__After several stops along the way, former Tribe shortstop Kyle Padgett ’05 returns to Williamsburg as an assistant coach__

At the conclusion of the Jupiter Hammerheads’ 2006 season, manager Tim Cossins filed a report about Kyle Padgett that landed in the hands of higher-ups in the Florida Marlins’ organization. He wrote that Kyle was “a knowledgeable player, had good leadership skills, [was] very versatile and a guy that he enjoyed having in the utility infield role.”

p. The clause that sealed Padgett’s fate was the last one. From day one in the Gulf Coast League, management viewed him as a utility infielder who could fill in wherever needed, creating scant opportunities for playing time. According to Cossins, the front office made this distinction. Shortly after draft day, Kyle believed he could be pushed along quickly through the minor leagues.

p. “The Marlins controlled me and had nothing invested in me,” Kyle said in July.

p. His $1,000 signing bonus, a pittance in the baseball business, amounted to nothing more than a common courtesy for college seniors. For the organization, the process was such that if the players did not give them a big return on their money, then they would bring in a new batch of fresh faces the next year.

p. “In a perfect world, everyone has the same chance to succeed,” former Tribe second baseman Will Rhymes ’05 said. “But it’s not the reality.”

p. Rhymes, who only stands 5’ 9’’ tall and weighs 155 pounds, is a perfect case in point of the potential a lower-round draft pick can possess given a legitimate chance to play in a minor league organization. As the College’s second baseman, he batted .413 during his senior year in 2005, but because of his size, garnered almost no attention from professional scouts, and thus was not selected until the 27th round. Now he’s been advancing steadily through the Detroit Tigers organization for three years.

p. “Scouts don’t know shit. They make a ton of mistakes,” he said.
While the Marlins organization annually tried to find more utility infielders, they were clinging to other players in the system. In the 2003 draft, the Marlins used their first-round pick to select high school pitcher Jeff Allison who, little did they know, had been abusing the painkiller OxyContin since his junior year at Peabody High in Massachusetts. Things only fell further downhill when he started experimenting with heroin, nearly dying from two overdoses after being drafted. Yet Allison, who forfeited $250,000 of his $1.85 million signing bonus for leaving spring training in 2004, remained a Marlins farmhand. In 2005, his last competitive season, he posted a middle of the road 4.18 ERA and 5-4 record for the low-A Greensboro Grasshoppers. Few said it, but his saving grace was a right hand worth over a million dollars to the Marlins.

p. Big signing bonuses are nothing new for players drafted in the first five rounds of the draft. Former Tribe baseball pitcher and Montreal Expos’ 2004 first-round pick Bill Bray commanded a 1.75 million dollar signing bonus. There was little precedence for the extended time the Marlins retained Allison, keeping him suspended indefinitely. Over the course of several years, it became apparent that the Marlins refused to admit the mistake they had made by drafting an expensive high school pitcher with drug problems. On the other hand, the Marlins had no problem figuring out what to do with Kyle Padgett.

p. In January, Kyle’s phone rang and the man on the other end explained that he would be released. His name was Brian Chattin. As the Marlin’s director of player development, his job entailed making personnel decisions within the organization.

p. He waited four months after the conclusion of the season to inform Kyle he was no longer wanted. It was quick and simple.

p. “They’re guys that have to play in the organization, they’re prospects, and then there are guys to provide depth and back them up,” Cossins, who claimed that the decision to release Padgett was beyond his control, said. “At certain points, you just got to let go of some players and keep the numbers correct. That’s kind of where [Kyle] fit in.”

p. There were other potential factors involved in Kyle’s January release, including the fact that the Marlins shook up their minor league system in mid-December 2006 and sent several managers to coach different affiliates, such as Cossins, who is now with the GCL Marlins. The bottom line remained that Kyle Padgett was unemployed and hopelessly scrambling to play for another affiliated organization less than a few months before spring training began.

p. “After the initial disappointment, I had a sense of relief,” Kyle said of being released. “I wasn’t going to have to go back and deal with being dragged around.”

