Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the ABCA's podcast.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: I'm your host Ryan Brownlee.
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We have two more weeks of on location interviews from Cary, North Carolina and USA Baseball's NHSI Tournament coaches. Today we are joined by Corona's Andy Wise, Huntington Beach's Benji Meadour, Christopher Columbus's Joe Weber, Holly Prep's Matt Roventini and Holly Springs Rod Wet Soul. Let's welcome everyone to the podcast.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Here with Andy Wise. Corona was on the podcast with me around kind of little after this. After you guys had won this thing last year, how much did winning last year do to help this team, this year's club?
[00:02:40] Speaker C: Well, we don't know yet. We're going to find out, you know, so. But I like to think a good amount. There's good experience out here. You got to see win, you got to see other teams, really good teams lose and how teams go about it and their process and our process and just dealing with everything. I think it helps our opportunity this year in this tournament for sure.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: What kind of springboarded you guys into the CIF Championship last year? Correct?
[00:03:02] Speaker C: Yeah, no, that was that group. Last year was a four year group. They had been with us for the most part for four years. We added a couple incredible pieces to that group which anybody Would be fortunate to get those pieces, but we all meshed well and made it happen. And yes, we just kind of kept doing what we were doing all year and took off from here to finish the job.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Thought you had a refreshing take on the podcast last year talking about accountability with your team. And I think you've done as good a job as anybody in the country managing high profile kids and getting them to buy into team concepts.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: Yeah, this is a team game run by individuals is the way I really been preaching it and teaching it. If we get the best out of you and you're doing the right things and we will be just fine if every individual is doing that, that's really my goal. And I know these kids have such high aspirations going forward that I'm really just trying to guide them in the right direction as to put themselves in the best position to have success and do the right things in front of the group that's always out here watching.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Them with having some new ears. What was the messaging coming into this year with a little bit of a newer group?
[00:04:05] Speaker C: You know, I don't want to say pushing the reset button by any means, but even in the middle of last year, I was kind of pulling some of these guys aside saying, hey, next year is going to be a little different. Next year is going to be a little different. And that's just because this is more of a. This is more of a position player driven group as the other group was kind of the pitching staff was leading the way.
And here these guys are right now just leading the charge, as I said before. But it was a little more individual work, a little more grinding out at practice, you know, where, like I said, last year's group was a little different, the way they individually prepared. But to the team, we got guys that we really need to focus on, work with and get with in this group and. And they've done just a great job of leading the charge. Their work is phenomenal.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Does this format help you guys line up for the CIF at all or is it different?
[00:04:55] Speaker C: No, not necessarily. Because where we're at is we're playing two games a week. You get your rest. So you're gonna get. If you got two good starting pitchers and a relief pitcher, you're probably in a good position right there, which we know we got. So. But we do like our other guys that we have with us. So this, this gives us an opportunity to showcase those guys and let those guys go compete and we have no problem backing those guys.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Is that a playoff environment yesterday?
[00:05:20] Speaker C: This Is all a playoff environment.
[00:05:21] Speaker D: It is.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: And I mean, they had that. That energy around the field. Yesterday was a playoff.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: I think everybody would love to see us lose. And I completely understand that. No, I get that. I understand. So everybody. We get everybody's best shot. I know that's cliche or whatever, but we really do right now. We have all year. We withstood it, we expect it, we expect it again.
It's going to be nothing new.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: What's your pulse during a game like that yesterday? You Low pulse.
[00:05:48] Speaker C: I'm low poles. I used to be high. Either way, whether we're winning, losing or win, lose or draw is probably super up there. Now I just stay mellow and I think that helps my group. These are high school kids. They have enough emotions going on. They don't need some old man out there doing cartwheels and yelling at him or whatever the case might be. Let them deal with it and just try to manage their. Their. I try to do my best to manage them.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: How long did it take you to figure that piece out? That maybe I do need to be a little bit more low pulse in some high stress situations.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: I think when I finally grinded a group and a program together where it all kind of came together and I saw the fruits of that and that was probably back in 2017 when I had a very mature group of Brendan Beck, a Michael Hobbs, guys that are actually, both of them have pitched pro ball over the last two days. So you know what I mean? A group led like by guys like that who work really hard and are talented and we're all about the program.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: So what else do you have to work on with this group?
