A whole lot of excitement was hovering over at least one baseball diamond this week. Hamilton Southeastern High School has recently hired a new varsity baseball coach, Scott Johnson.
The Royals Baseball program hosted a camp for boys in grades 9-12 last week. This camp was designed to not only allow the opportunity to meet the Royals’ new coach, but also to allow Coach Johnson to implement some of the physical and mental demands of the game that will be expected by the Varsity, Junior Varsity and Freshmen teams next spring.
“Now guys, we need to shave 75 more seconds off the time it takes to remove the tarps and prep our field. Every second counts. This may not seem like a lot of time to you, but it is to me,” says Johnson, who comes from Angola, Ind. (northeast corner of the state).
Johnson coached at Angola High School for 14 years, 13 of which were Varsity. He brings a record of 227 and 146. He won three consecutive championships, three sectionals and one regional during his tenure.
Johnson’s coaching style appears to be layered. Like a hard shell on the outside, Johnson resembles a drill sergeant taking total command of his troops. But on the inside, there’s a resilient mixture including the science of teaching baseball, the art of building confidence and the craft of getting the kids to truly want to listen to him.
“My main goal for the future of Southeastern Baseball is to make sure we play the game the right way. This means doing the ‘little things’ correctly, from wearing the hat properly to hustling on and off the field to showing respect for the game, our team family and the opponents,” says Johnson, who will teach freshmen English at HSE. Johnson strives to set a good example for his students and players. His Christian beliefs influence the way he teaches and coaches. “Without my Lord’s guidance, I wouldn’t have made the move to HSE. Now I’m excited about the possibilities!”
His emotion is contagious. Next spring, the excitement will hover once again over HSE High School as three teams (Varsity, JV and Freshmen) show up in uniform with respect and a genuine work ethic, bringing their batting bags and an eagerness to listen, learn, hustle, and oh yes, “play ball.”
Comments 1
On behalf off coach johnson, your the man. As my our previous coach at Angola we would like to say that it is important to buy into his "little things". As uneccesary as they may seem, they help. For example, Coach Johnson made us learn to juggle for an alotted time or we would have to run sweet sixteens. After the sweat and pain i have trained my coordination so greatly i can juggle forever. Just listen to the wise man himself, he knows whats up.
With love, Mike and Riley