High expectations for the NCCC baseball season

Coach Matt Clingersmith Photo courtesy of Buffalo News

After finishing last season with a 40-7 record, the NCCC baseball team is looking forward to the 2019 season. With a big recruiting class coming in and making it to the NJCAA College World Series, expectations are high for the Thunder Wolves. Coach Matt Clingersmith wants his players to come in with the chance to go back to the JUCO World Series. “At this point it’s on our mind to go back to JUCO world series for the sixth time, but at the end of day the thing that matters the most is moving these players on to other colleges and universities.”

Clingersmith has been the head coach of the Thunder wolves since 2007. He has taken his team to the Junior College World Series five times and being the runner up twice. As a result, the baseball team has had a lot of popularity for kids wanting to tryout. According to new Athletic Director Amanda Haseley, “Each year I would say Coach Clingersmith has approximately 70-80 student-athletes trying out for the baseball team.” With lots of years of recent success the expectations for the Thunder Wolves are always high, even after coming up short, of making it back to the Junior College World Series. Clingersmith believes that it’s all about how you finish. “It’s not how you start I tell my guys it’s how you finish, and for baseball we have to make regionals and get hot for those two weeks is what it comes down to.”

The baseball team has been nationally known for many years, but a lot more players are coming from local areas than national areas. It makes the team very known being consistently good for many years, “With Niagara County Community College baseball being ranked as high as second it really makes our program Nationally known,” said Haseley. Still, Coach Clingersmith values local talent, “We do not have any scholarship money so for our team it’s building relationships with the local travel and high school teams.” There are players that come from many local areas from Buffalo, Rochester, and even parts of Ontario, Canada. According to an article written in the NCCC athletics page “We are really excited about our 2019 recruiting class," Clingersmith said. "My coaching staff and I look forward to developing this outstanding group of young men over the next two years.”

Clingersmith knows how to keep his players, playing at the highest level. His way of making sure he’s getting the best out of his players is, “If you’re not working hard someone else is or team is working hard and that’s our mind set when we have practice or a game.” Clingersmith compares his team to the Duke basketball that everyone is trying to beat them every year ever since he took over as head coach. “Our program has changed a lot since I took over , we are nationally known all over the country, moving 5 players on to power five conference, over 40 kids on to div 1 schools , and 8 former players have moved onto professional baseball, and going to JUCO World Series five times and two national champ runner up.”

Clingersmith always values his recruiting class “Every year we have to because it’s a two-year school. Like I told the incoming guys I don’t recruit losers.” As of March 18, 2019, the Thunder Wolves are ranked fifth in the NJCAA division III rankings with a 9-3 record overall, but they hope to stay at the top and make another run at the JUCO World Series.