Even Through Unprecedented Circumstances, Dan McDonnell Still Leading Louisville Baseball
Dan McDonnell started his Thursday like any other day. The head coach of the Louisville Cardinals baseball team drove down to Jim Patterson Stadium, expecting to stick to his routine and prepare for another weekend of ACC baseball. Notre Dame was coming to town the next day for a three game series, and the Fighting Irish were trending upwards at 11-2 under first year head coach Link Jarrett.
He broke down the three starting pitchers for the Irish, gave his team some additional scouting info on their opposition, then sent his 13-4 Cardinals onto the diamond for practice.
By then, the dominoes had already started to fall.
Just the night before, the Atlantic Coast Conference had already decided to close off the remainder of their men's basketball Tournament to fans because of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. By noon the next day on Mar. 12, the conference had taken a step further and cancelled the remainder of the tournament.
McDonnell was attempting to stick to his routine, but he and even some of his players were still plugged into what was going on beyond the confines of Jim Patterson Stadium.
"I knew when practice started things were starting to happen," McDonnell said. "I knew there were some delays, and I didn’t know if my kids had gotten wind of it. Looking back, I think some of them did because of their attitude that day of practice."
This was only the beginning of what was to come. Over just the span of an hour during the mid-afternoon: the ACC suspended all athletics, then Louisville followed suit, with the NCAA coming to the ultimate decision and cancelling all remaining winter and spring championships, including the College World Series.
"I drove home Thursday night and the season was over," McDonnell said to reporters vis teleconference on Wednesday. "I mean, just bizarre. It's like a bad dream. It's like a movie. You're just stunned."
Coach Mac has dealt with or been around tragic events before. He had experienced the wrath brought by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 when he was still a collegiate player for The Citadel, and he was close enough to view the damage and displacement caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as an assistant at Ole Miss.
But those were just in pockets of the country. This time around, the whole country was affected.
"How do you prepare for something like this?" he said.
McDonnell himself had trouble at first accepting what had just transpired. The competitive side in him had wished that the NCAA had waited to cancel the CWS, but he eventually grew to accept the decision.
"As you take a deep breath and talk to many people throughout college baseball and the athletic world, you realize a championship in June has preparation throughout the year," he said. "People would be preparing now to play in Omaha. Realizing how the situation has changed daily, yeah it was the right decision."
Once he made peace with the reality that the College World Series was no longer happening, he still faced the task of getting his players on board with the decision, as well as guiding them through an extended offseason.
After what would end up being the final organized practice of the season for the team, McDonnell held a meeting briefing his players on what had transpired that afternoon. The next day on Friday, Mar. 13th, the team reconvened once more for another meeting, still clinging to the possibility that baseball could resume.
"I still think in that Friday meeting, there was hope," he said.
However, deep down they knew. College baseball, at least for the rest of the 2019-20 academic year, was officially finished. But even with their season pulled out from under them in the blink of an eye, even with their aspirations of heading to Omaha dashed, McDonnell still preached one of his trademark messages: be professional.
"One of our phrases was 'no self pity' ", he said. "We can't crawl in the corner and feel sorry for ourselves."
"Compared to what?" was also another phrase that Coach Mac used in his meetings with the team, and that people always have it much worse than they have it.
And of course, no Dan McDonnell speech would be complete without "Win the Day".
"I respect how serious [the players take it] and how much effort [they put into it], and it's such a big part of these kids' lives," McDonnell said. "But, we also challenge them that curveballs are a part of life. This is obviously a big curveball. So let's just win the day as our phrase always goes."
In the days that followed, more and more players have started to go home to their families across the state, region and country.
"All the uncertainty, all the rumors, all the things you hear out there. I don't blame [the parents]," McDonnell said. "I would want my son home at some point."
However because of the culture that he and the rest of his coaches have instilled at 3rd & Central, many players initially did not want to leave the city of Louisville. They wanted to be around the program to which they committed and the city that brought them in.
"It was a reminder as to why we built the Flaker Family Pro Locker Room and how much these kids love being around this university, this facility and of course this city," he said. "Whether we're playing another opponent or not. I remind them when you play for us, you're under our care twelve months a year."
Because of the way he, his coaching staff, and the leadership of UofL athletic director Vince Tyra & president Dr. Neeli Bendapudi have prepared his players, he thinks that when everything is said and done, the kids will be alright.
"You're either in a storm, you just got out of a storm or you're about to go in one," he said. "And we're in the middle of a storm right now. But I'd like to think our kids are prepared to handle it as best as they can and come out okay on the other side."
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