[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the ABCA's podcast. I'm your host Ryan Brownlee.
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This week on the ABCA podcast is ABCA Marines high school Division 2 assistant coach of the Year Louis Martinez. Martinez led Jesuit High School to a state championship this season, school's seventh overall and third since 20.
Jesuit is a perennial powerhouse in the state of Florida and on the national scene, playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. Martinez and Jesuit head coach Miguel Menendez were college teammates at the University of Tampa, winning a national championship in 1998. Martinez went on to play four seasons professionally before getting into teaching and coaching. Martinez oversees the hitters and infielders for Jesuit and teaches K through 8 at the Trinity School for Children. Get your pad and pen ready because we do a deep dive into the winning culture of Jesuit.
Welcome Louis Martinez to the podcast here with Louis Martinez, Assistant Jesuit High School in Florida but ABCA high school Division 2 assistant coach of the Year State title this year. I just read seventh in school history and then third since 2019, so congrats.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah, it's been a great run. Miguel does a great job here. Miguel Menendez and it's great to work for him. And we have a great time getting the kids ready. Yeah.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: And I want to give our high school committees a shout out because I think that they have the hardest job with the All America teams. And then the assistant coach and coaches of the years because there's so many names to. To go at ton of names.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: And we see. I mean, we see a ton of great players and coaches all around the. We play teams all over the country, and it's. The, the challenge is great. I know there's a ton of great players they have to choose from. It's not easy for sure.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Who do you feel like was the best team you guys saw this year?
[00:03:46] Speaker B: This year. IMG is always tough. I mean, they're loaded with talent. American Heritage, who we played in the, in the finals. They're. Every year, they're. They're awesome. And it's. It's great to play those teams.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: And you guys have a long history of alums. Lou Panella, I mean, you got a ton of big leagues.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Lou Panel, Al Lopez, we got. Lance McCullers is up there now. It's. There's a ton of guys in the minor leagues. Cannon, Manasse, Josh, Mallets, Bennett, Lee, they're all working their way up. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Do you guys have a feeder program?
[00:04:17] Speaker B: We don't. It's. We. A lot of. It's all over the area. Kids want to come play for Jesuit, and it's. It's a blessing for us, but it's from all over, really.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Hey, did you guys have to leave? Did you have to leave Florida with the Hurricanes?
[00:04:31] Speaker B: I didn't leave. I'm. Next time, I'm leaving. It was. It was. I'm out next time if it's category three or above. It was probably the scariest night I've ever had. Just. It came at night time. When it's dark, it's always the worst. You could hear trees falling all around and not knowing where they're at. But next time I'm out for sure.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: And you had. You'd never evacuated before?
[00:04:52] Speaker B: No. Never lost power for about a week. So that's. It's. I'm done. I'm telling you, next time I'm out.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: So how'd you get to Jesuit then?
[00:05:02] Speaker B: So what did I. I played high school college baseball with Miguel Menendez. We both came in as freshmen, played University of Tampa, became like brothers. He was coaching in Key west, wanted to get back up to Tampa, and he got the job at Jesuit. The athletic director here is Terry Rupp, which is our college coach. So it kind of like a little reunion. And Miguel said I wanted me to come along and help. And it's been great.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Because Joe Ursa and I talked about that a little bit because I think he had. Were you guys teammates with Joe?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: No. He's a little older than I am, but I know Joe very well. I know Joe very well.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Well, Terry was at Maryland when I was at James Madison.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: So I think Terry was great, great coach to go to Maryland. And so that was right around the time that I was.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: He did. He left, I think two, three years after I graduated from University of Tampa. I actually signed with Lalo Prado, though. And Laylo ended up going to Louisville.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: So I stayed home and played for Terry. It was great. Yeah.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: So, I mean, for you guys there is that the realistic expectations now that you're going to win a state championship every year?
[00:06:06] Speaker B: I mean, that's our goal. We actually want to win a national title. I mean, we, we schedule the best teams we can across the country just to get us ready for that playoff push. And it's. I mean, it's worked out tremendously. We've been there. This is my 11th year going. We've been to the state finals five times, won three, lost two. But it's our goal is always a national title and hopefully we can reach that.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: The COVID year. I think the COVID year we had a shot. I think we started off 9 0. And that team was really, really talented and it just got shut down, unfortunately. But we had a great team that year.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: Is mostly upper classmen for you. Are you messing with. With freshmen too?
[00:06:45] Speaker B: We mostly upperclassmen. We've had a couple freshmen in the past. Wilson Anderson played for us. He's great player. We got a couple sophomores mixed in there, but now mostly junior and seniors.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Mostly just baseball only for you guys.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: We encourage everything it is. We encourage them to play basketball, football. I mean, it's a total athlete. We want. We want to coach the total athlete. Obviously they're skilled in other areas and it's. But it's a lot of baseball focus once they get here. But we, we encourage other sports as well.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: How much are you able to do with them in the fall?
