Bryan Madsen - Manager, 12U Team USA

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After making his first appearance on a national team coaching staff in the summer of 2023, Brian Madsen took the helm of the 12U National Team as manager for the first time in 2024 and led Team USA to its eighth gold medal since 2013. Under Madsen's leadership, Team USA outscored opponents 57. 9 and recorded a tournament best.357 batting average and a 0.86 ERA as a team. Matson also served as an assistant on last year's staff at the WBSC U12 Baseball World cup in Taiwan, helping lead the Stars and Stripes, their second consecutive gold medal at the event. Madsen, who served six years in the United States Marine Corps from 1999 to 2005, is currently in his first season as assistant coach at Episcopal School of Jacksonville before relocating to Florida. California native notched three seasons as head coach of St. Joseph's High School and and earned 2024 Santa Maria Times all area baseball team Coach of the Year honors. Prior to taking over at St. Joseph's Madsen was an assistant at Arroyo Grande High School for six seasons. He's also the co owner of Coastal Empire Baseball, which provides training and workouts for baseball players in Southern California, and a coach with the Florida based Cannons Baseball University. Let's welcome Brian Mattson to the podcast here with Brian Madsen, assistant coach, Episcopal school in Jacksonville, Florida. USA Baseball 12U World cup champion manager heading into another year with the 12U team, but has two titles as an assistant coach as well, but then spent numerous years coaching in California. Brian, thanks for jumping on with me. [00:03:56] Speaker B: No problem. Thank you for having me. [00:03:58] Speaker A: It's been in the works for a while. Yeah. So how young are yours? So Derek, Zoe and Brooks, how young are they? [00:04:07] Speaker B: Derek will be 10 in February, Zoe's 7, she'll be 8 in May, and Brooks is 2 months. [00:04:15] Speaker A: All right, so what activities are the two older ones into? [00:04:19] Speaker B: Derek's into every sport. He's into the big three, baseball, basketball, football. Zoe is basketball, gymnastics, playing chess now so she can officially beat me. I've never played a chess match in my life, so, yeah, dancing, she's doing all that stuff. Derek is. Derek lives that blessed life, you know, starting shortstop, starting point guard, starting quarterback. So it's, yeah, he makes me feel bad about myself daily, but that's okay. And Brooks is just into eating, sleeping, and doing what babies do. [00:04:57] Speaker A: So that tip for parents, kind of cultivate whatever your kids are interested in. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. Like I, I, I love it that my son loves baseball. I mean, baseball is his number one love. He's been around it, you know, used to be in a baby carrier behind the batting cage. But I mean, there's been plenty of times where I've said life would be a lot easier if he didn't love baseball. But yeah, whatever they're into, I try to get into it. Like I said, even the chess thing with my daughter is, is it's new and it's different and I don't know anything about it, but I'm trying to learn and just kind of whatever they're into, I'm into. So I never played a game of football in my life, you know, two hand and tackle, but I never played organized football. My son loves it and he's really good at it. So figuring that out too. [00:05:45] Speaker A: So with the amount of time you spent in the Marine Corps, do you bring much of that into parenting? And then Coaching. [00:05:54] Speaker B: So, you know, it's funny, I was thinking about, I was doing a, we were in Ontario, I was doing their Ontario baseball convention and I did a talk on leadership and I think a lot of the things that are kind of hot now, you know, ownership and, and leading from the front and your, your team being first and, and servant stuff, that stuff I did in the Marine Corps. So it's been part of what I've been built into, you know, for years. As far as parenting. Yeah, it's the same principles. I mean, obviously there's some. It's a little different the way you treat people in the Marine Corps. It's a different goal and a different mentality. But at the end of the day, you got to be responsible for what you do and own up to what you do, good and bad and, and continually figure out how to try and build these little members of society that are going to be productive and lead a good, respectful life to where they know they can make mistakes. However, you just can't keep making them the same mistakes over and over. [00:06:57] Speaker A: One of the books I talk about and when I go speak on the circuit is Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. And that's a, that's a Marine term because the highest ranking official in the room eats last. I mean, it's not written in for. And I might be wrong on that, but that's what he talked about in the book. That's an unwritten code with the Marines. Are the highest ranking official each last in the room. [00:07:19] Speaker B: Sure. You know, and they're, they're the last one off the, off the field and, and, and I've seen it with my own eyes and I try and do that stuff daily, you know, and especially here with Nick at Episcopal and, and CBU and stuff. He's, he's really good at that stuff too. And him and I are on the same wavelength there. And it's just like with the, with the 12 year national team. You know, the coaches serve the players dinner. Part of that is, is that's what you do. You know, that, that servant part. The other part is to kind of see how they are, you know, with, in, in certain ways not on the field. You know, it's, it's kind of get a bird's eye view when you're serving other people too. [00:08:00] Speaker A: What drew you to the Marines? [00:08:02] Speaker B: I knew it was the hardest, you know, outside of some of those, you know, Special Forces and things like that. Kind of worked alongside them too in the Marine Corps. But at the time I joined the Marines, I needed something that was bigger than myself. Even when I was a little kid, I always liked the commercials with the, the blood stripe and the, you know, the dress uniforms and the square jawed guy and then. But you know, before I joined the Marine Corps, I was, I had stopped doing, playing baseball. I was heavy. I'm not kidding about this. I was 265 pounds when I went in the recruiter's office and I told him I wanted to join the Marines. And he said, well, you can't do it like that. So I had to lose 44 pounds before I could even go to boot camp, so. And then I lost more. I walked out of boot camp at 176. [00:08:54] Speaker A: It's a David Goggins story. [00:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Yeah. I don't know if I'm quite on his mind level, but I think you are. [00:09:01] Speaker A: Honestly, I do. I don't know. [00:09:02] Speaker B: I think you are, but yeah, it was just the idea that I needed something bigger than myself. I wanted to push myself and I liked everything the Marines stood for and it was good, great. Probably the best thing I ever did in my life. [00:09:16] Speaker A: Congrats on last two summers, by the way. And I just read 8th gold medal since 2013 for the 12U team. So congrats to USA Baseball and you all. [00:09:25] Speaker B: I appreciate it. It's an honor. And especially coming from the Marine Corps is to put on the USA again and represent my. Describe the feeling of, you know, hearing your national anthem play. It's, it's, it's something you won't forget. You wish everybody could feel. But still being the, the manager again, I kind of still don't know how I got here. I just kept showing up and working, you know. [00:09:53] Speaker A: Who nudged you to get involved with USA Baseball? [00:09:56] Speaker B: Nick James. It's funny, like our full circle. So Nick and I are related by marriage. Nick's wife and my wife are cousins. So we met pretty early in my coaching career when I was just starting in California with Brad Latchman and a Roy Grandy. He was, he was running, you know, Westminster Academy and South Florida and he was running stuff here. And he was just really good example. And he always talked about usa. He was doing the open or the early stuff when they were out in RBI Academy in Compton and stuff. And then I think, gosh, it was one day I got a call that they needed somebody for a half day or something and I, I think I was in California and Nick threw my name out and I drove down and it's funny, we were flying to New York the next Day to see family and my wife and my. And it was just Derek at the time. And I like went down and got the hotel and I went and did usa and I was literally setting up tees and running gear around, just whatever it took. And then they called me again the next year. So, yeah, it's, it's, it was. I mean, you see USA Baseball, it's hard not to want to be a. