Under The Gun: Jerry Edwards

Date: January 3, 2019

We are so excited to have you share with us today in our Under the Gun segment.  Tell us a little about how you got into coaching college baseball and where have you spent some time in your journey.

I started at North Carolina Wesleyan College. I was coaching and teaching at a private High School, with Billy Godwin, area scout for the NY Yankees. He was the Head Coach and Head Master, he decided to leave and I started looking at other opportunities. I needed to finish my degree, and I had worked some camps at NCWC. So I approached Coach Fox to see if he would be open to me being on staff as I finished me degree. Lucky for me he was open to the idea, he let me work with the pitchers and be involved with other duties. That’s what put me on my way in college coaching. I’ve coached every level of college except NAIA. I’ve been in South Carolina with Lander University, Tennessee with Hiwassee College, Kentucky with Eastern Kentucky University (twice) and North Carolina with Louisburg College and currently with UNC-Greensboro.

Who have been some major influences to you as your have developed as a college coach?

Billy Godwin really helped me set my path in coaching in general. Jim Ward who gave me my first Division I job at Eastern Kentucky University. Link Jarrett has been a great guy to work for and it’s help me over the last seven years.

What is the most important message you preach to your pitchers at UNCG?

One Pitch at a time and control what you can control. I want our guys to be aggressive and compete. If you compete and go do your job and not worry about everybody else’s job, you have a chance to be successful.

As you enter your 7th season at UNCG as the pitching coach, what has been the key ingredient for success for the baseball program?

We have done a good job of identify guys who fit how we want to play and we have developed them. When we got here, we had guys who played baseball, we didn’t have baseball players. We have been able to get guys who when they wake up in the morning, the first thing they want to do, is get better at baseball.

Having a son that’s now pitching in Division I, what are some skills you were able to impress upon him when he was  younger that contributed to his development?

When he first started, I emphasized to him to always throw the ball as hard as he could. I wanted him to learn to throw first, not learn to pitch. If you don’t know how to throw, you will never be able to pitch. It was always about intent, always have the intent to throw as hard as you can. That way he learned to throw and learned to throw naturally. I wanted him to concentrate on the process of throwing, not the outcome.

Who’s the best pitcher you have coached & what sets him apart?

That’s a tough one!! I’ve coached a lot of good pitchers and they were all different and they all had qualities that set them apart from each other. But the main thing they all had, they all competed their ass off! They all wanted the ball and wanted to beat the guy in the box. Stuff wise, Matt Little was probably my best, he played for me at Louisburg, then went to Kentucky and played a couple years with the Tigers. Command wise it would probably be Jack Maynard, who just graduated from UNCG and was drafted by the White Sox.

If you send a message to all the youth pitchers and youth coaches working with them, what would it be?

Teach kids to throw first!! It’s about development, they can learn to pitch as they get older. Teach them to throw with intent, the feel will come as the grow and develop. If kids are consumed with where it’s going, it takes away from being a natural thrower. They learn to aim and not throw. Throwing is a learned skill, and kids need to learn to throw and be taught to pitch.

Thanks so much for your time Coach.  We look forward to seeing the you & the Spartans take on the 2019 season!  Best of luck!