Howell Brings A Winning Attitude To Olympic Heights

Casey Furnas brings his big bat back from last year when he hit just under .400.

When Sam Howell returned to coaching baseball last year at Olympic Heights, he immediately noticed why the program was struggling as mightily as it was.

It was clear as day the reason the team had won just three games the previous season. It wasn’t just that the team was losing. It was how it was losing, the way the losses mounted. The players just simply didn’t know how to win, Howell said.

And so began Howell’s mission to show this group of players how you win a ballgame, the attitude it takes, the confidence that must come to achieve that. It was something that wasn’t going to happen quickly. No, this was something that was going to take time to get right. No switch could be flipped, no magic wand waved, no fingers snapped.

“It took us some time to learn how to win,” Howell said. “Our goal was to win double-digit games. Likewise, it’ll be this year. We’re changing the atmosphere, but it’s not going to happen overnight. We have to build the program back up, so it’s going to take a couple of years, like two, three, I don’t know yet, but we’re heading in the right direction. This is going to be the big year as to how we go.”

When Howell came to Olympic Heights, he hadn’t coached baseball in eight years, but the opportunity presented itself and the coach could not resist. Howell felt the team was lacking in fundamentals and made it his mission to teach things such as rundowns, bunts, the hit-and-run. He also had to build up their confidence level and make them believe they can be winners. By the end of the season, the team had 10 wins and a foundation on which to build.

“When they got down, they quit,” Howell said. “They just didn’t understand. We had a couple of different kids who came from a different school, and they played hard, and there was a couple of situations where they slid in hard and our guys went ‘Whoa, what’s going on?’ They learned how to play hard and not to give up. When we got down a few times, we bounced back. Monarch has us down 5-0 and we came back and tied it up and lost in extra innings 6-5.”

The Lions lost a few more more extra-inning games and might have ended up with a winning season had some of those gone their way. But Howell was proud just to see the players compete and give their all.

“If we had played those extra-inning games later in the year, we may have been 15-10 because we lost in 14 innings, 11 innings, nine innings,” Howell said. “At the end of the year, we played everybody tough. That’s what we were asking for, so hopefully this year, we’ll start out right from the get-go playing everybody tough and that’ll be an improvement.”

Miguel Fernandez pitches in last week’s game against district rival Atlantic.

Continuing that progress will be a little harder this year as the Lions are heading into this year missing a handful of seniors, including Conor Archer, John Ricca, Bryan Greff and Sean McClaskie, all of whom hit .370 or better. But the team has several players returning, including senior right-handed pitcher Kenny Landis, senior shortstop/second baseman Casey Furnas, junior outfielder Vincent Scambone and catcher/third baseman Nick Stachnik. Landis threw 31.2 innings and won a few games last year, and Furnas was the top hitter last year, batting just under .400 with 17 runs and 23 RBI.

Furnas is entering his fourth year on the team and is looking forward to seeing the Lions progress under Howell. He remembers how it was before the new coach took over when apathy marked the program.

“We were very, very bad my sophomore and freshman year,” Furnas said. “Coach Howell came last year and he just brought a winning atmosphere, more discipline. We practiced harder. My sophomore year, the coach didn’t care much so none of the players really cared either.”

Landis, too, is going into his fourth year with the team.

“When Howell came, he didn’t accept losing as an answer,” said Landis. “He demanded that we win, he pushed us to our limits and set a good example of what we should and shouldn’t do.”

Scambone was a freshman the year before Howell took over. He, too, remembers the lack of direction and cohesion within the program. He said Howell unified the team when he became coach.

“When Howell first took over, I noticed immediately that he was more organized and he cared a lot more than the previous coach,” Scambone said. “We were fragmented. Everyone was fighting against each other, no control. With that coach here, he didn’t really care much. He was just kind of a coach. He showed up, we played our seven and he left. Whatever happened happened. It didn’t matter to him.”

The team is working to develop some more pitching behind Landis, and Howell said he’s expecting the team to do better in that aspect of the game this year. Jared Spector, who went 3-0 with 20 strikeouts in 24 inning with a 2.33 ERA, is among the pitchers Howell will be counting on, as well as Marcos Pinto and Miguel Fernandez.

Nick Statchnik is among the returning players this year.

“Our pitching’s going to be a lot better,” Howell said. “Last year, we won with smoke and mirrors, two innings here, two innings there. I thought our pitchers last year did a good job. This year, we have some legitimate pitchers. Last year, my first baseman pitched, I pitched my catcher. I had Kenny, who is a legit pitcher, but that was about it. This year, we have some legitimate guys who can pitch. Hopefully they improved from last year and can give us a chance to win.”

Landis is confident he and his fellow teammates will maintain their progress and their stance as a team ready to prove people wrong.

“We want everyone to know we’re not a pushover,” he said. “We don’t just show up to play and we just don’t lose like that. We come out and we’re going to put out an effort and we’re going to make you play your A game, throw your best guys at us and throw your best hitters up at us, and we’ll do our best to do what we can do, and that’s hit the ball and strike people out.”

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