Cozart nears 100 wins as baseball team battles for first
By Henry Molski
As Erika Carrubba prepares for the High Point University baseball team to take the field at Charleston Southern on March 23 she spots something down on the field that makes a smile spread across her face.
The Assistant Sports Information Director at HPU spots two men wrestling with each other down by the dugout. Carrubba goes to every baseball game and sees this almost every day. What about this particular tussle makes her smile?
It’s the Panther’s closer, Jaime Schultz wrestling with none other than the head coach himself, Craig Cozart.
“Wrestling,” said Carrubba. “The two were literally just wrestling on the field.”
She finds it peculiar that this still makes her smile. It’s not the first time that she’s seen it happen.
Cozart is always finding a different way to make his coworkers, players, and fans smile. Whether it’s the pregame wrestling or a dugout full of hi-jinks, Cozart finds a way to liven up the clubhouse.
In 2012, High Point is 22-15 and boasts an impressive conference play record of 7-4 early. The team is in the midst conference play with one of their strongest starts in the Cozart era. Why is the focus turned towards Cozart?
With the team’s twenty-second victory of the season on April 13 against Presbyterian College the Panthers sat just a game out of first place in the conference. However, this was also win number 98 for Cozart in his fourth year at High Point. Only two more wins put him at 100.
As Cozart reaches this milestone in his career it may be time to ask what 100 wins really means to the program.
How far has this program come under the watchful eye of Cozart and what lies in store for the rest of 2012 and beyond for the Panthers?
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Coming into 2012, Cozart had achieved more than the High Point program ever had. Only a Division I program since 2000, High Point’s best record in the Big South prior to the Cozart era was 27-31 in the 2008 season.
So when the Panthers posted an inspiring 31-29 winning season in Cozart’s second season, many thought that the Panthers were on a permanent rise in the Big South Conference.
Unfortunately for players and fans alike that was not the case in 2011. The Panthers took a major step backwards and slid far below the .500 mark on the season with a 24-32 record. Injuries were insurmountable as the season came to a disappointing close.
The only way to respond to a season like this was to go out and start 2012 the exact way the Panthers have.
Taking a program that has been in Division I for less than two decades is not an easy feat. Fans that dream of deep NCAA runs must take a breath as the baseball team works out its present destiny.
“This is not a three or four year process,” said Cozart. “This is something that takes eight to 10 years.”
To prove that the eight to 10 year program was, indeed, headed in the right direction to fans 2012 would have to go much better than 2011. The Panthers would need much bigger results to prove something for the head coach.
Amazingly enough, the men’s baseball team is off to a blistering start in 2012. With the twentieth win of the season this spring, the Panthers had reached the mark in just 31 games. This was a Panther Division I record.
Thanks to the help of Cozart, the team is upbeat, positive and only a game out of first in the Big South Conference.
Cozart now has the Panthers on pace for their second winning season in three years. Winning seasons didn’t exist prior to Cozart, let alone come within two years of each other.
Clearly, the coach has some sort of effect on the players.
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When the daily lineup is posted in the clubhouse, most teams will take a quick look at it and trot onto the field without thinking anything more.
On game day at High Point, it’s like reading the daily comics from Cozart.
“Someone has a different nickname just about every week,” said senior left-handed relief pitcher Nick Schumacher. “Right now I’m Uncle Schu, but next week it could be back to Grandpa Schu.”
Cozart fills out his lineup card using nicknames. This is just one of the many ways to keep the tone light and untroubled.
There is good reason behind this, too.
“This is a team that plays the best when they are the most carefree,” said Cozart on more than one occasion this season. “ These guys simply don’t play as well when they are tense.”
On March 30 through April 1 the Panthers played a string of their best three games some fans have ever seen. Not coincidentally, the team was having a blast in the dugout and on the field.
The result was a three game sweep of VMI. With this, the Panthers earned their second series sweep in a young 2012. Before 2012, High Point did not even own a series win against the Keydets since 2006.
The team was having so much fun come Sunday’s tilt that Schultz and assistant coach Jamie Serber were belting out country tunes throughout the whole pregame. It was a real sing-off.
“Coach Cozart is a man that believes in his players,” said Serber. “He has thrown a pitcher on two-days rest in the conference tournament and won simply because he believed in him.”
After this sweep of the formidable Keydets Cozart was able to speak with high hopes about the future of High Point.
“This is a program that I see as a perennial in the NCAA tournament,” said Cozart. “What it all comes down to is the ability of my players though.”
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Cozart has accumulated the talent well in 2012 to make a run for a conference title and a shot at the NCAA tournament.
Collegiate Baseball ranked High Point’s 2012 recruiting class among the best in the country and two players on the team turned down major league offers to join the Panthers.
“We feel like Dr. Qubein has put in the resources that we need to claim our first ever Big South Championship,” said Cozart. “My short time at High Point has been inspirational and one of the most gratifying experiences I’ve ever had.”
Luckily for the fans, however, Cozart remains unfulfilled. He didn’t come here for feel good stories and a winning season here and there.
“I came to win championships,” said Cozart.
Even when asked what his crowning achievement will be following win number 100 at High Point, Cozart claimed he didn’t have one.
“The best is yet to come,” said Cozart. “Even after a conference championship we will continue to push for more.”
The Big South Conference is no slouch in 2012 either. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are ranked number 30 in the country and they don’t even hold the conference lead.
For now, High Point sits right behind Liberty and even with Campbell in a conference that is crowded at the top.
Coach Cozart is locked in a heated battle for first place, which diminishes the value of 100 wins at High Point University in his mind.
“A lot of people put so much emphasis on the century mark,” said Cozart. “I don’t really get caught up in those numbers. I’m just here to win games.”
Even though 100 wins at this program is a big milestone, High Point is more importantly focused on their heated battle for first.
The importance of games continues to rise and Cozart will need to remain focused on the team to get them a championship.
When Cozart eventually wins game number 100 it will be a happy moment in his career without certainty. However, it is evident that the sooner it comes for him, the sweeter it will be.
Will the win be in the middle of a season in which the Panthers make an early exit in the Big South Tournament? Or better yet, will the win come in the midst of a streak that propels this team to its first NCAA tournament?
Only time will tell if Cozart’s Panthers will provide him with his real dream – a trip to Omaha.