Coaches Round Table: Neal Groat Hendrix College

January 26, 2016

By: Zac Bottoms
Arkansas Scouting Director

All college programs have different ways to evaluate talent and come to their final decision on who to recruit and when they recruit them. I have sat down with Coach Neil Groat from Hendrix College to discuss how his program works through the recruiting process.

PBR: At what grade do you start evaluating players for recruiting purposes?

Coach Groat: We start to look at kids during their junior year and really during the summer prior to their senior year. If there is a younger player that we have been told has really good grades, then we will make it point to follow him even earlier in his high school years.

PBR: What are some of the biggest factors for you to recruit a student-athlete?

Coach Groat: We need to find smart kids with good GPAs and test scores and who really want to earn a quality education. Once we find a player with the academic requirements, we are looking for good athletes who can make an impact on our level. The great thing about the small school baseball is that we can find kids who can play and don’t have to worry about fitting them into a pre-fabricated mold that says they have to be this tall or run a 60 in a certain time. Plain and simple, we are looking for guys with tools who will help us win and how they do it can be secondary.

PBR: What are some of the reasons you would not recruit a student athlete?

Coach Groat: There are quite a few reasons, the most basic being someone who will be a poor teammate and someone who is going to demand my time off the field due to their bad behavior. When I call a coach to learn more about a player, I first ask about a kid’s character and attitude and then ask specific questions like “How does he react to failure?” and “If you could do it all over again, would you have him in your program?”. It’s common place now to see what a kid is tweeting and putting out on social media and we do that as well. Lastly, when a kid is on campus I want to see how he acts around his parents and with others with whom he interacts while with us. Parents are famous for asking embarrassing questions and if the kid rolls his eyes or tells his parents to stop talking, I probably don’t want his character on our team. Believe me, those kind of things happen once or twice a year!

PBR: What is the one skill a position player must have for you to recruit them and why?

Coach Groat: Simple, they have to do something that is going to improve our team. I told our staff last year that position players we recruit need to be be able to be classified offensively as one of two things: a gnat or a bat. We need athletic, high-energy, guys on the go or we need them to be either a high batting average or power guy. If we can’t identify them as bringing one of those two skills to the table, then they probably aren’t going to be impactful for our program.

PBR: What do you value more from a pitcher, pitch-ability or power and why?

Coach Groat: Pitch-ability, pitch-abilty, pitch-ability. As I mentioned before, at our level we can recruit guys who are good players no matter how they do what makes them good. If someone throws 90 and can’t find the strike zone, we have no use for them as they won’t get guys out. However, if a guy throws 82-83, keeps the ball down, and can throw three pitches for strikes, he is going to be successful and get lots of guys out. That is the aspect of our level that I love, we can get that guy who may be overlooked because he doesn’t throw as hard as others and he can have a very successful career for us.

PBR: What advice do you have for student athletes that have a desire to play college baseball?

Coach Groat: Realize early in your high school career that the lack of good grades will close more doors than they will open. No one has ever said a player had grades that were too good for a school but there are plenty of guys who have doors closed in their face because they weren’t a good enough student. Also, don’t discount a school just because you don’t know much about the program. There are fantastic baseball programs at all levels all across the country; if a school is interested in you then you should take the time to learn a bit about the school and baseball program before deciding if you are, or are not, interested.