Dave Serrano - Head Coach, Johnson University

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the ABCA's podcast. I'm your host Ryan Brownlee. Recruiting is time consuming, but what if you could filter through the noise and find the right players in minutes for free with ProLook athletes, create detailed profiles with verified stats, academics and highlight videos so you can search for exactly what you need and connect with top talent instantly. And it's free for College coaches. Download ProLook today to start searching for your next recruit, among many other coaches features available for both Apple and Android devices. For more info, visit www.prolook.app. this episode is sponsored by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Netting Professionals specializes in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for backstops, batting cages, dugouts, BP screens and ball carts. They also design and install digital graphic, wall padding, windscreen turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, dugout cubbies and more. Netting Professionals is an official partner of the ABCA and continues to provide quality products and services to many high school, college and professional fields, facilities and stadiums throughout the country. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoettingpros.com visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you. Now on to the podcast. We are back to one on one interviews in this week's ABCA podcast with Johnson University head coach Dave Serrano. Serrano is coached with or coached some of the best coaches in the history of the game. The Cerritos and Cal State Fullerton alum got his coaching start on George Horton's Cerritos staff in 1988. From there, Serrano went on to coach at Tennessee, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, West Virginia and Cal State Northridge at the Division 1 level and spent the last two seasons as head coach at Johnson University. Serrano was named the Baseball American National Coach of the year in 2007, taking UC Irvine to the College World Series. Serrano now has over 600 wins as a head coach and took over at Johnson university program in 2023 that won five games the previous season. Johnson University has broken single season and conference wins records the last two seasons. Strap in for this episode with one of the best baseball minds in the game. Let's welcome Dave Serrano to the podcast here with Dave Serrano. Cerritos Fullerton Alum 25 I think 25 plus years, Division 1, but last two seasons, NAI Johnson University, but over 600 wins now as a head coach. So, Dave, thanks for jumping on with me. [00:03:20] Speaker B: Thank you, Ryan. I appreciate it. It's a pleasure to be on. It's a pleasure to be on with you. [00:03:25] Speaker A: And just with your history and the people that you've been around, who do you feel like is the best baseball person that you've ever been around? [00:03:33] Speaker B: Oh, boy, that's put me on the spot. I've been. I've been very fortunate. I've been around some great people. I'll start back at Cerritos Junior College. Wally Kincaid, Gordy Douglas, George Horton, who's my mentor, who you know really well. I got a chance to play for Coach Garrido at Cal State Fullerton. You know, those are guys that I got to coach in my first Division 1 program with Rod Delmonaco and Larry Simcox. Larry is still a dear friend of mine. I've been around some great people, and I've been able. It's not only the coaches I've been around, it's the coaches that I've been able to compete against and communicate with in our industry that I think have really had. Has really molded me into to what I am as a. As a coach and as a person. And I've just been very fortunate to be around some great. You know, I've competed against Mike Gillespie and guys like that, Mark Marcus and guys on the west coast and guys in the sec. So I feel like I've been very blessed to be around some spectacular people that I've taken a little bit from each one and kind of molded into my own deal. [00:04:40] Speaker A: How much of that is luck? I mean, you're a great baseball person, and so you worked. But how much of your path is luck? [00:04:48] Speaker B: You know, that's a great question. And I tell recruits this all the time, Ryan, that where you decide to play college baseball, who you decide to be around will mold you. Not for the four years that the commitment is supposed to be, but for the rest of your life. And I think luck is a great word to use because I was fortunate enough to go to Cerritos College and really, truly learn the game of baseball and on how it should be played and can be played to be successful. Carried on to Cal State Fullerton, Augie had pretty much the same model. So to be around those programs basically molded me into the person I am today. Not just on the baseball field, but in life, in being diligent, in everything you do Details, attention to detail, promptness. Those are all the things I learned as a player when I was 18, 19, 20 years old and I've carried it into my 60s. Now. [00:05:49] Speaker A: We talk about this in the office every once in a while because Craig's dad was a longtime coach. My dad was a longtime coach. Do you think Wally Kincaid could coach in this generation? [00:06:00] Speaker B: Coach Orton and I talk about that a lot. My answer would be yes, but my rebuttal would be he might only have 12 guys on his team, but I could promise you those 12 guys would do it right every single time. And if they didn't have injuries, he'd still be successful. I think it's gotten a lot harder now. I say this to young coaches that are coming up through the industry, is that I'm glad I'm on the back end now because it has gotten a little bit more difficult. I don't think the kids have changed. I think the people above the kids have changed. And it is, it's made the entitlement even stronger than ever. And, and sometimes I question, I think there's a lot of players, there's a lot of great players out there, don't get me wrong. But I think there's a lot of players that are playing this sport, which is a challenging sport, an adversity sport, a failure sport. They're playing it for the wrong reasons. And sometimes it's because they're playing it for the people that they love want them to be involved in that. And that's not a reason to play baseball because you're going to be, you're going to be torn down and it's going to challenge you at times if you really want to do this when you're not succeeding as much as you don't do in baseball. [00:07:17] Speaker A: And Coach Van Horn talked about it on his post game press conference that the kids haven't changed. And I agree with you on that. I just think that we've lost a little bit of a narrative for them that, that life is supposed to be challenging, they're supposed to be challenges. And I think that's the beautiful thing with baseball is it's going to show you those challenges and you have to overcome those challenges. And I think it's just a tough narrative for the generation that's coming out now that things are supposed to be easy. It's like the find your passion deal. Like, I don't think you find your passion. I think you run into your passion over trial and error, over a series of long series of time. But I Just think, I think we've lost the narrative for kids that life is supposed to be challenging. [00:07:55] Speaker B: Well, Ryan, I would love to share this story. And this is not boasting on myself because it's a little humbling to tell this story. So I go to Cerrilles Junior College, not because I was recruited, it was a local junior college. I played at Cerrilles High School. And at the time, Gordy Douglas was the head coach. George Horton was the assistant coach. It was a well renowned program. They were annually in the state tournament, winning state championships. And I go there, and I go there because my, my good buddies that were on my high school team were recruited there. And I get there and there's over 100 guys there in day one, which automatically would scare a lot of kids away. And Ryan, for two years. Two years, okay, two years. I redshirted my first year. Then my redshirt sophomore year, I threw batting practice. That was my role on the team is I threw batting practice. I didn't have a great arm, but I could sure fill up the strike zone. And I don't mean batting practice. You gotta remember this is back in the 80s, not batting practice from the platform. There was no such thing as a platform back then. It was batting practice from the rubber and