West Virginia head baseball coach Steve Sabins.
For most that will take a little getting used to as this will be the first time since 2013 that former head coach Randy Mazey will not be at the top step of the West Virginia dugout.
Mazey's legacy will live on through his successor, Sabins, who has taken valuable lessons from the former skipper, but knows things will look different as far as in-game management this year and beyond.
"We have a tremendous fanbase. We take a tremendous amount of pride in representing all those people. And you have to know and believe in that if you want to have success here. Coach Sabins has been with me for nine years and he knows what it takes to win at West Virginia," Mazey said last June during WVU's Super Regional appearance.
Following that Super Regional for West Virginia, the torch was officially passed from Mazey to Sabins. And while a new face is the new head coach for West Virginia, many of Sabins' decisions will come from his experience working under Mazey.
"I used to always joke with [Mazey] because I was a type A personality and [Mazey] was pretty laid back and didn't sweat the small stuff too much and I'm a little bit more of the organizer and the planner kind of stuff. And I'd pull my hair out and he would always say, 'Never make a decision until you have to,'" Sabins said.
"And I think about that quite a bit just because there are so many decisions in this seat and you wanna let some things unfold as far as whether that's name and starters, picking staff members, locations, travel, bus, meals, whatever it is, running the game, kind of gotta let some things unfold to get as much information as you can to make quality decisions. And so I think the best piece of advice is probably slow down on some decision-making and make sure you read the situation accurately."
Some of those decisions, as Sabins mentioned, won't all be made by him.
Sabins, who was WVU's third base coach, will run the offense, while other responsibilities, including substitutions, pitching changes, and defensive positioning, will be divided up among other coaches, something that Mazey used to have full control over.
"Coach [Mazey], he grew up in an era where he had done so much. He'd been a pitching coach at a high level, he'd been a hitting coach at a high level, he'd been an outfield coach at a high level. He was a two-way player in college, he was a pitcher in professional baseball. He had done everything on the field, and so when he got here, coaching staffs were smaller, he really relied on his own experience and skills a ton," Sabins said.
While Sabins will control the game, he will do it in a different style than Mazey, delegating to his assistant coaches.
"And so this year, probably the biggest difference is that Coach Oney will call pitches. Coach [Christopher] Reilly will help with some decisions before the game as far as who's available and who's gonna pitch. I'll run the offense. Coach [Jimmy] Roesinger will position the infielders. Coach [Drew] Hefner's gonna help with some preparation of outfield stuff. Coach [Jacob] Garcia will do the scouting reports," Sabins said.
"So just a little bit more diverse when it comes to the coaching aspect of it, relying on some more people inside the organization. So I think that will be a little bit of a different style of play or pitch call just because there's more variation in the people that have an impact on the game," Sabins said.
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