George Carralejo - ABCA/Soldier Sports Pacific Association Assistant Coach of the Year

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host ryan brownlee. 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. Today's guest on the ABCA podcast is ABCA Soldier Sports Pacific Association Assistant Coach of the Year George Caralejo. Carilejo led Santa Ana College to the 3C 2A championship with a 44. 7 record overall. Santa Anna had to beat Palomar in a doubleheader on the last day of the championship. Caralejo has spent more than 20 years in the healthcare industry, 16 years coaching athletes at the collegiate, high school and youth levels. Carilejo has built sales teams, developed strategies for healthcare organizations, founded an eight figure healthcare consulting company, served as a chief strategist for multiple clinical diagnostic startups. Carilejo has also earned national recognition throughout his corporate career, from President Club Honors to national awards. As both a Regional Director and National Sales Director since 2009, Carolejo has coached baseball at virtually every level, including serving as a pitching coach for a CIF champion and a California State JUCO champion. Along the way, his teams have won five league championships. 44 of his players have earned Division I or Division 2 scholarships, 23 have received all conference recognition. Eight former players have reached Major League Baseball. An incredible 31 MLB draft picks played for him. Girolejo is a former Division 1 player at Cal State Fullerton. He was part of the 1999 Titans team that reached the College World Series, won two big West Conference championships, was also part of a Cape Cod League championship team. In this episode, you'll get resources on organizational leadership and how to build successful teams in baseball and business. Let's welcome George Carolejo to the podcast here with George Carolejo, ABCA Soldier Sports Pacific association assistant coach of the year. But that is just a small part of your deal with coaching. But thanks for jumping on with me. [00:03:21] Speaker B: I appreciate it. I'm looking forward to the opportunity. So thanks for contacting me. [00:03:25] Speaker A: I'm excited because I'm gonna learn a lot from you in this one. [00:03:28] Speaker B: Well, you know, hopefully I'll be able to live up to it, so we'll see how it goes. But I'm excited to talk to you as well. Hopefully you don't mind if I ask you some questions, too. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. I don't get that very often. I get to go on other people's podcasts every once in a while, but it's always nice to do both. But I was excited when I started to do some digging on you, so. [00:03:49] Speaker B: All right. [00:03:50] Speaker A: I love the shirt, by the way. [00:03:52] Speaker B: Well, thank you. Don's World is kind of our tagline. So in the Southern California community, there's a lot of guys that played for the Dons that are high school coaches or coaching, even at other junior colleges and colleges. And when you see each other, you can always introduce yourself by saying Dons role. And you know that they were a part of the Dons family. So I'm proud of it. And everyone that's come before and been a part of the Dons is proud of that, too. [00:04:14] Speaker A: Yeah, mine, my Memorial High schooler, Don Mattingly went. I played for the same high school coach, but it's fight, Tigers, fight. [00:04:20] Speaker B: Ah, there you go. So, you know, and you've got a good program if you've got something that can stick over the course of, like, 20 plus years, you know, for sure. [00:04:27] Speaker A: And speaking of Don, did you have a chance? I saw a picture. Did you coach with Don Stedden in the Cape? [00:04:33] Speaker B: I did. I was fortunate enough to coach with Coach Stennen in the Cape. And then coach was around for a few years, and he took a lot of pride in the program. Fortunately, we were able to win a State Championship in 2023. He was there. He even helped do some. Some scouting in the Final Four for us. But the summer that I spent with Coach Sined, Coach Jerry Weinstein and coach Ron Polk, greatest summer of my life. I have a hard time saying that and getting away with it because my family and my young kids were left behind for a good portion of that summer. So my wife kind of rolls her eyes that I had a great summer without her. But being around those three guys, I mean, what a treat for me. Legends of the game. [00:05:11] Speaker A: How was that conversation with Your wife, had she ever been out there before? [00:05:16] Speaker B: She had not. I had played out there in 2000. I played for Brewster, and so I had two young kids. My son was like one and a half, two years old. And I just really wanted them to be able to be a part of it and see something that I got to do and enjoyed so much when I was young. Fortunately, it worked out. They were still out there for three or four weeks of the summer. You know, I'm in a different situation than a lot of assistant coaches in the sense that because I've got a family and been doing this, if I want to do those types of things, they're coming with me. You know, that's part of it, and that excites me. So I'm very fortunate to have a wife that's on board with those type of things and supportive of the things that I'd like to do. [00:05:55] Speaker A: What'd you pick up from those three? I mean, you probably couldn't pick three better guys to be around the summer than those three guys at that point, with the amount of experience that they [00:06:03] Speaker B: have, for sure, it was like Driving Miss Daisy. I got to drive them around, you know, the entire summer because you're not taking buses all the time and doing that kind of stuff. So, first off, from Coach Sined. He was our head coach. As charismatic of a leader as I've been around. Great instinct for the game and able to create excellent relationships with guys because, you know, you've got players that are coming in and out. That's the nature of summer ball. But his ability to connect with people in a short amount of time and then inspire people, even during the summer and to give their best effort was something that I really, you know, picked up a lot on. Most people follow Coach Weinstein. They know his attention to detail and just the knowledge of the game that he brings. You can learn so much about the game, and he was. He was kind enough to have lunch with me a couple times and share with me some of his experiences and stuff that he did throughout his coaching career. So that helped me get better in a lot of ways. Coach Weinstein reminds me of Coach Horton, George Horton, in terms of the meticulous level of detail that they can bring to the table. And then finally, Coach Polk. Coach Polk, an amazing human being to accomplish everything that he has in the game and treat people the way that he does. He still calls me on my birthday every year. He calls. I know all of the interns and everyone else that worked down there. Nobody treats people better than Coach Polk does. And hopefully I left there being a little bit better of a man than I came in because of Coach Polk's influence. [00:07:34] Speaker A: When you were at Fullerton and Coach Horton sent you out, had you been out that far east from the West Coast? [00:07:40] Speaker B: No. My first two summers, I went to Anchorage and played in Alaska. And then that third summer after my junior year, I went to Brewster. That's as far east as I had been at that time. Just a tremendous experience for me. I got to play alongside and against some. Some great players. So it's the time of my life. And I was up there with one of my very best friends to this day. His name's Murph Norris. He runs the Mountain West Baseball Academy in Utah. But a great dude. And so to get to spend the summer with him was really fun for me. [00:08:14] Speaker A: I was an assistant at Falmouth that summer. [00:08:16] Speaker B: Oh, were you? [00:08:17] Speaker A: Yeah, 99 in 2000. I was assistant at Falmouth. [00:08:20] Speaker B: Okay, that's awesome. We. [00:08:21] Speaker A: We don't see that other side very much. I mean, you see them a little bit, but obviously you're on the east or west side, so you didn't see the east as much, but obviously that the east. The teams on that side seemed a little bit better than the teams on the west that summer. [00:08:38] Speaker B: So, yeah, it was a great year. We won. I still have the ring from there. You know, I mean, I was just a role player on those teams, but my kids never asked me that, so, you know, I'm happy. [00:08:48] Speaker A: When did you start your