How does a guy from Richardson, Texas, who played college baseball at Jamestown (N.D.) College end up coaching in the Coastal Plain League?

Simply by taking the advice of his college baseball coach.

Florence RedWolves’ coach Russell Carter listened when his college coach, Tom Hager, suggested he could do much worse than honing his coaching skills in the CPL. Hager coached the Wilson Tobs in the late 1990s.

“He strongly recommended the CPL,” Carter said. “And for me it was a new area, a new part of the country. It was really appealing to me.”

The RedWolves couldn’t be happier. The league announced last Tuesday that Carter will serve as head coach for the American CPL All-Stars July 19-20 in Forest City, N.C.

Florence finished the first half with a league-best 19-8 record and is 25-12 heading into tonight’s game at Morehead City.

What Carter has been able to accomplish by becoming the first Florence coach to be named a CPL all-star head coach shouldn’t be underestimated, RedWolves’ general manager Jamie Young said. After all, it isn’t always the easiest thing to get together a bunch of players, many of whom haven’t played much, if any, with each other, get them to come together and get them to win a lot of games – especially for a first-year coach.

But Young’s philosophy on being a GM likely has as much to do with that as anything: Take care mostly of off-the-field stuff and let the coach, for the most part, put his team together.

“He can pick and choose the guys that fit into his type of coaching philosophy,” Young said. “I offer some advice – we need to have guys from Carolina, Clemson, Francis Marion, some local players. But who they are, we let the coach decide that depending on what type of team he wants to put together.

“I think that helps out a lot if your players already play the type of baseball you like to coach, and it definitely helps in the gelling quickly part.”

Carter coming to Florence this year almost didn’t happen. Young said he and owner Kevin Barth had narrowed their choice for a coach this season to Carter and Chris Kemp, who was coaching at Spartanburg Methodist. The initial choice was Kemp. The deciding factor, Young said, was simply the fact that he was more familiar with Kemp, whom Young had seen in action. But when Kemp had to give up the RedWolves’ job after taking a position with the Texas Rangers, Young said he immediately called up Carter.

The two coaching styles were nearly identical, Young said, which meant players that the RedWolves had already secured were still viable options.

“From a credentials standpoint, both Russell and Chris were 100 percent even in our eyes,” Young said. “Russell seems to be not only a good coach, but a good teacher. He works with the guys. Obviously, the wood bat is a whole new ballgame to a lot of these guys. You’ve got to be able to show these guys how to adapt not only offensively, but in pitching and defense with how the ball comes off the wood bat as compared to the aluminum bat.”

Florence leads the CPL with a .276 team batting average, 11 points higher than Edenton, which is statistically second-best. RedWolves pitchers are fourth in the league with a combined 2.76 ERA.

“It’s just our job to make sure the players play hard every day,” Carter said. “It’s a different experience for players to play six days in a row every week. The ones that can get their guys to play hard day in and day out give themselves a much better chance to win, and our guys have played hard all year.”

Carter will be taking part in his first all-star coaching experience. He was an assistant in the CPL at Edenton, N.C., in 2007 and 2009.

“I’ve never been involved with the on-the-field stuff, so this is a new experience for me,” Carter said. “I’m really excited about it, to be in the dugout with all the other head coaches and to get to know the kids you compete against on a daily basis instead of just watching them swing the bat or talking to them for a couple of minutes. And we’re talking about the best players in the league in a really good league.”

Wilson’s Jeff Steele will be Carter’s associate head coach for the all-star game. Carter also will be joined by assistants Lee Gronkiewicz (Columbia), Jason Plourde (Gastonia), Barry Powell (Martinsville), Jeff Wicker (Outer Banks) and Tom Dorzweiler (Thomasville).

Forest City’s Matt Hayes will serve as head coach for the National team after holding the same position a year ago for the American team. Edenton’s Josh Scott is the associated head coach. Assistants include Donnie Wilson (Asheboro), Darrell Handelsman (Fayetteville), Hank Morgan (Peninsula), Bob Smith (Petersburg) and Tom Fleenor (Wilmington).