Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the ABCA's podcast. I'm your host Ryan Brownlee.
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Great time of the year on the ABCA Podcast. Getting shine a light on our ABCA ATEC Coaches of the Year.
This week we get to sit down with High School Div 2 Coach of the Year Governor Livingston head coach Chris Roof.
Ruf has spent time as a player assistant and now 25 year head coach Governor Livingston. This was back to back New Jersey State Championships for GL as they ran the table this season going 28. 0.
Roof has had a huge impact on the state of New Jersey as a high school coach and starting the Garden State Coaches Clinic bringing in some of the best baseball minds to speak every year in December. Let's welcome Chris Roof to the podcast.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yo, what's up bud?
[00:02:49] Speaker A: What's cracking?
[00:02:51] Speaker B: How you been man?
[00:02:52] Speaker A: I've been great.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: It's great to see you. It's great to see you.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Heck yeah.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: We got nothing man. We just had a good workout this morning with our high school kids and just taking it easy now. You know my son's got some 14U stuff later so how much can you.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Do high school guys?
[00:03:14] Speaker B: We could do a lot you know, again, most of them are playing travel ball, but, you know, if they're not, like, I got five of them at Lake Point right now, but everybody else, and I include incoming freshmen, so I have about 50 kids total.
And we. We go down, not to our high school field, but more of a centrally located place. Like, we have a nice turf field in our town, and we all work out there. I got about 10 sessions, two times a week. And we'll do a base running aspect and, you know, team defense, and then we'll, like, do a little inner squad. They just keep it interesting, like, put them in certain situations, you know. Like today we did runner on first, you know, we did it. You know. Nine outs. Three out. Three outs clear. Three outs clear. Three outs clear. So it was some fun stuff, and it's good because it really shows the incoming freshmen, like, how we do things, you know?
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Love it. Love it. You got guys going to the Futures Games.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: I have one player, a kid named Zach Gertzman, who is a 26, who's a UVA commit, who is playing in the area code games and east coast pro.
So he's our. He's our really high, you know, level player. I mean, I have two other Division 1 players. Catcher going to Lehigh, first baseman going to UMass, and I have two. Two other kids that are 26, uncommitted, that might.
We're talking to some Division Ones right now. They're, you know, I would call them tweeners, you know, more of. More of like a low level. Like.
Oh, Craig Noto says hello. I talked to him today and he says, oh, tell Brownlee I said hi. But he's looking at one of our pitchers and, you know, we have an infielder slash. He's probably a dual player that is, you know, maybe neck, something like that. A division, small Division one. So. So it's pretty cool. Ryan, you have to do all 11 coaches.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: I will try.
Don't always get to them. Sometimes life gets in the way on it. But I will try to get all of them in.
The interesting thing is, like, four of them, it's like, have been on fairly recently because they've won.
Like John Bowden Lich, he went in the hall of Fame two years ago, so he's been all. With me. But like Rob Valley, they went Gloucester wins every year now. So it's like, you know, and then Jay Johnson two years ago, and then Tampa is back to back. So, you know, we could do it. But I also want to make sure that I'm giving The listeners new. New information and introduce them to new people too. No, last year it was, it was more of the assistant coaches last year because we haven't announced the assistant coaches yet.
So I try to mix between head and I haven't had a lot of repeats like for doing 330 something of them now there's only been maybe a handful of repeats, which is fine to go back with other guests, but I still like giving new people a chance to get on here too.
I'm an old school guy and I know how good the entire community is too. So I want to introduce new people to, to everybody.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: I appreciate that. And that's what like it's. I was so excited when you reached out. I was wondering, you know, but I was really excited and you know, now that like, like for example, Scotty.
Stealth. Stealth, right. I'm keeping. Yeah, I, I'm now good friends with him, you know, through this and now he came to the clinic and you know, we talked Jimmy, Phil and Jerry, who's another one who you had on from Lawrence High School. We're all like, the three of us are like really good friends now, which is pretty cool.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Scott's good. I'll miss him. He rotated off our All America committee. So. Yeah, we have to though, like, you'd like to keep guys on, but it's, it's not fair to the guys behind those guys. Like they need to go get to go to Omaha too.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: 100%, man. I get it, I get it. But thanks again. I really appreciate it.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Here with Chris Roof, ABC High School Division 2 coach of the year, head coach at Governor Livingston and owner of Heights Baseball School. But undefeated season back to back champs and I think 25th year now.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: I just completed my 25th year run. Crazy how time flies.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: And this is the cool thing about the baseball community is because I didn't know you and you reached out for me to come and speak at the Garden State clinic, and so I'm glad I came up there and.
And then you become friends with people.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that Ryan, that's what seems. That's baseball, man. Right. It's, you know, you came out the first year we did it and you were a rock star. And ever since then I'm texting you left and right bothering you, but you get back to me right away, man. I really appreciate it.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: How has it been running that?
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Oh, it's been a lot of fun. It's getting bigger and bigger every year. We started at the facility for the first two years, the following year, then we moved to a hotel closer to Rutgers University.
And like I said, I mean, this past year we went to another hotel more centrally located and had a turnout. Seems like every year it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It's not never going to be like Cherry Hill, because I think that was just something special that you'll never see again. But we're trying to get there. We have a lot of really good people that come and it's really well run too. So I'm really excited to be a part of it. Now we're associated with the New Jersey High School Baseball Coaches association, so we're doing it together. So it's been something that's been a lot of fun over the course of the last four years.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: What have been your biggest challenges with that?
[00:08:44] Speaker B: I would just say, you know, getting, getting, getting word out. I would say it's not the easier part. That's a great question. Right? The great, the easy part is getting the coaches, because the coaches are really into speaking and showcasing their talents and their schools and stuff like that. But I think the hardest part is just getting it out there to high school coaches and trying to find the perfect time to do it. I mean, we did. We turned it into Ryan, like a Thursday night into a. With a party Thursday night into a Friday.
This year we're going to go to a, like a 9 to 9 type thing on just a Friday where we're just going to go straight through. And we're hoping that our attendance will go up even more with that. But, you know, we've reached out to pa, To New York.
Yeah, I think even Connecticut. But it's not easy. You gotta. It's got to be the perfect time. And you know, Mohegan sun does a great job and obviously everybody's going to the abca, so it's. I think again, you just have to get this thing going and it's definitely going in the right direction.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: How gratifying is it, though, when you put something like that on because you feel like you're giving back to the baseball community 100%?
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Because this is, this is my whole life. I mean, I've, I've learned and, you know, I can't tell you how much I listen to the abca, the podcast with you, and just everything with the videos and, and if no one's a member, I mean, man, man, you're really missing out on, on life. I mean, it's, it's, it's incredible. I think how you touched upon how we met. It's just, it's relationships that you really get to know people. It's. It's really a lot of fun. It really is.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: What'd you learn from Bill Howard?
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Oh, I learned everything.
Bill's my mentor.
I love him to death.
Just, you know, like I said, I only played for him for four years. I was lucky enough as a freshman to play for him.
Between the both of us, it's funny. I mean, we've been the coaches at Governor Livingston in Berkeley Heights for, like, over. Over 40 years. It's crazy. I don't know too many schools, you know, in the country that can say that about, you know, one or most with two coaches. But Bill taught me how to do things the right way, how to treat people, how to talk to people, discipline, stuff like that.
X's and O's. You learn by a lot. You know, I learned from a lot of people, especially my coaches that I had in college.
But more importantly, like I said, you just keep learning by talking to new coaches like yourself and, you know, guys that I've mentioned in the past, high school and college and professionally.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: How did your relationships change with him as a player, then as an assistant, and then when you took over the program?
[00:11:26] Speaker B: You know, it's funny. You always, you know, as a player, you know, you're a little intimidated, afraid of your coach. And then when you start coaching with him, it's like, oh, man, you're soft. You know what I mean? But, no, he wasn't soft.
It's just like, again, it's like life. It's. It's different stages of life. Just like you start dating somebody, you start dating somebody, and you end up marrying somebody. But, you know, we became.
We were always close, but we came best friends.
And again, somebody who we talk about everything about, and still to this day.
And again, I started.
Not that, you know, but I started. I left GL as an assistant after three years with Bill. And that was the hardest thing I did to, you know, become assistant in the district that I was teaching in. And then one year later, I was a head coach.
And I was a head coach there at Melbourne High School for three years.
And then Bill became the athletic director at Governor Livingston. And we were having some really good success at Milburn High School, and it was a group bigger in terms of more students.
And when I left, because, again, I didn't want to leave right away.
