Meggs Means Business

Chico State's Other Ball Team

Under the Rock Shelf

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With two NCAA Division II national championships in the last three years, it's clear that head coach Lindsay Meggs knows how to build championship teams. The Wildcats made their first trip to the division II World Series in 1997, the only nonscholarship program in the field of eight regional champions, and came away national champs. After a fourth-place finish in the 1998 series, Meggs' Wildcats were back in 1999 for another championship, beating tournament favorite Kennesaw State of Georgia 11-5. Meggs has compiled a record of 237-114-2 in his six years at Chico and was twice honored as NCAA Division II Coach of the Year, in 1997 and 1999. Meggs and his wife, Teresa, have three children: Joe, Kelly, and Jack.

Casey Huff, University Publications, interviewed Coach Meggs in late September 1999, while Meggs was beginning his fall program, evaluating the new talent and looking for the right "twenty-four guys...willing to be a small piece in the big puzzle" of another championship team. Meggs doesn't know how to build any other kind of team.

When you took over the baseball program, the team was coming off a dismal season with only 7 wins. Four years later you led the Wildcats to the NCAA Division II national championship. But it took a while for the national press to give your teams the credit they deserved. How has Chico built-and maintained-that reputation?

We needed to fill some holes quickly, so we went the junior college route to get older guys who could compete right away and help us win. Because I was a junior college coach before I came here, we were well connected to JC coaches, and we were able to get a better quality of player early on than we probably deserved, based on our facilities and past struggles. We participated in a nonscholarship conference at that time, and to my knowledge, nobody from that conference had won the world series. When we won it that first year, I don't think there were a lot of people nationally who expected us to be back because historically the NCAC wasn't very competitive in the regional arena and certainly not the college world series. So, while there were a lot of people who admired us because we did it without scholarships, I think that people did not expect us to hang around for very long.

You have a reputation among players as a strict disciplinarian. How would you describe your relationship with players?

The coaching staff has the respect of our players because they know we are willing to put the time in. They sense when you are prepared and when you are not prepared. The fact that we really harp on them about preparation and they see us prepared every day motivates them to take care of their business on the field and off the field. One thing we always say to them is-I am not here to be your friend. But in a way, I am your best friend because sometimes your mom and dad are going to tell you that it's okay when you don't do it right because that's how moms and dads are-that's their job. I am always going to tell you where you are and give you an honest answer, so in a way that makes me your best friend. Because we are honest with them and are prepared to deal with them when they succeed and when they fail I think they respect us. Yet, come the end of the season, I always hope they understand that everything we do for them, to them, with them, is for their own good.

What are some of the challenges in working with student-athletes?

Our biggest challenge is that in today's world everybody is looking for an immediate return. We get players that want to be the clean-up hitter, want to be the starting pitcher, want to be the main guy, but if they can't be that guy, they're reluctant to give us the effort we want or put the time in that we need as a program to have enough depth to go to the college world series. We tell our guys this every day-it will be a long process and very difficult for us to find twenty-four guys who are willing to be a small piece in the big puzzle. And that is the key for us, to find the right twenty-four guys who are willing to do what is best for the team.

What do you tell your players about their academic responsibilities?

We have discussions with our guys that the person you are is the player that you are-it's not the other way around. The guy who misses the bus is the same guy who misses class. The guy who can't remember the signs is the same guy who misses study hall. So we've thrived with guys who are paying attention to detail in the classroom. Some of the things we throw at them on the field in terms of our scheme on offense/defense are a little bit more detailed than they're used to, and they have got to be pretty intelligent and responsible and committed in order to handle that. We think that their number one goal when they come here is to get their college education and to graduate, and their number two goal is to enjoy their experience on the field.

