Friday afternoon at Hammond, Reservoir baseball coach Adam Leader made county history.
Leader, who’s led the Gators program since the school opened, earned his 300th career win. He became the first baseball coach in Howard County history to reach that mark. He discussed that accomplishment and his coaching journey in the latest edition of Varsity Q&A.
Note: Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
What were your emotions in the immediate moment after clinching win No. 300?
“I got to sit there and watch the final out. You look around, I got my coaches. Coach Dunn was there, who has been my junior varsity coach forever, has been with the program for 17 years. I got three of my former players [Danny O’Hagan, Bradley Davidson and Cameron Hyder] that are now coaching with me. All of the families and my family there, my mom, wife and daughter. Then, my current players and it was awesome. I got a ton of texts Friday night from former players that found out, which was awesome. It was just kind of reminiscing, thinking back to my first win, my first year when I was at Oakland Mills. I got a nice picture of that in my office and then to Friday, it’s been a lot of years and a lot of great, amazing memories.”
What was your vision for the program when you first took over at Reservoir?
“I was always a team guy and always into caring for my players and making sure that I was teaching them more than just baseball and to be great young men. That was always my vision. I can honestly say I never thought I would be a guy that was only going to be around three or four years. I wanted to establish a program and be the guy that was there. I always envied my brother who played football for a guy that was at our high school forever and just cared about people. I thought, that’s exactly what I wanted to do. So, did I think 300 wins? that was definitely not part of the equation. Having the most wins in the county was definitely not part of the equation and I wasn’t counting my wins, didn’t really have an idea. I kind of knew I was in the area but when I found out from Willie Coughlan last year about it. He said, ‘Do you know that you now have the most wins?’ I had no idea, so that was really cool to learn.”
What are the biggest lessons that you’ve learned throughout your coaching career?
“I was definitely a different coach back then. I was a fiery, yelling positively type saying, ‘Let’s do this, rah-rah-rah type guy.’ Now I think I’ve settled myself to be more of a teaching coach and teaching the game the right way. I really love the X’s and O’s and getting the basics right, but also the strategic part of the game. I think it’s an important part for me. I think I’ve learned a lot about learning your players and then creating a plan for how you can do well with the players that you have on your team. If you don’t have a home-run guy, how are you going to score runs? You still need to score runs to win games. Paying attention to your pitchers throughout the week and not just the day that they’re pitching and making sure they’re on a good page. Just creating an atmosphere where guys want to play for their coaches and for each other to me makes guys better. That was a big thing that I learned was creating more of a family atmosphere and being with kids the whole year and being in touch with them. Seeing how they’re doing, going to their summer games and creating that knowledge that I care about them and want them to do well, whether it’s in baseball, a different sport or life in general. To me creating those relationships, I feel like guys will play a lot better for you and will work for you. That’s something I definitely learned.”
When do you feel like you mastered the value of relationship building?
“I finally got grounded to the point where advocating for my players and advocating for baseball in Howard County was a priority for me. I got involved in the Maryland State Association of Baseball Coaches, which I’m now the president of. Going there and advocating for my players to be on the preseason All-State team and that they’re doing great, also, this guy from this school in Howard County. Working in starting to advocate for players really made me love the job even more. I think that’s when it started. I had some special teams early on and I think I had that passion for the players at that point. As I started getting a little deeper into learning more about the county and the state and how that all goes, I feel like that’s kind of when I stepped it up to another notch. Getting involved in other things than just Reservoir baseball, getting involved in the MSABC and getting involved in being a regional director, I think that’s where I started to really love it.”
Outside of the 2014 state championship, what are some of your other favorite coaching memories?
“Obviously my first win, my first team. My first varsity win was at Oakland Mills. We were a junior varsity team the first year, because we didn’t have a varsity team. I remember going to Glenelg for our first game and I asked the guys who had the helmets and we forget the helmets. So I had to send a parent to go get them. Just that organizational part, I said, ‘Oh my god.’ So, now I have a checklist every day of the things that I need to bring. From that just to the players, my first All-State player in Tyler Steele, who went on to play at West Virginia, who also texted me last night and said, ‘I’m going to come to your game Monday because it’s near my house.’ Baseball stuff related, we had 2010 and 2011 where we won back-to-back county championships and went undefeated one of those seasons. We lost in the region championship, but the undefeated regular season was really special. That was another good one.”
Was there anyone who reached out that was most meaningful?
“It warmed my heart that a lot of the Howard County coaches reached out, a lot of the state coaches reached out. Former players whether it was a Facebook post or something like that, a lot of those guys reached out as well. From the first year I coached to now, I just had a lot of parents and players reach out and say, ‘Congratulations’, which is just amazing. The greatest thing is I get that every year. On March 1, I get texts from so many former players that remember March 1 is the first day and say, ‘Have a great year coach.’ Those are the things that are especially memorable and I read those at the first day of tryouts to the players and say, ‘Hey, this guy played in 2010 and this is what he did and he said. Have a hell of a year this year guys, stuff like that, to me is just pretty special.”
What does it mean to you being the first county baseball coach to 300 wins?
“It’s amazing. Even though I’ve been chasing it, it hasn’t really hit me yet. There’s such a good tradition of baseball in Howard County that I’m certainly excited and ecstatic about being the first, hopefully not the last because we have some incredible coaches here. I’m excited, it’s a milestone and I’m excited about it but I had a big game Monday and playoffs starting this week. It’s right back to work. Had a good practice on Saturday and excited to see how long this takes me and how far I can go. Year in and year out, it’s back to the grind and getting these guys ready for the next step. That’s where we are right now and I think when everything’s set and done will probably be the time when I’ll sit back and check out what I’ve done. Hopefully I made some lives better and I tell the guys all the time, ‘I want them to look back at their years at Reservoir high school playing baseball and hopefully it’s a positive thing.”
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