Cunningham eager to coach high school players at Waynesburg Central

Perry Cunningham knows a thing or two about the game of baseball.

But applying his knowledge to high school players will be an adjustment.

The former Frontier League pitcher, who is in the league's hall of fame, helped turn around the fortunes of Waynesburg University's baseball program before resigning July 23 as the Yellow Jackets' head coach.

Cunningham, who is a business partner at Back Roads Solutions in Houston, was hired as head coach of Waynesburg Central High School's baseball program following the departure of George Taylor.

"You can't just go out and recruit a need from year-to-year in high school," Cunningham said. "Obviously, the 14-year-old won't be nearly as developed as the college player. I am looking forward to the opportunity to develop these kids.

"One similarity, whether it's a college senior, high school sophomore or even a 10-year-old in youth baseball, is how coachable and willing they are to take what we teach them and put it into action."

Another translation for Cunningham will be the pitch-count rule in high school. As a Class 3A school, Waynesburg's roster will not have the pitching depth of a Class 5A or 6A school.

"Certainly, there are going to be some challenges with pitching depth," Cunningham said. "There has to be a willingness to pitch. You need to have that mentality to be on the mound, and I know that first-hand. There is also a difference between a baseball player and kids who play baseball. In college, 99 percent of your kids are baseball players. In high school, all the kids may not have baseball as their first love."

Cunningham had an open field for any interested players Oct. 30, but many of his players were on the football team and had practice. The Stubenville, Ohio, native understands that he will have players who also compete in basketball and wrestling.

The first practice is March 3 and the first scrimmage is five days later. The earliest play date is March 14, which hinders a long preseason.

"My concern with the amount of time between the first practice and play date is that the hardest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball," Cunningham said. "I'm probably a little biased, but in college, we have six weeks of work before our first game, while it is less than two weeks in high school. I am not against our athletes playing those other sports, and being competitive in them because we need that at our school."