Fresh faces in the field aren’t the only new things on the FAU baseball team this year. Assistant coaches George Roig and Dickie Hart are also new. They replace assistants Bob Deutschman and Jim Lyttle who left FAU at the end of last season. FAU head coach Kevin Cooney is happy to have them as assistant coaches.
“I feel comfortable with them. I don’t feel comfortable being around people I don’t know or don’t like,” Cooney said.
He’s familiar with Roig and Hart because they played for him. Hart was a member of the Blue Wave from 1995-1999. Roig was a member of the Blue Wave from 1997-2002.
After the historic season of 1999, when FAU won 34 consecutive games, Roig was an administrative assistant for the baseball team in 2000. Roig became an assistant coach at Dartmouth University in the spring of 2002. He helped them to a 21-20 record, the third year in a row that the team had 20 or more wins.
Then, on July 24, Cooney announced that Roig was FAU’s new pitching coach. He replaced former pitching coach Bob Deutschman, who is now the head coach at Broward Community College.
Obviously this is a job for Roig, but he said working under Cooney and Associate Head Coach John McCormack won’t be too difficult.
“They’re very easy guys to work for and with,” Roig said.
Roig sits back and lets the players figure out a lot of things. He tries to step in for guidance when needed. “I’m more similar to Coach Cooney as far as demeanor,” Roig said.
Roig plans to work very hard this year, but he doesn’t need to impress the head coach. Cooney is confident in Roig’s ability as pitching coach.
“When [Roig] was here as a student assistant and as an administrative assistant, he talked a lot [about] pitching with me and with Bob [Deutschman],” Cooney said.
Although Cooney is confident that Roig will do a good job as a pitching coach, he will be there to lend a helping hand.
“I haven’t forgotten everything about pitching,” Cooney joked. “[Roig’s] got somebody that he can lean on a little bit in his first year or so. And we have a veteran staff so that’ll make it easier.”
Roig will also assist associate head coach and recruiting coordinator John McCormack with recruiting.
“George has done an outstanding job recruiting with [Coach McCormack] this past fall,” Cooney said. “He has a good eye for talent and he’s not afraid to speak his mind.”
The other new assistant coach this year is Dickie Hart. He’s actually a volunteer assistant coach, a position that was filled by Jim Lyttle from 1999-2002. Hart decided to coach after trying a few different jobs.
When his playing days at FAU were over, Hart played minor league baseball with the Angels organization. He returned to FAU in 1999 to complete his Bachelor of Science in marketing. He then became a graduate assistant in sports marketing and helped to market the baseball team. He was also a graduate assistant for the housing department at FAU.
After being a graduate assistant, Hart worked for an oil and gas company in Tennessee.
“I was making great money,” Hart said. “It was tough to leave that. [But] Coach Cooney had talked to me before about coming [here] and coaching.”
Hart had always thought about coaching. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
He just didn’t feel close enough to the action when he was doing marketing for the team. “You’re kind of supporting [the team], but…doing promotions and stuff like that…it’s kind of hard to get excited about [the team],” Hart said.
Hart’s duties as an assistant coach will include base running and working with the infielders. Like Roig, Hart won’t have to impress Cooney, who already thinks Hart is a great coach.
“Dickie’s a real good teacher. He’s enthusiastic, and he’ll do a good job coaching third and [coaching] our base running and taking care of our defense and our infield play,” Cooney said.
He’s confident in both of his new coaches.
“I like both of those guys. They’re good, solid young coaches,” Cooney said. He’s also comfortable around them.
“The only worrisome thing is that they played for me,” Cooney said jokingly. “So how much do they really know?”
