By Brandon Rebboah '13
Pat Terry is back for another season in a Bronco uniform. The versatile veteran has started games behind the plate, at designated hitter, and in the outfield during his career on the Mission campus. In his final season as a member of the Bronco baseball team, Terry is looking to enjoy every moment while helping the 2011 Bronco team attain goals of post-season play. Pat Terry (PT) recently sat down with SantaClaraBroncos.com (SCB) to talk about the upcoming 2011 baseball season.
SCB: How does it feel to be able to be back for another season in a Bronco uniform?
PT: There is no better feeling than putting on a baseball uniform. That being said, if feels great to get the opportunity to play another year. I'd do it forever if I could.
SCB: Now that you're a senior, what advice do you have to give to all your younger teammates?
PT: It goes by so fast, not to take anything for granted. Leave everything out there every day, be it practice, the weight-room or the games. Too soon you're looking back and it's over, but you're dying for just one more rep.
SCB: Now that you're a senior, how do you foresee yourself being a leader on this year's squad?
PT: I try not to think that age has too much to do with being a leader. Experience is valuable, but attitude is everything, and you can have that as a freshman.
SCB: What are your goals for this upcoming season?
PT: My goals for the upcoming season are to fulfill whatever roll I earn, both offensively and defensively. I want the team to win; I want the guys to experience what it's like to be WCC champions, or to play in a regional. So, my goals are to do anything I possibly can to bring that goal a little closer to Santa Clara.
SCB: What are you doing to meet those goals?
PT: I've been injured lately, so my ability to do anything has been impeded by that. However, I'll be healthy in a few weeks, whereupon I plan on making the field and cages home until the season.
SCB: What has been your main focus in fall practice?
PT: To focus on our immediate goal, and that is to get better on the very next rep of whatever it is you are doing. Essentially, just staying in the moment.
SCB: What opponent if any, are you most looking forward to this upcoming season?
PT: I haven't looked closely at our schedule yet. I do know that we open at South Carolina against the defending champs, which is going to be pretty special. To get the opportunity to compete against a team like that, in environment such as theirs is what this game is all about.
SCB: How has your time at Santa Clara changed your game?
PT: Santa Clara has expanded my baseball knowledge exponentially. Obviously my skills have been shaped dramatically since I've gotten here, but more importantly my fundamental understanding of the game and how to play it has been finely tuned. People don't realize that the game is so much more than hit and catch. There are so many intimate details about the game that you learn over time, which is what Santa Clara has exposed me to.
SCB: What's made this fall season different than any others?
PT: Work ethic. We set the tone early that it was going to be tough, and it was. We conditioned the hardest we have ever conditioned. Our team is physically and mentally tougher because of it. Consequently, the discipline and the focus this fall has been better this year than in the past. Everyone knows that we aren't messing around this year, and that has really changed the atmosphere.
SCB: Which teammate would you say you're closest to?
PT: A lot of us are really close friends. But I spend most of my time with Curtis "Dirt" Wagner. Although, after spending two summer with Corey Hall, living with him in a basement for one of them, I'm pretty close with him as well.
