Q&A: Lansing Community College pitching coach Jarret Olson

Jarret Olson has been around sports his entire life.

He remembers being in the gym as a very young child as his father, Scott, coached high school basketball.

Olson also had a very successful career of his own in multiple sports, playing golf, basketball and baseball at St. Bede for three years before transferring to Galesburg for his senior year.

After high school, Olson pitched for two years at Parkland College, helping the Cobras place top five in the NJCAA Division II World Series both years, before going on to pitch at Michigan State University.

When his playing career was finished, Olson wanted to stay around baseball, so he followed his father’s footsteps into coaching.

Olson has been the pitching coach at Lansing Community College the past two years, helping the Stars to the NJCAA Division II World Series each season. The Stars placed fifth last season and third this year.

This season, the Lansing pitching staff ranked eighth nationally in ERA at 4.20 and ranked 17th in strikeouts in the nation with 455.

NewsTribune sports editor Kevin Chlum caught up with Olson about his coaching career.

How did the opportunity at Lansing come about?

I was initially hired as the pitching coach in July before my first year. That head coach ended up leaving and going to Western Michigan. So I was kind of in a limbo period for about two months. That’s when Steven Cutter ended up getting the (head) job. I was scouring the internet on Indeed and the ABCA (American Baseball Coaches Association) website. I sent my resume in, had a call two days later and things got rolling from there.

Is coaching something you’ve always wanted to do?

I wanted to become a physical therapist throughout my college days. I had some injuries that kept me in the training room a lot, which kind of pushed me away from that setting. Being the son of a coach, that was always option No. 2 and it really made a lot of sense to me. As I got to the end of my playing career, I still wanted to be around the game. I still have a major love for the game.

Did you have coaching experience prior to this job?

No, I did not other than being around every single basketball team that my dad ever coached since I was about 4 years old.

What kind of philosophy do you bring to the job?

I bring a very, very similar philosophy that I brought when I was a player. The two words I always use with my pitching staff are compete and attack. There are certain measurables that you can and can’t control in the game of baseball. So we’re going to focus on the ones we can control. It’s a game of failure. The mindset we have to take into every individual battle is what we bring to the table as pitchers is better than what a hitter brings to the table.

What has been key to the pitching staff’s success the last two seasons?

We are very developmentally based at Lansing Community College. We utilize a bunch of technology. For me personally, I utilize the technology to supplement my coaching and get the most out of every individual athlete. We do a lot of mental performance stuff. We worked with Brian Cain, who’s a guy who worked with Corbin Burnes with the Brewers. He’s given us a lot of really good stuff. Obviously, the game of baseball is very mental. We give them tools to put in their toolbox so when they’re out there competing, their toolbox is full of things they can utilize whatever situation they run into.

What type of technology do you use?

We utilize TrackMan, Rapsodo, Pulse, which is kind of at its most basic form a throw counter, but it spits out a bunch of stuff like arm speed, arm angle, torque on the elbow. What it really does is it makes sure we’re not using the arm too much and putting a pitcher in a spot where he’s susceptible to injury. We use Blast Motion for hitters, K-Vest for hitters.

Are you involved in recruiting or identifying talent?

A little bit. At the junior college level, you can bring athletes in and have them go through a practice, so my biggest piece of the recruitment is when athletes come in, I put them through practice. I watch them throw a bullpen session. I communicate with them. See the adjustments they can make and pretty much evaluate their talent.

What has it been like being part of two World Series runs?

Going to Parkland and going to two (NJCAA World Series) as a player set me up to be able to handle it as a coach because I had already been there. It wasn’t anything new to me. Going back as a coach twice was very special because I knew what it took. My first year (at Parkland) we got fifth, which we also got fifth my first year coaching. We got second (at Parkland) and this year we got third. I was very aware of what it took to get to that point and what we were going to have to do with bats and pitching wise and how we were going to have to manage things. Having that experience as a player definitely paid off as a coach.

You mentioned your dad influencing your coaching career. Who are some other coaches along the way who have had an influence on you?

I would definitely say (Putnam County graduate and former PC coach) Dave Garcia at Parkland. Also Jon Goebel. He was my pitching coach (at Parkland). He was very good at the relationship side of coaching. That was something I definitely took with me because at Parkland, that was the most fun I ever had playing baseball. Coach (Jake) Boss at Michigan State. He’s a guy who is very good with the public. That’s something I tried to take with me as well — interacting with parents, interacting with the administration. He definitely showed me what that looked like. There are definitely bits and pieces I really took with me from every stopped I made. The good aspects that I saw I definitely wanted to take with me in my own coaching career.

What are your goals for your coaching career?

Continue moving up. I want to coach at the highest level possible. I’ve played at a high level and I certainly believe I can do that as a coach. I know what it takes to do that as a coach and I’m willing to put in the hours and the service time needed to make those next steps up.