blog? I was reading through that, so. Grit, poise, self belief. When did you start doing that? [00:08:56] Speaker B: Appreciate you asking me that. Years. Seven, eight years ago, I came across George Raveling, the former Coach for Team U.S. team USA basketball. Coached at USC, University of Iowa basketball, and worked for Nike. He was in his later years, and he was writing a lot. And I take a lot of interest in that. And so I would read it all the time, gain a lot of it. I look forward to it. At that time, it was coming out every Saturday or every other Saturday. And then he partnered up with Michael Lombardi, who was the GM of the New England Patriots and now at the University of North Carolina. And they started writing the Daily Coach. And I picked up a lot from that. I loved reading it, look forward to it every single morning. It's always just something that. That I'd like to do is kind of, you know, write and get my ideas down. I'm fortunate in the sense that I've always. I played baseball, but unlike A lot of guys, I don't define myself as a baseball player. I try and define myself as a competitor. And I tell our young guys that because that's something that even after the game leaves you, you can take into every aspect of your life and continue to do. And so having the opportunity to do that and get my thoughts down and hopefully my kids will read it someday. And. And you know what I. What I notice is that your former players, even though they leave, if you've had a good impact on them and they still. You can still influence them in that way, they can read some of the stuff that you write, you know, they can still call you and get your ear and all those types of things. So this is a way for me to stay connected with those types of guys. [00:10:24] Speaker A: I mean, how do you help the players separate, you know, who they are away from what they do? Because I think, you know, they ride the roller coaster of performance because of that, because they basically identify themselves as a baseball player. And if you want to have a healthy relationship with the sport, then you have to separate that part out. That, okay, I'm a baseball player part of the time, but I'm also a human being part of the time, too, certainly. [00:10:50] Speaker B: And that's why I continue to do it after all these years. And I love the level that I'm at. Every time a guy sits in front of me, Ryan, in the recruiting process, my hope is that that guy comes to our school, and not so that way he can just help us in terms of wins and losses, but so that I can have a positive impact on him, not only as a player, but as a person. You know, I feel like I coach for the best head coach in the. In the country. And I know other guys, you know, feel that way, too, which is fantastic. But Coach Nellis breeds a culture where guys can come in, they can be themselves, they're held to a high standard, and when they leave here to a man, our hope is, is that they not only leave as the best base they can be, but is the best person that they can be. And in doing so, you've got to create those relationships with the guys that go outside of just the game and just their performance. One of the things that is hardest to me is having that relationship with the guys that aren't performing or getting the opportunities to perform as much as they like. As coaches sometimes, and I went through this as a player, as coaches, sometimes you think, oh, man, that guy's not playing a lot. He might have hurt feelings towards me or he might be upset. And so to kind of stay away from a little bit more. And then that player feels at the same time like, man, you know, I'm not getting a lot of reps right now. And now coach is not, you know, giving me a lot of attention and it's just that lack of communication. So I can't promise you that when you come to our school that you're going to get to pitch as much as you'd like. But I can promise you that you're going to get my best effort every single day. And if you do the same, like, we're going to have a tremendous relationship. I'm going to help you become a great baseball player, hopefully. But I'm very confident that you're going to leave a better person. [00:12:35] Speaker A: Are those your core values? Grit, poise, self belief? I mean, how did you come up with those three? There's so many catchphrases out there. But what do those three words mean to you? [00:12:47] Speaker B: You know, to me, I go back, I read a lot. As you can see behind me, Pete Carroll is one of my favorite coaches. He talks about win forever and always compete. And, and he talked about having a coach in philosophy and some standards and how he thought about that after he got fired. And Coach Wooden, he read some stuff on Coach Wooden and he went back and came up with all of his ideas and everything and put them down on paper. And that's what ultimately led to his blueprint for success at USC and then with the Seattle Seahawks. For me, I think to myself in terms of this question comes up a lot in college and in high school. As a player, how would you want to be defined? Right. What characteristics would you want your teammates and your opponents to think or say about you as a person? And then ask yourself, are you living up to those things? And for me, personally, I'd like to believe that I'm. That I'm gritty and, you know, and I'm going to give you my best effort and I'm going to compete as hard as I can all the time. I'd like to think that under pressure, I'm going to maintain my composure and be poised because I think that gives you the best chance of having success. And then at the end of the day, if anyone's going to be successful, they've got to have a high level of self belief or self confidence in themselves. Because as baseball players, you know, we ride the roller coaster of success and failure. But those people that have a strong foundation of self belief are usually the ones that continue to find a way and stay on their own side through the long haul. [00:14:12] Speaker A: You know Michael Gervais's podcast, Finding Mastery? Pete Carroll, that's his business partner, but I still recommend that. That first episode, they did two of them, but that first episode with Pete Carroll, I think is the best coaching PODC ever recorded. Those two, if you haven't listened to it, or people listen in, if you haven't listened to it, go back and find it. It's Finding Mastery. It's. It's Michael Gervais. But he interviewed Pete Carroll for that. I still think it's the best coaching podcast ever recorded, for sure. [00:14:40] Speaker B: I'll probably listen to. [00:14:41] Speaker A: I know it was a long time ago. I want to say, like, maybe 2016 it is. [00:14:45] Speaker B: You know, you could find all those. All those things on YouTube and everything. It's very hard to sometimes get a coach to speak with as much candor as, you know, when they're in front of, like, a microphone, but to hear Pete Carroll talk. And then he was partnered with Michael Gervais a long time when they came up with their philosophy with the Seahawks. It is. It's a very good podcast. I think Sean McVeigh does a really good job, and he'll be insightful for you, too. And there's some other people out there. [00:15:11] Speaker A: What have you read recently that you like? Anything new? Are you going back to old stuff? [00:15:16] Speaker B: No. The Talent Code. [00:15:19] Speaker A: I love it. [00:15:20] Speaker B: Who also wrote the Culture Code? You know, I like to read a lot of business books as well. For the other part of my life, Roger Martin wrote, you know, about. Writes about strategy and stuff like that, you know, in terms of finding where to play and how to win. And I think that helps you a lot as you're building a. Building a team and an organization or program. You know, where can we win? And then how do we go about finding out where we want to play, whether it's in recruiting, whether it's finding a niche, whether it's, you know, how we want to go from being. From being good to great, you know, like Jim Collins says in some of his books, too. So we seem to know a lot of the same. [00:15:58] Speaker A: Do you revisit any old books? [00:16:01] Speaker B: I do. I like to read. I like to reread Win Forever before the start of a season. I feel like that energizes me and gives me some pointed focus in terms of who I want to be and how I want to act as a coach. The score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh. I'm really big on Bill Walsh. I'm not a. I'm not a real huge guy, Ryan, so I can't be, like, an intimidator and yelling and screaming. That's not my personality either. So, like, the