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Joe Walsh, men's  baseball coach at Harvard University has led the Crimson to three NCAA Division I regionals.  His enthusiasm day in and day out are what make him and the team the new power in the Ivy League.  Think you have what it takes to play at Harvard?  Read on.

 by Ray Lauenstein   Copywrite The Athletes Advisor 1999

AA: What type of coach are you?

JW: I get excited out there and I am pretty intense. I’ll be done on the 3rd base line and working the box more like a basketball coach. And I can feel the other team’s dugout and coach looking at me like "What’s he doing, relax that’s not how you do things." But that’s ok. Its how I do things.

JW: My first year it was great to pick up the phone and say "I’m calling from Harvard." The academic background was ringing in the kids and parents ears when I said "This is Coach Walsh from Harvard." That aspect is always going to be there for me. Now what’s happening is there is some recognition around the country (for the baseball program), and kids have heard that we did well and this surprises me.

In New England we got some ink (press), when we came back from the World Series Regional tournament, there was news coverage, and some TV coverage that really shocked me. Baseball usually gets a little line score in the paper, never mind a headline- and to see that there was some interest back here with people following it, it’s been great. It’s definitely carried over to recruiting, whether or not we can capitalize on that remains to be seen.

The bottom line is that we are competing against a lot of good baseball schools both in New England and outside, for kids who, without a scholarship, certain things have to be there to attract them. I have a kid here, who’s dad came back to me afterwards said, "No matter what the financial aid is, I’ll just have to go out and do (referee) 100 extra basketball games to pay for it." I do think that a lot of people see and value the opportunities that have been presented to people who graduate from Harvard. Whether those people make the best of these opportunities I don’t know.

JW: Obviously you have to have a good academic background. Where is that? There is no magic SAT score, there is no automatic- "You’re ranked #1 in your class you get into Harvard or if you’re not ranked #1 you won’t get in." I am still learning the admissions process, and I do believe that I am presenting a pretty good list of kids each year to the admissions people. Finding that combination of kid who has the real good grades and can fit into your baseball program ...I won’t say its too difficult, but you have got to talk to a lot of kids. There are a lot of kids out there but it takes quite a lot of time.

I think, to be a little more specific on the recruiting criteria, from an academic stand point you like to look at the SAT scores no matter what. Even though its only part of the mix (admissions) its just a real easy beginning mark to say "How did you do on the SAT’s?"

No Magic Admissions Formula

Once you establish the SAT, in your mind, you start saying "1200 and good grades all a long, there is a kid who has done well all 4 years." I’ve seen kids with high SAT scores who did not get in here because admissions did not view them as over achievers or achievers in the classroom yet other kids got in who did not test well, but worked real hard for 4 years and have done other things as well. Whether its been community involvement, playing a sport, or making contributions in some other areas of society

. They do a pretty good job here at Harvard of considering those factors. For instance I have a kid here who probably had the lowest SAT scores of the kids that I recruited the last few years. But the day before exams last year when he was a freshman, he came in here asking me if I needed any help in my office. I looked at him and said "What’s going on, you’ve got exams starting this week." He said "coach I’m all set." He went off an sanded two doors, both sides, at an uncle’s house on the North Shore (MA)  for the entire day. He is such an organized individual and he did real well. Harvard does a pretty good job of figuring out who can go well. That’s their job, admitting the kid. Mine is to coach.

Finding the baseball kid...I think I am a little different in that I am not looking for the obvious high profile athlete who might have made Globe (Boston) All-Scholastic First team that everybody knows. The thing that I have to look at is what positions I am going to lose this coming year and where I need to build. Like last year I had two freshman 1st basemen and it was a tough year for me. There were some good kids (HS recruits) who were 1st basemen out there who were very good players. But I couldn’t see having another kid come in and sit on the bench for two or three years or have one of those kids(current players) sit. I gotta see what they can do. And its not like Clemson where they have 40-45 kids coming out and you just say who are the best? I am probably gonna get 6-8 kids who have a legitimate chance of making the team. And I have got to fill for positions.

