Oct. 11, 2007
The fall of '07 marks the beginning of a new era in Catamount Baseball. The returning Cats from the 2007 SoCon Regular Season Championship squad welcomed many new faces this fall, including five new coaches and fifteen players. While there obviously have been some changes within the program in the past several months, the ultimate goal remains the same, to walk through the gates of Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska in June of 2008 and compete for a National Championship.
We began the fall of 2007 with three weeks of weight lifting, conditioning and individual skill work. This is a crucial time during our off-season period in which we prepare ourselves physically and mentally for the allotted amount of days that we are able to hold team practice in the fall.
During our second week of workouts Coach Moranda introduced what will become a new tradition for Catamount Baseball, the run up the "Omaha Hill." This hill begins above Norton Hall and climbs up to the University Guest House on the backside of campus near Hunter Library. Coach Moranda uses this hill to symbolize the amount of adversity that our team will have to overcome in order to win a national championship.
If you were to stop by the baseball field during our individual skill work you would most likely see a high energy Coach Mingione challenging our outfielders with fly balls and 180 ft. long hop throws into a tire; the infielders turning double plays while being timed on the stopwatch by Coach Moranda; our catchers grinding it out during their blocking drills, and the pitchers doing circuit work with the resistance cords and medicine balls as well as completing throwing drills and unique styles of bullpen work.
All-in-all, this pre-fall phase was a success; we saw improvement individually with physical condition as well as in our positional breakdown skill work.
We have been in our fall practice phase for a little over a week and a half and there has already been a tremendous amount of competition within the team to win starting jobs for the spring season. Our practices thus far have been high intensity, efficient, and full of adversity.
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Coach Moranda has also implemented a new evaluation technique called Game Notes and Practice Notes. Everyday for a 10-15 period the entire team sits and evaluates the previous days practice and/or intra-squad. This has proven to be a valuable tool in which coaches are able to remind us of success as well as mishaps that need to be corrected. The unique part of this is that we, the players, are allowed to interject any comments or concerns that we may have about the way things are going.
In a month and a half of workouts and practice, it is clear that this team is on its way to accomplishing big things. We dream big and realize that success comes at a price. As part of the Catamount Baseball Team I can say that this team and its coaching staff realize that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves and we have set out to continue a tradition of success within this program that is highly regarded throughout the country.
To all of the alumni and supporters of our program, thank you for your help and support, we recognize that you play a vital role in WCU Baseball making it to Omaha. We will continue with fall practice over the next several weeks and I encourage all of you to come check us out, we would love to have you out there with us. And don't forget to come to Cullowhee early for Homecoming weekend to catch us in action on October 19 at 7:00 pm.
