Nick Mingione admits learning to trust his coaches was not easy for him. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione recently explained to Inside Pitch Magazine’s Adam Revelette that he had to learn “God has blessed our staff with legitimate talents” and he had to learn to let those coaches use those gifts.
“Now, if I see that something’s off track, I’ll nudge the boat a different direction, but I just keep that bird’s-eye view of what’s going on so our coaches can do what they love,” Mingione said. “I believe that God has also blessed me with the gift of encouragement, so being back in that third base box and getting back into the fight with the players has allowed me to lift them up and let their own lights shine.”
Revelette wondered if Mingione did not occasionally feel like ripping into a player.
“Some of the best advice to follow as a coach is ‘do not forget what it’s like to be a player.’ I try to remind myself of that every day,” Mingione said in the interview. “The amount of pressure and stress and everything else the guys feel here is far greater than I believe that we could ever realize as a coach.
“When you think about social media and the new draft process and families back home and NIL and the portal and the access and the visibility … Everything is being recorded and it’s archived forever. Everything. Of course, I want to lay into a player at times and I get so mad sometimes, but I try my best to show our players the respect they deserve, the respect they have earned.”
Mingione revealed he could handle aggressive mistakes but not mistakes when players are timid or scared.
“So there are times where I have to bite my tongue and just hold back, and I don’t always hold it all back,” the UK coach said. “But in this day and age, most players are aware of what the standard is, so when they don’t meet it, they already know.”
