By Adam Melluso
Cornell head baseball coach Brian Mihalyi sure knows his stuff when it comes to America’s favorite pastime.
Not only that, but this isn’t his first rodeo at the Coraopolis high school. He’s been in charge for much more than just the stretch that has culminated in his upcoming third year in 2019-20 at the helm for the Raiders since taking over from Ken Quigley
In fact, Mihalyi said in a phone interview Saturday, he and Quigley know each other well in the context of coaching, as the two have alternated the job of head coach for Cornell for a number of seasons over the years.
“[Coach Quigley] was my assistant, and I’ve been doing this for a while because I’ve been teaching up there for 25 years…so I’ve been in the building for quite some time,” he said. “So I’m always around the kids and always around the guys and baseball, so I guess it was just natural, once coach Quigley decided to step down, and they came and found me and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Mihalyi also noted that the coaching job to start seemed like such a natural fit in the sport because of his previous experience as a player himself.
“Well actually when I was in school I was at Cornell and played baseball, and when I taught at Cornell I was an assistant for four or five years” he said.
Mihalyi also noted that he coached several other sports besides baseball.
“I’ve coached some other sports, like I’ve coached golf, I’ve been an assistant football coach for a couple years…so I’ve always been around sports, and I love baseball, so I’m a natural fit for it.”
When asked about what he feels is the biggest lesson that he has taught the teams at Cornell, Mihalyi brought up one word almost instantly: the virtue of perseverance .
“We’re a small school so we run into different issues that larger schools never even imagine,” he said. “We’re always teetering on do we have enough guys to play…so I just tell them to persevere…just keep going, keep working hard and everything will work itself out.”
Speaking on his style of coaching and how he tries to get the most out of his players, Mihalyi noted the academic relationship he shares with a lot of his team as their teacher that helps quite a bit in motivating them.
“I have a lot of them in class” he said, “so I’ve had many, in recent years, in the classroom, and we go from there…so I have a pretty good rapport with them.
“I don’t necessarily want to call myself a father figure, but a good leader and male role model that they can look up to, so when I’m talking to them, they’re paying attention…they take it into account to make changes or adjustments.”
Mihalyi stated quite clearly what his team needs to do in order to get back into the WPIAL playoffs, chase a sectional title and hopefully challenge for a state championship.
“The basketball people [who also play baseball] are having a fantastic year right now, so they’re going to have some of the baseball players right now,” he said. “We’re just going to have to hope to survive early without some of those guys…if we can get some confidence, probably getting off to a good start.”
Finally, Mihalyi talked about his seniors, who, while he noted are not many, have made great growth over their time with him.
“I have two that have played…this’ll be their fourth year, so it’s three under me, and I have a couple others who have kind of casually come out this year. I have one player who’s helping the basketball team out right now and my other guys had made an announcement we do every morning asking anybody that’s interested to try to get people to come out, so they’re being leaders with respect to that” he stated.
Asked about the one lesson he would leave behind at Cornell at the end of his tenure as coach and as a teacher as well, Mihalyi was very direct in that he wanted it to be the virtue of respect.
“I just want them to know that I hope I have earned their respect whether I walk into a room or walk on the field they look up to me and thought of me as a role model and someone they could trust” he said,
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