attention to detail, the standards of performance of Bill Walsh, he's more of, like, a smart, you know, way a teacher in terms of the way that he coached and then the energy that Pete Carroll brings. Those are a couple of people that I really look up to. [00:16:42] Speaker A: How long did it take you to figure that piece out? That, okay, this is my personality and so this is my voice, where I'm maybe not as loud as some other coaches. How long did it take you to figure that piece out? [00:16:51] Speaker B: Quite a while, I think. You know, one of the great coaches that I coach with, local guy, his name was Steve Fullerton. He said, After 30 years, I'd like to believe that I'm a good coach, but there were a lot of casualties along the way, you know, and I find that to be. I find that to be true sometimes as young coaches and myself included, you try to be like other people. You know, I'm gonna. It's. I'm. I'm watching Nick Saban every Sunday, every Saturday. I'm gonna try to be, you know, a hard ass because he's so good, and that's authentic to who he is, you know, or Bill Belichick or some of these guys. But kids read through that. You know, I think the important thing is there's tons of ways that you can be successful, but people will know if you're not being authentic to who you are and your personality. And so it did take me a while to find my niche. [00:17:38] Speaker A: You know, I loved your interview. Was it 24? 7 press release, you know, after the award came out, and you're talking about the state of youth. Youth sports, but. But youth baseball specifically. So I really appreciated the article and your quotes on that. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. I got a daughter that's nine, so she's going through youth softball right now. I've got a son that's 6, 7 at the start of this. And then I have a brother that's much younger than me, so I kind of coached him. He's like a surrogate son to me in a way. And so I've got a lot of experience with parents and those types of things. I think it's just important as a parent to take a step back and realize that one is that your kids have to love the game if they're going to really be successful down the road. You can want it for them as much as possible, but they're going to have to have a love for it, to stick with it over the long haul. And then you got to trust the coaches to do their job and stay out of their way. And the last thing is, I do not believe that young coaches or youth coaches take kids love of the sport away like some parents say. I think parents take their kids love the sport away by the way they talk at home, by sometimes the way they question coaches decisions and the way that they don't approach things with a growth mindset with their child. I think that's. That's kind of doing a disservice to youth sports right now. [00:19:02] Speaker A: With the landscape of the amount of games that they're playing, how do we bring it back to where they do need to train more instead of competing? And competing is great and you said it and I agree. And that's one of the things we're trying to fix with the youth and travel committees is getting back to where the training part is just as important. The amount of reps that the young kids need is just as important as what they're getting on the field and during games. [00:19:26] Speaker B: For sure. I feel like specific to baseball, it's become an art. It's become like a race. You feel like if you're not playing as many games as other people on the weekend, that you're falling behind and you see the transition to play in only one sport so early particularly, I think it's well documented that it hurts pitchers. You know, if you're a young kid and you're throwing three innings at the start of a tournament, let's say Saturday morning, and then you get into an elimination game on Sunday and they want to bring you back for three or four more innings. Like that's not really doing. That's not really taking the kid's best interest at heart. I think part of the way that we can do that because I don't think we're going to step back and play less games. I don't think that's going to happen. As much as we preach that, I just don't think that that's where parents are headed. So I think it's developing a team full of pitchers and making certain that you're giving everybody an opportunity. You got. If you're going to play that many games, you got 12 kids on your roster, you're going to need 12 kids that can go out there and throw strikes for you and do it like that versus relying on just a couple of arms. I Remember I was talking to Coach. Yes. Key, when he was at Oregon State at the time, and he came out and watched one of my summer games that, that I was coaching, and he liked a kid named Austin McGeorge who went and played at Long Beach State and then in the Mets organization. And part of what he. Why he liked him was the kid had just started pitching, is like a junior in high school. He said, hey, this kid's fresh. He's got a lot of upside. You know, he's not a guy that's been throwing, you know, 10, 11 years already where he's going to be worn down or that he's at the best that he can get. And that makes you think a lot. Like the guys that are the kids that are performing best at like 8, 9 years old, not necessarily going to be the ones that are performing the best, particularly as it relates to pitching when they get older. [00:21:10] Speaker A: Well, somebody said it. I read that quote. It seems like the Little League series now. It's obviously, if you can find the kids that have developed early, that gives you the best shot. Doesn't mean those kids are going to be good high school or college or pro players. It just means you're trying to find the oldest, most mature kids you can find at. At 11 and 12 years old. [00:21:27] Speaker B: Certainly the. Certainly the case. And, and sometimes that's a detriment to the kid because I've coached young kids that are just physically bigger and more mature than others and their parents as well as them, see the success that they're having at a young age. And even though they're playing with some bad habits or they could do things better, they're fixing that mindset of like, look, I'm becoming uncoachable at a young age because I'm seeing that I'm having success. Success. Now, people that have been around a long time say, look, yeah, you're. You're physically more mature, that that's not going to work over the long haul. Continue to do these things. And you see some of these guys who aren't, who aren't as physical at a young age, who do everything right, and then when they catch up, they surpass them. A perfect example of that is I coached Jaren Duran when he was in high school. Jaren was not the biggest guy, but he was a really good athlete. And summer after his senior year, you know, he's getting bigger and more physical. The way that he looks, you know, starts to look now, and you can see like, man, if he really puts this all together, he's going to have a chance. And by have a chance, I mean be a good Division 1 player. And I didn't. I didn't foresee what he's doing now, but he's a guy that did everything right. Didn't have all the great size or all those advantages when he was younger. And then when it came to him and he matured, the fact that he had that foundation of being coachable, being athletic, and learning the fundamentals as well as he did really helped him soar. [00:22:50] Speaker A: How was it coaching your brother? [00:22:53] Speaker B: Difficult at times. I'm fortunate. You know, my dad coached me all the way up, which is why it's so important for me to coach my kids. I got the greatest relationship with my dad in the world, so to be able to do that stuff with my brother was important to me. And like it is to do it with my kids now. It got harder when my brother went to high school because he wasn't having as much success. So now he's a role player and he's not, you know, one of the main cogs or guys on our team, like helping us win. And I know that that was difficult for him. But sports is really about seeing the big picture and learning the lifelong lessons that it's going to help you as you develop and move forward. My brother was, like, mentally tough. You know, he wasn't a quitter, figured out how to overcome things, was mature, knew where he stood, was a great teammate. And now he's, you know, he's a lawyer, and he just got married, and sky's the limit for him. And I believe that the struggles that he also felt in baseball helped him in life. You know, it's not just the successes that help you out, but if you can learn from the struggles as