Mini Q&A: Sammy Esposito
posted by Brian Shoemaker, 5/07/2008 10:23:00 AM
Esposito is in his first season with the USC program. He spent two seasons on the Georgia Southern staff before coming to Columbia. He was a four-year letterman at N.C. State, where he was coached by his father, Sam Esposito. His father also coached Ray Tanner, who was an assistant coach and later head coach at N.C. State, before coming to USC.
GamecockCentral.com: You played for your dad at N.C. State. Was he the reason you decided to get into coaching?
Sammy Esposito: Pretty much. You know, as a younger kid, I was always around it. I knew going into college that was one of the things I wanted to do. Sports was the only real thing that excited me.
GC: Coach Tanner played and coached for your dad. What do you remember about those days?
SE: Yes, briefly, as a little kid running around there. But not much because he came down here when I was in my junior year of high school. But when he coached there I would go over and watch all off the games.
GC: This is your first year as volunteer assistant coach. Describe what your responsibilities are?
SE: You’re basically a full-time assistant coach, but you just don’t get paid. My route of making money is through the camps. I help Coach Tanner with his camps, the same thing Coach Lee did the past few years. I can help out when they have recruits on campus, but I can’t go on the road to recruit.
GC: Do you enjoy the work with the camps?
SE: I’ve always enjoyed working with the kids. I’ve done that every summer and I’ve even gone up to Cape Cod for six to eight weeks and worked there. It’s really awesome working with the kids.
GC: Last week, the media as well as you coaches toured the new baseball stadium. What are your thoughts on how that is coming along?
SE: It’s going to be awesome. It’s neat to see the whole process. I go over every couple of weeks and it’s always something new going on. It’s amazing to look at the blueprints and then see it going up. It’s going to be an unbelievable facility.
GC: How do you think it will affect recruiting, which has been pretty good without it?
SE: It can only make it better. Kids like new, bigger things. The program is already up there. This just puts it up there even higher. That’s always been the big thing in sports. You see it in football. Who has the new and flashy stadium? It’s one more factor for the kids to consider. It may be the one thing that pushes that kid to us.
GC: Where do you see you coaching career going?
SE: To be honest, I really haven’t thought about it much. Obviously, somewhere down the road you’d like to move from a volunteer to a full-time assistant, wherever that may be. That’s the goal, to keep moving on up. Hopefully, it will be here with Coach Tanner and these great fans as well as administration. This is just an unbelievable place, to be with these guys every day.
Wayne Turner of GamecockCentral.com recently spoke with USC volunteer assistant coach Sammy Esposito.
Esposito is in his first season with the USC program. He spent two seasons on the Georgia Southern staff before coming to Columbia. He was a four-year letterman at N.C. State, where he was coached by his father, Sam Esposito. His father also coached Ray Tanner, who was an assistant coach and later head coach at N.C. State, before coming to USC.
GamecockCentral.com: You played for your dad at N.C. State. Was he the reason you decided to get into coaching?
Sammy Esposito: Pretty much. You know, as a younger kid, I was always around it. I knew going into college that was one of the things I wanted to do. Sports was the only real thing that excited me.
GC: Coach Tanner played and coached for your dad. What do you remember about those days?
SE: Yes, briefly, as a little kid running around there. But not much because he came down here when I was in my junior year of high school. But when he coached there I would go over and watch all off the games.
GC: This is your first year as volunteer assistant coach. Describe what your responsibilities are?
SE: You’re basically a full-time assistant coach, but you just don’t get paid. My route of making money is through the camps. I help Coach Tanner with his camps, the same thing Coach Lee did the past few years. I can help out when they have recruits on campus, but I can’t go on the road to recruit.
GC: Do you enjoy the work with the camps?
SE: I’ve always enjoyed working with the kids. I’ve done that every summer and I’ve even gone up to Cape Cod for six to eight weeks and worked there. It’s really awesome working with the kids.
GC: Last week, the media as well as you coaches toured the new baseball stadium. What are your thoughts on how that is coming along?
SE: It’s going to be awesome. It’s neat to see the whole process. I go over every couple of weeks and it’s always something new going on. It’s amazing to look at the blueprints and then see it going up. It’s going to be an unbelievable facility.
GC: How do you think it will affect recruiting, which has been pretty good without it?
SE: It can only make it better. Kids like new, bigger things. The program is already up there. This just puts it up there even higher. That’s always been the big thing in sports. You see it in football. Who has the new and flashy stadium? It’s one more factor for the kids to consider. It may be the one thing that pushes that kid to us.
GC: Where do you see you coaching career going?
SE: To be honest, I really haven’t thought about it much. Obviously, somewhere down the road you’d like to move from a volunteer to a full-time assistant, wherever that may be. That’s the goal, to keep moving on up. Hopefully, it will be here with Coach Tanner and these great fans as well as administration. This is just an unbelievable place, to be with these guys every day.
- Link to this entry, Discuss this entry, Blog home page, Contact author
Blog Archives