it was with my cleats on and it was because I could throw strikes. And then after my second year of doing that, not throwing one inning in a game, okay. I remember my mom in that summer said, dave, you need to go somewhere else. It's obvious the coaches don't like you. And I looked at her very respectfully. I said, mom, you're wrong about that. The coaches actually do like me. I'm just not good enough yet. And I tell that story a lot to kids, especially in this, in this day and age is because at a junior college or Even at a four year school, a power 4P4 school, how many kids, how many players would do that? How many players would. Would just throw a batting practice and be not embarrassed, but put in a kind of a pigeonhole that this is your role on this team. And I knew I had to get better. I made a little arm angle change and then it was my red shirt sophomore year, three years into it, that I got an opportunity, filled up the strike zone, spun it a little bit, and ended up getting a scholarship to Cal State Fullerton. Three years prior to that, Ryan, there wouldn't have been a man on this earth that would have said, this guy's going to Cal State Fullerton by throwing BP to a junior college. So I tell that story. Not to brag about myself. I tell that story because I'm not so sure how many people would do that anymore and they would try to find another place that may be easier for them to perform. And so I'm saying that because you're exactly right. Life is hard. We're going to go through challenge in our life and we can't always just run to the next easiest thing. I love this saying I use all the time with my team. If it was easy, everybody would be great. And so that's why I like to tell that story a lot, because it's not, it doesn't. It's not very fond of my career as a player coming out of high school, but it's persevering through some tough times. [00:10:53] Speaker A: Yeah, but that right there, that opened up coaching opportunities for you too, and you didn't know it at the time, but you being willing to throw batting practice as a player and maybe never get on the field, that opens up coaching opportunities for you later on. [00:11:08] Speaker B: Well, and it did what it did. It's taught me that you have to grind and you have to, you have to do the dirty things. And, and I remember as an assistant coach, and George Horton would say this today if he was on this, on this show with us, is that one of the reasons why I became an assistant with him is because I wasn't afraid to get on the mower and mow the field. I wasn't afraid to drag the field. I wasn't afraid to change a sprinkler and all that kind of stuff. And that's the other thing that I think has changed nowadays is everybody wants the next best thing. And they don't want to be where they're, where their feet are. They don't want to put in the time and the grind. You know, assistant coaches, sometimes being an assistant coach is kind of a, it's, it's a job that you, you're supposed to do everything and be able to handle everything. And it might not always be great pay, but you're, you're kind of putting in your time to get that opportunity. And I think again, kind of like players want to just things happen instantly, instant gratification. I think that's how it's kind of become in this coaching industry now, is that what are you going to do when no one's around to continue to make, to put your, your stamp on something to be successful for the program? [00:12:15] Speaker A: I got my first coaching job in the Cape because when I Was a player in the cape. I'm coming off an all American season. But we only had two catchers. Giuseppe Sharamonte from Fresno and then Jake Shea for from Stanford. But they were two of our best hitters, so they would dh. So we had nobody to catch in the bullpen. And so we had six middle infielders. So I would play left field sometimes. But I told Mike Coots and Jeff Trendy, I said, hey, I. I will go catch pens if you need me to. I don't really want to. I said, but we have no bullpen catcher. So on my days that I did not play, I went and caught in the bullpen catching like Kyle Peterson. Heaviest shout out to Kyle. Heaviest. Heaviest ball of all time. But that's why when an opening came up with with Jeff Trendy at Falmouth, he called me because he remembered that I would catch bullpens. And by the way, I still caught pens when I was an assistant for him, even though I wasn't a catching pitching guy. I would do the side work for our pitchers at Falmouth by catching because I like doing it and it was a service thing. But I got jobs because of that. Because you're willing to do something that other people won't do. [00:13:16] Speaker B: Again, using my experience, that's a great story. Using my experience is. I tell assistant coaches this all the time, Ryan, that it isn't about the stats your players put up. It isn't about. I mean, winning is important. Don't get me wrong. Winning solves a lot of problems. But it's about work ethic, it's about relationships, it's about recruiting. It's a, you know, that's what gets you the next job. It isn't about what you're. If you're in charge of the offense, what your team batting average, if you're charged the pitching, what you are era, that helps. But are you a worker? That's what head coaches want. Are you a worker and are you going to do the extra thing? Are you going to be the last guy on the field when practice is over and not be the first guy to leave? And that's what, that's what head coaches are looking for now. [00:14:01] Speaker A: And I like talking to guys like you because of the history of the things because I think the newer generation of coaches needs to hear the history too. And I talk about Michael Espy a lot because I don't think Michael Espy got enough credit for the job that he did over the years. [00:14:15] Speaker B: I totally agree. I was around that man a lot I was fortunate enough that When I left UC Irvine in 2007, I left a group of guys that were like my family. And I say that kind of hypocritically because I left those guys behind after our 2007 trip to Omaha. But nobody was happier than me. Kind of a twofolded thing that Mike Gillespie was following me. Now, the twofold is the fact that he was going to be competing with me, and I was just up the road at Cal State Fullerton. But I'll tell you what, the nicest man in the world, but also the toughest man in the world, he was tough on his guys. He instilled forgot toughness. I, I said this when he passed away. This is how I always look at him, because I competed with. Against him as a player, then I competed against him as a coach. Never got to be on his staff, never got to be on his team, but he was the John Wayne of college baseball in my mind. He was that presence of a man and he was bigger than, you know, he's a big man. And, you know, his words, the way he spoke. I agree with you. I, I agree with you that Mike Gillespie probably doesn't get enough credit for. I mean, let's look at usc. I mean, what he did there. And it's taken a while for that program to come back after he's been gone for so many years on Fulton. [00:15:39] Speaker A: Also, I think Fullerton is going to get there. When you look at what they're doing, I think Fullerton is going to get there. But Fullerton, too, is taking a while to get back. [00:15:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I, you know, and my thing that I, from afar now, as I look at is I think a program like Fullerton, the Long Beaches of the world, that. The mid majors, and I hate using that word because in baseball, I don't know if there is a mid major. Let's look and see what, what happened in the College World Series this year. It's. With the way the landscape is with the transfer portal and nil. It's going to take harder for those programs to get off the mat now because it's. There's so many young men and. Ryan, I'll be honest with you. I mean, I, I like that the players are being funded now and making money and getting the bigger scholarships, but I'll be honest, it'd be hard for me to know that. I mean, I did this and this is a thing people don't talk about. People talk about, well, players can go whatever they want. There's no loyalty for many years. Ryan, you know, us coaches have been able to do that too. And I've done that on a few occasions in my career too. Is that if there was a better opportunity to better my family financially, maybe better surroundings, I would take it. And I did take it. And so I think the players are allowed to do it. Just. It's made it harder on some