By STEVE KRAH
Johnston Hobbs splits his time in the baseball off-season between Raleigh, N.C., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
This summer he is back in Indiana — a state where he has studied, coached and established a business.
Hobbs, who earned a Master of Kinesiology degree from Indiana University and a served as a graduate assistant under former Hoosiers head baseball coach Bob Morgan, is the head coach/manager summer collegiate wood bat Northwoods League’s Kokomo (Ind.) Jackrabbits.
The former college and independent player has been a manager for the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League’s Glen Falls (N.Y.) Dragons, South Florida Collegiate Baseball League’s West Palm Beach (Fla.) Sharks, New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Vermont Mountaineers, Puerto Rico’s Aguadilla Nevegantes and Corn Belt Baseball League’s Omaha Filthballers (winning three regular-season titles and three champions in four seasons 2019-22). He has also coached the Hungarian National Team and assisted at Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines, Fla.
Hobbs, who also earned a degree in English, Political Science and Exercise Sports Science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Master of Education in Psychology and Communication from the University of South Carolina, and created a commercial swimming pool business in Indianapolis in 1999. He was a competitive swimmer and has coached the sport at South Carolina and the North Carolina State University.
He is now CEO/President of 224 Performance — a company Hobbs founded in 2017 — that “provides customized training for individual athletes and teams to maximize performance and health, Athlete and Talent Management, Player Evaluations, and Practice/Business structure.”
He has been a frequent clinic speaker.
Hired in Kokomo in late summer of 2022, Hobbs recruited talent from all over the country to showcase their skills and be developed in the City of Firsts.
“I don’t necessarily measure everything in wins or losses. I measure it in experience and development,” says Hobbs. “There’s no part of this game that we don’t have some influence or input on. I can’t sit and watch somebody do anything wrong and not give them some feedback.
“You have to be a well-rounded, completely-developed player to be one of 750 guys on the planet that make Major League Baseball. You can’t have a weakness in your game. If you come out here and don’t listen to your coach in college and you don’t listen to us you have 0 percent chance of making it.”
Hobbs says the players who set and achieve the highest goals are those who don’t give up or make excuses. They are willing to go through the process.
“How can you go wrong in the development of anything?,” says Hobbs. “If you’re a business person, you’re developing business and it helps your business.
“In baseball it’s even more so because you have to manage failure so often. If you were 30 percent successful in business the doors close. If you’re in college and you make 30s on your exams, you get kicked out of school.”
But hitters with a .300 average are considered special.
“You’ve got to try to make a difference in every little aspect of the game,” says Hobbs. “Sometimes I know it gets tiring for kids to hear because it seems like we’re giving them feedback on everything they do, but that’s our job. If we don’t do that, then we’re cheating.
“It’s not hard to communicate (with players). I’m a firm believer if kids aren’t learning what you’re trying to teach them you’ve got to change the way you teach it.
“I would like to see players evolve mentally at the same pace as the game. Baseball I.Q. is in high demand.”
Hobbs calls the Northwoods League the “the highest level developmental league in the world.”
“This is a developmental league for elite talent,” says Hobbs. “This is to fine-tune the best of the best.”
Clubs in the 24-team league play 72 games between late May and mid-August with a handful of days off.
“We have a lot of higher-end (NCAA) Division II guys that started 50 of 55 games (in the spring) and come here and play 70,” says Hobbs. “We’ve tried to keep the pitching staff on first-half and second-half contracts and then double up on the position guys.
“It’s tough to make an arm last the whole (summer) season when you’ve got 72 games.”
In the past decade, the coach says he has seen shift in attention span and diminished problem-solving and structure.
“These are good kids,” says Hobbs. “They want to do the right thing. They just don’t know how to do it when it doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to go or how they’d like it to go.”
A bad attitude, poor body language and jawing at opponents are things Hobbs will not tolerate.
“You won’t hear us chirp at the other bench,” says Hobbs. “You won’t hear us making fun of other players. You don’t do that because it’s solely against rules.
“They’ve been getting away with that forever and they think it’s acceptable and they see it at the highest levels.”
Taking responsibility for your actions is also a non-negotiable with Hobbs.
“As a human being in anything you do take accountability for your actions and your maturity,” says Hobbs.
Jackrabbits assistant Steven Sunagel, who hails from northeast Ohio, has four decades of coaching experience and has been with Hobbs for many of his baseball stops.
“Sonny” Sunagel sees a problem at the game’s lower levels.
“My kids aren’t starting so I going to start my own travel team,” says Sunagel. “What they’re doing back home where I’m from the Little League has been decimated. A travel ball team is formed and pulls the good kids out of the organization that used to be strong.
“The Little League says we need these kids so they’ll play during the week for us and play weekend travel (perhaps pitching for both teams). But the two coaches don’t talk.
“They’re not coordinating and it’s starting to show up in the injuries.”
The Jackrabbits, which play home games at Kokomo Municipal Stadium, are coming down the stretch for 2023. The team played its 61st contest Monday, July 31 against visiting Traverse City and has three remaining home dates — Aug. 2, 5 and 8.
Hobbs has been told by Kokomo general manager Nathan Martin that he is welcome back in 2024.
“A lot of the people in the community like Coach,” says Martin of Hobbs.
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