Joe Ross will be working with our hitters

Here is Joe's bio from last year's Husky Baseball program. Joe no longer coaches the Huskies and is now this area's scout for the Mariners:

Joe Ross

Position:Associate Head Coach
Year:17th
The 2008 season will mark Joe Ross' 17th as the Huskies' top assistant coach. In 1997, Ross was promoted to associate head coach.

Ross has made a reputation not only as one of college baseball top hitting coaches, but also as one of its top scouts and evaluators of talent. The most recent validation of his talents as an evaluator and recruiting coordinator came recently as last season's group of newcomers was ranked as the nation's No. 11 recruiting class by Collegiate Baseball.

Ross came to Washington prior to the 1993 season after a long and successful stint as head baseball coach at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn. He's worked alongside Ken Knutson through each of Knutson's 16 seasons as head coach. In his 16 seasons as Washington's primary hitting instructor, Husky players have rewritten the school record book several times over.

The '97 Huskies set new team records for batting, hits, runs, doubles, triples, home runs, total bases and slugging. The team batting average of .340 was 17th in the nation and the third highest in Pac-10 history. Washington also posted Pac-10 all-time top-five seasons in runs, doubles and RBI while also ranking in the top 20 in the nation in scoring and slugging, making the 1997 Huskies one of the most prolific offensive teams in the history of the Pac-10.

That success has continued as more than 85 percent of the Huskies' top-five offensive team performances over 12 different categories have taken place since Ross' arrival at the UW.
In 2007, the Dawgs posted yet another .300-batting season, hitting .304 as a club. The Huskies had three regulars hit .348 or better. One of his hitting protegés, Kyle Conley, belted 19 homers in 2008.

Ross' teams are routinely among the nation's leaders in home runs as well. In fact, the Huskies ranked in the nation's top 12 in home runs per game each year from 2003 to 2006, including finishing second in 2003. Generally, the nation's top home run-hitting programs are those that play at high altitude, while Husky Ballpark is located at sea level.

In 2003, the Huskies had an outstanding offensive season. Chad Boudon broke the school's home runs record with 22 on the year, tops in the Pac-10 and sixth in the nation. Additionally, the Huskies, as a team, ranked No. 2 in the NCAA in home runs with 96.

In 2004, the Huskies ranked sixth in the nation in home runs and 30th in slugging. Seven regular starters hit .300 or better and three Huskies hit double-digit home runs, increasing an already lenghty list under Ross' tutelage. Prior to his hiring, only two Husky hitters had ever reached double digits in homers. Since his first year, 27 UW hitters have hit 10 or more home runs in a season.

In 2005, the Huskies were 12th in the nation in homers and then followed that by ranking 6th in 2006. Additionally in 2006, Matt Hague emerged as the top hitter in UW history, in terms of career batting average, under Ross' instruction.

In 1999, he had two different players break UW home runs records. Dominic Woody posted 19 for the season to break the 13-year old school mark while Ed Erickson moved into first place on the career home runs ledger with his 31st. In 2000, Erickson finished his career with 12 more homers than the next nearest Huskies.

In 1998, he coached two players - Nick Stefonick and Chris Magruder - to .400 seasons, the first time in modern Husky history that two players have topped that high plateau. Magruder, Kevin Miller and Ryan Lentz, all recruited and coached by Ross, finished their three-year Husky careers in 1998 as three of the best hitters in school history, as Magruder finished with the career hits, runs and steals record, Miller with the RBI record and Lentz with the single-season homer mark.

In 1994, he led the team to a .307 team batting average (fourth highest in team history at the time) and an average of nearly seven runs per game. Seven of UW's starters batted better than .300.

In 1993, he helped Derrin Doty to become only the second Husky in modern history to hit over .400 while leading the team to a .304 average. Another of his pupils in 1993, first baseman Randy Jorgensen, broke the school record with 61 runs batted in during the 1993 season.


In six seasons as Normandale's head coach, Ross compiled a 180-38 record and took his team to two NJCAA World Series, in 1988 and 1990. He also led the team to league championships in each of his six seasons at the helm and won three Minnesota state championships, four regional championships and two NJCAA District championships.

From 1990 to 1992, Ross also worked as a baseball coach for the United States Baseball Federation. In 1992, he coached the U.S. Junior National team (16-18 year olds) to a silver medal at the World Games in Mexico. Among the members of that team was current superstar Alex Rodriguez. Ross was also an assistant on the 1991 Junior National team and an assistant for an Olympic Festival team in 1990.

From 1980-86, he was head coach at Wisconsin-River Falls, which he lead from obscurity to state and NAIA District 14 championships in 1984 and 1985.

From 1980 to 1983, Ross served as head coach for two different teams in the Netherlands' Hoofdklasse Baseball League, a league in which he spent three summers as a top-notch professional player.

He was named NJCAA North Central coach of the year twice, NJCAA Region 13 coach of the year four times, MCCC (Minnesota Community College Conference) coach of the year three times and NAIA District 14 coach of the year twice. Ross has also served as a scout in the Mets and Yankees organizations.

Ross holds a bachelor's degree (physical eduation/coaching, 1982) and master's degree (supervision and instructional leadership, 1986), both from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He and his wife, Laurence, a native of the Netherlands, live with sons Alex and Luke in Kirkland.