well, that can really help catapult you to the next level. [00:23:59] Speaker A: What do you think your dad did? Well, you know, you have a. You know, you speak very positively of your experience of him coaching you. What'd your dad do well with you over that time span of him coaching you? [00:24:10] Speaker B: He treated me like everybody else. You know, when you can be the best player, you can be the best player in the world. And if you're the coach's son or you're the coach's daughter, people are going to say you only play because of that. It's just. That's just the way that it's going to go. It's. You can't. You can't really win. A lot of people think you can't lose, but they don't think about the other side of it. Right. I hit BP last all the time. I had to make certain that I earned everything that I got. He was not tougher on me in front of the other kids. Where some coaches are and they embarrass you, he just didn't give me anything. I had to earn everything that I got. And I learned that, you know, at a young age, which helped me out, you know, later on down the road and in life. And so I'm thankful for, for that. But what he also did is he was an incredible motivator and he gave people confidence. And so I was as confident as a young man as I could possibly be, which really helped me as I moved forward in every facet of life. [00:25:11] Speaker A: I played for my dad and brother in college and I'm grateful for the opportunity, but the same thing, like they never gave you anything and they were harder on you than the other guys. But I'm way more successful because of that experience and the opportunity to do that. And at that level, at the Division 1 level to play for dad and brother, it was just a really good experience and set me up for success later on. Tough times, though, in the immediate, it can be extremely difficult. [00:25:38] Speaker B: I was just going to say that sometimes you don't appreciate it for what it's worth until you've moved past it, you know, but those are the lessons that you learn where you're a young kid and even if you're not getting coached by your parents, you're upset with sometimes the decisions that they make. And then when you get older, you gain an understanding and appreciation for what they did for you. [00:25:56] Speaker A: You have any good George Horton stories that you can tell? [00:26:02] Speaker B: No, no, not a lot that I can tell. But I can tell you that I can tell you that I owe a great deal of my success to my time spent with Coach Horton. Different from when you go to a place like Cal State Fullerton in the. In the. [00:26:15] Speaker A: At that time too. [00:26:16] Speaker B: At that time, yeah. So unfortunately we got to give the caveat at that time, but especially at that time we were a powerhouse. And so if you're playing at Fullerton, you're thinking you're going to have like a 10 year major league baseball career. That was just the mindse of the guys that rolled through there. And I realized that that probably wasn't going to be the case for me. And I always wanted to be a coach. So to me, I got a three year apprenticeship watching Coach Horton in the dugout, watching him on the practice field, the attention to detail. I mean, we would go into a three game series and there was nothing that we were not prepared for. The confidence that you have true confidence because you know, you're prepared and you're ready for any and every situation and you have the best decision maker in the country calling the shots and pulling the strings for you. You know, I mean, I learned so much that helped me on the baseball field, but more importantly off the baseball [00:27:15] Speaker A: field from him, there really much difference. Coaching youth high school or junior college with the players. They're still just kids, aren't they? [00:27:25] Speaker B: 100%. People ask me that even coaching, you know, young girls to, to college age guys is you. You try to make a connection with people. You try to figure out how to best inspire and motivate them, knowing that each person is an individual and so the court requirements are going to be different. And then you leave with the goal of at the end of the season or at the end of our time together. My goal is to make you the best individual player and person that you can be. And if we do that collectively as a group, we'll have the best chance of accomplishing our goals as well. [00:28:01] Speaker A: Girls play baseball. [00:28:03] Speaker B: Girls play well. Girls playing. I meant girls playing softball. [00:28:06] Speaker A: But I'm asking, I mean we've got a women's professional league now, so I think there's going to be viable opportunities maybe for girls to stay in the game of baseball going forward. [00:28:17] Speaker B: I, I hope so. And I was. The summer that I spent in the Cape, we had Sam Jorman who, who is Shout Out Sam Superstar, one of the, one of the best people I've been around. Caleb Baptista who's working with maybe the Pirates. Yeah, yeah, I know she's, she was involved. So I think there's certainly a place for smart people regardless of male or female. Like it's competition, man. It's all about whoever the best is and rising to the occasion. [00:28:51] Speaker A: What have you loved about being at the junior college level? [00:28:55] Speaker B: The hunger that the guys, that the guys bring. I basically we deal with a couple different types of players. Right. You've got the high school kid that comes in that was not recruited to be a Division 1 player. So he's a little bit more humble than he might have been a couple years ago. And if he's continuing to play at the JUCO level, you know that he loves the game and is going to be coachable and is going to be open minded. Those guys are usually tough, you know, as well, because there's not a lot of glory that goes into playing junior college baseball. It's for those guys that are truly driven and believe in themselves. And then the other player that you get is, you'll get now Division 1 or Division 2 bounce backs, guys that didn't find the success that they were hoped to find in their first go around, but since they've got a taste of it, they know what it takes and they are dying to get back there. And so really you're just, you're just working with like a hungry, driven group of guys that are ambitious and are there because they love the game. And so when you're, you're inspired by those groups of guys. And at my point in life, you know, I've, I've. I've had a lot of blessings in my life. I'm trying to be a blessing in someone else's life now. And so if I can help those people reach their goals, like, that's what gives me satisfaction and coaching truly does. [00:30:13] Speaker A: With where the landscape is at Division 1, especially now, how are you helping those guys navigate what maybe the best fit for them is once they leave Santa Ana? [00:30:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's, I think that's part of it is finding, you know, what is going to be the best fit for them and having those conversations with them. The way that the landscapes kind of change, you know, a lot of the highest level division ones or the power four schools, what have you before, they're going to the juco route, they're going to look at the transfer portal and they're going to see guys that have established themselves and had success at the Division 1 level. So in a sense, you know, if you want to go play at one of those highest level of schools, you might have to take the path that you go and play at a mid major and perform there and then move on. I'm not saying that that's my preference because I spent three years at Cal State Fullerton and I'm still friends with all those guys. And I believe in, you know, being with a group of people collectively trying to reach a goal where winning still matters. You know, you only. There's only so much sand in the hourglass. If I'm going to go through my baseball career, I want to perform at the highest level, but I also want to win and I want to make those sacrifices with a group of people over time. But for those guys that just want to play at the very, very peak, the harder thing now is that there's kind of steps to the process. You know, get recruited, get an opportunity at a division One, and then when you excel at that Division one, then maybe move on to another. I think there's still a place for guys to move up to the schools, like their dream schools right away. But the important thing is finding, like, what do you value? Right, Ryan? So when you're a high school kid, in my experience, those guys want to play Division 1 baseball at