It’s not unusual in the world of high school and college baseball to see coaches on staff with their former players. Each and every year, athletes return to their alma maters to take up assistant coaching positions and graduate assistant roles under the leaders who once inspired them. The pattern is typical and somewhat predictable.
What’s rarer is when that phenomenon happens at the national level, where only a select group of coaches from around the country get the chance to mentor the nation’s best talent. That’s exactly what’s happening this week at USA Baseball, however, as longtime Carson-Newman Head Coach Tom Griffin joins forces with former pitcher Steve Cishek at the 16U/17U National Team Development Program. Griffin is managing Team Navy, one of the four teams competing at the National Training Complex, while Cishek, who starred for Carson-Newman for three seasons and pitched 13 years in the Major Leagues, is serving as his pitching coach.
“This is an unbelievable honor,” said Griffin, who is coaching his third straight summer with USA Baseball. “[Cishek] was an outstanding player for us, and we still have a really strong relationship. To be here and spend a week with him on staff, it's tremendous.”
Cishek echoed the sentiment by recounting his reaction to the news:
“I got a message in our Carson-Newman group of all the guys I played with, and it's Griff sending a picture of our [Team Navy] roster. I had no idea that he was doing this again and that I'd be coaching with him. So it was a huge surprise, and I was fired up as soon as I saw it.“
It’s been almost 20 years since the pair last took the diamond together and led the Eagles to the 2007 South Atlantic Conference Tournament championship and a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Cishek was a right-handed pitcher for Carson-Newman at the time with a funky sidearm delivery, and Griffin was in just his second season at the helm of the program. Griffin recalls his first memories of the 6-foot-6 Massachusetts native:
“A good friend of mine, Tom O'Connell, who was the head coach at Princeton University, recommended him to me and said, ‘Sign him. Just sign him.’ He was long and lanky, but there was a lot there.”
Griffin watched for three years as Cishek grew into his body on the Carson-Newman campus in Jefferson City, Tennessee. He remembers an athletic kid whose unique arm angle and competitiveness on the mound made him special. As Cishek continued to grow, his velocity started to climb, and MLB scouts began to take notice.
Cishek, on the other hand, remembers growing as much as a man as he did as a player, thanks to Griffin.
“I bought into his philosophy and his program,” says Cishek. “I didn't know what it truly meant to work hard at what you do, and from the moment we stepped foot on campus, we were at it every single day. I took that into my career, not cutting corners, doing the small things, what he calls the intangibles. I'll carry that for the rest of my life.”
Griffin says he too learned lessons from coaching Cishek:
“[I learned] to be who you are as a coach,” says Griffin. “These kids want discipline. They want to be held accountable. He was one of those guys, a young kid coming up just like anybody else. They slip a little bit with their teammates, and you have to hold them accountable. If they do something wrong, there's a punishment for it. And he's one of those guys that never batted an eye, never complained about it.”
Cishek blossomed under Griffin’s leadership and helped the Eagles win three games in one day to become conference champions in 2007. Shortly after, he became the highest MLB Draft pick in Carson-Newman history when the Florida Marlins selected him in the fifth round.
Flash forward two decades and Cishek is retired from the big leagues with 743 career strikeouts and 133 saves. He also earned a spot on Team USA’s World Baseball Classic squad in 2013, pitching to a 3.86 ERA across four innings. Meanwhile, Griffin has earned almost 800 wins as a college coach and a spot in the Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Now the pair are looking to teach the lessons they have learned from their careers to the next generation, while savoring the opportunity to work together.
“You can tell he’s passionate about coaching,” says Griffin about Cishek. “Yesterday we had a team meeting and had him speak in front of the guys. He was really good. He had a good message. As a coach, I watch how they present it, their eye contact and the voice and all that, and he was spot on. He's got a lot of wisdom, a lot of knowledge. And he's been at a place all the guys want to be.”
Cishek says his old coach is largely the same as he remembers, with perhaps a few differences.
“He's more fun,” Cishek jokes. “He was fun back then, but he's more engaging with the guys, celebrating wins. He understands how hard it is to win games, especially at the college level, and he wants you to realize how important that is, enjoy it, and then the next day get back after it again. He's doing a good job of that with a four-day program here, teaching our Navy team. These guys are loving it.”
Whether Griffin has mellowed with the players or not, he remains tough on his new pitching coach. He joked that “if the pitchers struggle, I may have to ask for another pitching coach. We'll see how he does in his first year.”
For now, Cishek’s job seems secure. Team Navy is 2-0 to start the week, and six of Cishek’s pitchers have enjoyed shutout performances. With the week’s focus on top young talent receiving guidance from the best coaches in the country, he and his former skipper offer one of the best examples of what can happen when the two forces combine.
“He is one of the best developers of athletes I've ever seen,” says Cishek about Griffin. “And you know he cares a lot. I learned a lot about baseball [at Carson-Newman], but I learned a lot more about how to be a man under him than anything else.”
“I want to make sure guys are getting after it on the mound like he likes to see it, because that's going to carry them into their professional careers. And they're all going to have an opportunity for that.”
