New UT baseball coach Tony Vitello emphasizes leadership

KNOXVILLE - Tony Vitello grew up in a baseball family in the baseball-crazed city of St. Louis and spent a decade playing and coaching the sport at the University of Missouri.

So it's only natural Vitello is using a concept he attributes to former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa as he begins his first head coaching job at Tennessee.

Vitello remembers the Hall of Famer using "leadership councils" on his Cardinals teams. The idea is to indoctrinate a select group of a team's prominent players - about six of them, Vitello said - and have those players model the coach's message to the rest of the team.

The only problem with the idea at Tennessee is Vitello inherited a roster with just two seniors. Of four juniors on the team, only two have played significant innings for the Volunteers. As Vitello begins leading a program that has not been to an NCAA regional since 2005, he will do so with 30 freshmen and sophomores on his 36-player roster.

But before the job in front of him at Tennessee is labeled a "rebuild," Vitello cited the wisdom of another legendary coach.

"Fellow Italian Vince Lombardi threw that word out when he took over the Packers, and obviously that did him well," Vitello said in a recent interview on Sports Radio WNML. "I'm not in that category, but you might as well follow the people that are smart."

The Vitello era of Tennessee baseball begins Feb. 16, when the Vols host Maryland in the opener of a three-game series. Official practices started last week, and what Vitello saw on the field at Lindsey Nelson Stadium gave him another reason to shrug off the "rebuilding" label.

"We have some players," he said. "We've seen it today. There's been some really high-end stuff. We have enough guys to get out there and fight with whatever program, whether they're in the SEC or not. So that's what we need to do."

Tennessee has posted a losing record in Southeastern Conference play each of the 12 seasons since the program's last regional berth, and it would constitute a remarkable turnaround to end that streak against a loaded SEC in 2018, especially with a first-time head coach and such a young roster.

But Vitello has come to Knoxville preaching optimism to a roster constructed almost entirely of former coach Dave Serrano's recruits.

"You've got to have some fun," Vitello said.

There were 13 freshmen (including redshirts) on Tennessee's 2015 roster. Only redshirt junior pitcher Richard Jackson, senior outfielder Brodie Leftridge and senior catcher Benito Santiago remain from that group.

Santiago described the culture change under Vitello as "a complete 360."

"He definitely wanted to change the culture here and put a positive perspective in all our heads," Santiago said.

Leftridge cited Vitello's youth as a factor in the team's embrace of its new coach. Leftridge said Vitello "relates to a lot of us."

"He bring a lot of fun to practice and positivity, and he helps us really develop in the way we play and our strengths and helps us develop our weaknesses as well," Leftridge said.

One example Leftridge offered of a more fun atmosphere involves something as simple as the way outfielders warm up before practice. They mimic wide receivers and cornerbacks to get their legs loose.

Leftridge claims to be the best wide receiver and cornerback on the team. Little things like that get Vitello thinking about yet another professional sports icon he admires.

"We've brought up Joe Maddon and just kind of bringing out the personality of a lot of those Cubs guys when they won the World Series," Vitello said. "You could see it when they played on the field. This is a game where you have to be very comfortable in your own skin."

The seniors, though few, seem to be catching the drift.

"They've learned quickly, and they've kind of taken the baton in a lot of different areas and said to guys, 'This is how we're going to do it,'" Vitello said. "I think that's going to continue to evolve as they get educated by us on what we're looking for."

Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.

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