(Editor’s Note: Pat Barrett is a 2013 graduate of MacArthur HS. Following his career, he pitched at Virginia Wesleyan College. He has transitioned to coaching and has quickly risen from a Volunteer Coach to a Pitching Coach to a Recruiting Coordinator in just over one year.)
I had the chance to speak with him and here’s what he had to say…
What was it like playing at MacArthur? Why are they always so successful?
Playing for MacArthur HS was a very unique experience which I glad I was able to do. I honestly really didn’t play that much during my time as I was apart of a very stacked generation of talent which had many players recruited and go on to play in college such as Adam Heidenfelder, Rob Andreoli, Dom Danetti, etc. The success honestly starts at the youth level in the LSW & Levittown North Little leagues. I played for LSW both LL & Travel. The intramurals and travel teams in my generation were very competitive as my year had 10 major teams in the intramurals and 3 travel teams just for one age group, showed how stacked the age group was. Also Coach Costello is one of the main reason MacArthur has had a lot of success. He honestly runs MacArthur like a college baseball program with the workouts and daily routines. He does a very well-run offseason throwing program for pitchers which has led to many Diamond Award winners over the years. The off-season and in season practices are very serious and tough with drills. The practices at MacArthur honestly were some of the hardest I’ve ever participated in. Coach Costello definitely gets you ready to experience the life of a college baseball player in high school and that’s the main reasons MacArthur has had success for a long period of time.
Tell us about your college recruiting process
I honestly developed very late as a player and didn’t really get many looks coming out of HS. I did get recruited by SUNY Purchase and I was set to go play there for my 4 years, but decided not to attend last minute as I honestly picked the school more for the baseball rather than the academics which you can’t do in the recruiting process. Instead of enrolling in a Junior College I decided to attend Briarcliffe College in Bethpage, an NAIA Program which doesn’t exist anymore. I played one season and after my freshman year I decided to transfer which started my recruiting process again. I contacted many D3 schools on the east coast and I received interest from Virginia Wesleyan College. I spoke to their former Assistant Andy Wissinger and he invited me to come visit campus over that summer and fell in love with VWC the moment I set foot there. I always dreamed about going to play college baseball down south and felt VWC was the right place for me academically/athletically so I decided to transfer to Virginia Wesleyan.
How did you enjoy your time in college?
My 3 and half years playing and going to school at Virginia Wesleyan were some of the best times of my life. I felt out of place when I first got there as I was one of the only out-of-state players on the team but I was soon later joined by Brian Pfund who is from East Hampton on Long Island so I made a great connection with him right away. My sophomore year was my favorite year there as we were a team that nobody gave us a chance with a new Head Coach and only 28 players on the team. We were selected to finish 8th in preseason poll, we ended up proving everyone wrong and eventually making it to the conference Championship Game but eventually losing to perennial powerhouse Shenandoah University finishing 1 win away from the NCAA Regionals. It was also the year I got a lot of innings on the mound and contributed to the team. I didn’t play as much my junior and senior year but wouldn’t have wanted to go to school and play baseball anywhere else in the country. The competition down there for D3 is incredible with some historical programs in Shenandoah, Randolph-Macon, Roanoke. etc. The talent was also rich with a few players signing affiliate/independent ball contracts in the last couple of years from the conference. The weather was one of the best parts about playing there being able to have outdoor practices/games in January/February was what made the experience great as well which not many players from Long Island get to experience playing baseball in college. My college baseball experience at Virginia Wesleyan will be one I will cherish forever.
How did you get your coaching career started?
In high school and college, I knew I would want to coach eventually after my playing days were over. While in college, I was a camp instructor at the New York Baseball Academy at Hofstra for two summers (2015/2016) working with youth players such as Matt Pelcher & Jayden Stroman. In 2017, I helped out as a volunteer with the Wantagh HS varsity baseball team during the Class A playoffs. It was exciting to watch them make it all the way to the Class A NYS title game and glad that Coach Sachs allowed me to come along and help out for a bit. In fall of 2017 I started my college coaching career as Volunteer Assistant at Stratford University a NAIA school in Newport News, Virginia while finishing my undergraduate degree during the fall where I worked with the outfielders. After I graduated from college I was fortunate enough to be given a paid opportunity as the Pitching Coach at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut in January 2018. I spend the spring of 2018 as the Pitching Coach there. Even though we didn’t have much success as a team I couldn’t thank Coach Leighton enough for hiring me and letting me experience being a Pitching Coach at a Div-III school at such a young age. Over the summer of 2018 I was the Pitching Coach for the Riverhead Tomcats of the prestigious Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League. In July of 2018, I was hired as the Full Time Pitching Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at West Virginia Wesleyan College (one of the youngest full-time hires in NCAA History) which is unheard of someone at the age of 22 to be hired for such a position and that is where I currently am in my college coaching career at the moment.
