Wright State head baseball coach Greg Lovelady brought his expertise from his college playing days at Miami and has built a solid program since.
Winning two national championships as the starting catcher at Miami, Lovelady was molded into the coach he is today.
“I’d probably say at least 60 to 70 percent of my coaching philosophies are from what I learned there,” Lovelady said.
Lovelady had the desire to give back what he had learned from his coaches to the next generation.
“I had a lot of great experiences at Miami and was able to have those because of great coaches I felt took me under their wing and cared about me. I felt like I wanted to repay the things that people had done for me,” Lovelady said.
Though Lovelady had never heard of Wright State, former Miami player and previous head coach at WSU Rob Cooper would be the connection that would spark his career path.
Lovelady was working baseball camps to network, and while playing golf in Charleston, S.C., Cooper gave him a call about an open recruiting coordinator position at Wright State.
“We talked for a long time, and two days later, he offered me the job and flew me up here to take a look at the place,” Lovelady said. “I was ready for something new, getting out on the road and recruiting.”
It has been 11 years since Lovelady started his tenure at Wright State as recruiting coordinator before taking over as pitching coach and head coach. Though he could not have initially imagined being at the same university for this long, Lovelady feels he made the right decision.
“I really feel like we’ve done a great job of building something. It’s hard to build something and just give it away,” Lovelady said.
Since taking over the helm as head coach last season, Lovelady has compiled a 53-29 record overall record including a 32-5 record in the Horizon League. Over his 11 years as a coach, seven players have been drafted, and 20 more have gone on to play some form of professional baseball.
“Every baseball player has the opportunity to play professional baseball. It’s a little different than other sports,” Lovelady said. “Since there is a minor league, there are so many people drafted.”
Though college baseball players have more opportunities to play professionally, Lovelady stresses academics first.
“I tell them academics are first because the chances of you playing professional baseball are not very good, but we’re going to work like crazy to try to get you to reach that goal and to be able to reach that dream that you have,” Lovelady
One of the more notable draft picks is current Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Joe Smith, who was drafted in 2006. As a coaching philosophy, Lovelady stresses that his players stay balanced academically and push themselves on the field. This is one of the qualities Smith possessed, according to Lovelady.
“The special ones just have that motor that doesn’t stop,” Lovelady said. “That’s the way Joe was. Joe wasn’t a great worker when he got here, but once he bought in to what we were doing,” he became special.
This season, the Raiders have had a knack of winning games in clutch fashion. Though Lovelady tends not to focus on how his team won, it still has its benefits.
“We know that later in the year when we really need to pull a win out like this, we’ve practiced it.”