all costs. That's great. Fantastic. That should be the ultimate goal. But then they get there and then they realize they're not playing and they're coming back and they're like, the next time I go, I don't want to just be on the roster. That's not good enough for me. I want to have a major role on that team and play a factor in terms of if we're winning or losing. And so when we get those guys, it's important to have a great year first with us, develop them to the point that we don't just move them on, but they're ready to compete at that level and stick at that level, which I think we do a great job of at Santa Ana. And then having those conversations with those guys about, hey, where do you fit? What are you looking for? What are your values? And being realistic with them about, you might be able to go here, but this is the type of role you play. Whereas if you go to this school, you're going to have an opportunity to be a weekend starter, and, you know, ultimately that calls up to the player. [00:32:51] Speaker A: Yeah, my group chat with Evansville guys, it's. We were all there and we all graduated, you know, and I miss that. You know, I think some schools are still doing it that way, but I just miss that for this generation of baseball players, because I don't. They're not going to have the same type of relationships once they get out of school. And things you always try to tell your players, like, be good to your teammates, because those are going to be the guys that help you get jobs later on when you're done with baseball. Those are. Those are the guys you're going to realize. And I just. I miss that for this generation of kids because I don't think they're going to have as much of those, as many as those relationships, those strong relationships, because they've been at so many different schools. [00:33:27] Speaker B: It's. It's so true. My freshman year of college, it was the last year of the old format. 16 regionals to go to the World Series, and we lost to LSU to go to the World Series on the last. On the last day. This is 1998, and we're at Alex Box Stadium and Coach Horton's talking to us and we're in tears, you know, for the most part, and you can barely hear him, and we're huddled as close as possible. But what I do remember him saying is, you know, let's for all you return guys that are going to come back, remember this feeling right now, and let's work as hard as we can to ensure that next year we are not in this same situation. And we go to the College World Series that sophomore year, my sophomore year in 99, and in large part, you know, we thought about those types of things along the way. Now at the end of the season, it's almost everybody goes their separate ways and you don't know who's coming back. And there's something to be said for that sophomore year. Of course you're happy because you went to the World Series, but it makes it even more meaningful when you know that you overcame what you weren't able to do the previous year and that it disappoints me that this generation won't get to experience that as much. [00:34:44] Speaker A: Coaching junior college in California seems like a throwback because it seems like all the coaches have other jobs, too. Yeah, to a person, it's like they're either teaching full time and also coaching, but it seems like everybody, which I appreciate the fact that you guys do such a good job out there with your teams, but you guys have other stuff going on as well. [00:35:06] Speaker B: True, you're fortunate if you're able to go coach. And the guys that are head coaches at the JUCO level will tell you that it's difficult to find good coaches. You know, we have great coaches in our program. Dennis Gerbaci, Tom Popovich, and then we've got a couple young guys in James Williams and Evan Leibel that are just starting out. But you always hope, especially because a lot of them are teachers at different levels, that their schedule is going to permit that they're going to be able to be out there. And for me, I'm fortunate that, you know, my wife allows me to do this stuff year after year. [00:35:41] Speaker A: Are there any similarities between the health industry and coaching baseball? [00:35:46] Speaker B: I think when you get into. When you get into the leadership aspect of it and you're. And you're leading teams in the business world, you hope to be around when you're hiring people, we'll say recruiting, because that would be the correlation to college, college baseball. But when you're hiring people, for me, I'm not looking for competencies like a lot of leaders do or hiring managers do. I'm looking for characteristics, right? I can teach you certain things. I can teach you how to, you know, how to sell, how to improve in that, how to navigate some of that stuff. But I can't teach you to be ambitious. I can't teach you to have pride in your performance. I can't teach you that everything's going to matter to you and that on those days when your manager or your leader is not with you, that you're still going to get up and go out and give your best effort. You got to find people like that and you're trying to find the same thing when you're recruiting young men to come on board is to find those self motivated guys because those are going to be the people that end up pushing over the top. And then at the JUCO level, our goal is to move guys on and help them accomplish their goals. And in the professional world people are ambitious, you know, they want to become leaders and directors and VPs, et cetera. And so you're constantly trying to develop people in both aspects. [00:37:04] Speaker A: Do you have any go to interview questions when you're trying to figure out those characteristics when you're trying to hire somebody? [00:37:11] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of times what I try to do is I try to make it more conversational in terms of where I'm getting to know the person. I'll ask some questions about, you know, their family life and growing up and usually that's where they'll say things like, you know, I had three sisters and we were all competing with each other and one's a lawyer and I'm, you know, I'm the regional director of the western United States and the other ones, you know, a college professor and I love my sisters to death, but you know, I grew up in a competitive environment and that's just who I am. And that's a. You're just trying to get to the root of who the person is. So I'm not asking a lot of like behavioral questions. I'm trying to really get to know the, who that person is and what formed them into who they are so that way I can hire again. Looking for people to just have certain characteristics that I, that I personally respect. [00:38:03] Speaker A: I mean, what are the characteristics of the best leaders you've been around or studied? [00:38:10] Speaker B: One I think is consistency, right? Consistency over time in terms of whether there's highs or lows. I know when I show up every day who you're going to be and what you are. I think the other thing that's important to me is seeing when I'm being led by someone, seeing who I want to be or the type of person I want to be in the person that I'm going to follow. Right. Leaders are always going to tell you or coaches are always going to tell you. You know, you be disciplined, have an attention to detail, everything matters, right. But if they're not, you can see if they're not living those characteristics in their own lives, you're not going to follow them. So you're looking for somebody that exemplifies that. And then I think you're looking for someone that can make you better. Right. You want to follow somebody that is going to make you better and is also a constant learner. I hope that I'm a better coach now than I was five years ago and I hope in five years I'm a better coach then than I am right now. Right. And if you're, as a player you can get behind somebody that's, that's like that. And then for me and my personality, I just like to be around competitive people. And so if it matters to you and I know that you're going to be, you know, all in, then I got no problem getting behind and going to war with you. I think that's what made me so confident when we went into the Final Four this year and we had to, we had to beat Palomar College. It was a great program. Twice on the very last day, I didn't know if we were going to do it or not, but I knew that the 35 guys that were standing around me, we're all prepared to do anything and everything that it took to be successful. And as one of the leaders on that team, like that's all you can ask, man. Put me in the foxhole with