Jim Agnew

Baseball Feature: Rob McCoy Previews 2026 Season

2/19/2026 12:05:00 PM

By: Shelton Moss, W&M Media Relations

William & Mary head baseball coach Rob McCoy recently joined Shelton Moss on the Tribe Unscripted podcast to discuss his journey to Williamsburg and preview the 2026 season.

Talk about how the offseason has been going. You've mentioned that there's a lot of young talent on this team.

"I think the fall has gone well. We're being careful because we suffered a ton of injuries last year. We're trying to make sure that we are not the cause of those injuries, especially moving forward this season. In terms of getting the program to where I want it to be, I think we're making a ton of progress, instilling our core values, developing our culture, and developing our leadership. That to me is the priority and I think that's going well."

"I like the talent that we have on the field."

When the William & Mary job came open, what made it attractive for you?

"You get down here and there's no way you could turn down an opportunity to be here as a baseball coach. It fits the high academic kids that I want to coach and the type of people that I want to be around. It's actually a perfect fit for me."

You grew up in the town of Halfway, Oregon, population 350. Tell us the story of how a kid who grew up in such a small town ended up coaching Division I baseball.

"I've always looked at it as the next right move. I played junior college baseball, and I had a choice to play four-year close to home or go out to South Dakota. I chose to make the next right move, which was to leave everything I've ever known and go out to South Dakota with nobody I knew."

"While there, we got a new A.D. my first year there. His name was Scott Gines. He had coached at Radford and VMI. He'd been a Division I baseball coach for 14 years, and I was just enamored with Division I baseball. I knew I wanted to coach, and just like you want to play D-I, you want to coach D-I."

"That led to coaching summer camps, baseball camps, and coaching at my alma mater after my eligibility was up. Coincidentally enough, the very first summer I went, William & Mary was one of the camps I did. I remember it vividly, being here with coach [Jim Farr] and coach [Ryan Wheeler] and Matt Kirby, who's now at Mississippi State, and learning from those guys and seeing Plumeri Park."

"I came out to grad school at Virginia, caught on at JMU as a volunteer [assistant coach], and then went up to Niagara because I needed recruiting experience. No one will hire you if you don't have it, and you can't get it if nobody will hire you. I was going to go up there for one year or two, cut my teeth and come back down south. Then I was there for 18 years."

"I do really believe that the other part of it is you just have to set your mind on a goal and just be too stubborn to quit."

You have instilled the TRIBE core values in your program. Tell us what those values are and how you implement them on a daily basis.

"Our core values make up the acronym TRIBE: Toughness, Relentless, Integrity, Brotherhood, and Excellence."

"You have to be intentional about your culture. The world is full of corporate people that bring in consultants, put up a sign with core values, frame it, and put it in an office, then never talk about it again. Culture is something you have to work on every day. It has become a cliche word. When I sit down with recruits and their parents, I tell them that every coach will talk about culture, but you need to see if they actually work on it."

"When we set core values, it changes how we view potential players. I tell recruits our core values and what they mean. If they don't believe in them, I tell them to say no. It's important to get the right players in the program. It's easier to talk about standards once they're in than to change someone's mind. We find kids who are fired up by our core values and bring them in. We teach the current players what we stand for, hold them to that standard, and use core values as a guide for our actions."

You've emphasized the importance of being a developmental program. What's your philosophy on balancing high school recruiting and transfer recruiting?

"William & Mary is a unique school. It's one of the schools in the country that balances high-level athletics with high-level academics. We aim to be attractive with the weather, the conference we play in, and the quality of our opponents. We have to find a good enough athlete and a good enough student. It's not the easiest thing to do in the transfer portal."

"I believe you hit more home runs with homegrown talent than with transfers. Transfers are important, and we have some on our team, but it's not sustainable for the success of the team to rely solely on transfers. Players like Ben Williamson, Nate Knowles, Carter Lovasz, Mark Hindy, and Joe Delossantos were high school recruits who have been successful. It aligns with what we believe in. If you need to fill a hole or an immediate need, then transfers are the way to go."

"Creating an environment that freshmen want to be part of and develop in is crucial. Our weight room and nutrition culture are great, so players will improve while they're here. The focus is to invest in our current team and players so they believe in the path to becoming a championship team."

Talk about the transfers on this team. One of the headliners is Louie Bartletti, an All-Region selection at Illinois College.

"I think our transfers will really help us this year. Most of them are on the offensive side of things because our 'transfers' on the mound were just guys hurt [that were] coming back. Jackson Woolwine, Louie Bartletti, Liam O'Neil, we've got Ryan Santangelo behind the plate — these are guys that had success at the level they were at. It seems intuitive, but good players are good players. It really doesn't matter what level they're at. So if a kid goes and puts up staggering numbers at the school he's at, most of the time that's going to translate."

"It's also a confidence thing. If you've been a really good baseball player, [it's] easy to step in and have confidence in yourself to go up levels and be a really good ballplayer. You just have to go after the guys that you believe in and do the best you can to get them, and, and we did."

Jamie Laskofski returns after an All-CAA season last year. How excited are you for his potential?

"Jamie is one of the hardest workers. He's one of the best players I've coached. I'm looking forward to seeing what his sophomore season holds. He's surrounded by a ton of really good players, like Trey Christman and Matthew Kosuda, Charlie Iriotakis, Anthony Greco — you can go around our field. Connor Chavez was a two-year starter at Penn and played in regionals. He's going to be really good."

"Offensively, we're really excited about what we can do. We feel like we're going to be kind of underestimated because when you lose Ben Parker and Lucas Carmichael and Christian Rush and guys that produced at a high level last year, people are going to wonder if we can do that again. And we believe we can."

In the age of the transfer portal and NIL, has the philosophy of coaching changed at all for you?

"I think the quick answer is no. I genuinely believe [the transfer portal] forces [coaches], especially in the sport of baseball, to be better. We have to find a way to create an environment that people want to be a part of, that they feel is improving constantly and daily, but also holding them to a high standard. They want to be pushed. They want to be challenged."

"I feel like it was kind of fortuitous that all these outside changes kind of forced that on us, because if we're doing business as usual, I wouldn't last two seconds with the way things are going. But because I evolved as a coach, and these changes happened, it's kind of playing right into my hands."

What kind of baseball can we expect the Tribe to play this season?

"Just resilient baseball. Our core values will shine day in and day out. You're going to see a tough team. It was exciting that we scored a ton of runs last year, but those runs were scored because we wouldn't give up."

"We're going to pitch better than we did last year and we're going to be just as offensive. You're going to see a little bit more small ball than [last year] because we have more versatility this year. We're faster on offense, so there will be stolen bases and bunts."

"My pitch to the fans is you matter. Being behind the team matters. We hear you and we want you out there."

The Tribe opens the season at home on Friday at 4 p.m. against Binghamton.

To hear the full interview, visit TribeAthletics.com/Podcasts or follow Tribe Unscripted on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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