Head Coach

Brian Kovach comes to GMS from Jesup, GA. He graduated from Wayne County High School, where he played four years of baseball, lettering two of those years. He then attended Valdosta State University where he served as a student assistant to the baseball team for 3 years. He graduated from Valdosta State with a degree in Secondary Education.

Last year was Coach Kovach’s first year as the Head Baseball Coach at GMS. The team finished with a record of 6-6. His past coaching experience includes coaching the Wayne County All Stars Senior League where he led his team to a District Title and a State Runner-Up. He also served as an assistant coach for summer baseball for two years at his alma mater under his former coach, Jay Brinson. Coach Kovach has also served at numerous camps and clinics.

Coach Kovach has been a member of the ABCA for the past 5 years; he teaches Georgia History at Gainesville Middle School.

Tryouts

Tryouts will begin approximately the last week in January and last approximately two weeks.

The Season

The schedule for the season has not been set yet, but the season will approximately begin at the end of February. The season will finish about a week after Spring Break.

Location

Home games will be played at the old GHS baseball field behind the middle school and at Ivey Watson Field at Lanier Point Park.

You must have a physical before you can tryout. Athletes need to bring cleats, pants, glove, a hat, protective cup, and a shirt with sleeves to the tryouts.

a. Keeping a good image on and off the baseball field is vital to running a successful program. Here at Gainesville Middle School, we strive to keep a good image in baseball. Keeping a good image will make these student/athletes successful on the field and in life. Even though I feel like GMS baseball maintained a good image last year, I feel like there are many ways in which I can improve our image.

I would like to improve our image in the following ways. I believe our image could be greatly improved by improving our facilities at our field. The facilities at the GMS baseball field need major improvements, I feel this is one way we could improve our image. Another one of my goals is to improve the personal appearance of our baseball players. I also believe we could improve our image by the way our players carry themselves on the baseball field. The last way I plan to improve our image is by monitoring students’ work in the classroom.

a. In order to reach the following goals, a precise action plan must be followed. Goals are worthless, if one is not going to carry through with them. The goals and action plan must be stated in order to carry through with them.

b. My first goal is to improve facilities. I am going to start improving the facilities by installing new bases at the field. This is something very inexpensive, but something that can make the field look much better. I also plan to do some improving to the dugouts. This is one of the first aspects of our field that visiting teams see, therefore, they should be well – maintained. Another goal of mine is to improve the personal appearance of my players. I believe this could be accomplished by ordering new uniforms. I also plan to make all players be clean-shaven and keep their hair up to coaches standards. Players will wear their uniforms properly at all times. Players will also adhere to a standard of dress during practice. Our players will stay together in everything they do as a team, they will also look sharp during everything they do in getting ready for a game. This will be actively monitored by all coaches. My last goal to improve our image is by monitoring students’ work in the classroom. I will be constantly checking students’ grades on PowerSchool and be checking with their teachers to see that they are keeping grades up to standard and that they are acting in a way that is reflective on them as student/athletes.

a. After last year being my first year of coaching, I have so many areas in which I would like to improve performance. Last year, our team finished with a record of 6-6, so there is plenty of room for improvement. I would like to improve our performance in many areas.

b. One way I feel we could improve is in our hitting. Last year, our team batting average was very poor. Another goal to go along with hitting is our bunting. Our team had very few sacrifice bunts last season; this is a very vital area of baseball. I also feel like our team needs to play better defense to win more baseball games. Last year, in many games our defense was simply not good enough to win baseball games.

a. My first goal to improve our performance was to have a higher team batting average. One way I plan to do this is by simply taking more batting practice. Last year, I feel like our team received plenty of batting practice. However, I feel we could see more live pitching. I think this is key, as it shows students how to have a good at bat every time they are at the plate. I will also require more sacrifice bunts during these live at bats to work on this area of our game.

b. As I mentioned, our defense needs to improve to win more baseball games this season. One way I plan to improve our defense is by doing partner drills where infielders work on individual skills of fielding a ground ball. I also plan to hit the players many, many ground balls so that they learn how to field each type of ground ball. Many of our errors came from throwing the baseball. I plan to spend more time warming up this year and teaching the fundamentals of throwing. I also plan to talk to our kids about the being mentally ready for the next pitch so that they know where the play is. This is my action plan to improve performance this season.