Staying in the game; CMU student coaches travel team
Matt Sandles is shy.
He is not somebody anyone would expect to manage a bunch of 17 through 19-year-old baseball players, but that is exactly what the Central Michigan student has done for two of the last three years.
People who work around Sandles have said his greatest asset is his statistics gathering and most of all — recruiting.He had to build teams from scratch every season, because most members are one-and-done players who just finished their senior year in high school or their freshman year in college. They must be 18 years old or younger when May 1 arrives to participate.
“He is an excellent recruiter,” said Sandles’ former assistant coach Jim Rousseau. “He can tell you (who) almost any of the top high school kids in Michigan are.”
Sandles, 21, led his U-18 summer travel team, the Michigan Jets, to a 32-13-1 record in the 2011 season.
“He really knows his stuff,” said former player Joe Williams. “He picked a really good group of guys, because they (were) all good players and they signed with good teams in college.”
He finds players by scouring websites and contacts them by text message or email.
The affordability is one thing that attracts players. Sandles does not make a profit from managing.
“We’re not trying to make money,” he said. “We’re just trying to have fun.”
Helping players go Division I
Most of the players Sandles recruits slide through the cracks, Rousseau said.
Rousseau’s son Jeffrey was left off recruiting boards of Division I schools because many thought hockey was his future. Jeffrey playing on Sandles squad in addition to attending camps at schools resulted in a scholarship offer from Eastern Michigan.
“It still comes back to Matt. If Matt wouldn’t have called, and he wouldn’t have pursued, we may not be at Eastern Michigan,” Rousseau said. “EMU knew of him probably prior too, but they hadn’t seen him, because he moved out of state.
Sandles said it brings joy to him when a player on one of his teams is succeeding in college. Only one player from last year’s team is not on a college roster.
“Last night I was watching a kid that was on our team in 2008. He was on the Big Ten Network pitching for Michigan State,” he said. “That was back when I was playing, but it was pretty cool. I was really happy for him.”
Age creates problems coaching
Sandles created an 18-and-under traveling team in the summer of 2008, entering his senior year in high school. His role was to be a player and recruiter, but he took over the reigns as manager in the last 22 games in 2009.
Rousseau said it can be a struggle for Matt, because he is not much older than his players. Sandles said he expected players to practice on their own and he was “walked all over” by his players.
“Last year, what was he, 20 (years old)?” Rousseau said. “Well, the kids on our team were 18 and 19. He is not an athletic guy and I think sometimes athletes look at someone who is not athletic, and this may not be right, and it is what is, might think that they don’t know what they’re talking about.
“When I started, I was a dad. I was 25 years old coaching nine year olds. So if you’re 20 coaching 19 year olds, you know, it’s harder. It’s much harder.”
His team’s greatest win in 2011 was in the Triple Crown Sports Great Lakes Spectacular Championship game. The Jets won via walk-off single 10-9, after facing a 6-0 deficit in the first inning.
The day the Jets won, July 17, was a year after his grandmother died. He did not manage in 2010 as a result of her deteriorating health. He realized it was the same day after looking at the championship plaque.
“One year after I had the worst feeling in the world, I had the best feeling in the world,” Sandles said. “I truly feel she was looking down on me that day.”
His team was two-for-two against the Central Michigan Stars, coached by Central Michigan University’s volunteer baseball coach Derek Simmons.
Sandles is looking forward to his second full season at the helm this summer. He has players from Michigan, Ohio and Canada on this year’s roster.
“I’m really excited. I think we got a better team than last year,” he said. “We just got to see if they can play as a team or if their egos get in the way, because they are all very talented.”
Rich Krentz is one of the longest running traveling team coaches in Michigan, entering his tenth year. He has seen many teams come and go and said he hopes Sandles will continue managing.
“If his team disappears like a lot of other teams disappear, then you got these kids coming back from college (and high school) that have no place to play,” he said. “Then they’re at a disadvantage when they go back to college.”
Sandles said he plans to continue to leave his shy behavior on the shelf in the future because of his love of the game.
“I decided this was the only way I was going to be able to stay in baseball,” he said.
