We’ve all experienced them. Those moments when the stakes are at an all-time high and we can feel the pressure constricting our souls. They can be overwhelming and unpleasant experiences for sure, but luckily for most of us, that’s all they are – just moments. Give it a few minutes, and life will return to normal.
For athletes, on the other hand, it’s a whole different story. That pressure is something they experience every minute of every day. Think of it like living inside a bubble … that never pops. Those outside the bubble expect those in it to make shots, score goals, or hit the ball every opportunity they get. There is no escape.
No one knows what life inside the bubble is like better than Jeff Hourigan, the Connecticut baseball standout who is entering his 11th season as the hitting coach for the UConn baseball program. He has lived in it his entire life.
“I come from a very athletic family,” Hourigan said. “My dad played baseball at the University of New Haven, my mom and sister are great tennis players, and my brother was an All-State baseball player his junior and senior year of high school. But I never felt pressured. I learned very early on from my parents that if I just brought the energy and tried my best, more often than not, I would like the results.”
To fully appreciate all Hourigan accomplished in baseball, it’s important to understand just how unlikely it was to begin with given where it all started. He was born and raised in Beacon Falls, Conn., a very small manufacturing town of approximately 6,000 people situated roughly 14 miles north of New Haven. Pardon the pun, but Beacon Falls is not exactly known for being a beacon for athletic talent.
Fortunately for Hourigan, he did have someone rather close to him that served as a gauge for which he could measure his own skillsets against. That would be his older brother, Brian, a baseball standout himself, who, at that time, was further developed than Jeff. Without Brian, there is a high probability that Jeff never would have reached the heights he did as a player, which culminated with him being named a Rawlings All-America and Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year in 2001 and competing in the College Baseball World Series in 2002.
Jeff will fully admit that Brian got the best of him the majority of the time in their back-yard baseball battles. Brian was simply bigger, faster and stronger. But still, Jeff didn’t scare easily, especially when it came to America’s pastime. While the wins were few and far between, the games were always close, and that meant something to Jeff. Going toe-to-toe with Brian is where Jeff realized he possessed the “it” factor. He was confident that if he could take Brian to his limits, then there was nobody he couldn’t beat.
“I definitely benefited from the older brother effect,” Hourigan said. “I was always trying to compete against Brian. He was never going to let me win. It really helped me with confidence in a sense because I always felt that when I played against my peers, there was no way they were better than my brother. I mean, you have to have confidence in yourself as a player, otherwise, you can’t be successful if you don’t believe in what you’re doing.”
Brotherly Love
As competitive as Jeff and Brian are – it drives Jeff “absolutely nuts” that he can’t beat Brian in Ping Pong – the two of them have an unbreakable bond. They are practically inseparable, each other’s biggest supporters. The respect they developed for one another growing up ensured there was never any jealousy or animosity between the two.
Want proof? Even though Brian earned All-State honors as a junior at Masuk High School, he knew he probably wouldn’t be the best player on the team the following season. That’s because Jeff was entering
high school. So, when head baseball coach Joe Iannucci came to Brian to ask if he thought Jeff would be able to handle playing at the varsity level, it’s no surprise that Brian responded like Jeff was the second coming of Babe Ruth.
As told by Jeff: “Coach Iannucci went to Brian and said, ‘I heard your brother is pretty good, but do you think he can play varsity as a freshman?’ My brother laughed and basically said, ‘Coach, not only can he play, but he’s going to start, and he’ll probably be one of our best hitters and players.’ Brian has always had my back and his confidence in me allowed me to be confident in myself.”
While Jeff does consider Brian to be the best athlete in the family, that doesn’t mean Brian has Jeff’s number in everything like he may have back then. Ping Pong aside – although Brian is quick to point out Jeff hasn’t beat him in “five, maybe 10 years”; he’s not really sure how long it’s been since it has happened so much that he has lost track – Jeff is very confident he’d get the better of Brian in one particular competition.
If Jeff and Brian ever went head-to-head in a home-run derby, Jeff has no doubt he’d win. For what it’s worth, he also doesn’t think it would be all that close either. And, in what might be the first time in his life that Jeff fully admits he is better than Brian at something, he takes a subtle dig at Brian’s baseball skills.
“I would definitely win,” Jeff said. “I know that because my brother was all about line drives to right-center, but I could turn on a few a little bit more. I don’t know, I guess I have that natural knack to elevate the baseball a little bit more than him, so I’ll take that one.”
All kidding aside, there is nothing that makes Brian happier than Jeff’s success. And vice versa. When his own family and baseball responsibilities permit, Brian doesn’t miss a UConn baseball home game. And Jeff was in the stands in 2013, when Brian, then managing the Oxford High School varsity baseball team, successfully guided the program to its first title in school history.