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Part with the selection process. I mean, you've been doing this for a little bit now. Any tweaks or is it. I mean, you guys got it pretty buttoned up with the selection process, don't you? [00:11:28] Speaker B: I mean, it may look that way, but there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. There's a, there's a huge team of people that, that gets us to where we need to be. You know that you never see their names or hear about them, you know, from the, from, you know, Ashley Bratcher who just absolutely crushes USA Baseball and does a great job with all the teams and Paul Seiler and giving us what we need. And then, you know, Cole Beaker took over as the, as the 12 year National General manager and, and there's a lot of moving parts and every year is different. The fact that it looks like it's a, it's a simple thing is probably good. It's a testament to all those people doing their jobs. But there's some late nights in, in meeting rooms and, and especially when you get down to, you know, those final 36 and you're trying to take 18. It's, it's, there's not a lot that separates a lot of those kids. So it's, it's really grinding down on who are the best 18 uncommon individuals we could take to another country and, and not worry too much, you know. [00:12:33] Speaker A: With how much they grow from year to year. Will there'll be kids that'll make this team this summer that maybe weren't even on the radar last year. It's crazy in it nuts. [00:12:46] Speaker B: It's, it's funny. And even looking at it from, well, from a father standpoint where, you know, I've seen these 12 year olds and then you look at my son who's pretty good, he's a good little athlete. He's going to be playing in futures this year with up there and he's still a year young for 10 years and play, you know, but you think, God, these kids, my kid will never be there. And then it's like, oh, they're growing, you know, or, or you look at a kid last year at 10U futures and then this year trying to look at him at 11U futures. And these kids grow like weeds and, and they're, some of them get different skill sets or you may think a guy is never going to be able to, to develop on the mound or as a hitter. And then the next year it's just everything clicks in, you know, and it's funny and no disrespect to any of these guys, but there's some, some guys that are, that are really big at 12 or really developed and they just crush it and then you'll never hear from them again, you know, and that's, like I said, no disrespect. And then the little guys that just have the skills and the effort and they develop and develop and next thing you know, they're first round picks. You know, it's funny. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Do you have a saying in the staff? So with your assistance, do you have a say in the, in who gets to be your assistants or USA Baseball take care of that? [00:13:59] Speaker B: I have a say, but it's a, it's a group. You know, we talk about it. There's so many good options out there. It's kind of a puzzle piece. You know, I've been really fortunate to, to be a part of the staff that, you know, Troy had. I was fortunate to be on that with the great group. Last year going to Panama was a great group and then this year is a great group too. And then there's certain, like going to, you know, going over to Taiwan this year. You want two people that have been to Taiwan. You know, you, it's, it's, it's different. So there's kind of a puzzle piece there. Um, but God, there's so many good options. And I was really lucky to be brought up around a lot of those guys like RJ and Borba and you know, and David Sharp and Todd, all those guys that did it the right way and you just kind of sit and try and learn and listen. I think finally this year I, I, you know, it gives you a little bit of confidence that I can kind of do it on my own. I know last year I leaned on RJ a lot and I still lean on everybody. I don't think I know it all. And it's completely a group thing. Even mid game, like I'll have conversations like, what do you think of this? Or what do you think of that? There's only a couple times, I think in Panama where Wes had an idea and it was an idea him and I talked to. And then it got to the gold medal and I said, no, I'm going to go this way. And it worked out, thank God. But most of the time it's, it's a, you know, it's a group. [00:15:24] Speaker A: So what is the difference? Going to Taiwan? [00:15:28] Speaker B: It's bigger. Everything's bigger. More people in the stands. At the end of the day, the gold medal game is 9,500 people that want you to lose and 50 parents that want you to win. It's just a whole different, it's a different world, you know, not that Panama or the, the, you know, Americas are big, they're huge. But it's just a whole different world. And to expect someone to understand it when they haven't been there. I mean, I thought I had an idea and then when I was there in 23, it was like, oh my God, it is the only world. There's people waiting in the elevators for autographs when you come down 6 o'clock in the morning, I go to work out and there's middle aged people waiting for autographs. You guys got to find somebody else. Like, you know, it's weird, but it's, it's. And that's part. You got to find the right group that can handle it, you know. Yeah. [00:16:21] Speaker A: And what is the message to a 12 year old kid as far as trying to handle that environment? [00:16:26] Speaker B: Be uncommon. Right? Be. Well, let's say getting to that point is to be uncommon. We're looking for 18, 12 year olds that are uncommon. It's, it's pretty normal for a 12 year old to mess around in a hotel without their parents. That's all normal stuff, that's common and it's not anything wrong with it. It's just what kids do. But we need those uncommon kids that are okay to eat different food. Right? And then even that. You know, think about that. But it's a big deal. Or can you handle yourself with, you know, half the world looking at you and expecting you to be a certain way and you know, it's, it's, that's what we're looking for. And then over there it's, it's kind of just, you know, we had a saying in Panama with which is let's just go one or no today, let's just go one. And then we'd break it down to let's just win this inning, let's just win and then win this pitch, right? And it's, and in that gold medal game when we were down, you know, seven to seven to three. And against the Dominican and Panama, we were on the bus in a rain delay and I don't, I have people asking what I said. I think I just walked in the back and I said, look, stop. Don't worry about winning or losing, right? Just play the game, just play the right way. Don't worry about all that stuff. Let's just go win the first pitch. And I think when you can break it down small like that, they can figure it out. Because at first blush it's all going to be huge, right? It's all going to be, you know, they've got guys on top of the dugouts with speakers and PA systems and it's all different. There's cheerleaders dancing and the oval team people. And it's like I didn't even know they still had oval team. And now it's like there, there's dancers and, and noisemakers. So you need to just not worry about the outside world and, and you