Building Baseball

Longtime high school teacher and coach risks career to build a baseball program by accepting a position at RBC for a team with no players.

By Abigail Holmes

The great Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks famously said, “let’s play two.” This spring, the new RBC baseball team will play 45 games in their debut season at the Dinwiddie Sports Complex. 

The team will be under the leadership of head coach John Fletcher. Fletcher’s extensive coaching experience, 29 years, and connections honed from his years of teaching and coaching in Chesterfield and Henrico County Public Schools —  like Manchester, J. R. Tucker, and Mills E. Godwin — made him a great fit to lead the      program.  

“John’s experience as a coach and educator was attractive to the college since he has been around student-athletes who aspire to play at the college level,” says Scott Newton,        Director of Student Life & Athletics. “He can relate to student-athletes holistically.”

In the fall of 2020, Fletcher accepted the role of recruiting and building an entire baseball team from scratch. There were no players, no schedule, no coaching staff,. Meanwhile, he was still virtually teaching pre-calculus to students at Mills Godwin out of his garage (COVID-style). He worked long hours at both jobs to avoid leaving his students mid-year. 

“COVID-19 actually paved the way for me to pursue becoming a college baseball coach,” Fletcher explains. “I had a great coaching staff and knew the program was sound.” 

In his final season, Mills Godwin advanced to the Class 5 State Championship, where the Eagles lost by a run in the last inning. By January 2021, Fletcher traded in the position at Mills Godwin for the challenging role at Richard Bland College. 

Determined to get the program up and running as quickly as possible, Fletcher would spend 2-3 hours every night for the next three months making phone calls to potential recruits. “I reached out to fellow high school coaches that I knew,” Fletcher says. “A coach in Vienna won two state championships, and I asked, ‘Do you have names of players you can pass on for me to call?’”

Convincing students to commit to a program still in construction and a team with no players was no easy feat. COVID-19 presented the difficulty of not being able to recruit in-person. 

Fletcher was forced to rely on coaches vouching for players’ character and video footage for showcasing players’ talent. “Culture and commitment is the identity of our team,” Fletcher says. “Guys we recruit now are setting the identity of what this program is going to be in three or four years.” 

Fortunately, COVID-19 disruptions caused The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to grant athletes at four-year schools an extra year of eligibility, prompting graduates to play a 5th year in their sport. Fletcher reached out to underclassman at many colleges and universities throughout Virginia in search of those student-athletes interested in more playing time before       potentially moving back to 4-year athletics.

The 2022 RBC roster, after hundreds of phone calls, has 28 players, all but one from Virginia, and several who played at other colleges previously. “If I could get a student-athlete to visit and tour campus, I knew I had a chance,” he says. “I was blown away by the campus myself.”  

“There are not a lot of two-year colleges playing baseball in Virginia, so RBC is a hidden gem that affords opportunity,” Fletcher explains. “Our goals are to bring in talented, hard-working men, develop them academically and athletically, and help them get to a four-year college.”