Baseball Coaches
- Paul Henry
Head Baseball Coach, Assistant Sports Information Director - Joey McCown
Assistant Baseball Coach - Jimmy Reese
Assistant Coach
Coaches
Head Baseball Coach, Assistant Sports Information Director
Paul Henry
(865) 981-8296
paul.henry@maryvillecollege.edu
Head Coach Paul Henry brings a “player’s coach” mentality and a resume of NCAA tournament experience into his first year at the helm of the Maryville College baseball program, hoping to guide the Scots to their first national postseason action since 1977.
His two years as an assistant at Penn State-Behrend and a year assisting the Scots’ program have prepared him to take over his first skipper assignment. As a head coach, his oversight of the well-being of the program is tantamount. However, his day-to-day role will include an emphasis on the offensive skills of the team, as well as the development of the position players. His recent playing experience allows him to relate to the student-athletes on and off the field, and to understand what they’re going through.
In just three seasons between Behrend and Maryville, Henry has put together a Who’s Who list of award recipients.
Players under Henry’s tutelage have earned, one ABCA All American honor, one D3Baseball All-American honoree, one ABCA regional Gold Glove winner, three all-region selections, 13 all-conference selections, and 11 conference all-academic distinctions.
Last season, Coach Henry served as an assistant under Coach Daniel Washburn, who departed the Maryville program after the 2011 season. His duties included hitting coach and development of position players. Getting to spend time with Coach Washburn was like opening up a whole new world to Henry, who previously had only experienced the game from the offensive perspective and a position player’s point of view.
“Before Maryville, I spent six years with one head coach - both as a player and an assistant coach” said Coach Henry. “I learned a great deal, of course, but as a former catcher playing under a coach who had played the same position, my perspective was somewhat limited. Coach Washburn was a former pitcher, and he opened up the other half of the game to me.”
Expectations were tough for Henry to form entering the 2011 season at Maryville, coming off three consecutive seasons leading Penn State-Behrend into the NCAA tournament. Arriving on campus in November 2010, not only was he entering an entirely new environment, but he was coming in after fall workouts and could not see his players in action until Spring Training.
It took the first two games for the Scots to reach their stride. Facing No. 9 Birmingham-Southern in the opener, the 2011 squad seized a 6-3 fourth-inning lead, but a couple of errors extended the bottom of the inning for the Panthers, who put 11 runs up in the frame to seal their victory. In the second game of the series, Maryville dueled the nationally-ranked opponent to a 1-1 tie through five innings, but came up on the short end of a 4-1 decision.
Then Maryville ripped off a series of quality wins, riding the momentum of a 9-2 wave into conference play. It started with a home-opening double-header against Emory & Henry in which the squad piled up 15 runs, powered by a 6-RBI day from senior Zac Hargett. The Scots pitching staff held the Wasps to a combined total of five runs in the 6-3 and 9-2 sets.
Following that outburst, the Diamond Scots took a three-game home series from Depauw, and defeated regional powers Sewanee, Oglethorpe, and Emory by a combined 24-6 margin. A trip to Rhodes and a return visit to Sewanee both netted quality regional road wins.
Amidst their highly successful early stretch, and again near the midpoint of the season, the Scots were tested by eventual NCAA champ Marietta College, who met them in Memphis on February 26 and hosted them on March 18. In their first meeting, Maryville failed to manufacture a score for one of only two shutout losses on the year. In their second attempt in Marietta, the Scots out-punched the champs with 10 hits to their 9, backed by the heroics of senior Kyle Cyprysiak who went 3-of-4 with a double, a homer and a pair of RBI. However, they lost the lead for the first time in the seventh inning after an infield error helped the Pioneers to six unearned runs, which made up more than the difference in the 8-4 ballgame.
In GSAC conference play, the Scots won two of four series, struggling down the stretch. They took two of three games from transitional conference member Covenant College, which unfortunately was not reflected on their final league record. Maryville then swept rival LaGrange at home April 1-3 to post an official GSAC mark of 3-0.