And when I left, a lot of people were like, well, why would you leave? It's a step down. This and that. And because GL has always had a rich tradition Baseball. But those last two years with Bill were tough. I would say they were under 500. Maybe one of the two years was 500. So people are like, what are you doing?
But again, it's home.
And once, you know, like, I came back and he was the athletic director, our relationship got even stronger.
And like I said, it just continued to get stronger, stronger, stronger. And now that he retired, he moved down to Leland, North Carolina. And my family, even though I was dating my wife over the last 20 years, we go to North Myrtle Beach.
And my in laws, even though they live in New Jersey, they own on the water in North Myrtle beach. And we've been going down there, and he's about an hour and 10 minutes north of North Myrtle Beach. And we, we meet every single summer. We go to dinner and we go to Myrtle Beach, Pelican skate, and we just hang out all day and night. And it's just like, you know, like, I just saw him the other day, even though I haven't seen him in a year.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: What were some of the things that maybe you did different at GL than he was? I mean, you go your head coach for three years, you probably get some experience there. What'd you kind of bring back to GL that maybe they weren't doing at the end?
[00:13:50] Speaker B: I think that the first thing I did was I brought in a lot of coaches, I think, in baseball.
And I give Bill so much credit where he did it by himself.
And again, maybe that was a thing Ryan, you know, years ago, and I think it was that, you know, high school baseball was a lot of times it was one coach, I do remember my senior year, he was able to get a guy who just graduated Ursinus College to help out, which we thought was unbelievable because we had an assistant coach.
But that was the first thing I did, was bring in multiple coaches. And people joke. But I'm very fortunate that I have, you know, besides myself, I have a varsity assistant that's paid and I have a JV and obviously a freshman coach that's paid through our school district. But I have a volunteer assistant at the freshman level. I have a volunteer, you know, at the JV level, and I have four volunteers on the varsity level. So, you know, I have a total of 10 coaches in our.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: In our program that was our best coach on our staff. And I played with the same guy that coached on Mattingly, but our best coach was our volunteer coach. He played AAA with the Tigers, 100% talking hitting with him. Our head coach, Coach Merkel, didn't know much about hitting, but our volunteer knew a lot about hitting. So we gravitated to our volunteer for our hitting stuff.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: No doubt about it.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: And you have to have that. I think that's the lifeblood of any good program is your people that are willing to invest their time and probably not get paid to do, do it.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Correct. And we've been together for a long time. So it's a really special tight knit group of coaches, all ourselves, good friends where we really care about the kids.
And you don't see that a lot in today, day and age, especially in high school where it's a revolving door of coaches. And I always tell like young coaches. It's funny now Ryan, like me being 51, I feel like I'm the elder statesman now that we're. I got these newer coaches coming to me. Oh, coach, what do you. And it's like I don't want to tell them like hey man, like don't coach. But I just said, hey, it's going to be tough and you got to be who you are and you got to be smart and this and that because some of these parents are really, really vicious. Like I said, knock on wood with us. We've had a really good track record. Our parents know in both communities that feed Governor Livingston that we really care about their kids and we really play the right kids. And I think our success really shows that.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: When do you bring up that conversation with your parents as far as we're gonna play the best nine guys?
[00:16:14] Speaker B: I think, you know, it's funny, everybody has a meeting. I've never had a meeting and I think it's just because I'm very open and I'm not afraid to talk to our parents. I know a couple friend of mine or coaches who they don't talk to their parents at all. They don't. I feel the other thing, I think you have to. I think you obviously if you run your program the right way and you really know your program inside out, you know who to stay away from and you know who you can talk to and trust.
Again, obviously you're not confiding and certain stuff with these parents. But again you just know who you can and who you can deal. But I think it's very important if you want to run the program the right way, you want to get your booster club up and going because you don't have enough money. It's not basketball where yeah, I just need to get some basketballs and some reversible practice. No, it's like we need everything and you have to have a strong booster club. You have to have people who are willing to help. And the only way to do that is to be able to talk to people. I mean, we wanted another state championship, which was incredible.
And we quickly, with the help of friends of the program, we raised $7,000 through donations. People wanted to help the program so our players and coaches and our managers didn't have to pay for their rings or pendants.
So you have to do that.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: How is your booster club structured?
[00:17:40] Speaker B: It's under one big umbrella. The whole governor has the different sports.
We do have two parents that are, you know, we don't have like a vote of who's going to do this and that. It's almost. It really just comes down to who I want to do it and trust and the two parents that we have. And, you know, if it's something that our school can't get, you know, and we have the money, which we did a really nice job raising money again this year that, you know, like I said, we're able to get what we want to do. And again, it's. If you want to be the best of the best, you got to be able to get stuff, you know, for your program, uniforms, et cetera, you know, training tools, screens, whatever it may be.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: Do you have events set up or is it pretty much cold calling for it?
[00:18:31] Speaker B: You know, we do. There's a alumni association at Governor Livingston where it's an 80, 20 split where we get banners for the field and we get 80%. So we do a really nice job with that.
We've gone on to using a fundraising platform that other programs do where, you know, I hate, you know, because again, it's the springtime, so you get hit up in the fall and winter. But where they call, I think everybody has to come up with 25, you know, family and friends and this and that. And we seem to do, I mean, to put it this way, from this fundraising platform. I know that we were number one in terms of raising the most money fundraising wise in New Jersey. So we did a really nice job. And again, we're. We're group two school with about 850 kids in our building.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: Plus, it's good life skills for. For kids to have to do that 100 that.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Because Ryan, you know, like, these kids can't do anything without their phones. And again, like, if me and you grew up in the same era, we'd be the same way. We really would be. We're lying if we're saying that we wouldn't. But we still have to be able to teach our kids to be able to. Like I always say, like in a health class, like, I was always taught. Yeah, I think I heard Cal Rifkin. He was one of my idols growing up, that when you shake somebody's hand, you look at them in their eyes and you try to break their hand with a firm handshake. Like, I'll never forget that. And that's what I try instilling our kids. And like you said, you have to be able to talk to people. You have to. Because if two kids go to a team camp, which I had a kid years ago, and this was back at, like, a Fordham camp, and I even talked to the coach and said, hey, what was the deciding factor on you offering my player a scholarship versus this other kid who was of equal ability? And he said, hey, coach, it was very simple. Your kid was more personable. He asked more questions. And here's the key thing. When we talked, it was eye to eye, you know, so that's a big thing, and people don't understand that.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Have you been able to reflect? I mean, you've gotten 500 wins now there. Have you reflected much on that?
[00:20:27] Speaker B: I did.
Once we won that game. It was a state tournament game, and it was really nice that I was able to share that moment with one of our players who I love to death, Matt Diskin, who got his 100th career hit, but he's known more for as being a Division 1 pitcher who's headed the Stetson.
So that was a lot of fun, obviously, sharing that moment with Maddie and getting a state tournament when getting us to the semifinals. But, you know, like, everybody you talk to who hits a certain milestone, they all say the same thing. You're only as good as your players.
And a lot of memories go through your mind in terms of kids who play. You know, again, I've been a head coach since 2001, obviously missing Covid year in 2020, which we would have been really good that year, too. But you just think of those players and you think of the coaches, and you think, like I said before, the coaches that are with me now, how long we've been together. And my pitching coach, who is just an unbelievable pitching coach to me, one of the best in New Jersey, he played for me. So, like, it's. It's. It's really special when you get to share special moments of people who've been in your lives for a long time. And, you know, you've. You've had this yourself, too, where, you know, Maybe somebody you haven't spoken to in 15, 20 years reaches out. I think that's the stuff that's really.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Cool and neat, really hard to repeat at any level. Was your messaging different with this year's team as opposed to last year's team?
[00:21:52] Speaker B: We came. I always try to come up with something. And we had Adam Mosley, who I consider a friend from Hoover High School, who's one of the best coaches in the country.
And he spoke at our Garden State coaches clinic this year, and he mentioned something about the buffalo, where, you know, like you said, the buffalo don't they. They don't run away, they run to it. And that was our big thing this year, was we knew everybody was coming for us. And we had one of two things. Are we going to go after them or are we going to go backwards? And that was the key, I guess, teaching moment or theme that you want to use. And the kids really loved it. We had buffalo shirts, stuff like that. And that was a big thing we knew. And it started just in scrimmages in March where, like, whoa, like, some of these guys are playing like it's seven of the World Series and it's just a scrimmage and we're. We're doing a max of six batters and three outs. And, you know, but again, like, that's a compliment. And that's what I tried to tell the kids is that, you know, if teams are playing us like that, then we're doing something right.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: How do you create that competitive environment? It's hard to repeat every year because the kids are different. But how do you try to emulate that every year with that competitive spirit?
