From the dugout with Coach Quinn

(Photo: Sherry Saccoliti)

Head baseball coach Jamie Quinn is now in his sixth season with Devils baseball. Quinn is using his extensive baseball knowledge, including four years spent with the Long Island Ducks — an independent partner team with Major League Baseball, to create a baseball legacy at FDU. In 2022, he helped the Devils bring home an Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament championship. Take a look at what it is like to be on the field with Coach Q.

Where are you from originally?

I am originally from Long Island, New York. I grew up in Bethpage and graduated from Plainedge High School.

What made you decide to coach at the college level?

Coaching was instilled in me at a very young age, as I was an assistant coach for my father, coaching my younger brother’s baseball teams growing up. As I became a student-athlete in college, I started to appreciate and watch how my college coaches went about their preparation and player development. During this stage of my playing career, it made me want to learn more about, and eventually coach at the college level.

What does a typical practice look like for your team?

As baseball has many individual skill sets in a team sport setting, a typical practice begins with our stretch and mobility circuit, followed by mental performance exercises, and then the pitchers and position players split up to do their own segments. Pitchers do their arm care activation, throwing program, daily skill work, followed by any bullpens that are needed to be thrown. Position players, get right into their base running circuit, followed by arm care activation and their throwing program, then into their positional fundamentals. After this time, the pitchers are completed with their progressions and they join the position players for team defense.

Once team defense is completed, we go into our batting practice progression, which includes hitting off pitching machines, and doing different drills in the cages, bunting off machines, and situational hitting on the field. There are a lot of moving parts during our training sessions, while packing in a lot so we can enhance the rate of improvement in our player development.

What do you expect of your student-athletes?

We have standards in our program and everything kind of rotates around the golf term, that we use as the acronym, PAR. PAR stands for punctuality, accountability, and respect. I expect our student-athletes and staff to be punctual, accountable, and have respect in everything that we do; on the field, off the field with support staff, in the community, in the classroom, with their professors. I expect them to hold themselves up to PAR and have a positive impact in the FDU and surrounding communities. On the field, I expect our student-athletes to play the game hard, with respect, and the right way.

During a game what is the energy of your sideline/bench?

During a game we have a lot of energy in the dugout. Our guys bring a lot of energy, effort and enthusiasm. They are loose and excited to have the opportunity to compete at a high level.

Where would be your dream location for your student-athletes to play?

I think a dream location for student-athletes to play would be a Big League stadium. I was fortunate enough to play at Shea Stadium — the former stadium of the New York Mets, in high school. There is just an aura about being in a ballpark that is like a cathedral. Many student-athletes play at Minor League stadiums growing up, but not many get to play in the environment of a Big League stadium.