Better Men Better Ballplayers Podcast with
Mark Gibbs; St Johns DC
Sponsored By:
BIO
- HC of St Johns DC
- 339–90–1 Overall Record, .788 Winning Percentage in 17 years
- 13, 20-win seasons
- 6 of the seasons St Johns has been nationally ranked
- Before their 2008 season, St. John’s was on the cover of Baseball America, the first team from the mid-Atlantic to ever be profiled in the preview issue.
- Gibbs has sent 124 players into college baseball from St Johns
- 17 players who were drafted by or signed to free agent contracts with professional teams.
- The Cadets have won or tied for 1 regular season conference titles (2007, 2010, 2012–19, 2021),
- 8 WCAC tournament titles (2011, 2014–19)
- 3 DCSAA titles (2014, 2019, 2021).
- Many Coach of the year awards (Washington Post, WCAC, USA Today, DCSAA)
NOTES
- The experience that I feel is best for kids and the reality it is, we need to find what’s best for us
- Staying together in the summer and fall has brought us bigger things that baseball
- Outsourced a strength coach (sports performance coach)
- The HC needs to monitor it all.
- Bring in people that the HC can trust and let them work
- A lot of what you are dealing with is not on the field
- If you have good people and you trust them that is the best
- Got to have good players and guys that are willing to work
- The guy was just a worker! His work ethic stood out
- They were very prepared in the whole system that prepared them for college
- Pitching, defense and baserunning is what you do to win games
- We prioritize pitching, not just fit it into practice
- In the live stuff we do, that is the most live baserunning situations we can get
- Play more live! Use the baserunners when pitching on mound
- Using their eyes to run the bases
- Base stealing and base running are taught in two different segments
- Year to year we focus on certain things more than others depending on your team
- You have to have guys that can do it (vault stealing/ new school leads)
- You have to have the time to teach it and put it into your program.
