From Brandeis University Athletics
On April 7, junior Sam Miller, a right-handed starting pitcher from Sudbury, Mass., tossed a complete-game three-hitter to give the Brandeis baseball team a 7-2 win over visiting Worcester State University. Not only did the Judges pick up their first home win of the season, they brought head coach Pete Varney to a new milestone in his career – 700 victories.
No one has coached a single team to more victories at Brandeis than Varney, who is in his 34th year as the Judges' skipper. He is the 13th active Division III coach (and 29th overall) to reach the plateau. Only four of those on the all-time list are from New England. Ask Varney about wins and losses, and he typically responds with a self-deprecating answer: his players earned the wins, but he took the losses.
Varney's record for grooming players to become head baseball coaches at the collegiate level is equally impressive. Brandeis doesn't have a sports management program or a physical education major, but Varney currently has five of his former players as head coaches at prominent Division III programs.
- Eric Podbelski '91 (534 wins) has built a program at Wheaton College and is ninth in winning percentage among active Division III coaches
- Michael Connolly '94 (266 wins) has been at Bowdoin College for 15 years and is the winningest coach in Polar Bear history
- Derek Carlson '91 (242 wins) assisted Varney and Podbelski before taking over at Roger Williams in 2002
- Bryan Haley '99 (197 wins) served five years as an assistant at Division I Columbia before getting the head job at Endicott
- Cliff Smith '01 (176 wins) spent four years in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim minor league system, but has been with Elizabethtown College for nearly a decade
Throw in long-time assistant Brian Lambert '98, who has been by Varney's side every year since graduating – except for the two when he was head coach at Nichols College and eliminated the Judges from the 2004 ECAC tournament – and a handful of other assistants, and the legacy of Varney's coaching tree is astounding.
The most important lesson that Coach Varney – a former major-league catcher who spent three seasons with the Chicago White Sox and one with the Atlanta Braves – has passed down has little to do with balls and strikes or hitting the other way; the key to success is mental toughness. Whether it's keeping emotions in check at practice, in the dugout or on the field, the sport is won or lost in your head, according to his former players and assistant coaches.
"The trait that I've tried to emulate is to be even-keeled during games," said Podbelski, a five-time New England Coach of the Year at Wheaton who ranks fourth all-time at Brandeis in wins and innings pitched. "[I] focus on the decisions that need to be made, rather than getting caught up in the moment."
Smith, who ranks seventh on the Judges' career victories list, remembers the lesson from his first collegiate outing against Case Western Reserve. "The exact details of the first few hitters are a bit fuzzy, but I know I hit at least one batter and may have walked a couple of others," Smith recalled. "Coach came out and described his displeasure with me in a loud and detailed manner, expressing that his frustration with me was not in my lack of pitching control, but the lack of control over my emotions.
"Coach Varney took me from a very raw pitcher with potential and crafted me into a fierce competitor who was prepared to compete against any team, in any situation, and succeed," said Haley, the program's career leader in pitching appearances. "I truly believe that Coach Varney is one of the best teachers of the game of baseball, at any level."