of the mid majors to build that foundation because be honest, they're the minor leagues for. For the. The P4 schools now. [00:17:00] Speaker A: But also the reverse of that if you look at the big leagues, but also now they came out with like the top 10 college schools that spent the most amount of NL money. I think four of them didn't even make the regionals. So like, you still have to get players to buy into winning. And I think the mid majors out there, you look at Murray State that the ones that have been able to kind of keep their players around and then add some nice pieces in too, which Murray did a good job adding some nice pieces in. I think there's still a way for them. It may not happen all the time, but it's not a guarant if you spend the most amount of money that you're going to be there at the end either. [00:17:32] Speaker B: No, like you said, it's just like professional sports. You've got to have a team concept. You've got to have, you know, a team is the most important and if there's a sour grape in the group, it could ruin it for a lot of people. And I was from a. I was really excited to see the field of the College World Series this year. Not. I have a lot of respect for Coastal Carolina and I told Gary Gilmore a few years ago when I competed against him and I saw Coastal for the first time out there. I said, gary, this is the Cal State Fullerton on the east coast. And kind of. That's what they have kind of taken over. But to see them get in there, a team that isn't in the sec, the sec to see Murray State get in, I think it was. It's good for college baseball to see that because it's been a while since a mid major has really snuck in there yet alone play for the national championship. So it was. That's good for college baseball to allow those programs think we can still get there. There's still a path to get there. [00:18:31] Speaker A: Because Oral Roberts, I think it was three years ago Oral Roberts got into. So like there's still like that glamour of hope because I think if you go another year of acc, SEC only. Then it's like, what are we doing here? Where. I'm a traditionalist. I'm the old school of the regions where Maine's in. And I just think it's really good for college baseball because it. It does still give that glamour of hope that. That people can make it. [00:18:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's. That's what. That's what excited me so much, is that it does. It spreads it out through college baseball, that hard work, good team, luck. Luck. There's no doubt that you have to have luck to get to Omaha. You have to have a lot of luck to get to. To play for the national championship and win the national championship. But it was good. I think it was good to see some of those schools get in there this year. [00:19:16] Speaker A: When did you meet Ken Reviza? [00:19:20] Speaker B: Oh, I met ken Revizza in 1986 in the dugout. This is a great story. In the dugout at Cal State Fullerton. He was working for us, obviously. And I'll never forget. This isn't when I met him, but I'll never forget I had a really rough outing at Fullerton, and I come off the mound. Augie goes out and takes me out. I come off the mound, and the first person to greet me was Ken Reviza in the dugout. And, you know. You know, the emotions are riding high. I'm embarrassed. I let my team down, let myself down. And he pulls me aside, like, right after I get to the dugout. Ryan, he says, so tell me what you are thinking in that situation. What. What. What was your mention? And I respectfully, I answered the question. But you know how it is when you're in a competitive moment. I wanted to say, sir, with all due respect, can you just give me a minute, please? But Ken became a really good friend of mine, a really good friend of ours. Very unique man. But, boy, that guy, he was sharp, you know, I miss him to the day. A lot of people miss him today. And I think. I think, you know, there's a lot of mental coaches out there now. [00:20:35] Speaker A: I know a lot. Him and Harvey Dorfman, those two. [00:20:38] Speaker B: Yes. [00:20:38] Speaker A: We wouldn't be where we're at on the peak performance side of things without those two guys. [00:20:43] Speaker B: I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you. And Ken had a way, you know, again, speaking for Coach Horton, Ken Revizza had a lot to do of the 2004 national championship. You know, what a lot of people don't realize, that was a really good team. We, as coaches love this team. We love the Makeup, we love the mixture of players, the depth. And we were 13 and 15 to start the season, and boy, we were scratching our heads, guys were at each other's throats. And we brought Ken Reviz in and because he hadn't been working with us that year, and we brought him in. And I'll never forget, we were sitting in the back office in Coach Orton's office, and he said, gentlemen, tell me the things that you guys are doing good. And we kind of all looked at each other and Ken, we're 13 and 15, not a lot of good is going on. And he says, well, that's my first. That's my first test to you guys is start finding more things that your players are doing good and focus on that. And we did it. And the story's told, we end up becoming one of the hottest teams in the country. We win a national championship. And I'm going to tell you what, not taking it away from Coach Horton, the rest of the coaching staff, the players. Ken Revizza was a big part of that deal. I mean, he stayed with us the rest of the year. He was with us in Omaha. He was doing imagery stuff and visual stuff with our guys. The night before, we were playing teams. I'll never forget, I think it was JP how was on the mound for Texas, and he was having guys visualize getting the ball, hitting a base hit through the five, six hole, the runner on second base. And sure enough, it wasn't JP on the mound. But that's what Kurt Suzuki did to make to make this game three to two to give us the lead that we never gave up to win the national championship. So he did a lot of preparation with our guys and really as a very cliche thing to say, but he really slowed the game down. And I'm going to tell you what I feel with things I've had to go through in my life, deaths of my parents, divorce, different trials and tribulation. Ken Reviza has built a foundation for me, not just as a coach, but as a man of going through really hard things and being able to breathe and control what you can control. And so he's had a big impact on me and my coaching career and what I still try to instill in. [00:23:21] Speaker A: Players today, how I'll back up to end game stuff. How do you know that as a coach? Because I think we deal with a lot of young assistants and young head coaches where your heart's in the right place, but when do you know where it's just let the player do his Thing when you get to the dugout rather than saying anything to him. Because we had some set rules with our players and I think Ken was good that way. You know, if their helmet was still on, their glove was still on, we couldn't talk to them. Pitcher, same thing. If they came to the dugout, their hat was stuck, still on, like we couldn't talk to them. And do you, did you have anything like that over the years where, where guys would relay to you like, you can talk to me now or I don't want to talk to you at this point because I'm still stewing about the last inning. [00:24:02] Speaker B: I've kind of changed a little bit. I've learned a little bit that if it's an effort deal, I'm going to have a meeting with them right away. Okay. If it's a physical deal, there's kind of a 24 hour rule for me, especially with pitchers, because I've always felt that you bring a pitcher out of an outing, it's not the right time for you or him to have a good concrete conversation. There's going to be emotions flying, the wrong thing might be said and I think it's better to let you sleep on it, Let him sleep on it and you come back the next day and review what you saw, what he felt and all that. So I've kind of changed with that. And I'm going to tell you what, I've kind of evolved a little bit. You know, I grew up in the family of George Horton and Augie Greedo where there was long talks prior to games, long talks after games. We're in a generation now where the attention span is about a 10, 10 second clip on TikTok or something. And I'm well aware no matter how good the information is, I can give to a team after a game, they don't want to hear it. They want to get. They want to get to their loved ones