On Sunday, May 27, in a meeting of NHIAA D-III baseball coaches, Ryan Seaver was named D-III JV Coach of the Year. Seaver has been coaching Stevens JV Baseball for 11 years now and has accumulated an 82-78 record over that time. On the eleven years as the JV coach at Stevens, Seaver said, “My first season, we went 3-14 and it’s been a progression ever since.” This year, the program went 8-4 and closed the season out with a four-game win streak.
Seaver’s coaching experience goes beyond the diamond, as he has also coached soccer, basketball and golf in Claremont. On his coaching history, Seaver said, “I started out coaching the CMS Girls’ Soccer B team for five years and then I moved up to the A team for the next four years. When the opportunity came, I applied for the Stevens High School Golf coach position, as I am an avid golfer. I have coached the golf team for three years and am in preparation for year-four. In the winters, I had coached the CMS Boys’ B basketball team for two years and moved on to the A team for the next eight seasons. This was the first season I took the winter off in my 11 years in Claremont. And finally, I have coached the Stevens JV Baseball for 11 years right alongside the Varsity Coach, Paul Silva.”
Seaver faced many challenges in his 11th year coaching JV baseball. Among his inexperienced team, he didn’t have a solidified catcher or pitcher to start the season, but after making some adjustments and the team growing into certain roles, they were able to find success. “To be honest, this group of young men amazed me all season long. They were not the most experienced team that I have ever coached, but quite possibly the best learning…listening… and understanding group,” Seaver said.
“At the start of the year, we were struggling to find a catcher and knew we weren’t going to have a lot of arms to pitch. It all started when I asked Jarrett LaPointe to catch… and he accepted the challenge and quickly became what I would consider varsity-ready behind the dish. The next challenge was finding a pitcher, we knew we had a couple freshmen that would need to play for the Varsity team and they came down and pitched a little bit. We had 20 kids total in the Stevens baseball program, so when we played the same day as varsity it was tough. Clayton Wadsworth would be called upon to pitch in 9 games this season and did a phenomenal job in some tough situations. All in all, these kids did all the ‘little things’ right. They ran the bases great, they put the ball in play, they played small ball, put pressure on the other team, and most importantly, they bounced back from their mistakes. We preach the philosophy ‘if you make one mistake, don’t make another’ and I can think of maybe two times all year that happened, which has never happened in my tenure. It was a special year and they exceeded my expectations from day one.”
When asked how he aims to help his players off the field as well as prepare them to make the leap to varsity, Seaver replied, “Well, I know Paul and I keep these young men accountable for everything that goes on at school, whether it be grades or behavior. But we make sure they know that life goes in the order of ‘Family, School, and then Sports.’ One of my big things is after a game, if we go out to eat at a restaurant, the guys know they are leaving their hats on the bus and they will be leaving the restaurant cleaner than when we got there. Preparing them for the varsity level is a great process, Paul and I are very tight and we text back and forth almost every night about the players and games. My job is really to teach the small things that give us a huge advantage. Baseball is a game of psychological warfare, in which the better prepared team can beat the more talented team. Knowing what to do with the ball when it comes to you is phase one, always moving on the pitch and backing up is phase two, and bouncing back after our mistakes is phase three. Then they need to trust you and it’s all about getting them to buy into the process and we had kids that did that this year.”
On his coaching influences, Seaver said, “I have had a lot of great coaches over the years that I have been able to learn from. My uncle, Tom White, in Lisbon, NH is a huge influence… my cousin, Tommy White, who is coaching Lyndon State College baseball and took me on as a recruiting coach for the college, Paul Silva who might be the most knowledgeable baseball guy I know, and Darryl Meattey, who coached me all throughout the ranks and made the game fun for me.”
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