know, worry about your teammates and do your job, you know, piece by piece. [00:18:13] Speaker A: Probably switch the advantage to you all with the rain delay, right? Little bit of a reset. [00:18:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a good little reset because we kept, kind of kept saying like if we could just. We just need to hold them, right? We need to hold them one inning. And then the reset came and I think that's where, where we had developed a certain grit and a certain toughness that we expected of those guys and they stayed focused and locked in and I think that's where it came out on top is, is we just kept grinding away and we know if we can keep pressure on people, sooner or later we're going to be tougher and they'll break. [00:18:54] Speaker A: So how do you relay toughness to a 12 year old kid? [00:19:01] Speaker B: It's a great question. Some of them have it already, like the good ones have it. But to think that a 12 year old kid has the mental, you know, game of a professional or whatever, you just can constantly hammer it, right? Constantly hammer it. And there's a point where you can look at a kid's eyes and go, maybe this is too big for you right now we got to go with someone else. We had that and, and those kids grow from that. But I think it all starts in training camp and when you have that 36 and finding the right 18 and then seeing how do you, how do you react under failure? Right? How do you react? If you can't fail in front of us in North Carolina, then it's not going to be good in Taiwan. Right. So some of them have it. And then we preach it in those down times and, and really try and hammer home what we expect out of the mentally, physically. Because a lot of these kids are physically tough. It's the mental part, right? And they're just starting to understand that mental part. Some of these, like, young kids we talk to is they don't even have the emotional capability to, to control their emotions, you know. You know, at 8, 9, 10 years old. But we just try and teach it and slow it down and, and process, process, process. I know it's, it's an overused word in baseball, but, like, let's just control. We can control, and the rest is up in the air, you know, we'll see what we can do. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Well, how many times do you see that with the Marines, where the training allowed somebody that maybe somebody wouldn't consider tough or mentally tough, Developmental toughness through the training piece of it, right? [00:20:40] Speaker B: So we used to always. It's called bearing. In the Marine Corps, they call it bearing. And don't lose your bearing, right? If you. And, you know, in boot camp, they push you, push you, push you, push you, push you. And it's something I still talk about today is even as a, I mean, as, let's be honest, as a husband, a father, you know, I, I, my daughter's 7 years old, and then we had Brooks, and it's like that patience is tested. It's. So you got to keep your bearing, right? Don't. My, my whole thing is. And this, right, wrong or indifferent, like, in my opinion, I'm never going to let anybody else see me, like, out of control. I don't ever want anyone to look at me and go, he can't handle the moment, right? Even if I can't handle it, like, I'm going to fake it, you know? So I think this is how, how do you, how do people perceive you? How do you show yourself in, in the hardest times? And how do you control yourself? Your emotions, your heartbeat? And it all, I think it all starts with telling yourself you're prepared, you've done it, and it's okay to be nervous, but you've got the ability to overcome it, like fear. I was talking to my son the other day. Everybody's scared, right? If you're not scared, it's like bravery is being able to get past the fear. It's not the, the, the absence of fear is a bravery. Sometimes that's stupidity, right? If you're not scared of certain things, then you're an. But the fact that we can get past it. That's what we try. We're trying to teach how quick is. [00:22:05] Speaker A: The turnaround then when you get to your 18, how quick is that turnaround to when you got to play? [00:22:12] Speaker B: It's different. So this year I think we'll get our 18. We'll have a couple weeks off and then we'll have like a three day training camp and then we go compete. So the selection's huge. Last year to go to Panama, it was a weird year because we were supposed to go the end of summer. We ended up going in October and then so we had the 18. We actually kept a few more than 18 just because they were so different. And then we had 24 and cut down to 18 and then we left from there. So it's not a lot of time. [00:22:46] Speaker A: So with that time, when they go home, you send them home with anything as far as, okay, training or homework or anything. You send them stuff home. [00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Last year we did zooms. We did weekly zooms because we had a couple months till we talked, till we saw them again. And weekly zooms where we would do everything from how catchers are going to call signs to the playbook to. And that was a good way for us to show them and then kind of see who digested it, you know, and who, who could handle that much of a layoff. And some really took it as a chance to get better and, and some unfortunately didn't. But I think we made the best out of that layoff. It could have been a lot worse, you know, if we just. Well, we'll see you guys in two months. But, and even now with the, with a couple of weeks later, we'll still have some touch points and just make sure we can stay in the forefront. [00:23:41] Speaker A: Of everybody's mind outside of maybe the, the environment itself. Are there differences in international play as far as how the game's played? [00:23:50] Speaker B: Yeah, the big one, I mean there's a huge one is you can't slide head first at home. That's an out. So a lot of what I remember when I was coaching third safety reasons, I believe so. Yeah. I mean, I would think you can't slide head first at home. This year they changed the bats to where we had to use USA bats, which we were fine with. I thought that the teams that played the best baseball, it kind of went back to real baseball because, you know, in 23 we had, God, we had the game against New Zealand, we scored 46 runs. You're winning games. Some of the games in, in Latin America at high elevation, it's 25 to 22. And we were once again, we were winning games, pitching defense and getting some timely hits. And it was nice. It's actual real baseball, so that changed. But the, you know, sliding at home is a huge one. And I remember coaching third just screaming like, feet first, feet first, feet first. So, yeah, that's it. That's a big one. And then they're talking about no DH. So essentially is the National League 1992, you know, so. Wow. [00:25:09] Speaker A: I enjoy the USA bats. I enjoy my time when I go over to carry. And I'm a baseball traditionalist when it comes to that. I think it rewards the teams that can play, can pitch, play defense, but also rewards barrel control for the hitters that actually have some barrel control. It rewards those hitters as well. [00:25:27] Speaker B: Yeah, which is why like in the, in the Futures Tournaments and in training camp and everything, it's all USA bats. It's none of the, you know, what we call the trampoline bats. So we would go choose the team, practice, workout, training camp with all the USA bats. And then when we get overseas, we'd go to the trampolines and you could see a difference there. But I agree with you, it shows who can hit, who can find a barrel. And then, yeah, it's just like, well, I got, man, now I got to think about double switches again, all that stuff. But it also kind of played into how we built the team, right? So last year, and this is all with, you know, Ashley Bratcher and Cole, like, we had the rules. The day we got the rules, we were scouring the rules, going through them and decided like Cole and I were talking to the team, we need to build a team like of a bunch of Swiss army knives. You know, we can't