Decker Ushers in New Era

It’s a snowy morning in March, but the Harvard baseball program isn’t taking any breaks.

Two assistant coaches are working in a room on the upper level of Dillon Field  House. A whiteboard lists detailed practice schedules and upcoming dates. And in his own office, Crimson head coach Bill Decker is peering at a few sheets of paper sitting on his desk.

It isn’t the first time Decker’s eyes have strayed downward. He has routinely consulted tables of statistics to provide context when discussing his team’s performance on the season thus far.

He doesn’t just examine the box scores—which, as Decker notes, can be deceiving—but typically devotes his attention to more detailed notes, including those that chart quality-at-bats and pitch-by-pitch sequences. He points to baserunning as a particular point of emphasis this season.

“If you look at the statistics last year, people tended to run on us a little bit—which is an understatement,” Decker says. “We’re going to control the running game [this season], and it’s going to start with the pitchers.”

Indeed, Decker is a man of the details. For him, games are won when the little things are taken care of.

Now, in his second year at the helm of the team, Decker’s office across the Charles River is starting to feel more like home. He can now turn his focus to developing a successful baseball program and instilling his vision for success.

When Harvard hosts Penn at O’Donnell Field this Saturday, the Crimson will compete at home for the first time all season. If Decker has his way, in a few years, the trip to Cambridge will not be one that opponents enjoy making.

“My goal is to come in here and take this program and get it back where it needs to be, and that’s at the forefront of the Ivy League,” Decker says. “That’s my goal. We’re going to do it the right way with the right student-athletes that want to come to Harvard and can succeed at Harvard, on and off the field.”

A NEW TRANSITION

Although Decker is entering his second year coaching at Harvard, the current season could just as well be considered his first full stint.

After the July 2012 passing of former head coach Joe Walsh, the face of the Crimson baseball program for 17 years, the search for a new head coach began in earnest. Decker’s hiring was announced in late September, and he didn’t set foot on campus until early October.

In addition to having to adapt to a new city and a new job, Decker had to rapidly get to know his team and assess the state of the program.

“The whole hiring process, due to the untimely death of Joe, happened very, very late,” said Decker at the beginning of the 2013 campaign. “So my expectations were to come in here and really just look and get a feel for what had happened.”

Before accepting the Harvard job, Decker spent 22 years as head baseball coach for Trinity College, where he eventually became the all-time winningest coach in school history with a record of 529-231.

In 2008, Trinity posted a 45-1 record and captured a Division III National Championship, and Decker earned the recognition of ABCA National Coach of the Year.

The move to Division I has presented Decker with expanded opportunities to implement a rigorous vision for a program.

At D-III Trinity, the baseball season does not officially begin until mid-February. Teams are held to tighter time regulations, and the ability to practice in the fall is restricted.

But at Harvard, the season goes year-round, from offseason team workouts to winter practices in the stadium bubble to the spring campaign. A rigorous spring schedule—with trips throughout the country in the early weeks of the season and two doubleheaders a weekend during conference play—offers plenty of time for instruction and improvement.

“One of the reasons that I chose to accept this position was the chance to be on the field and work with kids every single day, which is awesome,” Decker says. “The fact that we play a pretty darn good schedule is attractive, as well. But for me personally, it’s about being able to teach and coach the game every day.”

And despite the differences in scheduling and time commitment, Decker’s approach to what happens on the playing field remains largely unchanged.

“The game of baseball is the game of baseball,” Decker says. “I think when you talk to coaches, you need to pitch and play defense. The way the new bats are, and the way the offensive approach is, you have to produce runs. And then you have to be athletic and have the guys who can do what you want to do.”

DEVOTION TO THE DETAILS

Many college baseball coaches will try to break the game down into its smallest components for their players. They speak of hitting behind runners to move them over, positioning defenders based on the count, and keeping opposing hitters from taking extra bases.

Decker shares this belief in focusing on the details, and he doesn’t consider their fulfillment secondary to any other goal. Indeed, Decker is working to establish an entire culture revolving around attention to the little things.

Take baserunning. According to Decker, Harvard finished dead last out of all Division I teams in stolen bases last season. In 41 games played, the Crimson successfully swiped only 14 bags.

But Decker has ensured that things will change in his second year, making the subject a point of emphasis in the offseason.

Through 17 games, Harvard baserunners have already exceeded last year’s total, posting 16 stolen bases while being caught just three times.

Decker’s players emphasize the coach’s constant attention to detail and his belief that larger success depends on the little things being taken care of first.

“[Decker] doesn’t really focus on home runs or big hits like a lot of teams do,” junior outfielder Brandon Kregel says. “He focuses on baserunning and small ball, moving runners over, hitting behind runners, line drives.”

Many head coaches in college elect to remain in the dugout during games, giving signals from the bench. But last season, Decker operated from the third base coaching box, reflecting his desire to be as involved as he can in the action.

In the first two games of Harvard’s recent spring break trip, the Crimson offense never got going, as the team was shut out in both games of a doubleheader against Michigan State. To find a solution, the Harvard coaching staff turned to the details. In the two losses, a number of Crimson hitters had settled for weak pop-ups, so the coaches prodded players to make adjustments to their swings.

