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JIM'S COACHING RESULTS
I have been extremely blessed to have had phenomenal results throughout my coaching career with athletes in many sports--players having career years, incredible Olympic victories, and national championships… I’ve had the opportunity to work with many great athletes (and coaches) that’ve bought into the system and played from the heart. My first year ever coaching I took over a high school baseball team that had a losing record the previous year, and with most of those same players, we went undefeated, occassionally beating teams that were higher classifications than us. That kicked off my coaching career.
The following year I went to graduate school to study Coaching Science at the University of British Columbia, and while there I started a baseball team (and coached). UBC had not had a team for over thirty years and collegiate baseball in Canada was essentially non-existent (there were 1 or 2 schools playing club ball back East). In a rain-shortened season that first year (in the wettest spring on record), we went undefeated. The team gained momentum, one of my players took over and soon it joined the NAIA, had a first round pick and current major leaguer Jeff Francis, and a whole wave of schools took up baseball around the country.
A few highlights:
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Jim became the hitting coach for the South African national team in their quest to qualify for the 2000 Olympics, getting referred to South Africa by Major League Baseball’s international division. Over a period of five weeks Jim took the team’s “biggest problem” (hitting) and led them to a three game sweep of favored Guam, averaging 12 runs a game in the Olympic Trials. At the Olympic Games this team that supposedly "couldn't hit" had one of the biggest upsets in Olympic baseball history, knocking a Holland team out of the medal round after they had previously beat powerhouses Cuba and Australia. (South Africa's national team was a collection of players who were full-time school teachers, plumbers, and accountants, some married with kids, who played baseball on the weekends.)
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Jim's first performance coaching client, career minor leaguer Bucky Jacobson (eight years bouncing around the minor leagues before working with Jim), pushes aside Seattle Mariner Hall-of-famer Edgar Martinez at first base to become one of the biggest rookie stories of the year.
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In the winter of 2006, the University of British Columbia men's volleyball team was struggling. They had great players but weren't coming together as a team. They contacted Jim and... beat Manitoba the first round of the playoffs, after losing to them in the first round the previous three years in a row. They go on to have their best season in 22 years, despite losing one of their top players in the playoffs. "We couldn't have done this without you." - UBC head coach R. Schick
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A Big 12 baseball player was referred to Jim in the fall of 2006 after hitting .153 his junior year. They spoke on the phone once a week for the full season. He goes on to lead the team in four offensive categories, hitting .332, becoming an all-star. “It’s been one of the most amazing turnarounds I’ve seen in my 29 years in the game. The transformation from a year ago to this year has been remarkable.”- Rich Price, head coach, U of Kansas.
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In 2007 Jim works with the Vanouver Grey Sox, a men's fastpitch team and they win their first national championship in 41 years, Jim's first year with the team. The host team was the favorite, breezing through to the championship game undefeated while Vancouver had three losses, two of them to the host team. A hostile crowd was silenced as the underdog Grey Sox played with poise under pressure with everything on the line.
- In 2008 Jim works with the UBC men's golf team and they go on to be the first Canadian school in NAIA history to win the NAIA national championship. (They also won Canadian championships).
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