A small collection of players arrived for individual workouts. Not everyone was required to be there. Yet on this particular random day in the middle of the dreary, cold winter and in the privacy of the hitting cages tucked into Saint Mary's Hall, there stood nearly the entire Villanova baseball team, hooting and hollering as a handful of pitchers got in some bullpen work. They chose to be there on their own.
 
If Kevin Mulvey needed proof that the message he's been preaching about teambuilding was working, there it was, in living, breathing and screaming color. A former Major Leaguer who logged 10 appearances in the bigs himself, the Villanova baseball coach often reminds his team that it's not the final scores he remembers from his collegiate and professional career; it's moments he shared with his teammates along the way. "It's such a brief moment in time,'' he says, sitting in the quiet of those recently raucous batting cages. "Four years of college, that's all you get. I remember who I was with, and how it felt to be with them. That's the good stuff.'' 
 
Nine years ago, when Mulvey returned to his alma mater to take over the reigns of the Villanova program, he sought to craft those opportunities for his team. A visit to San Antonio meant a stop by the Alamo and a San Francisco trip required a Golden Gate Bridge tour. Along with appreciating the history of the spots they visited, Mulvey occasionally used the trips to work on a little subtle confidence-building. In Arizona, for example, the team climbed Camelback Mountain. 
 
 "A lot of those guys had never done something like that before," Mulvey says. "I'm sure in their mind it was like, 'oh we're just going to walk up a hill'. And then all of a sudden, they're in a position where the realize if they make a wrong move, it could be bad. Their hearts start pumping a little bit and you see a little bit of fear in their eye. Then they conquer it and they're like, "I just climbed a mountain.''  
 
Either way, he always he's sought out a memory.
 

This past fall, with an assist from Mike Beckerich, a Class of '95 grad and former Villanova baseball captain, the Wildcats made the ultimate baseball trip: after a scrimmage at Binghamton University, Villanova's team took a guided tour through the Baseball Hall of Fame and played a preseason game against LeMoyne at Cooperstown. Beckerich handled the details, securing the team the tickets to the Hall and helping to arrange the game appearance. 
 
The trip, by any measure, was a resounding success. The weather gods blessed the Cats with a perfect day, making for a perfect setting for the family, friends and alumni who made their way there. It also allowed the two teams to stretch the exhibition game to 10 innings. And the Wildcats played well, belting 20 hits and striking out 18 in the 16-3 win. 
 
But when Mulvey sat down to recount the trip recently, true to form, the final score wasn't his biggest takeaway. Instead he talked about watching his players take in the Hall of Fame, how each of them sought out a player or an exhibit that resonated with them; about the private tour that Beckerich helped arranged in the bowels of the Hall, and the players' chance to see Babe Ruth's bat up close. 
 
He recounted the story he told his team about his own first visit to Cooperstown. He was playing for the Rochester Red Wings, then the Minnesota Twins Triple-A affiliate, and that day met Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski. "I explained to them, that it's not about the field or the stadium,'' he says. "This is hallowed ground. Your standing on a patch Earth shared by other Hall of Famers. You have to understand why it's cool, and I think they really did.''
 
The not-so-subtle hope is that all of this communal experience manifests itself into the building blocks of a team. Villanova leads off its season in mid-February at the Puerto Rico Challenge, where the Cats will face a loaded schedule with Rice, Michigan and Virginia. (Mulvey is still contemplating what the team experience might be there. "At least a trip to the beach,'' he says). 
 
He'll turn to his four captains to lay those foundational blocks. Three of them - pitchers Luke McCollough (Utah Valley) and Stephen Turzai (Franklin and Marshall) and catcher Jason Neff (Richmond) - started their careers elsewhere, while Michael Whooley, the lone undergrad captain, has been a starter since arriving on campus as a freshman. Mulvey likes the balance between the quartet, how the players who transferred into Villanova have a uniquely appreciative eye for their experience here, while Whooley can speak to what it is to be a Wildcat.
 
He credits them for fostering a genuine camaraderie, the sort that brought them all to the hitting cage to cheer on their teammates. "Honestly win, lose or draw I don't care because that was just awesome,'' he says.  "That's what it's about. I believe the world is made to share. When you share something with other people, you enjoy it more. That's what we're trying to do. Build relationships based on trust but also create an experience they'll always remember.''