p. Following the Wild Things 6-7 loss in game two of the three-game series against the Traverse City Beach Bums, first baseman Nathan Messner, a 2004 draft pick of the Florida Marlins, told me he’s having more fun playing with the Wild Things than any other team.

p. “In affiliated ball, you’re always concerned with what you’re doing right and wrong,” Messner said. “They almost make you robotic, because you try to please everyone to move up. Here you can just rely on your own abilities.”

p. With a small front office, the Wild Things could also easily communicate with players such as Padgett and Messner. Additionally, once a player signed a contract at the beginning of the season, barring a trade or retirement, it was almost certain he finished the season in the same place.

p. In July, Kyle said his decision to play in Washington, Penn. put “the love back in the game.” For once in his professional career, he was a valued entity given an opportunity to compete in almost every game.

p. “Being here is probably the best place I can be,” he said. “If I was in another MLB organization riding the bench, I’d be in the same mental battle as the Marlins of how much longer do I want to keep playing baseball.” In spite of the charm of the Frontier League, his sights, along with Messner’s, were still set on the uncertain realm of affiliated baseball.

p. When Kyle’s batting average plummeted in August, and finally dropped below the Mendoza Line to .199 at the conclusion of the season, any hopes he entertained of being signed this season faded. He told me repeatedly that he needed to put everything in perspective, because it was a long ‘96 season. He couldn’t start worrying about affiliated baseball. If he learned anything from his tenure with the Marlins, it’s that pro baseball is not a linear affair, in which you start at the lowest levels and finish on top. For most, it’s a rollercoaster ride that ends abruptly.

p. In July, with his average hovering around .230, the Wild Things manager told me Kyle needed to work on his consistency at the plate, but that his overall chances of being signed were as good as the next guy’s. In late August, as Kyle’s average continued to drop, the Wild Things acquired switch hitting shortstop Ryan Bethel from the Evansville Otters, another Frontier League team. It was a personnel move which soured Kyle’s once amiable relations with his manager.

p. “He was telling me during the summer, ‘I understand you’re struggling, but you’re still my guy.’ To have him do that, it’s just not the way you treat somebody,” Kyle said of the trade.

p. An everyday starter in July, Kyle was relegated to the bench as the Wild Things advanced through the Frontier League playoffs in September. His love for the game and for showing up everyday to the ballpark began to wear away after he felt betrayed.

p. “I had a falling out with my manager,” he said. “When he went in and traded for a shortstop, I was surprised and angry with him.”

p. His role on the team suddenly marginalized, he couldn’t wait for the playoffs to end. Ever the optimist, according to Rhymes, Kyle then decided to contact current Tribe baseball coach Frank Leoni and former coach Jim Farr, now a pitching coach at the University of Maryland, about coaching opportunities in the midst of the Wild Things playoff run.

p. While Kyle never played under Leoni at the College, he worked out with the team the past two off seasons and knew the coaching staff and players well. It seemed like a good fit, but the position was full. Kyle considered coaching at the high school level, until a few weeks later, when the spot opened up and Leoni offered him a volunteer assistant coach position.

p. “I will be here for a least one year, possibly two,” he said. “I’d like to get to the point where I can take over a college program and turn them into a powerhouse.”

p. In his first few days on the job, Padgett said he has enjoyed working one on one with players on the team, including the seniors, who were freshmen in his last year at the College. Next weekend, he will be traveling to a baseball showcase camp at the University of Virginia to scope out local high school talent.

p. “It definitely felt like it was an opportunity I needed to take advantage of,” he said of re-joining the Tribe. “I enjoy Williamsburg, and I’m glad to be back. I learned a lot while playing, and now I want to use that to coach.”