[00:06:44] Speaker C: It really is a maintenance thing right now. We just got to make sure that we're doing the right things and not getting steered off in the wrong direction or too high. I don't expect it to ever get too low, but just not trying to do too much, stay within ourselves and play the game correctly.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: I mean, how do you handle that with a group? I mean, you got high profile guys without listening to the noise and a lot of the noise that's out there.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Once again, cornball cliche, however you want to look at it, but I'm really. We're going hard one pitch at a time. Like what's on to the next one, on to the next one.
Don't like riding any kind of emotional roller coaster in any way, shape or form. So really is about being you all the time as much as humanly possible. It's a tough skill and I said it a skill, very tough skill.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give, I let you get back to work.
[00:07:30] Speaker C: Oh, man, there's too many people. If I leave somebody out, I'm going to get beat up by everybody. So all that have come before me, with me here, they're part of where we're at now. So any coaches and I know your guys, Dave demris over there. So let's get coach a little lovin and he's definitely part of my own history of coaching and where I'm at. And yeah, he has a little touch on the team as well, being here last year, good character. So that's your time, Andy. Thank you, Ryan. Appreciate you.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: With Benji Madure, Huntington Beach.
Welcome out here to North Carolina, sir.
[00:08:07] Speaker D: Thank you. Appreciate it.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: You have experience here. I mean, what has that done for your group that's out here now with you guys having experience being out here.
[00:08:16] Speaker D: Before for the coaching staff? You know, we've been here together eight different times. It's our eighth time. And so we know what restaurants to go to. We know, we know the good food, we know the good barbecue. But for the kids, the kids that have been out here with us now for, we've had, we've had two players have been here for four years, four years straight. We've had 10 players have been out here for three years. So it's not as overwhelming as it, as it is for a guy, a first timer and they walk in, they walk in through those gates and you see that field, like it does something to you. Still does something to me. You know, I still get the, I still get the nerves.
But then when it comes to playing in the game, I think for our guys it's just another game. You know, it's, it's, there's pressure, but they don't feel the overwhelming anxiety that I think some people that are brand new to this do.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Yeah, because you see it the first game out of the shoot. You can see that the jitters on the teams that haven't been here before.
[00:09:09] Speaker D: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And I mean, I got nervous in pregame yesterday. I think I zooed a couple of balls. When I hit, I hit it straight out on the ground. But yeah, it happens.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Does this format get you guys ready for the CIF?
[00:09:18] Speaker D: 100%. Although, I mean, it gets us ready in the sense that we're facing top arms every game. But as far as cif, we, the games are too spaced out. There's, there's four days in between each game or three days and so you don't have the one right after another game, which I would love to go to in cif. San Diego section has it. Some most states have it that way. I think that really shows what kind of program you have. But, you know, two games a week doesn't really show that in the CIF standard.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: I mean, that gives probably the best team the advantage to win. Correct. The more games you can, the more.
[00:09:53] Speaker D: Games that you can play. And there have been times where we've, we've snipered teams that we weren't the better team, but we did just because on one, and it's single elimination in cif, say one and done. And so I think the pressure from this tournament of, you know, if you want to win it, obviously you can't lose one game that prepares you for cif, you know, because it's one and done. And when you lose, it's over.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: You're big on talking about resetting in that 15 second funnel. How much do you message that with your guys on resetting every 15 seconds?
[00:10:24] Speaker D: We had a seminar with Jeff Miller, one of my good friends, you know, abca. You know, he contributes to the magazine every week. And he actually talked to our team on Tuesday.