A MUST read for all of you boys

I just finished Jon Krakauer's new book, "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman". I would say this is a MUST read for all of you. The book does a wonderful job of describing the passion behind Pat Tillman's early athleticism and his desire to be a complete person by hitting the books as well as training his body.

Pat Tillman was the professional football player for the Arizona Cardinals who left the game to join the Army after 911. This book chronicles his life story, some mistakes made early in life and a fantastic commitment to living life at it fullest and giving back to society.

Please read this book, it is sure to have a positive impact on your life, and it just might get your English teacher off your back.

PS Are you exercising? Find time everyday. Make the workout something you can do everyday.

PSS Ask yourself right now - Are you ahead or behind in class? If the teacher was going to make out a starting line-up, would you be in it?

Last Meaningful At Bat

Future Coach Cougan with his daughters Kelsey and Melissa

Here is a picture of me after my last meaningful at bat. This picture was taken at the conclusion of my last college game. SU played UPS. My guess is that UPS won by a small score such as 3-2 or 2-1. I think I remember going hit less. My last college hit was a 2 RBI double late in the second to last game which gave the illustrious Mark Bishop a win in his last college game over the University of Portland (who featured former Mariner Bill Krueger). Bish will ALWAYS owe me for that one.

I say last meaningful at bat because although I continued to play a season or two of semi-pro and later and much later played in some adult leagues those at bats did not have the thrill of "meaning". Not that SU played to big crowds, but in my mind the games meant more when playing for a cause, a recognised league where someone tracked the games and there was an ultimate recognised championship (USC beat ASU that year for the Championship, SU finished 3rd in the NorPac, after leading the league in the first half, our pitching was not deep enough).

I think about at bats, I think about them often and I want you guys to think about them. Watch them during the play-offs. Watch them as AT BATS. Watch what guys do with them. At bats are funny things. We hope to control them as either pitchers, catchers or hitters. Sometime we do, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we control them and get the results we want, sometime we do not get the results we want. Sometimes the "other guy" controls them but we still get what we want, most times we don't. Baseball lore, luck and the baseball Gods impact them. All we can do is do our best to control them, and control can change on any pitch. The game of baseball is played during "at bats" and this is the time frame we need to focus on and prepare for.

Our goal is to better ourselves in the off season. Our goal is to better ourselves during the upcoming season. We better ourselves by learning how to shape and meet our at bats.

And here is where I am going to get all funky on you (if I haven't already). I want us to work hard this winter to prepare for our upcoming at bats. But as hard as I want you to work, as hard as I want you to fight during the upcoming season's at-bat's I want you to realize that each at bat you have this summer is going to be a PRE MEANINGFUL at bat. Trial runs. Learning experiences. What will matter is our evolution during this summer as to how we grow from each at bat to the next. We can try different things, take the long term approach, get creative as we learn what kind of hitter we are going to be, what works best in our at bats. Our goal is to get comfortable with at bats, learn about at bats and take this knowledge that we will acquire this summer into the future MEANINGFUL at bats and become the dominating player at the next level that we want to be.

Melissa and Kelsey grown up and only slightly affected by Coach Cougan's horrible parenting

Getting Bigger,Faster and Stronger

Campbell and Tino from last year

You hear this from your Aunt Edna all the time, but I have to say it as well; I was amazed at how much bigger you guys are from last season. Just stunned. I even took out the Polaroids from your 13 year old tryouts and had a good laugh at what scrawny little kids you all were a year ago. It is good to see you guys getting bigger.


This is a pivotal time in your lives. I may not be backed up by science (but this never really stops me) but I think these teen years are crucial to laying a foundation for your bodies for the rest of your lives. What I mean is NOW IS THE TIME TO WORK on your bodies. Exercise, exercise, exercise.


You may have access to a gym. You may have access to weights. You may have access to PE gurus. This is time to open your ears and get some information from them, from them and many others. I plan on contacting an old high school friend real soon who is a High School PE teacher and picking his brain.


Just so you know, but you really cannot tell from my build, I am a big believer in exercise. And as a baseball guy I am much more inclined to do lots and lots of reps with the lighter weights. More times with light weights has always been my routine. I am also a big NON BELIEVER in EVER lifting things up over my head. The shoulder is a KEY component in baseball and lifting heavy things above my head is something baseball has NEVER asked of me.


And even before I talk to my PE guy, here are my suggestions.

1) Push-ups
2) Sit-ups
3) Short quick sprints (pantomime stealing second, or making quick moves from whatever position you play - in all directions)
4) Jumping up on a box, again and again
5)Jumping rope
6) Anything that strengthens your grip
a) Squeezing tennis balls
b) A rope tied to a dowel with a weight on it - roll it up and down
7) Stretching


Develop a routine, do something daily - make something of your self. The muscle you build now will help you in everything you do the rest of your life.

Welcome

Welcome to the blog site for the MBC 14 year old team. This is the site where I will post news about the team, schedules, changes to the schedule, apologies due to scheduling errors, inspirational messages and game write-ups.

For those of you who are new to the team; there is also a magnoliabaseballclub.com website that will have schedules and write-ups and stats and such. That site is out of my control and harder to make changes to. This site will be more apt to have the real deal, changes. For example the other site will post a calender early in the season. If a game time changes, or gets rescheduled or a practice is cancelled, it sometimes will NOT be changed on that schedule. When in doubt rely on this one or a verbal from me (calls are always a valid way to communicate, if I have you confused, your call is no bother).

For examples of how this site will work, go look at last years - www.mbc13.blogspot.com