off that are in the stands, they want to get to their phones. And so I keep it very short information for the next day and then I'll review either the next day prior to the game or review after the whole weekend of going over all the things that we did good and all the things that we need to improve on as a team. So I've changed in that way. I've changed because I've tried to evolve. And I'll tell you what, Ryan, I think one of the things where I really grew as a coach was the year that I took kind of a gap year in 2019. Yeah, 19 had left West Virginia, took a year off of baseball, worked for Baseball America, and got to travel the country and see some of the best series and write reports and give commentary on it, and I loved it. But the best part about that is I got to watch coaches for the first time, I got to watch coaches on how they ran their program. I didn't get to do that as a coach because I was competing against them. So I got to see how coaches interacted during games. I got to see how they interacted with their teams after the games. So I learned from that. I learned from that. Have seen how there's different ways to skin the cat than what I was taught, and I've kind of taken that and run with it. [00:26:23] Speaker A: What was the itch for you to get back in and coach at Johnson? [00:26:26] Speaker B: Well, my. When I got back into it is. When is that. When I went to Northridge, when I went to Cal State Northridge. And, you know, I'll never forget a good friend, a very good friend of mine, Jason Gill, who is now at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I had reached out to him, and, you know, I was in the Big west for years. I was at Fullerton and Irvine, and we all know that Northridge wasn't at the top of the Heat. Every year there's a middle of the pack to the bottom of the pack, and so they reach out to me. And I remember calling Jason Gill and I said, hey, Gilly. I said, northridge reached out to me. I said, I don't know if I'm going to do that. And he said, dave, he said, let me tell you something. He was. He was the head coach at Loyola Marymount at the time. He said, I wake up every morning and I'm one of. One of 300 men in the country that can say that they're a head coach at a Division 1 program. So who are you just to think that you're above Northridge because you've been at Fullerton and Irvine in Tennessee? And that hit me right between the eyes. It did. And I went there for three years. I knew I was. I knew the longevity of it wasn't going to be long because I really wanted to get back to Knoxville, and this is my home. And. But I'll tell you what, I feel like we did some really good things in those three years. We really elevated that place, and it was a good. And, you know, the thing it did the most for me, Ryan, is that I think I lost my identity as a coach when I went to the University of Tennessee. And I've shared this on many, many different forums. I had reached my big leagues. That was my dream place. I had been at nothing but grind places. Cal State Fortune. And people say, well, that they've won. Well, you have to work very hard at Cal State Fortune. You have to work very hard at UC Irvine. And then I go to Tennessee, my dream job. And I lost the identity of who I was as a person on going all the way back to that guy that drugged the field, mowed the field, changed sprinklers, airified the field. And because of all this help and all this money, I became the fat cat in the chair. Didn't recruit as much as I needed to. Kudos to Tony Vitella and what in the. The. The. The speed he goes at and his staff and Northridge brought me back to my roots. It really did. And those three years put me back into who I was as a coach, why I'm doing it. And then I retired from there early because I wanted to get home. And it's a funny story how I got the Johnson job. Dana Carter, who was the softball assistant coach at Tennessee. When I was there at part of one of my terms at Tennessee, it was when I was the assistant, I believe. She. She called me. She's an associate AD and a softball coach at Johnson. And she said, coach, we just let go of our coach, and we know, you know a lot of people. We're looking for a young guy that can build a program. I said, okay, Dana, I'll think through that. I'll give you a call back. I'll go through some names. I hung up the phone. Johnson University is in Knoxville. I live in Knoxville. I called her back two minutes later. I said, hey, Dana, let me ask you a question. You emphasized young coach to build a program. What about an older coach that can build a program? And she goes, hold on, let me have my AD call you right back. She go first. She said, are you serious? And I said, dana, let me tell you something. I am not too above to coach an NAI program. And I love the challenge. It's probably more natural, real baseball than what's going on at higher levels. And I'm going to tell you, Ryan, these two years have been fabulous for me. They have the impact that I'm trying to make on these gentlemen that I'm coaching. It's a really nice place to coach at, beautiful campus, and it's not about winning for me anymore. We've been successful, very successful in the two years prior to what they were. But this is about developing people now. I don't have the pressures of winning games to keep my job. It's about building a culture, creating an atmosphere with high standards. And if we do that well enough, we'll have a very successful program, too. But it's no longer about winning. It isn't. And we've been fortunate enough, like I said, to have success. But it's just been for this to be my last stop. I believe it really has been refreshing for me that. And I'll give you another. I talked to George Horton about it when I was thinking about the job, and he said, dave, let me put it to you this way. You're never going to leave Knoxville. He says, you go build that thing and in 10 years from now, one day you're going to go back and sit in the stands and say, I had an impact on why this program is where it is today. And that hit me between the eyes also. And I thought, yes, then I'm going to do this. [00:31:29] Speaker A: And track record matters. I would say your name all the time. I'm like Dave Serrano. Didn't forget how to be a good baseball coach. Like, his track record has been there. Like, you get to a certain situation, sometimes it doesn't always work out. But I'm like Dave, surrounded in forget how to be a good baseball coach. It happens every once in a while to guys where they'll leave a good spot, get to a situation doesn't always work out. I'm like, that person didn't forget how to be a good baseball coach. And you haven't. Like, it's just a matter of finding the right fit on that part. [00:31:55] Speaker B: Well, fit. And it's, it's, it's the challenges. You know, I'll be the first to say I made probably some poor choices, decisions when I was at Tennessee. I tell you what, you talk about lock, I go all the way back to the word you said lucky. We weren't lucky. We put together some really good recruiting classes that never made it to campus. And I'm talking about Ryan, guys that we recruit. Cabrian Hayes, okay? Nobody knew about him, okay, when we got him signed, okay. Next thing you know, out of high school, now he's the second round draft pick. We had guys like that Lane Thomas, who's playing the big leagues locally here at Bearden High School. That sign, we didn't get some guys to campus. We made some bad choices on some guys. Let's be honest, Ryan, it's all about players. It's all about Players. And the thing that I had going against me, I wasn't maybe in the Big West. I'm not putting the Big west down. I wasn't in NAIA. I was in the SEC where there was about 12 teams above me that were great already, that were getting better every day. And you know, at that time we were going up against Vanderbilt with a lot of players against a lot of the players recruiting. And Vanderbilt was getting the majority of those guys. And that's what Tony has kind of flipped a little bit is that I think nothing. I have all the due respect for Tim Corbin and what he's done over there, but I live in this state and you hear Tennessee a lot more than you hear Vanderbilt. And back when I was coaching, it was all Vanderbilt. Everything was Vanderbilt and then Tennessee. [00:33:28] Speaker A: But it's also a different landscape now. 20 round draft, nil money. There's more ways to keep kids away from the draft now than there ever has been. Like, that's the benefit for college baseball now is there's