I had an interview with the Rush City baseball head coach Matthew Morgan! Here's a look at that interview.
1. How many years have you been coaching at Rush City? How many years all together?
This will be my 4th year coaching the Rush City baseball program. I’ve coached for 6 total years
2. How is the roster shaping up? Is it a more veteran team or a good mix?
This years squad will be very young, but there are a lot of young guys that are ready to prove themselves at the varsity level. The veterans we do have, have a lot of varsity experience.
3. Do you have team captains?
We do not have captains, but we expect all of our juniors and seniors to be leaders.
4. What is something you're most excited about this season?
Just to see some of those younger players get their opportunity to compete, while watching them mesh with our older, more experience players.
5. With alot of practices having to be inside, how hard is it to determine a lineup?
It’s Minnesota, we’ve become all to familiar with the uncertainties that spring can bring. Although, there can be some challenges, we try to make the absolute most of what is in our control.
6. What is the most difficult thing about having to practice indoors?
Hitting fly balls, doing an infield-outfield pre-game routine and guys being able to long toss are all the challenges we face.
7. What is something you had success with last year, you'd like to see this team do again this year?
Last season we were very competitive in every game. Win or lose we were in the game and really battled. One message we constantly promote to the kids is who are we when things aren’t going our way (bad hop, bad call, error, etc.) How do we respond.
8. You've got four scheduled games between today and next week, what are you hoping to see from your team in those games and practices?
We just need to fine tune our skills and situational awareness. We really try to focus on ourselves and how we play the game. Sometimes it is easy to get so focused on what other teams do that we have a way of losing our own approach.
9. What are some of the goals for the team this season?
We want to be competitive in the conference and hopefully in the mix for a conference championship. Our big goal is to leave each practice as a better player/team than we started that day. If we control ourselves to the absolute best of our ability each day, each rep, we feel we will put ourselves in the best position to be as successful as we can be.
10. Any favorite matchups on the schedule?
First we love any opportunity to compete, but we also have local rivalries with Braham and Pine City. Hinckley with their historic field is a lot of fun for our kids to play.
11. Anything else you'd like to add?
Some of the guys we will be leaning on this year are seniors Cole Glenna and Nolan Stepp and Juniors Noah Pace, Nathan Pace, Logan Kirby and Matt Kempf. All of those guys are returning starters and will be leaned on greatly with our young squad.
Thanks again to Coach Morgan for taking time to do the interview!