take a, we can't take a guy that's just a thumper DH because we don't have that spot for him. If we had a dh, it's a different world. So we took, I think probably three quarters of our team could pitch. We had good arms. West did a great job with the catchers. We had multi positional people. We had infielders that could play everywhere. We had infielders willing to go play outfield. So I think it helped us build a really well rounded team. You know, we scored, you know, the gold medal game. We, we probably bonded last year more than any team's bonded in the history of, you know, that just make them defend it. We had really good players that could do it. And I was just calling Bunts over and over and over. Like make him stop us. That's fine. [00:27:10] Speaker A: So Wes does a tremendous job calling pitches too, correct? [00:27:15] Speaker B: Absolutely. He's great. He's, he's, he's, he is. Like I said, he. I mean. And to be honest, it's kind of funny. My son's name is Brooks and then West Brooks. You know, it's like probably, you know, one of the best human beings in the world too. Like he's just full of energy and, and as, as a manager, I had to take a little different role. I had to be a little more, a little less fun guy, you know, A little. I had to have my thumb on him the whole time, keep the pressure on him. And, and not that they needed to fear me. Like fear is not the right word but there has to be a certain respect of the, the head coach and Wes was a great conduit, you know. And even in those lighter times like doing card tricks and then yeah, he. And then just the on field stuff like catching and pitching and Roger Wright and Jelly in the outfield. Like we had, we had a fantastic group. [00:28:10] Speaker A: So how much are you doing scouting reports on the other teams? [00:28:17] Speaker B: As much as we can. Right. It time wise it's really hard to send someone to the field and watch the games. Unfortunately in Panama we had a bunch of rain. Like you know, you run a tournament during the rainy season. So we couldn't even really figure out when we could get there. I know Wes went the first day and then we. Fortunately though, they're on YouTube. There's a lot of on TV. So you can, you can get a lot, you can get a lot off of watching them play. So yeah, Wes and I would sit, sit up and watch games and, and he's, he's better at me, better at that than I am. I mean he, he had stuff which took a lot off my plate, which was great. [00:29:00] Speaker A: It's good for you all though. With the talent level that you have though, like not being able to scout a whole lot. I think it, it's in your guys favor just because you have so much talent on the field. [00:29:10] Speaker B: It is. And I think if you build the team correctly at the end of the day it's great to scout, but it's kind of like high school. Like how, you know, Nick and I were talking and how much information do we especially come from California? I don't know any of these kids. I don't know these teams. As far as I know the two teams we played yesterday and Tuesday we went 20 like, they could have been the best teams before. I don't know. Everybody we play every day is the best team I've ever seen. So at the end of the day, you control your team. You do the best you can, and if you could pick up some stuff, great. If not, you just do what you do well and see what happens. [00:29:45] Speaker A: That family decision switch from California to Florida. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. It was time. Like I said, Nick and I had talked about coaching together for a while, and he took over an Episcopal and moved up from South Florida. And then I was at St. Joe's in California, and I was. I was happy there, but it was, like, not too. You know, it was time to start thinking about getting out of California, and I always thought it'd be Florida, Arizona. [00:30:17] Speaker A: And go hang out with better taxes. [00:30:19] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. I was going to go hang out with Dave Webb and Tanner Veselyn, and then I. I got a couple offers, and then Nick kind of reached out and said, hey, if you're thinking of moving to Florida, like, let's. And it's worth. It's been great. It's. It. Jacksonville's awesome. It's a cool community. You know what it is? It's like a southern city. It's not like south Florida. It's. It's. It was cold here. While everybody goes. It was like 30 degrees. [00:30:47] Speaker A: So coming in for you, what was the first thing you tried to implement with the guys? You don't know? Any of the players at Episcopal was. Where's the first place you started? [00:30:56] Speaker B: Defense. Right. Infield defense, base running. And so I actually had to take a step back. So we were. I would come in and I would start doing stuff like I would do with my infillers in California. And then we were. I told Nick one day, I go, I need. I think I need to step back, start from the basics. And. Because you take it for granted, like, I'd been with the same infielders for a long time in California. We. Same vernacular, same lingo and habits, you know? And so with these guys, it's like, all right, let's slow down. Let's rebuild this. And it's really starting to come to fruition. And to be fair to them, they were pretty open. They were. They were. They were open arms and welcoming, and I haven't had any players or anything. Like, I don't listen to coach Madsen or new guy, you know, it's at least not to my face, but that's fine, too. I don't care what you say, you know, not to My face. And then I started working with a couple of them in the summer a little bit. Just got here because then Derek and I would be in the cage hitting all the time, and so start meeting a few of them that way, and it's been great. [00:32:08] Speaker A: So saying restart or start back over or go back a little bit, where'd you go back to? What'd you go back? [00:32:15] Speaker B: Fundamentals. Like, let's. Let's learn how to get our feet for a long hop. Let's understand when we want to short hop. Let's. Let's. Who's in the box, who's ever in the box going to dictate how we can play this ball and not expecting them to be with me where I would want them to be with me after three years as the first year, Tom. And actually when we drop back just to fundamentals, just the basic. Which I probably should have done a better job of kind of evaluating when we got here is now the growth is coming fast. Right? Okay, we get this. We understand what I mean by this now. And now we can kind of push into some more, expecting a little more out of them because we're pretty young. I mean, we have sophomores, you know, we could pro. We could throw out a sophomore infield right now with juniors and stuff. So we're still. We're still learning on the fly. But, yeah, I always just go back to the basics. Like, just start here, you know, and do you understand what a long hop is? Because you think, like, they're high school, but you don't know that. So it goes back to. If I haven't taught them, then. Then I. I can't expect them to know it. [00:33:32] Speaker A: You have teaching responsibilities. [00:33:34] Speaker B: I don't. I just coach. [00:33:36] Speaker A: Good for you. [00:33:38] Speaker B: Nick took care of me. [00:33:41] Speaker A: That is a dream. [00:33:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, the staff here is awesome, too. You have Mike Jones, who's here, the head coach for 20 years, pitch for the Royals, and Grant Biglin, and those guys have made it really, really just comfortable and easy, and there's been no weirdness, you know, so. [00:34:02] Speaker A: So when. When do you report to USA Baseball then? [00:34:05] Speaker B: When. [00:34:05] Speaker A: When baseball's done? [00:34:08] Speaker B: June 10th. I'll go to 10 New Futures. June 10th. So. And we're having conversations weekly and figuring out training camp and things like that. So I'll go June 10th for 10 new futures, then 11 new futures is right after that, and then training camp is right after that, and then we'll take that little break, and then we're rolling. So June 10th, we just