“Jeff is the most loyal and dedicated person I know,” said Brian, who today is head varsity baseball coach at Masuk. “He will do anything to help his family and he always puts others first. I think this is what makes him a truly great coach. He considers his players and UConn baseball part of his family, so he is relentless with his effort to help everyone in the baseball program succeed.”
Humble Pie
In addition to reaping the benefits of all of the wisdom his brother passed onto him, Jeff also had the good fortune of having two parents who enjoyed their own successful athletic careers. As such, he learned from them some very valuable lessons about the rules of competition. For one, he was taught that failure is a component of baseball, and he needed to be willing to accept that. What’s more, he was instructed to always put the team’s interests ahead of his own.
And beyond that, it was important he understood the differences between confidence and arrogance. Confidence is letting your play do the talking for you – and he did that quite well. Arrogance is feeling the need to remind others how good you are. Whatever success came his way, his parents preached to him the importance of staying grounded and keeping his emotions in check. He got the message.
“I always wanted to show you, not tell you how good I was,” Hourigan said. “I always wanted to leave my opponent wondering what I was thinking and not giving them ammunition for extra motivation. I knew for me if I got caught up in running my mouth, then I was using the wrong emotions and, in my opinion, most athletes can’t handle that type of game.”
Perhaps Hourigan’s greatest attribute of all, however, is his selflessness. From the very first time he put on a uniform, all he ever cared about – outside of winning, of course – was being the best possible teammate. And if he was successful at that, then that meant more to him than any record he might have broken along the way.
“I’d like to think that I was a better teammate than player,” he said. “I mean, if I were to be recognized for anything, I would hope my teammates wouldn’t just talk about how well I did as a player. I’d hope they would remember me as someone who was always committed and gave his best effort every day. You know, someone who just tried to be there for all the guys. I think that would be the most impactful mark that I could leave from my playing days.”
Even though he is one of the most decorated athletes to ever come out of Connecticut, you’d never know it from the way he tells it. He can’t go more than a sentence or two before bringing up the name of a teammate or coach who he feels deserves the credit for everything he has been able to achieve in baseball. His brother. Iannucci. Brian Cavanaugh. Charlie Flanagan. Ralph Franco. Kevin Cyr. Jim Penders. The list goes on and on.
His humble nature won’t come off all that surprising to those who know him. Ask any of his former teammates and they will tell you it’s not an act. For many of them, if Hourigan wasn’t the most skilled athlete they ever encountered on the baseball diamond, he definitely was the most gracious.
“I’ve been told by his past teammates that Coach Hourigan was the best teammate they ever had, and it’s obvious from how he has his players backs now that that was true,” said Chris Winkel, who played under Hourigan at UConn and whose 222 hits rank 13th all-time in program history. “He wants you to succeed more than you want it. That’s the kind of guy he is. Honestly, he’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met.”
The Stonecutter
One of the reasons Hourigan developed such a deep connection with the game of baseball in the first place is because every game, every situation, provided him with an opportunity to get better as a person and player, and now as a coach and father. In some respects, it’s the perfect metaphor for life itself.
Life, like baseball, is full of missed opportunities and second chances. We all swing and miss more times than we care to remember. We may even strike out every now and again. But as long as we learn something from our mistakes, then we will be in a much better position to handle the next curveball that comes our way.
No coach in America is better at putting baseball in perspective than Hourigan. For him, the key to achieving success on the diamond is all about mastering the process, not the outcome. The process – the hard work, the long hours, the extra effort – is what determines the outcome – whether you win or lose, or fail or succeed.
“I use the stonecutter example with our players a lot,” Hourigan said. “It’s by Jacob Riis, and it basically says that a stonecutter is going to be hammering away at the stone and obviously the stone is not going to break on the first blow. When it does break, it wasn’t the final blow that did the job, it was all the ones that came before it. I love it because it helps our players see that even if they fail on the first 20 reps, when they do get that hit in the moment or make that play in the moment, it’s not that play. It’s all that led up to it.”
It’s really incredible the number of players who credit Hourigan as the catalyst for their careers taking off. Take Jack Sundberg for example. Sundberg initially walked on to the UConn baseball team. By the time he left the program, he was an All-Conference player and an MLB draft pick. Being on scholarship, let alone getting drafted, is not something Sundberg ever thought was possible. That is, of course, until he met Hourigan.
“I could not imagine any coach in America that does more for his student-athletes than Coach Hourigan on and off the field,” Sundberg said. “His commitment to his players is unmatched. He helped me grow as a player without question, but more importantly, as a person and a man. He embodies everything about what it means to wear a Hook C across your chest.”
As baseball season gets into full swing, it’s a good reminder that eventually, someone will overtake the records that Hourigan currently holds. And he is fine with that. But one thing they can never surpass Jeff Hourigan in is in reputation. After all, his is already etched in stone.
