“I have little to do with it.”
This is what Union University’s head baseball coach, Casey McGehee, told me in his office when asked about the team’s first win of the season in their series against West Liberty University. This was not only the team’s first win in their new season, but also McGehee’s first win as a coach ever.
I was surprised when he did not go much further into my question. Instead of talking about a moment that may have meant a lot to him personally, McGehee praised his team for their hard work, initiative and ability to adapt to the expectations of a new coach.
“I was more happy for that than anything,” McGehee said. “And, you know, you can never get too excited about a victory and you can’t get too down about a loss. Really, the goal is, no matter what the outcome, ‘Where were we successful and where can we improve?’”
McGehee, a former MLB player, played for crowds in stadiums for multiple teams, and now he is at a small Christian college trying to revamp a baseball program nobody would believe has the potential to win national championships. Upon considering taking the job, McGehee talked it over with friends in his baseball circle:
“They were like ‘you’re crazy to take that job,” McGehee said. “They were like ‘there is no way you can win there. It’s too expensive. It’s too Christian. It’s too this, it’s too that.’ Well, I have a problem with competitiveness and to me, I’m sitting there and thinking, ‘That sounds like fun!’”
Coaching baseball for the first time at a small Christian college was a challenge McGehee was eager to accept. When I asked him about what his expectations were coming into the job, McGehee described a conversation he had with Union University President Dr. Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver about it. Oliver told McGehee three things: Grow young men in Christ, provide the players a place for a high-quality Christian education, and the third is what McGehee has centered his philosophy around.
“He said, ‘Lastly, I want everybody to strive for excellence in every aspect of what they do,’” McGehee said.
Taking this initiative to heart, McGehee has set his eyes on turning the baseball team into a team Union can be proud of and one that can ultimately win national championships. This starts with the practical side of baseball: working the team hard at practice and learning from what happened in games.
Sam Poindexter, pitcher and junior psychology major, has experienced the intense training and is one of the many players who have been inspired by McGehee’s drive.
“I think what he emphasizes the most is competing,” Poindexter said. “Like compete, compete, compete. ‘Cause like he said to the hitters a lot, ‘there’s a lot of difference between swinging and hitting.’ Like, hitting you’re trying to get a job done, you’re trying to do things in certain situations. And, like, even pitching-wise there’s a difference between just throwing a baseball and actually pitching and like hitting spots and hitting the locations.”
In his mission for excellence, McGehee has been teaching and encouraging his players to refine their skills, find purpose and energy in every action and strive to be the best in all that they do. Poindexter is an example of this excellence-driven philosophy, having been named the Gulf South Conference baseball pitcher of the week and allowing only five hits in nine innings in the team’s conference opener against Shorter University.
“He said that the biggest way you can respect your opponent is by competing as hard as you can and playing as hard as you can,” Poindexter said when reflecting on McGehee’s words to the team.
Competing is not the only thing that McGehee is focused on. He sees baseball as an opportunity to help young men grow in their faith. In our conversation, he used the concept of baseball and sports as an analogy for growing in one’s faith and walking with Christ.
“Even if we have a ‘good day,’ we’re still far short from where we’re supposed to be and where we’re called to be,” McGehee said. “And I think that athletics in general is such a really good teacher for people that love to come out and compete and play their sport, that it’s a mini version of a lifetime in a game, in the sense that, ‘Yeah we won, that was the goal, but we’re still so far from perfecting it and you can never perfect it.'”
Striving for excellence branches into every aspect of the baseball team’s life, be it in games and practice or in the faith. But everything connects to the other. You can’t have meaning in life without a relationship with Christ and you can’t have a good game without a bonded team.
During our interview, McGehee pointed at a jar of marbles that was sitting on his desk.
“We started a cool thing with that jar of marbles where each day, when we started we had 81 days left in our season, so each day one of the players would give a marble to somebody that did something that was impactful,” McGehee said. “And it’s not like ‘man, this guy had five hits!’, it may be so-and-so stayed up and, you know, was up here till 11:30 folding people’s laundry and putting them back in their locker for them. Or, you know, this one guy had run out of gas and somebody drove to go pick him up and let him take his car to go get gas. Little things like that are outside above and beyond just showing up and being a good player.”
When meeting him for his interview, I had expected McGehee’s office to be filled with baseball memorabilia from when he used to play MLB. Instead, I found his shelves lined with Union merch, most of them being ballcaps. Union and the baseball team have taken over McGehee’s life and his heart. The overwhelming amount of red in his office shows his commitment to the program and to his players. He is in it for the long haul and treasures every moment.
McGehee may not have much to say on his first win, but Poindexter gave me a glimpse of McGehee’s pride for that particular game.
“He said that that ball would go right next to his first MLB hit that he had, and he said that that was really special,” Poindexter said.
Photo courtesy of UU Athletics
