Interview with FGCU Assistant Coach Mark Jones

   Playing and coaching baseball in the hot bed that is Central Florida I've been blessed to meet many very good players and coaches. When I played at DeLand High I played against current Florida Gulf Coast University assistant coach Mark Jones. Back then Mark played for the Flagler Bulldogs, later we would wear the same uniform for some travel baseball. After Mark's decorated career as a Stetson Hatter, he got into the high school coaching scene. Mark spent the last two years at DeLand High School under Head Coach Andy Lyon, this past summer after being offered several different college coaching jobs Jones ended up at FGCU. Here is the interview between myself and Coach Jones.

Photo Credit: http://www.fgcuathletics.com/coaches.aspx?rc=222&path=baseball

Micah Robinson: We both know that there are thousands of drills out there for infielders, when
you get the freshman for the 1st time in the fall what are your go to drills you run them through?

Coach Jones: I think that defensively, you got to be able to go and take reps and not give away reps. This game is hard enough and I think you have to take pride in going out and doing things right, doing your early work, doing your footwork drills. Just taking pride in trying to be the best defender you can be, because everybody like to go take swings, I mean that’s the fun part. Going out and taking ground balls and working on repetition, I think that gets over looked. Just taking pride in your craft I would say was the biggest thing to help me along the way. 

MR: You were at DeLand High the last 2 years and helped those infielders take the Bulldogs to the Final Four, now you’re at FGCU what’s the biggest difference you see in the players you’re coaching?

Coach Jones: Obviously at DeLand I was very blessed and very fortunate to work with not only a great coaching staff, but we had some unbelievable players come through our program. I say when it’s all said and done we had 10 guys who went on to play at the next level, and the majority of those guys going to division 1 programs and being contributors. That’s really a tip of the cap to the players that we had and them buying in and listening and sticking to the process. But the biggest difference between the players that I’m coaching now at Florida Gulf Coast and the players that I had at DeLand high, there really isn’t much to be honest with you. I mean maybe that they are a little more physical just from being in college and being able to play a little more baseball and lift a little bit more. There isn’t a big difference, all of our guys have come from very successful high school programs. I’d say the main difference is just physicality, but other than that I’d say there are a lot of similarities. 

MR: We both know that there are thousands of drills out there for infielders, when you get the freshman for the 1st time in the fall what are your go to drills you run them through?

Coach Jones: I’ll tell you when we get those guys out there for the first time we usually do a bunch of glove work stuff, so we have training gloves that are a little smaller than your regular size normal infield glove. I know a lot of guys use a 11 ¼ or 11 ½ inch glove, these training gloves are only about 7 inches so it really forces you to get down in a good fielding position and cover the hop. We have the training glove we use a padded glove, some people have paddle gloves, they’re all pretty much the same concept. We really work on cutting down distance, I mean that is so, so important to playing the infield. With baseball, playing 56 regular season games at the collegiate level, then your conference tournament, and if you make it to the regional, super regional, and college world series I mean you’re playing a bunch of games. As an infielder that’s a bunch of throws that you’re having to make day in and day out. As we know this is a game of repetition. The more distance you can cut down I think in the long run is going to help your arm. So we really work cutting down distance and glove work with those freshman when we first get them on campus.

MR: Many young players find taking ground balls all the time to be “boring” what would you say to them about the importance of repetition?

Coach Jones: I mean our guys here me say it all the time, I mean it takes a different type of commitment level to be elite. To be elite day in and day out and be a well rounded baseball player, you just can’t go in the cage and hit off the tee or take BP or take swings for two hours and bear down, and just then forget about defense. There are two sides to this baseball game and you have to be committed and devoted to making your craft better. Hitting is fun, I get it and I love offense, but I do know that you have to be a well rounded baseball player to keep progressing and to keep helping your team out. For guys who think ground balls are boring, it’s a mental thing. If you think it’s boring, then yeah it’s boring, but if you think about just getting better day in and day out not wasting reps. I think you’ll get something out of it, and over time it’s not boring. You’re really getting something out of it and you can really make yourself a better ball player. 

Photo Credit: www.gohatters.com

MR: Playing against you back in our high school days we always talked about how soft your hands were at SS, what would you say helps an infielder have soft hands?

Coach Jones: I think the main thing is having a plan each day when you go out there and obviously baseball’s a game of repetition. You’ve got to be consistent, you have to be consistent if you want to be good at anything so you’ve got to work on your craft. So if that means 5,6, sometimes 7 days a week you have to work on it, then that’s what you’ve got to do. Even if you only spend an hour a day working on your craft. If you really want to get better at something you’ve got to be consistent and you’ve got to have a passion for it. I think those are just a couple things that’ll help guys get better at anything they want to do, not just fielding, in baseball and in life. You just got to have a passion and a drive for it.

MR: If you had to pick a few major league infielders for young players to watch and try to imitate who would they be and why?

Coach Jones: Well Derek Jeter just retired, but you can go on Youtube and you can pull up any film of Derek Jeter playing. He does a really good job of slowing the game down and making it look so easy. That’s what great players do, they slow it down. He, over a course of 20 years, did a really nice job of doing things right and making the routine play. Jimmy Rollins is another guy that I think is another guy that I think younger guys can emulate. Jimmy Rollins has been around a long time, shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies, he’s another guy that can slow the game down, makes a lot of routine plays and has a really big arm. He does all the little things right. I would say the last guy is Eric Aybar Shortstop for the Los Angeles Angels who does a really nice job of getting to a lot of balls, he’s probably a little faster than Derek Jeter and Jimmy Rollins right now seeing that he’s a little bit younger, but he does a really nice job getting to a bunch of balls. Again if you’re going to be an infielder, you’ve got to be able to make the routine play, and he makes the routine play at a high level. 

MR: Awesome thanks for taking the time to answer these questions coach.

    More interviews will be coming soon with other college and high school coaches. Stay up to date with everything Robinson Athletics at www.RobinsonAthleticsFL.com. Don't miss any post, subscribe to this blog!