He talked to, talk to him about doing their job, talk to him about breathing. He talked to him about just staying in the current moment, forgetting about the past. You know, not really worried about what's going on. Just do your job, do your job that is right in front of you and taking the breath and squeezing and finding a focal point. And it just reinforces everything that we talk about. But, I mean, it's not mine. I still, you know, we both have stolen it from a bunch of people. But it's really useful, especially right now when you feel the, the tension. Like we were down three yesterday with two outs in the sixth. You know, that's usually teams give up and we see our guys just go pitch by pitch and fought our way back.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: How good is that to bring maybe an outside voice into the program? Because I hear it from coaches all the time, but how much does that resonate when you maybe bring a different voice in for them to hear?
[00:11:23] Speaker D: I mean, it's kind of like when you talk to your kids at home and you tell them one thing and they don't listen to you. And then they come home and they're like, oh, this guy told me that, you know, kale was good to eat.
[00:11:32] Speaker C: Oh, really?
[00:11:32] Speaker D: That's what we've been saying the whole time. Same kind of thing. I talk to them, you Know they turn their ears off sometimes. It sound like Charlie Brown's teacher to them sometimes. But to have a professional in the field who, who knows me and knows our program well, you know, it's gold.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Talk about Tret Grindlinger, by the way, because I thought he was the best catcher here yesterday and he's still young. Just talk about him a little bit.
[00:11:55] Speaker D: He's, he's a force. He's such an anchor in our program. Incredible leader, you know, just the most, the highest quality of at bats. Being super tough behind the plate, you know, controlling the game, being able to see stuff that we can't see that he helps us with.
He's another coach on the field.
You know, we've already, we're already mourning the process of losing him next year, but pretty freaking awesome kid.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: I mean, did he always come in that way?
[00:12:26] Speaker D: He came in seasoned but he, we had his freshman year, we had two senior catchers, Antonio Ventibiglia and Jackson Brumme, that really took, that took him under his wing, showed him how to be.
But he was very mature when he came in.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: What advice do you have for coaches that are trying to get in the.
[00:12:44] Speaker D: Profession, to get into the high school coaching profession? Speak you, you know, and I think that's what people walk in and they don't, they try to be somebody else. You know, they try to copy a college coach or their personality. And I was guilty of that too. And I think when I really found myself and it was when I started dating my wife, coincidentally is when I really started to believe in like, I just gotta be me. And from there I found my style.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: With having high profile kids, how are you able to still keep them accountable for what's going on with the program?
[00:13:16] Speaker D: I think the culture takes care of itself. You know, there's. We. They're not the, they're not the only high profile kids that Haina beach has had, you know, and I, I think, I think they, you know, sometimes when you're in program and you're a, you're a big fish in a small pond, you can kind of run the, run the world. But it's like, hey, we've had big leaguers, we've had, you know, first round draft picks. Like, I get it, you're good and you're high profile, but like you're, you know, you gotta, you gotta earn it around Huntington. So it kind of takes care of its myself.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Talk about real life Wednesdays.
[00:13:46] Speaker D: Oh man. I think it's the, I think it's the, the number one thing that we do scenarios, hey, this happens.
A kid's, you know, he's upset about his playing time and he's, he's talking trash behind everyone's back and, you know, you know about it. What do you do? Or, you know, how do you handle, how do you handle a situation off of the field that could get you into trouble?
Just talking about selflessness, how to be a good person, I think that's the, you know, but most of all, just being humble and humility. And I think that's the, the number one thing that we try to preach with our guys.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: By the way, perfect time for a delay steal yesterday.
[00:14:22] Speaker D: Thank you. I appreciate it.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Talk about the delay. I'm an avid. I, I love it. And talk about the delay a little bit.
[00:14:30] Speaker D: It could go, it could go wrong. It could go wrong on, on a, on a high fastball, it could go wrong. But when. I love doing it, when a pitcher's throwing strikes and a catcher is trying to help, the, the, you know, fastball counts and they stick it. Man, I love seeing it come out of the hand and that catcher really hold it right there. And I'm like, oh, yep, got him.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: When do you introduce that with the guys?
[00:14:51] Speaker D: We, we Base running is all fall. All fall. We, we get all of our base running done from October to December and, and then we just try to perfect it from there.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: What are some final shout outs before I let you get to work?