[00:07:20] Speaker B: We have a fall season. We, we get a couple. The colleges cut, run a couple tournaments. University Tampa has a tournament. Stan Leo has a tournament. Went Florida Southern this year. Get to play, play some games. We do some early morning work with them and practice once or twice a week. And then play a couple tournaments.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Strength and conditioning with them then too?
[00:07:38] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Miguel has them here early in the morning like they do Friday 6ams and we work through Diesel, Diesel strength and conditioning program. And they run the guys through the gauntlet. And it's great.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: When you say gauntlet, describe some of the stuff they're doing.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: They're doing bike stuff, ropes, a lot of weight training, conditioning, that type of thing. It's. They, they love it. They love it. I think.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: That for you, did you know you were going to get into coaching then when you were finished?
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Well, when I played with the Braves and my wife was a teacher and they needed a middle school baseball coach. And I'm like, ah, I'll think about it. But I love the game. I love, I love teaching. And I was like, let me try it. So I ended up taking a PE job at the school where she was at coaching the middle school baseball team. I coached that since 2000, 2004. I coached the middle school team. And then once Miguel came the Jesuit, I came over with the high school level with them.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: And you haven't done middle school since then?
[00:08:40] Speaker B: No, I stay away from that. Just I don't want any, any recruiting violation type thing. So I won't even go to their tryouts. I'm still at the school. I hear how good they're doing, but. But I stay away from it.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: What was your focus then with the middle school kids? Because we actually coach. We get a lot of questions on that with how to set up practice for that age group.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: I do for that age group. A lot of the team game. I feel at that age those kids run the big field now a lot. We see that a lot of the kids, right handers won't go opposite field because they get thrown out at first base. The field's so big. So it really, it's not about wins and losses at that level. It's about playing the game right, getting things done and learning team defenses. A lot of them haven't been through a team defense, bunt defense, first and thirds, pickoffs, base running. Base running is terrible at the middle school level. A lot of base running type stuff and just go from there. And each kid learns differently. So you got to learn how to work with each kid type thing. And not as a group so much, but individually at that level. What they need to get ready for the next level, high school and college.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: So you working on bunt defense, first and thirds, all that every day with them when with the middle school.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: In middle school, I Did. I did. They had no idea what to do. Just. And we may run it once a year, honestly, in the middle school level, but they need to know when they get to high school, it's going to be in there.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: Part of that, too. Getting them to handle the baseball then, too, right?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Yes, for sure. Catching, throwing. I mean, that type of stuff.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: I mean, who are some of your favorite coaches growing up?
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Growing up, Obviously my dad coached me Till I was 14, 15 years old. Then I played for the Legend. I don't know if you know Billy Reed. At Hillsborough High School, I played for Billy Reed and obviously Terry Rupp. And then when I was with the Braves, I had Brian Snicker. Was. Was one of my coaches. Loved him. He's with the big club now. He was my single A coach. Carlos Tosca, Randy Engel, those guys really taught me a lot. And I was an infielder. Working with Raphael Belliard was. Was probably where I learned a lot of my stuff. And children with.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: With playing for your dad, how did you guys handle some of that? As far as on field, off field, How'd you guys handle that?
[00:10:46] Speaker B: There were some. There were some turbulent moments when I thought I could coach the team better than him. When I was like 11 or 12, he didn't. It didn't go well.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: How was that conversation?
[00:10:56] Speaker B: But, yeah, I was, you better not do it again or you won't ever play.
And. And back then there was. Like, there wasn't. There might have been. I just didn't do lessons. There was no individual hitting coaches, pitching coaches. He taught me, so I had to go with him. Like, there was no going. This private instructions.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Do you feel like that's been good for the game now with private instruction?
[00:11:17] Speaker B: It's good. It's good. Like, all of our hitters have their guys they go to. We tinker a little bit with them little, little things, but it's hard if you're hearing something from one coach come to another. Here's something different. We don't want to mess them up too much, but it's good. It gets them out, gets them working.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that's the biggest benefit is they have a place to go and.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: They have a place. Yeah. And I mean, they. I'd say 100%, 95% of our team goes to somebody for something.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: How's that conversation go? If you see something where obviously they go to a trainer and so they're in a cage for the most part of it, but you see something that may help them compete a little bit better on the field, how do those conversations go?
