Eddie Smith Opening Statement

  • 3 months ago
Washington Huskies new baseball head coach speaks with the media Tuesday during an introductory press conference.
Transcript
00:00Exciting day. I'm so grateful for everybody being here today. So many familiar faces from over the years and
00:06need to say my first thanks to Pat and Jordan.
00:11Really, really excited about this opportunity, but
00:15it was many years ago that I was first introduced to the University of Washington and
00:19that can be traced back to my mom and dad sitting here in the first row.
00:23A lot of great memories. Husky Stadium, Hec Ed, the old Husky ballpark.
00:28Truly, throughout the years, UW has been a place that spawned a really deep passion for college athletics and to get to be the coach here, truly, truly an honor.
00:42The next thanks I have to give to my wonderful wife, Jennifer.
00:48My top assistant. Whenever things are going on at the field, she's the first one who hears me
00:55talking about them that night at dinner.
00:57She's got an incredible perspective, national championship athlete herself, and truly a dream come true, she is for me.
01:06Kind of going back to the time here as a kid at UW and coming to different events.
01:13Those football helmets in the fall, they gleamed that gold off the sun when it was sunny, which wasn't often in the Northwest, but enough.
01:22And to me, that just sparked a love in my heart for this place and kind of marked the gold standard for all the college athletes.
01:31As a local, this was it.
01:33And that's a gold standard that we're going to work to uphold here in everything that we do.
01:38I can assure you that our players are going to understand how much of a privilege it is to play here, how special it is to play here.
01:44They're going to play hard, they're going to play tough.
01:46They're going to play for the team and the logo on the front of that jersey.
01:51They're also going to represent this place with that gold standard.
01:53In the classroom to start with, it's a really critical part of this adventure still of college athletics, and that's important to me.
02:00But in the community, the campus community, King County, Seattle, I want our players to be recognized.
02:07I want our players to be out finding ways that they can contribute to the game and represent the University of Washington the right way.
02:15This place has everything.
02:17For all the recruits out there, there's absolutely nothing that this place can't offer you.
02:23If you're looking for a place to go excel, this has it all.
02:27Player development, elite education, world-class city.
02:32What else could you ask for?
02:34I just can't thank you all enough for being here today.
02:36I'm excited to go do it out on the field with this group of guys.
02:40Go Dawgs!