get rolling. [00:34:34] Speaker A: So it's like you're in the, the spring training complex in the hotels for three weeks. [00:34:40] Speaker B: Yeah. You've been down there a little bit. Yeah, that's great. It's. But it's, it's a rush and it's fast and it's long and it's. But you get the right people and it's super rewarding and fun, and you actually enjoy sitting in that meeting room at night, you know, just grinding on players. [00:34:59] Speaker A: What do you think of the indoor facility at USA Baseball belt? [00:35:01] Speaker B: Amazing. [00:35:02] Speaker A: It's great. [00:35:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's. I. You know, at first, a lot of people are like, well, why don't, why don't they enclose it? You know, and. Because they have those open sides, but, man, with those fans, it's nice and it's just a little cooler than outside. But, you know, on the, on the same thing, it's like, it's. You go sit in the air conditioning for an hour and grind away and then walk out the heat. It's not the same. Like, I think they did a really good job. It's, it's, it's beautiful. I mean, I don't know how many cages they have in there in that open spot. It's like, yeah, I could spend a lot of time in that place. [00:35:38] Speaker A: So for you, outside of infield, then, do you deal with the hitters at all at Episcopal? [00:35:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:35:44] Speaker A: Where did you start with them? I know you started with the infielders. Where did you start with the hitters? [00:35:50] Speaker B: Let me see your swing. Like, let me see what you think or, or even, like, hey, so what's your plan? Hitting right? What's your plan? Like, what are you trying to do? What are you trying to get? What do you hit best? And I, I'm big, and RJ and I are always big on this. And I talked about this in Ontario, too, in one of the infield presentations. Let's not take the athlete out of the baseball player. Let's let that, let's let the athletes be the athletes. And, and I understand there's a. Some swing fundamentals and there's certain things we want to do, but, you know, we have a. You know, one of the guys we have going to Northwestern next year is 6, 3, 64 monster, you know, and then we have a sophomore second baseman who's 5, 10, 1 40, you know, they're not going to have the same swing. So to sit and say, you got to do this, you got to do that is not, it's not fair to Them and I actually kind of think it's a cop out. Like, well, this is the swing I teach. All right, well, you got 18 hitters. How's that going to work out? So, yeah, like, seeing where their. Their base is, seeing what their plan was, like, mentally, what's your plan? Like, how, you know, what are you good at? And you had guys that would break down well in this count, I'm doing this and this. I'm doing this to the plate. Phil plays this way and it's like, oh, you. This guy's got an idea. And then you have. Some guys are like, I don't know. It's like, well, we got some. So. Yeah, I mean, and there's something to that, too. Like C ball, hip ball, and. And. And, you know, and then there's some guys that sit and grind and grind and grind and I'll grind with them. It just. Nick and Jonesy are so good at the pitching part and the organization and. And it's kind of nice to. To not be a head coach. You know, it's. It's nice just to be the. Almost the flip side of the USA stuff. Like, I could be the guy building the. And letting them know, and Nick can be the bad guy sometimes and. And yet we have a really good relationship to where I can speak pretty openly with him about things, too. [00:37:57] Speaker A: What do they do? [00:37:58] Speaker B: Well, on the pitching side, he develops these guys. I mean, we had. I mean, I can tell you this in our two games, we can throw any pitch at any time for a strike. They. He makes some thinkers. You know, he makes some pictures. Him and Jonesy are. They're just, you know, you take like, Jones's big league experience and you take Nick's ability with all the new metrics and the new tools and, and the data and the technology and, and development, you know, along with rest. You know, it's not a. I mean, we were. We were shutting guys down when. And it's really starting to pay off. I mean, we went. We had. Last night, our starter was up 8,788. I mean, tons of strikes. I don't know. God, I don't know if we. I don't know if we walked one person last night and then the next sophomore came in and touched 90 and clean and. And V is not everything, but it's part of it. Like to sit and say it's not part of it, you know, and. But on the same idea, nobody cares how hard you throw a strike or ball four. So he gives them the ability to really take an ownership and being a pitcher and not just as a. Well, I gotta be a pitcher. It's like these guys are proud. Proud if they're a pitcher only. There's a. There's a certain pride they take in being the best. [00:39:20] Speaker A: How long they shut them down for before they. They ramped them up? [00:39:24] Speaker B: At least six weeks. Yeah, he's. And he's got a whole plan that's. [00:39:28] Speaker A: A whole pro model. It is. [00:39:31] Speaker B: It's so funny. It's a. It's an old school model. [00:39:34] Speaker A: It still works. It still works. [00:39:36] Speaker B: 100. We did it with infielders, too. We did with everybody. Like, because these guys now play so much, you know, and. And it's, you know, helping him, like, run CBU and stuff, too, is there's a. There's a portion of it where you got to play a lot. You got to get in. It's not the old school where everybody comes to your high school games anymore and. And you got to go show yourself. So we understand that. But on the same line, like, you got to have enough rest and a break to be able to. To deliver in high school, which we give them that where it's ton of recovery, ton of. We hit the weight room super hard. Heavy. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Heavy Strength and conditioning. [00:40:16] Speaker B: The Episcopal strength and conditioning coach. Yeah, so Episcopal has been kind of on the come up. I mean, they're. They're sending. I mean, we're. We. Players to rise. We're sending players. I mean, this year we just had signing day. There's 23 kids signing and go to college out of. I mean, the school. I mean, I think the graduating class is like 130 or something. So there's not very much, but we're doing a great job. And it cultivates that. That weight room. Everybody's got their time. Strength and conditioning coach was a basketball player, and he understands the new stuff. And it's kind of like Nick, right? There's all the new metrics and the new models and the new this. But that old school rest, you know, let's. Let's. Let's take the best of this and the best of that and. And make it the best for the kids. [00:41:04] Speaker A: So when does CBU start? Once they're done. [00:41:08] Speaker B: Oh, geez. I mean, it goes. We just kicked off again in this for our spring teams A couple weeks ago. I had big CBU weekend in Fort Myers, then one up here in Jacksonville. We'll start. We're playing games. We'll start playing tournaments in a couple of weeks and a couple of Those scout teams are going to play in the East Coast Champs. Got some really good players on those teams, so they've done a great job. I can take no credit with that. [00:41:37] Speaker A: How similar is that to Orange Empire, Coastal Empire with RJ and I Coastline Powers. [00:41:43] Speaker B: So RJ and I never had teams. We all we did was develop players. So we took one team to carry for a 15U and it was essentially some guys we knew it had, you know, Derek Curiel was on that, Velasquez was on it, guys that we knew from the 12 year program and we just threw them together in like a week and, and we did pretty well. But yeah, so RJ and I were always just about development. We never wanted to do teams. So. [00:42:12] Speaker A: Best kind. [00:42:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it's great, it's great. Teams come with it. [00:42:16] Speaker A: How involved are the parents with the 12U team outside of