By David Gibb

For the last eight years, Patrick Anderson worked as a roving instructor in the Kansas City Royals organization. He worked one-on-one with a number of current and surely many future Major League Baseball players, helping them improve their hitting and catching skills. However, after coaching at what he calls the “elite level” for nearly a decade, Anderson returned to the collegiate coaching ranks last August, becoming the 13th head coach in Hofstra baseball history. 

Coaching at Hofstra is a homecoming in a number of ways for Anderson, who coached the Pride as an assistant from 1998 to 2001 before working at the professional level. Anderson’s wife, Larissa, also works in the Hofstra athletic department as the Associate Head Coach of the Pride softball team, making them the first family of Hofstra sports.  Despite admitting that there are some things he will miss about coaching professionals, Coach Anderson described returning to the Pride as “a great opportunity to come back home,” before adding, “It’s going to be a fun challenge.” 

It may indeed seem quite a challenge to bring winning and intensity to a team that has finished a combined 63-101-1 in the past three seasons including an extremely disappointing 29-60 in Colonial Athletic Association play, but Anderson’s baseball strategy and coaching philosophy promise to bring a new, fast-past, exciting style of play to the Pride. “Everything we’re going to do, we’re going to do aggressive,” he says. 

“There’s going to be some people looking at me like I’m crazy when we’re stealing a lot of bases, getting thrown out,” the new coach warned before outlining his new, aggressive strategy for Hofstra baseball. 

“We’re going to put pressure on the defense as much as possible. Pitching-wise we’ve got to be aggressive in the zone, throwing that first pitch over the plate, being aggressive that way, and by swinging the bat,” Coach Anderson said. 

Ideally, this aggressive approach will help the Pride maximize their scoring opportunities on the offensive end by creating opportunities for Hofstra players to take extra bases while also limiting their opponents’ ability to score runs by constantly putting them behind in the count, forcing them to foul off pitches for their lives. 

Given their new coach’s philosophy, it becomes easy to imagine Pride players lighting up the bases as well as the strike zone, playing an incredibly exciting, unique brand of baseball. However, all this base-stealing and run-manufacturing is no reason to believe that the team is not prioritizing solid, fundamental hitting. “I’m a big hitting guy,” Coach Anderson said, an assertion that his resume as a college and professional coach certainly proves without question. 

Anderson also sees getting everybody on the team involved as a priority.

When asked who on the team would have a significant role, he immediately responded “Everyone’s going to be playing; I need every single one of those guys at any point in the game.”

As for those who would see an increased role, he reiterated his team-first position, saying, “Everybody’s going to see an increase with everything they’ve done.” 

With the arrival of Patrick Anderson, it would seem that there is reason for hope over on University Field, as the new coach is confident his team can be exciting and successful. “We want a team effort, and I think we’re going to see it,” Coach Anderson said with a smile.