Two years ago, before we went to the college world series and came in fourth, we were heading to Sonoma for a double-header, leaving Friday night, and a player who was a returning first team All-American for us did not turn in his attendance sheet. Every Monday they pick up an attendance sheet, and every Friday they must turn it in to us signed by their instructors saying they attended class that week. If they don't turn that in, they don't travel. This guy was a graduating senior, and I think maybe he assumed that we didn't care about his attendance because he wasn't going to be back here anyway. He was our number four hitter, and we left him at home for a double header. We were two games out at that time and that could have finished us off. So our point was made-this is our commitment, and we are going to stand by it even if it costs us two conference games, which might cost us the championship, which might cost us the regional berth, and everything else-and I think our guys since then have never questioned our sincerity in terms of academics.

What do you enjoy most about working with student-athletes?

The greatest feeling that we have as a staff is when we sit down at the end of the year and evaluate our players. Did each guy reach his potential in terms of what we thought he was capable of doing as a player? Have they reached our goal and their goal in terms of their performance? We feel good about helping them get to a point where they may never have thought they could get to. If they can give us the effort, they can do things that maybe they have never done before. When that happens, that's exciting.

Luis Sanchez ['98-'99] is a great example. He was admitted to the campus through EOP [Educational Opportunity Program], a first-generation college student in his family, never thought he would have the chance to go to college. Here is a kid who hadn't been in an environment that was conducive to studying and going to school, and he is going to graduate from this university. He is working in the EOP office right now advising incoming students. That goes beyond what he did on the field. He was in tears when we won the college world series, which was moving, but the fact that he is going to graduate is fantastic. You built your first national championship team with no scholarships.

How did you attract the players you wanted to Chico? What about the program, the university, and the community did prospective players find attractive?

One of the things that we have set out to do is find players athletically capable of playing at the next level, division I type players, but for whatever reason-academic issues or financial constraints -are not able to go to division I schools. There are a lot of division I schools in California that will offer some of these kids out of high school or junior college partial scholarships, but they will end up having to come up with $12-13,000 to go to school. Now if we can sell these kids on our low cost of living and a state school being very reasonable in terms of tuition, then all of a sudden it becomes a very affordable option for them. So the decision for a lot of these kids comes down to a borderline division I program which may not offer the facilities that we have, the residential campus atmosphere that we can provide, and an immediate chance to win.

Now that you have scholarships, has it helped you recruit?

\It has and it hasn't. It has enabled us to get in the front door with some people that we wouldn't typically be able to. But when it is all said and done, I don't know that we are getting a better player. The process is easier-we can get commitments from them sooner. But until we become a fully funded program it is always going to be very similar to what it is now.

Are there ways in which having some scholarship money but not a lot makes it more difficult?

Because we have national championships, when we recruit a person, they assume that we are fully funded. So when we tell them we cannot offer them any money, or we can offer them only a thousand dollars, some assume that we're holding back and that we have more money. That wasn't the case when we didn't have money. Everybody knew that this other guy is coming in on the same package I am, which is nothing, so we are both on a level playing field. Our numbers have been down since we were able to offer money-because we don't have people walk on anymore.

But it can be attractive, especially for the financial aid qualifier, because if we have some low income kids who can play, and then if they can get a Pell Grant, a state university grant-now you are looking at a pretty good package. Typically, the most we give anybody now is $2,000. And we give most guys $1,000. Within the NCAA rules we could give out another $70,000 a year in scholarship money. That is how far we have to go in terms of being fully funded. When that happens, it will be very interesting to see what we could get.

Your teams have been strong in pitching and defense, especially in big games. How do you develop consistent pitchers? And what's your approach to building a strong defensive team?

I have been blessed to have a quality pitching coach, Dave Taylor, who's handled our pitching for the last three years. He is a former head coach at the division I level, University of Wyoming. He is a former minor league catcher, and he managed in minor league baseball. He has done a tremendous job with our pitchers in terms of their development and their conditioning. So the credit for the pitching staff goes to him.

Our concept of pitching and defense is one that our whole staff buys into. We have a saying that anybody can win a blowout, anybody can lose big. Only certain teams can execute a one-run game.