[00:23:03] Speaker B: It's a great question.
I started. And again, this is through learning and talking to people and watching videos and stuff like that, where we turned everything that we did in practice to a competition because you have to have a winner and you have to have a loser. And I wanted to teach our kids how much losing is not fun. And that's what we do now, again, like, you got to be careful with the punishment nowadays in 2025.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Accountability anymore. It's accountability.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: No, you're right. And like you said, hey, it's all.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: Kind of punishment, but it's. It's accountability.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: Like, for example, today we had our summer workout and we did a little inner squat at the end and the losing team did 20 push ups. They ran a sprint, they came back and they cleaned everything up and moved the screens. I don't want you to be happy that you're doing that. I want it to go through your brain that this sucks and that next time we have this inner squad, it's going to be the other team. It's not going to be my team. That's what we try to instill, and.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: That'S where you turn on the guys to your players, is let them choose what it might be. What are we playing for today?
You know, where they have a say in it, or it takes it off your shoulders a little bit where it's on them, like, hey, what are you guys playing for today?
[00:24:12] Speaker B: 100. We do that. It's funny you said that. That's what we do. All right, what are we going to do today? Like you said, they come up with some. First of all, you got to shut them down a little bit because they come up with some crazy things. But, yeah, you have to give the kids input on everything. Like, they have to be able to have a voice, you know, because then it just becomes a dictatorship if, like, you're telling him everything in your coat. It can't be that way. It has to be both ways. But it has to be in a respectful way, which they do understand that.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Run to the Roar is a good book, too. It's similar to if for people listening. And if you haven't read Run to the Roar, it's very good, too. It's kind of that Buffalo, you know, running through it. But Run to the Roar is about, I think, I want to say lacrosse coach that probably doesn't get any credit, but probably the most successful coach of any sport, of any level, of all time. I can't remember his name. It's been a long time. But Run to the Roar is a very, very good read. You ever think about coaching in college?
[00:25:08] Speaker B: You know, I had an opportunity in the fall of 2019.
There was a coaching change, and I was contacted by the athletic director to see if I was interested in coming back to at least run the fall program. And what I did is, of course I'm going to do that. For it was Montcalier State University.
And I said, of course. And I came back and I surrounded myself with ex teammates of mine at Montclair State and even Joe Loterio, who is the ex Wagner and Rutgers University coach. Great guy.
And we did a really good job.
And I knew money wise, it was going to be very difficult to sort of match where I was at with my family and this and that. And I think one day, you know, you always thought about it. But then one day at practice and again with phones, we talked about Phones and this and that. Like, I never have my phone out. The kids never have their phones out. But on this day, we were doing some kind of inner squad where we were set up behind home plate with radar guns and charts and all that fun stuff behind a screen.
And I had my phone open to game changer, shout out to game changer Alex Treza, my man.
And I was watching. It was either my son playing baseball or my daughter.
And right then and there, Ryan, I said to myself, what am I doing? What am I doing? I'm not going to go and recruit the way I have to recruit to, you know, turn this program around and miss what my kids are doing. Now, again, am I missing my kids? Yes, I am. During the springtime, it was very hard because my daughter had a really good season in softball this year.
And, you know, again, you know, coming in between, you know, innings. Again, never looked at my phone in the past, but just to see, you know, my daughter Emily's playing okay. My wife's text me what she does, every bat or if she's pitching or whatever it may be. So that's always difficult. But again, in the summertime, in the fall and the winter, I'm with them. So that's where I think being a high school coach and missing some stuff, it's a little bit different than being a head coach in baseball. But who's to say now? I mean, I could retire in four years. You never, never say never is what I'll say.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Ryan, when do you address. No phones for the guys.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: It's funny, by the time they get to me, they know, because with my freshman and JV coaches, they're good, too. You have to be. I learned that from the legendary and God rest his soul, Freddie Hill, that, you know, your coaches all have to teach the same thing.
And he always said, like, terminology. So if you can't do that, if you can't have your middle school having the same signs or teaching how we do hitting the same way, then, now, like every year, you're going to have to reteach effort as kids, you know what I mean? So, again, you learn something from everybody. And that's what I learned from Freddy Hills. And I made sure that the freshmen in the JV know that. So we never. They never have their phones. Never.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: So that's standard freshman jv, varsity, same bunt coverages, first and third, offensive signs, defense.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: Yes, we try to do this. Yeah, we all try to. Pitchers, catchers, we all try to do the same stuff. The only thing I think we do different. Ryan is like, I let, like, we'll use, you know, obviously the wristbands calling games.
We haven't gone to electrical stuff. We might. If again, we think that from coach to catcher.
Yeah, we don't have a problem doing what we're doing.
So if the NFHS can change something in New Jersey, where it could go to at least a coach, catcher, pitcher, we'll think about it. But we, you know, JV and freshman, J, freshman. We try to teach them.
Our coaches try to teach the catchers, like, hey, you know, this is how we sort of want to pitch somebody. We're trying. So it's more like of an educational, like Baseball 101, how to maybe call a game as a freshman level, then slowly up to the jv, the coaches call it. Okay. But, you know, like I said with the wristbands and then with us, it's, you know, full throttle.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Love it. What are pillars or standards for gl?
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Compete.
Compete and play hard, man. It's very, very simple. Compete and play hard.
Those are really the only things that we ask you. Leave. We always say to ourselves, as long as we played as hard as we possibly can and the other team's just better as we tip our cap. It's as simple as that. But if you can't compete, okay, then you shouldn't be playing. You shouldn't be playing a varsity sport.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Do you give examples of what competing or playing hard looks like?
[00:29:34] Speaker B: No, I mean, like I said, I mean, I think by the time they get to Ryan and because of our program, they know. They know what the standard is.
A lot of times one of my ex teammates from college who was with me on the varsity level for probably close to 20 years, Ralph Yeza has been our freshman coach now for the last four or five years. And he's really good. Obviously teaching the kids had a game, but more importantly how to play. And there's a lot of times that he brings his kids up, it has them, okay, we're going to go watch the varsity Dupree game. And like, they, like, he'll point out, okay, you see how, you know, they're all hustling out and you see how, like, what we do at the end of the inning is we don't. As soon as that third out is made, we just don't run to our positions. We all gather together and then when Everybody's ready, boom, 1, 2, 3, we sprint out to our position. So, like, those are certain things that, that we do. Everybody's different. But if you don't hustle, Forget about it. I mean, one of our coaches today got on a kid who's going to be a sophomore and just said, hey, this is inner squad. Like, what are you doing? Like, you're trying to impress us. Why are you not sprinting out to your position? And the kid was like, it looked like a ghost. But he. Because he knew he was wrong. So again, it's just. It's just teaching moments again. Like, I still remember back when I was a freshman in high school playing basketball, and it was not even our head coaches, our varsity assistant guy named John Tice, who said something to me, and it stayed with me the rest of my life. And I still use it as a life example. And, you know, like I said. So I think a lot of these teaching moments, if you polled some of our kids and asked them, I think a lot of the stuff they would say they learned from us, too.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: You have to make cuts.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: We did when I first started. It's weird now and again, there's a lot of schools that don't have freshman programs, and we've been very fortunate to have freshman program. So the answer to that is no. We've been keeping everybody.
If we have a junior that, let's say was on JV as a junior and he's on the varsity the following year, and we're not sure about his playing time, like, I'm going to have a conversation with him, and if I have to talk to his parents, too, I will just let him know, hey, like, it's nothing personal, but, like, you either need to buy in or you're not going to be around. Because we can't have that around our program.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: You're. You have a lot of hats in the ring. So do you have time management hacks?
I mean, what helps you stay on top of your schedule?
[00:31:56] Speaker B: I'm glad you said that because I am a little crazy when it comes to that stuff, but I don't know, I think I'm just pretty disciplined in what I do. It's pretty much the same thing every day. I know I question you a little bit about some of the stuff that you do.
Meditation, stuff like that. That's a big thing that we do in our program.
Before we practice. We. I might have sent you a picture when we first did it four years ago after talking to you and sheets and stuff like that. But where we meditate before practice, our assistant coach, Matt Rago, puts him through a guided meditation. And again, if you have 20 guys, it helps four of them. To me, that's meaningful because again, it's not just baseball. It's in anything you're going to do. And again, we use life lessons to everything that we do.
