Nov. 30, 2011
Nashville, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt Baseball Omaha Challenge is a rite of fall for the Commodores. The team divides into four teams (listed below) and competes in various events over a four-day period with team awards and personal awards for the top performing player and pitcher overall. The Challenge started in a cold November rain on Tuesday with the Prowler Push and Pull. During the Push, players must push the Prowler, loaded down with 270 pounds, 90 yards. On the Pull, players must pull the Prowler, still loaded down with 270 pounds, via rope 20 yards.
Omaha Challenge Teams
The Dancing Bears
Andrew Harris
Drew VerHagen
Adam Ravenelle
Nevin Wilson
D.J. Luna
Conrad Gregor
John Norwood
Will Cooper
Hash Tag
Riley Reynolds
Tyler Beede
Jared Miller
T.J. Pecoraro
Connor Harrell
Vince Conde
Anthony Gomez
Mike Yastrzemski
The Brick Squad
Will Clinard
Keenan Kolinsky
Steven Rice
Kevin Ziomek
Jack Lupo
Joel McKeithan
Zander Wiel
Josh Lee
Will Johnson
It’s an Ops Thing
Drew Fann
Sam Selman
Philip Pfeifer
Brian Miller
Tony Kemp
Spencer Navin
Connor Castellano
Chris Harvey
DJ Talks Pitching Abroad
Earlier this month Associate Head Coach/Pitching Coach Derek Johnson was invited to the Czech Republic for the European Baseball Coaches Association conference to talk pitching.
Typically, speaking at a conference is a pretty simple task but not when the majority of your audience does not speak English.
“There weren’t translators, so it took them a while to process the information so I thought that was unique,” Johnson said. [European baseball] is progressing. I think Italy is doing a nice job with their baseball, Germany is on the rise and of course the Netherlands won the World Cup so there are some pockets over there that are starting to understand it. Then there are others that kind of lag behind a little bit and are still kind of their infancy in terms of what they know, how they coach and their players too. If you could compare it, it would probably be like talking to some little league coaches, some high school coaches and some college coaches [in America].”
Johnson is a well-known commodity on the clinic circuit in America but really had to fine tune his message when dealing with a language barrier and different levels of knowledge.”One of the reasons I love doing clinics, wherever it is, it forces you to think about how you teach and it forces you to think about your current guys so as I’m going through this process I think it helps me with our kids here at Vanderbilt because it forces me to think about what I’m saying to them. Is it correct? Is there something I could do to simplify it? Just being able to sift your information down to make it as pure and as simple as you can. That’s probably what I take the most out of it.”<>
During the conference former Vanderbilt baseball alum and current Netherlands coach Brian Farley was honored as the Coach of the Year proving the point that Vanderbilt University is a worldwide brand. Farley led the Dutch to the World Cup in Panama this past fall and played for the Commodores in 1982 before pitching in the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league system. The Coach of the Year award was just one of many for Farley, who had been knighted the week before by the Netherlands.
“I obviously didn’t know him beforehand and one of the coaches told me that [Farley] had Vanderbilt ties, which I didn’t know,” Johnson said. “Ironically, when I met him it proves that Coach Corbin knows everyone in the world because he knows Farley and Farley knows him.”
While European baseball is progressing it still has a major hurdle in the way: soccer.
“Nothing is going to take the place of soccer anytime in the near future there so I think that’s a battle they fight,” Johnson said. “There are still some coaches there that really love the game and that was fun to talk with them about.”
If European baseball is progressing, how long before we see a European baseball player in a Vanderbilt uniform?
“Well, I’ve already got in roads there and some guys that are keeping their eyes peeled for me so you never know,” Johnson said.
