Baseball coaching staff

[RogerIndy]

I noticed that there is still only one paid assistant coach as of now, Jim Belanger. As I understand it, we are allowed 2. I see that Todd Guilliams is a "volunteer assistant", apparently making little to no money. My understanding is that those positions were for younger coaches just starting out. Why would Guilliams take an unpaid full time position? Are we holding the second paid assistant open for someone who hasn't been announced yet?

 

[Derek Terry]

Roland Fanning is the other paid assistant.

 

[RogerIndy]

Roland Fanning is the other paid assistant.

I see that now, but I am still curious as to what motivates a man with Guilliams's experience to take an unpaid position.

 

[Comebakatz3]

My understanding of how the volunteer assistant position works is that they don't get paid for their work with the baseball team in Kentucky however they do get paid to help run camps and things like that and so it's nowhere near what they should be paid but they are getting something.

In terms of Guilliams, it is hard to say what his exact motivation is. However you have to think that getting into the SEC is going to be a huge Resume Builder. My understanding of his resume at the moment is that he is largely worked with smaller schools. So this position may very well via springboard for him to get into some better positions. I'm not exactly sure how old he is but baseball coaches can coach for a really long time and so he probably still has a pretty good life expectancy as a baseball coach.

You also have to remember that Kentucky hasn't really used the volunteer assistant coach as a means to develop younger coaches. We have had the same volunteer assistant coach for a long time. I believe we develop our young coaches through having graduate assistant coaches. For instance Michael Thomas filled that role this year and I believe he worked with the pitchers and catchers. I don't know if it's better or worse to do it this way butt I suppose at least it would provide some stability to your staff and to your recruiting process.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

There has to be something else, he has to have some kind of income from elsewhere. He would not have accepted the position other wise !

 

[Comebakatz3]

There has to be something else, he has to have some kind of income from elsewhere. He would not have accepted the position other wise !

We'll we don't know what his family situation is. Maybe his wife makes plenty of money and so they can rely on her income. I don't know but it's definitely an interesting question.

 

[Bluewest]

So I assume Vor Hoff was not retained?

 

[Comebakatz3]

So I assume Vor Hoff was not retained?

Correct. Not sure where Keith Vorhoff will be going, but he is another example of UK getting an older volunteer assistant. Vorhoff was a volunteer assistant with UK for 9 years. I am not sure why he decided to stick around in that position, but he was very loyal to UK and to Henderson, and I think he is owed a ton of gratitude for that. I have to imagine that having that person there to be an extra coach, one you know you can rely on and one who knows your system is better than a revolving door of young coaching talent. Maybe Guilliams' connections to Kentucky bring him back here. Maybe he's thinking that Fanning will be someone who isn't around all that long and will end up being a head coach soon (if he continues to show that he can be a great recruiter and a hitting coach) and so he believes that he can have an inside position to an assistant coaching job here. A lot of possibilities, but nothing is more than speculation really.

 

[Bluewest]

^Gotcha. Vorhoff seemed like a really good guy. My boys liked to go to the winter clinic. He basically ran the camp which was very organized. Most baseball camps are a joke, but this was done very well. There were a couple drills I wasn't crazy about, otherwise no big deal. Oldest want get much out of it anymore, but for something to do in the middle of winter..... it was great! Thanks for the insight on the coaching assistants.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Correct. Not sure where Keith Vorhoff will be going, but he is another example of UK getting an older volunteer assistant. Vorhoff was a volunteer assistant with UK for 9 years. I am not sure why he decided to stick around in that position, but he was very loyal to UK and to Henderson, and I think he is owed a ton of gratitude for that. I have to imagine that having that person there to be an extra coach, one you know you can rely on and one who knows your system is better than a revolving door of young coaching talent. Maybe Guilliams' connections to Kentucky bring him back here. Maybe he's thinking that Fanning will be someone who isn't around all that long and will end up being a head coach soon (if he continues to show that he can be a great recruiter and a hitting coach) and so he believes that he can have an inside position to an assistant coaching job here. A lot of possibilities, but nothing is more than speculation really.

Amen to the Keith Vorhoff gratitude reply. He was very loyal to UK, and I believe he could probably went elsewhere during that 9 year run, so thanks Coach KV for all you did for the BBN !