In our latest interview, Woody Wingfield spoke with Assistant Coach Frankie Everitte from Brunswick Community College.  This is our first interview with a coach from a Community College.  The Brunsiwick baseball team is located in Bolivia, North Carolina.  Everitte is the Assistant Coach of the Dolphins and provided some insight on his baseball program and school.

1.    How long have you been coaching?  How long at Brunswick CC?
I’m entering my 4th year overall, and my 2nd season here at Brunswick CC.

2.    Who are some of your mentors or coaches that you look up to?
I have a unique opportunity to learn from other coaches as I develop my own path to success. As one of the youngest college baseball coaches in the country I look up to many individuals in the game. One guy in particular would be a good friend of mine, Mr. Ryan Leahy. Ryan is a former assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh who has fought a battle with thyroid cancer and reminds me to stay positive and come to the field each day with high energy.

3.    What is the first thing about your school and program that you’d want a recruit to know about?
The Brunswick Community College experience is a pathway for your success. Many players and parents are not aware how successful and beneficial junior college baseball can be.  Not only do we want to see our athletes have success on the field, we want them to excel in the classroom, as well. This past year we had 13 sophomores on our spring roster and 11 of them went on to play at four year institutions, 4 of them being Division I schools. I also have to say that location is in our favor. BCC is located less than 15 miles from the beach and less than 30 miles from both Wilmington, NC and Myrtle Beach, SC.  

4.    What do you look for in a prospective recruit on the field? Off the field?
Character. I look for guys that are grinders; guys that play the game the right way and get after it each and every day.  If a kid can make a 0-4 day look just like a 4-4 day, then he’s a special player and he’s a guy that I want in our program.

5.     How does video footage help you all with recruiting?  
This year’s roster answers the question. With guys from NY, NJ, PA, SC, and UT on our team, it’s obvious that our head coach or I cannot always take a weekend trip to Utah or New York to see a kid play. So we benefit from video footage when we can see an out of state player from our computers or cell phones.

Need Video? Get filmed at a Baseball Factory Premium Video Program and get started on your recruiting process.

6.    Can you break down your fall practice schedule? What do you try to accomplish?
This is difficult to answer, as it changes each year and each day. Our main goal is to build a team of guys that are relentless and provide a high energy approach each day. If we can do this, then a player’s natural ability can come out on a daily basis, forcing him to get better each day. We like to use the phrase “Make TODAY Count,” meaning what have you done today to get better? If we get better each day, then the spring could be a lot of fun for our guys.

7.    Do you all play games in the fall? Against which teams?
We do play in the fall but mostly intersquad games. This allows us to see at minimum 18 guys at one time compared to just 9 if we played against an opponent. We will also play some games at Coastal Carolina University, East Carolina, Campbell University and The College of Charleston to provide some exposure for our players.

8.     Do you have a strength and conditioning coach?
We have a team of strength and conditioning people on our staff and we provide our players the opportunity to not only receive strength and conditioning training in our fitness center, but we also have our guys take part in Yoga, Pilates, and full body aerobic and swimming sessions all on campus.

9.    What part of the 2011-2012 schedule/year are you looking forward to the most?
Our conference is so large that we start conference play the second weekend of the season and only have one open weekend all year and it is the last one of the regular season. Needless to say, our open weekend is what I am looking forward to the most because hopefully we will be practicing for regionals as a #1 seed again.

10.    Anything you can tell us about your facilities?
Brand new!!  I encourage everyone to take a look at them on our website. As a JUCO I feel that our facilities are one of the best in the southeast, if not the country. We are building a multi-million dollar stadium on campus to go along with a fitness and aquatics center.

11.    Is there anything you would like to add about your assistant coaches, recruits, parents, or program that we have not asked you about?
I would like to mention that I have the opportunity to work for one of the most passionate and dedicated men in the sport, our head coach Robbie Allen. I feel that with our passion and hard work we stay focused on allowing our players to achieve their goals on and off the field. I would also like to thank the alumni and the parents that have contributed to the success of this program climb and allowing it to rise to a top 10 national ranking the past two seasons. Roll Fins’

Check out more"Conversations with College Coaches"