In 2023 as a second-year head coach, Craig Noto led Wagner College to a 13-win improvement and a trip to the NEC Tournament championship, one win shy of their second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Noto, who joined the program in the fall of 2016, helped guide the Seahawks to three straight league tournament appearances from 2017-19.
While his appointment at Wagner is his first college head job, Noto had prior managing experience with the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters of the Northwoods League from 2015-20. There he became one of the winningest managers in league history, racking up 249 victories and a .621 winning percentage.
Prior to Wagner, Noto spent nine seasons as an assistant at Long Island University and with the Bergen Beach Youth Organization. In all, he has coached and/or recruited 120+ MLB draft picks and nearly 30 big leaguers.
Inside Pitch: What were the building blocks to success for your team in 2023?
Craig Noto: That was a special group of young men. We wore it a little bit as a younger team against a very tough early season schedule in 2022—College of Charleston, Southern Cal, ETSU, Rutgers, Vanderbilt—we played everybody. You want to go to a regional? That’s what it looks like. It paid dividends for us as a program.
There’s no price tag you can place on experiences like that, on the unbreakable bond that team built, on those memories that will never be replaced. It was special for all of us, and that team laid the groundwork for us getting to our ultimate goal. Seasons like 2023 keep us energized to pursue that goal for years to come.
IP: Had you always wanted to be a head coach?
CN: I’m not sure it’s something I ever focused on, honestly. I always tried to focus on the job day to day to the best of my abilities. When the opportunity came up, it was honestly the first time I thought about it! I had so many questions for administration, colleagues, other coaches, former/current players as well as for myself. It all happened very quickly.
IP: Did you feel prepared for that?
CN: I did, thanks to the relationships. I’m proud to say I have a great network of people I can depend on for advice. They are always helping me get things sorted out, and in short order. I realized pretty fast that this is something I wanted to do, and this is where I want to do it. I can honestly tell you I cannot envision doing any other job. I love being the head coach of this program; I’ve never enjoyed coming to work more.
IP: The Seahawks led the NEC in hits (602) in 2023. What do you think is unique about your hitting philosophy/development system?
CN: We make a real effort to empower our hitters. We want them to take ownership of what they are looking to accomplish in the box. We have our philosophies and a definitive way we are trying to obtain success in the box like any other program, but at the same time, we’re not trying to reinvent any wheels and cause confusion. For me, it’s about continuous, simple, small adjustments. These guys are already pretty good players, so we’re trying to enhance the things they do well and work on weaknesses with a more systematic approach.
Development is a much easier process than what most make of it, in my opinion. It just takes focused effort. As humans, we are great at creating our own rain clouds and complaining when we get wet! We are trying to create the atmosphere where the player knows we have their best interests in mind. That takes effort, right? As coaches, we have to earn and build that trust so we can get buy-in. There are no shortcuts to success.
IP: How do you go about making those adjustments, especially with something as finicky as a swing?
CN: We try to take ample time in the evaluation process before we jump in and start making wholesale changes. During that evaluation period, we are earning trust, communicating, building that connection between coach and player. Then once we identify a weakness, we try to fix it. Fix one problem at a time, which in turn may fix other issues the player may be having in a more organic manner.
I believe that many rush to quick fix things when, in reality, a methodical approach works best for us. We and our players have ample time to process a coaching “suggestion,” work on it, and evolve their game. Once a player knows they have the capability to make adjustments while playing at a high level, they’re able to take that with them for the rest of their career.
IP: How much do you work on the mechanics of the swing?
CN: Very rarely. We focus on movement, pitch selection, two-strike approach, strike-zone discipline, pitch/spin recognition, etc. We want athletic hitters who have adjustability in their swings and who situationally can execute what the game is asking them to do. We aren’t asking you to hit behind a runner with two strikes so we can score him on an fly ball with the next hitter—the game is!
We emphasize habits over mechanics. Through those habits, we correct flaws and build a sound approach. That’s the ultimate goal for us, to help players improve without tying them up mentally.
IP: What were your biggest takeaways from managing in the Northwoods?
