Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host ryan brownlee.
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Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoottingpros.com, visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you. Now onto the podcast we're joined on the ABCA Podcast by Tennessee Wesleyan Head baseball Coach Billy Berry, 2026 ABCA ATech and AIA Coach of the Year Following a championship season that added another chapter to the Bulldog story tradition, Barry led Tennessee Wesleyan to a 4915 record in a 61 run at 69th. Avista Nai World Series In Lewiston, Idaho, where the Bulldogs capped off the season with a dominant 213 victory over number one seed Taylor University.
That victory delivered Tennessee Wesleyan its third NAI National Championship and set a World Series Championship game record for the largest margin of victory, and the numbers behind the team were just as impressive. Bulldogs led the NAI with 735 hits and 170 doubles, ranked fifth nationally with a.349 batting average and finished fourth in the country with 5.238 RBIs on the mound. Tennessee Wesleyan posted a 4.40 team ERA led by Justin Jackson, who won 13 games, posted a 282 ERA and led the nation with 108 innings pitched over nearly two decades, leading the Bulldogs. Barry has built Tennessee Wesleyan in one of the premier programs in NAIA baseball.
He enters this season with more than 900 career victories at Tennessee Wesleyan, multiple national championships, numerous conference championships, and a resume that includes previous ABCA NAIA Coach of the Year honors in 2012 and 2019.
Today, we'll talk about that incredible 2026 championship run. What makes Tennessee Wesleyan baseball so successful year after year, the evolution of recruiting and player development, the lessons that come from nearly two decades in the dugout, and what it takes to build a program that can sustain excellence across generations of players. Let's welcome Billy Bayer to the podcast, all right here with Billy Berry, ABCA ATEC NAI Coach of the Year, Tennessee Wesleyan. But Wesleyan's third national championship this year, 6 and 1 in Lewiston as the 8 seed 4915 record. But you got, you're closing in on 850 wins now, so congrats.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: You know, talking to you and Lewiston, you just, you just seemed confident and relaxed and felt like you guys had really good opportunity of doing some damage in Lewiston.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: I think, I think part of the confidence had come from we, we'd already gone through the struggle.
I think we had, you know, as I told you, we had a, we had a hot start. I think we jumped out 12, 13, 14 and oh, you know, we, we lost a couple games. Then the injuries kind of started to compile.
We had a real back half of March was a little rough, dropping some series at home, which we don't normally do. And then, and then it kind of started again, you know, the 1st of April, you know, we went to Reinhardt. We were able to sweep at Reinhardt on the road. So we thought, hey, we're coming out of it. You know, this may be the part where we come out of it the last four weeks of April and then we play Johnson here and we lose two out of three again at home.
So at that point in time, you're staring down the barrel of finishing third in the league for the first time. And I don't even think they can go back far enough to figure it out. But, but I think that was, you know, the transition from the regular season to the conference tournament and then watching us kind of after night two play, I think the confidence started to grow because like I said, we had been through the struggle. And it seemed like that we were coming out of it at the right time and it just obviously started, it obviously continued as we went into the opening round into the World Series. So I think the loss on Monday night, there was no real, you know, I think it was the first time we'd lost in, you know, at least in the postseason. So I think the loss on Monday night really didn't do anything to affect anybody because again, we, the, the rough patch was behind us type thing.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: How do you balance that in season with, with addressing maybe what you need to fix without burying your team?
[00:06:25] Speaker B: I think it's just, you know, I never thought at any point in time that we weren't good enough.
We just got bit like, like some teams do. We got bit by a ton of injuries and you know, as I was telling you, like, we would get a guy back and then we'd have a guy back for two days and another guy would go down and it was always key pieces and, and so, you know, I mean, obviously you saw our shortstop, you saw our first baseman play out in Lewis and I mean, we played with both of the, without both of those guys in the lineup for almost a month, you know, and that's two. You're talking about your two hole hitter and your, and your three hole guys, so. Or your four hole guys. So it was, again, I just think it was, it was compounded injuries.
I think some guys got thrown into some situations early that they may, they weren't as ready for as maybe we thought they were, but they progressed really well. And so what it did was it gave us that depth down the stretch to be able to do some things that maybe we wouldn't have done had we stayed healthy all year long. You know, maybe we wouldn't have played some of the lineups we played or we wouldn't have moved guys around a little bit to create that depth and try to find that balance through our lineup, whether it be from a offensive perspective or a defensive perspective or, you know, from a pitching staff type thing. So I don't really think it was one thing that necessarily this group was doing wrong. It was just we couldn't keep the same team on the field consistently. And I think we were constantly having to move some things around, which you know as well as I do when you're constantly having to make those moves, it's an adjustment and it takes time. And this game's so routine and repetitive that, you know, the more times you can get in that flow of having that same group out there that Day in and day out with mixing some pieces in, it helps. And we just never could.
We were constantly in and out of flow and kind of in and out of consistency through our lineup. And I think that was the biggest issue. They came to work every day, they worked hard, they played hard.
It was never a matter that we sat up here in our staff meetings and said we're doing this wrong or we're doing this wrong. And we may have gone through some spells of maybe getting off of the plan offensively or maybe not being able to, you know, do enough on the mound or those sort of things. But those were like game by game things. They were not like a consistent thing across the board. It was more just the injury piece.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: I felt like record setting national championship game. But still. Do you ever get a chance to relax in a game like that?
[00:08:52] Speaker B: You know, it's funny somebody asked me that when we got done and I think about the 8th Inn I think for the first time in my career I just watched. I felt like I was able to watch the last six outs and I think at one point in time I did walk down. I had to kind of walk down. We were in between innings and I kind of had to give the, you know, the old, like Nick Saban. There's still three seconds left on the clock. We're, you know, we're up 52 to, you know, to 20, but there's still three seconds left on the clock. We got to stay focused. But, but no, it was, there was a calmness that was there that, that hasn't been in the previous two. And it was, there was an opportunity at some times for our staff to kind of just kind of look at one another and kind of just have those moments of, you know, it's been a lot of hard work. It's been a lot of ups and downs and those looks that I think that we gave back and forth to one another kind of without words, kind of summed up that the struggle was obviously, obviously it's worth it and those sort of things. But, but no, I did, I, it was a, I would say I was a calmness that, that I hadn't felt in Lewiston before, especially know in 2012
[00:09:58] Speaker A: and 2019, always have a great offense. But then you got a guy like Justin Jackson who throws 13 wins out there. Is that the most you've had out of a starter before?
[00:10:10] Speaker B: I think Blake Payton may have had 13 or 14, you know, through that stretch of like 23, 24, 25 somewhere in there. But definitely we've had some elevens, we've had some twelves, but very few 13s and. And pass that.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: How is this team similar to the past championship teams?
[00:10:30] Speaker B: You know, actually I go back to just, I mean, go back to Justin for a second, you know, was a guy was so highly talented coming out of Santa Fe in 25 and was supposed to obviously had been at South Florida, went to Santa Fe, was supposed to go to Tampa and play for their great club and. And then some summer school stuff, whatever. And we got in late and to be honest with the junior year was just okay. Like he kind of came in and. And it really felt like it took him a while to kind of find his footing and. And I didn't know, to be honest with. We had some conversations about whether or not he thought this was the place for him, you know. You know, when we got done, when we got back from.
