After venting his frustration and hurt to media nation-wide, a calmer Ron Polk talks about the hiring of John Cohen as the new Mississippi State baseball coach. Now that you’ve had time to think about all of this what are your thoughts? “I am a Mississippi State guy all the way. This will work out eventually. I just have to get over it. I don’t feel this way for me totally, it’s for my coaches. Can you imagine me having to watch my coaches - Tommy (Raffo), Russ (McNickle), Wade (Hedges) and Greg (Drye) - this week packing up their offices and having to leave, turn their keys in? “I said to myself you can almost see tears in their eyes, you can see their wives crying. And what did they do wrong? What did they do wrong? “Tommy has been here 19 years - an All-American player here and a coach here with Pat (McMahon) and me. We’ve gone to post-season play for 21 straight years, except for this year, but I’m not going to get into the injuries. He’s been part of championships. He was groomed by me, mentored by me and Pat. He could have had opportunities to go elsewhere, but this is his home, this is his school where he graduated from. He even met his wife Paula here. “Then a guy (Greg Byrne) comes in who has only been here one and a half years who didn’t have an athletic director background and makes the hire. But Greg was consistent - he did a nation-wise search, he waited until the end of the season, and he wanted to make sure it was done right. My hope and my prayers were always that he would say at the end that he did a nation-wide search and a found the guy right here at Mississippi State - Tommy Raffo. I was hoping he would say, ‘I was very impressed with Tommy Raffo and I recommend him.’ “The same thing happened in Georgia. I stayed there two years. And (current Georgia head baseball coach) Dave Perno was with me those two years. I went to (Georgia AD) Vince Dooley and told him that his man was right here. He said, ‘I have to do the nation-wide search.’ And he did. He brought a couple (of potential coaches) in, but it didn’t work out. So, he finally said because of my recommendation he was going to hire Perno despite Dave being so young. Since then, Dave has been to the College World Series three times. “When John Cohen left Kentucky, the head assistant coach got hired immediately. Larry Hayes, my good friend from Texas Tech, just retired and his assistant coach got hired. I asked him how that happened. He said he went in and told the AD the assistant coach is ready. He told him, ‘ok, he’s been here long enough so he’s it.’ “We had people call, fax and email (in support of Tommy), maybe too many. Many of the (current) players went in and their parents emailed. So, I thought it might happened. Then, Buck Showalter told me he had been contacted. Pat Casey had also been contacted. Steve Smith had been contacted. But Greg told me he was going to do (the nation-wide search). “Then, I heard that John (Cohen) was a strong candidate and that he was interested. So, I called John and told him to please, please don’t take it. I told him, ‘you have a job that pays you well. It may be colder than it is here at Mississippi State. And it may not have as many people in the stands. But please, please, as your former coach and your friend, do not take your job.’ I told him, ‘I understand and you understand that if you don’t take it someone else might. But here’s the problem, if you come here it’s going to hurt Tommy bad. And he probably won’t want to stay, as the other coaches won’t due to their loyalty to Tommy. So, four coaches are out of a job.’ “I wanted Tommy to have the job partly due to wanting to help him with alumni relations, the sky suite plan, alumni baseball weekend. Not to help him on the field. I was going to build my own office at my own expense next door to the current baseball offices. Although I wouldn’t be around much due to all the traveling I will do, it would be a place where I could put all my stuff on the walls, etc. I told John (if he’s hired) that’s probably not going to happen. “I received a call from Tommy while I was in Athens and I could tell he was (feeling) down. He said he had talked to Greg Byrne and he had indicated that they were going in a different direction. I asked him if it was John, and Tommy said he didn’t say. “Then, I was talking to Steve Smith, one of our former coaches, he said he was being texted by one of our former managers, Bo McKinnis, who is an agent now, saying that Gary Henderson is going to be announced as the new baseball coach at Kentucky. I knew then. “I called John on his cell phone, even though I knew it was after the fact, and told him, ‘I still love you, but I don’t like what you did.’ I say that same thing to my players often. If they miss a class, are late for practice, I say that to them, but I still love them. It’s like arguing with an umpire, the next day it’s over with. That’s why I think this is going to solve itself eventually once I get past the hurt. It’s all going to work out. I just have to have some time. “So, then I get the calls from the press. And I lashed out at Greg. A lot of people who called, who are in coaching circles, told me the longer it lasts, the less likely it’s going to happen. I got to thinking if it’s not going to happen, surely Greg would call me and bring Tommy in in March, April, or May and tell him they are going in a different direction. He interviewed Tommy for two and a half hours and I’m sure he was impressed with him, as anybody is. But he didn’t hire Tommy, so now he’s out of a job.” I guess it’s like you see John and Tommy as sons of yours. One son went off and became a successful head coach while the other son stayed with you for 19 years. “Yes. If I had known then what I know now, I would have encouraged Tommy to go off and be a head coach somewhere and have success and be a candidate.” Don’t you think you pushed Greg Byrne too hard trying to get the job for Tommy? “Well, we had a lot of people call to make sure it happened. That was the thing. It would have been easy for (Greg) to say nobody called, nobody emailed, the players didn’t go in and visit. Then, all of sudden Tommy doesn’t get the job, and Greg says he didn’t hear enough good things from enough people. I didn’t know what the happy median was.” Do you feel that you overreacted when you talked to the media right after John was hired? “Yeah, I did. I’m not going to take my name off the stadium. The will, I don’t know, but it’s not like I’m willing 50 million dollars. But I’m hurt, I’m hurting bad for my coaches. “Loyalty is very important to me. Unfortunately, I’m too loyal. I’m loyal to a fault with the college baseball coaches, kids and programs in this country. And because of that, I fought for them, one of the few that did. I’m loyal to Mississippi State. Our kids have never done anything wrong, other than a few mischievous things. Our academic standards are much higher than others. We had good kids. We won some games, lost some games in a tough league.” What do you think of John Cohen as a coach? “John Cohen is a great coach. He is a good person. He will do a good job. The players will have to make an adjustment because it’s a different style of coaching, but it will be fun for them.” If you can get past the hurt you feel about Tommy not being hired, can you understand why Greg wanted to hire a coach like John Cohen, a guy who has been a successful head coach at two different programs, one of which is in the SEC? “I’m kind of happy that he hired someone in our family rather than someone outside of the family. But I was hoping Greg, who has been here for just a year and a half and had never been an AD, would trust a guy who has been here 31 years.” What are your immediate plans? “Helping my coaches find other jobs is my first responsibility. “I have had some calls from various coaches asking me if I am still interested in coaching. I told him, ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to be a head coach anywhere in the NCAA because I’ll have to deal with the quotas.’ I may be willing to be a volunteer coach because I don’t need the money. I’ll keep my home here and my land in Browning Creek, maybe go somewhere for a year or two, help someone as a volunteer coach. It’s not to slap in the face of Mississippi State, it’s more to give me something to do and get over this hurt.” Any last words? “Tell your readers this - when I went to Georgia (as their head coach), I kept my home here, I kept my land here. I told Vince Dooley when I came there to help them that I would be there three to five year then I was coming back home to Starkville. This is home and it will always be my home. John Cohen is one of former boys. I like him like a son, just like I like Tommy like a son. “Will I support John Cohen? Sure I will. It’s just a matter of getting through this hurt that I feel. It will pass in due time. And I will visit with John in due time. I just have to decide if I’m going to go off and be a volunteer coach somewhere. I’m going to be 65 years old, so I won’t be gone for long. I’ll come back here because it’s my home.”
John Cohen is coming home to Mississippi State to win a national championship.That was the message the former Bulldogs outfielder delivered to hundreds of fans who greeted him at news conferences in Starkville and Jackson on Saturday, a day after he resigned at Kentucky and took the job over the objection of former coach Ron Polk.
“I wouldn’t be who I am without Ron Polk,” Cohen told fans in Starkville. “I understand his position and I admire his loyalty. Obviously I’d love to have his support. But we’ve still got to win a national championship, and that is my primary goal. For Mississippi State baseball, anything less than Omaha is unacceptable.”
Polk built Mississippi State into a powerhouse over three decades. When he announced his retirement in March, he endorsed his assistant, Tommy Raffo.
When incoming athletic director Greg Byrne made Cohen, and not Raffo, his first hire, Polk lashed out. He called the 36-year-old Byrne unqualified and said he will be taking his name off the stadium and the athletic department out of his will.