Okay, yeah, this is true for baseball, but this is what you can use in college. This is what you can use to when you go for a job, when you're competing against somebody else. Like there's so many life lessons that we use that, you know, it's good for these kids. It really is. And again, like just trying to slow the heart rate down. Like everybody has a foul pole for the most part. So you look at that, that's going to tell you, hey, slow down your. You know, again. Because you might. We've played in some really big crowds.
So especially kids first year going through this, you have to have ways and trigger to be able to slow your heart rate down in such a big moment. And I think, you know, again, yeah, we won two years ago and we had a bunch of kids back. Pretty much everybody except for two players, two starters.
These kids knew what to expect in big game. So like people are always saying like this year, oh, these big games, are these kids tight? You're undefeated. That was a big thing, right? You're undefeated. Is that all the kids are thinking about? And I said, no, they look dumbfounded. I'm like, guys, they played in big games. Like, that's one thing. Like, I never had to worry about getting our kids ready to play in a big game because we had the leadership and those kids. And I think this goes for big time players that are really good, that you don't have to worry about them in big games. They look forward to playing in those games, you know what I'm saying? And if you're not, there's something wrong with you.
A big thing. I would always say too, if a kid was having a tough year.
We had a kid back in, it was our first overall state, my first over state championship in 11.
And Kid had a great junior year. But he was struggling, probably about.260 hitter. And I said to them before the state tour, he'd say, guys, regular season's over.
Nobody's going to remember what you did in the regular season. They're only going to remember what you did in these big games.
So what's this kid doing the state final? He goes three for four, four RBIs. Nobody knows he hit 260. Everybody remembers this kid getting three hits in the state final and having four RBIs. And that's a nice little thing that we use every year. Too. And the kids, you always get those kids who step up like that, too. Every year in the state tournament, you.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Know, having those set routines, whatever it is. And so pre practice meditation, I think that eliminates a lot of the stress piece. And because I do study high performers, I equate it to, like, elite chefs. It's called mise en pla. They literally have all their ingredients set up in a row, same spot. So once they get through that, it's like, go time. And I think it's the same thing for athletes. If you have those set routines, that allows their performance to show up every day. Because now you're kicking it into automatic overdrive, basically.
You're allowing them to like, okay, this is what we do every day to kind of get us going. If you have that set up for them, that allows their performance just to kick and. And it becomes automatic for them where it doesn't matter what the moment is. It might be an inner squad or it might be playing for the state championship. I think it just allows them to go out and perform without even thinking about it.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: 100%, right? 100%. And I think, like, that that's what our kids. Our kids know that and they expect that. And I think when I first started as a young coach, you wanted to do everything you wanted to do picks here, this and that and first and thirds and this and that.
I soon learned that you want to be good at a couple things, like really good at a couple things, and then not worry about the other stuff. Eddie Blankemyer, who I love to death, legendary hall of Fame coach, learned some from him. Where, you know, a lot of people are working first and thirds all the time. Well, he did a study over the course when he was at St. John's for two or three years. Where I'll be wrong saying the percentage, but it might have been like 6% of the time it's first and third. Most of the time it's nobody on runner on first. Maybe runner on first. SEC. That's it. So guess what? That's what we did. And I called. He had a series that he showed in one of our fall clinics that we had with the Garden State. Not the Garden State, but the New Jersey High School Baseball Coach association at Rutgers University. And we called it the Blankie series now. And our kids loved it. It's a nice 20 minute segment that puts them through every single thing that can possibly happen.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: I think you view it more as, like, handling the ball. Like it might be first and thirds, but you're getting Them to handle the baseball and play catch. However you want to do that on a daily basis. Get them to handle the baseball and play catch.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Listen, we've been doing practice the same way you get up there, okay, you're going to, you're going to do your plyos and agilities and stuff like that. We're going to go right in the base running, get base running over with right away from base running. Then you're going to go play catch. From playing catch, you're going to take an IO, you're going to do a blankie series that we call or you're going to do some kind of team thing. And then we're going to hit. And when we hit, we hit with a purpose. We don't just, you know, again, we have the manpower so we're able to do it where, you know, we're not going to have, you know, little Johnny just hitting and now everybody's out in the field. No, we have four groups. We have a double cage.
So with force for like make it very simple. We had 16 hitters. You have four groups of four. You have four guys on defense. You fill with POS, you go to your position. I don't care. I try to even it out where it's different sides of the field. But then you have a base running group that we're working on different aspects. I have them go to every single base during the thing, working on different things when we rotate hitters, okay? And then our, our fourth and last group is down at the cage working on whatever. We always have a machine going and we always have an arm going on the field. Like this thing that we worked on this year, which we started to do a little bit last year. And I really think it helps these young hitters that really have no idea. And everybody loves to get around the baseball. Our big thing, the kids joke is we keep saying stay inside the ball. Stay inside the ball. Well, what we do is we have one of our coaches literally sit in a chair and we're not even throwing darts with something. We have a little loop to it and we let that ball travel and we stay inside the baseball and we have to hit everything middle away. We are not allowed to pull the ball because like I said, if someone's walking by, just joker, I said I can. Hey guys, I can get that person over here, come over here and guess what? They're going to hit the ball and they're going to get around the ball and pull it. Can we let the ball travel? Can we stay Inside it. And can we go middle away because like I said, your body, you just naturally pull the baseball the balls in.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: What are you trying to get out of development wise with the summer with your new guys?
[00:38:51] Speaker B: I think the biggest thing is just to teach them how we do things at GL because again no offense to what they're doing in middle school or travel ball or whatever. They have no idea how to do things our way terminology, just what we do, what we expect.
And I think that's the biggest thing that we get. And our older kids are really good where you know, they play travel, baseball.
They might go to Boston, they might be Lake Point, they might be wherever, but they get their butts there if they're home. And we go every, every Tuesday, Thursday in the morning at 10am we go for two hours. That's it. And they're there.
And we have really good attendance. We work well with the football coaching staff because right now I have a high influx of especially kids that are going to be in 10th grade and 9th grade football players, which I think is great, makes them tougher where we work around our schedule. And same thing with the basketball. Basketball might go Tuesday, Thursday in the afternoon where football might go on different days or later in the day. So and again, if it's they have to choose between they go to football one day, they go to baseball the other. And I think that's how you have to do it because again, at the end of the day we are promoting multiple sport athletes because I do think it's important to get your butt kicked okay in other sports and use different muscles.
I think the days of having three sport athletes is really, really difficult because of how it is nowadays. So I think that in high school you definitely should be playing too.
And again, if you're like a high level kid, okay, maybe sophomore, junior year, maybe you decide to go to 1. I hate to say that but you know, because I think it is important to play that other sport. But that's typically what I tend to see because it's so competitive. They feel like it's like FOMO if you're missing out. Like if they're not there, they think they're missing some. But ideally they're talented enough where go play a sport. You'll be fine to play baseball.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: You have many basketball, baseball guys.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: I do, I do.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: How do you handle them coming out of the gym, getting ready for the spring?
[00:40:48] Speaker B: We. Great question. We.
It's unfortunate a few years ago, kids that are going to be seniors, there's a bunch of kids, including the one boy is the UVA commit. A bunch of those guys were basketball guys. And then they just stopped playing. And I don't know why. And I didn't like that. I mean, I do know why, because, you know, they were chasing, you know, baseball scholarships and schools recruiting, and they feel like they're missing out if they're not training or if they're not. I get, like, I get it. But they still should have played. But to your question, what we typically do is during basketball season, they do get that one day off. And I do get that it's important. So I do say to the kids that, you know, typically in January, because we usually start, you know, that like that first week of March, you know, right around there, that usually a Friday, but this past year was a Monday. But we, we do at a nice training facility, we all do a program type thing for about an hour and a half, and everybody tends to do that. So, you know, again, if a basketball player is a pitcher, they know that to start building up their, their arm, they go to their pitching guy once a week starting in January.
So they're ready to go. Day one, eight weeks.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: I mean, that's. Yeah, you're playing March 1st. You got eight weeks to get your.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: I know it's. It's crazy. I want to say that this coming year, it's. I know it's a Monday. I don't know if it's the 10th or whatever, March, but like, we open up our season on Saturday, March 28th. So this is the shortest preseason we've ever had. And again, I know, like, they're trying to be equal with winter and fall sports, but baseball, you, you get it. You know, you played and coached like it's a different animal. You got to build your arm up or you're going to have injuries. And, and yeah, we're in a place where, you know, the kids at Governor Livingston can do that, but there might be other places where money might be tight and you can't do that. So now what? You know what I mean? Or just schools that are smaller that only have five or six pitchers. You know.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: If you were talking to a coach taking over high school program for the first time, what would be like, the three main things to get on top of?
[00:42:59] Speaker B: One, discipline. Two.
And I think probably two is the most important one.
Make sure that your kids know how much you care about them, because if you can do that, they'll run through a wall for you. I think that's the most important thing. The third thing could be a bunch of things. I, I do think that you have to have some kind of relationship with your parents. You have to if you want to run the program the right way. Because you can't get stuff done by yourself without them. If you're one of these guys that. Well, I don't need anything. I just need one uniform, one hat, one fungal bat. Okay? God bless you. Good luck to you. But if you want to do things the right way, you want to give not just your varsity, your whole program, okay. Things that they should have and try to run it to as close to Division 1 program as you can, you have to do that.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: It's time to get on board with making your parents your biggest advocates.
[00:43:58] Speaker B: The ones you can trust. Yeah, the one. And I've been very blessed. Again, don't get me wrong, your kids don't play. You know, of course you're going to say something, you know, but that comes with the territory and we should know that this is what we're signing up for. But at the end of the day, what I can tell you about our Governor Livingston parents is that knowing about me, but all my assistant coaches, they might not agree with something but they will definitely. Maybe they won't even admit it, but they know deep down inside that we work our tails off. Not just for three months, for 12 months. Okay. And that we care about their kids. And me being a parent of two, you know, one daughter who's going to be a senior, one soon is going to be a freshman. That's all you ask for. Like I just want a coach that is going to care for my kids.
[00:44:46] Speaker A: How beneficial is it that you run your own facility?
[00:44:49] Speaker B: Well, I don't, that's, I don't. I'm. I'm, you know, I'm with their cold gamers facility. So I am very close with those guys where again like we run clinics together.
My daughter plays in the softball, my son plays in the baseball program.
And it's a place where they just opened a second facility. This is after you visited Ryan. Where it's in our town in Berkeley Heights where Governor Livingston is. And we're able because they really don't get busy until 5 o'. Clock. So if we get rain or whatever or if it's a pre game we can go there and we can hit in four of their tunnels, you know, before, you know, like I said instead of practicing in a gym where yeah, you get a drop down but you split that and then you cut a couple nets around it. It's just so Much. That was the thing that we went to in Covid and that was probably the greatest thing that ever came out of COVID was that we were able to practice now at a facility and it's really helped us tremendously.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: How is your communication with them? Because they're going to have your players probably when you're not with them. How is your communication with them from development a standpoint?
[00:45:58] Speaker B: No, it's great because to me, when I talk about any travelable organizations and again, like, you know, parents chase trophies.
It's funny, Ryan, like a lot of college coaches always ask me one of the first questions. How many travel teams did Johnny play on? Okay, because that's the thing, right? He's not playing shorts. I'm gonna go to this club and play shorts up, whatever. But just getting back to your thing is that, you know, their training at Untamed Gamers is second to none in the state of New Jersey. Like, they really, truly care about the development of their players, you know what I mean? And whatever's going to happen in terms, I always think it's a crapshoot anyway. It's almost like a public school because you don't know. You have to coach with what you get, you know what I mean? So, you know, maybe some of your teams will be strong, maybe some of your other teams won't be as strong. But at the end of the day, and again, I've been through my kids, it's about development.
Like, I don't care what their record is, 10, 11 years old, I care that my son or my daughter is going to get better. So they are ready to play in a middle school or high school, you know what I mean? And they do a great job doing that.
The three main guys there, I think you remember Hassani Whitfield, John Lewis and Mike Kolsar are down to earth. Guys that are just great human beings that care so much about, you know, people in general, but especially the kids.
[00:47:17] Speaker A: You send a lot of guys the next level. So for a parent or player that's listening and with the landscape of where recruiting's at, talk a little bit about the recruiting process for kids.
[00:47:27] Speaker B: Now, it's funny you said that I have a lot of people.
I live in a town called Scotch Plains. So, like, you know, there's. I'll help some kids from Scotch Plains, I'll help some kids from neighboring communities that I might know because people do know that I do know a lot of coaches, which is a nice thing. And. And again, when you coach 25 years and you go to conventions and like you said, you send people. You, you gain relationships with people, and then they trust you when you tell them that this kid can play. Like, you're not going to, you know, lie to say, oh, yeah, this kid can play, but he couldn't play Division 3 baseball. You know what I mean? But I think the biggest thing I try to tell my parents and other people is this. The whole landscape has changed. It's made it so much more difficult for high school kids, you know, especially at the Division 1 level. It was funny, I was on the phone with two Division 3 coaches today for one of my pitchers, High academic kid. But I think if you can pick three or four camps, like pick three or four schools that you, you would. That's where you want to go. It's your top three or four schools. Go there, go there. Especially if I know them, I'll give him the heads up. Hey, Ryan, Brownlee's coming. He's a really good student. He fits your profile academically.
Let's talk when it's done. Tell me if he's good enough because, you know, like I said, that's where they'll use me. Like, I feel bad for kids that go to these things, and now they have to wait and wait and wait because their coach doesn't know the coach. So I think, Ryan, those are the. That's the most important thing to do.
It was funny. I had a kid, I always tell this story to parents where I had a real high academic kid.
And this is probably going back close to 10 years ago and, yeah, eight to eight years ago. And he was going into his senior year. He was with this really good travel organization, but they were not playing at showcases that were like high academic schools. So the father said, you know what?
I'm not going to spend money to have my son play this summer. I'm going to take all that money and I'm going to have his. His name was Dan. I'm going to have Dan do five or six showcases at the schools that he. His top schools were at. And it was unbelievable. And that's how I got. And he ended up going to Franklin and Marshall. And I have a nice relationship with the coach over there. And he was actually the one I talked to earlier today, and it all worked out. So I always tell people, like, just because you play travel and you want to complain, you got to see what tournaments that you. Especially if you're high academic. If you're not, then, yeah, you're probably going to good showcase events. But I will say if you're high academic, you got, you really got to make sure that you're going to the right showcase and you can make an.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Unofficial visit out of it too. A lot of kids and parents, they don't get to campuses, they don't know what's out there. It's a great way to. But outside of the campus camp of get their day early and take the academic tour and meet with academic people, meet with the counselors. Like you can make a whole weekend of it outside of the baseball part, see if it actually fit on campus.
[00:50:34] Speaker B: Or if you even like 100%. Because at this point with these 16, 17 year olds, the only thing they're thinking of is playing baseball there. And I always have to step in and not be the bad guy. But like, hey Johnny, God forbid you blow out your arm, you see yourself there, you see yourself there, you know, I mean, so those are questions you have to ask. But again, like, I didn't know this when I was a young coach.
So you have to talk to people. Like if I was afraid I wouldn't reach out to you. If I was afraid I wouldn't reach out to this person, you know what I mean? So that's just my DNA, that's who I am. Like, I feel like that makes me a better coach because I'm going to go out and I'm going to reach out to people who I really respect and I want to hear what they have to say. You know, you were here for a couple days. I learned a lot from you, you know, and I consider yourself a friend, you know, like you said, you get back to me every single time and that goes along with me.
[00:51:28] Speaker A: And we've all stood on the shoulders of people. I have so many mentors and people that I've been around that always got back to me and didn't need to. And I'm. You can't get right on top of it. But if somebody texts me, I'm gonna get back to you, probably at least within 24 hours. Because that's what my mentors did for me. If I reached out to them pre cell phone days and left a message, they got back to me, shot an email, they got back to me. So I feel like that's part of paying it back. Because now you're teaching another generation of people of, to respond back. Like it's gonna be better for the next generation when I'm not here anymore and I'm gone. And you want that to keep going as a chain of baseball community where People get back to you regardless of the level, regardless of who they are.
Two weeks ago with Clint Hurdle and I know Clint, but Clinton didn't have to jump on the podcast with me and he didn't need to do that. But he did. And that's the great thing about our community is people are willing to help.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: I'm the same way and I've been very fortunate in my career through friends of mine and got a chance to know Al Leiter, Kevin Long and those guys are great. Those guys are awesome. Like Al lives a town over. We'll meet for lunch, we'll talk. He gets back to you. K. Long is in the middle of the season. He'll get right back to me. Like between hitting with Schwarber and Harper. You know what I mean? Like those are genuine really good guys.
And I mean that was the way I was brought up. I mean that's, I'm just like you. I, it's, it's my personality. I have to get back to you.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: I'm not gonna ignore it would bother me.
[00:53:04] Speaker B: It bothers me too because there are people.
