Coaches Roundtable: Derrick Wynn Arkansas Tech

January 4, 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 Derrick Wynn from Arkansas Tech University to discuss how his program works through the recruiting process.

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

Coach Wynn: Every year it seem like the recruiting process seems to occur sooner. Here at Arkansas Tech we are constantly evaluating players from after their 9th grade year on, both on and off the field. But for our true recruiting process of players usually begins after their Sophomore season. We are really big on doing our homework on prospects and seeing them multiple times over the next few years. We want to know as much about our prospects as possible and ensuring that they are a good fit both athletically and of high character.

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

Coach Wynn: The prospect has to have at least one tool we see valuable in order to consider him a prospect for our program. Again we want to know the character of the prospect. Is he someone who is going to make others around him better? Will this kid be someone who will set our program to a higher standard when he is off of the baseball field? Will he work hard on and off of the field when no one is watching? And in doing so we have found that this has elevated our team chemistry, our classroom success, and our overall representation of our program and Arkansas Tech University.

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

Coach Wynn: Again going back to my previous statements. If for some reason a student athlete does not meet one of the following “Character Standards” or he does not handle success and failure with the same composure. Like I said earlier we really like to see our prospects play multiple times and really invest and form a relationship with them. Also we like to see kids fail before we can really evaluate them, because it isn’t until failure when we see what type of student- athlete we would truly be getting.

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

Coach Wynn: Here we feel that athleticism is of great value. Athleticism is something that is a for sure skill that all of our prospective student athletes must have. We feel that within our system and the time that we invest in our players that we can give you a plan for success to ensure that your talent level increases during your time at Arkansas Tech. We try to recruit as many athletic guys as possible because after 4 years those are the players that seem to have improved the most and are in our line up every day.

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

Coach Wynn: That’s kind of a trick question because we value both because we evaluate every pitcher on who they are and what they bring to the table. I feel that a good pitching staff has to have a mixture of both. And we recruit both and currently have both on our roster. We honestly look for pitchers with great knowledge and understanding of what they are doing and who they are as a pitcher. We go after both types of pitchers with a high understanding of what they are doing because guys with high pitch ability seem to have a lot of success in high school but never really pan out because they cannot seem to either increase velocity or find a pitch that makes a college hitter uncomfortable in the box. And guys with power arms don’t really work out because they can’t really develop feel or an understanding of how to pitch. So we as a coaching staff try to evaluate a pitcher on what type of pitcher they are and their overall understand of what they are doing.

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

You have got to go to work. And that doesn’t just mean in practice, baseball is a sport you can do something to make yourself a better player on your own at your house. You have got to strive to be a better student, athlete, and person every day. Because if a student athlete can be great at all of those things I don’t know of a baseball program in the country that won’t take notice of them. And if you truly love the game never stop playing because there is always a spot for you to play, so get yourself out there and get yourself seen. Also have fun and play with energy because we as recruiters are looking for reasons to mark you off of our list, and if you play with energy and play the game the right way that can separate you from your peers.

Coaches Roundtable: Derrick Wynn Arkansas Tech

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