a lot more avenues to keep kids away from signing professionally in high school. And you also look at Division 1 and College overall has done such a good job of developing players that kids see that as more of a viable option. If I want to get to the big leagues, it's way more viable option for me to go to college first than is for me to sign as a high school kid and grind away in the minor leagues. [00:34:03] Speaker B: Well, you look at the guys. Chase Burns just came up and pitched against the Yankees. [00:34:07] Speaker A: He's been in the minor leagues this year's field too. You look at the guys that were playing in this year's College World Series. There's going to be four or five of those guys that were playing this year. They're going to be in the big leagues next year. Well, maybe this summer there might be. I mean, Anderson, the LSU lefty, I, I have a hard time saying he's not going to be pitching the big leagues this year for somebody. [00:34:26] Speaker B: Well, on their closer too. I forget his name. I mean, that guy, you know, that guy can go into a major league bullpen right now throwing 100, 101. So. But I think the way the landscape is set up now, you're right. Not as many kids. There's a positive and negative for me on this, not as many kids are going into professional baseball. I remember when I started coaching, there was like 50 rounds and, and you know when a major league scout comes into a, into a living room with your family and says, so you tell me you don't want to play Major League Baseball. It was hard for those kids to say no. And kids were making bad decisions because they saw themselves playing at Yankee Stadium. Little did they know that they had to go through about five or six stops back in those days to get there. On the other side, it makes it sad for me because players like myself in these days don't get the opportunities anymore. There's just not enough roster spots because guys aren't signing. And so that's why you continue to see the percentages of high school players going down that are playing collegiate sports, because there's just not as many opportunities anymore. But why wouldn't you go to college? Now you're getting paid to play for the most part. Okay. You're developing at a rate that's going to be way higher than the minor leagues because they have an impact on you for nine or ten months out of the year. You have nutritionists, you have strength coaches, you have mental coaches. I'm not saying you don't have that in the minor leagues, but you're kind of in it for yourself in the minor leagues and you're developing on your own speed. You have coaches and all that, but they're not as round you as. As much as they are as the coaches and the support staff are in college. And that's why you're seeing these young men go straight from a college campus, touch minor league fields a little bit, but they're in the big leagues very quickly, so it's going to be a better route for people to go. And you're getting your education too, along the way. [00:36:17] Speaker A: And if you don't go to instructs as a minor league player, you're gone from the end of September, October, November, December, January. That's five months that you're not with the Org. [00:36:30] Speaker B: Yeah, you're right. You're exactly right. And so now it comes down to yourself. I know many of these guys hire. Hire private people, but it's just being in the culture of a team, working with a team, developing as a team, I think it's a lot easier to do that. [00:36:45] Speaker A: And by the way, one of the best stories that I tried to shine a light on is lsu, Shreveport. How good was Shreveport? You were down in that. You were down with them. Shout out to Shreveport. I'm gonna get Brett on at some point. It's still the best story. We had two teams. We had Shreveport and then we had SUNY Niagara, who's a Division 3 college team. Both went into the postseason undefeated, which I don't think has ever happened in the modern times where we had two different college teams at different levels, both went into the postseason undefeated. [00:37:17] Speaker B: You know, I told him when we played him, they were at the time 510 and we were in the middle of a rain delay. And I said, coach, I said, what you're doing is amazing. He said, oh, thanks, coach. He said, thanks, Dave. I appreciate it. He says, you know, he says our schedule is good. It's not great. I said, no, no, stop. I said stop. I said, you, you have gotten your team ready to play 51 straight times. And in today's day and age, you know, if there's not, you know, if there's a distraction, you don't know the mentality of one of your play. And I said, so you didn't tell me that there wasn't a bad hop in the ninth inning of you lost the game. There wasn't a pitcher who wasn't ready to pitch that you brought in late in the game. Whatever. A guy hits a little dinker over the second baseman's head. A Texas leaguer. I said, it's amazing. And then they go on to win 59, 0 and win the national championship. The only time I've ever heard of something like this in all my career was I might not get the years right in 1967. And I wasn't playing. For you people that are listening, I wasn't playing then. Wally Kincaid had a team that went 40 and oh, okay, the next year they started and went 20. That was all the amount of games they had on their schedule. The next year they started and went 20 and oh, and I've always bragged about that because I coached there and I played there at Suez College. This program once went 60 and oh, that was in 1967. Okay. And I'm not downplaying. [00:38:54] Speaker A: The Howard Community College out of Texas, I think was the only other one. They didn't finished the year undefeated. But I think they had 50 plus wins. [00:39:03] Speaker B: It's just an amazing, it's an amazing feat. They were a. And you know, from the, from the other side of the field and no disrespect, 59 oh is amazing. They, they were just a good baseball team. They had now, they did have a lot of older guys, but that doesn't matter sometimes. They took care of the baseball extremely well. They had good athletes on the field. They had plenty good enough pitching, but it's just, they just played with an aura. I mean, it wasn't like you looked across the field and thought oh, wow. That team's 59, 0. It's just, you know, obviously they didn't know how to lose. Obviously they had never tasted that all year long. They were a very solid team that I, that I was glad to say that I got to compete against them on the baseball field because like I said, I don't know if we'll ever see something like that again in my lifetime. [00:39:57] Speaker A: And now with you being able to kind of get back to more of a developmental coach, what did you switch? I mean, there's obviously that pressure at a higher level to win. So some of that stuff gets pushed aside because it's more about results. Where did you kind of get back to from the development standpoint with Johnson? [00:40:17] Speaker B: Well, to be honest, it's what, it's what I was, what I grew up around. I mean, you know, when we were at those years, those glory days at Cal State Fullerton to the late 90s and early 2000s where we were doing a lot of winning with George Horton as at the head coach. What a lot of people don't understand is that that's a very proud program for national championships. But we're also in the neighborhood of usc, ucla, the recruiting boundaries of Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, Cal. At the time when Rich Hill was there and Eric Valenzuela and Jay Johnson were the assistant at San Diego, they were killing it, recruiting wise. We were never, ever somebody's first choice. And there was a mini. I think the only thing that I think I figured out, and it was very hard to explain to Coach Horton, he hated losing to anybody. And when he saw a young man committed to Stanford or USC or Zone State, why didn't we get him? And you know, well, it's hard to recruit against those guys when they have a lot more to offer in regards to campus life and all that prestige than Fullerton. And but here's what we did do. We got the right guys. And what I mean by the right guys again, going back to those 50 round drafts were the guys that developed to be great titans, the guys that were coming to Fullerton for the right reasons and the guys that were coming to school. So when the summertime came and maybe we didn't have 10 guys drafted where Arizona State and Stanford and USC all did, we didn't have anything to sweat. Those guys were coming