Journalism
The Difficulties of College Baseball in this Day and Age
Oz Jensen
4/26/21
Q news
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the lives of young people across the nation, forcing them to become more responsible at an earlier age than most, due to living through the first major world-wide pandemic in 100 years.
One group that already had a great deal of responsibility is student-athletes. The epidemic has forced these young men and women to make sacrifices to advance their athletic and scholastic careers. A great example of this struggle is the baseball team at High Point university, coached by former UCF pitching coach Craig Cozart.
These times are not just hard for the student-athletes but the coaches as well have had to adjust on the fly to new rules due to the pandemic, the possibility of any player losing any game, as well as needing to adjust to new rules, like travel restrictions.
To some students however, like High Point Sophomore Josh Topper, these sacrifices were no longer worth playing the sport he loves for his university.
Changing the culture
When Coach Cozart took control of the High Point University program in 2008, they had just come off 20 straight losing seasons, and he knew he had to get to work changing the culture of the losing program. His first steps were simple.
"we had to set a standard of expectations in the classroom first and foremost, off the field in the way they were conducting themselves, socially and then the way we played the game on the field". This off-the-field first philosophy has had its benefits on the field, as the High Point baseball team, according to Coach Cozart, felt like it could beat anyone in the country within two years.
He also seems to be proud of the fact that since 2014, High Point has the best record across the regular season and league tournaments among the Big South, a small but respected baseball conference. Also, since Cozart took over there have been 13 players that have been drafted to major leagues, an impressive number.
One current player that perfectly incapsulates the team's hard-woking culture is star pitcher Grey Lyttle, who started his career in the bullpen, but has developed into one of the best starting pitchers in the Big South. A display of his dedication to his craft could be shown by what he had to do to stay in shape after High Point students were sent home last year.
"I bought about $200 worth of weights and built my own squat stand with a few 2x4's and some concrete in a bucket to have make-shift weight room in my garage."
As well as building a portable mound and working out while social distancing in a local park.
This type of hard work and dedication is what Coach Cozart demands out of his team, even if it does not work out for all.
Not for Everyone
Despite the programs recent success the culture of this team was not for everyone. Josh Topper was a freshman pitcher last year who decided not to come back to the team for the 2021 season. Topper explains the team's busy training schedule was a major reason for his no longer playing, saying the team had training, "In the offseason probably two to four hours" a day for six day's a week, plus on optional day, that Topper said one would be frowned upon for missing.
The offseason, while very busy was nothing compared to the baseball team's in season schedule. Topper says "In season, if we had a game, days could be 10 hours, you could be there from 12 to 8 depending on the day" with 4-5 games a week, and just one precious off day in that time
Topper explains that if it were not his Freshman year, he would not have been able to keep up with his work at all, saying a player he respected on the team told him that he, switched his major from accounting, the same as Josh's to finance, due to the time commitment of baseball. According to Topper, hearing this this was the final nail in the coffin that was his college baseball career.
Topper says the biggest thing he misses about college baseball is competing at the highest possible level he can, but he plays in a men's league over the summer where he says he is able to get his competitive fixes in, without hurting him scholastically.
Effects of COVID-19
Every human being has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but athletes are put in a particularly difficult situation where they do not need to just worry about themselves, but have an entire team to consider before they take any action.
Josh Topper says while he would have stepped away from the team anyway, the pandemic definitely made the decision easier to stomach, saying he would not want to deal with possible health restrictions both on the field and off. Saying "I know they were very strict about who they could and could not see outside of baseball.
Grey Lyttle may have been given a leg up thanks to the pandemic and his hard work saying "Having my senior year shut down gave me a few months to refine my delivery and work on the mental side of pitching. I knew during the summer I wanted to be a starter, so I trained differently"
While it is impossible to say, it is hard to envision many pitchers working as hard as him in a time where there could be very little supervision by coaches.
Coach Cozart has been impressed with the team's ability to stay healthy, saying he believes that High Point is the only team in the conference to not lose a player to the COVID-19 protocols the NCAA has in place to protect it's players, explaining that he is happy to say the team is yet to lose a game due to the pandemic.
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