From the World Series in 25, there were some conversations that, you know, that he wasn't sure that this was the place for him, that he just kind of felt like he was regressing a little.
A few conversations over the summer and then he called us and said, you know, I'm going to come back and kind of finish what we started type thing. And I mean, from day one, he was just a different animal. And I think it was a lot of it had to do with maybe some self reflection, you know, on his part. I think he would tell you that.
But it was also us making some adjustments to how we.
To how, you know, his plan in between and you know, maybe bullpens or just some of the things that maybe he got back more into the routine of what had made him successful prior to coming here. And we kind of, you know, tried to those things together. But man, what a great transformation from. From 25 to 26 for a guy that.
That. That is now, you know, hopefully going to make a. Make a pretty good living being a Savannah banana.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Hey, what he switched back to his routine.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: I think it was just more just the comfortability of, you know, his dad is very, you know, his dad has kind of always been his pitching guy and. And he leans on his dad a lot. His dad's super smart and very much in tune with. With what made him tick. And. And I think some of it was he was a slow mover and he was kind of a slow mover and in 25, very kind of methodical, you know, with his delivery and his mechanics and those sort of things. And I think, you know, one of the things that, you know, I Heard his dad say to him a couple times, and we looked at it as well and agreed was just to kind of speed him up a little bit. A little bit more athleticism and just kind of get, you know, everything kind of synced up and doing that. And.
And I just think there was just small, you know, it wasn't a major overhaul. It was just these kind of small adjustments, I think, of things that he had gotten away from, you know, that had made him successful in the past and. And. And just, you know, getting kind of back to just the things that made him the pitcher that he had always been and maybe just some of the things that had gotten lost in that translation in 25.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: That's such a fine line with pitchers, too, because everybody thinks slowing down is better for pitchers, but that's not always the case. Case.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: I don't even think a lot of times he knew it, though. I don't even think a lot of times he knew it. So it was more just kind of putting him in situations to speed him up so he could feel it. But once, you know. But again, I think few tweaks.
Whole lot of mindset. Makes a. Makes a pretty dangerous guy in year two.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And back to similarities with this year's team or different.
Different than the other two?
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think they're all different. I mean, I think, you know, when you look back at 12, you know, we had been to the series twice, and we had lost both games. And so, honestly, man, we just left the house and we kind of said it, just tongue in cheek, like, we just wanted to win a game. You know, we just wanted to see what Sunday was like because we kept getting there on Tuesday and we kept flying out on, you know, on. On Saturday night or Sunday morning. So, you know, that was kind of the joke, you know, in 12. And, you know, 12 was just such a different. It was such a. I think the. The other part is NAIA baseball. And 10, 12 years ago was so different in the structure. Like, you know, we had. I mean, you look at that team, and that team had all Division 1 and 1 Division 2 transfer with a couple of JUCO guys spread in it. You know what I mean? Like, it was. That was still in the. In the time when if you wanted, you know, if you left your NCAA school, if you wanted to play right away, then you went to a juco. But if you weren't, you know, if you were too old to go to a juco, then NAI was your route, or you had to sit out. And so the landsc of what those guys look like, the physicality, just, you know, where they were coming from, those sort of things.
You know, 19 was, you know, 19 was coming off of a year at 18 when we fell short and we didn't make it. And it was also just at that point in time is my second year back from my stint between being here and being at Baylor and then coming back. And so, you know, we made some adjustments to personnel and some other things. And you know, Neff and I really sat down and kind of tried to craft, you know, what, what was going to. What was. Would make it work for both of us and leading the team and doing that and, and then this group was just, you know, I think having the experience of 25, I always say that I think the experience of being there the year before lends itself to, you know, to, to something the following year, whether that be, you know, we had guys like Colton Reynolds and Justin Jackson and Josh Shelley and, and those guys had been there, they had been in it. Cameron, Gopher, Maguire, Taylor. Those guys were there in 25. So when you're sitting there and you're referencing things of, you know, what does it take and those sort of things. Well, these guys have firsthand knowledge because they were there in 25, right? And then all of a sudden, you know, these guys are, you know, your top three arms, you know, that are pitching in the series have been there. You know, you're, you got two returning all Americans that, that, that were there the year before. So I think it's just, I think experience.
I think this group was lended a little bit more of an experience prior to.
And I think it's becoming, you know, somewhat of an expectation.
So I think that clubs are, you know, they're, you know, as we prepare and we go through the fall and we go through off season and things like that, you know, obviously it's always at the forefront of your mind that, you know, I've always said I think your goals should be realistic. I think they should be either something you have attained or, or you've gotten so close that it's, it's, it's. It's just around the corner. And I just. Fortunately for our program and what the, what the young men here have done is they've created an expectation that each year that, that is a, that that's a possibility to be a final destination for us to play for a national championship.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: 40 win seasons going to that. To 11 out of the last 12 years.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think it, I think it plays into it as well. I mean, I do. I think it plays into. You know, scheduling has gotten so much tougher at our level now because of the.
You know, it's just we're so spread out. You know, you got teams and, you know, you've got your teams in your league, and. And we're a league that plays, you know, 30 games, so, you know, you still got it. You got to find 26 of those. And, you know, budgets are getting tighter, Money's getting tighter, and, you know, these times when we all used to kind of fly to one location and you had, you know, five or six, you know, top eight teams in the country, and we were all going to beat up on one another for the first couple weekends and do that. It's getting tougher to do those things. So, you know, I want to see some of that try to come back. But, yeah, I just. I've always said that I think this place has been built on sustained success.
It's hard to do. It's hard to duplicate year in and year out.
Obviously, Coach Norfleet was doing it back in the 90s. You know, coach Lawson was doing it in the early 2000s.
You know, we were able to kind of ride that. Travis kept it going, you know, for those two years and now, now. But I just think one of the hardest things to do is sustain success, and we've just found a way each year to, you know, to continue that.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: What do you feel like the new tournament format is going to do?
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Man, I think it's wild. I was actually in. I was actually in Tennessee at the JUCO this weekend, and I ran into another NAIA coach, and we spent some time chopping it up and talking about it, and it seems, you know, to me, you know, if you remember back in the day, the old format of, like, hey, the AAC and the KCAC was matched up, and then you had the Trans south and the Mid south was matched up, and then, you know, we all got the privilege, all those years of if you won your regional, you got to go to.
You got to go face the. The Cumberland University powerhouse of Woody Hunt. And so that was your consolation prize for. For winning. And, man, it was just so hard to get there. Like, it was so difficult. I mean, I definitely think that the.
The new format, you know, has lent itself to.
To not those kind of teams getting. Not roadblocked, but it's just. You've got two really, really good teams that would be really, really good teams out in Lewiston, but one of them's got to lose and go home, one of them's got to win. And so I think what we've done in the new format is we've spread people out.
So I do think you're getting the best teams there.
My only fear in the new format is I just don't want them to regionalize it. I don't want it to say, well, just because we have three sites within six hours of one another, we're going to keep all the teams. Because look, man, I mean, I think biasly, I think some of the best in a baseball is in this region. I think when you look at the teams that are going to the World Series, you look at the teams that are competing for national championships.
