Five minutes about EMU's Seth McGuffin (Luray Wranglers)
One of the more exciting things about this past summer was the amount of time I spent working with Mr. Seth McGuffin and Mr. Ryan Carroll up in the booth at Bulldog Field. While young Ryan just graduated from Luray High School, Seth has been there and done that for a number of years.
Some folks have asked me why there is more fans stories involving the other teams then Luray and there is a very simple answer. Each and every night I am at Bulldog Field I am up in the box with Ryan and Seth. While this is a great deal of fun it does keep me away from spending more time with the Wrangler fan base or for that matter, the Wrangler players.
I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about both all of the things that Seth takes care of at Bulldog Field and his role over at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg.
The toughtest job in any VBL press box is to keep the computerized score book while playing the role of official score keeper. Toss in the fact that Seth also handles the Play by Play on the Wranglers Web Cast and you have the makings of a pretty busy night. There are 22 nights plus playoff games during a 60 night schedule so there is little time for much else.
Seth has been with Bill Turner and the Wranglers for a number of years and I have just completed my second season working with both of them. The number of roles he has played during his stay have been to many to list and he takes a great deal of pride in all of them. The new one this season was a Sponsor Night Game Ticket and they turned out to be real keepers for the fans at the park. Seth's real job took him away from Luray for a week when he had to go out to San Diego (He still claims it was all work) and I for one sure was glad when he made it back.
The tough part for Seth was it turned out to be the week of the Vienna twin bill that he was gone. I know how much the exhibition game meant to Seth and it was a shame he couldn't be there for the organization's day in the sun.
Now that you know just how many hats that Seth wears at Bulldog Field, let's take a look at some of what he has accomplished over at EMU.
Seth graduated from Lynchburg College back in 1996 and he hit the ground running. Seth spent one season at LC working with the track and field team before coming to EMU as an assistant coach under then coach Paul Johnson. During his time as an assistant to Johnson Seth also served as EMU's Director of Sports Information. This year Seth will be starting his 5TH season as the Royals Head Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Coach.
It would be tough to figure out where Seth has had a greater level of success- as the head of EMU's track program or as a star for Lynchburg College back in the day. Take a look at this young mans accomplishments back at LC.
-Still holds both the Indoor and Outdoor record for the Shot Put and Discus
-He marks were also the best in the ODAC until just recently
-He is one of only four athletes in the history of the ODAC- Indoor to win the same event for all 4 years
-Seth repeated this with the Outdoor Shot Put for four years as well
-Seth won 11 ODAC individual titles during his 4 seasons
-Seth was named All- ODAC 12 times during this span
-Seth captured a total of 5 NCAA All-American plaques during his four seasons
The marks his teams have reached during his first four seasons at EMU have been equally impressive and I look forward to keeping up with the Royals for the 2008-2009 Indoor and Outdoor seasons and Seth continues to add to an already impressive resume at the ODAC school.
You can read more about this amazing man by heading over to www.emu.edu/athletics/directory/track_bio.html ...
Keep up the great effort !
Some folks have asked me why there is more fans stories involving the other teams then Luray and there is a very simple answer. Each and every night I am at Bulldog Field I am up in the box with Ryan and Seth. While this is a great deal of fun it does keep me away from spending more time with the Wrangler fan base or for that matter, the Wrangler players.
I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about both all of the things that Seth takes care of at Bulldog Field and his role over at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg.
The toughtest job in any VBL press box is to keep the computerized score book while playing the role of official score keeper. Toss in the fact that Seth also handles the Play by Play on the Wranglers Web Cast and you have the makings of a pretty busy night. There are 22 nights plus playoff games during a 60 night schedule so there is little time for much else.
Seth has been with Bill Turner and the Wranglers for a number of years and I have just completed my second season working with both of them. The number of roles he has played during his stay have been to many to list and he takes a great deal of pride in all of them. The new one this season was a Sponsor Night Game Ticket and they turned out to be real keepers for the fans at the park. Seth's real job took him away from Luray for a week when he had to go out to San Diego (He still claims it was all work) and I for one sure was glad when he made it back.
The tough part for Seth was it turned out to be the week of the Vienna twin bill that he was gone. I know how much the exhibition game meant to Seth and it was a shame he couldn't be there for the organization's day in the sun.
Now that you know just how many hats that Seth wears at Bulldog Field, let's take a look at some of what he has accomplished over at EMU.
Seth graduated from Lynchburg College back in 1996 and he hit the ground running. Seth spent one season at LC working with the track and field team before coming to EMU as an assistant coach under then coach Paul Johnson. During his time as an assistant to Johnson Seth also served as EMU's Director of Sports Information. This year Seth will be starting his 5TH season as the Royals Head Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Coach.
It would be tough to figure out where Seth has had a greater level of success- as the head of EMU's track program or as a star for Lynchburg College back in the day. Take a look at this young mans accomplishments back at LC.
-Still holds both the Indoor and Outdoor record for the Shot Put and Discus
-He marks were also the best in the ODAC until just recently
-He is one of only four athletes in the history of the ODAC- Indoor to win the same event for all 4 years
-Seth repeated this with the Outdoor Shot Put for four years as well
-Seth won 11 ODAC individual titles during his 4 seasons
-Seth was named All- ODAC 12 times during this span
-Seth captured a total of 5 NCAA All-American plaques during his four seasons
The marks his teams have reached during his first four seasons at EMU have been equally impressive and I look forward to keeping up with the Royals for the 2008-2009 Indoor and Outdoor seasons and Seth continues to add to an already impressive resume at the ODAC school.
You can read more about this amazing man by heading over to www.emu.edu/athletics/directory/track_bio.html ...
Keep up the great effort !
Comments
Great to hear from you and that the wedding went well. I couldn't agree more with your response and that is one of the things I was talking about at the meeting. The VBL is full of really neat stories but I need some assistance in getting to them all.
Your guys in the booth are a perfect example of two folks that take a great deal of pride in their work but I would need some help in putting it down on paper.
The fact that this league is run by area residents who operate the VBL in their "spare" time is part of what makes it special to me!
Teams are owned by a husband wife combination, or by self employed business people, or stockholders group, business partners ...
How are the self employed owners able to maintain their private businesses during the baseball season? How do the normal working hours people fit baseball into their work schedule?
I know that Bob's car business usually suffers during the baseball season because 1. he's gone so much 2. he doesn't have enough time to buy cars to have here for Gary to sell.
A personal look into the people running teams would be interesting reading :)