A Narrowing Focus

As of practice time Tuesday afternoon, the Toreros were officially finished with finals and living the dream. For those who don’t know, USD is one of the premiere academic institutions on the West Coast and our rising athletic program is just enough to get most professors to be understanding about missing class for road games (sometimes), but the appreciation stops there. I think it is important to note that student-athletes aren’t catered to in the classroom, to say the least!

Now the duel challenge of battling school and baseball has shifted to a head-on challenge to be the best ballplayers we can be. From a player’s perspective in the thick of it, I think this narrowed focus is dangerous for any future opponents considering the reality of our intense school demands that have disappeared to leave room for even more of the blue-collar attitude that defines a Torero.

Personally, as I completed my last classes ever at USD I, like many of my teammates, thought we were done with homework for a while. However, the thoroughness of our preparation would prove this rational to be wrong. Every hitter was given a file with charts from this weekend’s opponent and how each pitcher threw to us. Our hitting coach, Jay Johnson, asked us to study the charts and fill out our own scouting report and to fill out a page with how each pitcher would attack us. Each hitter then met with Coach to go over the assignment and how we would implement our personal plan against opposing pitchers.

The personality of our team is one that embraces the when-in-doubt-work-harder philosophy of our program, but we still commit to having fun. As the music blared in the locker room of songs that always seem to get the team into a ridiculous less than serious dance-off in the locker room, the buzz of a flare day began to take over the conversation of the room.

At USD we are so fortunate to have inked a premiere deal with Demarini/Wilson that less that half a dozen other programs around the country can say the share. This year we have be pampered with the highest quality gloves, bats, and accessories I have ever played with, thanks to the hands-on commitment of excellence provided by Doug Wisner, Rob Woidneck, and all the great people at Wilson. Being so taken care of comes with its perks and today we decided to make our two-a-day practice more fun by making sure every player expressed their individuality with wristbands galore, batting gloves, eye black strips with the SD logo on them, etc. It was quite the sight to see guys with Torero blue wristbands on their legs, covering arms, and even one player with them on his cleats. This day of over-zealous expression wasn’t the first use of flare Cunningham Stadium has seen, however, as one of our assistant coaches can often be spotted representing his Demarini wristbands to drag the field. 

After a bye weekend and a great week of preparation the Toreros are craving an opponent to walk through the gate. The hitters are primed for action and the pitchers are ready to do their thing as the WCC Championship Series begins Friday in San Diego. Now that we’ve taken the “student” out of student-athlete, let get into it!

Logan Gelbrich, B.A.

(action photo by Brock Scott)