Don't know about how the other CU dads might see it, but my son played at Chapman for both Laverty and Coach T, and one difference between the 2 was accountability. Laverty knows how to coach and took Redlands to the Western Regionals one year with an overachieving team. But with T, you needed to consistently perform in order to play. If you messed up, missed a sign, had a mediocre effort, walked too many guys in a game, kept making the same mistakes, you might sit for awhile or the rest of your time there. Don't get me wrong, T knew how to give strokes out for good effect and was mostly calm (especially to the older players) but every now and then, he was known to put out some biting sarcasm (or explode with a brief but effective rant) that kept a guy and maybe the team on their toes. Laverty is a good man. He's done a good job of handling his pitchers especially the ones coming back from injury. People like him but good or bad, there's no consequences about failing or losing.
On those last few nationally ranked panther teams (which I saw), there were a number of guys who were above-average focused and mentally tough. Gamers expecting to win. Everybody wants to win but there's just a few guys on a given team that have that hard nosed attitude about winning. T's approach maybe encouraged those kind of guys to rise up, be recognized and make good things consistently happen. I can name a half dozen guys like that who led the 2011 team, rode herd on the others and kept the team together, chemistry-wise, on and off the field (especially that last World Series team in 2011).
Just an observation from an old poster on this board-there's no right answer: Fact is --- Chapman is having a good year. The lineup is as good on paper as any lineup put out there in past years. The pitching has lacked some consistency it seems but it's a young staff with some good arms and who knows, they could get hot over these last few games. Hope so.
On those last few nationally ranked panther teams (which I saw), there were a number of guys who were above-average focused and mentally tough. Gamers expecting to win. Everybody wants to win but there's just a few guys on a given team that have that hard nosed attitude about winning. T's approach maybe encouraged those kind of guys to rise up, be recognized and make good things consistently happen. I can name a half dozen guys like that who led the 2011 team, rode herd on the others and kept the team together, chemistry-wise, on and off the field (especially that last World Series team in 2011).
Just an observation from an old poster on this board-there's no right answer: Fact is --- Chapman is having a good year. The lineup is as good on paper as any lineup put out there in past years. The pitching has lacked some consistency it seems but it's a young staff with some good arms and who knows, they could get hot over these last few games. Hope so.