“We sat down with our coaches [after the doubleheader], and they really emphasized getting the top hand through and swinging down on the ball to put more barrel on the ball,” Kregel said. “The day that we had off [after the games], we did that in batting practice.”

Sure enough, in the next game against the Spartans, the Harvard offense came alive. Hitters came through with runners in scoring position as the Crimson scored a season-high seven runs to earn the victory.

Decker has also shifted the focus away from big hits to ensuring that his players always have a good approach at the plate. For each of the first two weeks of the 2014 season, the team has named one player a “quality-at-bat winner,” a statistic that considers not only hits, but also pitches seen, situational hitting, and sacrifices.

“I think we’ve started to take on our way of doing it, which is detail,” Decker says. “Trying to learn. We’re going to compete. We’re going to play, and we’re going to carry ourselves with a sense of who we are in our energy level and our attention to detail.”

BUILDING A PROGRAM

The first year at Harvard may have seemed like a blur, but Decker is now settled into his new coaching position. He can thus turn his focus to constructing a program—bringing in the right guys, establishing routines, and promoting a positive culture.

Much of this direction inevitably comes from the coaching staff. Shortly after being hired, Decker brought in Jeff Calcaterra, a former head coach who serves as the Crimson’s top assistant and recruiting coordinator. Mike Zandler, another former head coach at a Division II school, is currently in his first season as assistant coach.

Morgan Brown ’06, a former captain and All-Ivy shortstop, rounds out the staff.

But according to Decker, coaches can only do so much. For the team to have success, everyone involved in the baseball program—from coaches to players to equipment managers—must buy in and work together.

“I go back to the word ‘our.’ It’s not mine. It’s our program,” Decker says. “I learn from [the players], we learn from each other as coaches, we try to put something together that works for us.”

Recruiting inevitably plays a large role in a coach’s ability to build a program. As Decker arrived on campus in the fall of 2012 with the college process well underway for high school seniors, he was limited in his ability to assert his own recruiting vision. Walsh and former Harvard recruiting coordinator Tom Lo Ricco had already zeroed in on a group of players, and Decker elected to stick with that list. Five freshmen are on the team’s roster for the 2014 season.

“I continued to support [the current freshmen],” Decker says. “During the recruiting process, there was a list that was already formulated. Several of these kids, Harvard had already made a commitment to them in terms of supporting them. I felt that the right thing to do was to continue to support the candidates that were on the list.”

This decision was made easier because Decker had already seen four of the five current freshmen during his travels—the exception being freshman pitcher Nick Gruener, who has already made four starts for the Crimson.

Decker’s first true recruiting class will arrive at Harvard this coming fall. Thanks to the assistance of his coaching staff, Decker believes that the baseball program has already grown stronger due to the group of high school seniors he intends to bring in.

“I thought our staff did a good job last summer identifying the right people, academically and athletically and otherwise, that should be at Harvard,” Decker says. “And the kids I think are going to compete and grow. That’s the first real step, and I think we’re happy with it.”

With a year under his belt, Decker is now better equipped to assess the state of the program. By focusing on particular team needs in the recruiting process, Decker hopes to bring in players who have the ability to fill certain holes.

For instance, Harvard has just one left-handed hitter on its roster. So, Decker says, a priority is going out and finding some lefties who are the right fit for Harvard.

“There are going to be some challenges,” Decker says. “It’s going to take a little bit of time in terms of trying to upgrade some of the things that we’re trying to do. Respectfully to everybody, my big thing is help is on the way. Whatever area we need in terms of trying to build a program like it used to be.”

WIN TODAY

Last year, Decker inherited a program in flux. But now that he is settled in, the team is his for the shaping.

Decker constantly has his eye on the bigger picture. Instead of getting caught up in individual wins or losses, he emphasizes player development and keeping the focus geared on the immediate future. In other words, stick to the process.

“He’s really a guy who always stays calm,” Kregel says. “He’s always thinking about moving forward. Even [after beating Michigan State], when everybody was pumped. He said, ‘Listen, it was a good game; you guys played well. But we have to keep on thinking about the next game tomorrow.’ Even when we lose, he just says we have to make some changes and keep on going.”

22 years at Trinity—20 of them winning seasons—was no easy thing to walk away from. For Decker, one particular draw to Harvard was the energy he found throughout the school community. The opportunity to work with a motivated group of people day in and day out was too good to turn down.

“I interviewed here and came back several times, and I was just impressed with the way people walked and the energy level they had,” Decker says. “They could come over the river and walk across the bridge and, boom, let’s get after it…. If you walk through the square, it’s kind of electric.”

2014 is Decker’s second season at the helm of the Crimson, and it is his first full-year campaign. By bringing a renewed focus on the details and establishing a vision for the program’s future, he hopes to guide Harvard back to the top of the Ivy League.

Ultimately, Decker’s philosophy revolves around the phrase “win today.” If players work hard every day, compete as a team, and do the little things, then the victories will eventually come.

“My message was pretty clear when I came in here: We need to do things together,” Decker says. “The other thing, which is on the inside of our locker room, is you need to win today. That has nothing to do with the final outcome. It has to do with every chance you get to wake up every day and put your feet on the floor, you have a chance to do something special. It’s an attitude. It’s a way of life.”

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at david.steinbach@thecrimson.com.