[00:15:02] Speaker D: I, I gotta shout out our, our JV and our freshman team back home. I mean, we have our JV teams 21 and. Oh, and our freshman team's 20 and one. So we're rolling a little bit with the program.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: That part of the culture too, right? Teach them how to win at the younger ages, of course.
[00:15:18] Speaker D: And they do things the right way and they're held to a really high standard for lower levels. There is no messing around with them. But I'm more impressed with their grades. I mean, the grades across the board and how they carry themselves around school and opening doors for teachers and students. Like, that's what I'm most proud of.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: Thanks for your time.
[00:15:34] Speaker D: Appreciate it.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: All right here with Joe weber, Christopher Columbus plus 30 years now at Columbus plus 30.
[00:15:44] Speaker E: Yes, sir.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Congrats, by the way.
[00:15:45] Speaker E: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: And what is the key to longevity at this level?
[00:15:51] Speaker E: Wow. Having an administration that backs you every step of the way.
That I would say the biggest key to staying around.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Did you think you'd be there this long?
[00:16:04] Speaker E: No, I never thought I'd still be doing it now, but I still love to compete and, you know, at this point, it's what I look forward to each day.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Over 600 wins now.
[00:16:16] Speaker E: Yes, sir.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Congrats.
[00:16:18] Speaker E: Thank you.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Congrats. I mean, it says a lot about you and the career you've had.
[00:16:21] Speaker E: Yeah, I've had great assistant coaches along the way that certainly have made my life a lot easier.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Hard fought win yesterday.
[00:16:30] Speaker E: Yes, sir. That was a good, good win.
[00:16:32] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Good battle back and forth. Absolutely. Is that typical game for you guys?
[00:16:35] Speaker E: That is a typical game for us.
Uncharacteristically, we made two errors yesterday, but so far on the season, we've only had about 11 through 22 games.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: This type of format, does it get you guys ready for the playoffs?
[00:16:51] Speaker E: I think so. I thought that was one of the. One of the reasons I wanted to come up here was to kind of get playoff atmosphere. You're seeing quality arms every game. And then we have this team called Douglas that's in our region that we got to run through, and he's got 95, 96 on the mound. So I thought, what better, you know, to get better here?
[00:17:15] Speaker A: And he's been up here as well. Yeah, he's been in this field.
[00:17:18] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:17:18] Speaker E: Fitz has been here quite a bit.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Yep. I mean, for you, is South Florida the best high school baseball in the country?
[00:17:27] Speaker E: To me it is, but obviously, I'm sure there's great baseball in Texas and California as well. But the passion that the players exude in South Florida and the parents, to me, South Florida, there's nothing like it.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: Do you have any tips for coaches that are just getting into the profession?
[00:17:51] Speaker E: Yeah.
My biggest regret is that I never stopped and appreciated the wins. And right after a win, I was right on to the chasing the next one. And as I've gotten older, I've started to learn to appreciate the ride.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Is that part of getting older, though, and experience you learn how to savor life maybe a little bit more?
[00:18:15] Speaker E: I think so. I think so, yeah, for sure.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Give some examples of maybe how you savor it a little bit more now. How you actually take the time to actually enjoy the wins a little bit more.
[00:18:26] Speaker E: I think that, you know, I guess in the past that every win seemed to be so critical and so important, and over time you realize the only thing that matters is playing good at the end, you know, nobody cares if you win or lose except. Except yourself, you know? So I guess, man, I don't know. I'm still not great at it. Believe me.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: It'S hard not to take it home with you.
[00:19:02] Speaker E: Yes. It is, it is.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: But that's part of caring too, though, as a coach. Like, it shows that you do actually care because you're going to take it.
[00:19:09] Speaker E: Home with you 100%. 100%. And I think, you know, the kids pick up on your passion and how much it's important to you, and you want them to feel it's as important to them, too. And when you get that, that's when you know you have special teams.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: Did your preparation change at all for this week? Playing this many games in a row with pitching or how you're lining up your pitching?
[00:19:32] Speaker E: Not really.