[00:53:06] Speaker A: If I didn't. And you forget that things sometimes. But it bothers me. But I had a conversation with a coach today that I've known forever. He called last week. He didn't leave me a message. I'm like, hey, like I'm now and I've done this for a long time. If you do not leave me a phone message, I will not return your phone call. Now text. Yes.
But if you just call and you don't leave me a message like I'm, you know, I got that from 10 Ferris. If it's important, they'll leave a message. If it's not, then they're just trying to chit chat which is fine. But like if you want, if you want me to call you back, leave leave a message. Leave me a message.
[00:53:40] Speaker B: I'll get back to you 100%. You're absolutely right.
[00:53:42] Speaker A: A training tools or tech that are out there. This is from your players perspective. What do you feel like they are enjoying right now? It could be a training tool or it could be tack.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: We got some consider Monoli. A friend too learned a lot from Monty Text with him. He gets back to me.
These are one of the best hitting guys in America.
He told me about a couple training bats.
The one bat was called a chubby bat where I forget who makes it Ryan. Where it's a shorter bat and we use it for two strikes because we got to let that ball travel.
He also Showed me something that they use. I think he used it South Carolina, where it has four baseballs that are together, glued together. Put it like a steel rod through it. I showed it to my players in wood shop. They made it and we used it as like a visual type thing to let the balls travel.
We then got. I forget the name of this bat, but it was a real heavy bat. I want to say it was a 36, maybe 34 ounces.
And you do front toss with it. But what Monty said was it helps you really not be handsy. It makes you use your whole body. So our kids really like that one too.
And then the new one we use, this was. This was a. So I hoped I get like a free, like, bat back from these people, man. Right, right. Was a split grip bat, which we loved. But we did that a lot off a tee, you know. So those are the three big things that we did this year in terms of like rapsodo track bands. We don't have that stuff. I mean, we had blast. We use blast, which is awesome, don't get me wrong. But when we can't coach our kids in the fall, like we're all in New Jersey, we're only allowed to coach our kids from the first day of baseball through the whole season, through the summer, and then that first day of school. Nope, you cannot do it. So having blast on them the whole year would be great, but for three months. We did it for a couple years and it was beneficial. It was good, but it was just too much. We didn't have enough time. Rap soda. We had. It was good when we did it, but again, for three months, it just, it's. It's not going to help you enough, you know, plus, they go to these guys and they know their spin rate and all that stuff. Again, at the end of the day, me and your old school, I'm a little bit of both.
You got. If you're a pitcher, throw strikes, throw control, fastball, be able to throw something off speed for a strike. And guess what? You're going to be a pretty good high school pitcher, especially if you could pitch inside, you know, I mean, and in terms of hitting, don't strike out.
Learn to fight with two strikes, but again, just hit the ball hard. That's your name of the game. Because you're going to get. Those dinks are going to fall in here. I tell the guys it all evens out at the end. You just, Your job is just, you know, because you see the kids, they smoke a line drive, gets caught they get all upset. But when they bloop one in there, like embarrassed and I always tell them it all evens out. So just try to hit the ball hard. So in terms of stuff like that, metrics, they go to places to see that stuff.
[00:56:41] Speaker A: And that's the benefit of having facilities around too because they can get that stuff from the facility side of it.
That's where high school coaches use your facilities in your area. They're going to have that tech. If you don't have it, it's not a big deal. You're going to have somebody around your area that probably has it where they can jump on that and get their metrics, don't have to do it a lot. And back to the hitting piece. I was fortunate enough to go with my boss and Bob Whalen to the all star game last week.
Ohtani first at badge. Never seen Scubal, never seen Tarik Skubal. But ass out's a two strike base knock.
And that's the beautiful thing about hitting, you know, beautiful thing about hitting is that's the art of hitting is that's why he's the best hitter in the game, is because he's willing to break his swing down and put the ball in play with two strikes.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: You have to. We always say our motto at GL is you're at bat is zero and one strikes. When you get two strikes as a.
[00:57:40] Speaker A: Team at bat, do you talk much about two strike approach? Do you have them do a whole lot with two strikes?
[00:57:47] Speaker B: It's funny again with the whole thing with social media. Like I saw one time when a kid had two strikes, this was early on, and a kid looked at his team and he pounded his chest, meaning this is for you guys.
And that was the thing that sort of caught on with our guys. It was pretty cool, you know, like some people, it's corny. It, I loved it.
[00:58:05] Speaker A: If it's whatever, like I, I get run through the ring around some of that stuff. If it works for players, go do it. I don't care. What if it works, I don't care. You can call it weird all you want. If it's working, go have at it. Go do it.
[00:58:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean again, like typical things, everybody's different. I think, I think you have to take an approach looking at different people. Like, you know, Chris Roof might want to widen out a little bit more where Ryan Bradley might want to shorten up on the bat a little bit. I think everything's a little bit different.
[00:58:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Mine, it would dictate it off the pitcher. 100 always dictated off what the pitcher was trying to do to me, what type of adjustment I made.
[00:58:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's what the elite hitters do. You know, the guys that really study it inside and out and the kids that want to get better, like that's the key thing. Like you want. I always tell the guys you want to be the man.
And the great thing about our team this year is we had length to our lineup and we had some good pitching too, obviously. But I just said, hey guys, it might be two or three of you today. When we play tomorrow, it might be you three different three guys. And that's. That was a nice thing and that was a nice luxury to have. But the kids took it as a challenge where they wanted to be the guy. And another thing I got from Monty Lee was we do quality of bats too. And I think this is pretty cool. I've shared this with some people where we did a Chipotle gift card per week. So we had X amount of weeks and we had a competition. You play three or four games in a week. Okay, Joe Smith, you had the most points. You get a Chipotle gift card and they go, and it's a 10 gift card. They go nuts. It's great. So I got that from Monty. I thought it was pretty cool.
[00:59:39] Speaker A: I almost reversed it from a two strike approach sometimes as I went straight to it with no strikes. If I was going to sit somewhere in the box, especially off soft tossing lefties, I got their first pitch.
Like I didn't wait around to get to two strikes, like I was going to get there, to be able to move the baseball with no strikes.
[00:59:56] Speaker B: And you fought away, right? Right. You throw it away.
No.
[01:00:01] Speaker A: This is something that helped my players a lot. We talked about this a lot with whatever their strengths were to try to make the pitcher strength. Now your strength where it was trying to get the ball to the middle of your barrel.
So if a guy really was pounding you away and lived away, away, away, it's okay to get on top of the plate to now make that pitch on the sweet spot of your bat.
[01:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: If you were getting hammered in and the guy was going to come in, it was okay to back off. But really it was trying to find with their stuff where you could get the middle of your barrel to the middle of the baseball and wherever that was in the box. I know guys don't like moving around, which is fine, but you still have to be able to battle at times and try to take his strengths and make Them your strengths.
And the only way to do that sometimes is by moving around. Now, I'd give big league hitters a lot of credit because the stuff they're seeing now is stupid and they also know that a pitcher is going to miss his spots. But those guys are the elite of the elite because they don't miss those pitches where a high school kid or a college kid may foul those pitches off. Those guys are really good. If they do get their pitch, it's probably going to be there's going to be some damage on it and they don't miss those pitches.
[01:01:15] Speaker B: We tend to get on the plate because I always say to them, if 70% of pitches in Major League baseball are mill away, what do you think it is in college and what do you think it is in high school? So why wouldn't you. So now if you do face a kid that can get the ball in or run a right, he can run a two semen. Now we'll get off the plate a little bit. So you know, again, things that me and you might think it's a no brainer, you really, it's elementary. You really got to teach it to these guys.
[01:01:44] Speaker A: And that's a plate discipline thing too. And controlling your hitting zone is. If you are looking in a different zone and with no strikes or one strike, he pitches out of that zone, then you got to be disciplined enough to take it. And that's the other thing that the elite hitters do is if it's not in the zone they're looking for, they're really good at taking those pitches because you got other pitches to deal with. And part of it's just buying more pitches. As a hitter, I think the good ones are really good at buying another pitch. Whether it's not swinging at a pitch that I'm not ready for or even just filing pitches off that are on the edges and battling on the edges. I think they're really good at just buying another pitch for themselves.
[01:02:20] Speaker B: Or how about kids that, you know, we track the kids who can't hit a breaking ball. Like, then why are you swinging at it? Thank you. Less than two strikes. You. It's just like basic. Like again, baseball 101.
Why is there a higher percentage of breakables being thrown in Major League baseball and Division 1 major. Yeah. CC ACC. Because guys can't hit it.
