Tyler Long is channeling his inner coach

Tyler Long has a lot to give, he has very good communication skills, and he makes everyone around him better.

When you’re playing baseball, that’s called being a leader. When you’re not playing baseball, that’s called being a coach.

It may be a bit overly dramatic to say coaching has chosen Long more than Long has chosen coaching. Let’s put it this way, Long has always had the ability to be a very good coach inside of him, it just took the right circumstances to bring them to the surface.

“I love the game,” he said. “I was able to have a lot of really good mentors who put a lot of time into my future. Those coaches and my parents have been such role models to me that I want to be the same role model to younger athletes. The game gave me a lot of experiences, coaches and friends. It’s time for me to give back to the game I love so much.”

A graduate of Annville-Cleona High School and Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, Long’s journey currently has him coaching as an assistant for the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, a wooden-bat summer league for some of the best college baseball players in America. His roles are third-base coach, hitting coach, and assistant coach, but Long’s duties range from throwing daily batting practice to grounds maintenance and team psychologist.

Long and the Sharks play a 42-game regular-season schedule that’s followed by a playoff tournament and runs from late May through August.

“Things are going really, really well,” said Long, 25. “The hitters have been doing really well with their approaches. Some of the players are guys with bigger schools. They understand hitting. They understand what their bodies are doing. They need to learn to make in-game adjustments. Some don’t have a ton of reps. I’ll sit down and have a conversation with them.

“These kids up here have all the talent in the world. It’s about making small adjustments, using them in the game and then taking them back to their schools. I tell every hitter, ‘I’m not here to change your swing. I’m here to tighten things up.’”

Long has been around sports all of his life.

Following a fulfilling experience with baseball at Mount St. Mary’s, Long graduated in the spring of 2024 after pursuing dual majors in education and special education. It was that summer when Long experienced his lightbulb moment.

“After the conference tournament in my senior year, I went home to enjoy time with my family,” said Long. “I was sitting in my bed at the end of June and my (Mount St. Mary’s) head coach calls me and says, ‘I’ve got a job for you.’ I said, ‘What’s that?’ ‘You’re going to come back and be our grad assistant (coach),’ he said. I was like, ‘Sign me up.’

“Once I got back on campus, it was a little weird because I was still in player mode. It was definitely a learning curve for me. I realized if I want to be a coach, I’ve got to be teaching. That fall was tough for me. I realized like ‘It’s (playing) over dude. You have to teach these guys how to play the game.’”

There was a level of maturity that allowed Long to be real with himself.

“It was play, play, play until I couldn’t play anymore,” he said. “There were no other options. Then my head coach called, and it was a done deal.

“One of the biggest things I took from playing at Mount St. Mary’s was family. When I was a freshman, I had two role models, seniors who took me under their wings. Mount was a very close-knit community, just like Annville. Those guys were my best friends. That place brought such close relationships.”

After his grad assistant year at Mount St. Mary’s, Long applied for more than 30 coaching positions and got more than 30 replies like, “You’re too young and don’t have enough experience.”

But Long did land a job providing learning support for fourth-graders at Annville Elementary School in 2025-26, a position he is returning to this year. He also plans to return to his role as a volunteer assistant with the Lebanon Valley College baseball team.

“That’s kind of where I’m at,” he said. “Now, I’m going to go back and teach at Annville and help with the LVC baseball team. I’m going to go there and see where they journey is going to take me. I’d like to do as much as I can now and figure things out.”

Now when Long thinks about his future, he thinks about coaching and teaching, and not as much about playing.

“When I first committed to Mount, I told my dad that I wanted to teach special education,” said Long. “Teaching and coaching, I love it for where I’m at now. As far as being an athletic director, I might like to explore that avenue, that side of sports.

“I’ve had so many great mentors in both baseball and football. A ton of people gave their time, and all of my coaches have been such driving forces. That’s how I learned to play the game; they taught the game. They were out there teaching the game to younger kids who loved the game.”