Minutes after his team pulled off an emotional win over Georgia, Mississippi State University head baseball coach Ron Polk made it clear the tough start to this season holds no part of his decision to retire after 40 years. In fact, the decision has nothing to do with baseball in general.Polk, 64, said he’d love to be coaching for another two or three years, but the result of January’s NCAA national convention changed his mind quickly. Despite the 56 overrides Polk himself gathered to override roster limitations in college baseball, NCAA representatives chose to put the rules into effect at a Jan. 13 national convention in Nashville, forcing coaches across the nation to cut their roster sizes at the end of the season.
“I’m not going to be in the business of ending my career as a cruel coach,” Polk said. “I’d love to stay around, but I’m not dumping kids.”
Polk said despite the timing of the announcement, his decision was not sudden.
“When I found out the negative news from the convention, I knew my time in coaching college baseball was quickly coming to an end,” Polk said in a resignation letter to outgoing athletic director Larry Templeton and incoming AD Greg Byrne on March 12.
Polk commented that coaches’ decisions would only get more difficult as they began to put their rosters together for next season.
“Coaches have got to make a decision if they’re going to be cruel to their kids or cruel to their programs,” Polk said. “I let it be known to [former MSU President Robert] ‘Doc’ Foglesong in that letter and Larry Templeton well before the NCAA convention, if this thing doesn’t pass and we don’t get these overrides, I have chosen to be cruel to the program.”
Polk said that an uncertainty with the transitioning of athletic directors and university presidents contributed to the timing of his announcement.
“I didn’t want to do it right before the season because you don’t want to start the season with the kids all pumped up and then bang, their coach is gone,” Polk said.
Many players expressed sadness after Polk’s announcement but said it was a motivating factor going into the second half of the season.
“We don’t want to be the team that he finishes under .500 with,” freshman outfielder Ryan Collins said. “We want to play for him and send him out right.”
Junior outfielder Grant Hogue said the announcement affected the mood before Friday’s game.
“We usually say a prayer and do our pre-game thing, and a few guys got emotional, realizing this is it for Coach Polk,” Hogue said. “We’re the team that he’s going out on, and let’s not leave a sour taste in his mouth.”
Polk said leaving his team proved to be the toughest part of deciding to retire at season’s end.
“I think for the most part I’m hoping the kids will say they’re disappointed and they’d like for me to stay,” Polk said. “I’d love to coach baseball and not have the elements of the NCAA.”
In his resignation letter, Polk endorsed current assistant coach Tommy Raffo as his replacement and said if appointed, Raffo would make the transition smooth for the players and the baseball program. Byrne will lead the search for a new head coach.
“If things don’t work out with the plan I gave them and it’s not implemented, I’m not threatening anybody but I’d be totally disappointed and upset because I’ve been here that long, and I should have a lot of input,” Polk said. “But I’m not going to make the final decision.”
Polk said he was still unsure of his plans after retirement but mentioned a move to his home state of Arizona and building a new home in Starkville as two possibilities.
Polk said despite his retirement, he would continue voicing his opinion of the NCAA, an organization he tabbed as evil to the sport of college baseball.
“When I retire, I’m going to be offering myself all over the country at high school banquets, junior college banquets, college banquets, almost free of charge, so that I have a voice to keep blasting on.