to school. The thing on the other side is in their junior year we had 10 to 15 guys that were being drafted. So it's always been about development in the programs I've been in. So it's just it's carried over to Johnson. And one of the things I share with the young men that I recruit to Johnson is I'm not putting down NAI baseball because I've been very pleased with the. The level of baseball. [00:42:25] Speaker A: It's good. Yeah, it's good. [00:42:26] Speaker B: And. But I'm going to coach like a Division 1 coach. You're going to be developed like this is a Division 1 program. The other thing that I'm doing here that I think has really helped us, and I'm proud to say it has happened, is that I'm bringing young men in here. I want every guy that I'm recruiting to be wanting to go to a Division 1 school. I don't want someone saying, oh, I'm an NAI player. No, I want you to be shooting for the stars if they come in here, do the right things on campus, academically, develop as a person, as a player and a person, and put up numbers. I'm moving guys up to higher levels and I've already been successful doing that. Again, not going to. I want to be successful for the program, but it isn't about winning. It's about helping people. So I've been fortunate enough to get three or four guys in my two years to a Division 2 or Division 1 level now, and that makes me very proud that that system is working. I'm not fighting the system. I'm working with the system and with my contacts I have around the country. I want to push guys out when they're capable of playing at the next level. [00:43:29] Speaker A: You know, it used to be the thing East Coast, west coast style baseball. Do you see as much. I don't see as much difference now as far as the style of baseball between west coast style of baseball, because I do see a lot of west coast teams now. I don't see as much difference. Do you see this? Do you feel the same way? [00:43:47] Speaker B: I'm going to be careful when I answer this question. I'm not trying to get you there. No, it's fine. There is a difference, I believe physicality, just high potential I see in the east and the south, the west is more of your groomed baseball player. I think that's why. I think one of the things. Why you could say that, Ryan, about the different or not as much as a difference. If you look at these rosters now, there's a sprinkle of California guys on all these teams. Jay has a lot at. Jay has a lot at lsu. [00:44:24] Speaker A: I know, by the way, isn't physical. He's just the best baseball player on the field? [00:44:29] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:44:29] Speaker A: He's the best player on the field. He's not as physical. When you get up down by those dugouts and see him comparatively to some of the other guys on the field, he's not as physical, but he's just the best baseball player on the field. [00:44:39] Speaker B: And that's what I think the west coast breeds is they, they're not going to always be the most physical guy, but they're going to be like. Wouldn't you agree? That's a great comment. We had a guy at Fullerton named David baconi that was 5, 8, but he played like he was 6, 2. And I'd say the same thing about Cariel. He's not real big and physical, but he plays like he's 6 to 200. And, and that's what being a baseball player and maximizing your ability. And I think you see a little bit more of that coming out on the west coast because they played more year round. And, and I'm going to say this, and I don't want to. I still say, I still say this is that some of the greatest coaches that have come out of college baseball on the west coast that may not get the credit because they didn't have the facilities or the finances that other coaches have around the country. And that's not to offend anyone. I was a West coast guy that didn't succeed at Tennessee. Okay. But I really feel going back to your, Mike Gillespie's world, John Savages of the world, George Hortons of the world, those guys did more with less. Larry Lee of the world, those guys have always done more with less. And, and you just wonder sometimes if you reversed it and you put some SEC coaches in the Big west and you put some Big west coaches in the sec, what would that look like? You know what I mean? Because what a lot of times coaches don't understand is being a head coach on the west coast isn't just being a head coach, it's being sometimes the strength coach, it's being the groundskeeper, it's being the director of ops because we don't have the resources to have that help around us all the time. [00:46:18] Speaker A: And there are also examples too at the other levels. Like Hope International has won a national championship, Northwest Nazarene Division 2, which I knew nothing about. They're out of Idaho, Westmont. They still play a traditional pitching defense and action oriented offense that do really well in the postseason, that have still kind of play that what you would consider west coast style that have done really well in the postseason season. [00:46:43] Speaker B: Yeah. The one thing I like you say west coast style. The one thing I have always kind of been not offended, but when people say small ball. Okay. And, and I, I've always said you could say small ball or would you be better to say winning ball? [00:46:59] Speaker A: Winning offense. [00:47:01] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. It's like, you know, complete. I've always, I've always said you take what the defense is going to give you. And if you look at it, they made a big point about. Yeah, this wasn't Jay's most physical clubs where they're hitting all these home runs. So they resorted to winning baseball games a different way. They, they put down drags and they, they safety squeezed when they had to and all that. It's just, it's being efficient with what you have and what the defense is giving you. [00:47:29] Speaker A: And that's what Coastal has always been able to do too. And you brought up Coastal and they are, you go watch the way they go about their business. Their batting practice is just another batting is just another training segment. Basically. When you go watch Coastal, they come, they come around our area a lot so I get a chance to go watch them. When you go. When you watch Coastal go about their business like they do it the way that you should. Should do it. [00:47:52] Speaker B: Well, it's funny. I'm gonna tell you a quick story. I had a. George Horton and I check in with each other once or twice a week and we had a long conversation and we were talking about the World Series. And he brought up the hit my pitches because obviously we're known for that on the West Coast. And he said, dave, I'm going to throw some numbers at you. He said, coastal was hit 178 times this year. He said, I went back to some of our glory days at Fullerton. 04, 99, 2001, 2003. In each year Coastal was out. And we took a lot of pride in that, that we got a lot of bases by getting hit. The rules were different back then though, Ryan. We didn't have video where you could see did you hit the ball or did the ball hit you? They out outdid us by over 100 guys times. That is amazing. And it just goes to show this game is tough. This game is hard. Offense is hard. To have 178 extra runners by guys sacrificing their bodies, getting hit by pitches, getting up on the plate, there's no reason why they didn't have success offensively. You know, it's that grit and it does drive Me, Crap. I have never. We have never asked the guy to take a ball in the head or to, you know, But I hate when guys jump out of the way because, like I said, hitting is hard, okay? You fail at least 70% of the times. And those are great hitters, is find a way to get on base. And they did it 178 times. And I think the best one Coach Horton said we had was like 75. And we took a lot of pride in that. That was getting hit once more than once a game. So kudos to them. And it just goes to show the grit that that program has started with Gary Gilmore and now Kevin Schnall. The grit they have and. And kudos to them. I mean, that was a fun team to watch and. And, you know, they gave everything it could late in the season. [00:49:52] Speaker A: Also a different era back then to get hit by pitches because there was no protective gear. Like now. Like, if you're going to get hit now, it is the best time to get. They got. They've got, like, wrist weights on. They have elbow guards. Kurt Birkins is in our office. He pitched in the big leagues. It drives him nuts when guys are just getting