The Capital Center, home of the Crusaders recreation and indoor athletics facilities
I had the chance to stop by Capital to watch practice Sunday afternoon. New head coach Ryan Grice was gracious enough to allow me to observe practice in its entirety. I even had a chance to finally meet and chat with the Crusaders new skipper after practice. Let me be clear about something: I have no ties to Capital or Coach Grice. Today was the one and only time we’ve met. The reason I felt the need for the disclaimer was that I was excited about Capital baseball by the time I left Bexley. Why you may ask? Let me tell you.
Anyone who has played DIII baseball knows and that the weeks of indoor practice prior to heading south are a grind. Hitting in the cage. Pitching off of plastic mounds. Fielding grounders off of a rubberized floor. It’s not exactly ideal. By the time the spring trip rolls around it’s a welcome release.
It’s precisely for this reason that I was optimistic about what I saw Sunday in Bexley. I stood along the bleachers just outside the cages with sophomore pitcher Aaron Dixon who was sitting out today. When Dixon wasn’t doing his cardio work he was splitting time between hosting a couple recruits and providing comedic relief.
Watching the flow of practice was telling. As I warned the young recruits, there are only so many drills you can do indoors. As a result, you will work on certain fundamentals repeatedly during winter practice. That wasn’t what I was looking for though. I knew what to expect in terms of drills. What I was looking for was how Coach Grice handled himself and, equally as important, how the kids reacted to him.
What I saw was someone who had a nice balance of teacher and motivator. Whether it was pulling kids aside next to the cage for some individual instruction or giving a good natured razzing to one of his guys for a “false start” during a relay race the team did as a fun way to break up the monotony of conditioning, it was clear that the players responded to Grice.
When a coach is trying to create a winning environment it’s crucial for the kids to buy into the coach as a person. It seemed pretty clear to me that these kids believed in Coach Grice and believed they were going to be the ones to turn around the Crusader program. Honestly, it was very refreshing to see from a program that has been as downtrodden as Capital recently.
I’m not under any delusions of Capital making the OAC tournament this year or becoming a contender in the next couple years. The Crusaders are a long way from contending. They are not, however, a long way from being very competitive. Grice was hamstrung from a recruiting aspect due to when he was hired, but he still managed to bring in a couple very impressive freshmen.
Brandon Natale and Jacob Thuman, both from Westerville North High, looked like kids talented enough to contribute immediately. Natale is a big kid (6’2″, 210) that had good pop off of live pitching today. The first baseman hit some rockets in the cage. Thuman looked smooth at shortstop and in the cage. He also showed a nice pitching arm that could land him a role as a reliever this season as well. If these are the types of kids Grice is targeting the talent in Bexley will be on the rise.
There is no question Grice needs to recruit some depth, especially on the pitching staff, but given a couple full years to recruit I have a feeling the cupboard will be increasingly full. There’s something to be said for previous experience, but in a situation like Capital’s the answer is often a hungry young head coach. This is his first chance to run his own program and the excitement that comes with that bleeds through into every aspect of the program. While I can’t predict with any certainty how the Ryan Grice era will turn out in terms of wins and losses, I can safely predict that his tenure will be a success in terms of recreating the program’s image.
Filed under: Division III
