Taking Performance To The Next Level

On Feb. 14, 2024, the ground was officially broken on Maryland baseball’s new Stanley Bobb Baseball Performance Center. 

Today, less than a year later, the impressive facility is complete. It allows baseball student-athletes to train year-round in a climate-controlled environment where they can hone their skills regardless of the conditions. The 8,500-square-foot facility features defined spaces for pitchers and hitters and technology upgrades for increased analytics.

Head baseball coach Matt Swope explained that the Stanley Bobb Baseball Performance Center allows his program to take player development — a core principle of his — to the next level.  

“We've always cared about the development here,” Swope said. “We've always cared about the individual. We've always cared about the character. This is something that's vital even more to our program than other programs.”

The project was one of many in Maryland Athletics’ Building Champions initiative, a campaign that enables investment in facility renovation and enhancement. 

The baseball facility is named after the late Stanley Bobb. Bobb, who pitched for the Terps from 1954-57, is a Greater Washington Jewish Sports Hall of Fame member. He was the starting pitcher in the dedication game at then-Shipley Field in 1954 against Dartmouth, winning on a six-hitter. Through his family's generous financial gift, the Bobbs helped create a place that will hone championship-level baseball players and build teammates for life.

“Thank you to Sandy Bobb and the Bobb family for generosity in honoring Stanley Bobb, the patriarch of their family,” said Damon Evans, the Barry P. Gossett Director of Athletics. “He was an entrepreneur who made a difference in so many people’s lives. A true family man, Stanley often pointed to his three children and 12 grandchildren as his proudest accomplishment. We are honored to have his name emblazoned on our new Stanley Bobb Baseball Performance Center.”

Although promoted to head coach in June 2023, Swope retained his duties as hitting coach — an area he’s specialized in for decades. The new facility positively impacts his job because he approaches his day-to-day work as a clinician. He spends most of his time in the facility working with hitters. 

The development center also enhances Swope’s ability to coach student-athletes and help them achieve greater performance by individualizing movement through motor preferences. He popularized the training style in the United States. 

Swope and his business partner, David Genest, co-founded Motor Preferences Experts, a sports educational consulting company revolutionizing personal and athletic development by integrating the science of motor preferences. The facility features tech upgrades, such as pressure mapping technology, which allows Swope and his staff to incorporate more data into their approach.  

“It's life-changing for me,” Swope said. “I've always really cared about coaching the individual, realizing that everybody was different. That's always been my focus, which is why we've been successful. But actually having application to do that is the first time I've experienced that in sports or in my entire life.”

The student-athletes echoed a similar sentiment and expressed gratitude to the Bobb family and others who helped make the development center's construction possible. 

“I’m thrilled for the new indoor facility,” redshirt sophomore left-handed pitcher Kyle McCoy said. “It’s something we are unbelievably grateful to have, and it’s a credit to all the people before us who made it possible for us to maximize our abilities to be the best players we can be out on the field.” 

Senior infielder Eddie Hacopian says the Stanley Bobb Baseball Performance Center will help Maryland baseball continue its winning ways.  

“We are pretty fired up to get in there and start working,” Hacopian said. “The Maryland baseball program deserves this. The culture has always been about winning. Right when I got here, I noticed it. Losing doesn’t fly. We look forward to making some noise in the Big Ten and the rest of the country this year.”

Above all else, Swope views the Stanley Bobb Baseball Performance Center as a significant recruiting tool. His track record of coaching MLB players such as Nick Ahmed, Tommy Pham, Joshua, and Richie Palacios and continuing to work with former Terps such as Kevin Smith, Matt Shaw, Luke Shliger, Nick Lorusso, Nigel Belgrave and LaMonte Wade Jr. speaks for itself. 

Swope can now deliver on his promise to help young athletes unlock their abilities in a greater way than before.   

“Whether it's a high school kid or a portal kid, when you tell someone, ‘Hey, I'm going to coach you better than X, Y and Z at the top programs in the country, I truly believe that I am, but you have to be able to have a space to do so,” Swope said. “The resources have to match the ability to do what you have to do. I think that's the biggest part. The recruiting thing is, if a kid can come here on campus and feel like they're gonna get better, then that's all that matters.”