So what do you think it is in high school? You know, we're talking about. Yeah, yeah. The elite of the elite high school guys can do it. And I get the hanging one but still, you have to learn how to hit a breaking ball. And again, when we grew up, I always tell the guys, we learn how to hit a curveball. I learned playing Wiffle ball. That's how I learned how to curveball, you know, so these kids don't do that.
So they don't know.
[01:03:06] Speaker A: And also take your percentages that it's not going to be a strike.
[01:03:11] Speaker B: That, too.
[01:03:11] Speaker A: And that's the early count where you're getting all of that information is if you see the ball spinning, take it to see if it's a strike or not.
Chances are it's probably not going to be a strike. But also, if you take it and is a strike, and then that locks into your cognitive. Cognitively, okay, if it looks like that, again, it's a strike. So I need to swing at it. And that's where taking pitches, especially first time through, is beneficial to see what a pitcher's stuff is doing. Because next time you get in there, if that pitch looks the exact same coming out of the hand, go ahead and take a rip on it, because it's probably a strike.
[01:03:49] Speaker B: Oh, I know. It's. It's great. It really is crazy. It really is.
[01:03:54] Speaker A: With you running the clinic all these years now, you get to see a lot of really good guys. How do you handle. When you see a presentation of that looks really good, when are you going to try to implement that?
[01:04:09] Speaker B: Well, I mean, the hard part is, is I can't implement until March, but in terms of myself really knowing inside and out, I start working on it immediately. I'll then meet with, you know, my coaches and tell them, hey, that we're going to try this. We're going to do this. Hey, here's the most important thing. What do you guys think? Because just because I want to do it doesn't mean that we're going to do it. And that's another thing that I forgot to touch upon before was as a head coach, you can't do everything, okay? You have to give responsibility to your assistant coaches. You have to make them feel a part of this program and feel a part of something. Because if they're just throwing BP or just hidden fungos, no, you need to get them input and you need to get guys. And again, I got good guys where you'd say, oh, I'm gonna agree, whatever Coach Roof said no. I like guys that challenge me and say, no, that's what I like.
So, again, that's hard to hire. You know what I mean? Especially in high school, when if you don't have the right connections or know people. It's really hard to get people. But I guess maybe we're like that because we've been together for so long and that we love each other and we trust each other so much that we tell each other the truth. You know what I mean? But you have to give your guys responsibility.
Guy goes coast, third go. Gets a guy thrown out, don't say anything to him. If anything, you try to educate him, say, hey, what did you see? You know, what are you thinking? And then we learn that way, you know, bring in a guy if. If I'm not a pitching guy. Okay, you have your pitching coach again. You have final say. He's coming out, he's staying in the game. He's pitching Tuesday, he's pitching Thursday. But again, at the end of the day, you have to give your guys. And I'm like, you know, I'll call him like, my. My co. Offensive guy on the varsity. He's a guy named Chris Flynn, who played baseball at Notre Dame. He played for Murph, you know, so he has some great Murph stories. But we run the offense together, and we come up with an offensive scheme every day in practice. So it's. It's fun like that. And I let Matt Reagan, who's our pitching guy, come up with what we're doing in pitching, because you have to have, you know, pitcher have pitching program. You have to.
But you hear horror stories that schools don't. So how do you expect those kids to throw strikes and get better if you don't have them throwing bullpens in between starts or long tossing or doing whatever you have to do?
[01:06:36] Speaker A: How do we get back to healthy confrontation as a society?
Because you have it. But your staff's been around each other for a long time, and I think that breeds the safe space to be able to disagree and even if it gets heated, to hug it out afterwards. And we're good after you guys have been around each other. So it's kind of like having a family where you've been around your brother and sisters a long time. You're gonna fight, you're gonna hug it out afterwards, and we're gonna be fine. We're gonna move on. Like, how do you. How do you. How can we get back to that? I miss.
I miss that. I know the phones and technology has really. I think that's the biggest change now because it's created that combativeness. But we had. We've always had combativeness. But in the old days, you Just agree to disagree and then you still hugged it out afterwards.
[01:07:22] Speaker B: Exactly. I think it's just, you know, it's just luck of the draw, to be honest with you, man. It. It really is at the end of the day. And if you are lucky enough from a school that's over here, whatever, that has a coaching staff that's together for three, four years, okay, you're going to start to see the camaraderie build amongst those guys. But the hard part is trying to find the right guys. And a lot of times people are put in situations where they're just going to hire whoever they can get, and that's not a good thing. You know what I mean? But it's not easy to hire coaches. And I'm. I'm very.
I tell everybody all the time how fortunate I am to have the guys who I have in the program. Again, I just don't bring in anybody. If I need somebody, I bring in people that really I feel are going to be an asset to our program and that are down to earth. I'd rather have Brian. Good people that care about the kids versus having a guy who you're not too sure about that is an incredible X's and O guy. I'll take a good person that cares about the kids over that because I'm going to make sure that either myself or other coaches will be able to teach you the X's and those you need good people. They treat the kids the right way. They don't talk down on the kids because you have some.
[01:08:30] Speaker A: Really talk down about other coaches.
[01:08:33] Speaker B: That too. Yeah. 100. You do that.
[01:08:35] Speaker A: Better off not having that person. No, you're better off going with less coaches than you are bringing that.
[01:08:41] Speaker B: Exactly. Oh, I would do it this way. Oh, yeah. All right. See you later. See you later. Go. Go coach the team. That's stinks. You know, I mean, but like, I. I totally agree with you. Yeah, it's.
It's a crapshoot and you got to be lucky. But again, you have to have the guy who's. Who's driving the ship, so to speak, has to, you know, pick the right people, you know, to be a part of that, you know, staff, you know what I mean? So I've been around the block a long time. I know a lot of people.
So it's. I've been very fortunate to have really good people with me.
[01:09:12] Speaker A: Do you have your fail forward moment? Could be. Personally, professionally, what's your fail forward moment?
[01:09:16] Speaker B: I do. I would say from a baseball standpoint, Ryan, it was Me, I had a really nice college career, but I guess I would have been labeled a guy that maybe didn't have a position. I was between an outfielder and I was a lefty. Lefty first baseman. And it was funny. I was.
They thought I had a shot again drafted as a junior and I didn't.
And we're going to move you to first base next year. And then all of a sudden, you know, towards the end of summer, like, oh, hey, this kid fell into our laps here. He's a 6 foot 5, left hand hitting first baseman. You did a good job. You're going to stay in the outfield. And that's what happened to me. And that kid got drafted in three years. So I mean, he was a really good player.
So my feel for it was that I probably didn't get, I had it an opportunity to play independent baseball. But at that time I was so upset that when we got knocked out of. When I was a junior and my freshman year we won a national championship. My sophomore year we went back to the college real series and lost. And then my junior and senior year, we lost in a regional finals.
And that was 95 and 96.
And in 95, not 95, but 96, I went back with Mr. Howard, Bill Howard, and I helped out the GL baseball team for seven or eight games.
And I'm like, wow, this is a lot of fun. I'm like, I want to do this.
And that's, and that's, that's really what I see is what made me a coach. And if, if I had a chance to play professional baseball, I don't know how my life would have ended up. And I think that, you know, everything happens for a reason.
And that happening to me definitely led me in the right direction of being a coach.
[01:11:00] Speaker A: What is it about playing in successful programs that wants to make you continue on in the baseball industry?
Well, I think that's a big part of it. Look at those of us that have stayed in it. We played in successful programs growing up.
[01:11:17] Speaker B: That's the thing. It's.
[01:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah, by the way, because losing is not fun. No, it's fun.
[01:11:23] Speaker B: It's not.
I have a good friend of mine says, you know, hey man, like, it beats you up, like, yeah, you're loving it.
[01:11:30] Speaker A: You're loving on both sides of it. I've been on both sides of it. Losing stinks.
[01:11:34] Speaker B: And I've been very fortunate where we've won.
And it's not always going to be like that in public school. I mean, that could change two three years from now, you know, for a year or two. But I always think if you do the right thing, you train the kids, you get them ready, know what to expect, you're always going to be competitive. I, I really truly believe them. Are you at pitchers that are going to throw strikes? You're going to win ball games? You are, because you're going to outwork people. That's high school baseball.
But yeah, winning is addictive.
I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do stuff like that. To me, my addiction is winning.
And you know, again, at the end of the day, it's about teaching the kids the right thing and being young men and adults and teaching them when you hand them off once they graduate to make the right decision, that ultimately is it. But winning is addiction.
[01:12:23] Speaker A: A lot more fun to win.