in there. He's. He's like, they shouldn't be able to wear that protective gear because in the old days, it. It hurt a little bit more. It did. He's like, if they, if they go to the plate with it, they should have to run the bases with it. So. [00:50:23] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I'm aging myself by saying this. You may remember this back in the day, I remember to wear any protective gear. You had to have a doctor's note that you had an existing injury that needed to be protective. Now you're right. They could go up in body armor now. I mean, there's nothing, you know, and then, then, then again, they're going to have their sliding pad in their back, in their back. Back pocket, too, for protection. They get it on the backside. [00:50:51] Speaker A: Are you still as involved with the pitchers as you always were? You have a large staff. I just looked. You got a ton of assistance, you know. [00:50:58] Speaker B: Do you. Yeah. [00:50:58] Speaker A: Are you still as involved? [00:51:00] Speaker B: I'm. I'm. I guess I'd say I'm the umbrella. My son Kyle, who stopped playing pro ball a couple years ago, is starting his coaching career. I'm very proud that he's on my staff. He's gonna. He's doing a great job. He's actually out in the cape with Kelly Nicholson right now in Orleans. So he's. He's handling the day to day. And I've, I've kind of, I'm kind of let. Again, just like I say about the players, I'm trying to help young coaches like coaches did for me. I'm letting my coaches coach. I oversee everything. I'll make adjustments to them. Hey, I see this, I see this. I'm. I'm not taking a step back, but I'm kind of just managing the whole thing. And I'm letting them coach. I want them to put their name on something, learn their craft and, and I help them where I can. And I'm very proud of my staff. You're right. I do have a big staff. It's. It's filled with baseball guys and guys that I like to be around each and every day, which is important. [00:51:56] Speaker A: How fun is that for you to coach with Kyle? That's my best memories as the two years that I spent with my dad on his staff and my boy. [00:52:05] Speaker B: It's excellent. It's. You know, he said something that, that made me a little emotional, to be honest with you. When he said it to me, that he said I came. He had many choices out of high school. He was a well renowned guy coming out of high school. And he said to me, I went to Tennessee because I wanted to win with you. And, you know, he grew up in the dugout with me at Fullerton and Irvine, so he's been, he's, you know, he's. He's seen winning at the highest level and then we didn't, we didn't do it together there. And he said that was one of the reasons why he wanted to start his coaching crew with me here is because he wanted to win with me. And he's got, he's finishing his school up at University of Tennessee. He'll graduate at the end of this year and then, you know, I'll let him out of the nest and he'll go find his own way and he's going to be good. You know, the thing about him, he grew up around me, so he's very old school in pitching. He's heard all that a million times. But then he pitched for the Astros and he went through that chain and he got connected with a lot of those guys and he. So he's got a lot of new school to him too, the analytical side of it and the metric side, so. And he's very passionate, so he's gonna be good, but it's been great. I'm also very proud. You know, My youngest son, Parker, he's a student assistant For Tony at University of Tennessee. He's been there the last two years. He won a national championship in his first year coaching first base over there in his first year. And I couldn't be more proud of them. Now I've had, you know, Ryan, like you would too, going through the coaching industry and what it does to your life. It's, it gives you a beautiful life, but it takes you away from a lot. So I've had those talks with them now, guys understand, be careful what you wish for. You're going to have to have an understanding family. So I've given them, I haven't had those talks with them, but they're both going to be excellent coaches and I'm very proud of them. [00:53:49] Speaker A: It just adds a different dynamic, father and son. When you get to coach with them in the dugout, you know, and especially from the son's perspective, you finally actually get to see what your dad does for a living, like growing up and as a player, like, you don't see it, but then when you're in the office with him every day and you're going through that stuff now, you're like, oh, this is actually what they did for a living. [00:54:14] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, it's funny you, you brought that up. Kyle said something throughout the year. He said, boy, he said, you know the one, I really am enjoying working under you because I'm learning things on how, what you do. And he says, from the organizational being so organized every day and now, like I said, he's out in the cape. He made a good comment to me the other day, they had an off day. And he says, but you know, dad, in coaching there's never an off. He says, I got to go to the field and work on the mound. And he had a camp and all that and you know, he's enjoying the cape, but he realizes that coaching is, is non stop. You know, it's, it's, you know, it's, it's ongoing. You can never stop whether it's recruiting, working on the field work, dealing with the player and what he's going through. So he's learning, they're learning, but it is, it is rewarding to see. Yeah, they get to see what I've done my whole life and honestly why I was taken away from them so much in their growth as young men, as kids. [00:55:13] Speaker A: I still feel like the cape's still a pure form of it, especially for the coaches because you are running camps still, which not everybody does anymore. You are working on the fields because those fields need a Lot of loving because they don't get a lot of love during the year. The weather's rough and they just don't. So you spend a lot of time as an assistant up there of trying to get the field serviceable for the guys to show up. So it is still a purist, really pure form of coaching up there. [00:55:38] Speaker B: I agree. I agree. And it's still. It's still probably in my mind, I know there's a lot of good leagues out there now, but. And they've got a little bit watered down because there's so many. But the Cape is still the Cape and. And what a. There's not a better place to go spend your summer than on the Cape. [00:55:53] Speaker A: Obviously, you've coached a lot of big leaguers. What's the separators for the ones that make it and the ones that don't? [00:56:02] Speaker B: The consistency on how they do things. I mean, obviously they have to have talent. They have to have a lot of talent. But maturity and consistency, it isn't always about. I've seen many guys that you would have never guessed would get there, that got there, and I've had many guys that you thought were slam dunks to get there that didn't get there. You could kind of see it in their daily habits when you're around them each day, on how, you know, how you do anything is how you do everything. But to me, it's the consistency. And, you know, let's be honest, it's like what we talked about in coaching and in this industry. It's a lot of luck being in the right organization. I was fortunate. My latest one is Denzel Clark, who's been all over social media, all over the media. You know, he's with an organization that, through the metrics and all that, that defense is. Is big, obviously. And, you know, he hasn't hit a lot for them. I got to run into Mark Katsay when I was out in California a couple weeks ago, and I said, will his defense keep him up for a long time? And I'm not going to. And he says that's one of the reasons why he's up here. And, you know, he's been on SportsCenter top 10 three out of the number one catch, three out of three times in the last two weeks. But there's a young man that did it at that level every day in college, too. And he was a guy that was a potential guy that you thought, boy, once this guy continues to mature, he has a chance to be. But, you know, I said it. I Said to many scouts when he was coming through Northridge with me, I used the term Devon White. And if you remember, Devon White, who probably was a little bit more offensive, but just big, tall and athletic and just go get the baseball. And that's what Denzel is. But it's just, it's that, it's like I said, it's the consistency of day in