Nicoloff Stays Grounded During Process Back to the Diamond
Mar 21, 2022 | Baseball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
About half an hour after Kansas State whipped Morehead State 15-2 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Tointon Family Stadium, Josh Nicoloff stood inside the carpeted hallway that separated the Kansas State coaches meeting room from the office of head coach Pete Hughes. Nicoloff wore his purple No. 27 jersey and white pinstripe pants, cleats, and sunglasses sat atop the bill of his purple hat. On the right sleeve of his jersey was a white Powercat. On the left side was the Big 12 Conference logo.
The 23-year-old Nicoloff was in the middle of telling a reporter about a great book that he read — "Getting to Neutral: How to Conquer Negativity and Thrive in a Chaotic World," by the late great sports psychologist Trevor Moawad — when Hughes emerged from his office and broke into the conversation.
Pointing at Nicoloff, Hughes told the reporter, "That's a great kid. He's a good one."
Then Hughes disappeared back inside his office.
"The book 'Getting to Neutral' is really, really good," Nicoloff said. "It's about just staying neutral. It's about staying neutral regardless of the ups and downs in life. Don't get too high or too low. I try to find the positive in everything."
Months and months ago, Nicoloff could've sulked. Who could've blamed him?
Here he was, a native of Ladera Ranch, California, and a Trinity League All-Star selection out of Santa Margarita Catholic High School — the same school that produced Klay Thompson, Trayce Thompson, and Carson Palmer — early in his third season at Columbia University in New York City.
He was in the middle of taking batting practice at Columbia that fateful day, shortly after 3 p.m. on March 11, 2020, when a trainer came onto the field and brought the team together. The trainer informed the players that Ivy League presidents had just cancelled all spring athletics practice and competition through the remainder of the academic year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Columbia had just returned to New York City from a four-game series at Nebraska. Nicoloff had a team-leading .394 batting average with one home run and four RBI in the first eight games of the season. He was playing his best baseball. In his three seasons at Columbia, he posted a career slash line of .293/.348/.397 with 11 doubles, two triples, three homers and 30 RBI in 69 games with 57 starts.
Now everything came to a halt.
"Just immediate shock," Nicoloff recalled. "Nobody knew what was happening with it. Obviously, we'd heard about COVID, but we didn't know the impact it was going to have on our lives."
Then in November 2020, Nicoloff discovered that he had torn the labrum in his right hip, which needed surgery. So, he had surgery. Three months later, during a routine checkup, doctors discovered that he had torn the labrum in his left hip as well. Two weeks after surgery, Ivy League presidents voted to cancel the 2021 baseball season.
Over the next year, Nicoloff and his two best friends — Josh Solomon and Carson Matthews — pulled each other up through their layoffs, injuries, and surgeries. Solomon is still at Columbia and Matthews is currently with the Los Angeles Angels organization. Solomon tore his elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery. Matthews tore an anterior-cruciate ligament fielding ground balls. The three best friends had done everything together for seven years. They endured a challenging year virtually at the same time. That's when they each began reading "Getting to Neutral." And that changed the game.
The premise of the book? That neutral thinking replaces hardwired negativity, the kind of defeatist mindset that's nearly everybody's default.
Valuable stuff. And timely.
Don't get too high or too low.
"We went from grinding every day and working out to all recovering from pretty intense surgeries," Nicoloff said. "That whole process made us better players and people. We learned so much about how to stay positive, how to build off negatives, and finding the positives in every situation. Honestly, that shaped me into who I am today."
Columbia head coach Brett Boretti was a freshman on the Davidson baseball team in 1990. That was Hughes' senior season at Davidson. They were teammates. Boretti went on to have one of best careers in Davidson history and was inducted into the Davidson Athletics Hall of Fame in January 2010. Following the cancellation of Columbia's baseball season in 2021, Boretti phoned Hughes.
"Brett said, 'This is a guy for you. He's your kind of guy,'" Hughes said. "He said, 'I think he'd be the best player in the Ivy League this year.' I said, 'That's all I need to hear.'"
Nicoloff took a virtual visit to K-State through the magic of FaceTime.
"I remember thinking, 'Dang, this place is incredible,'" Nicoloff said.
He found a baseball home for his senior season.
"It was kind of surreal being back on a college campus playing college baseball, especially fall practice, because it'd been since 2019 that I'd experienced a fall baseball practice," Nicoloff said. "Honestly, it was just so much fun. Throughout the whole recovery process and playing summer ball (for the Wisconsin Rapids Raptors in the prestigious Northwoods League) for a little while, you kind of forget how much fun college baseball is with a team.
"You get here and live in it, and you get to meet so many new people, particularly with our transfers and freshmen, and it's so much fun playing baseball at a school."