How did you enjoy your time in the HCBL?
My time coaching in the Hamptons this past summer is an experience I will never forget. I was lucky enough to coach alongside with Johnny Galanoudis and Niko Bedell. They are two great baseball minds with lots of knowledge of the game. They were very easy to coach with as we all connected from the start and created a special bond with all the players on the Tomcats. The players were all excellent and a one-of-a-kind group of guys. The first day we they all met in May you could feel that the team was special. We had many players from Big time Div-I programs such as 2018 Ivy League Rookie of the Year from UPENN Eduardo Malinowski, Chris Stefl from St Johns, and many more talented players. Even though the goal was development for the league, we felt as a team our ultimate goal was to win a Hamptons Championship something the Tomcats have never done before in franchise history. We battled .500 throughout the 1st month then caught fire once July hit never losing at home for the rest of the season, quoting from Johnny G “we honestly came to the ball park everyday expecting to win” which was a great mindset to have for the team. We did battle through some adversity but overcame it as we eventual finished the season 28-15-3 and as the 2018 Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League Champions for the 1st time in Riverhead Tomcats history beating the defending League Champions LI Road Warriors in 3 Games. We also finished as the #25 ranked summer ball team in the nation which was a very cool accolade to add to our team. Overall it was a summer in my early stages of my coaching career that was once in a lifetime.
Tell us about your Long Island recruits you’ve gotten at your WVWC?
After the Hamptons season ended, I started my recruiting for West Virginia Wesleyan College, one of my recruiting goals was to try and add some top end Long Island players into the school. I showed interest and had several Long Island players visit WVWC this fall. I have been lucky enough to have three Players commit so far from Long Island (2 from Nassau County and 1 from Suffolk). All three are great students in the classroom which is very important in recruiting a student-athlete and talented baseball players on the field. I am excited to have them come next year to WVWC and hopefully they can help the team become more successful. I am hoping in the near future I can add some more players from Long Island to WVWC I help create a good mix of players from the island.
What are your goals for the future with coaching?
So far I’ve been fortunate enough to have climb the ladder in the coaching ranks quicker than most. Most coaches start their career for a few years as volunteers and Graduate Assistants. My ultimate goal is to become a Head Coach at the D1, D2 or D3 level but if that doesn’t work out I wouldn’t mind earning my masters in teaching and come back to Long Island to coach high school baseball. In my opinion, Long Island high school baseball has a lot of tradition and rich talent every year. It would be a pleasure to come back and coach a high school team on Long Island if given the opportunity but for now I am enjoying each day that I am lucky enough that I have been given the opportunities at such a young age. My advice to anyone is if you want to make a dream into reality you have to work hard every day and do everything with the best of your ability no matter what you are trying to accomplish in your life.
Who are the biggest influences on your life?
My biggest influences in my life are my mom & dad, Bill Naughton and Wally Bishop. My parents did everything for me growing up driving me to games/practices when I was younger and they did so much to help make me enjoy baseball growing up and I couldn’t thank them enough.
Bill Naughton from Levittown was my pitching coach growing up he has coached many college/pro pitchers including Matt Seelinger who is now playing professionally for the Tampa Bay Rays. I never pitched before I went to him and he turned me into a great pitcher on the mound physically and mentally. He was one of the many reasons I was able to play in college. Lastly, Wally Bishop from Westbury is my uncle. Growing up with him he saw my passion for the game right away as we use to always talk about baseball during family parties and go workout for baseball as he conveniently lives right behind the left center field fence of the Clarke HS Baseball Field. He is a great baseball guy who had two sons play at Kellenberg HS and eventually in college in the D2 and D3 Ranks. He used to rent out cages for us during the offseason so he can help me be ready for the season. He is another big reason where I am today and couldn’t thank him enough.
Who were your favorites athletes growing up?
When I was younger I was a very big Yankees fan and being from New York I grew up admiring Derek Jeter. As a young kid from Long Island, he was a superhero for most kids in the state. He played the game the right way, had a lot of great moments in his career and was a true role model for not only the Yankees but for MLB. A player like him was what made baseball fun to watch as a kid. As I got older I started to admire Clayton Kershaw as I he is a left-handed pitcher just like I was when I played. When I was on the mound in games, I would always try to emulate myself after him with my mechanics. He has had a great career so far with the Dodgers collecting 3 Cy Young Awards, I hope in the future he can carry the Dodgers to a World Series Championship.
