With Allen County-Scottsville’s first pitch of the 2011 season on Monday, Head Baseball Coach Kerry Harwood will kickoff his 15th year in what he describes as his dream job.
That dream started in earnest his Senior year while sitting behind a coaches desk as a student at Allen County-Scottsville. Like many young men, Harwood had no idea what he wanted to pursue until one of those pivotal moments of life occurred.
“I was sitting in Coach (Royce) Hood’s office at his desk and as he came walking in I figured he was going to chew me out,” says Harwood. “Instead he looked at me and said ‘you know what, you look pretty good behind that desk, you would look pretty good with a coach’s shirt on. I believe that’s what you need to go in to’.
“From that point on, I didn’t think of anything else,” says Harwood. “I was going to be a coach.”
With the help of some good people, Harwood started helping the AC-S program 19 years ago and took over the reigns in 1997. Soon after, lights where installed at Patriot Field and a new era of Patriot Baseball began, one that has included two regional titles.
"When you can come back to your home school and coach where you played and see the program rise and grow, that is a dream job,” says Harwood. “That was a major goal for me. It is a dream job.”
“I’m very blessed to be here where we have great parents and great community support. And we have good kids to work with,” says the coach.
The transformation to the program will continue in 2012 with a new indoor all sport facility and the cultivating of the infield and outfield with 109 geo-thermal wells installed. New fences and a new scoreboard will go up as well.
Coach Harwood sat down with the Examiner recently for a lengthy question and answer session and discussed the 2011 season as well as his baseball philosophy. Here is the first installment of that Q and A:
Examiner: You have 33 high school players on the roster this year. When was the last time you had this many kids?
Harwood: Never had this many kids. We have 33 kids but we have a bunch of great guys that have volunteered their time to come out and coach so we’re going to get enough for a freshman team though all those guys won’t dress JV. They’ll have a game a week; two practices a week. They wouldn’t be getting that playing time on the road with us. We kept a few extra kids this year to try and build up the program.
Examiner: How are you feeling about your 2011 squad? You’ve won two district titles in a row. What’s it going to take to win a third?
Harwood: If you would have asked me when we first started the 5 week preseason practice, I would have said we look good on paper. We’ve got a lot of at bats back, a lot of innings (pitched) back, we got a lot of baseball savvy. But right now we’re just trying to find the right pieces to the puzzle and we’re struggling to do that right now. Of course we never put our best team out their together, we’re always splitting up to intra squad and we never see our best one together.
But I feel like we have 12-14 kids that we can put in the lineup every single day; we’re that competitive and that even. So we’re going to have to find the right batting order, the right pieces to the puzzle and we’re going to be competitive by the end of the year. But right now we’re a little more inconsistent than I was hoping for. Instead of 0-4 one day and 2-4 the next, we need to find those hitters that are going to swing the bat consistently for us.
Examiner: The region seems wide open this year. Who are the teams that are going to make the most noise come time to go to Western for the regional tournament?
Harwood: In the 13th (district) Franklin is still young; at Russellville, this is Coach (Lou) Kendall’s last ride and they’re going to play hard for him. He has some good arms. Todd County has a very good arm that can beat anybody in the region. And Logan County is my dark horse, my sleeper pick. They stayed together all summer and played and they have some offensive threats. I’m not sure how many arms they have but they have some guys that can swing the stick. That will be a competitive district.
Russell County is going to be there at the end of May. They slow start because they have so many basketball players but they’re going to be very good.
Everybody in the 14th (district) can beat anybody. Warren East can beat you anytime. Warren Central will be trying to repeat (as region champs). Bowling Green is like us, if their young guys come through they have the ability and the talent. But potential is dangerous word and usually it comes down to who plays well that day. It’s wide open.
Examiner: Are there any rule changes for 2011 in which the fan should be aware?
Harwood: The only thing is that some of the bats, just a few of them, will be illegal this year. Next year we go to a mandatory BB Core bat, which is basically a wooden bat made out of aluminum. They have no pop. Colleges went to them this year and you see a lot of quicker games, safer games, but you don’t see those 4 or 5 home run games. Some of the composite bats we can’t use this year, some of them we can. But starting next year, everything has to be a B Core bat and just won’t have any pop. It’s a great time to be a pitcher.
But a natural base hit guy is going to be fine with it. If you’re going to line drive the ball over second or over the shortstops head, you’ll be fine, but you’re not going to see anymore check swing home runs like we’ve seen in years past.
But other than that, no other rule changes this year. Also next year the coaches will probably have to wear helmets when in the coach’s boxes. As a matter of fact, we will probably be wearing them in Florida this year as their high school coaches do it.
(Check back for the next installment where Coach Harwood discusses his baseball philosphy.)
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