Despite a slow start and shaky finish, the Tribe played with a confidence Saturday that has been absent over the past few years, and the team found a way to win against a favored Towson University squad.

p. The College came out of the gate a step behind as the defense allowed the Tigers to move down the field for scores on three of their opening four possessions. The Tribe could not find a rhythm on offense either, as the College’s explosive attack sputtered for just 49 yards in the first quarter. Midway through the second quarter, the Tribe found themselves in a 13-0 hole.

p. “At the outset of the game we weren’t playing real sharp,” Head Coach Jimmye Laycock said. “We had a couple drops and weren’t running the ball as well as we needed to, but we were able to get it going.”

p. Even though the team never really got firing on all cylinders, the Tribe showcased the one element that has been missing over the last couple years: big-play ability. Saturday the College had it in spades. Sophomore David Caldwell’s kickoff return gave the Tribe starting field position at the Towson 15-yard line, while sophomore Sean Lissemore’s interception on the Tribe’s own 11-yard line killed the Tigers’ ensuing drive. Junior Derek Cox recorded two interceptions, while the defense tallied a number of deflected passes and stopped the Tigers on fourth down to secure the victory. Even redshirt freshman punter David Miller got in on the action, vaulting a kick high into the air, allowing it to be downed on the Towson one-yard-line.

p. The offense caught the big-play bug as well. Junior quarterback Jake Phillips found junior wide receiver Elliot Mack for the longest touchdown, 61 yards, of his career, and connected on another touchdown to senior wide receiver Joe Nicholas for 38 yards to give the College a lead heading into halftime. The unit recorded three consecutive scoring drives of five, four, and three plays just before the half.

p. It seemed as if the Tribe, as a collective unit, realized sometime around the three-minute mark of the second quarter that the white and black uniform of the Towson Tigers bore no resemblance whatsoever to the maroon and orange jersey of Virginia Tech.
“Playing Virginia Tech gave the team more confidence,” Cox said. “If you can compete with those guys you can compete with anybody.”

p. Make no mistake, the Tribe did not play a good game statistically or fundamentally. Towson out-gained the College by 138 yards while converting on more third downs and dominating the time of possession, but it wasn’t enough because the Tigers could not match the Tribe’s ability to strike quickly and step up when the situation called for it.

p. That skill has been missing from the College’s teams ever since the playoff run of 2004, but with impressive play over the last month the Tribe has matured and developed into a confident unit that believes it is capable of anything, even recapturing the 2004 team’s swagger.

p. “The last few years we’ve had a really young team, but the experience definitely helps,” Phillips said. “Now we’re getting wins and doing well out there, and that builds our overall team confidence.”

p. With the victory, the Tribe stands at 3-2 on the season, which looks pretty good considering that the team won just three games all of last year. But before you get your hopes up, remember that the three teams the College defeated in 2006, Liberty University, Virginia Military Institute, and Towson, are the same three that the Tribe has beaten this season.

p. The team is still young, and there are a lot of improvements that need to and will happen, but the Tribe is maturing fast and playing with purpose and confidence that not too many people thought would develop this quickly, and the win this week only adds fuel to the fire. If the College can keep it up, expect the team to record one or two more surprise victories before the season closes. The CAA better take notice, because the Tribe has arrived.

In a game where their offense’s longest scoring drive consisted of only four plays, the Tribe relied on the deep ball to carry them to a narrow 27-22 victory over the Towson University Tigers. Junior quarterback Jake Phillips threw for two scores and junior defensive back Derek Cox picked off a pair of passes as the Tribe rallied from a thirteen-point first-half deficit. The win gave the College a perfect 5-0 all-time record against Towson and a 3-2 overall record for the year.

p. “I don’t think it was real pretty today, but we scraped out a win,” Head Coach Jimmye Laycock said. “The fact that we got ourselves back to .500 is important because it gives us some momentum. We’re going to need to play better in the future, but this victory is still very satisfying for our players.”

p. Trailing 27-22 with 26 seconds remaining, Towson had a golden opportunity for a last-minute comeback victory. On second down at the Tribe 14 yard-line, the Tigers had three downs to punch it into the endzone. After two errant attempts on second and third down, Towson quarterback Sean Schaefer dropped back and threw an incomplete pass into Cox’s tight coverage at the left front corner of the end zone.

p. “On the sidelines I told the guys to prepare for the worst case scenario because we might have to go back out there,” Cox said. “We get excited about any chance we get to step on the field and make plays.”

p. For the majority of the first half, the Tribe looked lethargic. Expecting Towson to come out with a heavy emphasis on their aerial attack, the Tribe defense found themselves caught off guard by the Towson ground game.