When you get to the regional level, and certainly when you get to the college world series, you are going to see better pitching than you have typically through the season. And your pitchers are going to face better hitters than they have through the season. And so you're probably looking at a one-run game. It might be 15-14 or it might be 3-2, but it is going to be a one-run game in most situations. The people who come out on the short end of that are people who make mistakes defensively or can't pitch in those types of situations. So we tell our guys, as much as we want to produce offensively, if we are going to win at the national level, it's going to be based on our pitching and defense. We have always bought into that, and we will never change.


Your 1999 championship team didn't have a dominant offensive player (like Steve Gotawala, division II's most valuable player in '97), but they were able to score runs when they needed to. How do you prepare your players for clutch hitting?

After we have gone through the mechanics of hitting, we preach being able to hit the ball to the opposite field. We always end our batting practice with a round we call "the tough one"-- a two-out at bat. We say there is a guy at second base, with two outs, or there is a guy at third base with two outs, and we don't want any kind of a fly ball. At this level of baseball, to hit a line drive or ground ball you have got a chance to get on base, because somebody has to catch it, and then he has to throw it and that other guy has to catch it. So, if somebody hits a pop-up during that round, their swings are over; they're done. And so we get guys to concentrate on just hitting the ball hard somewhere, and giving us a tough, tough at-bat. In terms of clutch hitting, we spend an inordinate amount of time preaching the mechanics involved in trying to hit the ball on the ground, hitting a line drive. And that is a tough sell to kids who want to hit twenty-five home runs, because that ground ball certainly isn't going to find its way over the fence. It is a long process, and some kids don't want to buy into it, but those who do you hope come up in those situations. At the end of the year, everybody seems to see how a home run might do nothing more than clear the bases, but another base hit keeps it going, and now there is somebody on base still. That is something that we chart all year long, how many fly balls we hit versus ground balls. You have to give them credit because they really bought into it.

What goals do you have for the program?

Our goal is simply to maintain the con-sistency we have established over the last three years and not to get caught up in whether we win or lose, but to buy into the process. We have been fortunate to have the right group of kids, and when they buy into the process, we can compete with anybody. If we make five mistakes, recruitingwise, we are no different than a middle-of-the-pack team. So we have a very slim margin for error. We just want to maintain the same approach we have had in the last three years and continue to get the right guys.

After the national championship this year, you interviewed for the head coaching position at Cal, and when you returned, you had some positive things to say about the program here at Chico. What about Chico's athletic program and the local community keeps you here?

Obviously, when the Cal people called me-that's a Pac 10 job, a job that anybody would have an interest in. So I went down for an interview. After looking at their resources, which were impressive, and looking at the reputation their campus has, which is second to none, you then have to evaluate whether you have a chance to win on the field, and it was enlightening to see that they have a whole set of problems that we don't deal with at this level. I really sat there and said the chances of somebody going in there and winning, with the problems that they have, are not very good. And in this profession, there are no middle-of-the-road days, you either win or you lose. So you either have a great day or you have a bad day. If you lose more often than you win, you are pretty miserable in your work. Here we have a chance to be there every year, and that is refreshing.

And my wife and my three kids absolutely love this area. That is why we came here in the first place, for the quality of life. It is going to be a tough sell anywhere to beat our family life here. That is my number one priority.

The community has been fantastic to us, beyond just their support of our program, but also their response financially. Without their resources there is no way we would be competing at the level we are right now. It is the support of people in town who really care about our program that has enabled us to redo the facility, travel the way we need to travel, and attract the kind of player we need to attract.

There's a story that shows you how far we have come. When I first took this job seven years ago our equipment budget was so low that on the first day of tryouts, we required players, even people we recruited, to bring two new baseballs into the stadium. If they didn't bring in two balls they couldn't try out. And that is how we had baseballs. Anybody who came by, whether they looked like they could play or not, as long as they brought two new baseballs, they could try out. And we have gone from those days to winning two out of the last three championships.