The preparation kind of remained the same. We had a few wrinkles. Our starting pitcher, game one, couldn't fly because he had an ear infection. So that kind of threw everybody off. And then the guy, our ace pitcher who was gonna go tomorrow, asked me for the rock today because we were playing Corona. So I gave it to him. So we're just kind of flying by night right now.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: How much you love as a coach, though, player comes to you and says, hey, coach, I want the ball today.
[00:20:04] Speaker E: Here's a kid who knows right now his numbers are good enough to be all county, you know, all county, all state, and he's willing to take the rock and go risk all that.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Had a great program. How do you handle those expectations and the expectations of coaching at a place like Columbus?
[00:20:27] Speaker E: Man, I think if you just prepare every day and you have a mentality of you're going to outwork everyone, that the results just follow.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Any other final shout outs before I let you get back to work?
[00:20:43] Speaker E: Shout out to everybody who's been a part of the Columbus baseball program over the years. And we're just still trying to make you guys proud.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: Thanks for your time, coach.
[00:20:54] Speaker E: All righty.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: All right, here with Matt Roventini, Poly Prep. Welcome. It's a big, big honor to get out here. Not everybody gets to do this, so. So welcome.
[00:21:05] Speaker F: Thank you. Appreciate it.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: What's kind of been your messaging here after the last two days with the guys?
[00:21:10] Speaker F: It's tough. I'm not going to lie. It's one of those, how do you pick up the chips when they're down?
Game one, I don't know if you probably saw it, have heard. We, you know, we're holding on to a three nothing lead against an excellent team. The two outs and last, the sixth inning. And you know, I hate to say find a way to lose, but just can't find a way to win, you know, so that one deflated us. I'm not going to lie. And unfortunately, you know, there's the hangover day, you know, day two. As much as we try and try to get back up as coaches and players, there's a human nature, human side to this, that it's hard to get that energy back the next day. And, you know, I don't say that's why we didn't win today, but, you know, you're trying to get out of every day, try to preach the messages. Every day is the most important day. It's a high school season. We don't have 162 games to kind of take one or two off. And again, the seniors, remember, your clock is running. You have another month and a half and you don't get each other after this. Some of you guys get to play to the next level. Some of you don't get to do this again. So the message is trying to bend. My message to them is do this for each other. Don't do it for me. I do this in a long time. Do it for each other. Because your clock, your time is running out. Pick up every day, and every day has got to be the most important day. And try to be where your feet are then. That's been the message. And again, unfortunately, it hasn't worked out for two days.
I'll say this, the beauty of baseball is we get two more. And that's the upside right now, I'm going to tell you, we got two more shots at it and we walk out of here after two quality games, I'll feel a lot better going back to New York.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Talk about the job that justice did yesterday.
[00:22:28] Speaker F: Phenomenal. Competed, kept the ball, wanted the ball. You know, we knew what kind of lineup they were. We knew we couldn't just attack with a fastball. Everyone's going to hit a good fastball in this day and age. We knew we had to pitch backwards. He wanted to pitch backwards. He was comfortable going two one off speed pitches, you know, that's the high level, quality pitcher he is. And the way he competed, the way he wanted to win. And I'll say this, he threw that, you know, he had a. I think it might have been 6th, 7th inning. We had the 3, 2 lead, 12 count. I called curve ball away. It backs up on him, hits the guy in the back. I don't know if he had missed the spot for 90 pitches in a row.
That's the unfortunate part of baseball. The part that I loved was, you know, he apologized, he felt bad about it for us, you know, and that shows you that it wasn't about him at the moment. It was about us. He knew what it meant. And, you know, one bad pitch, and unfortunately, we know one bad pitch against a team like that and one not made play, and suddenly we're on the wrong side of a 5, 4 game instead of the right side of a 5, 4 game.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: What game is this for y'all?
