Kevin Moulder is confident that Billiken baseball will slide into this season with a winning attitude. Straight from the University of Central Missouri, Moulder has learned the finer points of the game under the wing of baseball coach Darin Hendrickson. Now, Moulder is contributing his knowledge and skill to Saint Louis University’s baseball team as an assistant coach. Moulder fielded questions about the team’s upcoming season.
What is your role on the team?
I just help out the team, as a whole. Officially, I’m the recruiting coordinator, and work with the pitcher. We practice six times a week, and I’m at all of the practices. I do whatever I can do to help the program succeed. That’s the role of an assistant coach, to fill in with areas that need help.
How does the team train in the offseason?
We have a pretty in-depth weight room plan, and we do a lot of conditioning. Players work in weight rooms, as well as on individual hitting. They do lots of individual work, with three or four players per coach. Those are NCAA rules, so that’s standard for most Division I and Division II baseball.
What’s your most important goal?
We’re a brand new staff; we were just hired in July. [This] program hadn’t had a great deal of success in the past, so we’re just trying to re-establish our identity. We talk about everyone being accountable. We are who we are. It’s more about the model that we’ve set. We’ve tried to set up the program how we want it to be run, and we’ll get to where we want to be. It’s a big year for us. The guys who come back next year are the ones who will be teaching next year’s freshman and junior college transfers.
Which players do you see stepping up this season?
We’ve improved a lot as a whole. We’re a much better team than we were when we first showed up. We got a big boost this semester with new transfers. The guys have all bought into what we’re selling them, into the program. Many have already seen improvements with their bodies in the weight room, as well as in hitting. They seem receptive to everything new that’s going on. They’re not put in an easy spot, either. It’s tough for an older guy to be subjected to a new staff.
That said, on the mound, Dave Sever is our leader. He has the chance to be a pretty good draft pick, so he’s a natural. Also, Casey Moore, Greg Rodgers and Tom Pinnell are all proven guys. They’ve been here a while, helping lead the team.
What makes this year’s team unique?
I haven’t been here in the past, so I can’t judge on that. I hope that it’s just the way we play, with our attitude. It’s a newfound way of thinking for our guys, having more of a winning mentality.
That mentality obviously comes from the top, so the head coach reflects that, then his assistants and the players feed off of that. One of [Coach Darin Hendrickson’s] strengths is that he’s really supportive, but he also expects a great deal out of them, and anything less than what it takes to win is not acceptable. Still, that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad year if we don’t win 35 baseball games.