I think right now some of the better, like some of the better teams, if you look at the top 10, the top 15, they just happen to be in this region. When you go up from Florida to Alabama to Tennessee and Kentucky and obviously you see what Taylor did last year up in Indiana. So, you know, you look at that and that's not to take anything away. I mean, because we had a two year run in our level where, you know, Westmont and Hope went back to back as west coast champions. And so I think that. But I also think that I don't want to see them run into the same problem too where, you know, you're just, you look up and maybe at some point in time you're playing the same teams you played, you know, in the midweek or there's, you know, you end up with two teams from the same conference or something else and you're doing that. So I hope that adding the six team doesn't, doesn't take away from some of the, of the, of the spreading out that we've been able to do to really make these things competitive. But also cut down the repetitive play and you're seeing somebody different, you know, in those kind of settings.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: And that's what Division 2 runs into every year. You'll have some teams match up in the Division 2 regional that have maybe played each other seven or eight or nine times during the year. So that's something.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: I get the money piece.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: I. Yeah, yeah. But you can tweak it a little bit too, just to make sure with the, especially D2, with the super regional piece, they could tweak a team here or there.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: Now I do like the 18 format though, at the World Series, I will say that. I mean, I think it's much more cut and dry.
You know, the bracket that we've been playing.
I, you know, is Was confusing at times. I felt like, you know, we, you know, we play on a Friday and we win and, you know, Johnson plays Southeastern on a Saturday and we turn around and play IU Southeast. And Johnson, you know, loses on Saturday and they get a day off on Sunday, they get a day off on Monday, and then we play them on Tuesday. And now we're playing our third game, they're playing their second game. I, you know, I'm. What I'm. What I enjoy about the new is it's just going to be straightforward. Like, it's going to be, you know, where the buys are going to be. You know, if you win, hey, you're going to get a couple days off or a day off or whatever. You know, if you lose, here's who you're playing and doing that. So I think it'll cut out some of the.
Because last year was a lot, man. I mean, you lose on Monday night and we played Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That was a lot. And so credit to our kids, credit to our staff. But, yeah, I don't want to do that again.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: I mean, how those conversations go with the guys there. I mean, obviously you're at the World Series, but you still got to muster up a little bit.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: I remember Thursday. Yeah, I remember Thursday.
So Tuesday, obviously we were able to catch a dom. So, you know, we were able to, you know, we were able to only play seven. And so that was good. And the weather was actually cool. It was cloudy. I remember that.
And then Wednesday was another decent day, but again, we got backed up to 3 o', clock, so we had, we played early. We had it. So the turnaround wasn't as bad.
And then we got to Thursday against Southeastern and man, it was one of those, like, Lewiston scorchers. I mean, it was a thousand degrees outside and the humidity was awful and, And Justin, God love him, but like, he had been in this stretch where he had pitched really well in our black uniforms and he's like, we gotta wear black. And so we're all out there black. And I mean, it was about the sixth inning and, and we were starting to become the MASH unit, man, guys are cramping. Guys are pulling a little bit, guys with this. And I remember at one point in time looking at Coach Wood and Coach Flander, and I said, man, I said, I just don't know how much more they have to give. Like, they've done such an amazing job. And man, our credit to our trainer Austin, man, he did such an amazing job of kind of just Finding creative ways to accredit to our ad. We found some creative ways to kind of get some recovery into our guys and, and kind of just try to just maintain as much as we could.
But yeah, Thursday took a lot out of us and I wasn't sure.
And then obviously we were able to muster up another 48 hours.
But no, I've said before, it was one of the more amazing things I've watched a group of people do because one, the amount of games, the amount of innings, the amount of time in between, some longer than others, but just the ability to show up day in and day out.
You know, we have a saying, ignore the circumstance and just play.
And sometimes that saying has just been something that's kind of been on our wall and it's just a neat little slogan. But I would tell you that the 2026 group lived it out because they, they showed up and denied a lot of circumstances on a daily basis.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Have you been able to devolve and kind of keep things fresh for you? You've been at the same place for a long time. How do you, how do you kind of re engage year after year being at the same place?
[00:24:44] Speaker B: I think it, I think honestly it takes a little bit of time. I would tell you. I mean, we're in the. We've kind of started fall right now, and I wouldn't tell you that. I'm completely in it right now.
I think, you know, I think as time kind of progresses and goes on, you know, you kind of start to get a feel. I think one thing that you kind of have to do first is you have to get kind of a feel of what kind of club you have.
Because I think you can run out on day one and you can say, okay, well, this is what's made us successful all these years. So we're going to run this club just like we ran last year's club. Well, you know, this year's club has 28 new faces on it. Last year, you know, it only has six guys. There's only six guys on this team that were in the middle of that dog pile in Lewiston. So I think you kind of have to just kind of, you know, just once you identify what kind of team this, what, what kind of heartbeat it has, you know, what's going to make it tick, what's going to make it go.
Then I think you start to get. I think that's when I start to get a little bit more amped, you know, amped into what we're doing and how we're doing it. But I think it takes sometimes, I think, to take a step back, and I think that's the exciting part as well, is every team has a little bit of difference. So there's a different way that maybe we. The lessons that we teach in our team meetings and the things that we do, you know, we have kind of every week has a theme, and so the themes may be completely different. So that's what kind of keeps me energized, is really trying to find, you know, the game is the game. Right? I mean, we're not reinventing the game. We're not reinventing drills. We're not reinventing this. I think the thing that keeps me motivated, it keeps me going is, is to identify the 30 to 35 guys that we have on our roster and then figure out, okay, how do we get this group to play the way that each group is played, but they're not going to. But the way we go about doing it and the intentionality that we do it with is probably going to be different because the heartbeat of these guys is not the same heartbeat of these guys. So I think that's what keeps me motiv, is trying to figure out each team and. And then trying to figure out how to make it work.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: How do you come up with your themes for the week?
[00:26:45] Speaker B: So it basically just revolves around, you know, whatever we have going on. Like, so this week we have the. We. We get the opportunity to play Walter State on Sunday, so in an outside competition game, which I think is awesome. So the theme of the week that. That we worked on last night is, is just. It's. It's a game week, right? It's how do we prepare in a game week. I think this is the first time that we're going to have an opportunity to show them how we go, how we go about, you know, the day to day, how do we go about, you know, making sure that when we get to Sunday, we look as game ready as we can, which is obviously tough to do because it is the fall, and there's still a lot of things that they're learning and still a lot of things that we're trying to. To piece together and who's playing where, who's doing what, you know, what lineup looks the best, those sort of things. And I don't think we're anywhere close to any of those things, but I think it goes back to the words that we use. You know, Monday around here is about appreciation. Tuesday's about enthusiasm. Wednesday's about competitiveness. Thursday's about Team sh. Friday is about accountability. So, you know, like in our meeting today, we'll talk about like the appreciation of preparing for a game. Like you've got to have a great appreciation, a great intentionality.
And then when you look at that from a three prong approach, we're going to attack them each day. From how does the appreciation to prepare for the game this week? How does that affect you? Positively and negatively, personally, athletically, and spiritually? What does that look like? What does that word look like in preparing for a game week? And what, what are some of the tools that we can give them that, that have worked for us in that preparation? And then taking the appreciation into tomorrow when you should be getting excited about the fact that Sunday we're going to strap it on and play somebody else. And just that those words kind of carry and that's the build to it.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: You play straight baseball on Sunday?
[00:28:31] Speaker B: We do, yeah, we'll do. We'll play straight baseball. We may do a few. If anything goes too fast and, you know, we may put a fourth batter up in there or something like that, but.
