Everything From Georgia Tech Head Coach James Ramsey's Introductory Press Conference

It was a big day for Georgia Tech baseball.

The torch was officially passed today from legendary head coach Danny Hall to new head coach James Ramsey, who was previously the associate head coach under Hall. Ramsey was introduced today and here is everything that he had to say:

Opening Statement

"On behalf of my family, wife, Grace, kids, Brogan and Reese, we want to be able to thank first and foremost President Cabrera, the GTAA Board of Trustees, and the guy to my left, Jon Palumbo, for this incredible opportunity. We're truly, as a family, honored to be here. I want to start off also by saying there's too many of you here that are currently in this room and that are beyond for me to thank. I think a lot of you know who you are. It's been really, really humbling getting all the messages over the last couple days of congratulations. But, you know, I'd be remiss for the only other family that deserves the highest praise here, and that's Coach Hall, Kara and the boys, for bringing us here to GT. None of this happens without you guys, and the mentorship is just beginning on this journey, DH. So, vd you I'm going to read a couple of things probably more just to keep it all together, but GT is a uniquely special place to our family. It's made up of a lot of incredible people, which includes aligned leadership, generous boosters and supporters, a re -energized, honestly fan -based thanks first and foremost to the football program and the Georgia Tech alum we have as our head coach, Coach Brent Key. Thank you for leading from the front and a truly elite group of students here on campus that I've gotten a chance to know over the years through our players, through student managers and all of them really do embody the we can do that mentality as we go out from this place. You know I know Jon mentioned we've invested a lot in this place and we're just getting started. Grace and the kids you know we're in this together and the work that Grace you put in on a day -to -day doesn't get acknowledged on the scoreboard or at a press conference, but the sacrifice of raising two kids in this lifestyle and the unwavering belief you've had in me personally and the support you give us every day never goes unnoticed, so I love you guys.

All you need to do is ask the players, their families or recruits on a visit, family matters to my family. The way that they're gonna be alongside during this journey and and includes Brogan learning all the various double celebrations and the ones that are appropriate and the ones that he needs to keep in the clubhouse. (audience laughing) you know, they're alongside for the ride and it's been incredible for them to do this with us. I mentioned family and being from Atlanta. My mom and dad, Marion Craig are here today. My siblings, Craig Jr. is wife, Alex. Daughter, Willa are not here, but my GT alum, brother, Patrick and my or Barrett we were raised in a connected household where you were told to reach your God -given potential authentic relationships matter and as many recruits have heard me and their parents tell them I learned this from my dad who ran the Accenture office across the street you have to under promise and over deliver and so being 15 minutes away from both of our kids grandparents Woody and Joyce Nell GT alums that are here it matters to us so So, family is a huge part. Back in 2007, 2008, I had a chance to commit and go play for the legendary Mike Martin, whose wife Carol reached out over the last couple of days. 11 taught me how to play the game and ultimately all about developing as a player and a leader in the reason I'm a college coach today. My senior year turning down a substantial amount of money to go play professionally shaped my life. Finishing that season in Omaha, the accolades aside, it was about the relationships with my teammates that I knew no dollar amount could amount to. Seven seasons in professional baseball, traded around, going through a lot of different things and five organizations between the Cardinals, the Indians, the Dodgers, the Mariners and the Twins. You know, I learned a lot of lessons, played alongside a lot of the superstars you see on TV today, and learned about making tough decisions. And now, as we're equipped, I've played for small market teams, big market teams, seen the way that their front offices and their big league coaching staff has to assemble rosters.

You know, it's equipped me now more than I knew as a player getting into coaching. I've been really fortunate to play for two of the best college baseball coaches, or I'd argue just NCAA coaches of all time, in Mike Martin and Danny Hall. When I was on staff with Mike Martin during his final season, getting a phone call from Danny Hall to come coach at Georgia Tech is the one job I would have left for and didn't take it lightly. Over 3 ,400 wins, countless Omaha appearances, they're two of the greatest of all time but it's because of their character and how they treat the staff that coaches for them, the players that play for them, and overall the things that they've poured into me about being more than a baseball coach. Kind of turning the page to the present, first couple things as John and I discussed, the two priorities go hand in hand. It was retaining a championship roster that we currently have.

