Sept. 18, 2014

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HEAD COACH CHAD HOLBROOK

Opening Statement
It’s exciting to get started. Obviously, with the way our season ended last year it’s been a long offseason, but it’s been very encouraging at the same time. A lot of our kids have worked extremely hard both in the summer leagues and in rehab or therapy if they were injured. They’ve had a great three weeks here in individual workouts and had a great month or so in the weight room. The kids are anxious to get on the field and our coaches are anxious to get on the field. We’ll have a lot of new faces around here this fall fighting for positions. There is going to be a lot of competition and there are a lot of important roles to find. We need to determine who’s going to be what in some roles this fall. We had some incredible players that left our program that we have to replace. It won’t be easy to replace Grayson Greiner, Joey Pankake, Joel Seddon and a host of others. It will be an important fall for us. We have some new players, we have some talented players and I think we have the makings of a really good team. The fall is going to be very important to our players, to our coaches and I think it will set the tone for how we’ll play this spring.

On how last year ended and expectations for this season
It’s always very difficult to get to where we want to go, its not easy to get to the College World Series, you have to beat some awfully good teams. I said when I took this job three years ago, I embrace the expectations that this program has and I think our players do as well. You don’t come to South Carolina, to either coach or play, to not be expected to compete for championships or get close to going to the College World Series. We’ve had a great run. I certainly understand that you can’t go to Omaha every year but we’re going to try. It was disappointing for us, for our players, coaches and fans the way last season ended. We have a team that is talented enough this year to get back there [to the College World Series] and a team that’s talented enough to compete for championships. We’re also going to be competing against teams that are as talented as us and that’s what makes playing in the SEC so much fun. I can’t wrap myself up in thinking Omaha or bust, all I can think about it trying to prepare our team everyday to be the best it can be. Hopefully, come June, we’ll be good enough. I do so far like the type of kids and character we have on our team. They work extremely hard and I’m anxious to see them compete against each other this weekend.

On areas he thinks they can improve in from last season
Looking at last season there were a lot of things I was very proud of. One, I thought we had a good of a regular season as we could have possibly had, given the circumstances and the hand that was dealt to us with injuries. Winning 42 games in regular season, going 42-14 and finishing in the top four [in the SEC] facing the adversity we faced, I couldn’t be more proud of our team. I’m also smart enough to realize that you’re not judged at South Carolina on what you do in the regular season. The postseason is where it counts, that’s where you’re judged and rightfully so. That’s part of the business. We didn’t play well in the postseason at all and I’ve been trying to put my finger on it but I don’t know if I have the answer, other than you have to play better. When the opportunity presents itself, you have to get a big hit or make a big play. That’s kind of what we’ve been able to do here on a consistent basis but we didn’t do it last year and it made for a disappointing offseason. I hope it motived our players, I think it did and it certainly motivated our coaches to take a long hard look on any areas we need to improve on. I’ve been here now seven years and we didn’t change anything last year or do anything different from our practice organization or the way we teach the game. We stayed very consistent in our approach here. What we didn’t do that we’ve done in previous years was get the big hit when our season was on the line, we didn’t make a big defensive play when our season was on the line or we didn’t make the big pitch. Baseball can be very cruel at times and if you don’t make those big plays where your season is on the line you’re going to have a disappointing end to your season and that’s what happened.

On former players in the major league
Coach Tanner always told me that if Steve Pearce ever gets a chance to hit on an everyday basis, that he’ll stay in the majors a long time. He [Coach Tanner] felt that Steve was one of the best hitters he ever coached; he talked about Steve all the time. It’s really great to see the Orioles give him a chance to play everyday. Obviously Coach Tanner is right about a lot of things and he was right about Steve. He [Steve] is right at .300 right now with 20 home runs and has had an incredible season. The neat thing about this summer for us is some of our former players have done really well. We’ve had nine former players in the major league this season, which says a lot about our program and the players we’ve had come through here. It was neat communicating with Christian [Walker] yesterday on his way to Baltimore. He got a hit yesterday then had the pie thrown in his face and its just really good for our program. We’re extremely proud of them [our former players]. Whit Merrifield, who we went and saw Tuesday night, he’s right there on the brink of being in the major league as well. Christian was the Orioles Minor League Player of the Year and Whit is getting ready to get an award from the Royals. Evan Marzilli has improved, I know the Diamondbacks are very high on him and he might be in big league camp next year. Tyler Webb had really good summer. We had nine guys in major league and there are a few knocking at the door. It’s been a great summer for our former players and that’s been one thing that’s made me smile a little bit this summer.