For Triton
baseball coach Dan O’Brien, ’97, baseball is not all
fun and games. “I think a lot of people would be surprised
at the amount of work we put into building a successful college
baseball team,” he says.
As a first and third baseman, he played on the UCSD team from 1993-1995
while earning his communications degree. Soon after graduation, he
served a year as an assistant general manager and player/coach for
the minor league Greenville Bluesmen in Mississippi. He returned
to UCSD to work as an assistant coach in 1997. “I have
a tremendous amount of pride in UCSD baseball,” says O’Brien. “I
saw a great opportunity to help develop the skills of the future
leaders in our community.”
Since O’Brien took over as head coach in 1998, he has worked
to make the most of the UCSD program. In his first season as coach,
he also served as the team’s hitting instructor, helping the
Tritons break five school records, including team batting average,
runs per game, hits per game, doubles and team slugging percentage.
“
We’ve found a way to be successful on the field despite having
no athletic scholarships and challenging admissions standards for
student athletes,” says O’Brien. This makes recruiting
a top priority for O’Brien’s coaching team, who are
scouting talent year-round. According to him, about
80 percent of a college coach’s job is recruitment. But how
do you convince baseball players to attend UCSD when
the athletic funding is so limited? “UCSD is a great place
to get your degree and compete,” he says. “Our job, our
challenge, is helping student athletes see the benefits of going
here instead of the negatives of having no scholarships.”
Despite lacking scholarships, this is no slouch
program. O’Brien
works his team six days a week, doing strength training on the
field, weight training and baseball drills as
a team. This past year, the team made it to the California Collegiate
Athletics Association Championships and six players earned All-CCAA
recognition. O’Brien couldn’t be prouder and he is looking
forward to the upcoming season. “Every year is a brand new
year,” he says. “I always look forward to the challenge
of building a tight-knit group from players who don’t really
know each other.”
For now, the team
will not focus on rivalries or the championship spots. Instead O’Brien
says they will just try to play great baseball. “I know it
sounds clichéd, but we like to say our opponent is nameless
and faceless. We just play against the game.”
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