and day out, what they do in everything, not just on the baseball field, but in everything. And the maturity of them as people. [00:58:04] Speaker A: All right, we always talk about fail forward moments. Do you have one? I know Tennessee's probably one, but do you have another fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now, it helped you move forward. [00:58:17] Speaker B: Oh, Tennessee is the one that. I'll say this, I don't know if this is what you're looking for. You know, throughout my whole career, once, you know, I was obviously assistant coach at Tennessee in 95, 96. We had two wonderful years in 95, went to the World Series for the first time in many years. That was my first year there. I was fortunate enough to get on the ship around two special players, Todd Helton and R.A. dickey. And then once I left there to go back home to work with George at Cal State Fullerton, I left Knoxville physically. I never left Knoxville. Emotionally. My heart was in Knoxville. I love this community and. But if I had to do it and so everywhere I'm going with this is every decision I made in my career was to set myself up to maybe one day be the head coach at the University of Tennessee if that ever came open. And that was probably my decision. To leave UC Irvine in 2007 after that world Series run. To go back to Kelsey Fullerton is because I felt if one day Tennessee opened, they would probably be more attracted to the Fullerton coach than they were the UC Irvine coach. UC Irvine is the one place that I wish if I could turn the clock back now my life has turned out the way my career has gone. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But UC Irvine is a place that I don't know if I would have ever left knowing what I know now. I had a home a mile from my office up on the hill in Irvine. That, that part of Southern California is just gorgeous. It's an island on. It's by itself. And I was putting my stamp on that program like no one ever had before. We had gone to the World Series for the first time in program history and. And I walked away from it and I walked Away from some special people. It did put me to where I'm at today. But that would be my second one is Irvine. That's the one that always, that always sticks in my mind is what if. What if. Because we had a team to win the national championship the next year, they came close. They got beat by LSU late in the super regional. They got left on the field in game three, I believe with another LSU comeback in. In the old Alex box. But who's to say at the same, you know, nothing against Coach Gillespie, but that was a special group of guys that, that we left behind. So that would be the one I'd say besides Tennessee, but Tennessee is still the one that. And it's not about me. I say this all the time, Ryan, that where I'm at in life right now. I have a ton of respect for these coaches on the work ethic they have to do, the time they have to put in. I see Tony Vitello everywhere, everywhere recruiting all that. And I'll be honest to say that I don't know if I would have that motor right now to continue to do that. So maybe the game did me a favor. The one thing I'm disappointed in is that I wanted to win. Not for myself. I wanted to win for this community. And the one thing I wasn't wrong about, it is a great community. [01:01:22] Speaker A: By the way, for anybody that hasn't been to Knoxville, I was there for the super last year with Evans. Knoxville is a great city and yeah, and the way they rally around Tennessee, but Knoxville is a great city. [01:01:32] Speaker B: Well, at the time. And when I stepped on that podium in 2011 for my press conference, I said, I want to blow this place up by the success of this baseball program. Well, I wasn't so wrong about that. I didn't do it myself, but because back then the attention for the baseball program was nothing close to what it is now. And I knew that once they started winning, it would become to what it is now. And it's. It's the hottest ticket in town. It's what they talk about all the time. So it makes me proud to know that it got to that level. I just wasn't the one that fortunate was fortunate enough to do that. [01:02:09] Speaker A: But Dave, the reverse of that is if you're still at Irvine and you never do that, it's going to be the what if. What if I never took it. I mean, it's the reverse of that is I think you have to do that to get to the next stop. Like life usually works out the way it's supposed to, whether you know it or not at the time. And that's why I was asked that question, because I think you look up and sometimes the universe gives you things that you never even would have thought would have happened where you just trust it. But the reverse of that is if you're still at Irvine right now, it's probably all in the back, always back in your mind. Like, maybe I should have went to Tennessee at some point. [01:02:44] Speaker B: I'll say this, I'll close, close with this, is that here's the thing that for me, I can sit back and know that I made the right decision, is that I'm not so sure that my boys would be prospering in Southern California. My oldest son, Kyle, is married to a young lady that he met at University of Tennessee. He has a beautiful daughter. They own a home out here. If they were living in Southern California, I don't know if that's the case. Parker, my youngest, is prospering. He's on a Division 1 staff as a student assistant. I don't know if that's happening out in Southern California. So my kids benefited out of this. And at the end of the day, as a father, I'm a father first. I won in that game, in my opinion. [01:03:27] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts for let you go? [01:03:30] Speaker B: Well, I just, I, first of all, let me thank you and the ABCA with what you guys do and what you've continued to do for college baseball. You know, for you coaches out there, you know, be where your feet are. Make it about the players, love on them, but then also discipline them when they need to be. Just remember that at the end of the day. I've said it many a times. It's for many of you probably have to be successful and win because it's about your livelihood and your family. But try not to make it about that. Try make it about developing people. Because at the end of the day, if you heard anything about my story, my coaches, I was raised by two wonderful parents that unfortunately aren't on this earth anymore. But when I look back, it's my coaches from the ages of 18 to 22 years old that formed my life to what it is today in the most important days of my life. And I think that's the thing that we don't look at as coaches, is that we are mentors to people growing up and making sometimes making bad decisions. And that's how you grow, that's how you learn. And I welcome guys making poor decisions at times. I don't want a perfect team because they're not growing that way. And for the players that listen to this, it's a tough sport. The only thing you control is your attitude and your effort. I know that's a cliche, but it's the truth. And, you know, baseball's. Baseball is a beautiful sport because it kind of defines life. It really does. It's as close to life the way the sport is, how it handles things. It's as close to life as anything. And I just. I want to thank anyone out there that. That has had an impact on me and my career, and baseball has made my life pretty complete to this point, and I'm very thankful for it. And that's why I feel like I'm trying to give back now to the sport that has done so much for me. [01:05:26] Speaker A: Thanks for your time, Dave. Appreciate it, man. [01:05:28] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. [01:05:29] Speaker A: I was excited to interview Coach Serrano. I have a lot of respect for the job he's done as an assistant and head coach. He's a great story for up and coming coaches to hear. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale, and Matt west and the ABCA office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email rbrownleeabca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, coachbeyondabca or direct message me via the MyBCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks. And leave it better for those behind. [01:06:04] Speaker B: Keeps on turning and your life is not for your name and you know. [01:06:13] Speaker A: That way Yep Wait for another day. [01:06:20] Speaker B: And the world will always return as your life Never for your and you know that Wait. [01:06:34] Speaker A: Wait for another day.