 |
| Brandon Josselyn pitching during his Yale days. Josselyn was named the Ivy League's pitcher of the year in 2009. Photo by Yale Athletics. |
One pitch at a time.
That’s the philosophy Whitman-Hanson alum Brandon Josselyn is trying to instill in his players as he settles into his new role as the manager of the Duxbury High baseball team.
After previous skipper Gordon Cushing stepped down from the helm of the Dragons, Josselyn applied for the gig and was named his successor in August, and his path to the job is a unique one.
The Hanson native was one of top players ever to grace the diamond at Whitman-Hanson. The right-hander tallied a 9-0 record and posted a 1.10 ERA in 2005 during his senior campaign, finishing his career at 20-4 with a .470 batting average.
Josselyn said one his takeaways from former W-H manager Pat Forbes was how to attack the game from both the mental and physical side.
“I remember more how to compete and to get in the day-to-day stuff and take baseball very seriously from [him],” Josselyn said.
Not only did he star on the baseball field, but it was quite apparent Josselyn would have a leadership role down the road when he was tabbed a captain on the football and indoor track team his senior season.
“It was more of an honor back then,” Josselyn said. “To be recognized by my peers as someone who can be seen in that way is probably something I look back and think highly of the most. It was a nice honor.”
After graduating, Josselyn took the next step heading to Yale to compete at the collegiate level, where he hit his first major speed bump.
“I had mono, I had my wisdom teeth out and I had strep all going into the season,” Josselyn said. “I was supposed to be the starting left fielder and I lost that job, and the kid that came in and replaced me because I had mono was hitting .500 by the time I was cleared to get back in and play, so that was tough.”
However, he would bounce back settling into a niche on the bump, developing a slider-sinker combination en route to being named Ivy League Pitcher of the Year his senior season.
After being drafted by the Seattle Mariners as the second pick in the 25th round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, Josselyn spent two seasons in their organization before deciding it was time to move on.
“Going into my third season, that spring training, you kind of see your name on the list, and every day the list kind of changes,” Josselyn said. “There was one day my name was on the Single-A roster again to go back to Clinton, Iowa. I was already one of the older kids because I was drafted as a senior in college, so I just didn’t see the organization valuing me, and I just thought if I was going to go back to the same level, well that’s three years at this level. I thought I had enough success to move on.”
After a brief stint in investment banking, Josselyn was ready for another change which led to him joining Duxbury as a math teacher in 2013.
“You want to teach them things that they can pick up along the way and things that they can take with them along the way, so there are definitely some parallels,” Josselyn said. “It’s certainty a different philosophy, me in the classroom and me in baseball.”
In 2014, he took over as the girls’ cross country coach at Duxbury in the fall and began managing the freshman baseball team in the spring. Now, he’s ready for the next step.
“I’m a believer in just concentrate and focus on every single pitch,” Josselyn said. “If you’re an outfielder, put yourself in the right position based on the kid’s swing. If you’re a pitcher, whatever pitch the catcher is calling, execute that pitch and that kind of stuff. Let the results fall wherever they’re going to fall, but put yourself in a place to be successful from practice, and from concentration in a game and results will take care of themselves.”
No comments :
Post a Comment