[00:11:55] Speaker B: I just. I take a basic. I said, I know you're going to so and so or whatever. But what I'm seeing is this. When you go back to them, maybe, maybe ask them, coach, Coach Martinez says, I'm doing this. Do you see that as well? And if they see it, they see it. If not, they'll disagree with me. And it is what it is. It's fine. Not a big deal. I don't take it personally. I just little things to motivate each kid that's. I mean, you want to motivate them. If they're motivated, they're gonna play harder for you. That's how I look at it.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: What are some of the things that you and Miguel took from. From college to what you guys are doing now with Jesuit?
[00:12:28] Speaker B: We run our practice the exact same way as Terry Rupp ran it. We'll do our dynamic stretches before. At beginning, we'll stretch, throw, always do a team defense, go into individual defense, and then batting practice. We vary a little bit based on the day, but it's the state, the same practice schedule. He has it written on the wall the same way we had it in college, which it was good. We learned from Terry, and he did a great job with us.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: You feel like that gets your guys ready to go to the next level, then?
[00:12:57] Speaker B: It does. They're ready. We. I mean, I'd say we probably have 85 to 95% of our kids will play at the next level. And they. They come back and say, yeah, we prepared them, and that's our goal, is to get them ready for college.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Most of your guys stay in State.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: They. They bounce around. They like to stay at State. We've got guys committed to Duke, Mississippi State, some schools in North Carolina, like, they get around.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: That's part of being at a school like that, though. I think kids, private school, I think they're comfortable with going other places.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: They are. And the academic rigor here is so tough. That also prepares them when they get to college. The courses aren't as hard. They're hard, but their academics here are just as hard, and they're ready for that.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: How do you guys handle that in the spring with them? Because, I mean, with your schedule, you're all over the place a little bit. How do you handle academics with them?
[00:13:52] Speaker B: Academics, they. They'll come in when it's funny. We'll come in the locker room and I'll walk in and. And they'll have their iPads out doing homework, and I'm like I've never done that when I was in high school. It's great. They know they have to do that or they won't be eligible. They, they get it done and it's, they stay up late nights, give a credit to them. They, I hear them talk and they're up 11, 12 o'clock at night finishing assignments.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: What do you feel?
[00:14:14] Speaker B: It's a little easier. They had electronics now. I mean it's, they could do it on the bus. It's that type of thing.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: It helps out for good and bad. Electronics?
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Hell yeah, for sure.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: And I've asked this to a couple of the other assistants. Do you feel like social media has been good for baseball players or not?
[00:14:28] Speaker B: I think it's good in the fact they get noticed. It helps them get, get noticed by these coaches. They can go on, put video and it's to every coach in the country basically. Whereas if you're not on social media, they can get themselves in trouble on social media. But if they use it the right way, where they're getting their, their videos out and communication I think can help them.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: What do you feel like successful teams do that unsuccessful teams don't do?
[00:14:52] Speaker B: I think it's the culture, the culture of the team. There's teams we play that are probably more talented than us, but we feel like we have the advantage on them just because of their culture. Miguel does, he does a book club, he does book clubs with the captains. He does a lot of the John Gordon books. He'll be at the convention. We're excited.
He does every Monday night. We'll have a speaker before practice. Doesn't have to be baseball. We've had Army Rangers in, we've had scouts, we've had umpires come talk to the kids, 30, 40 minutes. Just a whole, the whole child, the whole athlete, not just the baseball side. Get them prepared and try to build some team chemistry.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Do you feel like that's where it's headed now is the, the holistic approach to coaching players?
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Absolutely. Because I mean like I heard, I said earlier that each kid learns differently. Some kids you have to, to get with them and talk about other things in life besides baseball. They need, maybe they have an issue in math. Talk to them about that, talk to them about football, other sports going on and, and they just need. It's. If it's baseball, baseball, baseball, they're gonna get burned. So it's. Talk to about whatever you can, life in general and help them and through life. They're these age. We got 14 year olds till 19 year olds. They're molding into being a young adult and that's what our job is.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: You mentioned Raphael Bellard and what were some of the things that he worked with you on that maybe you hadn't worked on before?
[00:16:16] Speaker B: Oh, he was great. He, he. It was a little tough to understand his, his accent, but he, he was. Double plays turned double. I was in a field or double plays, just foot placement. Where do we see the ball? Double plays hands to get just different things that we'd go out there when it was rookie ball. 7:00am in the morning, he's out there with us hitting. Fun goes just, just running us through the infield. Infield drills. Something different every day.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: How much are you spending time with your high school guys on double play turns?