A steady diet of K-State online classes affords Nicoloff and teammate Justin Mitchell the opportunity to get a head start on their day. They typically spend mornings with early batting practice off the tee and off pitching machines. Then they hit Jimmy John's for lunch — Nicoloff estimates that he eats the No. 7 Gourmet Smoked Ham Club (without tomato and mayo) at least six times a week — before beginning early preparations for practice with the rest of their teammates.
"I like to think of it as a progression, just getting loose throughout the day and working on a few things here and there," Nicoloff said. "Having that time to ourselves in the morning really allows us to just isolate things to work on."
His presence, along with his extra work, appears to be paying dividends for the Wildcats, 11-7, who prepare to host Air Force on Tuesday and Wednesday before kicking off the grueling Big 12 season with a three-game series at TCU that begins on Friday.
"As far as being an older statesman and how he goes about his business, if he wasn't even in our lineup, he's been such an asset to our younger guys," Hughes said. "You do your deal, man. You got to get your work in. With him, it's early work every day before our (team's) early work, and it's post-practice stuff. He has his routine, and he's serious about seeing how great he can be at this sport. What a phenomenal guy to be around our younger guys. That's how you do it. And he does it every single day.
"We can talk about how cerebral the kid is all day long, but he gets everybody lined up in that infield, knows the game, and is always looking for analytical information. What a bonus."
Nicoloff is putting in some serious work in games — a .262 batting average (17 for 65) with a .538 slugging percentage and a .385 on-base percentage, to go along with a team high-tying four home runs, six doubles, 14 RBI (tied for second on the team) and a team-high 13 walks.
Nicoloff is currently riding a 12-game hitting streak.
On Sunday, Nicoloff hit a double to left center in the fourth inning against Morehead State. Then he hit a three-run shot — his fourth home run of the season — to give K-State a 7-5 lead in the bottom of the seventh. He finished 2-for-2 with one home run, one double and three RBI.
"It's definitely a lot of fun," Nicoloff said. "Regardless of how hard you work, sometimes you don't get the results you want, but you know if you keep continuing with the process, success will come. It's a great feeling to see it pay off. It just feels good to win."
Some players might be riding a high, but undaunted Nicoloff, who went virtually two years without playing college baseball to now producing big-time plays at his new college home, simply refuses to get too high or too low. He read a book about staying neutral. He continues to live by that principle.
And now he's authoring his own riveting story.
About half an hour after Kansas State whipped Morehead State 15-2 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Tointon Family Stadium, Josh Nicoloff stood inside the carpeted hallway that separated the Kansas State coaches meeting room from the office of head coach Pete Hughes. Nicoloff wore his purple No. 27 jersey and white pinstripe pants, cleats, and sunglasses sat atop the bill of his purple hat. On the right sleeve of his jersey was a white Powercat. On the left side was the Big 12 Conference logo.
The 23-year-old Nicoloff was in the middle of telling a reporter about a great book that he read — "Getting to Neutral: How to Conquer Negativity and Thrive in a Chaotic World," by the late great sports psychologist Trevor Moawad — when Hughes emerged from his office and broke into the conversation.
Pointing at Nicoloff, Hughes told the reporter, "That's a great kid. He's a good one."
Then Hughes disappeared back inside his office.
"The book 'Getting to Neutral' is really, really good," Nicoloff said. "It's about just staying neutral. It's about staying neutral regardless of the ups and downs in life. Don't get too high or too low. I try to find the positive in everything."
Months and months ago, Nicoloff could've sulked. Who could've blamed him?
Here he was, a native of Ladera Ranch, California, and a Trinity League All-Star selection out of Santa Margarita Catholic High School — the same school that produced Klay Thompson, Trayce Thompson, and Carson Palmer — early in his third season at Columbia University in New York City.
He was in the middle of taking batting practice at Columbia that fateful day, shortly after 3 p.m. on March 11, 2020, when a trainer came onto the field and brought the team together. The trainer informed the players that Ivy League presidents had just cancelled all spring athletics practice and competition through the remainder of the academic year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Columbia had just returned to New York City from a four-game series at Nebraska. Nicoloff had a team-leading .394 batting average with one home run and four RBI in the first eight games of the season. He was playing his best baseball. In his three seasons at Columbia, he posted a career slash line of .293/.348/.397 with 11 doubles, two triples, three homers and 30 RBI in 69 games with 57 starts.
Now everything came to a halt.
"Just immediate shock," Nicoloff recalled. "Nobody knew what was happening with it. Obviously, we'd heard about COVID, but we didn't know the impact it was going to have on our lives."
Then in November 2020, Nicoloff discovered that he had torn the labrum in his right hip, which needed surgery. So, he had surgery. Three months later, during a routine checkup, doctors discovered that he had torn the labrum in his left hip as well. Two weeks after surgery, Ivy League presidents voted to cancel the 2021 baseball season.
