Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/790203
GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 4 78 in recruiting. He sees it as the only way to build back a program that many, prospects and high school coaches in- cluded, rightfully see as in the depths. Since he was hired in June, Wasikowski says he and his staff, including holdover Wally Crancer and pitching coach Steve Holm, a former major league catcher, have been on the road recruiting every day that the NCAA allows. And they're selling Purdue, from its academics to the facilities at Alexander Field to the potential for Big Ten and national success. "We've got the ability to recruit the best athletes here," Wasikowski said, "and now we've got to win the trust with some work ethic and getting after it on the road. That ag- gressive mentality has to start in recruiting first and re- lationship building. That's probably the biggest objective right now." It worked on Grebeck. The son of former major league infielder Craig Grebeck, Austin was being recruited by Wasikowski to Arizona. But that changed in 2011 when the two ran into each other at a summer showcase for top prospects in California. Wasi- kowski, who was wearing a neon yellow Nike Oregon shirt after accepting a job on Horton's staff, asked Grebeck to join him there. And the pull, of the Ducks and of Wasikowski, was strong. "He's very, very much an intense personality, in a pos- itive way," said Horton, who had led Cal State-Fullerton to the '04 national title before taking over at Oregon five years later. "It's not a negative rub-everybody-the-wrong way. He's relentless as a coach, he's relentless as a recruit- er, he's relentless as a planner, but he does that with a manner that everybody kind of gravitates toward. Some- times when someone is as passionate as a coach, it turns people off because they're not operating at that speed. Waz has a tendency to get his players and the people around him to join the intensity part of it, the quality part of it." But at Pepperdine, Lopez didn't necessarily see coach- ing as part of Wasikowski's future. Neither did Wasikowski. After graduating with a degree in business, he wanted to give Wall Street a chance, feeling that the fast-paced high-risk, high-reward atmosphere would fit his person- ality. And maybe it would have. But Wasikowski couldn't see himself sitting in an office either, so he left his first job after "literally two hours" and headed back to the baseball field. He started as a high school assistant, and loved it, be- fore being hired on at SEMO, where he spent two seasons before rejoining Lopez at Florida. "When he started working for me at Florida, I saw some traits in him. He was teachable. He had a real good under- standing of the game, and what I mean is that everybody wants to win, but not everybody knows how to win. There's a huge difference," Lopez said. "There's not a coach in America who doesn't take a job and say, 'I want to win.' Well, yeah, but do you know how to win? I think there are certain ways to do it. He had a real understanding of that." Wasikowski's attention-to-detail might be equally note- worthy. Ask the Canadians. During Purdue's practices in the fall, Wasikowski need- ed a Canadian flag. It was imperative. And the Purdue coach, as those around him were just getting to know of his intensely focused, results-driven personality, wasn't going to rest until he found one. The reason the flag was needed was simple: Purdue was host- ing the Ontario Blue Jays for a weekend exhibition during fall practices, but the hosts wanted their guests to feel as comfortable as possible. And so it fell to sports information director Ben Turner to find a flag. As it happened, Turner had one stored away in his garage, after he had found it stashed away in his Purdue office years before, likely left behind by a former media relations staffer. And that's how Purdue was able to raise the flag and play "O Canada" for its opponent before the game. "It was just a non-public scrimmage, but when I re- ceived multiple phone calls from Waz and his staff that morning all asking about where they could get a Canadian flag, I knew it was an important detail to him that day," Turner said. "It just so happened that I had a flag." Weeks later, Wasikowski got a note from a team repre- sentative, thanking him for Purdue being one of the few programs the Canadians visited during their U.S. trip to go to such lengths. The flag might have been only a small detail, but in Wasikowski's view, the minutiae can matter significantly. The Canadians even indicated that they know of a couple