Hammond named HPU’s new baseball coach
BY GREER SMITH ENTERPRISE SPORTS WRITER Jun 17, 2021 Updated 13 hrs ago
HIGH POINT — Joey Hammond is back coaching in his hometown.
Hammond, a former state championship coach at Westchester Country Day who spent the last seven seasons as a volunteer assistant at Wake Forest, was announced by High Point University athletics director Dan Hauser as the Panthers’ fourth head baseball coach in the Division I era.
“This is the only place I would consider coming to,” Hammond said. “I was in a great situation at Wake Forest. I loved it. I was being fulfilled. This is the only (head coaching) situation that I had interest in and entertained going to because you want to hitch your wagon to a place like this. It’s going in the right direction. It’s got the chassis for greatness. It just needs some direction, some energy and possibly a different outlook to achieve it.”
The announcement was made at a Steele Center press conference in front of Hammond’s wife and three sons, HPU boosters and supporters and members of the High Point Rockers staff.
Hammond was an All-Conference USA shortstop at UNC Charlotte in the late 1990s, played 11 seasons in the minors, coached at Westchester for five and then was a part of Tom Walters’ staff at Wake Forest from 2015-21.
“To have the opportunity to lead a program in a direction you feel strongly about, it needs to be rooted in energy,” Hammond said. “That's something that I’ll demand of everybody, whether it’s staff members, players, support staff. Energy is ingredient No.1. The other is player development. When you have those things in place, winning is a byproduct.”
Hammond replaces Craig Cozart, who parted ways with the university after his 13th season ended in a 14-31 record.
“When you look at (Hammond’s) baseball success at all the levels, as a player in college and professionally, there was tremendous success; at Westchester, tremendous success, and then at Wake Forest,” Hauser said. “Success has followed him. He’s created success and experienced success at every place he’s been.”
Hammond has his home in High Point and commuted to Wake after leaving Westchester.
“This is a guy who could have been a head coach several times,” Hauser said. “He values the High Point community and has dug some roots here. That’s a fit for us as we tried to find the right coach to move us forward. Everybody I talked to on Joey emphasized his ability to develop players. For us, we’re not Power 5. We’re not getting the All-American candidate from Day 1. We’ve got to turn players into that. One of the things we've been able to do is hit that player development piece with people like (men’s soccer coach) Zach Haines and (women’s basketball coach) Chelsea Banbury.”
Hammond led Westchester to a 104-31-1 record and three state championships in five years.
“This is a bigger stage,” Hammond said “The competition is going to be different, but we can recruit, pick and choose, and put our imprint on that. There are similarities. I’m going to embrace that, from the private school standard and family-like environment and culture that we were able to create. I think you can do that no matter where you are. If you are in tune to the program and players and you surround yourself with the right group of leaders, you can create that whether you are at Westchester, Wake Forest or High Point.”
He recognized that he needed more development as a coach if he wanted to be a head coach at the college level.
“The transition from a player to a coach can be challenging,” Hammond said. “As a player, you have energy and passion, and that’s a good thing. As a coach, it’s important that you carry yourself in a manner that’s more even-keeled. If you are going to be inconsistent with the way you manage your emotions, that has a negative effect on your players. That’s something I’ve learned the last seven years, and that’s something I needed to learn.”
In his time at Wake, Hammond coached hitting and worked with the outfielders. He helped the Demon Deacons turn into one of the nation’s best offenses — the peak coming in the 2017 season in which they fell one game short of the College World Series, hit 106 homers , had 445 RBIs, and ranked among the top 20 in the country in batting average on-base percentage, doubles, runs, walks, hits and slugging percentage.
The Demon Deacons hit at least 48 homers per season in Hammond’s six non-COVID seasons.
They went 191-152 with five winning seasons, had seven All-Americans and 17 All-ACC players during Hammond's tenure.
“I love to score runs and there’s different ways to do it,” Hammond said. “”Our talent at Wake led to driving the ball out of the ballpark. Our park led to that. The best offensive coaches take the abilities on the roster and maximize them. For me, and it isn’t lost on anyone, that at times at Wake, we became one-dimensional, we had trouble scoring if we weren't hitting it out of the park or the wind was blowing in or getting extra base hits
“It’s important to me to have diversity and play a smaller game and have speed and energy. The biggest thing that’s going to be recognizable is the passion and energy level. But, I hope you see diversity and the ability to win in different ways. You have to win 11-10 games and you have to win 2-1 games and you have to have a roster that supports that.”
Hammond was scheduled to meet later Thursday with returning players through Zoom call and call his incoming recruits individually. One of his other immediate priorities is putting together a staff.
“I'm going to dive right in on getting the staff right,” Hammond said. “I want people who challenge and have the values that I have and the priority is the development of every single player. The next is to create relationships with the current and incoming players. I don’t believe you can motivate and guide players unless you know where they’re at to begin with.”
gsmith@hpenews.com | 336-888-3519 | @hpegreer
BY GREER SMITH ENTERPRISE SPORTS WRITER Jun 17, 2021 Updated 13 hrs ago
HIGH POINT — Joey Hammond is back coaching in his hometown.
