BrownsTribeCavs
Member
Maybe Coach D will realize he’s in over his head and save everyone the trouble by resigning. Ya think?
St X at Moeller
- Thread starter BrownsTribeCavs
- Start date
Doublehelix
Well-known member
Damn, you're brutal, it's year 1 and it's not even over yet.
BrownsTribeCavs
Member
How many games have you been to?
1965 Panther
Well-known member
Didn’t St X play Elder in 2021 in the Regional finals at Dayton 5/3 Stadium.
BornInTheGCL
Member
St X win the league outright that year and lost to Elder in regionals at 5/3. It seems much of the criticism in this thread regarding this year’s team and the new coaching staff in particular is around the idea that this year’s team that finished last in the league and just got back to .500 over the weekend is more talented than that team. At least on paper I would agree, but of course we know the game isn’t played on paper.
1965 Panther
Well-known member
That St X team was very good with Klare and being fundamentally solid and good pitching. This years team I thought was not very good defensively.
Regional semis
BornInTheGCL
Member
They had a senior class just very solid that year. They only had one D1 kid in Jaun but both he and Vogelgesang were tough as nails. I don’t know if Albrinck is pitching anywhere, especially since he wasn’t a high velocity guy, but he just pitched with some guts.
I agree that team was distinctly better defensively. Really not sure what happened to this year’s team on that one, but it’s certainly a big part of why they’ve dropped seven straight GCL games.
BornInTheGCL
Member
Speaking of the tourney, does anybody know why St X chose the draw they did? If seeding holds, they’d be playing at West Clermont in round two then Fairfield. They could have gone with at Kings or Lebanon then playing the other next. I would have thought out of those four you would be looking to avoid Fairfield with the other three being about equal.
BASESWIMPARENT
Well-known member
Bob came over from Fenwick if I remember correctly. Hudepohl, Hundley, Jones and Thomas are all 2020 graduates that went on to play D1 baseball. Two of those guys were power 5 recruits. But I do agree with you that X did not place an emphasis on constructing a winning baseball program over time. But I think that is more coach driven than school driven. If coach D starts an offseason hitting and throwing program and if he starts to watch his young players during the summer, X will have a consistent team. But if he just shows up in Feb and starts coaching, it will be more of the same.Lets be honest here. Many of St. X players do not play summer ball or compete on traveling teams. They do not go to St. X to play baseball. They are competitive at times because they have numbers. As far as I can remember there are no heavily recruited baseball players out of X. There is no use trying to make excuses for a coach or a program that does not place an emphasis on building a winning program over time. Bob Sherlock had some success at X, but he was a Moeller guy before moving over. GBM
BornInTheGCL
Member
Unfortunately none of those 2020 guys got to play a senior year. They won a league title as juniors with a senior class that was…not the most talented. I was looking forward to seeing what that team could do, but we’ll never know. The job that staff did the year after was what impressed me. Moeller should have run away with that title on paper, and St X had it wrapped up before the last league game. To suggest there was a lack of emphasis on constructing a winning baseball program from that staff and players is laughable. As for the administration, I won’t argue with you, and I’m guessing that’s at least partly why they lost the previous staff. If the facilities had kept pace with the rest of the league, today’s tournament game doesn’t get moved to a neutral site.
Getting back to this year, it’s a tough situation. The season has clearly been a disappointment to this point, but the question becomes how much of that is on the staff and are they better served moving on. If they hadn’t had to have such a prolonged search, perhaps Coach D could have had a full offseason to prepare. That said, I’m pretty certain he was hired in September, which is pretty close to a full offseason, and he also is a guy who would have come in knowing the facilities, the support staff, etc, to hit the ground running. My guess is Coach D gets one more year unless the administration feels they can get that hire they wanted last year or Coach D decides to step down.
BASESWIMPARENT
Well-known member
So... Here is one of my St X. stories. First let me say that I am an '86 grad. My son who played for West JV at the time, has a game at X on some random Saturday in 2019. They played at the newer field across form Northbend Road. It had not rained in the area for 2 days and the field was still wet to the point that they could not run a machine over it and prepare it! I was really disappointed that this was the state of the facility which was still relatively new. So I made some inquiries and was led to believe that they were going to install an artificial field the next year so they were not really going to invest in it that year by leveling it out and making it a field suitable for varsity baseball in SWO and quite frankly Saint Xavier High school. I though that was appropriate. Do it in one capital improvement project. The summer after Covid wiped out the high school season my son plays with Hundley and I talked to Tucker's dad. I asked how the new artificial field looked. He said that they never installed it because they did not want to be "that" school. I just shook my head. You pay 16K a year and you play in a mud pit. What a joke? Memo to X's athletic department: YOU ARE THAT SCHOOL. Pretending you aren't only makes you look foolish not wise. I hope coach D is successful. He helped my nephew at X back in the 2000's so I am bias but dang, that is the nonsense these coaches over at X have to deal with.