Over the next year, Nicoloff and his two best friends — Josh Solomon and Carson Matthews — pulled each other up through their layoffs, injuries, and surgeries. Solomon is still at Columbia and Matthews is currently with the Los Angeles Angels organization. Solomon tore his elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery. Matthews tore an anterior-cruciate ligament fielding ground balls. The three best friends had done everything together for seven years. They endured a challenging year virtually at the same time. That's when they each began reading "Getting to Neutral." And that changed the game.
The premise of the book? That neutral thinking replaces hardwired negativity, the kind of defeatist mindset that's nearly everybody's default.
Valuable stuff. And timely.
Don't get too high or too low.
"We went from grinding every day and working out to all recovering from pretty intense surgeries," Nicoloff said. "That whole process made us better players and people. We learned so much about how to stay positive, how to build off negatives, and finding the positives in every situation. Honestly, that shaped me into who I am today."
Columbia head coach Brett Boretti was a freshman on the Davidson baseball team in 1990. That was Hughes' senior season at Davidson. They were teammates. Boretti went on to have one of best careers in Davidson history and was inducted into the Davidson Athletics Hall of Fame in January 2010. Following the cancellation of Columbia's baseball season in 2021, Boretti phoned Hughes.
"Brett said, 'This is a guy for you. He's your kind of guy,'" Hughes said. "He said, 'I think he'd be the best player in the Ivy League this year.' I said, 'That's all I need to hear.'"
Nicoloff took a virtual visit to K-State through the magic of FaceTime.
"I remember thinking, 'Dang, this place is incredible,'" Nicoloff said.
He found a baseball home for his senior season.
"It was kind of surreal being back on a college campus playing college baseball, especially fall practice, because it'd been since 2019 that I'd experienced a fall baseball practice," Nicoloff said. "Honestly, it was just so much fun. Throughout the whole recovery process and playing summer ball (for the Wisconsin Rapids Raptors in the prestigious Northwoods League) for a little while, you kind of forget how much fun college baseball is with a team.
"You get here and live in it, and you get to meet so many new people, particularly with our transfers and freshmen, and it's so much fun playing baseball at a school."
A steady diet of K-State online classes affords Nicoloff and teammate Justin Mitchell the opportunity to get a head start on their day. They typically spend mornings with early batting practice off the tee and off pitching machines. Then they hit Jimmy John's for lunch — Nicoloff estimates that he eats the No. 7 Gourmet Smoked Ham Club (without tomato and mayo) at least six times a week — before beginning early preparations for practice with the rest of their teammates.
"I like to think of it as a progression, just getting loose throughout the day and working on a few things here and there," Nicoloff said. "Having that time to ourselves in the morning really allows us to just isolate things to work on."
His presence, along with his extra work, appears to be paying dividends for the Wildcats, 11-7, who prepare to host Air Force on Tuesday and Wednesday before kicking off the grueling Big 12 season with a three-game series at TCU that begins on Friday.
"As far as being an older statesman and how he goes about his business, if he wasn't even in our lineup, he's been such an asset to our younger guys," Hughes said. "You do your deal, man. You got to get your work in. With him, it's early work every day before our (team's) early work, and it's post-practice stuff. He has his routine, and he's serious about seeing how great he can be at this sport. What a phenomenal guy to be around our younger guys. That's how you do it. And he does it every single day.
"We can talk about how cerebral the kid is all day long, but he gets everybody lined up in that infield, knows the game, and is always looking for analytical information. What a bonus."
Nicoloff is putting in some serious work in games — a .262 batting average (17 for 65) with a .538 slugging percentage and a .385 on-base percentage, to go along with a team high-tying four home runs, six doubles, 14 RBI (tied for second on the team) and a team-high 13 walks.
Nicoloff is currently riding a 12-game hitting streak.
On Sunday, Nicoloff hit a double to left center in the fourth inning against Morehead State. Then he hit a three-run shot — his fourth home run of the season — to give K-State a 7-5 lead in the bottom of the seventh. He finished 2-for-2 with one home run, one double and three RBI.
Afterward, Nicoloff assessed his performance in an even-keeled, somewhat quiet manner.Comeback Cats! 😼
— K-State Baseball (@KStateBSB) March 20, 2022
And just like that, Nicoloff gives us the lead with one swing! #KStateBSB pic.twitter.com/Y1piKGrEvD
"It's definitely a lot of fun," Nicoloff said. "Regardless of how hard you work, sometimes you don't get the results you want, but you know if you keep continuing with the process, success will come. It's a great feeling to see it pay off. It just feels good to win."
Some players might be riding a high, but undaunted Nicoloff, who went virtually two years without playing college baseball to now producing big-time plays at his new college home, simply refuses to get too high or too low. He read a book about staying neutral. He continues to live by that principle.
And now he's authoring his own riveting story.
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