From the Dugout to the Diamond: Coach Romanella Talks About Centenary Baseball

Coach Andrew Romanella was hired by Centenary in June 2022 to become Centenary's Men’s Baseball Head Coach. He previously was the Assistant Coach for Fairleigh Dickinson’s men's baseball team in the 2021–2022 season. He talked to us about his expectations and goals are for this team this year and the next few years.

What is your overall coaching philosophy for player development?

My overall philosophy is that you have to coach the player to who they are individually. I want players that are athletic, I want players that are fast, I want pitchers that can throw certain pitches. But at the end of the day, when it comes to player development, it has to be individualized. Meaning, are they someone that I can push a certain way? Are they somebody that needs more individual time? Are they somebody that learns better in a team setting? For me, I'd say just focusing on the individual player in player development is my main focus.

How do you balance winning with individual growth?

Sometimes they go hand in hand, but I do try and preach to our players to be very involved in the process of getting better because baseball is a very failure-centric sport. You fail so much more than you succeed, so we keep two different records. We keep our real record, but we keep a record of if we play games the way we feel Centenary baseball should be played. I feel like having that helps the guys individually see we're getting better. 

How hard is it to recruit at a Division III level?

Nearly impossible from the standpoint of being able to get impactful players right off the jump. You'll always be able to find players that want to play college baseball. So to get a Division III baseball roster, by definition, maybe isn't that difficult. But to get a Division III baseball roster that can not only compete in our conference, but try and compete nationally—which is what we're trying to do, to compete at the regional and national level—is very difficult because there's so much above the Division III level. And then secondly, scholarship-wise, which is also financial, but the two aren't the same anymore. So it can be easy to get players, but it can be super difficult to build a roster that can win at this level.

How do players manage academics alongside baseball? 

So we have a system where we try to group the players with assistant coaches and myself because our staff isn't huge and we as assistant coaches try and monitor those players. We have an Academic Advisor for Student Athletes—that's our Associate Athletic Director Juliana Bellar. She also monitors them individually and then communicates with our coaching staff. But for us, it's accountability to each other. They're in these little groups and they have to stay accountable to the coach and then accountable to their teammates as a group, trying to get their GPA as high as possible.

Are there certain majors that are easier to balance with the baseball schedule?

Absolutely. Business is arguably the easiest one. The most difficult are exercise sciences and education. What I've learned is that communication is super difficult because there's so many classes at one, two, four o'clock in the afternoon, but we need a lot of our classes to be at eight o'clock and ten o'clock in the morning.

How do you determine playing time for new players? 

We definitely don't care what year you are in our program in terms of playing time. So for us, it is strictly just a depth chart system. Now, that depth chart goes beyond the baseball field; you have to get good grades, you have to be doing things for the team, you have to be stepping up off the field. All of those things play into it. But to be honest with you, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, fifth year does not matter. If you are the best player at that position, we will play you.

What do you expect from freshmen coming into this program? 

So, because recruiting tends to be difficult, we don't get a lot of transfer portal people. So we have to rely on freshmen. What I expect from freshmen is them to be able to adapt to the college level their first year. Do I hope they can help us win? Yes. But what I really, truly want them to do is mature so that they're almost out of the way as much as they might have a chance to talent-wise help us. But I think that if your youngest players are acting as mature as some of your oldest players, regardless of playing time, then your whole team is that much better.

What separates players who earn starting roles from others?

Consistency. I think that the players that start at any college level, any sport, anywhere are just the most consistent at what they do every single day. The season lasts 40 games. It's a snapshot. We're already almost halfway through. So if you can't play consistently, then it's almost impossible for you to be in the lineup every single day.

How many players do you typically bring in each year? 

Between 10 and 15. My lightest year was seven, but that was just because we had a really big class before that.

Are there opportunities to play in summer league or showcase events? 

Yes. Most of our guys will play in summer leagues, whether that's local or some of them will travel.

What does a typical training week look like in season or off season? 

Both are different, but I'll give you a quick overview. At the end of the day, they're going to be in the weight room, probably a minimum of three to four days a week, in a season that can get up to six days a week, always making sure that they're staying strong. That's a big thing for us. Six days a week in the spring season. So that could be a mix of games and practices. When we practice, we try to split things up so guys can get some individual time. A lot is designed around pitching because of the arm, or as you may know, the UCL. So you gotta make sure you protect those. We do a lot to make sure that the pitching is settled. But from January 24 all the way until about May 15, we are six days a week, roughly two to three practices a week and two or three games a week.

What's your goal for this season? 

Our goal is to make the playoffs, and obviously every coach is going to say they want to win a championship. But what I'd like my team to be able to do is recognize that they're good enough to win the championship. We haven't won a playoff game in a long time here. So just getting in and winning a playoff game I think would be a really great start for the program. And I think after that, obviously, trying to host a trophy.

Where do you see this program in the next four years? 

I see us competing at the national level. I really do. We had a really hard schedule this year. Still, I mean, we're in it right now. We played some nationally ranked teams, still another nationally ranked team on our schedule. We played some really hard opponents and the whole reason was because we believe in the next three, four, five years, we should be competing at that level. So, I believe we'll be in a regional and man, do I want to say I believe we could be winning a super regional and going to a World Series? Yes, but I'm not going to get over my shoes here. So I would say just being a consistent regional contender.

What does success look like for you? 

Oh, man, my player is smiling, that's for damn sure. I don't know if you can use the word damn, but I said it. I just think that it’s them having fun. Sports are hard. Life is hard, school is hard, and it's easy to get negative. I have to be negative sometimes as a head coach, which stinks. But when they ultimately can come back to smiles and being happy and enjoying the game, I think that's success because honestly, then I think W's will come and stats will come and all that good stuff. But if they're not having fun and enjoying the game, that can't be successful.

What is the relationship like between you and your players? 

Our biggest principle as a coaching staff is to try and build relationships with our players, so very close. As easily as you're sitting in my office doing this interview with me is as easy as a player can come in here and sit down and have a conversation with us. And mainly not just about baseball too, about anything. So, I pride myself—or try to, doesn't mean I'm successful at it all the time—on being a coach that my players feel like they can have a true relationship with.

Would you like to add anything else? 

Yeah, first off, thank you. I appreciate that you are giving the baseball program some play, that's really cool. And secondly, if you haven't had the chance to come out to our field, I would love for people to come check it out because I think our field and our environment is a lot of fun. I think it's as much fun for the fans to come watch our baseball team as it is for our team to play baseball. So, that's the last thing I always like to get across is how our environment is super cool and I'd love for people to come check it out.

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The Cyclone Chronicle thanks Coach Romanella for doing this interview.

Good luck to Coach Romanella and the Centenary Men’s Baseball team through the rest of the baseball Season!