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Dustin
Coffman is completing his third year of coaching college baseball. He began his
coaching career as a student manager at Indiana University in 2009 and was
promoted the following year to volunteer assistant. Coffman spent the 2010
summer in the Coastal Plain League with the Edenton Steamers, who finished Top 5
in the country. From Edenton, Coffman took his first paid position at Wabash
Valley College. Over the past two seasons, the Warriors have compiled a 93-30
record and have been ranked as high as No. 3 in NJCAA baseball. In summer 2011,
Coffman was hired to be an assistant baseball coach with the Bourne Braves in
the storied Cape Cod League where he will return this summer.
A
native of Granger, Ind., Coffman earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science
from Indiana in 2009 and is working on a master’s degree in applied sports
studies from IU.
Coffman will share his thoughts throughout the 2012 Cape Cod season.
click here
for other journal entries
June 11, 2012
The Journey
I’ve been laying in bed for the past six hours tossing, turning,
staring at the ceiling just trying to get some rest. The time has come, it’s now
5 a.m. and the journey is about to begin. I stumble out to the kitchen where as
my mom promised the night before she would be waiting to say goodbye to me. I
grab a bottled water, give her a big hug, and my 15-hour drive to the Cape
begins. My Grand Am is loaded with clothes, shoes and all the little things I
might need this summer. The plan is to drive seven or eight hours, stop at a
hotel and then finish the drive the following day.
 I
get in the zone, the miles, the tolls and states are flying by. Before I know it
I am already in New York. I call my host family seven hours out to tell them
there is a chance I might make it in tonight. Screw it! I’m not spending the
money for a hotel, I’m knocking this out tonight! Five hours left, I stop, grab
a big coffee and now I’m feeling unstoppable. Felt great until the last hour and
a half, then I hit the wall, time starts to slow down. I finally pull into
Bourne around 9:30 p.m. I have to call my parents, mama, and Annie to tell them
all I made it OK. I am greeted by my host family, Mac and Moe Smith, who have a
whole table of food waiting for me. (I am spoiled.) I grab a quick shower and as
soon as my head hits the pillow I’m out. The drive is over!
The next day I wake up around 9:30 and hit the gym. I return back
to my new home for the summer to get caught up on emails, the draft and all the
news I might have missed while driving. I check the draft tracker on MLB.com and
see that five out of the first 10 picks in the draft I coached against last
summer, 20 out of the first 44 picks played in the Cape last summer, and at the
conclusion of the 2012 MLB draft the Bourne Braves had 25 former players
drafted. Not too bad…
 Friday,
the Bourne Braves management and coaching staff meets for lunch. It’s great to
see Harvey, Ted, and meet the newest member of our staff, John Slusarz. At lunch
Coach Ted Reagan has the reading glasses on with a mountain of papers full of
possible players' names in front of him. Coach Harvey Shapiro is running through
different scenarios of players who might or might not be coming.
Harvey started recruiting the previous August for this year’s
team and the recruiting will not stop until the season ends this August. In the
Cape League, recruiting never stops! You may have an amazing team picked in
February, but every year you loose guys to Team USA, injury, the draft, or some
kids just up and decide to go home. Out of Harvey’s original 28 players he had
signed in February to play for Bourne this summer, only 16 remain and we are
less than a week from the start of our season.
Best
DC
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