“He’s a very personable guy,” Wineski says. “He really cares about his players a lot and shows it often. He’s very down to earth. If you have a problem, you can always go and talk to him. He’s very open.”
Decker left a lot behind in Hartford. In addition to departing a team coming off a conference championship, he left his own son, Kyle, who is a sophomore on the team.
“At the end of the day, it was a family decision with my wife,” Decker says. “I left the family back home temporarily, including [Kyle], so it wasn’t an easy decision. Nonetheless, it was one that I said yes to, and we’re going to take this thing as far as we can go.”
The transition from such sustained success to a Harvard program in flux is a challenge that Decker says he welcomes. He has already exerted his presence on the program and has worked towards instilling a new attitude in the locker room.
“A lot of our time as pitchers is spent doing work, and we don’t really stand around at all,” freshman picher Sean Poppen says. “That’s what pitchers are ‘supposed’ to do, to just stand around and help out, but [with us] there are definitely goals in mind with everything we’re doing every day.”
Following Walsh’s death, Decker was forced to walk a thin line between encouraging continuity and enacting change within a program in a delicate situation.
“Something coach Decker’s done a great job of is recognizing that this is a program that’s been under coach Walsh for a long time,” co-captain Jordan Haviland says. “He’s not coming in trying to replace anything. He’s stressed from day one that we’re going to honor what’s been done here in the past [and] we’re going to build off it.”
Decker certainly has his work cut out for him, as he is dealing with a very young team and competition that is significantly tougher than what he encountered at Trinity. But the coach is not fazed by the prospect of stepping up to Division I baseball.
“Kids are kids, ballplayers are ballplayers, academic institutions are academic institutions,” Decker says. “There are some subtle differences, but the biggest difference for me and one of the reasons I chose to say yes is the fact that [the Ivy League] is not as restrictive as the league that I came from. [At Trinity], I wanted to be on the field, being able to play fall baseball and really invest time on the field, which I didn’t have.”
There are three seniors and ten freshmen on the Crimson squad. The makeup of the team has allowed the coaches to come in and create a new environment, largely from scratch, as they work towards a better future for the program.
“I think it’s been great,” freshman DJ Link says. “The staff is full of great coaches. It was a new slate for everyone and everyone had to go through it, even the older guys, but I feel like the coaches are doing a great job. They’re very personable people, and I think that everyone on the team is buying into their style of coaching.”
Decker’s selection as Harvard coach came together at a time uncommon in the baseball hiring process. Arriving on campus in October, Decker had to quickly assess what he was working with.
“The whole hiring process, due to the untimely death of Joe, happened very, very late,” Decker says. “So my expectations were to come in here and really just look and get a feel for what had happened.”
Harvard has started off the season with a 3-14 record, an improvement over last year’s 1-17 start—but still not up to Decker’s Trinity standards.
“When we get through this season, the 2013 season, we’ll have a true evaluation of where we are as a program,” Decker says. “Not only who we have after practicing and playing for a season but what we need to do to get this program back where it belongs.”
“We’ll get there,” he adds. “It’s going to take everybody, not just the baseball program or people in the athletic administration. It’s everybody. It’s me reaching out to try and make sure that we try to do the right thing for our program, like all the other programs are trying to do, to make Harvard a special place.”