Byrne, who officially takes over from Larry Templeton in July, said Saturday he would not respond directly to Polk’s comments so the focus would remain on Cohen, whom he first met while working in Kentucky’s athletic department. But he admitted to a tough 48 hours while finalizing the hire and serving as a friend’s pallbearer.
“And the night before [the funeral] I had to call Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart and tell him I was about to hire a coach that he did not want to lose and tried desperately to keep,” Byrne said.
Cohen, 41, earned a Southeastern Conference championship and league coach of the year in 2006, feats he achieved twice in the Southland Conference at Northwestern State.
He’s known for his abilities to put runs on the scoreboard and tutor hitters. After two years of boosting Florida’s offensive output on the way to an SEC title, he took over at last-place Kentucky and posted a pair of school-record 44-win seasons on the way to a 175-113-1 mark in five seasons (321-197-1 overall in nine seasons).
Cohen will make sure the Bulldogs share his aggressive attitude.
“I believe in attacking the opponent, really getting after it,” Cohen said. “That’s the way it will be at Mississippi State. And if the kids aren’t interested in that form of baseball, they won’t get along well with John Cohen. I’m not trying to sound like Darth Vader or anything, but I’m also not going to pretend to be someone I’m not.”
The Wildcats were ranked much of the season and were a win away from a super regional berth. The team set or tied 10 records this season. Barnhart said Friday when he announced Cohen’s resignation that he made a hard run at keeping the coach in Lexington. He offered to upgrade Cohen’s $400,000 salary and improve facilities to make the school more attractive to recruits.
“Had John accepted our offer, in my opinion, he would have had one of the top five contracts in the nation for a baseball coach,” Barnhart said.
Cohen agreed to a four-year contract worth $250,000 a year in state funds. He’ll also receive an undisclosed amount in private money that will push his total salary past Polk’s nearly $300,000. He turned down a 10-year contract with Kentucky that would have included a significant raise to his $400,000 annual salary.
While he’s surpassed Polk in salary figures, it will take some time for him to overtake his former coach on the field.
The 64-year-old retired after the season at No. 7 on the career wins list with 1,373 in 35 years. He took three teams to eight College World Series appearances and is the SEC’s winningest coach. He is a howling critic of the NCAA, credited by his colleagues with helping to legitimize the sport and push the conference to its elite status.
Polk said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press that he asked Cohen not to move so Raffo, Cohen’s former Bulldogs teammate under Polk from 1987-90, could get a shot at his first head coaching job. He threatened to actively work to dismantle key components of a program he helped build into one of the nation’s best.
“I’m not totally ticked off at John,” Polk said in a phone interview from Athens, Ga., where he is attending a super regional at Georgia. “This is not John. This is Greg Byrne. John felt like if he didn’t take it, someone else would. I told John everything I was going to do and he still took the job. Boy, he must’ve really wanted it bad.”
Cohen did. He told fans his wife probably summed it up best.
“I overheard my wife on the phone and someone asked her why I wanted to take the job and coach at Mississippi State,” Cohen said. “She said, ‘Every musician wants to play Carnegie Hall, and Dudy Noble is the Carnegie Hall of college baseball.
I wish someone would have filmed me when I arrived at my first interview and discovered that everyone was wearing West Virginia shirts, including the Chief Executive Officer. I had been instructed to always dress appropriately for an interview as it would demonstrate a high regard for the workplace and a sense of professionalism. But I was also secretly pleased that if I got hired for the job, I would not be forced to always put on my best clothes.
While I was waiting for the bus afterwards, a pretty woman wearing an LSU shirt stepped into the corporate headquarters. I could tell by the file she was browsing through that she was interviewing for the same position as me. This made me nervous because her attire matched that of the employees and she would likely make a better impression. But it was unnecessary to worry: I ended up getting the job.
Since then, I have become a husband and developed a solid career. Now, I am the HR director of the very same firm and oversee the recruiting of new trainees. You will probably think it funny, but I wear Auburn Tigers apparel to every single interview I conduct. My experience has taught me that it is important to select a candidate who can wear professional clothing and be at ease with someone in more unceremonious attire. In the business world, you never know what kind of people you will confer with or what they’ll be wearing. And the most admirable names in business are rarely the people who have the nicest attire.