And then, you know, obviously if we have a guy that is, you know, struggling a little bit, then, you know, we may flip an inning. But for the most part, the goal is to go out there and play three outs a side and try to play about nine or 10 innings and just kind of get a gauge of where we are. I don't think it's, you know, obviously it's competition.
I just watched them play Saturday in Murfreesboro and they look about.
They looked game ready. So their physical Dave and Sean and Logan and those guys do an unbelievable job of just year in and year out. And they definitely look the part, but they played the part Saturday. So just excited for our guys to get out there and just compete against, you know, some of the best as far as the juco ranks go and those sort of things. And I think it'll, you know, we'll learn a lot one way or the other. The good thing is after Sunday we're going to learn something positively and negatively about who we are and the things that we need to either continue to do well moving forward or the things that we need to clean up and spend a little bit more time on.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: You playing anybody else this fall?
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So we were actually fortunate. The NAI has given us the ability to kind of get that outside competition thing going back again, which is really cool. And so we'll go Sunday.
We'll be at Walter State the following Sunday. We'll be at Carson Newman and we get to play one of, one of my, one of my buddies and alum with Tennessee Wesleyan, Tom Griffin and his club, which is always, you know, great learning experience.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: Experience.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: And then we'll come back and we get an opportunity to play another Tennessee Wesleyan alum and Aaron Bryant, the head coach at Cleveland State. And then we get to finish up the month of October with Georgia Hollins and Dash and his guys. So, man, to be honest with you, I feel like we're one of the best jucos in Georgia, One of the best Jucos in Tennessee or two of the best Jucos in Tennessee and then a top Flight Division 2 program. So we're going to. It'd be a really good gauge and a really good test for our guys
[00:30:35] Speaker A: and it splits the fall up for the guys. It just makes it, it makes it so much more productive in the fall playing somebody else.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Well, I think it's, it goes back to. You're looking forward to something, right? I mean, I think that's the, that's the key piece. I mean, look, we're five inner squads in now, you know, you know, four, you know, four innings of most of them, five of one. And, and look, man, I use it, I've always said, I use the puppy dog analogy. You know, your family gets a new puppy. Everybody loves it, everybody's fighting for it, everybody's fighting to hold it, everybody's fighting to, to have it sleep with them and do all those things and then that sucker gets to be 65 pounds and nobody wants to take it out anymore. Nobody wants to play with it. Nobody wants to, you know, So I think that's what your inner squads can turn into after a while. So the fact that you have something to break it up and it's more now. So this week, like Thursday and Friday we'll play and preparation for Sunday and kind of do, you know, more of a, kind of a standard day before we play Saturday. What does that look like? And those sort of things. So it's, it's not only it's prepping us to play, but it's also prepping us for what the routine is going to be like as, you know, when we get into the spring, as far as, you know. Look, man, we don't have like a full detailed scouting report, but we'll go through something to mimic what that looks like, you know, as we prepare and as we go and, and just to get them in the routine of preparing to play. But to play at a high level,
[00:31:57] Speaker A: you tweak the Fall inner squads at all. Keep it, keep.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah, we have.
Yeah, we have. I mean one of the, one of the things that we've done is. And I talked about this when I did my presentation, you know, at ABCA a few years ago was I was sitting here one day and I was just kind of doing, you know, there's times I just get online and I'll just try to see if I can just pick some stuff up. Right. And videos are the best sometimes. And so I came across a video and it was, you know, it was Vanderbilt and they were, they were doing an inner squad and this guy was miked up and he was kind of like, he was, he was narrating or kind of PA in the inner squad or whatever. And, and basically, you know, they were doing this thing where they were setting a scenario and, and so they were starting with a guy third base and, and then all of a sudden, you know, they would play the top half of the inn and then they would start with a guy at third base and they would play the bottom half the inn. And so you kind of was able, as I watched it, you were able to kind of put the pieces together and see, well, they're playing a one inning game but they're starting in the ninth inner it, you know, so, so that's what we've really gone to is, is these quick hitters, you know, as far as just setting a scenario and, and, and, and really kind of teaching our guys, hey man, if, if, if, you know, if in the top half, you know, let's say we put the home team up one to nothing, okay, well, they don't score but they go down in the bottom half and they shut the door. Well, we're gonna line it up and we're gonna shake hands like it's April 2nd or April 3rd or whatever, you know. But also too if, if it's one to nothing and we start first guy comes up and hits a two run Jack, well that game's over with and we expect you, we expect the celebration to mirror what it's going to look like on February 7th or whatever that is. And so I thought that was kind of cool because again it just kind of kept these quick hitter moments in the engagement.
We've gone completely away from the 9, 1012 inning scrimmage.
It just doesn't, I don't know how everybody else holds their guys attention, it just doesn't hold ours. So we're more playing 13 innings over the course of a week, but we may be playing like 4, 4 and 5 or we may be doing something.
We're always ending some kind of day with some kind of competition in our practice. So even if it's just, hey, two guys are going to throw and we're going to play two innings, you know, we may do that so, you know, we do some clean, dirty stuff as well, which, you know, let's say we're going to play. We're going to start the game in the top of the eighth as opposed to the top of the night. So we're going to play a clean inning and then we're going to set a dirty inning which has, you know, a gown first or guys at first and third or something like that. So. But no more. Like I said, just let's go out. Let's. We got seven, eight guys that need to throw today and, and we're just going to get as many at bats as we can and we'll just kind of tweak things as we go and we want it to kind of, we want it to. I think everything that we try to do here, we try to mirror it so what it's going to look like in the spring. And, and so, you know, that's kind of.
So that's some of what we've been able to do is just make it more and I think it makes it more competitive as well.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: Has your in game management changed much as far as what how you run things?
[00:34:59] Speaker B: I think, I think it call, I think.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Well, I put myself in the dugout two years ago, so I think that's given me a broader.
That's. I would say it's opened my eyes to some things that maybe I didn't see before.
I think it's been a good thing. I've enjoyed it because it's given me an opportunity to really kind of be on both sides of the ball, you know, for the longest time, you know, I was only concerned about the offense and I was blessed to have, you know, really good pitching coaches. Brad Neffendorf, Zach Stern or Daniel Wood at the time, and Stephen Baker when he was here. So, you know, those guys that were so well versed in their job and what they were doing, it was like they would come to me, you know, and they would start kind of lining things up. But it wasn't like you had to really worry about changes and things like that because you had a guy that you trusted to kind of navigate and we had talked about those things prior to games starting and things like that. But, you know, you get on the offensive side and you're coaching third and you're kind of responsible for the offense. So when you're in the dugout, obviously you're seeing what's going on that half inning, but you're also going to line up card trying to figure out, okay, we're, you know, what are the scenarios, what, how, what can we do, you know, can we run in certain situations? Do we need to button the situation? Hey, do we just need to let it ride, hit? You know, so you're kind of going through those things. So this has given me the ability to really kind of be more entrenched in both sides and what's going on. And, and, and I do think you see the game from a different perspective. You pick up a few things that, that are there that you don't see from the third base box. So I would say that's probably been the biggest adjustment is just, you know, going into the dugout and being able to see some things that maybe I necessarily wasn't seen or being able to really kind of involve myself in things that, that I wasn't, I was involved in, but I wasn't entrenched in. And so I think those have been two really good things.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: You have any stats you lean on as far as like maybe late, late matchup stuff, pitching, who you're going to bring in to face guys or also pitch hitters?
