Eric Bunnell
Fresh off a CCIW championship and trip to the Central regional, North Central (IL) Assistant Coach Eric Bunnell was kind enough to let me fire some questions at him.
The former Mount Union assistant addressed the state of the OAC, recruiting and coaching in DIII, the process of building up a program and common misconceptions about DIII.
Background: Eric Bunnell just wrapped up his second season as an Assistant Coach at North Central College (IL). Prior to that he served as Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at his alma mater, Mount Union, for four years. As a player Bunnell was a 3 year letterman as an outfielder. He earned All-OAC honors his senior season as well as serving as team captain. Bunnell was also the Head Coach of the Stark County Terriers of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League. Prior to being named Head Coach he served as an Assistant Coach for the Terriers for 2 summers.
If you’d like to know more, check out Coach Bunnell’s blog called the Coach’s Cave. It features thoughts on North Central, DIII and baseball in general as well as a link to his youtube channel.
Part of the recruiting process is not only selling the program, but also the school and DIII in general. What common misconceptions do you find people have about DIII?
EB: I’ll be the first to admit during high school I didn’t know there was a difference between D-I and D-III baseball. I didn’t really know anyone who played past high school so I would have probably had a few misconceptions of my own. I think there are a lot of people out there who share that same outlook and totally underestimate the talent level at D-III. There are a lot of great players across the country that could play D-I if they had a little more size or played at a bigger high school, but they’re playing D-III so people think they aren’t very good. That’s number one. Number two is that people think without athletic scholarships they can’t afford for their son or daughter to go to a D-III school. They look at the tuition and automatically think a state school will be cheaper but they don’t factor in academic scholarships, grants, and the entire financial aid process.
You have been heavily involved in the recruiting process. What things do you look for in a kid you’re thinking about recruiting? What types of kids, traits, etc.?
EB: After talent, one of the first things we look at is a kid’s overall attitude and competitiveness. Everyone we recruit will have tools to play the game but because of the of time and energy needed to play college baseball, we need to determine which kids are playing because they have always played and that’s the next step and which kids are playing because they truly love to play and be around the game. That being said, we spend a lot of time talking to high school and summer coaches to find out as much background information on each player we’ve recruited.
You’ve been around DIII baseball as a coach for a number of years now. How has your coaching style changed?
EB: Overall, I’d say I’ve always been pretty laid back during games. I try to stay even-keeled and let the players play but when I look back, I don’t know that I really had a coaching style when I first started. That is something I’ve tried to develop over the past six years by watching the other coaches around me. I was basically learning as I went and my style came through trial and error. I feel it will always be trial and error from here on out. There are always new methods out there so you have to be willing to make a few mistakes along the way.
Obviously you have learned a lot from John Fitzgerald (NCC) and Paul Hesse (MUC). What were you able to take away from coaching against the other OAC coaches? Did you have an opposing coach you looked up to at all?
EB: I really learned a lot working at Mount Union and I was given a lot of room to grow as a coach by Coach Hesse. Then [Ohio High School HOF coach] Joe Gilhousen joined the staff and there were two coaches to learn from who’ve been around the game a long time. But I wouldn’t say there was one opposing coach I looked up to in particular, because there are so many great coaches in the league, there was opportunity to learn something from each of them. I tried to take a little from each one, but I never wanted to be exactly like any coach because at the end of the day, I had to be my own coach and use what fit my personality and style.
Heidelberg just made their first World Series appearance. You coached in the OAC during their ascent to the top of the conference. What are your thoughts on what they’ve accomplished?
EB: It’s obviously an incredible accomplishment and a testament to how hard the players and coaches have worked not only this year but over the past few years as well. Year after year they were on the doorstep, so it seemed like it was only a matter of time before they pushed through. The other thought is how difficult it has to be to get to the World Series. We had a taste of regional play this year at North Central and what you realize is the margin for error is so small, you really have to have a lot of depth and have a lot of things go your way to advance to that point.
How has the experience of being a Head Coach in the Great Lakes League (a league where DIII players are the vast minority) affected your abilities as a coach? And how did the DIII kids respond to that environment?
EB: One aspect that was affected was my preparation. The move from assistant to head coach was enlightening because you really got exposed to the speed of the game. For eight innings the game can be running smoothly and then all of a sudden there are two men on base in the ninth and you can’t get a reliever ready fast enough. So not only do you have to think ahead in the game a few innings, it helps to already play the game in your head before the first pitch is thrown.
The D-III kids responded great. Greg Ferrell [Mount Union] had as good of a year as any player could have had last summer…at any level. But overall, they would just flat-out compete. Joe Bogdewiecz [W&J] was another player who stood out. He was brought in halfway through the season in 2008 and played a great shortstop and played his way onto the 2009 roster. It just goes to show the type of competition they are up against during the college season and how that prepares them for leagues of this caliber.
No one is going to get rich coaching in DIII. Why do you do it?
EB: The simplest answer I can come up with is that I truly love being around the game of baseball. If I wasn’t coaching it, I’d be writing about it, or photographing it, or something else to remain close to the game. It’s also a rewarding experience to see players begin their careers as freshman and watch them walk across the stage at graduation. I’ve only gone through it with one class but that is something I’ll look forward to experiencing again.
Heidelberg, Marietta, Wooster…who is the best program in Ohio?
EB: For 2010, Heidelberg is the easy answer. But when you look back over the past ten years and beyond, it is really hard to argue against the repeated success of Wooster and Marietta. As a player and coach at Mount Union, I only remember playing against Wooster once so more of my experience has come against Marietta and I have always respected the way they approach the game of baseball. They have always been the team to beat and the program most others seemed to model.
The CCIW and the OAC are both very good conferences. How would you compare them?
EB: One similarity is the amount of pitching depth you see among each league’s top teams. That alone should prove that if a team can make it through a regular season in either league, win the regular season and/or the conference tournament, they are an automatic contender for a regional title as well. Another similarity is the overall competitiveness of each conference, from top to bottom. You can’t take weekends off and expect to climb very high in the standings and expect to play in the postseason.
In all of our conferences (HCAC, NCAC, OAC) we talk a lot about programs “taking the next step”. It’s often discussed and rarely accomplished. You have been part of a program doing just that at NCC. What have you learned? And what needs to happen to make that progress sustainable versus being a one time event?
EB: One thing I have learned is to not get too caught up in the results and enjoy the journey. There will only be one team that wins the last game of the year, so to get caught up in the end result can really cloud the accomplishments of a particular year. There are so many lessons to be learned throughout the course of the year, not just in defeat, that it’s important to remember the process and what made us successful.
Recruiting obviously plays a big role in sustaining success, but you also have to have faith in what you are doing and believe that you are on the right path. It took three years to get to the top of the conference at North Central and we’ve definitely had some rough patches along the way, but I don’t think we strayed from our approach to recruiting, coaching, motivating, etc. We had a vision and stuck with it. I think for us to maintain our progress, we have to keep the same approach we’ve had since Coach Fitzgerald took over and find little ways to evolve as a program.
Filed under: Division III
