UNDERSTANDING THE HIT AND RUN AS A PLAYER - BASEBALL INSTRUCTION

Coach James Vilade talks about the Hit and Run play and the hitters responsibility in this Baseball instructional video.

Prior to professional baseball, Vilade spent 12 years as a college coach, serving as head coach for 11 of those seasons. Vilade had the opportunity to start two NCAA baseball programs from the ground up: he was the head coach at the University of Dallas for the first four seasons of its reinstated baseball program before guiding the University of Texas at Tyler through the first seven years of its program. In between running these programs, Vilade was an assistant coach at Oral Roberts University, where he helped ORU capture the Mid-Continent Conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.

In his 11 seasons as a head coach, Vilade compiled a career record of 348-117. His .748 career winning percentage makes him one of the winningest coaches in the history of NCAA baseball and the second-winningest coach in the history of NCAA baseball in Texas, where he trails only Cliff Gustafson, the former University of Texas coach. From 2000-2010, Vilade was the winningest NCAA baseball coach in the state of Texas. In 2007, Vilade coached the University of Texas at Tyler to a 37-1 record, which is the best single season record in the history of NCAA baseball in the Lone Star State and second-best nationwide. Vilade’s historic 2007 team is featured in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. A total of 112 of the college players Vilade coached were selected to All-Conference teams, and another 65 players were named to All-Academic teams. Vilade coached 16 All-Americans in his 12 year-career, and more than 60 players that Vilade coached have gone on to play professional baseball.

Vilade played college baseball at Baylor University where he helped the Bears win the 1993 Southwest Conference Championship, defeating the University of Texas Longhorns while advancing to the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. A team captain and academic scholar-athlete, Vilade received his Bachelor’s Degree in Telecommunications from Baylor in 1995. Vilade also earned his Master’s Degree in Sports Management from the United States Sports Academy in 2003.