[00:36:52] Speaker B: I think some of it, I think, I think metrics play a part into that. I think when you look at, you know, we've got some guys that, I mean we've got some left handed pitchers that just aren't very good against left handed hitters, you know, and so you think we're going to play the match up here and we're going to do some different things. And you know, I think percentages play a little bit of that as well. I mean we got some guys that, you know, when you look at, when you start looking at pitch hitters and you start looking at guys that depending on obviously the percentage of the guy that's coming on the mound, I mean especially in the league, we have so much data on these guys, right? So you know, you know, a guy you know is, is going to be, you know, he's going to be, you know, 60% fastball, he's going to be like 40% on another pitch or 20 and 20 or something like that. And we may have a guy that, man, he really does hit the heater but struggles a little bit with the off speed stuff. And so we'll play that percentage late in the game or you may have a guy that manages, you know, he's kind of struggling on the heater, but he sees the breaking ball really well and some other. Or he does a really good job of keeping his face on it and going the other way, whether that be a left or right handed hitter. So I think some of that plays into it. I mean I still, man, my gut is still, I always kind of think is my best, is my best tool and it, sometimes it doesn't work, but you know, a lot of times it has. And, and I think feel, I think gut and feel are still the things that I rely on the most.
I think the way a guy practices during the week when maybe he hasn't been playing a whole lot, man, that's always a thing for me, you know, watching a guy that maybe, you know, has been in the lineup and now he's out of the lineup for two or three games and but man, he's been practicing his rear end off and man is about his, his BP is getting better. He had a couple live at batsman, he stung the ball and, and now you're looking at late in that game and you're, and you're saying to yourself, okay, you know, I think this guy's ready for this opportunity. So it's a lot more of that kind of thing just, you know, seeing what guys do during the week and then when you get to the, you know, that 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th inn and you know, who are the guys that have kind of made you believe that they are, you know, ready for those moments and I think that's just a gut in the field type thing.
[00:38:51] Speaker A: How long does it take you to kind of get your lineup set in the spring? Is that that ever ongoing? Fluid?
[00:38:57] Speaker B: It's ever ongoing. I feel like, I mean, I feel like, you know, I feel like it's like anything else and I feel like it's, you know, when it's going well, it's going well. And then, you know, like when it's not going well, it's, you know, you want to change this or that and I think that's just human nature. But normally for us I think it settles in probably, I think it probably settles in around like the 1st of April, usually the last month is how we're going to roll, you know, if we're healthy and everything's kind of played and playing in its strengths. And I think the other part of it is, you know, I use Al as a perfect example. I mean, Al in anybody else's lineup is probably a definite Middle of the order type hitter. So that's where we had him. And you start looking, and you're just kind of like, okay, we're not stealing a ton. We're stealing bags. We're not stealing a ton of bags. Right? We're kind of, you know, in those places. And. And so you looked, and we just. I had a buddy of mine that. It was like a tongue in cheek. I think we were eating breakfast or something, or we were talking on the phone, and he was like, have you thought about moving to the leadoff spot? You know, you grab a midweek game on a. On a Tuesday, and you're like, you know what? Screw it. I'll try. Let's try. Let's see what it looks like. And. And. And he was such. And I think it also depends on the guy because he's so easy. Like, he was always so easy to deal with. It was like, oh, you want me to hit lead off? Yeah, yeah, coach, I'll go hit leadoff. And so.
So you kind of did it, and you were like, you know this. And then you slide. Then Rob Gordon was like, hitting in the bottom of the order, and you're like, okay, well, Rob's such a good back control guy, and he does such a good job of going the other way. It's opening up holes. And now we slide Rob from. From like the seven hole to the two hole, you know, I mean, and. And then you go, okay, well, Josh is probably hitting where he needs to be hitting. And then David Balania was just. David Balania didn't have a ton of power, but he was an RBI machine. You know, like, you looked up and he's driving three, four runs in a game. You're like, okay, well, we'll slide him in the four. And then everybody's looking me and go, you got Colton Reynolds sitting in the five. You know, you got a guy who's probably hitting three or two, and everybody else's order, he's hitting the five. And I think it just kind of what it did once we made that change. And to be honest with you, if my buddy hadn't said anything to me, I probably would have never done it, you know, I mean, because it just wasn't something that you thought about. But sometimes it takes somebody from the outside that's looking at your club and going, hey, man, it's good, but I think you could maximize it. And I think what you saw was it took our lineup, and it really. R1 through 5 did like this, and it just created so much length And I think anytime you can create length through your lineup, it just makes you that much more dangerous. And I think that was the thing that really kind of turned the corner for us offensively was when we put the length in the top five, and then it just made the bottom half look. You know, it just really kind of pieced the bottom half together in a way that really.
It was a really nice accent to the top five.
[00:41:38] Speaker A: I really just got your lineup jump started.
It did thump, right? I mean, because you can't get comfortable right out of the shoe. It's like, okay, you better make pitches because you're going to.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: Well, I think you get back to the. I think you get back to the first night in Lewiston, and Al Lee's the game off. You know, Ali's the game off with a ball that he hits over the wall, and it just kind of sets the tone for the rest of the game out of that stadium, you know, so. And there's just not too many guys in your lineup that have the ability to do that. And I think that's. That was the change, is that he was just such, you know, he. He was involved in so many of these spark moments for us during the year that putting him at the top was just probably, you know, it was the move that kind of made. I think it changed the complexity of what we look like, you know, to kind of finish the back half of the year.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Your preseason prep changed much. So when you guys get back from break, have you tweaked how you guys get ready for the season much?
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Nah, because it all really depends on the weather. You know, I mean, I think there's been times when we've been able to get out and we've been able to really kind of prepare the way that, you know, everybody wants to prepare and. And do that. And then there's been times we've been stuck inside for two weeks at a time. So I think the weather really kind of dictates.
I think it's like anything else. You're sitting there, you know, you kind of. You get through Christmas, and once you get through Christmas, and it's kind of like you're starting to turn that page to, like, okay, guys are coming back. We've got about three and a half, four weeks before we play.
And really, you kind of come up. You almost.
You almost kind of devise two plans. And the two plans are, okay, if we can get outside and if we can't get outside. And I think so. I think we've always kind of stuck True to the preparation of either thing.
But, but I think it really just depends on the weather and, you know, how many times we're able to really get out and do the things, you know, mirror those, those moments that we're getting ready to get into, you know, two, three weeks from now.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: How are you mentoring new staff members?
[00:43:31] Speaker B: Man, it's been, I think one of the things that we've done is, is really, I think we're all learning this whole thing that we kind of started with these let you know, with kind of the meeting room and the lessons that we're doing prior.
I know that for me, I'm learning because I'm the one that's sitting here, you know, in the mornings and preparing, you know, for that, you know, kind of that, you know, that 10 minute lesson that we're gonna do. So, man, I'm, I'm feeding myself, you know what I'm saying? From a standpoint of, you know, looking at things and going, okay, personally, athletically, spiritually, what is this doing to me? You know, I mean, or am I even, am I even practicing what I'm getting ready to go tell these guys that they need to do is am I, am I kind of showing that? Am I, is that showing through me and my daily walk and what I'm doing and how I'm, you know, how I'm speaking, how I'm, how I'm reacting, those sort of things. And then I think for our guys, it's the same thing. I mean, we talk about it, you know, in our staff meetings a lot. We'll kind of talk about, you know, those things. And so I think it's just, you know, I think one of the things that I think that people, I maybe need to understand or they, or they need to see more of is this standard culture thing is like the words that we use now, right? Core values, culture, standard.
