BELTON- UMHB head coach Mike Stawski can still remember the long days spent aiming to create a culture within the UMHB baseball program that the rest of the university could be proud of.
“At the beginning, Mitch [Wilson] and I were working 20 hours a day just to try to get them to wear the right shirt to weightlifiting,” Stawski recalled in an interview with True To The Cru on Wednesday.
That is not the case anymore. In fact, the outlook of the program has drastically changed since Stawski’s first season at the helm in a 2020 season that ended before it really even began, canceled by the Covid pandemic.
Entering the following season, in 2021, UMHB was picked 10th in the ASC’s preseason poll…out of 11 teams. After winning a game in the ASC Tournament late in that year, the Cru entered the 2022 season projected to finish fourth.
Now in 2023, Stawski’s fourth season as head coach, UMHB is considered one of the ASC’s top contenders, the No. 3 team in the 2023 preseason poll. And more than that, the success is being driven by a player-led culture.
“We give them the map, but they take the journey,” Stawski added. “When we got here, there were a lot of things that the coaching staff had to put in place, and we had to work overtime to do it. But we’ve been able to pull back on that because now the players are the ones who are instilling all those things we put into place years ago.”
Seven players from Stawski’s first team in 2020 remain on the roster heading into 2023, and have played a pivotal role in establishing the leadership that comes from the team’s upperclassmen. That group has seen the rise and rebuild of the Cru baseball program, laying the foundation of success that Stawski and his staff hope remains in Belton long-term.
“When you go on the road and talk to other coaches, or talk to people in different sports on campus, a lot of them have asked the same question over the last few years; ‘How many guys on the roster are yours now?’” Stawski said.
“That’s always the question when you take over a new program. And after the first year, my answer has always been the same…all of them.”
As Stawski explained, though the players who have led the turnaround the last several seasons did not commit to him and his staff out of high school, they bought in once he arrived. They saw the vision for what the program could be, and what steps it would take to get there.
“If they’ve made it a year here, and have bought into what we do and are willing to do what I’m asking them to do, and take on responsibility, they’re my guys now,” Stawski added. “Did I recruit them? Maybe not. Maybe they were here when I got here, and I wasn’t what they signed up for. But now they’ve signed up for me, because they’re still here.”
With this newfound success has come something else: higher expectations. No longer is winning half of the games on the schedule an accomplishment. Nor is simply reaching the ASC Tournament.
“A coach once told me that highest expectations are the hardest thing to live up to,” Stawski said. “It can be a lot to put on a team.”
But at the same time, the Crusaders have not shied away from the anticipation of increased success once again in 2023.
“Any coach that says, ‘We don’t want to be ranked high,’ is lying,” Stawski said. “We don’t work really hard and sit in a weight room five days a week, or practice hours and hours in the fall, or [as a coaching staff] leave our families through the spring and summer to recruit the best kids to be ranked 56th in the country. We do it to be No. 1. Seeing our name climb in the preseason poll, and receiving votes in the national poll, that’s our goal,”
The Crusaders take the diamond for the first time this spring on Friday afternoon, battling Concordia (TX) in the first game of an ASC series at 1 p.m. in Austin. A doubleheader on Saturday will follow. While eager to get the first at-bats of the season out of the way, Stawski said he and the coaching staff have focused on keeping the team relaxed through the first gameweek.
“We were ready weeks ago,” Stawski said. “Now it is just about getting our minds right. We try not to get too hyped up. You have to be technically-sound. If you get your emotions too high, going into the game, you won’t play well. We’re trying to keep everyone pretty level, pretty relaxed. We’ve put everything that we need to put in.”
The Crusaders will not bring back their top two hitters from last season to anchor the lineup, with Malek Bolin playing professionally in Sioux City, Iowa, and Caimyn Holiday now at NAIA Our Lady of the Lake. But Stawski is optimistic, because the lineup is deeper than ever before.
Ryan Farmer hit .306 a year ago, Hunter Jones tallied 32 RBIs in 2022, Rhett Grosz started 42 games, mostly at third base, last season, and catchers Warren Sammons and Robert McCall made strides at the plate and behind it during last year’s 25-19 season. All five are back, one year older, and that is in addition to several others who contributed as freshmen and sophomores last season.
“Now all these guys are a year older, and their production levels are going to go way up,” Stawski noted. “When you add all of them up together, it’s going to be more than what we lost. I actually like our offense more this year than I did last year.
“[Last year] we were very top-heavy. And Malek and Caimyn were good. There’s not doubt about it. But once we got past a certain point in the order, you think ‘I’m not sure how we’re going to score without those two guys producing.’ Now I look at the lineup and I’m not sure how they’re going to get us out enough times without us scoring.”
UMHB’s home opener is set for Tuesday, February 28, at 6 p.m. against Texas Lutheran. Follow more coverage of UMHB athletics through our Facebook and Twitter pages. Find us at @TrueToTheCru.
