After 14 years as a member of the coaching staff for the Long Beach State baseball team, six of which as the head coach, Troy Buckley signed a two-year contract extension last Thursday.
The extension ensures Buckley to remain coach of the Dirtbags until 2018.
Throughout his tenure as a coach, Buckley has helped develop 26 players that have made it to the major leagues. Those players include Jered Weaver, Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria and Matt Duffy. As head coach, Buckley has led the Dirtbags to a winning record every season, highlighted by a postseason run in 2014 where they made it to the NCAA Regionals.
The Daily 49er was able to talk with Buckley about his extension and what his expectations are for the upcoming season.
What are your thoughts about your new contract extension?
It’s a great honor. I’m very humble and excited. I give a lot of thanks to President Conoley and Vic Cegles, our Athletic Director, for allowing me to continue to lead the program. I really like where we’re going and I like what we have in place. There’s a lot of exciting things going on: A, with our staff; B, with our team [and] C, With the renovations that we’ve worked extremely hard for the last six years trying to get something going and we finally do. It’s a great opportunity. I’m very fortunate to spend a lot of time here and I really love the program here and I want to spend a lot of time to do the right thing, like we’ve been doing.
You’re 11 wins from becoming the fourth winningest coach in Long Beach history; how does it feel to know you will likely surpass that this season?
I think that’s great, but I think numbers at the end of the day or at the end of your career are something you can enjoy when your career is over. I don’t get too immersed into personal goals like that for myself. I’m really not the one that’s playing anymore. I don’t have a huge impact on the wins and losses. I think the more wins you have it means the longer you’ve been around. There’s something to be said for the longevity and continuity when that happens.
With that being said, what has been your key to success throughout your career?
From an overall philosophy standpoint, I think it would just be working. Working and preparing and being honest. I think those are good ingredients to be a good coach. The knowledge you have is great and the ability to apply it, the ability to organize and motivate, I think is as important as the X’s and O’s. I think it’s about knowing your guys and knowing the pulse of the team, yet creating a culture that is important based off the past here too. I think that’s what we’re working hard to do. We’re looking to blend the success of the past on the field and off the field. There’s a lot of high expectations. We have a good blend of youth and the right returners. I’m looking forward to seeing their journey and maximizing the most they can get out of themselves.
Who are you expecting to have big seasons from the returners and who should we look out as newcomers who may surprise people?
We have two preseason All-Americans in Garrett Hampson, who is well decorated as far as being team USA and playing at the Cape and we also have Chris Matthewson, who was the Big West freshman pitcher of the year and All-American as well. Both those guys are cornerstone guys that you build your program around. Chris is a sophomore and Garrett is a junior, so those are your marquee guys.