And I think the one thing that I've learned or that we've learned as a staff is if you really want that to show, then you have to teach to that. You have to make that a part of the curriculum. Right? Practice. Practice is part of the curriculum. Training is part of the curriculum. If we're equating this to a classroom setting.
But you have to spend some time during the day talking about why your culture is important and give them, you know, it's walking in with a toolbox that says, here's some tools that can help you, you know, understand why we do what we do, why has it made us successful, and why do you need to make it a part of your everyday life if you're going to be a productive member here. And so I think that's the part where it's probably been the best, most beneficial thing for us is, is coming up. And man, I remember like I was literally, you know, I was listening, I was watching something on TV and it was when Shaka Smart was at Texas coaching basketball, man, and they talked about each day here has a meaning, each word has a meaning. And so I remember I went to work the next day and I emailed their, like I just picked the coach and I emailed and I said, hey, any way that you would share that with me? And man, they were so gracious and they sent it and we've kind of tweaked it a little bit to kind of make it fit our own deal. But, but it was something that I thought was really cool. And then once we started to dive into it, it was really, you started to kind of see, you know, they learned more about instead of like back when you and I played and it was the guy stood there, your dad stood there and he said, all right, here's who we are, here's who we're going to be now get your rear ends out there and let's go do it right. We were like, okay, we don't know any different. And these guys are exposed to so many different things, man. They got so many opinions, which are great, but you really have to kind of hone it in on, you know, to me it's those five words and it's that slogan that kind of ties in who we are and what we want to be.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: And you talked about in Lewiston a little bit as far as recruiting options. You're able to recruit maybe a little bit more high school kids now with kind of the landscape of what's going on with Division one.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: Yeah, man, I'm honest with you. We are super excited about four or five kids that we currently have right now.
And you know, we're, we've got, we've got three pitchers that are all young guys. One left handed from the state of Tennessee, one right hander from the state of Ohio and another right hander from the state of Tennessee. And then we've got a shortstop that honestly, man, I kind of scratch my head some days and trying to figure out why he's here because.
But they're just, it's a different level of talent than what we've been able to attract, you know, from a regular 18 year old kid coming out of school. High school. And so, you know, I don't know if it's gonna. I don't think the.
I don't think we're gonna transition fully to one side or the other, but I think what this door is doing is it's opening up opportunities for us to at least. At least in our home state to have conversations with kids that they're way more receptive to now. And. And so, yeah, we are. Like I said, I mean, for the first time in a long time, I'm really, really excited about.
About some of these young guys and. And obviously watching their progression over the first three weeks, man, they are.
They're not lost, you know, So I think that part's cool as well.
[00:48:03] Speaker A: Plus, you. You got a longer time to vet, too. You know, I always think about the transfer portal window for trying to get it right on a kid, that maybe you're gonna make a decision on a kid in a week or two. Like, it's. I don't know if anybody's good enough to get that right.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: There's no rush. I think that's the. I think there's no. I think the one thing that we look at in this process is all. All four of those kids we saw. We committed those kids prior to all but one prior to 26 turning on January 1st. So these guys made commitments, had, you know, they kind of knew what they were looking for, knew what they wanted to do, and we were able to get them committed early, which was great. So we were able to watch their high school season as well and see how they were progressing from there.
But, yeah, it's. There's no rush with these guys right now. And I think that's the part where maybe why we're seeing the progression we're seeing, because we don't have to throw them into anything crazy right now. We can kind of just nurse them along and make sure that they. Because they've had some bad days, but our older guys have had some bad days so far, too. So, you know, but older guys tend to get out of their bad days a little quicker than younger guys. And so that's just. I think that's the other part. Nursing them along, but also nursing them through, you know, that rough day that they're not used to having.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: Yeah. How do you have that conversation with a young buck that. That's struggling a little bit to remind them that, like, hey, you're good enough to be here?
[00:49:27] Speaker B: I think it just comes down to just. Again, that this is game is super, super hard. I mean, I think that's the part where you just continue to tell them it's. It's so hard. And I think the one thing with our, you know, with our position player is man, we're not looking to see if you're going to get, you know, that you're going to be 3 for 3 at the end of the scrimmage. You know, what we're looking at is, is are you controlling the, you know, I mean, like, okay, at the end of your at bat, you know, did it look like you were overmatched or did it look like you were comfortable? Man, you, it was a good at Batman. Like, you know, there was some quality to your bat, whether it be a walk, whether it be, you know, seven or eight pitches, or whether it be you spit on, you know, how you struck out, but the pitch before you spit on a really good pitch. And we're not looking for results, we're looking to see that come, you know, February and March. If we put you in a game, have you shown the ability to be able to look comfortable in the environment that you're in and have you been able to put a, you know, it bats together, whether it be, you know, and then the controllables. Can you, if you're a middle infielder, are you, are you able to control, you know, the runner at second with our, you know, with some of the pick stuff that we want to do and some of the look stuff that we want to do and you know, I think we put way too much stock in this is how many hits I got. You know, I've seen a ton of fall all Americans, man, I have, I mean I've seen a ton of guys that, man, you thought for yourself this guy's going to hit the three hole and this guy's going to be an all American. And this guy is everything that we thought he was going to be, you know, times 10. And by March that guy's not playing for you anymore because, you know, it's now it gets real. So I think we're looking for a level of toughness.
You know, we want to see that those guys are tough, that they bounce back, they got some grit to them, they got some fight to them, to be honest with you. I mean honestly, the result of what they do is probably the last thing that we're looking at because I think it is a ton to ask of an 18 year old kid coming into an environment that is surrounded by 21, 22 year old grown men to ask them to come in and just produce. And if that's the only way you're going to evaluate them, then you probably shouldn't bring them in. So honestly, the results of their day from a. How many hits do they get or how many errors, those sort of things, that's probably the last thing we're looking at. We're looking at. Honestly, can you control the controllables? And are you.
Do I think you're tough enough to, to be able to withstand, you know, what goes on around here?
[00:51:56] Speaker A: And that's where the fall outside competition helps, too, because you can answer those questions a little bit more when you're playing somebody else. Not all of them, but. But especially for the new guys, like, hey, this is what it actually looks like.
And here's some adjustments you need to make before the spring, for sure.
Who's your biggest baseball mentor?
[00:52:17] Speaker B: My biggest baseball mentor, man, I've got a bunch of them.
[00:52:20] Speaker A: I know you do.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: I mean, I got a bunch of. Man, I'm so blessed to be in that PBI group that I'm in, man.
[00:52:28] Speaker A: It's like, for people that don't know about that group, like, I know a lot of, like those in the basement baseball community. No, but for somebody that, like the general, general bystander that just talk about
[00:52:38] Speaker B: that group a little bit, it's, it's a, it's.
