By Andy Loigu

Ever since the legendary days of Chot Morrison and John Goles, Warren County sports fans have enjoyed watching teams guided by memorable longtime mentors like Jack Sweet of North Warren and Gary Thomas of Hackettstown at the soccer fields, Bob Lockhart of Warren Hills at the football stadia and Joe Steinhardt of the Streaks on the baseball fields.

These coaches earned the everlasting respect and friendship of the young men who played for them.

Don’t look now, but Gary Poyer has been coaching the Hackettstown Tigers’ baseball teams since 2001, making him the newest member of Warren County’s 20-year coaching club.

Nobody is going to find him resting on his laurels.

“As the game evolves, so does information and how we find that information more quickly,” he said, reflecting on the fact that data and analytics have drastically changed the way coaches strategize and prepare for their seasons and from game to game. “I realize that a coach has to evolve with the game or that coach will end up like all things that don’t evolve, extinct.”

Poyer said he has regularly attended coaching clinics through the years, but noted, “today the flow of information through websites like YouTube and Twitter makes for quicker access.”

Going back to the beginning, at age 22, he remembered that his first season was “baptism by fire.” He did not have a mentor with him in the dugout and had to rely on players who were not at bat or running the bases to coach at first base. “I believe there was more guessing when I started and now I can take more calculated risks,” he observed.

Poyer said he’s happy to have found some supportive and knowledgeable coaches after his rocky start. For 19 years he’s had Ryan Scheifler as a wise coaching partner and then Matt Feci for 13 years and recent players Ryan Tatarka and Frank Feci.

“There are no words to describe how valuable these gentlemen have been to the baseball program,” Poyer said. “Having the ability to discuss situations and lineups and getting different points of view have been a huge factor in the team’s success.” There is no such thing as being too prepared and a smart coach is always open to new information.

Poyer said the challenge of the most magnitude he’s faced as a coach came with the onset of the COVID pandemic just as the 2020 season was about to commence.

“It (the cancellation of the regular season and the closing of in-classroom instruction) took the youngsters away from their relationships with classmates and teammates,” he said. “It brought on isolation and depression. Teenagers are particularly vulnerable.”

He noted, “We participated in the last dance tournament (put together by coaches in the summer) which was a small consolation prize. The baseball program used google classroom to stay in contact with the boys. We lost the season but we were able to keep the relationships.”

In the spring of 2021, everyone was wearing masks and keeping distance as much as possible and Poyer saw active baseball participation as a mental break for the players “from the constant mental stress of COVID.”

As a program, the Tigers made a commitment to NOT make any excuses and not be a team that says “can’t.” We became a “can” team and “can” individuals,” he said.

Those remarks brought back memories of being in the 1974 Philadelphia Phillies’ locker room when they adopted “yes, we can” as their slogan after two straight last-place seasons. They became a contender and won the National League East championship three of the next five years. Their clubhouse became a happy place to visit.

Poyer said it made him happy to see how well his players grew and gained confidence through the adversity imposed on them by the pandemic.

In the big picture, Poyer still believes it takes outworking the opponent to be successful in baseball, hitting those fungoes to the fielders and taking those swings in the cage, but that insight and knowledge beyond what used to be sufficient is key in today’s world. Winning is not accidental and neither is losing. He has learned that a good coach is the one who can decipher the underlying reasons behind wins and losses and work both harder and smarter. That means using modern computer programs for more than just playing each guy’s “walk-up music” when he steps to the plate.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.