Brian Talbert, Head Coach of the Oyler baseball team, is preparing his players for their first baseball game of the 2022 season. There’s been many cancellations but a game should be right around the corner. 

Mr. Talbert didn’t coach anything until 2018 when he was at Oyler. He played baseball from 4 years old to 24 years old. He played baseball in high school, and in college he played for fun. He also mentored people on how to play baseball. He always wanted to be a baseball coach though. And in 2018 he came to Oyler and joined as a tutor. He overheard kids talking about baseball and asked Mr. Stanley, Oyler’s baseball coach, if he needed help.

Mr. Stanley was the head coach when Mr. Talbert became the co-coach. He helped the kids get organized and made sure they had their equipment. They played their first season, and they won one game and had many games where they came close to winning.

The students struggled because a lot of them had just started playing. They barely had enough to play when COVID hit, but they played. Other teams didn’t have enough players so they only played one game last school year. This year, they might be able to play the whole season. He acts on how they’re struggling.

Mr. Talbert said, “if they show up and they are doing everything I’m saying, but they’re making minor mistakes, I just try to fix them by being positive and motivating and making sure that everyone in the team feels comfortable.” 

“If they are struggling because people are fooling around and goofing off,” Mr. Talbert said, “that’s when I might get mad and make them run.” Or, he might bench a player if they’re not doing what he’s saying. 

Mr. Talbert loves coaching for these reasons:

1. Mr. Talbert absolutely loves baseball and more than half of his life he played baseball. His dad was a really good baseball player so he grew up listening to stories about baseball.
2. Another reason is because of his job, and that’s a way for him to be present. 
3. He said, “baseball is just something really positive and fun and a lot of new students have a lot of great qualities that they don’t know yet.” 
4. His biggest reason for coaching is to connect with students.

Another big reason that he’s a baseball coach is that he’s very passionate about it and meeting new students. Mr. Talbert brings enthusiasm and he tries anything he can to make it fun. He likes to teach students about teamwork skills and hard work too.

Also, baseball allows other really positive things for students to enjoy, like a pizza party or a cookout. One of his hopes is that he has over 12 or 14 student athletes this season, and he would really like to see the team coming together. He doesn’t care how many games he wins, he just cares if the kids are getting along.

Another hope is that he gets a big team – to keep players eligible, you can’t have any Fs.