CN: There are a lot of good players at all levels of college baseball. That became glaringly clear to me as I went through the league for the first time. It was eye-opening to realize that not all of the best players in the country come from the SEC or ACC. I always had a respect for the talent level throughout college baseball, but when you’re up close and personal with it, it gives you a different perspective.
Coaching summer baseball really helped fasttrack my development as a coach. Between a college season and the Northwoods, you’re talking about 140 games in a little over six months, and I did that for six seasons. So in my mind, I got about a decade of game experience in about half the time. Building new relationships in a short period of time, managing a pitching staff, balancing lineups, pregame meetings at home plate, early work, mentoring players and learning your clubhouse is so valuable as a coach, and I got to learn in the fast lane with all of that.
I thoroughly enjoyed the process of grooming some younger coaches like Brink Ambler (Baltimore Orioles), Joe Haumacher (Princeton), Devin DeYoung (Chicago White Sox), and Austin Heenan (Salisbury University) to name a few. Just like the rest of us, they made their mistakes, learned from them and got better, and now they are blazing their own trails. Growing our game is extremely important to me, and helping to mold more quality coaches for the future is a critical part of that.
IP: You have 19 newcomers and five new staff members heading into the 2024 season. How do you manage overseeing a program that has limited resources and a lot of turnover?
CN: Good question, but I disagree with you! I do not see us as having limited resources at Wagner, and don’t have a lot of turnover, in a manner of speaking. Most of the players we have lost over the past few years are to graduation, or not having a particular grad program for that player. So we did lose a lot of seniors from last year’s team, but in this day and age of the transfer portal, it could have been a lot worse. It speaks volumes about what we have in place here—good people, a great culture, a noticeable competitive spirit.
The truth of the matter is that we have almost everything we need to be a consistent winner. Our facilities are outstanding, we have great trainers and strength coaches, we have an administration that supports us on many levels. If we can continue to bring in the right good, young coaches in who can help us add the right players, that’s a winning formula, wherever you are. We focus on what we can do today, and on what we have today. We speak of the opportunity we compete today, and that should be cherished.
IP: As a “new” head coach in college, where do you start when it comes to capital improvements for your program?
CN: That can definitely feel like a steep slope to climb, but my position is that we can make anything better. I actually have a three-year plan for capital improvements that I would be willing to share:
Year one: completely renovate our on campus facility/infield surface, new batting cages, screens and netting, a Plyo wall, bullpen mounds, new Sports Attack machines and other tools. It adds up fast but we can’t move our program forward until we can develop our current players.
Year two: more focused on the clubhouse renovations, new lockers, lighting, A/V components, a little more geared towards recruiting but still focused on creating a comfortable place for our players to spend time, which is critical to culture.
Year three: we plan to implement more tech to what we are doing. Trackman, 4D Motion Sports, AWRE, TruMedia and many other potential resources. The ability to generate custom reports and implement individualized player development plans is another foundational piece of every successful program. We have systems in place that aid with this already, but clearly that would take anyone to the next level.
IP: I really enjoy your social media account (@TheNoto24) and how you are always making it about your educating your followers, NCAA rules, the recruiting calendar, and so forth. But it’s never about yourself. Is that a concentrated effort?
CN: I choose to be positive and make it about the players, so my platform is only there to share information about our program and of course, about our kids. Training tips, recruiting advice, accomplishments from others, all good. As a result, my interactions are great, and they’re with some high-level baseball minds at all levels. I know the social media experience is never going to be like that for everybody, but with a minimum level of intentional effort, it can be like that for anybody.
IP: Your team won its first-ever NEC Team GPA Award in 2022-23. How do you make academics a priority?
CN: We go to class, we communicate with professors, we utilize campus resources, and we work on time management with our players. As you know, D-I athletes have two full-time jobs and crazy schedules.
As a college coach, your first priority should always be the academic piece. We have had a longstanding track record of success here. My predecessor, Jim Carone and our Academic Support Staff laid a great foundation for our players over the years. But it’s no secret—we recruit good students. Good students are typically mature kids who care about their future and understand that education is important.