Missouri beat Iowa 5-4 on its home field at Bob Pearl Stadium. There was Missouri Tigers merchandise everywhere.
Stacy Delaney was credited with her 20th of the season. Delaney finished the NCAA Regional with two of the Tigers three wins and a save.
Missouri scored three runs on one hit and one Hawkeye error in the bottom of the first inning. Taylor hit a full count single up the middle to reach base and slid into second for a stolen base. Downs dropped the ball allowing Michaele Vock and Ubrun to score from third and second, respectively.
The Hawkeye offense cut into Missouri’s lead, scoring one run on Emily Nichols’ standup double to center field. Iowa’s Quinn Morelock reached base earlier in the inning on a one out single up the middle and scored from first on Nichols’ hit.
The Tigers rallied in the bottom of the seventh, with Meredith Nash reaching base on a walk. Taylor singled back to Weil to reach first and Silver offered up a sacrifice fly to right field that allowed White to score. Weil intentionally walked Reenth and Ubrun. Allen was brought to the plate in a bases loaded situation, powering a single to the wall in center field that allowed Taylor to score the game-winning run.
With a series win at Virginia last weekend, Georgia Tech secured the No. 5 seed in the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship, which will be held this weekend at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, Fla. The Yellow Jackets face No. 4-seed NC State in the first game of the tournament Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Joining Georgia Tech and NC State on the top half of the round-robin bracket are top-seeded Miami and eighth-seeded Clemson. The other bracket consists of No. 2 seed Florida State, third-seeded North Carolina, No. 6 Virginia and seventh-seeded Wake Forest.
The ACC Tournament format calls for each team to play the other three teams in their bracket, with the winners of the two four-team round-robin brackets to meet in a single championship game Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets were finalists on their side of the bracket in 2006 after capturing the ACC Baseball Championship in 2005. Over the last six years, Georgia Tech is 17-10 in the conference tournament.
Georgia Tech has won seven ACC Tournament Championships since joining the league prior to the 1980 season.
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have posted a 64-44 record in ACC Championship play, winning seven league titles since joining the conference for the 1980 season.
Georgia Tech won the ACC Championship in its first year in Jacksonville and has posted a 7-4 record over the last three years at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. Tech is 10-8 all-time in ACC Championship games played in the state of Florida.
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets merchandise will be everywhere as they try to come close to playing in Omaha, NE for the World Championship.
Penn State captured the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship with a 3-1 win over Pepperdine Saturday. After dropping Game 1, the Nittany Lions bounced back to take the next three and secure the National Title.
In dramatic fashion, Penn State’s men’s volleyball team brought the NCAA championship back to the East Coast with a 3-1 (27-30, 33-31, 30-25, 30-23) victory over Pepperdine in the NCAA title match on Saturday night. There were several fans there with their Penn State Nittany Lions merchandise on cheering for their team.
In game one, A Murray and Holt blocked opened up the game for the Nittany Lions and a Holt kill and ace put Penn State up 3-2. Out of the break, the teams traded points before a Wave kill and block gave them the game, 30-27.
In game two, Penn State took the 4-1 lead in the second game aided by two Anderson kills and a Murray put-away. Pepperdine followed up an attack error with a kill to make it 31-31 and a Sweitzer kill put Penn State ahead 32-31 before an Anderson kill ended the game, 33-31.
In game three, The Nittany Lions took the 5-3 lead in the third game on two Anderson kills. The Waves responded with two kills and a block to go ahead 9-7. An Anderson kill and a Penn State triple block from Anderson, Lipsitz and Murray pushed the Lions up 28-25 before a Wave attack error and another Penn State triple block from Anderson, Lipsitz and Murray ended the game, 30-25.
In game four, Penn State jumped out to the quick 6-0 lead to start the fourth game behind a Wave service error, a Murray and Lipsitz block, a Pepperdine attack error and Nittany Lion kills from Lipsitz and Anderson as the Waves used both of their timeouts in the run. A Murray kill of a scramble play made it 29-23 and a long swat on the Pepperdine attack on the next play started the party for the Nittany Lions 30-23.