The one thing Matt (Taylor) does do is drive a hard bargain, and he said, "I'm not coming unless I have Jason Richmond as a director of pitching to come with me." So those of you guys that know Rich, he kind of oversees quality control of a lot of what we do, has a tireless work ethic, and has been instrumental in helping our analytics team get up to par here at Georgia Tech, because once again, we can do that. Josh and I have ran across each other just professionally. He's coached in all corners of the country for little to no salaries. He's grinded. He's been a pitching coach. He's learned from one of the best in -field mentors in all of baseball, and he's one of the best up -and -coming coaching minds in our sport. Scott Stricklin will be returning to be on the coaching staff after having multiple Omaha runs as an assistant coach and a head coach. He's got 18 years of head coach on my staff as I navigate being a first time head coach, not shying away from that, but also learning the lessons from others that it takes to be a first time head coach. I'm gonna rely heavily on Strick and I honestly feel blessed that to be in a situation to have someone of his resume, his character, character it's more than I could ever plan for and having someone at my right hand. Trey Younger was on staff last year, former player that spearheads kind of some of the internal and external things for us, an MLB team tried to hire him last year and they asked me what I thought of Trey so I thought it was important to just say I don't know what he's going to do in 10 years from now but I can promise you if you hire himyou're getting an independent thinker and you're getting immediately began, you know, working alongside me, always tells me what I need to hear, absolutely not what I want to hear at times. So this staff is important. All the other assistants have been recruiting coordinators before, so our recruiting efforts that we've done in the past weren't done alone, and they're gonna continue. There's 27 seasons of professional baseball experience on our staff. So when recruits and their families have dreams of suiting up in an MLB uniform. Our staff has as much experience as anybody to help them get there. We have a lot of trust in each other.

We cross the aisle a lot as a staff and our players I know are lucky to have this group of men helping lead them. We also have an elite support staff. I'm not going to name them all right now but our players once again from every level that they touch here at Georgia Tech, from the classroom and beyond, they are given everything they need to be championship players. Where do we go in the future? So just to be clear, our roster is going to have a high school focus. We're going to use the portal as a supplement when needed. We've done a fantastic job of bringing players in that have had successful careers or not a lot of success. We've used technology and our scouting acumen to say we think this player could become a great player here. One of the most important things to know as the last two years, we've led Power 4 Baseball in the most amount of freshmen played. So recruits are seeing that, they're continuing to buy in, and we will continue to see more impactful commitments come our way in the coming days. Culture is important to us. And having a stable culture of players that come here, that buy into a vision, that stay here to see it through, and that realize they have unfinished business left, it takes time. Baseball is all about chemistry, and if we want to go where we want to go, we need to make sure that we are continuing to place players want to buy into. Coaching staff gets them better, and they know that we have their backs. The 2026 team, as John mentioned, it can be as good as the players want to be. They've heard us preach that to them. Georgia Tech right now, I think, is as attractive a place to be on both sides of the ball as it's been in a really long time. We're making a lot of momentum on the recruiting trail as we've continued to do, and we've been very honest that in order to win a championship based on a lot of the games you saw last night, it has to start with pitching and defense.

Now kind of on to a little of the things that a lot of you know well about me, but I kind of use the recycling analogy of these things all feed into each other about the vision for the future. We have to attract the best of the best and they have to be the right fit and we're gonna do it the tech way in recruiting we have to model it. We have to have players on our roster that we can tell a high school player or portal player You can be the next fill in the blank we have too many of those players that I could list right now that have been underachieving guys out of the portal have been overachieving players that other schools would pass on maybe because of something they weren't able to do but we're gonna hustle and continue to hustle on the recruiting trail. We're gonna be I think the most valued place in this region that high school coaches, travel coaches, advisors can trust that we'readding value and they want the next guy to send to us. The last thing I did mention is does he fit? This place is not for everyone. There's definitely hurdles we have, but the high achievers that want to win on the diamond and want to win beyond the diamond absolutely know that tech is a place they can come. We have to develop them. It's the second piece. We've got to work alongside the players. I think that's the one thing in today's area we've been really successful with. It's not a one -size -fits -all approach between any side of the ball you look to. We're going to find what a player does well. We're going to enhance their strengths. We're going to allow them to voice their opinion on what they want out of their development process and the staff is going to lead the way with that, giving them everything they need. We are Georgia Tech. We've got to use technology. That allows us a lot of things. It means making more informed decisions on recruits. It means shortening the learning curve when a player gets here to make them ready to play like we've done with a lot of freshmen and it creates collective buy -in amongst players and staff to know we're all accountable in this process to getting better. Lastly, we've got to win. The standard I have is to have this program be an Omaha and to win a national championship. People need to hear that. It's not something that we're going to shy away from.

