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Date Posted: 10:46:13 05/02/06 Tue
Author: J.J.
Subject: Hickey built CCSU’s baseball program

Good article. Amazing what can be done at Central when the resources (FT job) are put there. Good job all around.

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05/02/2006
By Matt Straub , Assistant Sports Editor

NEW BRITAIN -- The question caused Charlie Hickey to pause, look down, and stand still. For the coach of Central Connecticut’s baseball team, that’s quite the trifecta.
When Hickey is near a baseball field, he is without fail lively and energetic. When the subject turns to baseball, he’ll engage just about anyone in a conversation, eyes locking onto his counterpart’s.

He can mesmerize not just with his knowledge of the game, but with his personality. Hickey has a way of making the person on the other end of a chat feel important, no matter the circumstances. Take last week, for example. After a brutal Blue Devil loss at UConn, Hickey accurately recalled a player he tried to recruit years ago for one reporter and the name of the daughter of a friend of another, two feats he accomplished without taking his trademark smile off his face.

With all that charm and wit in Hickey’s possession, his silent reaction to a simple question was deafening. The query was about the significance of his 300th career win, a milestone he reached Saturday at FDU after a weeks’ worth of tough games delayed the celebration.

"Aw, I don’t know," Hickey said. "It means I’ve had a lot of good players and some great assistant coaches, I know that."

Perhaps it was just the players and assistants that built the Provdience College’s baseball team Hickey managed. He was the head man with the Friars for three seasons, winning an astonishing 106 games. In 1999, the final season of baseball at Providence before the program was discontinued, the Friars won 49 games, the most ever by a New England school, en route to a Big East championship and a second-place showing at their NCAA Regional tournament.

Hickey preaches fundamentals, but it was a gamble by both sides that got him to New Britain. Recommended highly by former CCSU coach George Redman among others, Hickey was the main target of CCSU Athletic Director C.J. Jones. Jones couldn’t offer Hickey the immediate benefits other schools surely did, but Jones too is an engaging personality, and the two bonded immediately.

"I felt a certain connection with him and a certain level of trust," Jones said of their first meetings, when he could only offer Hickey the expectation that the job at CCSU would eventually become a full-time position, which it has become. "We said, ‘I’m a man of my word, you’re a man of your word, we’ll find a way to get it done’."

The two did, and the results have been impressive. Three Northeast Conference titles and another trip to the conference tournament seemingly on the way this year, Hickey has made Central into one of the best collegiate programs in the region.

"That’s what I’m most proud of," Hickey said. "We’ve taken something that was already pretty good and we’ve done some special things here. We’ve had some special people along the way, and you always cherish those relationships, too. I think we can look at this program and what it represents and have a lot of pride."

Hickey isn’t shy about pride for his adopted home school, often frequenting other events, both athletic and otherwise. Save for a few tense moments when the job at his alma mater UConn came open, Hickey hasn’t given any indication he’s going anywhere, either.

"When the UConn position opened we had great fear because, him being a UConn grad, that he might have interest in the position," Jones said. "Fortunately, I think, he’s comfortable here. He’s a family man and he’s able to have his family here."

Jones always stresses Central’s desire to create a family atmosphere, and Hickey has fit right into it. Charlie Hickey has 302 wins now and a "Blue Devil family." That’s something he’s more than happy to talk about.

Matt Straub can be reached via email at mstraub@newbritainherald.com

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