On The Right Path
2/16/2018 10:45:00 AM | Baseball
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Rob Vaughn's promotion to Maryland's head baseball coach last summer made him one of the youngest head coaches in the country at age 30.
His familiarity with the Terrapins was unquestioned. His effectiveness as both a hitting coach and a recruiter was in plain sight. Yet the obvious question facing Vaughn and Maryland as the season gets underway this weekend at Tennessee is simple: How prepared is he for this gig?
“We'll find out on Feb. 16,” Vaughn said. “You never know. I remember when I took this job [as an assistant], I was 25 and I'd never recruited anybody. I was a volunteer assistant at Kansas State. I'd never been on the road recruiting. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what to talk about with kids on the phone. That's kind of a challenge. I like learning, I like putting myself in uncomfortable situations, and I kind of learned on the fly.”
Spend a half-hour talking to Vaughn in his office, and his enthusiasm is immediately evident. That alone will accelerate the learning curve for him and his under-40 staff.
But there's something else that stands out: Books. Lots of 'em, with
Energy won't solve every question for the Terps. Finding tested ways to get better and applying them on a day-to-day basis will take care of some others.
“The amount of reading that is done on this staff is incredible,” Vaughn said. “We sit here and talk half the time about books we're reading, and that's from the bottom up. We're trying to learn as much as possible. The environment of that from me will rub off on our guys, without question.”
It's not quite a baseball book club. The point isn't simply to read, but to figure out how to use
The hope is that every little book helps.
“Reading is knowledge,” outfielder Zach Jancarski, who acknowledged he hasn't been a voracious reader in the past. “It's
Jancarski and the Terps already had an idea of what to expect, and that's made the transition from former coach John Szefc much easier to handle.
It also gives Vaughn a deep understanding of what can be done at Maryland.
“The good thing is being in a place you've been for five years, you have a little bit of a comfortability with the people and the administration and the support staff,” Vaughn said. “The learning curve is a little bit easier, but when you really look at it, [being a head coach] is a whole different game.”
Some of it is as basic as who he interacts with on a regular basis. As his time as an assistant, Vaughn's focus was almost solely on the team's hitters.
He coached the hitters. He recruited the hitters. And as for the pitchers? The coaching staff's responsibilities were largely siloed.
Little wonder Vaughn spent much of the fall building relationships with the pitching staff and trying to tighten the bond of the entire roster.
“As a hitting coach, you just deal with the hitters,” shortstop A.J. Lee said. “Being the head coach, he's definitely brought us into one unit. We're more associated with the pitchers than we were the last two years I was here, and I think that's a big part of what he's brought to the table.”
He's also emphasized investing himself in players, something he learned as a senior at Kansas State from then-Wildcats assistant Andy Sawyers. At the time, Vaughn hadn't considered coaching --- and wouldn't have guessed he would be a Division I head coach a decade later.
After playing a couple years in the Chicago White Sox organization, he worked as a volunteer assistant at Kansas State before following Szefc to Maryland. Vaughn's figured out methods that work, but he knows he has to apply them while being himself.
“If I try to be John Szefc, I'm not going to do a great job,” Vaughn said. “I'm keeping the idea of the things I've learned from these great coaches, from Andy Sawyers to John Szefc to [Sam Houston State coach] Matt Deggs, trying to take the stuff I've learned from those guys and really digest it and see how it impacts me. How does it impact me as a coach and how can I regurgitate it to our players so it's authentic.”
There's also the matter of the book on Maryland baseball. The Terps have reached the NCAA tournament in three of the last four years, including Super Regional trips in 2014 and 2015. Prior to those runs. Maryland hadn't advanced to the postseason since 1971.
So while things are trending up, the Terps are far from an entrenched power. Then again, neither were postseason mainstays Louisville and Vanderbilt until the last 10-15 years, and Vaughn sees no reason Maryland couldn't accomplish something similar.
“It's a place that's basically on the ground floor that's had some success, but with the right people and the right support --- which we've clearly gotten over the last couple years --- this is a place where you can do something that's never been done before,” Vaughn said. “I think if you fast-forward five to seven years and you're talking about the University of Maryland as a destination school in the same breath
It doesn't happen overnight, and there's plenty for Vaughn to learn as he navigates his first season in his new role. He's already learned how to delegate some of his old responsibilities as an assistant, something not all first-time head coaches handle so easily.
He already has buy-in from a clubhouse that knows him, and that's an excellent start.
“If you look at him and the way he runs practice and the way we kind of go about things here, I think that question is answered by his energy and the way he brings everybody together,” Jancarski said. “I definitely think he's ready, and we're ready as a team. We're definitely on the right path.”
When Vaughn interviewed for the job, he declared Maryland could become a dream situation for baseball coaches. Between the quality of the education, its location and access to good players, there's a chance for him to do something no ever has --- build Maryland baseball into a lasting winner.
“I would not have taken this job if I didn't think it was something that can be really, really special,” Vaughn said. “I think it's a job where it's built on people, and I think you can lose sight of that, big-time. If you get the right people in place, I think you can blow the lid off this place. We've been successful and had a level of success, but our goal is to build
