Inspirational coach speaks to Abbeville Kiwanis Club

“When Life Throws You Curves, Keep Swinging.”
It’s a perfect title for David Vince’s memoir. After all, Vince coached college and high school baseball for 29 years, wracking up 470 wins in the process. Vince did so having never played the game.
“I was born with a birth defect that resulted in the amputation of both of my legs above the knee when I was a year-and-a-half old,” Vince said. “The doctors told me I would never walk without crutches.
“I put the crutches down when I was eight years old.”
Vince, 54, a Louisiana native and current resident of Ragley, near Lake Charles, told his story of early life “curves” to the Abbeville Kiwanis Tuesday during the group’s weekly meeting.
“You don’t listen to nay sayers,” Vince said. “Doctors told me I would never have children. My wife and I were married 14 years before we had our first child.
“We now have three.”
Vince said his ability to overcome life’s obstacles started at home.
“I had parents and grandparents who didn’t let me use the word can’t,” Vince said. “They certainly weren’t going to let me use my handicap as a reason not to succeed.”
When Vince was 10 he wanted to play basketball.
“My dad coached my 8-year-old brother’s team,” Vince explained. “When I told my dad I wanted to play, he could have told me that I can’t run and jump. How would I play basketball if you can’t run and jump? What he did do was let me play. That could have been the end of if, but he actually put me on the floor.
“I couldn’t run up and down the floor, so he positioned me on the offensive end.”
In one particular game, four steals resulted in four baskets for Vince.
“The other team calls a timeout,” Vince said. “When they came out of the time out, the coach put a player on me and played four-against-four on the other end. I didn’t score another bucket.
“The bigger message was sent that you must try and fail before you say can’t.”
That mindset led him to a career as a baseball coach.
“I went to college to be an accountant,” Vince said. “I quickly found out that wasn’t going to be for me. I went to speak to a youth pastor I was good friends with. I told him my dilemma and he asked me what I wanted to do.
“Without hesitation, I told him I wanted to coach baseball.”
Vince graduated from McNeese State University and became head coach of the baseball team at Catholic High of Point Coupee at 22 years old.
“I am right out of college and I never played or coached baseball,” Vince said. “I never thought I would have the opportunity right away. It proved to be a good decision for me, because the first year I coached, we go 22-4 and play for the state championship. We lost the championship game to John Curtis when their center fielder took away a grand-slam home run in the bottom of the seventh with two outs.
“If he doesn’t make that catch, we are 6-5 winners and state champs. He did make the catch, so we were state runner-up.”
Vince said that still made all the difference for his next 28 years.
“Some guys never get to play for a championship,” Vince said. “Here I was doing it in my first year. I knew that would go a long way in proving I could do the job,” Vince said.
After a four-year stay in Point Coupee, Vince coached at Campbellsville University in Kentucky, where he won a Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship in 1987. He followed that with 10 district titles and coach of the year awards in Florida. He has also coached in multiple countries around the world, as well as working as a scout for the Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians and Tampa Bay Rays.
Vince returned to Louisiana in 2010 to be closer to family. He has spent the years since telling his story, which he did in his book, “When Life Throws You Curves, Keep Swinging.”
“It’s obviously a baseball metaphor for when life catches you off guard with some adversity,” Vince told the Kiwanians. “Everybody in this room has had a curve thrown their way. Maybe it’s not a handicap, but something has happened in your life that has caught you off guard.
“I share some of the challenges I’ve faced throughout my life and how overcoming these hardships have strengthened my faith and made me the man I am today. I hope my message inspires, motivates, encourages and uplifts those who read it, just as people before inspired me.”