We're going to have success in the classroom as we've continued to exhibit in the past. We're going to have a great culture and players have to be comfortable knowing they have a house here forever and they need to know that they are the ones that ultimately are the best billboard we have. Lastly, there's 16 other sports teams here at Georgia Tech. I want to share in the winning I want to be a team that is looked at in this community as being supportive, literally at games and sharing in the championships. I want it to be somewhere where people can share in our success. Across any sport, across the rest of this campus, we're in a great area in the city of Atlanta and I do know that we're seeing more and more kids on the recruiting trail on their own walk around in Georgia Tech baseball shirts. And that's a credit to the players that we have here. So, the Omaha expectations, It has to be focused on the process, but Omaha can't seem to be a place that seems too distant for us. Omaha is right here in front of us. Winning a national title is attainable, but it's going to take all of us. So I look forward to working with a lot of you guys along the way. Like I said, just to tie a loop on this whole thing, our family is super excited about being here, and we look forward to a lot of successful years ahead. Thank you.

1. On the new house settlement and how it affects baseball ...

Interim AD Jon Palumbo: "I'll jump in first. So we've been preparing for the house settlement for over a year and we have a really good plan that we feel very confident about moving forward. Coach and I have talked a lot about that plan, specific to baseball. I'm not going to share specific details today, but just suffice to say, we've been very thoughtful about our plan across the board. And baseball is no exception. And we've been very, I think, transparent in the direction we're headed with our program. And we believe that we have the resources to compete at a national level and will continue to do that just like Georgia Tech always has."

Ramsey: "Yeah, I don't think I have a whole lot more to add other than, you know, you're looking at a guy right here that has a lot of college baseball experience. Our administration was in the room, I think, in the most important meetings that were taking place with all these shifts, and we were meeting last fall. We were meeting in the winter. We were meeting in the were looking at I think especially when it looks at baseball and the aspirations we have with this current roster You know, I felt nothing but unwavering support from the top down and Georgia Tech baseball is a place It's had a traditional winning and you know for Coach Hall in his last press conference to speak on that I think sends waves out to the people I've heard from that are going to be behind us every step of the way."

2. On his reaction to being named head coach...

"Yeah, I think, you know, you can always plan for it. But, you know, I think that it was just a great day for the current guys on the team and the staff, like being able to deliver the news to them that we're keeping this thing together and they were going to be able to chase the championship, I think was exciting. I mentioned, I mentioned it the other day, it's hearing from the people from maybe it's professional baseball days, maybe it's from being a high school player here in the state of Georgia. I think people have a lot of positive momentum about what we're doing, and so I think that I don't take it lightly too to be sitting in this chair that a lot of people would be wanting to be sitting in. I think that, like we talked about, it's a great partnership going forward, and the news just being broken. I think it was a lot of years of work of putting in and it was a lot of intentional conversations about bringing recruits here and then buying into the vision that we had. I'm excited for them. Most of all, they get a chance to be part of something special next year and we're all looking forward to that opportunity."

