Larry Mims knew what to expect from Matt Wolfenbarger.
Wolfenbarger used a good fastball and curveball to earn West Alabama 3A Pitcher of the Year and Northside (Ala.) High School’s team MVP honors in 2006. In 2007, he again was named team MVP and a West Alabama Super 10 Player.
“What made him a good pitcher was he was pretty determined,” said Mims, who coached baseball for more than 30 years at Northside High. “He worked hard and he had a good mentality. He was just a real good high school pitcher.”
Lee Hodge saw those same qualities in Wolfenbarger as a pitching coach at Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale.
“He develops guys and gets the most out of them,” said Hodge, a former standout at Ole Miss who was drafted by Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers. “What I like about him is he knows how to coach each individual kid. You can’t go the same way with every kid, and he knew how to get the most out of each individual kid.”
Wolfenbarger plans to use that same determination and same hands-on approach in his new job as baseball coach at the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus.
“As a coach, you always kind of look to see where you can go and where you will fit, and it is definitely is a great opportunity (at The W),” Wolfenbarger said. “It is definitely somewhere I want to be. … You can really determine what kind of coach you are by the program you build. This is a great opportunity for me to do that, and it is a chance to better my career and better myself as a coach.”
Latest addition
Monday was Wolfenbarger’s first day at The W. His hiring was announced Tuesday. He joins Roxanne Hernandez (volleyball), Tim Gould (men’s soccer), and Tatjana Matthews (softball) as the first coaches hired to lead The W’s sports teams for the 2017-18 school year.
Brooke Beasley also joined the athletic program as the assistant director of athletics. She will help Hernandez with the school’s volleyball program.
The W also will add men’s and women’s cross country teams for the 2017-18 school year.
Jason Trufant, the director of athletics at The W, said he is excited to add Wolfenbarger’s knowledge and recruiting ties to his burgeoning athletic department.
“His experience as a player and coach will be a tremendous asset to our future student-athletes,” Trufant said in a statement released by the school.
Wolfenbarger, a native of Northport, Alabama, comes to The W from Coahoma C.C., where he worked for Hodge since 2015. Prior to that role, he was head coach for three seasons at Delta Academy in Marks, where he won two district championships, was named head coach for the Mississippi Association for Independent Schools (MAIS) All-Star Game, and was twice named Coach of the Year. From 2013-15, his teams went 28-2 in conference play.
As a right-handed pitcher, Wolfenbarger signed with Shelton State (Ala.) C.C. in 2007. As a member of the Buccaneers, he was part of two Alabama Community College Conference championships, two top-five nationally ranked teams, and named 2009 NJCAA Distinguished Academic All-American. Due to multiple injuries, he went on to earn his bachelor’s degree from Alabama in 2011.
Similar qualities
Mims said he wasn’t surprised Wolfenbarger went into coaching because he saw him as a “real competitive person” who does a good job working with young men on and off the field. He said he stays in contact with Wolfenbarger and talked to him about the job opening at The W. He believes the same qualities he saw in Wolfenbarger as a player are going to serve him well as a head coach in college.
“His kids are going to be well coached and they’re going to be good people and good representatives of the school on and off the field,” Mims said. “He does an outstanding job and relates well to young people, so I don’t think he will have a hard time recruiting.
“If he get the same type of player he was, he is going to be very successful there, or wherever there goes.”
Mims said Wolfenbarger is going to want student-athletes who work hard on and off the field and who do the right thing.
Hodge said Wolfenbarger will be able to find those players because his experience in junior college baseball gives him an ideal understanding of how to motivate players. He said he saw Wolfenbarger do just that at Coahoma C.C.
“He keeps the drive in front of his players. I think that is what he is so good at,” Wolfenbarger said. “If you lose that drive, you’re done. He instills that in them and keeps pushing.”
Hodge also believes Wolfenbarger’s personality will help him develop great relationships with student-athletes. He said Wolfenbarger isn’t a coach who will tell a student-athlete something just to get them to come to his school.
“He has the personality that when he talks to you you know he is telling you the truth,” Hodge said. “He is not going to be one of those recruiters who comes across as a used car salesman.”
Building relationships
Hodge feels Wolfenbarger’s contacts in the state of Alabama and in the state of Mississippi will help him recruit players to be a part of The W’s first baseball team. He said those players will be tough and ones who want to be at bat in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and the game on the line.
Wolfenbarger said he will instill that mind-set in his players with an honest but not too fiery approach. He said he prefers to talk to players to offer them “constructive criticism” rather than to yell or to scream at them. He feels that is the best way to develop “mutual respect” between the coach and the student-athlete.
“I think kids and the players I have really buy into the style and way I coach,” Wolfenbarger said. “I like to have good relationships with my players. That goes a long way. I am a big believer that if a player doesn’t like the coach he has, he is not going to perform as well or he is not going to be happy and that is going to hinder his performance.”
Wolfenbarger said he is familiar with the baseball tradition in this area from his time growing up in the Tuscaloosa. He said he hopes to tap into the baseball programs in the Golden Triangle and to use his connections in the Delta and from his days as a player in Alabama to build awareness about The W’s baseball program.
“I think there is a lot of excitement for what is going on here, not just for baseball but for all of the sports,” Wolfenbarger said. “I think that is going to pique a lot of interest among the schools and a lot of the athletes because I know a lot of kids like to stay at home and play.
“This school being unique, with the name being Mississippi University for Women, if there is a kid who says, ‘I don’t want to go play there because of that,’ that is not the ballplayer I want. I want a kid that wants to play baseball, that wants to work, and just wants an opportunity and a chance to play no matter where he goes. I hope a lot of kids feel that way in Columbus because that is going to be a big area I am going to recruit. Tuscaloosa is close by, and some of the other resources I have from my days in JUCO, I am going to reach out to them as well.”
Wolfenbarger said The W’s strong academics will help him attract the right student-athlete to help him build a foundation for a program that will compete in NCAA Division III. If you ask Mims and Hodge, they will tell you the players Wolfenbarger will look for will be tough, focused, and love baseball.
“I look forward to building something from the ground up,” Wolfenbarger said. “There are kids out there who fit the criteria I like, where they want to compete, they don’t care if they play here or there or what position they play, they just want to be on the field and give it their all. I feel there are a lot of them like that because I had a lot of friends throughout my playing career that were like that, so I know they are everywhere.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.