It's the most fun I have. And anything that I do in baseball, I will say that. But you obviously, Ashley Lawson, who is now with the Rangers, you know, he started it. I remember they had this grandiose idea that they were going to run a baseball camp in December, like two days, three days after Christmas.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: And so, I mean, that, that Eddie. Santa was. I think Eddie still does his.
[00:53:09] Speaker B: Yeah, so they literally, they literally, they literally decided, you know, we'll, we'll. We'll run it at Men County High School. And so they had like, one small indoor cage, and then they had the field and. And there were 36 kids that showed up. And that was the first one back in, like, I think 2006 maybe, something like that. And it was a small staff at the time. And then obviously, just like anything else that he does, man, he just puts his heart and soul into everything that he does.
And so it just grew and it grew and it grew and it grew. And then we took it over to Bradley and, man, you had to wait your turn to get in. Like, I wasn't in the first roster.
Yeah, you had to wait your turn to get in.
But when I did, man, it was, you know, guys like Willie Bosque who had coached here at Westland, played at Miami.
Danny Clark, who has been with the Rangers as a pitcher coordinator and was a coach at Milligan, and Butch Chaffin, who's now the head coach at Baylor, which I'm so excited for him about.
And you had Tom Griffin, who's the head coach at Carson Newman.
Skyler Barnett, who's the head coach at Milligan, is in there now.
Brian Bridges, who we had. We've got Scott and Mark Connor, we've got scout directors in that thing. And, you know, just the list goes on and on of people.
Michael Holmes and just these pro. It was such a hybrid of, like, college guys and pro guys, right? And the balance between the two things.
But what people don't realize is, man, when camp ends, you know, and we go back to the hotel at night or we go to breakfast the next morning, man, it's just all about, like, what are you doing? What are you doing? Like, what's working for you? What's not working for you?
You know, one of the best things I've ever picked up in my life, man, it would do. And it was just watching.
Watching him was Tom Griffin never walks around that. He doesn't have a pen and a piece of paper. I don't care. I think the guy literally goes to the car dealership with a pen and a piece of paper. That car dealership guy says something that's profound that he thinks he can use, he's going to jot it down.
But I picked up on that, and it became something that was more like, I've got so many notes in my phone, or I've got so many sayings or so many things that I've picked up. And it was just kind of just watching these guys from a young age, just watching these guys work. It wasn't what they said. It was how they worked. I mean, I think that was the biggest thing for me. It was just like, you know, it was all gas and no break, man. And it was like to watch a.
To watch Ashley Lawson or Danny Clark do a lesson. I mean, these guys are, like, ingrained in professional baseball, and they're doing a lesson with a kid, like they're trying to get him ready to pitch through spring training.
That's the intentionality that I saw from these people, and it just meant it. I think it molded me into just the coach that I wanted to be.
The organization, the attention to detail, the not letting a single error pass, like. Like, you know, what you tolerate is what, you know, what you allow is what you Tolerate those sort of things. And so like I said, man, I didn't get to jump in from the get go, but I hung out a lot. I used to go like, so they had it. Like I used to go and I just kind of like stand around and then, and then hoping one day like that, you know, I think I had to earn my stripes, you know, here.
And then obviously, you know, when I got the opportunity to go to work for the first time, it was really cool because, man, I still, to this day, I'm 51 years old. But whether those guys know it or they don't know it, like, I look up to them and I have the utmost respect for them. And a lot of what you see us doing here is a byproduct of some conversation that I've had with one of those men at some point in time throughout my career.
[00:56:57] Speaker A: Do you have a fail forward moment? We talk about it a lot here. So again, something you was going to, maybe you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now, it helped you move forward.
[00:57:06] Speaker B: Forward.
[00:57:07] Speaker A: We talk about those a lot here.
[00:57:09] Speaker B: I think, I think the best thing I ever did was step away.
I, I still say that to this day. I think the best thing I ever did was step away.
In 2014, 2015, I wasn't a very. I just was burned out. You know, it was kind of, you know, you're. At the time, I think when you get into this, you think to yourself, like, hey, I'm gonna, I'm going to be here and then I'm going to move. I'm going to be here for a couple years. I'll move here, then I'm gonna move here, then move here. And here's like my, here's, you know, my, my strategic plan of how my career is going to go. And, and I'm in complete control of that, right? And so you look and you say, okay, you know, at the time I'd been there, I'd been here 10 years, and I just didn't like, where's the next move, what is it, whatever, you know, those sort of things. And going to Baylor was probably the best thing that I could have ever done for my career.
Because what it did was one, it put me back in an environment where kids wanted to. They're just starving to learn, right? They're just kind of like, they want that development, they want that, you know, instruction, they want those things. And I think we brought an energy to that place that kind of, that obviously Greg and Mike, they carried on and Butch will Carry on as well.
But what it did was it really kind of, I think, cemented to me and to Jackie that. That, like, we were probably where we were supposed to be. You know what I mean? And if there's a way for us to kind of, you know, navigate back to that. And there's. Look, man, there's 100 people gonna have 100 different reasons why it happened and those sort of things, and that's their business and whatever. But the difference is, is that, you know, once we got the opportunity to come back here, we kind of looked at it as, like, this is. This is. Like, this is who we are. This is where we need to be those sort of things. And obviously, there's been opportunity, great opportunities that we've been afforded to leave here, and we've looked at those opportunities. We have. But ultimately, at the end of the day, we came back to kind of the piece of what this job has allowed us to do as a family, what this job has allowed us to be a part of as a group, not just dad being at work and. And kids and mom being part of the moment in the memory and dad seeing it through pictures or something else. And so, yeah, I definitely think that had I not left in 2015, after the 2015 season and. And done that, I probably. I think there's a strong possibility I'd be back in Richmond, Virginia, living with my immediate family, you know, around my immediate family, and just kind of saying, hey, man, this college baseball thing was a good run. We had a good run. It was fun. And now I'm just kind of living life like, you know, like a regular guy for the most part. And so. But what it did was it opened my eyes to.
Sometimes you're exactly where you're supposed to be, but you can't get out of your own way enough to see it.
[01:00:06] Speaker A: And I give you a lot of credit, too, because there's plenty of people out there that would have just kept plodding along.
You know, if you're not happy or you're not enjoying it, would just keep punching a time clock, keep doing it.
[01:00:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And look, man, I love the place. Like, it was awesome. Like, I'd made a lot of great memories of Baylor and a lot of great people and those sort of things. And I know that people weren't jazzed about the way I left, and. And. And I get that, but I don't care when you leave or when you go somewhere, there's people that aren't gonna
[01:00:31] Speaker A: be like, yeah, yeah. So leaving a place, it's never. It's never gonna be all rosy. Like, it's just. Yeah.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: But, you know, I still have some great relationships there with some. With some people and. And my son spent two years. Years there as a player, you know, so we got to kind of go back and kind of reconnect with some people that, you know, that we knew in our time there. But. But yeah, it was. The step away, man, was probably the best thing for me. Because what it's done is, it's. I've never. I will say this, I've never felt the way I felt in 2014 and 2015 in my second stint here.
[01:01:05] Speaker A: You tweaked your routines at all, your workout routines.
[01:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah, man, I'm Getting up at 4:45 on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, and. And you know, I've been in.
[01:01:14] Speaker A: You're not. Hey, you're sleeping in on the weekends.
[01:01:17] Speaker B: I'm sleeping on the weekends. I am.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: So what is that?