3. On what he learned from Danny Hall during his time as an assistant...

"Yeah, I think it's a great question. I mean, I think when you work for legends, I think the one thing that, you know, it's consistency, right? And I think none of these legendary coaches get where they are without having really good people around them. You know, I've been able to tell stories and recruiting about guys that line these walls and just the graphics of times that Coach Hall stuck with them, times that maybe in their career where they weren't living up to expectation and that's the one thing that I think you know he does trust his assistants and that's something that I'm gonna you know want to pride myself on doing as well of giving them opportunities and empower them to take on things that maybe I wanted done the way I want them done but to let them fail I think it comes down to just like the player management piece is if they feel they feel like the head coach has their back. There's nothing that you can't ask them to do that they're not gonna follow in. And I think more than anything, I think it's just the way that, like I said, he took a chance on me that had no previous college coaching experience. Within a short amount of time, thanks to his wife and boys that knew me well enough is to say, "Hey, in my gut, this is the right decision. "I'm not worried about the optics of it." And I think along the know we've worked alongside each other to once again try to bring these coaches on board and we were a really good tag team in recruiting so don't think you won't get pulled back into you know so occasional meetings to let a player know the place they need to attend the next three or four years."

4. On if Omaha is an attainable goal for this team next year...

"Yeah, I do. I think we had an Omaha Caliber team this year. I think that as a coach, you go through false scrimmages. And like I like to tell a lot of my peers, when they congratulated us on getting such a young group to play well, or whether it was seeing Randy and Pat at a football or basketball game and they asked for updates on it, I said, well, it's a talented young group. So there's days that I think they can play with anyone in the country, and there's days that none of them know how to get their lead, and they don't know how many outs there are, and they don't know how to back up bases, and they really show their youth. I think that's something that they did a really good job of playing over the course of the season. I think it's encouraging our post -season interviews went about as seamless as they could in a portal era. I fully recognize that we're until the portal closes, you know, I look forward to, through social media outlets, through players being able to voice their opinions about what we're building, but I mean it when I say it, there are best recruiting coordinators on the trail, you know, I think they can speak to the genuine effort that we've placed in to make sure they get where they need to go, and then I think about expectations like this group, there's gonna be unique challenges, there's gonna be probably as much expectation as there has been on a team in a while, but trust that with a better leadership core than we have just in types of the human beings They've won every trophy in their prep careers that there are to win. They won a trophy this year against a team that you know is having a chance to go to Omaha today They beat another team here in a must -win series coming down the stretch that just punched their ticket to Omaha So I absolutely think that I'm comfortable, you know putting an Omaha tag on this team I think once again like I mentioned earlier, it's not something we can shy away from it's what the players want and so I think it's more so telling them you guys want this but this is what it takes to be there and having gone to that place and played in that stadium we've got to prepare our team to win a regional I think that's the most important thing we have to do and there's certain things we have to do on our roster to do that I think winning series has been a strong suit that we've done as much as anyone is playing must -win baseball maybe opening weekend, maybe it was on the road at Stanford, maybe it was Cal here. We got our guys to buy in to play must win baseball in a three game series. And then ultimately once you get to college, the college world series, anything can happen and so I'm excited to see where this team takes us."

5. On the support he has gotten from former players and coaches...

"Yeah, I think the process played out about as well as it could have. I think that's a tribute to all the people that are in this room right now. As a coach, as a coach that wants to be a head coach and wants to go through the process, there's definitely times where, hey, you want guarantees. The thing I've learned through this season is, going out and earning it is that much better. And I think that's something that you can always pass along to the assistants on our staff when they want to be a head coach one day or they want to continue to get elevated in titles. They're going out and earning it and backing it up. I love to tell our players that you can't beg, you can't earn, you can't ask for respect. You've got to go earn it on the field. I think that's the thing that when we earn the respect, I think there's nothing more gratifying than being able to take that trophy at Duke outside the field and take it back to Atlanta."

6. On high school recruiting being the focus for his program...

"Yeah, I think it's become something that, you know, once again that teams are able to look at players and project them better, the physicality is better than it has before. I think in our league, which, you know, I didn't speak on the ACC as much as I wanted to earlier having heard from Commissioner Phillips, and just knowing that this league has been made up of a lot of great coaches and great players that, you know, night in and night out in the MLB you can watch, I think that appeals to people, but nobody wants to sit the bench. And I think all these kids that come in, I think they're continuing to see track records of teams across our league or teams across the country is if you don't play freshman, you don't have a chance to really build it from within and I think if you look at the championship rosters that are about to compete for one, the hit rate on bringing in all new players is not very high and it's embedded in this place's DNA as well. We have to get people that want to be here and want to stay here. I think that's the only way that we can build it at Georgia Tech and compete with the top programs."