Hammond, a former state championship coach at Westchester Country Day who spent the last seven seasons as a volunteer assistant at Wake Forest, was announced by High Point University athletics director Dan Hauser as the Panthers’ fourth head baseball coach in the Division I era.
“This is the only place I would consider coming to,” Hammond said. “I was in a great situation at Wake Forest. I loved it. I was being fulfilled. This is the only (head coaching) situation that I had interest in and entertained going to because you want to hitch your wagon to a place like this. It’s going in the right direction. It’s got the chassis for greatness. It just needs some direction, some energy and possibly a different outlook to achieve it.”
The announcement was made at a Steele Center press conference in front of Hammond’s wife and three sons, HPU boosters and supporters and members of the High Point Rockers staff.
Hammond was an All-Conference USA shortstop at UNC Charlotte in the late 1990s, played 11 seasons in the minors, coached at Westchester for five and then was a part of Tom Walters’ staff at Wake Forest from 2015-21.
“To have the opportunity to lead a program in a direction you feel strongly about, it needs to be rooted in energy,” Hammond said. “That's something that I’ll demand of everybody, whether it’s staff members, players, support staff. Energy is ingredient No.1. The other is player development. When you have those things in place, winning is a byproduct.”
Hammond replaces Craig Cozart, who parted ways with the university after his 13th season ended in a 14-31 record.
“When you look at (Hammond’s) baseball success at all the levels, as a player in college and professionally, there was tremendous success; at Westchester, tremendous success, and then at Wake Forest,” Hauser said. “Success has followed him. He’s created success and experienced success at every place he’s been.”
Hammond has his home in High Point and commuted to Wake after leaving Westchester.
“This is a guy who could have been a head coach several times,” Hauser said. “He values the High Point community and has dug some roots here. That’s a fit for us as we tried to find the right coach to move us forward. Everybody I talked to on Joey emphasized his ability to develop players. For us, we’re not Power 5. We’re not getting the All-American candidate from Day 1. We’ve got to turn players into that. One of the things we've been able to do is hit that player development piece with people like (men’s soccer coach) Zach Haines and (women’s basketball coach) Chelsea Banbury.”
Hammond led Westchester to a 104-31-1 record and three state championships in five years.
“This is a bigger stage,” Hammond said “The competition is going to be different, but we can recruit, pick and choose, and put our imprint on that. There are similarities. I’m going to embrace that, from the private school standard and family-like environment and culture that we were able to create. I think you can do that no matter where you are. If you are in tune to the program and players and you surround yourself with the right group of leaders, you can create that whether you are at Westchester, Wake Forest or High Point.”
He recognized that he needed more development as a coach if he wanted to be a head coach at the college level.
“The transition from a player to a coach can be challenging,” Hammond said. “As a player, you have energy and passion, and that’s a good thing. As a coach, it’s important that you carry yourself in a manner that’s more even-keeled. If you are going to be inconsistent with the way you manage your emotions, that has a negative effect on your players. That’s something I’ve learned the last seven years, and that’s something I needed to learn.”
In his time at Wake, Hammond coached hitting and worked with the outfielders. He helped the Demon Deacons turn into one of the nation’s best offenses — the peak coming in the 2017 season in which they fell one game short of the College World Series, hit 106 homers , had 445 RBIs, and ranked among the top 20 in the country in batting average on-base percentage, doubles, runs, walks, hits and slugging percentage.
The Demon Deacons hit at least 48 homers per season in Hammond’s six non-COVID seasons.
They went 191-152 with five winning seasons, had seven All-Americans and 17 All-ACC players during Hammond's tenure.
“I love to score runs and there’s different ways to do it,” Hammond said. “”Our talent at Wake led to driving the ball out of the ballpark. Our park led to that. The best offensive coaches take the abilities on the roster and maximize them. For me, and it isn’t lost on anyone, that at times at Wake, we became one-dimensional, we had trouble scoring if we weren't hitting it out of the park or the wind was blowing in or getting extra base hits
“It’s important to me to have diversity and play a smaller game and have speed and energy. The biggest thing that’s going to be recognizable is the passion and energy level. But, I hope you see diversity and the ability to win in different ways. You have to win 11-10 games and you have to win 2-1 games and you have to have a roster that supports that.”
Hammond was scheduled to meet later Thursday with returning players through Zoom call and call his incoming recruits individually. One of his other immediate priorities is putting together a staff.
“I'm going to dive right in on getting the staff right,” Hammond said. “I want people who challenge and have the values that I have and the priority is the development of every single player. The next is to create relationships with the current and incoming players. I don’t believe you can motivate and guide players unless you know where they’re at to begin with.”
gsmith@hpenews.com | 336-888-3519 | @hpegreer
