So much attention is focused on NIU’s head baseball coach, Joe “Spanky” McFarland, that the others involved in the revival of the baseball program get shoved under the rug at times.

Yet, the rest of McFarlands’ gang plays a prominent role in the rebuilding process.

McFarland has two assistant coaches involved with the program, Pete Tsotsos and Vern Hasty. Both men come to DeKalb seeking to complete degrees and gain coaching experience.

Tsotsos played baseball under McFarland at the University of South Florida. The hitting and infield coach anchored the South Florida middle infield at the shortstop position for a two-year tenure (1989-90).

Given the opportunity to start a baseball program from scratch intrigued the 23-year old, to say the least.

“If I was a baseball player, I’d love to be in this situation,” Tsotsos said. “As a coach, it’s kind of neat seeing everything. This is a great atmosphere for building a baseball program.”

Besides attending daily classes, Tsotsos is in charge of teaching the walk-ons the fundamentals of hitting and will be the third base coach. In the office, Tsotsos targets his energy towards the recruiting effort.

“I teach mostly mechanics,” Tsotsos said. “Spanky talks theory and I talk mechanics.”

Assisting the head coach with the pitching duties is Hasty. The former Kearney State (Nebraska) pitcher will assume the bullpen duties during the games, along with directing the catchers. For now, Hasty is using his Marine Corps experience in the weight room as he coordinates the conditioning and strength programs for the players.

“It’s a great situation being under someone like Spanky,” Hasty said. “You couldn’t ask for a better opportunity. A lot of these guys that didn’t think they’d be playing college ball will be playing.”

Opportunity definitely knocked for Hasty and he responded right away. The Sports and Business major actually came to Chicago to be with a girlfriend and upon hearing about the NIU revival plan, Hasty got an interview with McFarland and things went from there.

“Things just took off,” Hasty said. “I can’t say how fortunate I am.”

Speaking of fortunes, both assistants realistically feel that the NIU baseball team will be opening some eyes in its’ introductory Mid-Continent Conference season.

“Believe it or not, we won’t be that bad,” Hasty said. “We will be able to play with every team in the conference.”

“We will win a lot of games if the kids stick with the game plan of running and hit-and-run,” Tsotsos said. “We really have no pressure, so we might as well put it on them.”