guys that are going to really care as much as I do. [00:39:58] Speaker A: Do you gravitate when you're hiring salespeople? Do you gravitate towards ex athletes? [00:40:02] Speaker B: I do, Yes, I certainly do. I feel like one is we're like minded. I feel like they can take harder coaching, they don't take everything as personally and then we move forward a much, much faster. Like if you and I have to have a difficult conversation, ex athletes are very good at. The conversation's been had. Okay, now we're moving forward. You know, sometimes people that are not, they take things like a little bit more personal when it's not, it's just what's best for us as a team to have success. And that makes the things A little bit more difficult. And then we're in an environment now where everybody works remote. And so if you want to be lazy, you can get away with it for a while. But usually former athletes hold themselves to the highest, to the highest degree of accountability and their standards for themselves are higher than anybody else's standards can be for them. And so we're like minded in that regard. And yes, I do like former athletes. [00:41:02] Speaker A: How have you handled that with going to more remote work? [00:41:07] Speaker B: I think again, goes back to trusting the people that you hire to do a good job. If you hire the right people and you do the work, the best work up front, like Nick Saban says, first thing, get the right people on the bus and get the wrong people off the bus, right? If you can get the right people on the bus and you've been clear with the expectations and clear with what the messaging is supposed to be, then you turn it over and you have to, and you have to trust and empower people to go out and give their best performance and to be, to work autonomously and to be able to make decisions. Right? And as a leader, it's important to take into consideration what other people strategies are, what other people think, and come to a collective decision where everybody's voice is heard. Because if you, Ryan, feel like you were a part of the decision making process, you now have ownership over those results. And so you're much more likely to see it through and get behind it and give it your full effort than if I didn't go to you at all. I just make dictator decisions and then you're not going to be bought in. And when it's not successful, you wash your hands of it and you say, well, hey man, that's not on me. I didn't make those choices. So I want to include everybody and then empower them to be able to go out and do their jobs and [00:42:28] Speaker A: treat them like adults with competitors. That's probably what they do the best though, right, Is they have a short memory. You know, say you're getting after one of your, you know, might be a player, but it might be one of your co workers or somebody that works underneath you. I think they have short memories for sure. [00:42:43] Speaker B: Especially if they know that you care, right? If the people that I'm around, man, they know that I care about them. I'm talking about professionally right now, like off the baseball field. Those people know that I care about them. They know that my goal is to have success for the organization and in doing so, do everything I can to look out the window when it comes to having success. And look in the mirror anytime that there's. That there's failure. And so those people trust me. And so when it becomes time to have difficult conversations, they know that you're doing it because you've got their best interest at heart. We had. I had a woman that worked for me, very ambitious, and she had a lot of success, and she got passed over for a promotion, and she was in tears, and she was talking to me, and I'm not the one that passed her over, but it was my job to empathize with her in the moment and then refocus her on what the task at hand was. And she came back to me, and she told me later on, she's like, you know, I needed a little bit of the tough love that you gave me, because ultimately that's going to help me. And then four or five months later, she got that promotion. But had she gone in the tank or said, nah, you know, I'm done with this, and not given her best effort anymore, then she wouldn't have been prepared when that next opportunity came up. [00:44:00] Speaker A: Love it. Because that's part of being a good mentor there, too. It's like, okay, you got passed over, but here's what you need to work on to get better. And you just got to trust the process on that, that maybe it wasn't your time. And she. I don't know, maybe she got a better gig out of it than the one she got turned down for. [00:44:18] Speaker B: She did. She did. Funny how that works. Yeah, it is. And you know what? And she was a former athlete as well, you know, and ultimately, I was. I was very happy. I was very happy for her. I had a great team at one point in time where I was just surrounded by, like, five, six people that we all thought the same. We all wanted the same things. They were at the earlier stages of their career, which really inspired. Inspired me and motivated me to help them achieve their goals. And they're now a strategic director at, you know, Fortune 500 company, regional director at. In a private equity group. Like, all these people have gone on to have tremendous success. And if I was a small piece of that along the way, I mean, that's what I do these things for. You know, I just want to help people. [00:45:05] Speaker A: You're saying, Anna, players that are getting opportunity to go the next level, what are they relaying back to you all as far as trying to help the next group of Santa Ana players get to the next level? Any adjustments or anything, or what are they relaying back to y' all like, hey, I was prepared, or this is other things that I'm seeing that, that maybe we need to work on. [00:45:24] Speaker B: Certainly. Well, we always ask that, you know, our head coach sets a culture of, of always trying to get better, like constant improvement. No matter how well we do. It's about what can we do to be better the next year? What can we learn from this? And so we've got really good relationships with the guys that have left, left our place, they come back. And whether they're throwing at our school in the fall, whether we see them, you know, during Christmas break or at, during the summer, etc. We're constantly asking a lot of times, what are you doing there? What. How are the bullpens on a pitching standpoint? How are the bullpen structured? How does your coach talk to you? You know, the different tech that they're using, what do you like that, that you're using, what do you not like that you're using? You know, and then asking them like, what do you think we could incorporate or what we could do differently based off of what you've seen? Because there's a lot of great, for me personally, there's a lot of great pitching coaches out there. And then even though I don't see them or get to talk to all of them, if I can learn from them through a third party, like, you know, all the, all the better. So a lot of what we get, you know, when you're at some of the, some of the higher level division ones at good football schools and stuff like that, that have a lot of the bells and whistles that you don't have at the junior college level and getting to see how those are incorporated and what we can. And what we can add on and where we should look to make adjustments in the future, like, all those things really help. [00:46:46] Speaker A: I view that as almost a positive sometimes too though, without having all the bells and whistles because you're still producing guys going to the next level. But I think they can come and go to that next level with a fresh set of eyes where maybe you have a kid that's been around all the tech and the data their whole lives, they may not be able to make that next step because they've been introduced to all that stuff to where now you get a new shiny toy that you haven't been introduced to before. I think kids can make a larger jump than when you had them. Honestly, I look at the opposite. Like, I know we want to add stuff, but sometimes kids are going to make another jump because they haven't been introduced to all that stuff yet. [00:47:24] Speaker B: That's, that's true. And I think on that topic, you know, one of the things that you've, you've got now is, is that sometimes players feel like it's in. It's in either or. Or even coaches feel like it's in either or. Right. We're going to do a lot of the, a lot of the velocity enhancement stuff. We're going to really buy into the analytics or. No, man, we