[01:01:21] Speaker B: It's getting. It's getting lighter and lighter, bro. I'll be honest with you.
But you know, man, what I found was that I literally was not like, you know, I mean, obviously, you know, reading and journaling and things like that. You know, I've talked about that when we've been on the road. That's something that's been huge for me.
And obviously you just kind of, you know, fall can get crazy. You know what I mean? And a lot of it has to do with just, you know, new students, new things and, you know, so there's always a lot going on. So what I found was I take my daughter to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I get up a little later. But what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get up. I go, basically, I'm literally sitting. I'm setting the electrolytes in the water right by the bed.
I wake up, I go fill it up, I pound it just like you told me to.
And then. And then I go downstairs into my office, downstairs in the basement, and I read and I journal, Kind of spend my time just alone, kind of just going through that, kind of preparing myself for the day.
And then been going to the gym right after I come up, change my clothes. I'm going to the gym at 6 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then coming back and showering and getting ready for the day and then getting here and then stopped meeting. And that's just kind of when the day starts. But, man, I felt a lot better about just the fact that I've taken care of myself. Before I've taken. Before I had to take care of anybody else.
And then just trying to do that and then Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, man. Just trying to kind of just get some rest and kind of decompress a little bit. Do that. And I found that this routine seems like it's going to work for me. I'm not, like, super ingrained in it yet, but it seems to be.
I've done a couple different. I did a couple different things to start the fall, and none of them were working, so I kind of settled in on this.
The suck part, though, man, early, is when that alarm clock goes off at 4:45, it's.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: You got to force yourself like any other muscle, though. You train it and it's like, okay, because you can feel the difference. Like, when. When you're in that groove, you can feel the difference. And I just felt like I was way more creative. Have got more that quiet time. Early, I just feel like you're. You're.
[01:03:31] Speaker B: Man, I would credit you a ton of day.
[01:03:33] Speaker A: You're clear.
But I just feel like you have so many good ideas that come out of that. You're more creative. Like, I just feel like there's so many benefits to it.
[01:03:41] Speaker B: Well, bro, I would credit you a ton for that because you and I have had. I think every time we get together, we have a conversation about what do our routines look like and. And what are we doing. And I think, you know, one of the things that I've, you know, just kind of listened to you say over the course of the time that we've spent together is. Is just taking care of yourself. You got to make sure that you're taking time for yourself. And, you know, when you're kind of in charge of, you know, as much as we're in charge of, whether it be the kids and their families and obviously our staff and taking on the responsibility of then my family at home and doing those things.
It's always. I would credit you a ton for how I have looked at those routines and what I've tried to tweak and just really making it a point. Not that I do it every day. I don't want to. You know, everybody's just. So you don't get up 4:45 or. No, I don't get up at 4:45 every morning, but I try two, three times a week. And if I get two times a week, man, I feel like I'm winning.
[01:04:32] Speaker A: And you talked about control, the controllables. Like, as a human being and an older adult, you don't have a lot in your control, but that is one thing you can control.
You can control when you get up. And yes it is. It stinks in the beginning, but once you get into that routine, like it again, it's just like any other habit. Like when you get into that routine, that's just like any other habit you got.
[01:04:54] Speaker B: I was so impressed. Our two assistants, Logan and Daniel, just did 75.
[01:04:58] Speaker A: Hard.
[01:05:04] Speaker B: To watch them do that, both of them. I was like, you gotta like, literally like we would, like, we would be somewhere and, and It'd be like 10 o' clock and, and we'd be done or whatever and. And it was either an event that we had or something else. And then these guys are going and getting the backpacks and they're walking the streets of Athens at 11 o' clock at night. And so I'm super proud of both of them for that. And man, you know, and just to watch the consistency, you know, with that was, was pretty cool. So they're both out of it now. Both of them are out of it now. And so.
But yeah, shout out to both those guys because that was probably the hardest thing I've ever watched anybody do it. All right.
[01:05:46] Speaker A: Give a plug for the ABCA convention.
[01:05:48] Speaker B: You guys are unbelievable, man. I'm so excited again to, to go to Chicago. And it's just one of those times that you look forward to.
It's, it's. I think it is the best, absolute best start to anybody's, you know, preseason. I think it just kind of, I think it's like you go there and you literally get the opportunity to get around like minded people.
You get an opportunity, you know, you always pick up a nugget somewhere. Like you've got, you know, you talk about plans for the preseason. I feel like I'm always coming back and literally like right before our first team meeting, I'm tweaking something that I just learned 48 hours prior, right. And kind of going from there. But no, man, looking forward to it again. You guys do an amazing job. It's growing the game.
I think you guys are. The one thing that I respect so much about the organization is you're just not sitting on your laurel and you're just not saying, hey, this is how we've done it. You're constantly trying to push, figure out how do we push the needle forward, what do we do? You can see it with the speakers, right? Like, you can see the speakers start to evolve into more what's, you know, trending as far as our game. And things like that. So, yeah, man, looking forward to it. And always again, man, first time guys, you know, take it all in. Don't try to. Don't try to. Don't try to do it all.
You know, it's just. It's not Disney World. You can't do it all in one day and.
But yeah, just looking forward to it and encourage those people, man, get involved. You've never been show up. If you had spent a couple years since you haven't been, get back in it. Because like I said, I don't think there's anything better to start your year with than that and then come back and go right into your preseason.
[01:07:21] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts before I let you go?
[01:07:24] Speaker B: Just, man, I'm excited for another season. I think that's the biggest thing. I think the biggest thing is. The biggest thing for me is, man, is just another year. You know what I mean? Just another year to be around the guys, to be around the game, to do that. Obviously, you know, our school is in a little bit of a transition. That's exciting as well. I mean, we have an outgoing athletic director and we're getting ready to hire a new athletic director, which I think is going to be awesome.
Super proud for our current athletic director who's going to be the new conference. He's going to be the new head of our conference. So, you know, so maybe when I get tossed out of games, the penalty won't be as harsh. Now, since it's my former boss, it might be worse, to be honest with you now. But no, I think that. Just grateful, man. I think that's the thing that I keep kind of going back to is just grateful for another season and grateful for, you know, again, the opportunity to be somebody that I think gets an opportunity to carry the torch for our level. I mean, there's a ton of guys that, that are well qualified and there's a ton of guys that do such an amazing job and I'm just grateful to be just a piece of that, you know, one of the guys at our level that gets to carry the torch for our level along with such. Along with so many more amazing men that I'm not going to mention because I would forget somebody, but they know who they are, so just thankful for that as well.
[01:08:49] Speaker A: Thanks for your time, Billy. Appreciate you.
[01:08:51] Speaker B: Appreciate you.
[01:08:51] Speaker A: Appreciate you.
[01:08:52] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it. Bye.
[01:08:55] Speaker A: I'm really proud to call coach Berry a friend. I always enjoy our conversations on self improvement. It's great to have people around you that will motivate you to get better on a personal level. Congrats to Coach Barry and the entire Tennessee Wesleyan program and another national championship. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABCA office. For all the help on the podcast, feel free to reach out to me via email rbrownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. To Coach Browner Square ABCA or direct message me via the MyBC app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
Yep, wait for an hour together.
[01:09:50] Speaker B: And the world will always return and your life never for year and you know that way
[01:10:04] Speaker A: wait for another day.
[01:10:13] Speaker B: Sam.