just traveling? [00:42:25] Speaker B: I mean this with all due respect, not very. We hope not very. [00:42:31] Speaker A: I mean, do you have an opportunity to vet the parents too when you're dealing with the kids? So like, do you have an opportunity to vet the parents also? [00:42:40] Speaker B: Yeah, so what, what I'll tell. Because I'll talk to the, the guys, you know, before the Futures Tournament and I'll tell the coaches of all the. I say I would what the best thing I could tell you, your players, the parents, is we're watching you since you got off that plane, right? We're watching how you treat your parents in the airport. They don't understand it because I get off the plane with those kids. I see them like they don't know who I am. And you treating your parent like crap in the airport and then, or vice versa, you know, and then the other part is during those Futures Tournaments or training camp, we're, we're watching parents too. Like we're, we're watching players and, and, and parents are a part of it. But once it gets to training camp, we tell them, you want to go on vacation, go on vacation, like you can get out of here. They don't stay with their kids in the hotel. We try and limit contact. The only time they really see them is maybe at the field. We give them a few minutes afterwards when the parents can come and watch. They can come watch practice, they can. Training camp. They don't have, I mean to say they never have contact in the hotel. That's not true. Probably. That's hard to limit. But we really try and take the parent out of the equation in a positive manner because. And that's part of it too. Like we can't babysit 18 kids, you. [00:44:01] Speaker A: Know, Nor should you. [00:44:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:03] Speaker A: Or should you. Do you have a fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back, but. But looking back now helped you move forward? [00:44:11] Speaker B: Oh geez. God, I've got a bunch of. I mean I, I think I've. A failure is your best teacher, you know, even from not to. And, and I've told my wife this, like I, I dated every type of person I think you're supposed to date. You know, that as a guy you're told you're supposed to date. And finally you get to a point where you go, I just want someone nice, right? I just want nice and a good human. And then I met my wife and I got total package, right? But even as fail forward, after my mom passed away in 98 and I thought I had an idea what I wanted to do. I was working at MTV at the time and you know, I was making a little money and you know, down in LA and Hollywood and, and like I, and I guess failure. It depends how you look at failure. Failure as, as a human maybe, you know, not like I was a terrible human, but there were many things I could. Like I said, I'm fat, I was out of shape, I wasn't living right. And then, you know, fail forward into taking a job where you make a lot less money in the Marine Corps, you know, and, and the best thing I did or, or even after I got out of the Marine Corps, you know, like I had, I think, you know, I told Sheets this before long, no joke, after I got out of the Marine Corps, I, and I'm not proud of this. I was drinking excessively, right? And I was, no kidding. I was drinking a bottle of Jaeger every night just to go to sleep. And one day just wake up and go, I don't want to do this, you know. And then you got to humble yourself and fail forward again. And to. For some reason, my life, I don't know, for some reason because I've put the work in, the effort in. But it's. I'm 50 now and my life gets better and better and better every year. And I think that's just because you're willing to fail and you're willing to go, okay, don't do that again, you know, and it's great. I've been blessed. And yeah, I'm here enjoying life, you know. [00:46:19] Speaker A: What were you doing at mtv? [00:46:21] Speaker B: I was helping write on some shows. I was an assistant writer on a show called Singled Out. Yeah, I wasn't. A union guy or anything changed television. [00:46:33] Speaker A: MTV did with the Real World. [00:46:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:36] Speaker A: Yes, the first real world. Changed the history of television, what we see now. [00:46:42] Speaker B: Reality TV and stuff. [00:46:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it changed. It changed. [00:46:45] Speaker B: So, yeah, I was, I was down there. A good, a good buddy of mine is actually one of the, a massive producer now. Like, he's done some of the Star Trek movies and the Mission Impossibles and he got me in down there. And then Kevin Indigaro was the head writer on Singled out. And, you know, he, he let me do some stuff and I did that and then I went to Boston and worked on a film, a couple films, and just get tired of it, you know, like you, it's what it is. And, and then you just look in the mirror and go, I'm done. And that's when I walked in the recruiter's office, so. And he told me I was too fat. [00:47:23] Speaker A: How you, how'd you cut the weight? [00:47:25] Speaker B: I ran. I didn't eat and I ran. Like, I, no, I hate, it's so there's, I, I, I love the saying. There's no free lunches in nature. Right? There's no, there's all, there's all the stuff you could do. There's whatever oic and I'm not telling anybody how they live their life or whatever. There's, there's these, the magic at the end of the day, like if you eat less and exercise more, you'll lose. [00:47:50] Speaker A: Weight and eat right. [00:47:51] Speaker B: And eat right. Yeah, right. Probably. I probably didn't do it the right way because I wanted to get in so fast. Like, I would. No kidding. [00:47:58] Speaker A: You had enough to burn though, like that, that's the difference is you had, you had enough to burn at that point. [00:48:03] Speaker B: Oh, I could have, I could have not ate for like two weeks and been fine. So, yeah, I would just get up and I'd run two miles and then I'd eat very little, then I'd run two more miles. So I'd run six miles a day at two mile intervals. So every day. [00:48:20] Speaker A: So your area in Cali get hit by the fires? [00:48:23] Speaker B: No. So we were, we were in, I guess you'd call the Central Coast. So if you took Los Angeles and San Francisco, we were right in the middle, kind of by Santa Barbara, but yeah, that's nasty out there. You know that, that was bad. I actually only knew one person that was really affected by it, but it's, it's too bad. [00:48:47] Speaker A: How much does your family get to travel then with USA Baseball? They get to come experience it. [00:48:53] Speaker B: So USA Baseball has given my family some pretty cool experiences. We had, like the 2022 All Star Game in Los Angeles. My son was taking batting practice off CC Sabathia, Adam Jones, all those guys like hanging. So I, I did stuff for them out there. We were on field for that. Derek's gone, you know, with Coach Gerlock, he Training camp out there. They. Yeah, they pop around and travel. They haven't traveled overseas for anything. I think possibly if we went to a different place in the, you know, Latin America, they may have went last year or during the summer. They were maybe going to go, but that didn't end up working out. So now Derek's on his own program. He's trying to make the team himself. So I got to get done and get out of there so I can get out of his way. [00:49:48] Speaker A: So we have a lot of youth coaches that listen in. What would you like to say to the youth coaches right now? Especially the ones that maybe are trying to do it for the first time? [00:49:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's really something to be said for depending on the age. Right. The younger ages, if that kid wants to play for you again next year, then you did a good job. Right. As the, as they start getting older, I never think it's too early to start talking about the mental game with these kids and accepting failure. You know, if you love baseball, you chose to love a game, it's going to continually kick you in the gut. So, you know, teach the right way. There's got to