are going to be old school, throw the ball at the bottom of the zone, be like 11 to 12 to the plate, all of those things. I just don't believe that we live in a world where it has to be mutually exclusive. You know, it's not A or B. You can do both, I think, at the same time, which is important. You know, we've, we've got in Southern California some really good facilities that, that guys can go to and they work on a lot of those things that have the high speed cameras that have those things. And I think what we're able to add at Santa Ana, and I promise guys this in the recruiting process is you'll be able to utilize and do all of those things. But what you're going to get here as well is a real focus on learning to pitch first up. And what does that mean? Ryan, when you were coming up, you probably called your own pitches in the Little League and all, maybe all through high school and in college was the first time that someone started doing that stuff for you. That's how it was for me. Nowadays you got a guy's getting his pitches called for him at five years old and all the growing up, they're not learning how to pitch, they're not thinking for themselves, they're not doing that right. We want to incorporate a lot of that teaching to help the kids, the young guys that we're working with here. And then we also want to help them from a mental standpoint, become the most mentally tough, competitive guys that they can be. So that way, when they combine the stuff that they're utilizing now to throw harder, to shape their pitches better, and to do that with the other side of it, which is becoming as mentally competent and tough as you can be. Now you're creating what I would consider like the whole, the whole picture, which is seeing like the big, the big picture. And I think we try to really focus on doing that at Santa Ana. [00:49:25] Speaker A: Two things can be true at the same time for sure. [00:49:29] Speaker B: For sure. [00:49:29] Speaker A: You know, do you have a fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now, it helped you move forward. Could be professionally or could be personally. [00:49:41] Speaker B: I've got a couple. From a baseball, from a baseball standpoint, [00:49:46] Speaker A: not. [00:49:47] Speaker B: Not getting earlier in my career those opportunities to coach at the Division 1 level. All I wanted to do was Ryan, was be a Division 1 coach. Man. It was like the most important thing to me. I spent like hundreds of books behind me and in front of me that were all designed to help me be my best to get to that level. I get a little bit older, it still hadn't happened yet. I did get a couple opportunities or calls after I had kids. Right. But for me, the disappointment of not being able to coach at that level, it ended up being the best thing for me because I still get to help guys and be a part of it at the junior college level. But from a time commitment, I'm not missing anything that my kids are doing. And so it's most important to me to have the relationship with my kids that my parents had with me. And I don't know, I don't know personally if I would have been able to do that if I was coaching at the Division 1 level. Like, I'm not missing games on Saturday and Sundays for my kids, which I would be if I was, if I was at that level. Hopefully for my kids, when I get older, they'll think about me the same way that I think about my parents, and then it will all have been worth it. [00:50:59] Speaker A: At what point did you figure that out? It's like, okay, you know what? It would disappoint me tonight, maybe get some of these jobs. But now look at the life I've been able to carve out, which is much better quality of life in that respect. [00:51:11] Speaker B: Really, in, like the last two years, as my daughter started playing, all through soccer and softball, all through the summers, being able to be with my son and coach my son, seeing the looks on their faces. But there's times when you show up at a soccer game on a Saturday and you're like, you see your kid play and you think to yourself, man, I wouldn't have been able to do this if I was living in a different world, like in a different reality. This wouldn't have happened for me. And would I make that trade now? And the answer is maybe for the right job. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Hey, for coaches listening in, because I've got some friends that have kids playing youth soccer. Can you go through? Because I think baseball needs to Adopt this. Can you go through. There is no coaching from parents on the sidelines for youth soccer. [00:52:03] Speaker B: There is not. [00:52:05] Speaker A: Go through it, because I don't think a lot of people. And I think it's. I think it's great because basically the coaches are correcting the parents, like, so there's. There's zero coaching from the sidelines, from the parents. Correct. [00:52:14] Speaker B: 100%. Zero coaching. My daughter. My daughter plays for a really good program in Southern California. It's called the Fullerton Rangers. Her coach, this guy named Manny Lopez. No nonsense guy. Fantastic, great coach on day one. He sets the tone. I'm not talking, you know, don't talk to your kids during the game. Do not coach your kids during the game. Most of us don't know what we're talking about anyways, right. We're just yelling, like, go, run. People are yelling random things. But if you speak up and you're coaching and he's on the sideline, the side, he'll be like, hey, Coach Ryan, thanks for helping me out. I'll take it from here. You know, he'll make his point in a sarcastic way because he's got a great personality. And you're like, oh, oh, you know, okay, I better not say anything. Or if you're on the other side of the field, he'll yell at you across the field. So. And so quit coaching your daughter. Knock it off. And like, man, people be quiet. And I think to myself, this guy's a young guy, and he's a great coach. I'm very fortunate my daughter's with him. And I'm thinking, I'm going to take that into coaching my daughter's softball team with me. Like, that's what I'm going to do. Man, that didn't last long. I'm on the phone. I mean, I'm on a call with you right now. We're having a great. We're having a great conversation. It was. I don't know, it's like a second team meeting, and you've got parents already at your throat. My daughter is an elite player. She needs to be coached this way. I never played sports in my life, but my daughter needs to hit like this, all sorts of stuff, you know? And I'm like, man, I would much rather be in the soccer culture than in the softball culture that we're in now, where you've got tons of parents that are rarely right yet never uncertain. [00:53:54] Speaker A: Yep. What about your routines, morning and evening? You're in good shape. And I love asking this question because, you know, Coaching at a high level. You're an executive at a high level. You know, what have you done to not get burned out, to stay your sharpest on a daily basis, [00:54:14] Speaker B: try to wake up in the morning and, and work out to, you know, stay in shape. Plus, I think it's important in the recruiting process. Again, when I was getting recruited, I saw John Savage was at University of Nevada and then us, USC at that time. This is, this is 20 something years ago. Dave Serrano, who's I consider like my, my mentor and someone I try to pattern myself after. And I looked at those guys and I was like, those. That's, like, that's who I want to be, you know, when I get older. Like charismatic, charismatic individuals, great guys, great speakers. Like young guys would aspire to be like them, right? I think part of that is, you know, looking the part and then being able to back up your, the words that you're, that you're, that you're preaching with the actions that you're doing, you know, So I think staying in shape is a part of it. And plus, I had kids when I was a little bit older. So again, my dad had me when he was like 21, 22. I go back to my dad a lot, but that's the foundation for me and him playing with me, wrestling with me, having the energy to do that stuff with me all the time. I got to be able to do those things with my kids. And because I'm a little bit older when I started, it's important for me to be able to provide that for them. So those are really my motivations for that part. Trying to stay in shape. I get up early as I got three young kids and I try to read and then I kind of, you know, I read before I go to bed. And that's, that's really my routine. [00:55:40] Speaker A: What about workout wise? What do you. Do you mix it up or you do the