 "Photo: Kelly Marsh/Cardinal Points")
Sugar coating things is not Sean Cotter’s style.
Now in his 10th year coaching softball at Plattsburgh State, Cotter said he hasn’t changed his coaching style, which he described as intense, a lot in the last five years.
He said he is a “player’s coach.”
“When kids are in slumps, if they have a proven track record, I’m going to let them go a long time to try to fight their way out of it,” Cotter said. “But also, I’m going to be very up front with them and tell them what the bad and the ugly are. For kids that want to hear frank talk and get to be the best they can be, they really relish the opportunity to be part of the program.”
Having an assistant who played under him for the four years prior to ’09 has helped Cotter’s case.
Steph Zweig joined staff for this season and has been a bridge between Cotter and the players on the team — something Cotter missed last season.
“The kids stay the same age, but I get older,” he said. “Steph’s been great with being able to articulate to the kids the things that our program has been about. That’s been a tough fight with this group.”
While the team has gotten younger, a majority of the starters returned.
They are now leaders, not followers, and Cotter said that transition has been rocky at times.
But with Zweig backing him up, the team was often more at ease.
“I knew them on a different level,” Zweig said. “When things weren’t going so well, I think it helps that I’m there sitting next to him and they can just talk instead of being afraid or worry about what they have to say. I provide that in-between.”
There’s a time and place for everything.
Cotter said he is more than willing to listen to a player’s concerns, but if they call him out in front of the team, things will not be OK.
“If you come in, and we talk, and we close the door, I’m going to let you say what you want say,” Cotter said. “We might even yell and scream at each other, but I’m going to go home and think about what a player says, and I might not come back with a decision they like, but I’m going to toss and turn over it.”
But Cotter’s coaching goes beyond softball.
“There’s some things that popped this year that just have been some bizarre maturity issues,” Cotter said. “I just can’t see kids coming out of four years of college and not having a certain level of maturity in terms of how they interact with their teammates, coaches, professors, bosses or whatever. I’ll leave the job before I back down on those types of things.”
Zweig said the SUNYAC tournament in Cortland this weekend is an opportunity for the team to learn from some of the best competition.
While the team hasn’t yet had a game where pitching, offense and defense have all come together, she said, her and Cotter are hopeful.
“That’s been the real frustrating part, it’s been potential,” Cotter said. “There are plenty of kids here who are good players and just need to take that one more step in terms of not only being good players, but being good team players and about winning and about our program.”
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