p. “Coming into the game, Towson hadn’t really run the ball well so it wasn’t our major focus,” Cox said. “We were more worried about putting pressure on Schaefer and disrupting the passing game.”

p. The Towson tailback tandem sliced through the Tribe defense with ease as Nick Williams utilized his bruising running style between the tackles while Matt Castor used his blazing speed to burn the Tribe defense to the outside on sweeps and tosses. Unable to establish a ground game of their own and already trailing 13-3, it seemed certain that the Tribe would fall even farther behind before the half as the Towson offense moved into the red zone.

p. The turning point of the contest came, however, when senior defensive linemen Sean Lissemore intercepted a Sean Schaefer pass at the Tribe nine yard-line. Jake Phillips and the Tribe offense wasted no time in capitalizing on the Schaefer’s miscue, as four plays later Jake Phillips connected with junior receiver Elliot Mack for a perfectly executed sixty one yard touchdown strike.

p. “The touchdown to Mack was textbook. He ran a good route, we had just enough time to get it off, he made a great play on the ball, and had enough speed to take it into the end zone,” Phillips said.

p. The 61-yard bomb was a career long reception and pass for both Mack and Phillips, respectively. Moments later, however, the Tribe offense would come up with yet another big play.

p. After a three and out by the Towson offense the Tribe started their drive with great field position at the Towson 45 yard line. Three plays later, Jake Phillips demonstrated the quick strike ability of the Tribe offense as he connected for a thirty eight yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Jake Nicholas. The score capped a stretch of seventeen unanswered points in a period of only four minutes and twelve seconds for the Tribe.

p. Towson made things interesting in the second half when Schaefer connected with Demetrius Harrison to draw within five points. However, the Tribe defense stuffed the Towson two point conversion attempt, preventing the Tigers from drawing within a field goal. The Tribe’s defensive stop proved pivotal, as the Tigers were forced to go for six rather than kick a game tying field goal later in the game.

p. The Tribe hopes to carry momentum from their victory into an important two-game road trip, during which they will face off against conference rivals Villanova University and University of Maine.

The Tribe’s three-match win streak ended Saturday as the Stony Brook University Seawolves extended their winning streak to six with the 2-1 win. Junior midfielder Doug McBride gave the Tribe an early lead after scoring off a chip from sophomore Price Thomas in the third minute of play. Stony Brook’s Maurice Brown answered back in the 22nd minute of the first half with a goal after a cross from Mahamadou Simpara.

p. Stony Brook continued their surge with a Simpara goal in the first two minutes of the second half. Despite five saves from redshirt freshman goalkeeper Andrew McAdams following the goal, the College could not rally, leaving them with a record of 3-4-2 thus far. The Tribe opens CAA play Friday night at 7 p.m. by hosting Hofstra University.

The College suffered conference losses against no. 18 University of Delaware and Towson University this weekend, losing 4-2 and 3-2 respectively. The Blue Hens got off to a fast start with three unanswered goals. In the 58th minute, junior Katie Broaddus took advantage of a penalty corner opportunity, scoring off senior Kim Hedley’s assist.

p. Delaware answered in the 62nd minute before Broaddus responded with another goal a minute later. Despite Broaddus’s efforts, the Tribe could not overcome the two-goal deficit. The College continued to struggle against Towson, giving up two goals in the first half. Hedley’s second-half goal was not enough, as the Tribe fell to 6-5 on the season.

The Tribe garnered three titles in both singles and doubles at the Virginia State Open this weekend. Junior Dominic Pagon earned one of the titles with a singles championship in the top flight, giving Pagon a 7-1 record on the season. Freshman Ben Wirth had similar success, winning the B-1 Singles title.

p. Pagon teamed up with sophomore Richard Wardell in the B Doubles flight to take the title. The College’s 11th-ranked doubles team of senior Alex Cojanu and sophomore Keziel Juneau competed in qualifying singles play yesterday and both lost close matches. The tandem begins doubles play Thursday in the All-American Championships in Tulsa.