St. X is turning into a $h!+ show across the athletic spectrum. GBM
BornInTheGCL
Member
I have also heard that specific reason of not wanting to be “that school” as the reason why they didn’t move forward, not from your source but through one I find extremely reliable. . Last year IIRC, to add insult to injury, the field was unplayable for the games with Moeller to the point where they played at Moeller’s new turf facility all three games between the two.
When the previous staff took over, they were well behind Moeller in terms of both the talent they were bringing in and the on field results. If you’re a coach who’s worked their butt off to compete with Moeller to the point you’re getting the best of them (St X had won 8 of 12 heading into last year) and they get a new top notch facility and you don’t, despite the resources St X has, that tells me the administration doesn’t care about the work you’ve put in.
I agree St X is indeed “that school”. Just own it and make it the highest quality for the kids that you can.
You compete with Moeller when you win in the tourney. Until then it’s not apples to apples.
BASESWIMPARENT
Well-known member
Well X has won once with a bunch of future pro but I agree with you. The little 9 game round robin is not that big a deal.
BornInTheGCL
Member
Disagree. Teams tend to have two priorities: win the league and go as far as possible in tournament. If you pay attention, teams pitch their best and even save their best for league games. They also tend to play their best lineup in those games while giving spot starts to guys in non league games. The GCL is no exception. It’s also why coaches who put the time into their seeding votes put more stock in league games.
Do you think the Bombers and the other three GCL South football teams, to use your terminology, consider their “little 3 game round robin” to be “not that big a deal”? Or do they circle those games on their calendars and trumpet their victories (as they should)?
Sherlock coached at Moeller JV level for quite a few years. His success at the lower level at Moeller took him to Fenwick as HC. I believe he then went to X. GBM
I think it’s rather funny how butthurt X people are regarding Moeller. So X finishes the season 14-14. Take away the 3 D2/3 schools that X played last year and you have a replica season. I would concur that neither is indicative of the talent that X appears to have on an annual basis.
BASESWIMPARENT
Well-known member
I am a grad of X and not Butthurt at all about Moeller. They have a program. X does not. Periodically X has some talent that drops in their lap and because they do not develop it, the team underachieves. I am hoping that the new Coach and staff will change this. But I have little hope. BTW, in the last 6 or 7 years I think Moeller has underachieved relative to the talent that has gone through there and made some bad choices with their off season pitching program. But my goodness, with the talent that is in Moeller now (some of it from West Chester... looking at you West), it really is State Championship game or bust.
BASESWIMPARENT
Well-known member
I was not aware. Thank youSherlock coached at Moeller JV level for quite a few years. His success at the lower level at Moeller took him to Fenwick as HC. I believe he then went to X. GBM
BASESWIMPARENT
Well-known member
I don't know and I really don't think it matters. It is a small league with few games and small sample size. What really matters is what they do against the rest of the city or state because that will impact their seeding and their tournament chances. For example, if Moeller happens to win the GCL and gets beat in the regular season by the top teams in the GMC and say maybe a Turpin or an Anderson, then their seeding will suffer accordingly. Even if they win the GCL. Conversely, say Lasalle ends up .500 in the GCL but smokes the GMC and other city teams, their seeding will reflect accordingly maybe higher than Moeller's in this example. I do think all the GCL teams try to win their GCL games but I also know (and this answer includes Badin) they will go all out to beat the top GMC teams and other perceived top city teams to get the best seeding possible. Because seeding is done by the coaches. And also perception is reality when it comes to this. Seeding is everything.
BASESWIMPARENT
Well-known member
This is my point. The rest of city could care less about the GCL. They care about what these teams do against them and teams like them when it comes to seeding. The GCL as whole could stink or it could have the best 4 teams in the city. Nobody knows that till they play the other schools in the city. And if you think the GCL mails in those games against Mason, West (when it was good), East, and Fairfield, you are dead wrong. Just check the box scores.
