Coach Clint Myers is indisputably one of the top college softball head coaches in the sport today with two National Championships (2008, 2011) in the last six years and seven World Series appearances in the last eight seasons at the helm of Arizona State.  He was poised to have the Sun Devils set for another title run in 2014 when he surprised many by taking the Auburn job this past summer for the primary reason of having all his family around him including his sons Casey and Corey on his coaching staff.

“It all came down to family,” Myers told AZCentral in June when the move was announced.  “When the boys were young, I said, ‘Someday, when you guys are done playing, maybe we can all coach together.’ And we kind of liked that idea.  We’ve never had that opportunity, but now it’s been given to us.  And I couldn’t pass up that dream.”

What many might not know is that Coach Myers has had success at every level he’s played and coached at.  His high school baseball team, Lakewood (Calif.), won the 1970 CIF State Championship and while playing for Arizona State, the Sun Devils finished second at the College World Series in ’72 and ’73.   A third round pick by the Cardinals, he played for three years making it as high as Triple A before he jumped into coaching which included national championships in both baseball and softball: six with the Central Arizona College softball team and one with the baseball team.  Myers even coached a high school baseball championship team when Case Grande (Ariz.) won the 1978 Arizona state title.

We spoke to him recently about the move, his recruiting philosophy and even the difference between coaching baseball and softball… here are his comments:




StudentSportsSoftball.com:  What a year!  Are you settled comfortable into your new life and surroundings in Alabama now?

Clint Myers: Yes! Everybody is here now—my entire family living in Auburn.  We love Alabama.  It is green, compared to brown.   The people are phenomenal.   Auburn has just been a great place to work.   We are really excited about the move and are very, very happy to be here.”

SSS.com: Many people might not know you have a very strong baseball background and were drafted… tell us what stands out from your playing days…

CM: Playing in the College World Series while at ASU, those were great times. A lot of the guys I played with, and remain in contact, with made it to the big leagues.  It is a great sport and we had a lot of fun.   The game of baseball has changed since I played because back then there was a lot more love of the game.   Now it has become more of a high-priced business.



SSS.com: You have a unique perspective in being so successful at the JC level coaching men in baseball and now winning titles with the women in softball… compare coaching the guys versus the girls…

CM: Both of them are the same game, with the exception of pitching and the emphasis on the short game. You teach the same double play.  You teach the same hitting mentality. With the exception of pitching, it is the same game.  The women attack it in the same manner as men and probably have a little less ego involved.  We tell them every day that they are elite athletes, so whatever they can do out there we expect them to do it. We have a lot of fun teaching softball and it is essentially the same as when we were teaching the guys baseball.

 

SSS.com:  Once you officially took over as coach at Auburn, what was the first thing you did as the new coach?

CM: We met about 10 of the returning players and told them that it was going to be a little bit different when they returned in the fall and started working with our new staff.   On the first day of fall, we had our first team meeting where we outlined our expectations and what was going to take place. Our expectations are standards of how we see how and expect the game to be played.

 

SSS.com: You are an alum from ASU and not only won two National Championships, you had the program primed for big success now and in the future… how hard was that to leave behind?

CM: Auburn gave me an opportunity to coach with my two sons, Casey and Corey, a former baseball player of mine and then my ASU assistant coach, Scott Woodard, and to hire my first Director of Operations from ASU and long time friend Jim Beitia.  This staff is family to me and family is everything to me.   The Auburn athletic administration totally supported my proposal for this to be the new Tiger Softball staff.   With their support behind us, we all packed up and moved to Alabama – there is no looking back.

SSS.com:  You and your coaches are known as great recruiters and the prospects love you, you’ve even had several follow you to Auburn… what is your approach or philosophy to recruiting talent to your program?

CM: I am not sure that there is one unique philosophy.   I have great people working with me. Scott Woodard is probably one of the best, if not the best, around the country dealing with knowing who is who. He oversees all of it.   Corey is now starting to get into it. Auburn sells itself. If we can get the young ladies here, it is such a beautiful campus with a great supportive community.  Our philosophy of family first is one in which we talk about quite often. We also talk about the importance of knowing that greatness is a way of life. We do so much non-softball teaching, as far as how to prepare for the real world and things like that.  The coaches really care. We try and make sure that our student athletes understand how much we care, and what we are going to be able to do for them. We are great teachers.  We teach every concept and we believe we make players better.

 

SSS.com: You humorously said you’re not a good electrician but you’re a good coach because you like to teach… what areas are you best at teaching?

CM: I think that sums all of us up. I mentioned earlier that we have a great staff. They are all great teachers and we are all uniquely different. Casey is phenomenal with his approach on hitting and overseeing. He picks up the minute details of every aspect of the game. Corey is working with pitchers and teaching them some really basic things that have already made them better. Scott, who has been working with us for three years brings so much to the staff with his years of coaching both baseball and softball and having been an athletic director.   The teaching aspect that Scott provides along with Casey and Corey, is exceptional.  Myself, I look at the big picture and witness the day-to-day interaction between the coaches and the athletes and I talk on the mental side of how you see yourself and how you want to be. I orchestrate things, but the real teaching is done by Scott, Casey and Corey.

 

SSS.com: What do you love most about softball and what’s the one thing in the sport you would change if you could?

CM: It is a great game to watch. It is a great game to play. It is different from baseball in only playing seven versus nine innings and being done in only two hours versus three and a half.  Spectators are going to see a good product that is both skilled and intellectual.



Special thanks to John Thomas, the Assistant Communications Director at Auburn, for his help in compiling information and photos used in this article.