Baseball Factory is privileged to work with programs from every level of college baseball. We strive to educate and guide our players when it comes to choosing the right school. The more information a player knows about a school, coach and program, the better. Recently, Woody Wingfield went one-on-one with Dave Barnett the head coach at Flagler College. Flagler College is a Division II program out of the Peach Belt Conference.

1. How long have you been coaching? How long at Flagler College?
I’ve been coaching at the college level for 27 years. Three years as a graduate assistant at Iowa, 24 years at Flagler. I also managed two summers for a Montreal Expos affiliate in the New York-Penn League in 2002 and 2003.

2. Who are some of your mentors or coaches that you look up to?
I’ve had many influences. My first two years I played at Seminole JC (now known as Seminole State College) under Jack Pantelias. They eventually named their field after him. After Seminole I played for Mike Roberts at the University of North Carolina. He was the youngest Division I coach in the country at that time. Real energetic and enthusiastic. He always made us feel like we were going to win. In fact, we ended up going to the College World Series that year. When I did my grad assistant work at the University of Iowa, I coached under two former Presidents of ABCA: Duane Banks and Tom Petroff. These two taught me how to manage practice and manage a game. I also picked up all of the teaching aspects of coaching from Duane and Tom.

3. What is the first thing about your school and program that you’d want a recruit to know about?
First of all, it’s a place to get a great liberal arts education. You’re also going to get a chance to develop as a baseball player. Flagler features one of the nicest Division II baseball facilities in the country, including a $2.5 million locker room facility for baseball, softball and soccer and a newly installed LED message board scoreboard. Check out a “360 Virtual Tour” here:
http://flaglerathletics.com/custompages/virtualtour/locker_room.html

4. What do you look for in a prospective recruit for your team? Off the field?
The first thing is a real desire to play. It’s old school, but not hustling on and off the field is a major pet peeve for me. Even if your bat isn’t getting the job done, your legs are never in a slump. If a coach is going to a game blind and sees someone sprinting on and off the field, that’s something they’re going to notice. I’d get out my stop watch and pay attention, because it looks like he really wants to play. Think of Pete “Charlie Hustle” Rose.

As far as off the field goes, you hope you’re going to get a good kid. It’s a tough call. You hope his coaches shoot you straight. Most of the time, if they’re a good student, they’re a good person. If they’re not committed in the classroom, they may not be committed off the field (or on it).

5. Do you recruit from Junior Colleges?
We try to mix it up. The good thing about transfers is that you’ve got a polished player. Doesn’t matter where the player is from. The downside is you don’t always know what kind of kid you’re getting. But I think a good mix is the way to build a program, especially with pitching. I start transfer pitchers more than freshman.

6. Can you break down your fall practice schedule? What do you try to accomplish?
We like to do the individual stuff to get players acclimated to the college game and how we do things—how we stretch, how we want our pitchers to attack hitters, etc. At this level, some guys are pretty polished, so the best coaching we can do is leave them alone just make sure they are in shape and getting reps. I kind of laugh when I hear coaches talk about “buying into their system.” Maybe I’m old school, but “system” is catch the ball, throw the ball and hit the ball. All the fundamental stuff.

7. Do you have a strength and conditioning coach?
We just hired one. We’ve usually done it ourselves and we’re always tweaking it. We spend a lot of time on the legs and the core. Those “baseball muscles” are important for everyone.

8. What part of the spring schedule do you look forward to the most?
I always look forward to conference play because it makes every game important. This is our third year in the Peach Belt, and next year we’ll be moving to a 30-game conference schedule. Every ballpark in the Peach Belt is unique and offers a competitive baseball experience.

9. What do you think of the new BBCOR bats?
I think they’ve probably toned the hitting down a little bit. I still don’t really like them. I just say move to a wooden bat in college baseball. It could happen at the Division II level—there’s a lot of support for it among the Division II commissioners. Personally, I’m pushing for it because it would make the game more pure and teach kids how to use a bat properly. I just think it would be good for baseball.

10. Anything else about your facilities (upgrades, changes, etc.)?
I think we’ve got a really player friendly facility. We’ve got a nice playing surface, nice batting cages with multiple stations. We can get 18-20 guys hitting in the cage. We’ve also got a practice infield for base running and PFP [pitcher fielding practice]. I don’t want our players to get cheated.

11. Is there anything you would like to add about your assistant coaches, recruits, parents, or program that we have not asked you about?
What separates Flagler is that it’s a private school that can be selective in who they take. Baseball has a very good relationship with admissions and we can help borderline guys get the extra support they need to be admitted.

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