BASESWIMPARENT
Well-known member
Because it is again turning into a situation where certain influential administrators and maybe alumni don't want X to be known for athletic success. This element has always been there and has to be fought back by parents and Alumni that don't have that attitude. Let me clear, this is not a Jesuit High school attitude, this is a St. X thing. Sadly, it reduces the opportunities for the boys that go there and it is not like X is sending boys to the Ivy League like they once did. Unfortunately, some believe that being strong n Academics and being strong in Athletics is mutually exclusive. IT IS NOT! But my friends at my old Alma Mater do a lot of things that reduce their potential for growth and improvement. Anyway, you are not wrong
The only reason I stated that was in every response concerning the previous coaching staff was to point out their recent success against Moeller. During the time (2017-2021) moeller was pretty mediocre by their standards while at the same time both elder and lasalle made runs to the state championship game, obviously out of the gcl south.
BrownsTribeCavs
Member
St X has been consistently competing favorably for GCL titles with Moeller and Elder the last 6-7 years. St X and Moeller have each won 2 outright and 1 shared league title in that time, and Elder has shared 1. In tournament, Elder has been the only team to make a state final four (lost in final in 2021) while St X has been to regionals twice and Moeller once. In the eight years prior to the previous coach (that’s as far back as the league page goes), they won one shared and zero outright titles, so if your characterization was about that stretch, I’m inclined to agree.
That’s all well and good, but the bottom line is that coaching staff has moved on. The current staff under Coach DiGiacomo inherited a team that didn’t lose a single player to a D1 baseball roster, lost less than 1/3 of its IP to graduation and replaced more than 2/3 of that with an All League freshman who wasn’t available to last year’s team, returned their best arm and bat, and somehow regressed significantly especially DURING the season, including being blown out in four of the last seven league games (all losses) and both Jesuit Cup games. You can grind an axe about the previous staff for whatever reason, but they’re irrelevant at this point plus they had nothing to do with the in season regression that occurred this year.
The real question is whether this staff is the answer, and as BaseSwimParent acknowledged, they have “little hope”.
Philly_Cat
Well-known member
I feal like it again needs to be pointed out that if you're looking to change out coaches every year, good luck with the success of your program. We haven't even fully finished the first season, let alone allowed multiple seasons to complete, and you're discussing needing to replace the coach. SMDH
BrownsTribeCavs
Member
I completely agree on the importance of continuity. Once you have the coach you want, you absolutely want to do what you can to keep them. The question is whether they have that coach. That they took so long to hire a guy who works down the hall from the AD’s office suggests to me they weren’t so sold when they hired him. I’ve heard rumors of multiple specific coaches turning them down during that process. How true they are I don’t know.
The question at this point is whether they have the right guy for the job. If they’re convinced they do, you move forward with him. If you’re not, part of the question is if you can get somebody better. If the status of the administration is anything like what it appears to be, that may be a hard sell for whoever that target coach is.
And while the baseball season as a whole is still going as you noted, St X’s season is indeed complete after last night’s tourney exit.
I’m still of the opinion DiGiacomo gets another year. As has been referenced, last year’s search already suggested they hired their backup and possibly the backup to their backup. Unless they have a good idea that they can get someone they really want, firing the new coach is only going to make the job appear less attractive.
The timing of the opening last year already suggested administrative dysfunction. The prolonged hiring process said it louder. To then fire the new guy after one year screams dysfunction.
As I partially stated previously, the AD should be making it clear that this season was unacceptable and ask Coach DiGiacomo his plan to change that going forward. The AD may need to make a suggestion or two or even require a change of some sort. It’s then on both of them to move forward, and if it’s unsuccessful, a change is probably necessary next summer.
As for changes, that might mean a new pitching coach. Many of the promising arms didn’t seem to move forward and possibly even regressed. Someone said the previous pitching coach was still involved in some capacity. I can’t verify it currently. Perhaps it’s a matter of seeing if he’s willing to reassume that role.
I don’t know what defensive work was occurring, but the defense was an Achilles heel all year long. Perhaps a new approach is in order. I can’t speak to what relationship Coach DiGiacomo has with Coach Sherlock, but maybe the previous guy would have some ideas on what worked, especially since he’d have some knowledge of the players and facilities available.
I’m fully aware from what occurred this season that it looked likely Coach DiGiacomo wasn’t equipped for the job, but I still think he gets one more season to try to become equipped.