The 24th-ranked Tribe beat the University of Delaware 2-1 and Drexel University 3-0 this weekend to kick off its CAA schedule; the wins improve the College to 7-3 overall and 2-0 in CAA play.
The Tribe faced Delaware Sunday afternoon, and Delaware’s defense kept the College scoreless until the second half despite the Tribe’s 16 first-half shots. The game remained close throughout, even after the College went ahead 2-0, with the final outcome up in the air until the final seconds of the game. The Tribe offense kept pressure on Delaware, taking 30 shots including nine on goal, but did not score until junior Claire Zimmeck’s header in the 62nd minute of the game. Junior Danielle Collins followed with a goal of her own less than five minutes later, connecting on Meredith Brown’s corner kick with a header from five yards.

p. “I knew we would have to come out strong against Delaware because they are always a tough opponent,” Collins said. “From the kickoff I felt like we were really dominating play, and even though it took until the second half to score, we were creating a ton of opportunities and really controlling the game.”

p. Tribe junior goalkeeper Meghan Walker held back Delaware until striker Caitlyn Germain converted a penalty kick in the 76th minute.

p.According to Head Coach John Daly, the Tribe did not capitalize on opportunities as much as they could have.

p. “We created a lot of chances in the second half today that we did not follow through on,” Daly said. “It would have made it easier for us if we had followed through on these chances.”

p. The College dominated the Drexel Dragons Friday ,posting a 3-0 victory. Under two minutes into the match, Zimmeck scored off a cross from freshman Mary Jacocks. Collins and sophomore Kellie Jenkins also scored in the match. The Tribe outshot Drexel 21-5 as nine of the College’s shots were on goal, while Drexel recorded no shots on goal.

p. The Tribe’s next four games are on the road against conference foes, and this stretch promises to be challenging.

p. “We have a very tough series ahead,” Daly said. “We’ve got to tighten up more defensively and hope that we can hold them at bay.”

p. The College begins its road trip this Friday at 7 p.m. when it travels to Hofstra University.

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams opened their seasons strongly this weekend, finishing second and third respectively at the Colonial Inter-Regional Challenge held at the Eastern State Hospital course.

p. Coming in third behind two nationally ranked teams — Virginia Tech and Georgetown University — marks a great start to the women’s season. Senior Emily Gousen finished fourth, completing the 6-km course in 21 minutes and 28.3 seconds. Virginia Tech’s Tasmin Fanning led the Hokies to victory, finishing first ahead of Georgetown’s Melissa Grelli.

p. “It was tough to size up against Virginia Tech’s team,” junior Emily Arena said, “but I think our girls really stepped up and did a great job competing.”

p. Several of Gousen’s teammates also ran well. Sophomore Emily Anderson placed seventh while junior Lynn Morelli took 15th.

p. “Overall we performed very strongly as a team and it looks like we’re in a better place now than we were at this point last year,” Gousen said of the women’s team. “Unfortunately, some of our top runners had to sit out this weekend due to injuries, but once they are back on their feet we will be able to put forward a much stronger, deeper squad.”

p. On the men’s side, the 12th-ranked Tribe fell to 16th-ranked Georgetown as the Hoyas placed six runners in the top 10 finishers with Andrew Bumbalough leading the way. Bumbalough finished two seconds ahead of College senior Ian Fitzgerald who finished with a time of 24:15.3 for 8k. Senior Christo Landry placed third and sophomore Ben Massam finished fifth, with times of 24:19.3 and 24:37.4, respectively.

p. “This weekend was pretty good for us considering most of us were running our first race of the season,” Fitzgerald said. “We have a long season ahead of us and hope to use each meet as a stepping stone on our way to achieving our goals at the end of October and November.”

p. While recognizing that it is early in the season, both the men’s and women’s teams are preparing to put in the needed work to be able to race effectively and competitively in the championship meets further down the road.

p. “We are looking as strong as a team as we have ever been,” senior David Groff said. “And with the work left to do we are going to be going at it with the best in the country, as we have done in years past.”

p. The top 10 runners from each squad will travel to Terre Haute, Indiana Saturday, Oct. 13 to compete in the Pre-National Invitational, while the remainder of the team will remain in Williamsburg to compete in the Tribe Open.