[00:23:25] Speaker F: It's 10, I think 10. So we've actually squeezed in a lot, considering we're from the Northeast. What we did is we played five in Florida, we played three up north, and then we played two back down here. So we've only. We have. We've played one home game. We haven't seen our field yet. You know, the weather. And we do have turf, so we have a little, you know, we get on the field no excuses, but we're not on the field a ton. And so for this to be game 10, it's nice that we've got 10 in, but we're still getting our footing, you know, And I think that's not an excuse. It is part of who we are. And we're still figuring things out. We rolled out a lot of young guys in our lineup today. Just trying to. Again, we're still figuring pieces out, and unfortunately, like I said, we don't have 162 games to figure it out, so we better figure it out fast.
But, yeah, it's game 10 and, you know, we'll play two more and then we go home and it's a sprint. It's not a marathon for us.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Do you have any tips for being inside for coaches that have to deal with the weather?
[00:24:18] Speaker F: Move south. That's the best tip I got. My wife hasn't bought into that one yet.
Best tip is just buy in, buy in. Make every. You gotta bring your energy every day. Understand that? Yes, we get, you know, we swing the bat, we throw the bullpens, we train, we run. It's hard. You gotta just sell buy in. I give our kids credit. They buy into it. They. The winters get long. The winters get long. No doubt.
You're limited in what you can do. You don't get field space. We don't have fall season. You know, we're not even allowed in our school. So we don't get to work out the kids kinks in the fall either. So it's like I said, it's a sprint. So day one of practice has to be, let's get rolling. So the advice is, you don't make the excuse you have to find a way and a Reason to understand, you're indoors, you're in the northeast, and whatever you can do, make the best of those opportunities. That's the message. And don't get me wrong, when it's dark at 4:30 in the afternoon, we're inside, we question, we look around at the sanity, but it's if you got the right group of kids, you find your way to continue to get your work in.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Do you feel like it helps your guys fundamentally though, because you are inside, it allows you to maybe work on some of the fundamentals more. Because you are inside, it does.
[00:25:25] Speaker F: What it doesn't do is get us enough reps. That's the tricky part, right? So I think fundamentally, yes, but I think you're limiting your reps. So we'll get on the field and we'll work, hey, we gotta get a bunt defense and we got, you know, we talk about it, we chalkboard the whole thing, but now we gotta actually move and we gotta get it on the field and that's where we don't get it. And then the fact of the matter is then sometimes, oh shoot, we didn't get enough ground balls today, right? So like our reads off the bat don't show up until, you know, the beginning of March before we see a ball. Live off of that, you know, for someone swinging it. So you're always playing a little catch up. But that's a northeast thing. It's, that's not changing, right? Global warming is enough to change that. I promise you. We're still going to fight it. Yes, there's certain pieces you take advantage of, but just, just the actual reps piece, sometimes we feel like we're limited. We try to squeeze the reps in, but they're hard to come by. Todd.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: No doubt also an advantage of playing this type of competition though, because when you do get in league, when you look at the history of how many consecutive Ivy League titles you guys have won, it does show out that, okay, when you get back home and you're playing more home games, it helps you guys that way.
[00:26:20] Speaker F: I'm going to say two things. One, we've actually broke, not broke. We've become an independent for the last two years because our league has kind of dropped, unfortunately, just, you know, nature of New York City baseball. So what we did is we challenged ourselves. We made an independent schedule this year. So we opened up playing IMG's tournament down there, played five down in Florida. We came home, we played, you know, the team that won the Catholic League last day at St Anthony's we came out on top, played St Joe's by sea, who was winning the Final Four in New York City. Went out to Dalbarten in Jersey. It was very quality. Unfortunately, again, found a way to lose. Nine, eight, just. That's where we are right now. Again, find a footing. But we're doing this. I can and I'll make my promise now, you know, it's when we go home and we get to play some games at home on our turf, at our field, with our cold weather and our wind blowing in, we're going to be better. We. We're going to win baseball games because of all this is all. Why when we get home, I'm confident this turns around very quickly when we get home. We just. We got to find a way for two days before we get home to make this work, though.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: How long have you run the Premier Baseball Performance Center?
