In Tuesday morning’s press conference, Ross Bjork announced that assistant coach Matt Meyers is the new WKU baseball coach. Meyers replaces Chris Finwood who resigned in June to accept a position at Old Dominion University. Meyers began his coaching career at UNC-Ashville where he was held the head-coaching job from 2001 to 2004. Meyers then had a short stint as an assistant at Auburn before coming to the Hill in 2008. A pitcher himself at the University of Tennessee, coach Meyers has focused his attention on improving the Hilltopper pitching staff. Since arriving on the Hill, WKU has consistently possessed one of the top pitching staffs in the league (finishing in the top 3 in ERA 3 of the last 4 seasons), and he has been an important part of the success the Hilltoppers have had the last few years. Bjork admitted that plenty of quality candidates were interested in the position, including St. Louis Cardinal Matt Holliday’s dad, but after the interview process, he was certain that Meyers was the best man for the job. The number of those interested in the job flattered him, and he felt this shows how great the WKU baseball program has become.
After being introduced officially at the press conference, coach Meyers took the opportunity to explain where he felt the program was heading and what he wanted to improve in the coming years. First and foremost, he expressed how thankful, happy and excited he was to be the new Hilltopper coach. He loves the Bowling Green community and WKU, and he stressed that this job is not a stepping-stone in his coaching career. He ensured that he is here to stay for a LONG time to be the head coach at WKU and wants to lead the program to even greater things for the community. In reference to the community, he said “It’s your team.” He loved how the community has jumped on board and gotten behind the HIlltoppers and thanked all of those in the community several times. He stressed that he wants WKU to be a mainstay in the NCAA tournament. He also wants his team to be on top of the Sunbelt Conference each year in not only on field performance, but in academics as well. WKU had one of the highest GPA’s last year and he wants to continue this success in the classroom. He says WKU will continue to successfully recruit the top baseball players in the state and our region. Meyers noted that fans will see some change in the future. Since the NCAA introduced new bats last year, high scoring games have seen a dramatic decrease. Meyers has noticed this change and will focus his future teams on playing small ball baseball to generate runs. One of the last things he stressed was that he wants to continue to improve the strength of schedule of the Hilltoppers and wants to bring even bigger teams to come play in Bowling Green.
Coach Meyers ended his opening statements with a quote. “2+2=5.” He went on to explain that when 1 guy is doing one thing and 1 guy is doing another they can max out. But when they both come together and work together, they can achieve even more. He says that people wondered why WKU faltered down the stretch the last 2 years. “We didn’t come together and try to get 5, we just stayed at 4.” His goal for the year is that for all 56 games his team will come together to achieve more. He doesn’t want anymore late season dropoffs.
I attended the press conference and recommend that everyone watch it. In it you will see sincere he is about the baseball program and how much he appreciates the community. He wants more than anything to bring the best baseball he can to WKU and Bowling Green. Meyers is a man with a great personality and his press conference will be enjoyable to watch.
http://www.wkusports.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=780223
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