Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 9 No. 6 | June 2017

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44 Inside Hokie Sports
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assistant at the time. I stayed in touch with him, and two years later,
Wade left Lafayette to be the head coach at Louisiana Tech. He called
and asked me if I was interested in his old job, which was the first
assistant there.
“My wife [Barbara] and I didn’t have any kids at the time, and I felt
like we had gotten Marist to be as successful as we probably could at
the time. So we hopped in the car and went to Louisiana.”
Szefc spent the next 10 years working as an assistant, including
six seasons at Louisiana, two at Kansas and two at Kansas State. In
the early summer of 2012, he applied and interviewed for the head
coaching position at Maryland. Officials at the school named him the
head coach on July 18.
“It [his years as an assistant] gave me a lot of experience,” Szefc
said. “It helped me to work for three different programs in baseball
places. When I came to an ACC program at the time that ultimately
became a Big Ten program … the experiences in recruiting and the
relationships that I had built with coaches and other people along the
way helped me, as I went back to being a head coach.
“I went a little different route [in coaching] than what some other
people go. As I look back at it, the 10 years really helped prepare me,
and Maryland really helped me, I think, for building this program.”
Szefc inherits a rebuilding job, as theHokies struggled during previous
coach PatrickMason’s four-year tenure. They made the ACC tournament
just once in that span and never recorded a winning season. This past
spring, Tech went 23-32, with a 9-21 mark in ACC play.
Making matters more difficult, Tech plays in arguably the toughest
league in the nation. Florida State and Louisville advanced to the
College World Series, while five other ACC schools received NCAA
regional bids this past season.
Of course, Szefc knows all this from having coached in the ACC
with Maryland before the Terrapins joined the Big Ten, and he turned
around the fortunes of the Terrapins’ program. This past season,
Maryland went 38-23 and received an NCAA bid.
“Last week, there was a story in The Diamondback [Maryland’s
student newspaper],” Szefc said. “I didn’t even read the story. I just read
the headline. The headline said, ‘The baseball program just went 38-23
and went to a regional and won a game. Should we be happy with that?’
“It was great. I loved it. It was tremendous because as a coach,
when you’re trying to build something, that’s what you want. You
want expectations. I think a five-year span of time is a fair amount
of time to see a story like that created. It was great. That was just as
much satisfaction as any paycheck you’ll get as a coach, in my opinion.
It showed me where the bar had been set and where the expectations
had been set.”
An added bonus in aiding Szefc’s efforts at Tech will be a renovated
baseball facility. Babcock committed around $18 million to renovate
English Field at Union Park, providing new fan amenities, a new
press box and game operations area, and most importantly to Szefc, a
new clubhouse that figures to be a draw in recruiting.
Therein lies the key to future success—bringing in talent. Szefc has
proven himself in that area, as 25 of his players have been drafted
over the past five years. Like every coach, he seeks talent, but he also
looks for Dustin Pedroia types—guys who love the game and love to
work like the Boston Red Sox All-Star.
“I just think those players have success,” Szefc said. “Just trying to
instill that into those players at the college level … there are just no
frills in Dustin Pedroia’s life or game. I don’t even know him. I haven’t
spoken to him. Just the way he is on the field, that’s the kind of guy
that college coaches are trying to develop in their baseball programs.”
Tech lost five seniors off this past year’s team, and underclassmen
pitchers Packy Naughton and Aaron McGarity were drafted by Major
League teams in mid-June—and figure to leave Tech. But guys like
Tom Stoffel, Sam Fragale, Jack Owens and pitchers Connor Coward
and Nick Anderson return. They form a solid nucleus for Szefc’s
debut season.
Szefc’s immediate tasks are to round out his staff and then add
talent to that nucleus. Winning may not come immediately in
Blacksburg, but if Szefc’s track record is any indication, the wait may
not be very long.
Szefc Continued from page 43