[00:27:12] Speaker F: So that's unfortunately. And I hate talking about COVID anything but. But I will say we did close it. I closed it down because of. Sorry, New York. Don't be sorry, please. It's probably the best thing in the world. My wife's the happiest woman in the world, so I did her a favor at the end of the day. But that closed down just again, New York City World shut down. You know, at the end of the day, a good buddy of mine who I was doing with, he's got a good expression. He's a businessman. I'm a baseball coach. I stay in the third base. He knows business. He said, don't catch a falling knife. It was a falling knife. You don't do any good with that. So it was fun. It was good. It was a pretty cool place. But truth be told, my focus is I teach in school, I work in school, I went to school. 21 years later, I'm better served being where I am and focusing on this and not trying to spread myself in and try to do that. To be honest with you.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: I read one of your hobbies is cooking.
[00:27:56] Speaker F: Love to cook.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: What do you love about cooking?
[00:27:58] Speaker F: I'll tell you. So I learned.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: Our family's a cooking family.
[00:28:01] Speaker F: So I'm an old. Like, my grandma's old Italian. She passed away. But, you know, I was raised by my grandparents, an old Italian grandmother and. So what do you learn? You learn how to cook? At my house, we eat well, our coaching staff, if you look at us, everyone's got a vowel at the end of their name. It's in our blood, right? So love to cook. I mean, again, Sunday for me is Wake up. Pots and pans start before I run over to church. We start dinner on a Sunday morning for home. You know, as we said, the gravy gets started early Sunday morning. The chicken cutlets get fried later in the day.
To me, that's heaven. You know, even my daughter who's graduating college was here. I think she wrote one of her college essays on how to make pasta violi, you know, so that's just who we are. And I think that's in the blood of New York City and Brooklyn.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: What are some final shout outs before I let you go?
[00:28:43] Speaker F: Any shout out. Listen, USA Baseball, thank you for inviting us, you know, having us here. It's an honor, you know, right now, obviously we'd like to win a few, you know, win our last two games, but it's an honor to be around this type of town, you know, just the way they treat us, you know, first class organization, the abca. I've been, you know, been a member for years. I love going down to the conference. I love being around other baseball guys, even being here. The summer guys, the team elite, close with you here, you see all the familiar faces and you walk off the field and you're disappointed, right? But then you see some of those faces and, you know, you hate to say it. Us coaches love to commiserate. We all have the same war stories and stuff. So my shout out to USA Baseball for the invitation, ABCA for being part of a great organization, getting down to the conferences, the game, baseball.
I love it. I hate it. I'm not gonna lie. There's days I want to tell you I hate it and I want to go back to my football roots, but I love it. I love it. I love being around the kids. I love to coach. I love the energy, you know, it's one of those things. I wouldn't trade it for the world if, if this is my worst day. I'm doing pretty good.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Thanks for your time.
[00:29:39] Speaker F: I appreciate it. Thank you.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: All right here with Rod Whitesole, Holly Springs. Got a chance to see you guys. First weekend out of the shoot this year and now I got a chance to watch yesterday, but. What'd you talk to the guys yesterday after the game?
[00:29:54] Speaker G: Just saying kind of gotta flush it, move on. We had, I'd say we kind of got a slow start and had a really bad, like five minute stretch of the third inning and it kind of, kind of snowballed and after that we played pretty well. Ski is kind of just move on, flush it and don't let those, you know, the atmosphere and all that get the best of you. Just go out and play baseball today.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: It's part of playing a good challenging schedule too, though, because you're going to learn a lot about your team. May not always be great sometimes, but you are going to get better because of it.
[00:30:26] Speaker G: Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think just going back, it goes back we talked a lot about, like yesterday we made a mistake. We had a guy picked off and should have been out 2. Then the next guy rolls over 1, should have been out 3. And then we kind of let one mistake turn into two and just kind of learning from those things and how to kind of don't let two mistakes turn into or one mistake turn into two or even three and get out of it. So just it's a learning process and we will get better as we go.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: How great an experience is this for you, being so close?
[00:30:56] Speaker G: It's awesome. It's awesome just to see all these teams and different coaches I've been able to meet throughout this. And it's just a really cool experience just to see baseball from all around the country that's played. It's awesome.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: How great is high school in north baseball?
