Cary Myers
West Feliciana HS Baseball (St. Francisville, Louisiana)
Hometown: Zachary, Louisiana
Education: Louisiana College
Twitter:Â @cary_myers5
Email: MyersC [at] wfpsb.org
The moment you first realized that you might like to make coaching part of your career?
Growing up as a little boy, my dad, William Myers, was a high school baseball and football coach. For football I was the water boy and for baseball I was the bat boy. I went to every practice and most games. My dad has been a coach my entire life, so I kind of feel like it is in my blood. He has had a huge impact on me becoming a coach. It really wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I knew I wanted to be a baseball coach. I played for a really good coaching staff that was dedicated to making us better. Every chance I had to be around the coaches, I was right there, just to pick up on something about baseball or maybe learn something new. I felt like a coach on the field my senior year and even in college. I saw what kind of impact a coach could have on a group of young men and I was inspired to do the same.
Outside of mentors, talk about one way you’ve learned some aspect of coaching.
Twitter & podcasts! One of my favorite things on Twitter is the ABCA chat. It’s amazing how many coaches share information about what they do and teach. I must admit, I copy a lot of that shared information and implement it during our practices, especially the infield drills. A few of my favorites that I follow are: Steve Springer, Kainoa Correa, Jerry Weinstein, Tucker Frawley, and Trent Mongero. I also listen to a lot of podcasts. My head coach that I assist got me hooked on listening to podcasts while I drive. The radio is overrated!
Name one thing you want to accomplish this year.
One new thing I want to accomplish this year is to learn more about pitching. I am the infield and hitting coach at West Feliciana so I’m constantly studying and learning about those two phases of the game. Pitching is the most important phase in the game of baseball, especially at the high school level. Our head coach here at West Feliciana, Gannon Achord, is also our pitching coach. He does a fantastic job with our pitchers and he is also constantly learning. One thing he just implemented this year is the Driveline Program. Our boys have definitely benefited from that and we can see the results. I know some basics of pitching, but I still have so much more to learn.
What is your favorite memory from a coaching conference or clinic?
My favorite memory happened at the ABCA clinic in Anaheim in 2017. Jim Schlossnagle and Jay Johnson were among my favorite speakers. The best memory I had was listening to the “Championship Coaching Panel.” The coaches were Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt), John Savage (UCLA), and Paul Mainieri (LSU). After they spoke on the main stage together, they went to the side room for a Q&A session. I had no choice but to grab a front row seat in there. They talked about everything from recruiting to how they run a practice. It was awesome to just be in that room with 3 great championship coaches, soaking in information.
Your dream lunch date. One coach. Any sport. Any level. Who is it?
Mike Krzyzewski. This was a no brainer for me, and for those who really know me would automatically say that I would pick him. Even though I am from Louisiana, I have always been a huge fan of Duke Basketball and an even bigger fan of Coach K. JJ Reddick was my all time favorite Duke player, but then Grayson Allen came along, so it’s a close race. So, if Coach K would accept the lunch date, he could always bring one of them as a special guest! Anyways, if I could have a lunch with Coach K, I would have a list of questions for him. My first question to him would be, “How do you get your players to buy in to the program so quickly?” The Duke Basketball Program is known for calling themselves a “brotherhood.” It seems their players are all in every year and on the same mission. Duke Basketball is a selfless program. Duke is also known for having plethora amount of one and dones come through the program. Even though these guys come for one year and leave, they are still bought in to the Duke Basketball way! It’s not often you come across a college team in any sport that acts like a family and has that brotherhood. So, Coach K is a no brainer for my lunch date.
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