be some positivity. There's got to. They got to have fun. I mean, if you're not having fun, then find something that you're going to have fun doing. And then, you know, the ownership, the responsibility to being a teammate. I hate this is. I hate my bad. I hate it. I. I hate when someone makes an error and they say my bad to the pitcher. Like, I know everybody saw. It's fine. Stop talking. Like, I would rather you look at the pitch and go, hemi, give me another one. Give me another ground ball. Right? Give me another ground ball. Because I think there's a. There's a mental side of that where you're telling yourself, I don't, you know, it's your bad. We all saw. Everybody saw it. Now you're just reinforcing it. Give me another ground ball. Right. I think the, the. And I'm going to see Tyler in a couple of weeks, but, like, the banana ball stuff, I think it's really opened up a world of making baseball fun. And it's okay to let those kids try and have some fun at the end of practice, right? Like, let's go five minutes of banana ball. See, let me see you. You know, let me see you go between your legs. Yeah, let me see. [00:51:41] Speaker A: And Tyler was on with me and we talked about it. It's freedom to fail. I don't like the term failure. I just don't. I just think the reframing, it's learning. I just think we can, we can reframe it to something different than, than failure. Especially for kids, it's learning opportunities. You're trying to grow, you're going to make mistakes and you have to train in that freedom to fail. That, like you said, you're going to get gut punched by baseball. But that's the beautiful thing of baseball is that you are going to get challenged and gut punched by the game. Like, embrace that part of it. I work with some college kids and I talk to them about that a lot. Like, that that's what you sign up for with it is this is going to happen and you have to flow through those things that happen and learn from them and move on. You just got to flow through them. [00:52:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I think it's like, hey, let's knock out some, some double play feeds for 15 minutes and let's clean them up. And then afterwards, let's go between the leg glove flips or even in, like, shape throwing, you know, transfer throwing and you know, squares and stuff. Like, bring them in close and, and let them go behind the back and let them go between the legs and let them see. Only game where you're not allowed to have fun, right? Like, I don't, I don't understand that. Basketball is a dunk contest and football has, you know, they're catching with mascot gloves and all that, like baseballs. And I'm. I'm old school. My favorite player was Don Mattingly, right. He never showed any sort of. Never bat flipped. That's how I played. It's different now to sit. You know, Butch Chaffin told me one time because I was like, I'm tired of the celebrations. I'm tired of the double stuff. I'm tired of the bat flips. And I do think there's a point, you know, when you're losing by six in the fifth inning and you're celebrating a meaningless double. Let's think about it. But he, Butch told me, he goes, coach, we, we beg him to play with emotion, and then we tell him not to play with emotion. Like, and it is. And it's kind of hypocritical. I think there's a right way to do it. There's nothing wrong with having fun. And I think as at the youth ages, like, they're not going to the major leagues tomorrow. And if they are, it's probably not because of the youth coach. They're probably freaks. So have a blast. And as far as parents go, you know what I did, like we did up in Canada, which is really interesting, I literally stood in the middle of a batting cage and people just asked me questions, just a Q and A. And everything was like, as a parent, what should I do? As a parent, what should I do? And I know it's been said before, but Dave Webb's the one that told me, like, because Dave coached his son. And then I asked him, like, how does it. How do you do that? You know? And after the game, like, just get in the car and just say, hey, I love watching you play and shut up. And it's the hardest time to shut up in the world because you want to ask, why'd you take that pitch? And I, hey, I'm not perfect at it. And. And. And then you find when they start talking about the game, it's cause they wanted to. And then that opens up the ideas where we can help them get better. But if we sit and hammer them, they'll just go do something else. [00:54:48] Speaker A: You know, I went same high school as Mattingly. And if you had ever met Merkel, you would know why. There's no bat flipping or any of that. That's Coach. Coach Merkel. That was going to be a no, right? [00:55:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know that. That's cool. [00:55:06] Speaker A: Another military feel to him too, though, but. Yes, but he produced a lot of really good players coming out of Memorial Private School. Similar sizes. Episcopal, I think we had 160 kids in my senior class, but similar size private school. But it was. It got you ready for the next thing. The way. The way he ran it, it got you ready for the next thing. But this is a completely different time than. Than when we all played. I think it is. You need. Kids need to be able to have their own personality, whatever that is. As long as it's directed towards your teammates, I don't care. I had a conversation with somebody the other day. They're like, what do you think? I'm like, as long as it's directed to your teammates and your dugout, I could care less what you're doing. Just stay in your dugout with everything and it's fine. [00:55:59] Speaker B: Well, that's kind of our way to not, you know, kids aren't perfect and they're going to do that. But like, you know, you're talking about like the size of Episcopal and those schools, you know, I think, you know, Episcopal was ranked third, I believe, in, in the state of Florida, like athletic wise. And so if, if you, if you do it right and even with small numbers and you get good coaches, like, you can do a lot of great things. And you're right, like it's a new world now. And if you're not willing to adapt and fail forward or continuously learn. And I think that's when I got into USA Baseball, I got in around a bunch of coaches that literally tried to grow every day and they didn't beat each other down and they were willing to share things and never, like, never there was no stupid questions. I was young, coaching, and I didn't know a lot of the things. And you could ask a question, everybody would help you. And those same guys I talked to. [00:57:03] Speaker A: Almost every day and every generation is that way, though. Think about this. I mean, let's talk about baby boomers, right? Those were the same people that were at Woodstock. [00:57:15] Speaker B: Sure. [00:57:16] Speaker A: They're just older now. And I'm sure it's going to be the same thing with the Genies disease. Gen alphas, gen betas. Once you get older and you get more experience, then you change. Like that's just part of it, that they're alive. 