[01:12:24] Speaker B: A lot more fun, 100%. And we have kids in our program that have won and they won when they're little kids and they want to continue to win as they get older. And it's, I feel bad for some of my kids that end up going to some programs in college that aren't very successful. Maybe don't get as much stuff as like gear wise as we give out.
And like, man, like I really miss high school. And again, like I feel bad when a kid says that. My heart, but a part of me is like, I'm proud because I know the product that we put out there for our kids too.
[01:12:54] Speaker A: And also be grateful you're getting the opportunity to play at the next level.
And by the way, it's your responsibility as a player to make it great.
[01:13:02] Speaker B: Uh huh.
[01:13:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh yeah, because that's part of it too. Like hey, if you're in a program that you feel like as a player that's not doing what it needs to be doing, then all right, take a leadership role and let's, let's get this, let's get the tide turned with this program. Let's get it turned because again, what.
[01:13:17] Speaker B: Was 7 or 8% of all high school kids play college baseball? Right.
So that's a compliment right there itself.
[01:13:24] Speaker A: Do you have go to routines? Could be morning or evening.
You have set routines.
[01:13:31] Speaker B: I would say I have some weird things that I don't consider anything weird. No, but I'm saying like, like if we're in a winning streak, I'm more of that kind of way. Like I have to do the same things during the course of that day.
I might have to eat the same place or something. You know, I do like I might have to wear the same. You know, if it's not dirty, I have to wear the same thing. Like, I have weird, quirky things like that. But in terms of morning routines, no. Like, I. I don't get up ridiculously early to work out or meditate, which I should.
[01:13:59] Speaker A: Yeah, but you don't have to, like, that's.
[01:14:02] Speaker B: That.
[01:14:03] Speaker A: That works for some people. I think that's why it's hard to take a lot of personal and personal development from other people, because what works for one person may not work for. It's good to get tips from people, but everybody's situation is different. And I think it's cool to learn from other people on that side of it. But what works for one person may not work for. For another person, which is fine.
[01:14:29] Speaker B: I love going for walks.
I love going for walks. And honestly, listen to you, Ryan. Listen to the podcast ABCA, you know, D1 baseball. Love runes. Like, I. I love. That's the stuff I really enjoy, especially if it's a nice sunny day out. Those are the things I look forward to. Like, another weird thing you're gonna make fun of me is I like going food shopping by myself.
[01:14:48] Speaker A: Love it.
[01:14:48] Speaker B: I just. It's, like, relaxing. It's just. To me, it's relaxing. Yeah. And it's like. It's a challenge. Like, my wife's telling me, I got to get this, this, and this. Well, I'm gonna find it. I'm gonna find it without asking somebody. You know what I mean?
[01:15:00] Speaker A: So you plan your whole grocery shopping out for the week?
[01:15:04] Speaker B: No.
[01:15:04] Speaker A: Are you a bit by bit? I'm a bit by bit. I'm a little bit. Like, I still make my own food for lunch, breakfast, dinner. So, like, I'll go and get my stuff for lunch for the week, but dinner's like, kind of here and there where if I'm feeling something, then I'll get. I'll get. What's for dinner? I don't do a lot of meal prep on the dinner portion of it. Breakfast and lunch are a lot of meal prep for those, but I don't eat a lot for breakfast either.
[01:15:33] Speaker B: I. Yeah, same here.
[01:15:34] Speaker A: It's a banana and chocolate milk.
[01:15:36] Speaker B: There you go. That's. I like that. That's good stuff. We. Our lunch at GL is so early during the course of the year. The bell rings at 10:49 for lunch. It's 10:49 to 11:45 is lunch. So that's an early lunch. So again, you know, you get that. You know, it's that that timing thing, you wake up the same time, you now you're hungry at that same time. That's typically what it is. But we have a family group chat with me, my wife, and my two kids, and we just. Okay, I might pick this night because we have practice. All right, guys, what do you. What do you need? And then I'll get it for them. But typically it's the same stuff every week. But forget about us trying to have a sit down dinner during the springtime with my daughter playing high school softball, my son who was doing middle school, and my wife really becoming a single parent during the spring and driving here and there and this and that. So again, I've been with her since 2001. We've been married since 06, but together since 01.
[01:16:27] Speaker A: And so she gets all the credit for your success then?
[01:16:31] Speaker B: 100%. If I don't say that, I'm gonna get a lot of trouble. Ryan. I want. I'm hoping she can come out to Ohio and I want to introduce you to you. So how do you.
[01:16:41] Speaker A: How do you carve out family time, though, during the spring? I think that's challenge for all coaches. Springtime. How do you carve out. Because everybody's going in a million different directions, especially when your kids start to get older. How do you guys. Do you carve out something on Sunday? Do you do anything? Or is it just.
[01:16:56] Speaker B: Yeah, Sunday is typically the day. I mean, we do, like, if it works out where my daughter has practice, we have practice. My son, we'll try to have a dinner. If we go out or whatever, we will try to do that. But Sundays, typically, we are. We'll be together. I mean, again, with a teenage daughter who just gets her license. She doesn't really like to be home. She likes to be with her friends and drive her car and this and that. But we. My wife is very close to her family, her parents, and they live 10 minutes away from where we live. So we typically have Sunday dinner at their house, which is really nice.
So that's something that we, you know, typically do during the course the whole year, not just baseball softball season, but the entire year.
[01:17:37] Speaker A: Who nudged you to get into the abca?
[01:17:40] Speaker B: Who? What?
[01:17:41] Speaker A: Who knows Jude to get into the abca?
[01:17:43] Speaker B: Nobody. And I'm mad at myself that I didn't do it sooner. I didn't know what I was missing out on. I had no idea. Right. I really didn't. I had no idea. I needed somebody like you or me in my life to say, you're not a member of the abca because I really. I'm feel terrible that I haven't been a member as long as I should be. So really, nobody really like a word.
[01:18:01] Speaker A: Of mouth, but you always got time to jump back, jump in.
[01:18:04] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[01:18:04] Speaker A: That's a great thing. Is, like, even if you haven't been a member and you've been coaching for a long time, I think you'd be very surprised if, if you jumped in with the. With the tribe again. You find your tribe, like, that's what they are. You find your tribe.
[01:18:16] Speaker B: I'm just blown away. Like, it's just. It's so cool. Like, I always tell people you have to be there to be able to really appreciate what's going on. Once you not only the, like, like being in the conventions, but, like, the trade show is, like, unbelievable. It's. It's.
It's really. If you're a baseball junkie like us, it's unbelievable. It's so much fun. And now when you get to see, you know, certain people you've been friends with, and it's really nice. It really is. Like, Scott, like we said, Scott Seltz and Jimmy, Phil and Jerry, like, guys who I just became friendly with, I get to see, spend time with them. It's great. It really is a lot of fun.
[01:18:52] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts before I let you go?
[01:18:55] Speaker B: Well, first of all, thank you for having me on. It's an honor.
It's always great talking baseball with you.
Final thoughts.
To me personally, I'm truly blessed at what I have. Being able to coach at my alma mater, go there every single day, having two communities in Berkeley Heights and Mountainside that love baseball and love the GL baseball program.
And again, I got to go to Governor Livingston. So it means more for me wearing that uniform, being on that same field and just truly being around the kids that we've had. Not only the last two years, but throughout my entire time, even the three years at Milburn High School, I had unbelievable kids, and it was so difficult to leave there. I did not want to leave because the kids were awesome, but the kids.
I think that it's always depressing when the season's over and you see the seniors upset and you always go in your head, okay, what are you going to say that last game? But I did. I did think that this year, but I didn't have to have that, you know, which was really awesome because we didn't lose. But it's just special being around these kids and around, you know, these coaches and parents and yeah, baseball is a great thing. It really is. And I wouldn't be the person I am today if I didn't have baseball in my life.
[01:20:17] Speaker A: Thanks so much for your time, Chris. This is awesome for me.
[01:20:20] Speaker B: Thank you, man.
It was a lot of fun. Thank you so much, Ryan. Appreciate it. God bless.
[01:20:25] Speaker A: Just another example what the baseball community has done for me, personally introducing me to another great baseball mind and someone I can now call a friend named Chris. It's so special what baseball does for people.
It truly is America's pastime, allowing all walks of life to participate if they want to invest the time.
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 rbrownleybca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok CoachBCA or direct message me via the MyABCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
[01:21:12] Speaker B: I was not for your name and you know that way Yep.
[01:21:19] Speaker A: Wait for another day.
[01:21:24] Speaker B: And the world will always return as your life was there before yearning and you know that.
[01:21:35] Speaker A: I face.
[01:21:38] Speaker B: Wait for another day.
