Auburn baseball has recently held the reputation of being a hitting team. There is another aspect to the game, however. Pitching. Auburn pitching is guided by assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Scott Foxhall. Foxhall and head coach John Pawlowski have been coaching together for 12 years. "He is a tireless worker on and off the field, loves recruiting," Pawlowski said.
Pawlowski praised the consistency Foxhall brings to the coaching staff. "Everyday, you know you're going to get his best effort," Pawlowski said. "I think that's one of the greatest traits you can have in an employee, or somebody you work beside." Foxhall credits his father for helping him in the coaching direction.
"I know that's cliche, but he was my coach when I was young," Foxhall said. "He had an engineering mind and kind of breaks things down." Foxhall said he has been around baseball for most of his life. "I probably started playing organized when I was 6," Foxhall said. "But playing with dad in the yard probably 3 to 4."
Foxhall began coaching right out of college. "I've been coaching ever since I finished school, so '95 was the first year I coached in college," Foxhall said. "In '94 I was a player and in '95 I was a coach." Foxhall builds intimate relationships with his players while at the same time, setting lofty goals for them.
"I would say that we have a 'we're in it together' relationship," Foxhall said. Foxhall said his relationships are also built on respect. "They have to respect me, but I respect them too," Foxhall said. He broke down setting goals into three levels: game, season and career. "In games, it would be to put my players into situations where they will succeed," Foxhall said.
He said setting goals for a season is simple. "This is a cut-and-dry business, especially at the highest level of the SEC," Foxhall said. "Our goal every season is to win championships, that's the bottom line."
His career goals combine his game and season goals. "My career goals would be to do as good a job as I can on a consistent basis whether that's as an assistant and hopefully one day as a head coach," Foxhall said. Auburn has always had a place in Foxhall's heart. "Both my parents went to Auburn, both are Auburn graduates," Foxhall said. "Every Saturday, we'd drive to Auburn for football games."
He said orange and blue was in his blood.
When he was younger, he "was singing 'War Eagle;' that's probably the first song that I sang growing up," Foxhall said. Foxhall said coaching is a profession that could take him away from Auburn. "I think if you're in this you have aspirations to be a head coach and a lot of times you have to follow those aspirations to different places," Foxhall said. "But I know that I could be happy here as a coach and as a person and my family could be happy here if it was the last stop."
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