70s, 80s, 9 year olds, they were at Woodstock, right? So if you ever watch any documentaries of Woodstock, it was fairly loose. And that's, that group now is as buttoned up as, as anybody, right? [00:57:43] Speaker B: And that's just the way it's cyclical, right. Like that's the way society is. And there were, I mean, I, there were things. I, I, it's like my son, I have to realize he's a different human being than I am. Right? Like he's, he has different, he has more confidence than I had. I, I, you know, and that's not a bad thing. It's just being able to look and go, not be the old man standing on your lawn screaming, you know, and trying to figure out. I still don't think rap music is better now than it was in the 80s and 90s. But that's going to be a fight. I'm not gonna. [00:58:18] Speaker A: Kendrick was pretty good at the super bowl halftime. I'm not a Kendrick fan at all. I, friends of mine are, but I know he's won the Pulitzer Prize and you need to know about that guy is he's won the Pulitzer Prize. So somebody out there thinks he's got some, some sense to him. [00:58:36] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a good deal in California. [00:58:38] Speaker A: I think that's the hardest thing about being a parent, though, is not, not projecting too much on your kids and letting them have their own personality, their own interests. I think that's really hard because you want what's best for your kids as a parent. And there's no marriage and parenting. You can't write a book about it. But somebody needs to just about that about how difficult it is to be a parent, to be married. I think somebody needs to write a book just explaining to people like, there's no right or wrong on any of this. Keep them healthy. And if they're still alive at 65, 70, you've done your job and they're successful and thriving, you've done your job. The rest of it's all gray area. But I think the narrative too now with society too, is like, hey, this is difficult. I mean, if you look at the amount of the divorce rate and that, it's difficult. I think the narrative needs to change, as with baseball players too, like embracing the difficulties of the game. I just think the narrative needs to change on that for people because it's not easy. And it's hard as a parent, it's really hard. [00:59:41] Speaker B: It is, it's hard. But I think there's. And this could be the military thing too, is like, let's. Okay, let's admit it's hard. Okay, let's all admit kids are different. Let's admit it. Let's. So now let's embrace it, right? What, what hard do you want to have? Like, do I. I don't. I choose to get up and work out every morning and it's hard. It stinks. Like, I don't always want to do it. [01:00:05] Speaker A: I didn't want to go on there this morning, but I did. [01:00:07] Speaker B: Oh, me neither. I. I mean, and now it's a little guy, like something I've just gone, like, if he gets up at 3:30, I'm just gonna get up at 3. You know, my wife feeds and I'll do the bottle. Then I'm just. Because me going back, I go back to sleep, getting up to work out. So. Or do you want. Having a baby is hard, right? It's all hard. But what hard on the flip side, what hard? Something else is going to be hard too, right? Not being a good husband and having your family leave you is also hard, right? Being a good father and husband's hard or being in shape is hard. Well, being out of shape is also hard. Right. So what hard do we. Let's just admit it's all hard and figure out how we're going to deal with it. All right. You know, your morning routine, whatever you do, is it. It's a lot easier to lay in bed. Doesn't make it right. Doesn't. [01:00:53] Speaker A: You know, So I just think it makes it easier when you, when you focus on it that way, that everything is difficult. And I think you. You embrace things better, and I think it allows you to enjoy things more too. [01:01:05] Speaker B: Right. [01:01:05] Speaker A: Because it's not you. You're not complete. I think people get sidetracked because it's like, oh, this is difficult or this is hard, or this happened to me, what was me. I just think it turns into a beautiful life when you start to reframe some of that and just know that, like, this is what you sign up for. And I just think it turn some beautiful things. [01:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And as far as, like, raising kids or coaching or even, like marriage, like, I. Oh, I found. I want to find someone that thinks like me. Like, I don't. I don't want someone that thinks like me. I don't want my wife to think like me. I don't want my. I don't want my kids to think like me. Like, you're your own little thing. I can help guide you, and I'm always going to be there. But like, it's, it's the. It's. And I don't know if it's a confidence thing or if you think back to when you were a kid, but it's just letting people be people and then having a set of standards to where, you know, a bunch of different people are fun to have around, you know, different colors, races, whatever. It's all fun. Like, and having some sort of empathy for what other people are going through and, and maybe not trying to change them, but just understand them and show your side. Is. Is that how I choose to do it? [01:02:15] Speaker A: You know, you're not going to change somebody else anyway. A big Mel Robbins fan, but you're not going to change someone. When's the last time you did something that wasn't on you personally? Yes, you personally will make changes, your thoughts, whatever, but it's not because somebody told you to do it. It's because you wanted to do it. [01:02:36] Speaker B: Most of the time, if somebody tells me to do it, it's not as important. [01:02:39] Speaker A: You're gonna fight them on it when somebody tells you what to do or how to do it or whatever. Usually the first reaction is like, well, okay, I'm. I'm gonna do what I want to do. [01:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah. My son and I were laughing. We were. And it was a funny conversation. Like, I've always. I've always told him, like, hey, I want to be the person you call. Right? I don't want to be the person that. That you're afraid to talk to. So just. And so the other day, he said to me, he goes, hey, dad, can I talk to you about something before bed? And I thought, like, oh, boy, here we go, you know? And I go, yeah, you know? And there's. Your emotions are going crazy inside from, like, who did what to. What's he gonna say? And I just stay calm. I go, yeah, man. Like, what's up? Anything, you know? And he goes, you know, I've been thinking, I don't know how you feel about this, but it's how I feel. And I go, yeah, like, let me know. And he goes, I think I'm gonna play professional baseball and football when I get older. And I go, that was your big deal, right? Like, that's. That's. Yeah, like, prime. Like, coach prime. And I go, okay. I go, well, it takes a lot of work, buddy. So, you know, that's. It is. And then he goes, and I'm going to be the dad that says yes to everything. And I go, cool. Like, that's awesome. Like, good for you. And I said, well, what if your kid asked if he can do a bunch of drugs and steal car? And he goes, well, no. And I go, you can't say. You got to say yes. And he goes, well, hang on. [01:04:03] Speaker A: Within reason. Yes to everything. Within reason. [01:04:07] Speaker B: So, yeah, kids are a trip. [01:04:10] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts before I let you go? [01:04:14] Speaker B: Final thoughts. I'm looking forward to next year's convention. I missed this year because the boy was born. I think life, like, if you allow it, like, life gets better and better and better. Like, if you allow it, you embrace the hard coaching. Coaching advice. Like, I don't know. Coaching advice is. Is surround yourself with great people and be willing to admit you're wrong and you don't know everything and. And. And really try and enjoy. I'm a big believer in this. We don't know when our last day is on this earth, you know, so you better appreciate it, and less. Less expectation, more appreciation, and. And things get a lot better. [01:05:02] Speaker A: I'm loving 50 as well, by the way. [01:05:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Like, I still feel good and and think of others. I I, I genuinely think when you're the first person you think about, then it's not a very fulfilling existence. [01:05:14] Speaker A: Appreciate you Brian. [01:05:15] Speaker B: Of course. Good talking to you man. [01:05:17] Speaker A: Thank you sir. Congrats again to Coach Mats and then the entire USA Baseball 12U program and all their success, they built a dynasty at the 12U level. Good luck this year in Taiwan as they try for their fifth consecutive World cup 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 protected] Twitter, Instagram or TikTok oachbabca or direct message me via the MyABCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave a better for those behind you wait for another day. [01:06:15] Speaker B: And the word will always return and your life was there before your name and you know that place Wait for another day.