[00:31:12] Speaker G: I mean, I'd like to think North Carolina high school baseball is up there pretty well.
The arms in North Carolina I think are as good as pretty much anywhere.
So I'd like to put North Carolina in that conversation.
We can compete with anyone.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: I mean, all you have to do is look at how good the colleges are at every level in the state of North Carolina, too. And that's a credit to the high school coaches in North Carolina that are getting players ready to go play in college.
[00:31:38] Speaker G: Yeah, I mean, I would agree with that. We've been fortunate to send kids to NC State.
Kakavit going to Carolina next year. We have a kitchen this at ecu. I mean, we've had players that played all over and like I said, to see the colleges have success, kind of like you said, it kind of says, hey, we're doing something right.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: Carlos Rodone, the best to ever come.
[00:31:58] Speaker G: Out of Holly Springs. He's the best ever to come out of Holly Springs still.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: So, yeah, I was at that World Series for NC State when he threw on short rest. That was one of the most impressive college outings I've ever seen at the World Series that year with him.
[00:32:11] Speaker G: Yeah, I mean, in high school he was incredible. Just he's a competitor as much as anything. And watching him every day in high school go about his business was pretty awesome.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Is he that Big. In high school, he.
[00:32:21] Speaker G: He was pretty big. I don't know if he was as big.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: Some of the biggest legs I've ever seen on a pitch.
[00:32:24] Speaker G: You know, his legs have always been big, but yeah, he's gotten a little bigger, but yeah, he's always been a big boy.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: 20 plus years A.D. baseball coach.
[00:32:32] Speaker G: Correct. So nine is 80 and then. Yeah, his 23rd is baseball coach. 19th is Holly Springs.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: How's it been balancing A.D. and baseball coaching?
[00:32:41] Speaker G: It's difficult. I have to have a lot of good help with coverage of games and stuff. But I have a great support system at the school. Great support system, my family. So we make it work. There's days where it's like, this is crazy. And most days I feel like I can make it work.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: How often do you meet with your other head coaches in the athletic department?
[00:32:59] Speaker G: Typically, I mean, I meet most of them almost every day. I have an open door policy. They come by, come see me. So not always formal conversations, but sometimes it's just informal. Hey, how was last night? What do you need, et cetera. So try to do that pretty much daily, at least a phone call or see them.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Was the planning any different for this? Setting your pitching up, you're playing four days in a row. Was it any different trying to set up the pitching for this?
[00:33:22] Speaker G: It is a little bit different. Then I think you have to make a little different decisions like when to pull people. If you've kind of brought a guy for the tournament, do you kind of stick with him a little longer than maybe you should? So I think that's, that's the stuff you just gotta figure out and balance.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: What are you trying to get done today?
[00:33:37] Speaker G: Do what now?
[00:33:38] Speaker A: What are you trying to get accomplished today?
[00:33:39] Speaker G: We're trying to get a win, number one. But I'd like to see us come out and compete right away.
Like to see some better at bats. Zeza is going to throw strikes for us and I think we'll play good defense. We're going to see some good at bats and let's go out and compete.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go to work?
[00:33:55] Speaker G: I mean, I don't know. I'll give a shout out to everybody in our area that helped prepare us such good baseball in our conference and in our Raleigh area. So shout out to all of them for helping prepare us for this.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: Good luck today, coach.
[00:34:09] Speaker G: Thanks, man.
[00:34:11] Speaker B: Thanks again to all the coaches for taking time out to interview with me and USA Baseball for being a great host. I always look forward to this tournament every year and look forward to going back next year. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABC office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email or brownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram and TikTok coachboy ownerabca or direct message me via the MyABCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: Behind.
[00:34:54] Speaker C: Yep, Wait for another day.
[00:35:00] Speaker F: And.
[00:35:00] Speaker D: The world will always return as your.
[00:35:05] Speaker C: Life was never for yearning and you.
[00:35:09] Speaker D: Know that way.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: Wait for another.
[00:35:20] Speaker F: D.
