Sept. 17, 2017
By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. -Before fielding a question, new Auburn softball coach Mickey Dean expressed his admiration for Bo Jackson and introduced his family, beginning and ending his opening remarks with the same two words: War Eagle.
No wonder Director of Athletics Jay Jacobs, who introduced Dean on Sunday, says Mickey is a perfect fit for Auburn.
In his first team meeting Saturday, Dean outlined another quality Auburn people admire. Work, hard work.
"I said the only time we're going to have a problem is if I'm outworking you or you're outworking me," Dean said.
Dean spent time getting to know Auburn's players, asking their hometowns, positions and majors.
"There are two types of culture. Culture by default and culture by design," Dean said. "My responsibility as head coach is to make sure we have the culture we want and that has to be by design.
"I don't think that you can be great in one thing. If you want to be great, then you have to be great in all aspects of your life. Academics, socially, on the field, work ethic."
Dean defined the culture he intends for Auburn's program.
"It starts with three things with our program: trust, love and commitment," he said. "I'm going to have to trust them. They're going to have to trust me. That's where it has to start.
"They just want to play softball. That's all they want to do. They're excited. And we want to take that excitement and run with it."
Known for his success in developing pitchers in his previous jobs at Radford and James Madison, Dean described his pitching philosophy as a departure from pitching to contact.
"My philosophy is strike everyone out," Dean said, drawing laughs. "I can guarantee you if you ask that young lady what she's trying to do every pitch, it's not throw it in there and let somebody hit it. She's trying to throw her best pitch.
"It's just a mindset. They [Auburn's Kaylee Carlson and Makayla Martin] are both great pitchers. We'll come to common ground there."
That process starts Tuesday with Auburn's first practice, which Dean invited fans to attend.
"My practices are always open," Dean said. "I don't hold closed practices. We get enough fans, we can probably start charging a gate fee. How would you like to go out and practice every day with 2,000 or 3,000 people in the stands? That'd be awesome.
"Can you imagine how much more work we're going to get out of those kids and get out of our coaching staff? Come on out."
Dean earned the opportunity to lead Auburn's program by winning nearly 81 percent of his games in five seasons at JMU.
"I get to do this in the SEC," Dean said. "We get to do this together as a family, Auburn family. We get to go out and compete, work, and that's what's exciting about it. The SEC is the top conference in the country.
"I just want to get out there on the field. I want to hit some ground balls. I want to run some bases. Just let them do what they love to do.
"To be here and to have this opportunity, I'm so grateful. The ceiling is unlimited."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer