Beauford Sanders has been Campbellsville University’s head baseball coach for 36 years, and he’s made it his mission to create the next generation of leaders through lessons he’s learned throughout his life.
From an early age, Sanders was exposed to the sport through his grandparents. It has been a constant in his life, and he’s learned countless lessons from baseball that have helped him during his life.
“It mirrors life so much,” said Sanders. “I’m still learning and still experiencing new things. Sometimes you get nothing, sometimes you have everything… It’s a game with so much failure, failure, failure.”
Sanders believes baseball is unique from other sports. A batting average of only 30% in baseball is considered excellent and top class, while a free throw percentage of 70% in basketball is seen as normal. There are more expectations to miss a few swings in baseball, but there is also much more adversity.
“I try to tell this to all my young men,” said Sanders. “It’s challenging for someone to stay strong. You can’t get too high, you never get too low, and you have those stretches where everything you’re trying to accomplish is a day late and a dollar short. Other times, it just falls into your lap.”
The unpredictability of baseball has reflected Sander’s life. He used to be a baseball coach at North Greenville Junior College and resigned in 1990 after experiencing rough times where the college could not put together a working team. Sanders has a wife and three kids who he needed to support. It was looking rough, but that same summer he left, he received a call from a friend in Kentucky asking if he wanted a coaching position at CU. He felt blessed and gladly accepted it. Once he got there, he went straight to work.
“The grind is part of the growth,” said Sanders. “The key is how you handle adversity. If you win the lottery, you’re fine… What do you have when you’re beating up against a roadblock every time you turn around? Can you still hang in there and keep grinding?”
A core element of Sander’s life that has helped him through adversity is his faith in God. Through his coaching, he makes it clear that his faith is a core part of who he is.
“Faith has helped me every day,” said Sanders. “Without that I would hate to think about what kind of human I would be, and I’m still rough around the edges sometimes. I’m still a work in progress.”
Throughout his accomplishments, Sanders always reminds himself that he’s not perfect. This is not out of negativity, but to always remind himself that there’s room for improvement. In athletics and in life, Sanders teaches his players not to get complacent and settle for average.
The most rewarding part of Sanders’ job is when his students thank him. They not only thank him for becoming better athletes, but also for becoming better humans.
“It is so rewarding to see young men graduate and become real men because they are the future,” said Sanders. “That’s a potential father and husband. If he learns self-control and discipline, he can give that to his children. He can be the leader that he was designed to be.”
About two years ago, Sanders received an email from a student he coached in 1986. The student quit after one semester but remembered everything that Sanders taught him despite never playing a game for him. It touched Sanders’ heart that someone would reach out almost 40 years later to let him know how important he was to their life.
“Don’t underestimate the potential you have to change the world. Wherever you are and wherever you’ve been, you do make a difference,” Sanders said.
Victor Alvarez, a graduate assistant who works with the baseball coaches, has experienced firsthand how Sanders leads by example. The lessons that Sanders teaches stand out to him.
“With him, it’s a learning process every day, because he will tell you himself that he doesn’t know everything, so he’s always willing to learn and teach at the same time,” said Alvarez.
Sanders always acknowledges that baseball is a tough sport with many roadblocks. He makes sure to stay positive when it gets tough, showing others how important it is to stay strong.
CU graduate student Joe McBride said he’s been positively influenced by Sanders throughout his time on the team.
“He has really helped me grow closer with God and has helped me improve my mental with baseball,” said McBride.
Sanders passes down his own life lessons in hopes they stick with his players. He lights a fire in his athletes because he is confident they can succeed in both baseball and in life.
“One of his favorite things to say is ‘be at your best when things are at their worst,’” McBride said. “And he’s always talking about battling through adversity… he’s more of a motivational coach.”