The Scots traveled to Huntingdon April 8 and pounded them with 13 runs in the first game of the series, winning one game but losing the next two. A brilliant individual offensive effort from sophomore Mikee Moore – going 8-for-14 with six RBI and four runs scored for the weekend – could not sustain the Scots for three games against the Hawks.
To wrap up conference play, Maryville traveled to Demorest, Ga., to meet No. 25 Piedmont College for a three-game swing. The Scots pelted the hosts for 12 hits, but eventually dropped a heart-wrenching 12th inning decision to the Lions. On Saturday, the Scots fell victim to a career performance by Lions’ junior Caleb Cochran, who whiffed 12 batters in a complete game on the mound. Another extra-innings game ensued on Sunday, when Maryville senior Mark Morales closed out a win in the 11th to give the Scots the 4-3 victory over a ranked opponent.
During the 2011 season, Maryville’s program received a national ranking for the third time in recent history, placing 27th in the April 5, 2011, ABCA poll. Their overall season mark of 25-15 was the school’s best since 2002, and the conference record of 5-4 was the best in former head coach Washburn’s tenure. Coach Henry aims to put the Scots back on the national scene with an at-large berth in the NCAA postseason. His goal is for the program to achieve notoriety by perennially qualifying for – and advancing in – the big dance.
“There’s a completely different meaning attached to NCAA play as a player, and as a coach”, Henry says. He remembers his team piling onto the field his senior year, after winning their conference tournament and earning an automatic qualifying spot in the national tournament. “As a coach, it was more enjoyable to see people succeed and experience the emotions stemming from how much the achievement matters.”
In order to accomplish these goals, Coach Henry will improve the mental and physical toughness of the team without trying to change the culture in place. He will get players in shape physically in order to put them in the best possible position to win. In addition, he wants to improve players’ mindsets. Meeting both of these objectives will allow the team to finish games – and the season – after getting off to a great start.
Following the 2011 season, seven Maryville position players received individual honors for their contributions under Coach Henry’s watch. Senior outfielder Zac Hargett brought home an All-Region Gold Glove for his flawless fielding. Myles Cordell, Kyle Cyprysiak, Cory Kopec, and Mikee Moore – four starters who all hit above .300 for the season – received all-conference recognition. Travis Scates was named to the all-conference freshman team for defending home plate and throwing out seven runners while amassing 84 total put-outs. Among position players, junior first baseman Jeremey Goolsby took the only all-conference academic distinction. In addition to Hargett’s perfect fielding percentage, five other Scots’ saw significant time on the field and measured better than 97% fielding, including Cyprysiak, Moore, Blake Gentry, Sam Waltermyer, and Josh Anderson.
Prior to joining the Maryville staff, Coach Henry spent the previous two years as the assistant coach at Penn-State Behrend. Along with Coach Paul Benim, the Behrend Lions reached three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Paul worked primarily with the team’s catchers and the offense. During his time at Behrend, the team led the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference in many stats including: batting average (’09), on-base percentage (’09 and ’10), triples (’09), and runs, hits, RBI’s, walks, and stolen bases all during the 2010 campaign. Additionally, Coach Henry helped develop five first team and nine second team all-conference players as well as a conference pitcher of the year, two conference players of the year and a d3baseball.com first team all-American. While at Behrend, Paul earned a Masters degree in Business Administration.
As he does at Maryville, Coach Henry weighed heavily in the recruiting process at Behrend. During his time Paul helped recruit and train 20 student-athletes that made AMCC academic all-conference including one CoSida ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First-Team selection.
Before his coaching days, Paul was a four-year letter winner at Penn-State Behrend. During his time on the field the Behrend Lions compiled the best record in school history at 116-58-1. Paul worked behind the dish and in the role of designated hitter. In 107 games played he fielded at a .988 clip behind the plate. Paul was a four year member of the academic all-conference team. In each of Henry’s five seasons with the Lions, the program advanced to the AMCC Conference tournament. His team’s played for a pair of league titles and made two appearances in the ECAC Southern Region tournament. As a senior in 2008, he led the program to a 34-12 mark and led the Lions to their first-ever MCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional. Paul received his B.S. in Biology from Behrend in 2008 and minored in Chemistry.
