<\/p>\n
By Bob Weiner
\nGazette Reporter
\nJan. 21, 2015<\/p>\n
TROY \u2014 At a time when most aspiring baseball players haven\u2019t even reached their performance peak, Schenec\u2009tady High School graduate Alex Jurczynski is on the fast track as a college coach.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old former catcher for the Patriots, Mohawk Valley Community College and SUNY-Oswego is getting a rare opportunity to show his managing and coaching skills as the interim head coach for the Hudson Valley Community College baseball team this spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so excited about this opportunity,\u201d said Jurczynski. \u201cThey are giving me a chance to prove myself this year as the interim head coach. After that, they will have a national search, and I\u2019m hoping that I can show them I\u2019m the right guy for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jurczynski is not wasting any time. He has honed his skills as an instructor at Mike Serbalik\u2019s All Stars Academy, and he\u2019s getting plenty of help from his local mentor, 56-year-old Al Williams, who is both HVCC\u2019s head of baseball operations and the recruiting director.<\/p>\n
Practice for the 2015 season began Tuesday, and Jurzcynski and Williams already had a depth chart posted in Jurczynski\u2019s office in Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a few returning veterans, but most of this team will be freshmen, and they are a very talented and hard-working group,\u201d said Jurczynski. \u201cIf one guy slacks off, the others pick him up. I really like this group of guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jurczynski still looks like one of his players, so he will need to walk a fine line between discipline and friendship. He said he learned a long time ago from his father, Al, the former mayor of Schenectady, how to be a good politician and to read people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked with Alex for quite a while, and he knows what these kids are all about, because he came through the junior college system himself before playing at Oswego State,\u201d said Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to have to do a little juggling, though, because he\u2019s so close in age to these guys, and he\u2019s going to have to keep his distance a little bit. When it\u2019s time for business, he\u2019s going to have to be all business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand how important it\u2019s going to be not to try to be their friend all the time,\u201d Jurczynski said. \u201cWhen I\u2019m between the lines, I\u2019m as serious as a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jurczynski acknowledged that most catchers make excellent coaches and managers because they are in on every play and can see the entire field on every pitch. But he still takes every opportunity to pick up as much knowledge as he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a student of the game,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned things from every program I\u2019ve been with.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Jurczynski\u2019s most notable learning experiences came from former Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox outfielder Bernie Carbo, who runs a baseball school in Alabama.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived with Bernie Carbo for two weeks in Mobile, Ala., and I learned so much from him. I still keep in contact with him,\u201d Jurczynski said. \u201cI\u2019ve also learned quite a bit from Mike Serbalik at All Stars Academy. He gave me so many guidelines to follow about how to coach these players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jurczynski, who coaches both hitting and catching at All Stars Academy, was best known for his defense. He once threw out 26 of 29 potential base stealers for Schenectady High School. He led Mohawk Valley CC to an NJCAA final four berth and captained the team as a sophomore. After transferring to SUNY-Oswego, he earned SUNYAC all-conference honors as a junior, when he hit .353 with 19 RBI and caught 17 runners trying to steal. As a senior, he led the Lakers to the conference championship and a school record for wins while throwing out 12 runners.<\/p>\n
\u201cI excelled at throwing out runners as a player,\u201d Jurczynski said. \u201cI love catching, and I just love every part of the game. But the key is controlling the pitching staff. That\u2019s what makes you a good catcher, and I think that\u2019s what can make you a good coach or manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
After he graduated, he worked as a hitting coach and a catching coach at SUNY-Oswego.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Alex is on the cutting edge, as far as coaches are concerned, because he\u2019s not afraid to bring in current players who have made it big, like Branden Cogswell [Shenendehowa, University of Virginia infielder chosen 222nd by the Oakland Athletics in last summer\u2019s Major League Draft], to show his current players how to do something a little better,\u201d said Williams.<\/p>\n
Jurczynski, who has also played for numerous local amateur teams, including the Albany Dutchmen, said he knows most of the umpires in the Capital Region and has developed a rapport with numerous coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt HVCC, you must keep a 2.0 GPA to be able to play, so I\u2019m going to stay on my players. We will have a mandatory five hours per week in the library for studying and doing homework,\u201d Jurczynski said. \u201cI don\u2019t care if you are the star player or not. I\u2019ll treat everybody the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot of things from my dad about how to deal with people. When you are around politics so often, you get to know what to say and what not to say. I try to stay out of trouble and not to be controversial. My dad showed me the right route.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:08:55 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jurczynski, 23, embarking on coaching career By Bob Weiner Gazette Reporter Jan. 21, 2015 TROY \u2014 At a time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}