ASU baseball will have a night of round-twos on Friday as its opens the second season at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, and as head coach Tracy Smith begins his second season at the helm for the Sun Devils.
Hired in 2014 as the fifth head coach in program history, Smith — known as Skip to the ASU baseball family — came to ASU with experience and determination to get things done.
Smith comes to ASU from two programs that he helped make successful: Miami of Ohio (1997-2005) and Indiana University (2006-2014).
In his 19 years as a head coach, he has taken his teams to the NCAA Regionals five times, advancing to the College World Series once with Indiana.
Smith came to ASU knowing its rich history and that it was a solid program, he said. This is different than the way he started at his previous schools.
“We still philosophically do the same things, but as far as just the program, I think expectations are a little different,” Smith said. “Coming into Miami’s program, it was down. ... So we kind of started from the bottom and built it, kind of the same thing at Indiana. Coming here, there were some things we needed to address, but the starting point was no where near the same as Miami and at Indiana.”
In his first year as a Sun Devil, Smith was a part of the move from Packard Stadium, on ASU’s Tempe campus, to Phoenix Municipal five miles north.
The improved facilities at Phoenix Municipal offer more to the program as well as a better game experience for fans. It's a way to stay up-to-date and help recruit, but Smith emphasized that facilities aren’t what win championships.
“We’ve got a top-notch facility, it’s awesome for our kids, I’m happy,” Smith said. “I love coming to work everyday, and where I am you get to look out on this field, but at the end of the day, you still build programs with people, not bricks and mortar.”
Senior Jordan Aboites is one of those people who has helped build the program in his last four years as a Sun Devil, the last two with Smith.
Aboites is a member of the Sun Devils experienced infield and will likely be thrown into the pitching role this season.
“(Smith's) throwing me out there in a lot of big situations and shown his confidence in me, which has helped me kind of feel more confident,” Aboites said. “It’s big when you have a coach that trusts you with stuff like that.”
Aboites said Smith has a loose coaching style, but he's strict when needed.
“He does a really good job balancing," Aboites said. "When he needs to get on us, he gets on us, but he also plays that father-figure role where he’s, you know, kind of tough on you.”
Junior infielder David Greer said Smith’s coaching style is to play the players who put in the work and those who don’t won’t and that he has given the team a new way of thinking.
“Not just for myself, but for everyone, he has given us a different mind-state and mentality to just go out and attack every day,” Greer said.
Freshman Gage Canning was drawn to the Sun Devil program because of the atmosphere and history at ASU, he said. Since being here, he feels Smith has helped him step into a new role at the college level.
“For me individually, he’s developed me into a next level player,” Canning said. “For the program he’s really stepped it up and gotten the good players where they need to be.”
For Smith, he hopes that the players can pick up on some of his qualities.
“I like to have fun, there’s no doubt about that, but I also hold guys to standards on and off the field so I would hope that that would somehow creep into the identity of this team,” Smith said.
“We’re going to have a certain toughness to us, but we’re also going to enjoy playing the game, and we’re going to respect our opponents. I think that when you go out and model that everyday, hopefully your guys pick up on that.”
As the Sun Devils finish up preseason practices and begin the regular season action against Xavier, Smith said his biggest concern is staying healthy — he's worried that if one of the starters goes down, there won't be a suitable backup.
Smith said he’s looking forward to getting this team on the field and moving past preseason speculation to show fans what the guys can do.
Smith said he's excited to see how the team comes together.
“That’s going to be the fun part for me because that’s when we’ll see whether we’re a team or not, or whether we’re a bunch of individuals.”
Related Links:
Tracy Smith officially introduced as ASU baseball head coach
Power Rankings: Oregon State, UCLA top Pac-12 baseball ranks
Reach the reporter at haley.stesiak@asu.edu or follow @haley_stesiak on Twitter.
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