Jillian Byers, Shaylyn Blaney and Jane Stoeckert combined for 11 of Notre Dame’s 15 goals earlier today to lead the Irish to a crucial 15-11 win over No. 15 Cornell at Alumni Field. The win helped improve Notre Dame’s chances for a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame Irish merchandise will be seen all over as their fans cheer their team on.
Byers led the way with a six-point game with Blaney adding four points and Stoeckert three goals on the afternoon, including a goals 32 seconds a part with just over 10 minutes left to put the Irish ahead to stay. Alicia Billings, Gina Scioscia, Kaitlin Keena and Kailene Abt added single goals in the win.
Courtney Farrell paced Cornell with three goals while Noelle Dowd and Katherine Simmons added two goals apiece. Tissy O’Connor, Libby Johnson, Charlotte Schmidlapp and Halsey Diakow had solo goals for the Big Red.
The victory improves the 10th-ranked Irish to 12-6 on the year while Cornell falls to 10-6 on the season. The 12-win season marks the fourth time in the program’s 12-year history that Notre Dame has recorded 12 or more wins in a season.
Coming off their heartbreaking 15-14 triple-overtime loss to Georgetown in the BIG EAST semifinals on April 25, the Irish started out slow on Saturday afternoon, falling behind 3-0 in the first five minutes of the game.
For the second day in a row, the No. 7 California baseball team fell to No. 6-ranked Arizona State by the score of 11-7 at Packard Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. On Saturday, the Golden Bears had tied the game, 7-7, on Dylan Tonneson’s three-run homer in the sixth inning, only to see Cal give up four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Cal dropped to 27-12-2 overall and 7-7 in the Pac-10.
The Sun Devils improved to 34-7 and 9-5 in league play.
The losing pitcher for the Bears was junior left-hander Craig Benningson, who replaced freshman starter Kevin Miller in the sixth inning. The winning pitcher for ASU was closer Tommy Rafferty, who improved his record to 8-0 by throwing the final 3 innings with two hits, no runs, one walk and four strikeouts.
Cal had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the third inning on an RBI single by sophomore center fielder Brett Jackson, an RBI single by Tonneson and a sacrifice fly by junior shortstop Michael Brady. The Sun Devils scored twice in the bottom of the third to take a 4-3 advantage. The Bears came back to tie the game, 4-4, on sophomore designated hitter Rich Gorman’s RBI single to right field in the fifth, only to see ASU score three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning for a 7-4 lead.
Cal mustered another comeback in the top of the sixth inning when Tonneson hit his three-run shot off of the Sun Devil’s Seth Blair, but ASU controlled the game for good by scoring four runs in the bottom of the seventh when Mike Leake hit a three-run triple off of Blake Smith and then scored on Smith’s wild pitch.
Tonneson was the top hitter for the Bears, going 2-for-4 with four RBI. He also was the only player to hit a 3-run homer . Junior first baseman David Cooper went 3-for-6; and Gorman, Brady and sophomore third baseman Jeff Kobernus had two hits apiece for Cal. The Bears out-hit ASU, 14-9.
Cal will next play the third game of the three-game series at ASU, Sunday, Apr. 27 at 1 p.m. at Packard Stadium. There is expected to be a big crowd on hand for ASU to get the sweep. Their fans will have on their Arizona State Sun Devils merchandise on.
Michigan’s baseball program overpowered Eastern Michigan, 20-5, Wednesday. The Wolverines are now 24-8 and 11-1 in the Big Ten.
They had two big innings. They scored eight runs in the second and four in the third and this led to Michigan’s biggest margin of victory all season.
Third baseman Adam Abraham went 3-for-5, knocking in four runs and scoring two of his own. Designated hitter Zach Putnam contributed three RBI and scored one run off of two doubles.
Eastern Michigan, Michigan’s opponent, led this game in the first inning. However, that lead did not for even a whole inning. The Wolverines erased the first inning deficit, tallying the equalizer in the home team’s first at-bat. Derek VanBuskirk hit a lead-off single and stole second base for his fifth stolen base of the season. He advanced to third on a base hit by Nate Recknagel, placing him in position to score on Putnam’s sacrifice fly for the 1-1 tie.
The University of Michigan loves their Wolverines, so it makes sense that they buy their Michigan Wolverines merchandise and make lots of noise to make sure playing at the Big Blue really is a home field advantage.
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