Prep baseball: Change in environment has led Santa Fe High to quarterfinals

James Barron | The New Mexican

5/20/2008 - 5/21/08

A simple change in philosophy went a long way for John Morrison, and the Santa Fe High School head baseball coach can thank the St. Michael's football program for it.

Morrison witnessed the approach of head coach Joey Fernandez and his staff while standing on the Horsemen sidelines during the annual Horsemen-Demon game in the fall. It was a scene that stuck with him all the way to baseball season.

"I couldn't help notice how positive the coaching staff was," Morrison says. "It led to a re-evaluation of what we do here."

Of course, it helps that St. Michael's has reached the Class AAA state football playoffs in each of the past nine years — including the last six under Fernandez — but what could it do for a baseball program that hadn't seen the postseason since 1977 and not had a non-losing record for the last 12 years?

Quite a bit, it turns out. The new, player-friendly environment produced a 20-8 record, kept the Demons in the District 2AAAAA race until the final week of the season and broke a 31-year postseason dry spell.

After sweeping Albuquerque Rio Grande in the best-of-three, first-round series of the Class AAAAA State Tournament, eighth-seeded Santa Fe High tries to extend its season past the state quarterfinals, which can happen today with a win over 2AAAAA champion and top-seeded Albuquerque La Cueva. The teams play at 2 p.m. at Rio Rancho High School.

The Demons have an air of confidence in preparation for the Bears, especially since they beat them three weeks ago for the first time in district play. Still, La Cueva held a 2-1 head-to-head edge.

"If we hit good (today), we can win," sophomore pitcher/outfielder Roby Romero says.

This newfound attitude can be grounded in what Morrison and his coaching staff did prior to the start of the season.

The first step was to include input from the players, and from senior pitching ace Herbie Romero in particular. There was only one thing on Romero's mind.

"I just wanted to have fun (this season)," Herbie Romero says. "Last year, we'd come to practice and it was something we had to do, that we didn't want to do. We'd come to practice and get yelled at. This year, we come to practice like we want to come to practice."

The players say last year's practices became repetitive, which was a major contributor to the lack of affection toward them. The first sign that it wouldn't be the same came in the offseason, which wasn't all about running and throwing.

In fact, the players used an entirely different sport for conditioning — basketball.

"If you ask the kids to work out for 45, 50 minutes, you're going to get days where they're not ready to go," Morrison says. "If you get them playing basketball, you get them pumped up, diving on the floor, really playing."

Once the season began, the players were given a say in how they practiced. They opted for more stations where they could work on individual skills — fielding, bunting, pitching — that allowed for more direct teaching from coach to player.

"Infielders could go ahead and take ground balls," junior shortstop Konrad Mueller says. "Guys who needed to bunt worked on their bunting. We could work on our different aspects at different times."

The interaction also had the effect of helping the players and the coaching staff — especially Morrison — get to know each other and get closer.

"I think it was more about liking him more," Mueller said. "With Coach Morrison, we can tell jokes to him. We're all pretty much like that with him now."

Morrison also feels that by giving the players more responsibility that has allowed them to grow and mature.

"The more we pushed (practice decisions) to the kids, the more they responded," Morrison says. "So we kept pushing more back to them, and it worked out well."

And they keep responding. Mueller took grounder after grounder on Monday and Tuesday after committing four errors at shortstop against the Ravens in an 11-10 win Saturday.

It won't guarantee that he'll play there — Morrison indicated he might go with junior Jerome Romero there and move Mueller to right field — but it's a sign that the players are taking everything seriously these days.

So was the fact that Mueller took some balls on the turf practice field in preparation for the infield at Rio Rancho.

"It comes at you a little quicker, so I have to be a little faster," Mueller says.

Now that Morrison and his players have found a formula for success, there's no real need to change it.