Baseball is a game of adjustments. Making adjustments to match the unpredictability of baseball can be a daunting task, which is why the ability to make adjustments is what separates the good from the great. Whether you are a player or a coach, the best of the best in this game know how to make adjustments, and when it comes to coach Dan Shwam of the Parkland Sharks, he is the epitome of making adjustments.
Dan Shwam has more than 30 years of experience in professional and collegiate baseball, as he has ventured across the country to coach for many different teams in many different regions. He started in the Upstate New York Area, where he would be named Coach of the Year in the NYCBL (2010) and PGCBL (2015). His teams have been perennial playoff contenders, with 6 playoff appearances, 3 championship runner-ups, and two league championships. When asked about the difficulty of the constant adjustments of moving to different regions over the years, Coach Shwam said “Professionally, I’ve been in Upstate New York for over 10 years, so I got to know a lot of people during those times. When I got into the college wood-bat scene in 2012, it was a little easier. Moving down to West Palm is a little different for me, especially the talent. Even most of my roster this year has New York ties due to my personal history. It is a little bit of a challenge and I’ll have to learn over ht next couple of years. I think the CLPB is similar to the NY leagues, so I’ll learn.”
Over 25 players Shwam has coached have signed or played some level of professional baseball, and he even was a scout for the Marlins and Brewers, which he says is “how [he] got hooked.” Shwam used his connections from his old summer team, the Salt Lake City Trappers, to land a scouting job with the Brewers as their “in-between-guy” or the guy who would evaluate major league talent as well as independent ball talent. Shwam said “I’ve worked in a lot of different areas. The nice thing about my career is all the experiences, all the towns. That part was a lot of fun for me over the year to see a different level of ball and see guys move on.
Coach Shwam also detailed his preparation for this coming summer: “The nice thing about working for [Sharks owner Jeff Kunion] is he likes to dabble in recruiting with me. When I was recruiting in the past, I would reach out to college coaches or their agents. Here, I recruit all the kids, which is nice because I know a lot of the coaches were former players of mine and they can give the lowdown of how I work because they played for me. I get a leg up for me to understand where these kids come from and the coaches tell them what to do and not do so they know the expectations.”
When asked about what he’s looking forward to the most this coming summer is the opportunity to help the players prolong their careers. Shwam said “I am always excited for these kids to get these opportunities. Something I always try to tell these kids is baseball comes to an end at some point, but don’t end your career early by just not working at your craft. Baseball is a tough world, and you won’t get to the top without a lot of hard work. WIthout work ethic, you won’t be able to do it.”