greensboro and N.C. Wesleyan in North Carolina. Those schools have won D-III world series and have had players drafted into Major League Baseball. Roger\u2019s goal is for his team to come out competitive and leave it all on the field.<\/p>\n
Around Roger\u2019s leadership, the team has a developed the saying, \u201cbest day ever.\u201d It was said in morning practice to help the morale of the team. It has become their philosophy. \u201cWe\u2019re playing baseball. And when you think about it, knowing what the world is today, it\u2019s not a bad thing to think about.\u201d Do you remember four and 29? To the UMPI baseball team, it\u2019s so last year. Now it is on to the best day ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What does four and 29 mean to you? To the baseball team at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, four and 29 means nothing either. On paper, it was the Owls\u2019 win-loss record. Many people might see that and make assumptions about the team\u2019s ability to compete. The Owls want people to look past […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8510,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5784\/revisions\/8510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}