Specifically, and with the ball player who’s a pitcher, I love the kid who throws the breaking ball. I am a guy that believes that a lot of college coaches are converting kids to the slider because its a quick fix pitch. The curve ball takes longer to develop. And the umpires are not calling curve balls for strikes, you have to get guys to swing at it.

I still think that it’s the pitch that separates the men from the boys. If I can get a kid here who throws two pitches for strikes and one of those is a breaking ball, he is going to win for me and I don’t care how hard he throws it if he can locate. I feel that if a kid works hard enough he can develop a change-up. The pitch that’s missing is whether or not a kid can throw a breaking ball or whether his mechanics and motion look like he can. I’m a breaking ball guy, I love the guys who can throw the breaking ball. We had a kid last year throwing 81-82 and he beat UCLA and Miami with a breaking ball. We have a kid who was a sophomore last year who was not recruited by any of the top schools around here and he has been all-New England 1st team for the past few seasons. The kid’s out pitch is a breaking ball.

From a positional player point of view, we were the 6th best defensive team in the country last year. Defense. If a kid can go on the field, run a ball down and hit the cutoff man then I am excited. I know that with the aluminum bat, and if he is an athlete, there is a good chance he can learn to hit. From an infield perspective I am looking for the kid with the hands who wants to play the infield, who works at it. The guys behind the plate. I am looking for the throw back catcher , the fire up guy.

Those are the things I look for and when I go watch a HS kid play the thing I notice first is how he handles having a good day and how he handles having a bad day. Going on and off the field is very important to me and I know there are a lot of coaches out there who don’t care as long as he puts the ball in the seats once in a while. To me I like to see the guy get his helmet back on the rack, get his glove on, sprint out and play defense. You go 1 for 4 in this game and you are an average player at best, you go 2 for 4 and you are a Super-Star. I like to see guys who can handle everything, I teach my team that and I look for those things in HS kids when they are on the field.

I had a kid that I went to see this year, he’s a catcher, the ball got by him and he’s chasing the ball back to the back stop swearing his head off. He walks out and gives the pitcher a hard time and I was in my car before he got back behind the plate. I wasn’t gonna stick around. There are just certain things that you see. I have people telling me "Your not recruiting so and so" and I say "No, let somebody else deal with him for four years."

AA: Are there some raw traits that you look for when you watch an at bat.

JW: I guess all coaches learn from each other and I read an article a few years back by Skip Bertman (LSU) , and he basically said if you get a kid who’s hitting on the HS level he is gonna probably hit on the college level. Then if you get a kid who’s not hitting on the HS level; is he gonna hit on the college level? I don’t know. Number one you look for the kid who has the ball jump off his bat when he swings. Statistics and averages do not mean much to me because the style of baseball we play is moving runners up, we hit and run a lot we play a lot of that type baseball.

I am looking for the kid who has the bat speed, who looks like he can stay back and stay behind the ball. If you get the kid who is out in front of the ball I really believe he is going to be tough to work with. Although we can work with him through tee-practice and soft toss. I like the kid who stays back, uses both lines and can battle with two strikes. That might be because I haven’t landed the kid can put the ball in the bleachers in the past few years but that’s OK. Its a tough shot here anyway, its a big ball park!

You look for the kid who makes the ball jump.

AA: Two kids of equal skill and background. One does great and make it through school and ball and the other does not. What is the difference.

You want to have a little bit of a working relationship to know if this kid just needs a little bit of encouragement to succeed. The thing that you look for as far as traits...Does the kid have good work habits? If things are going south there might be something going on behind the scenes. If a kid had good work habits for four years of HS and then comes in and impresses you the first two years and then something is affecting that; whether its something going on in the outside you have to probe a little to find out. I won’t do it in practice in front of other people, but when I see something I will address the situation as soon as I recognize it. I may be wrong but sometimes you see some things.

