Preview of the 2004-2005 CEU Golden Eagle baseball team

This archived article was written by: Micah Iverson

Baseball fans all know that the season starts right after the last ended. Working out, long toss, and long stints in the batting cage are all aspects of a game of will that we commonly know as America’s past time. So it is also with the players and the coaching staff for the College of Eastern Utah. With only six returning players and not all previous starters, rebuilding seems to be the logical term to describe the 2004-2005 baseball season.
After a very successful recruiting season, as described by Coach Scott Madsen, CEU plans to be more competitive in the league where they play the Junior College National Champions: Dixie State Rebels. His main concern, he said, was CEU needed to work on pitching. That concern hopefully has been taken care of with the 26 prospective pitchers out of the 53 or so who are expected to tryout or who are already on scholarship. Depth is what keeps a team winning and hopefully he expects to see a lot of that going on at CEU in 2004-2005.
Winning in any sport rests a lot on the shoulders of the head coach. Games can be won or lost on the crucial decisions that coaches make. At CEU, Coach Madsen is the dedicated coach who has the drive and ability to win and be successful at this collegiate level. Madsen was turned to coaching in high school by one of his coaches. Now only 25 years old and in his second season, Coach Madsen has a great opportunity to coach and cultivate growing talent which he described as one of the main reasons he got into coaching.
His older brother is an assistant at Utah Valley State College and was formerly the head coach at CEU. He takes pride in his field almost above all else. On any given day if you can’t find him in his office, rest assured that he is at the field doing something to beautify the baseball diamond. In answering the question on why he coaches, Coach Madsen replied; ” What does it for me is helping kids leave here better than when they arrived and most of all being around the game.” Having a coach who loves the game as Coach Madsen does can greatly aid in the success of a team.
In preparation for the season, CEU started tryouts for those who are not already on scholarship on Monday , August 23, with regular practices starting the same time. Shortly after, scrimmages will start fall semester against some of the other teams in the SWAC in preparation for the preseason tournaments which start January 28th in Las Vegas. CEU will start their regular season the end of February.