P2
April 2012
Continued from
P1
Volume 2 – Issue 2
Making Their Case
P3
SCORE!
P4
A Light Unto Her Path
P5
LoggedOn…FromChina
P8
Talkin’ College
P9
Renaissance Matt
P10
Builder Extraordinaire
P11
FEATURE
P6-7
GCU Today Magazine
is a
quarterly publication of the Office of
Communications and Public Affairs at
Grand Canyon University.
Written and Edited by
DOUG CARROLL
Communications Manager
MICHAEL FERRARESI
Senior Writer, GCU News Bureau
Designed by
DEANNA FUSCO
SoHo Southwest
Photos by
MARK BOISCLAIR, DAVID
BLAKEMAN, DOUG CARROLL,
ZANE EWTON, MICHAEL GING,
JAK KEYSER, RUTH NSUBUGA,
& TIMWINZELER
Office of Communications
and Public Affairs
Bill Jenkins
Executive Director
CONTACT
DOUG CARROLL
602.639.8011
MICHAEL FERRARESI
602.639.7030
Grand Canyon University
3300 W. Camelback Road
Phoenix, AZ 85017
Shifting a program’s philosophy and standards takes time.
After starting the season 4-8, Stankiewicz left three seniors
off the team’s roster for a weeklong trip to Hawai‘i with
concerns about their dedication. The coach said he felt his
club struggled without the veteran presence but that players
are beginning to accept the new focus.
Baseball is such a statistical game, and the nature of batter vs.
pitcher such a singular experience, that young players crave
individual success.
“We’re trying to get them to understand we don’t care
about your batting average, your earned-run average,” said
Stankiewicz, who coached at Arizona State University and in
the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners minor-league
systems after seven years as a big-league infielder.
“We care about how you care about each other,” the coach
said. “You can lose as a hitter, but we win as a team.”
The Antelopes traveled in March to play the University of
Tampa, the No. 1-ranked NCAA Division II baseball team.
Stankiewicz saw the three-game series as a benchmark, and
GCU took two games to extra innings, winning one of them.
GCU dismissed
Dave Stapleton
as its head baseball coach
in March 2011 after 10 years. Last year, University CEO
Brian Mueller
heralded the hiring of Stankiewicz as critical to
“returning this program to prominence.”
GCU won three successive national championships in 1980-
82 and a fourth in 1986. The University is well known in West
Coast baseball circles as a top program with a proud history.
Longtime big-leaguers
Tim Salmon
and
Chad Curtis
,
in addition to current Arizona Diamondbacks infielder
Cody Ransom
, are among the best to play on campus at
Brazell Stadium.
Stankiewicz was known as an intelligent player and also for
his hustle and dedication. The undersized utilityman made
his Major League debut with the Yankees at 27 and went
on to play with the Houston Astros, Montreal Expos and the
inaugural 1998 Diamondbacks.
He played in the same Yankees infield as
Don Mattingly
and
Wade Boggs
. In Houston,
Jeff Bagwell
received many of his
putouts, while
Craig Biggio
helped him turn double plays.
While in Montreal, manager and former player
Felipe Alou
inspired him with his approach in the Expos’ clubhouse.
Stankiewicz remembered a nine- or 10-game losing streak
in which he expected the skipper to rage on his players, but
Alou challenged the club with a humble and calming attitude.
“He wouldn’t let the outcome of a ballgame affect who he was
as a person,” Stankiewicz said. “I learned from him that no
matter how bad we perform, I can’t let them see me panic.”
Stankiewicz’s family settled in Gilbert years ago and his four
children have grown up in metropolitan Phoenix. In addition
to playing for the Diamondbacks, he worked as an assistant
coach at Arizona State University, coaching future big-
leaguers on multiple College World Series runs.
The coach said he accepted the GCU job because it enabled
him to rebuild a program close to home, but also because he
respects that the University affords student-athletes and staff
a place “where you can show your faith freely.”
Dave Serrano
, head coach at University of Tennessee, named
Stankiewicz as an assistant coach on his collegiate Team USA
coaching staff. The team travels to Cuba and Holland this year
as part of the 2012 schedule, which probably will create some
global exposure for GCU’s baseball program with Stankiewicz
as its international ambassador.
“There’s no better guy than him to learn from on a daily basis,”
said Serrano, who grew up and played Little League with
Stankiewicz in southern California.
“When he gets an opportunity to recruit and bring his full
system in, GCU baseball will be back on the map.”
Stankiewicz tries to avoid coming across like a salesman
on recruiting visits, yet he wants to emphasize GCU as an
alternative baseball program to ASU and the University
of Arizona.
He knows the high-character, all-hustle players he wants to
build the program around. It’s simply a matter of showing
them around. And he knows that GCU can sell itself.
“Once we get them on campus, we show them the Arena and
the Rec Center, the classrooms, the new dorms, and they walk
away saying, ‘This is legit, this could be a place for me to go to
school,’” Stankiewicz said.