same thing? [00:55:45] Speaker B: No, I was in a. People are going to laugh at me when I say this. I was in a crossfit for a long time. [00:55:51] Speaker A: I have a lot of respect for people that do it because it's a lot of reps. My gym has a CrossFit gym in it, and I just, I have a lot of respect for people that can do it. It's just way too many reps for me. [00:56:03] Speaker B: So, you know, it's competitive, right? So I'm like, this is what I'm gonna do, man. I can really stay and be competitive when it comes to this. And I'm, I'm not the biggest guy. So I couldn't handle all the ball. All the, all the, the volume is one thing. The, the weight that they wait up to was like too much for me. So I was like an intermediate competitor. But it filled the void of giving me something competitive to do and to look forward to all the time. So I, I did that for a long time. I went through. There's a gentleman named Paul Sklar who's very popular on YouTube and Nick Baer. I bought in there like workout routines and do those. And do those things as well. I don't do. I used to because now that my kids are older, I need to spend more time with them. And those workout times are more rigid, you know, during the day than being able to do it when you've, when you've got opportunities. My friends would say, george, don't forget to tell them you skip leg day all the time. You know, [00:57:02] Speaker A: I'm the opposite focused on legs. My upper body strength isn't great, so it's, it's more. More leg based. Yeah, I'm just not well top. [00:57:13] Speaker B: For me, it doesn't really matter. I mean, I could be lifting legs all day. I'm still going to look like I got, you know, bird legs compared to most guys. So that's just something I came to accept. [00:57:23] Speaker A: What are some other resources that coaches should dive into? Anything else? [00:57:29] Speaker B: I think the Daily Coach that, that Ryan Belmont, the late coach raveling as he just passed away within the last year. Michael Lombardi do I think that that's excellent. There's AJ Mental fitness, I think that's what. I think that's what it's called. Coach AJ he comes up with. With something every Saturday or Sunday. That's a great blog that's got a lot of stuff in it in terms of other links and types of things. And then for me, I'm really big on reading. You know, on the mental side, you mentioned Michael Gervais. Trevor Mowad, who passed away, wrote a great book when it came to that. [00:58:10] Speaker A: Back to neutral. Getting back to neutral, which I love talking about that I get into some Buddhist stuff. So trying to stay neutral in any situation I think is a really. It's easier said than done to do that because it's really hard because you're going to get wound up sometimes. But if you can try to stay neutral in any situation, I think is great for. [00:58:32] Speaker B: For sure. George Mumford's really good when it comes to that. The mindful athlete that he wrote and he's obviously has the pedigree and if you have a little bit more edge to you and you like that. Tim Grover, who was Michael Jordan. [00:58:44] Speaker A: Love Tim Grover. Great books. [00:58:47] Speaker B: He's a stud, too. So those are all the things that, you know, I try to focus on. We're. We're spoiled now because you can get so many speeches or so many talks on YouTube, following the right guys on. On Instagram. Like, as a coach that's trying to get better, if you're a pitching coach, you should be following CN Pitching, you know, Tread, Driveline, all those different guys, because your players are, you know, and you want to be able to teach to that, and your players want to know that, like, you're staying up to date on the latest information that's out there as well. [00:59:23] Speaker A: That's a great point about the mental peak performance side, because your players have different personalities. So whoever's in that space is going to speak differently to different players, like, with their personalities, because not everybody's. It's not one. One size fits all on the peak performance side, because just like coaching baseball, there's a lot of different voices that might resonate with kids. I think it's the same thing on the peak performance side, that somebody's voice might resonate differently with a different kid. [00:59:50] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. When I was in high school, when David Fletcher played for me, when he was in high school, David Fletcher played with the Angels for a lot of years. One of the. One of the greatest people that I've been around and the greatest player that I've ever coached, right? And I recommended Relentless Tim, Tim Grover's book to him, and he read that and he said that he felt like Tim Grover was in his head, like, saying everything that he thought he, you know, and I'm going to be honest, David's probably not an avid reader, but he got through that one, right? So then I recommended it to another player and thinking this guy's gonna love it too, right? And he said, yeah, it's not really as much for me, you know, and he. He gravitated or resonated with somebody else. So it is being able to find the right voice for each individual. [01:00:38] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts before I let you go? [01:00:43] Speaker B: You know, I just want to thank you for letting me come on board today and say I'm here because I was fortunate enough to get the ABCA Coach of the Year award. And it would be remiss if I didn't thank all the people that, you know, made this possible for me along the way. Coach Serrano, guys like Coach Horton, Coach Don Sneddon. Nobody's a better person than Coach Ron Polk is. My parents, you know, and then obviously my wife who will be there with me in Chicago and hopefully I'll get the opportunity to meet you in person. You know, those are the people that have made all these things possible for me. And then all the, all the guys that I've. And Coach Nilis and all the players that like I've coached along the way and hope to coach in the future, I don't think that. I don't think there's a lot of high school guys out there listening to the podcast. But if they do, they are. Okay. If they are. If they are and you want to become the best player and person that you can be, I can't think of a better place for you than Santa Ana College. You got to get that 1 in 100%. 100% I got to get. [01:01:51] Speaker A: But that's not a, that's not a sell job you guys have. It's been a great program for a long time. Like Santa Ana has been a great program for a long time. [01:01:59] Speaker B: It has. Coach Send is the winning was. Excuse me, Ron Scott. Yeah. Ron Scott passed. [01:02:05] Speaker A: Still miss. Still. Still miss. [01:02:06] Speaker B: Coach Sneddon three state championships when he retired. The winningest coach in California history. And then Coach Nellis two state championships in a. In a very short amount of time. But I would say this too. I want to say this before I go. A rising tide, you know, lifts all boats. And what pushes us at every day at Santa Ana to get better is guys like Summer. Summer and what he. Summer McCartney and what he does at Saddleback and Rudy and what Rudy does, if you know him, he won a state championship before at Riverside Community College. When you wake up every day and you know that like you got to be at your very best if you want to beat those types of. Of schools. That's. That keeps you. Gives you all the motivation you need to keep going because those guys are great coaches as well. [01:02:55] Speaker A: Thanks for your time, sir. Appreciate this. [01:02:58] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:02:58] Speaker A: Thank you. [01:02:59] Speaker B: Take care. [01:03:01] Speaker A: Success leaves clues. And you can see why Coach carolejo has had success in coaching and in business. Common theme among success in any organization is pouring into your people. Congrats to Coach Carolejo on this award and to the entire Santa Ana program. And a hard earns 3C 2A championship. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale, Matt Weston, the ABC office. We're all up on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email or brownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. Coach direct message me via the MyBC app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off with the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave a better. You know that way Yep Wait for another day [01:03:57] Speaker B: and the world will always [01:03:59] Speaker A: return as your love is there before yearning and you know that way Wait for another D.