A kid who has a chance to do something but is not willing to put the work in, then we are going to have a conflict. You just know who the kid is who loves the game. He comes into my office and says "Hey coach did you here about what happened to Mo Vaughn last night" and you get another kid who comes in and does not know who is in first place in the ‘Bigs’ or what college baseball team is tearing it up out west. You like to have a kid who loves baseball because it’s a game that has some history and I think that’s recognized on your team and on your players.

AA: Pitching and arm injuries What do you look for in a HS pitcher

You look for a good arm slot. You look for a kid who has a couple of the intangibles...is he a good athlete on the mound, does he have some project ability in terms of hand speed coming through the zone, body type things like that. But you know I have a kid here who is an outstanding pitcher

Unless you can just throw the ball by guys you have got to be able to do some of the other things like change speeds, locations and movement. Good solid mechanics are something you are constantly working on. A kid with good mechanics can come in and go downhill and the kid who does not can go uphill. That’s were coaching comes in. You see the nice live arm and you get excited.

AA: Tell me a little bit about your background as a coach.

JW: You know a lot of people.. When I first got the job here I got a call here from a prospective ball player’s father and after talking to him for 45 minutes, it was my first phone call here, he calls me back the next day and says "Coach what’s your background, I just found out that you didn’t play pro baseball and that such&such coach were he is thinking about going to school played pro baseball." I told him my background was in my office for the last 24 hours with a bottle of Fantastic cleaning the floor! And when your son comes to Harvard next year we are gonna rack him! And I hung up.

I have a lot of respect for guys who have played and succeeded on the baseball field. I did the best I could. I played in college and never got a shot to play pro baseball but I was a guy who went on the field on Sat/Sun and hit for 6 or 7 hours without a uniform on. I am coming from the last generation of people who get out there on a Saturday and go play baseball. Just to play! That’s what troubles me with the kids today. I get excited when I hear a kid who works out like that. I have a kid who was down at another college during the month of August when most kids shop at CVS for back to school supplies. He’s down at Rutgers hitting for 3 hours in the morning on his own. He’s gonna be a player.

I like to think that I put a lot of time into baseball, it was my love for baseball in keeping the uniform on that got me into coaching. I just could never think of not being on the baseball field. It means a lot to me. People who know me, it got to that point in my life one time when I thought maybe I should get other interests and do this and do that, because all I wanted to do is sports or baseball. I found out why apologize. I will lead my life the way it is. I spend 14 years coaching Suffolk University, a Division III where we did not have a field, we did not have an indoor facility, we did not have a practice field. But I had a bunch of kids who loved the game. On the back of our shirts it said "No field, no cage, no problem!" And I had kids that never made excuses. I was real lucky. I interviewed for a lot of positions, put my name in for a lot of jobs and finally somebody gave me a shot hear at Harvard. I have a field, I have a facility, I have a recruiting budget and the challenge is out there.

To me I just have one common thing and that is I love baseball. I played with some success here and there, but thing I love is just being around the game. I try to recruit kids that are that way. Kids who respect the game, play it hard. That’s what I am in it for.

AA: Some people would not have last 3 or 4 years under the conditions you lasted 14 under!

It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t a negative at all because you get kids that you get in a van or whatever you have that day, it could be the T (Boston’s Public Train System), and you get off down on a field in Florida where the grass is cut and the baselines are white and there is no broken glass or cans in the outfield and you get all excited. You get kids who appreciate baseball for what it really is. And sometimes you get kids in a big Division I university and the big thing is how many sets of uniforms do you have at your school, or what your bat bags look like or what your big time glossy brochure looks like that you mail out to freshman. That’s the image that’s come along. I was real fortunate to come from Suffolk because the thing that mattered to me was the smell of a new glove that a kid might have had. He was all pumped up with a new infielders mitt. Everybody is passing it around the bus "I like this it’s great" or you bust out a dozen brand new balls for BP and you get the hitter all excited. You don’t see those things anymore and those are the things I will always take with me. Respect for the game and how you field, those things seem not to be involved in the baseball players life anymore. I am hoping to pass that on a little bit.