[00:16:45] Speaker B: We do it. I mean we do it a lot. I like to do is like during bp, I like to take groups out the corner and work on different drills out there. I'll put some throw down bases out there. One of the groups is hitting and just work on. We'll call them Aussie drills. On their knees, we use a, we use like tennis balls, little Wiffle balls for the short hop drills. Then we go to the baseball and then we'll, we'll put a little play. We'll put throw down bases, work on turns, work on feeds. I think it's big. I mean it's. If you can turn two outs on one play, it's, it's big for the pitcher.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: You, you having your second baseman start with their left foot on the back.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Always left foot.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: That's always left foot twice. We start with the little guys.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Left foot.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: And if we, we will read it. If it's like a slow roller to third or short, come across something hit hard, they have the ability to step back.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I always talk chest up to the baseball. Wherever the ball's coming from, they get your chest up to it.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: That's it. We were taught keep your thumbs together. That's what. Keep thumbs together as a package. And throw from different angles. I mean throw takes you here, throw from up here. If it's down, stay down low with it.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: He always said keep ball above transfer. Good. Yeah, that, that usually takes care of the arm angle itself. Keep ball above transfer.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: That's good stuff. That's good stuff. I can use that.
I can use that.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: Did you get any advice before you got into coaching?
[00:18:03] Speaker B: My father in law is a, as a scout scout with the Mets. I mean he talked to me about just how important it is for like I said the whole child, not just the baseball side of it, but really like focus on each kid individually, build a relationship with each kid not. And get to know them. And they're trying to know about their family and what they're going through because that every. Everybody's life is different. And you. I really like to know what's going on at home and just. I like to be there for them if I can.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Well, you got a lot of love on social media after you got this award though, by the way, man.
You could tell people that. That love you. Like.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Responses that were on social media after you won.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yeah. I mean our coaching staff here, we're a lot like brothers. We're all great friends. It's great to come here when you get along with everybody. The freshman coaches, the JV coaches, the varsity staff, the admins. Awesome.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: When you get to throwing, then all your infielders throw together.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: We, we're working on that. They like to throw with their friends, but I do like I like to. And footers throw together, like work on exchanges and that type of thing. Ralph are a little different but. But we, we're working on. A lot of them do throw together like we were in college. The pitchers were throwing the right field line, left in the position, players on left field line. And we're going, we're working on that. We're getting there.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: You have many dual players.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: We do this year. We have in the past. We have, we probably have three or four that will play two ways this year.
And you guys have, I mean they're all phenomenal athletes. We've had, I mean two or three. Yeah.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Mostly we have rumblings now from the Division 1 guys just with the, with them bringing their rosters down. I think they are gonna see it come back. And I, we always had the places that I was at Evansville, jmu, Iowa, Western Illinois. We always had two way players.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: Just because we kept our roster down. So I think you're gonna see, you're gonna see it come back now. They got to be good at it. It's really hard.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: To have a kid.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: And this year we do, we have, we have three or four real. Real. They'll play two ways in college. Yeah, they'll play two ways in college. We go with about 12 or 13 pos.
Which saves Jarman BP because they don't get to hit. But we, they do, we do get to hit off. It's a shutout. We'll have pitchers bp. So they're gone for that Shutout every game.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: I love pitchers bp.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's funny. They get. It's a good time. It's to see these swings when they were. They were all American hitters, 1112 years old. Now they count throwing BP and they can't even touch it. It's great.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Have you guys talked about how you're going to manage that during practice then with their workload?
[00:20:45] Speaker B: We've talked a little bit about it this year in the fall. It started with when I run our shortstops. He was getting the reps. He just wasn't throwing across the dime. He didn't pitch at all this fall but he wanted to obviously want to get ground balls and get the footwork right and reed hops but he would not throw across the diamond.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Will he be a starter for you guys or.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he's end up being a starter. Last year he was our back end guy but he's. He's so talented. He's probably going to be a starter this year.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: It's a little easier to manage workload if they are starter.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. We just had so much confidence in him at the back end. If it's tight game, you bring him in the fifth, sixth inning, we feel like the game was over.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: How long did it take him to get hot then in game?
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Not long.
He'd go down on the pen in between like after an inning or if there was a pitching a timeout, he'd throw on the side a little bit, get a few throws in the bullpen and he'd be ready to go 10, 15 pitches, I would guess.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a special arm that can do that.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Yeah, he's really talented.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Plus for kids like that because your better kids at the college level usually start. Sometimes those guys get on the field a little bit quicker on the mound because they've been used to. To relieving which. Which a lot of high school kids never had to do that before.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: No, he's. He could do anything. I mean he, he could do. If you need him to start, he'll start. If we need him to close out a game, he's going to close it out. But I think he'll probably start this year. That's the plan.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Do you like teaching at a different school?
[00:22:09] Speaker B: I do because I get different age, I get different age groups so I'll get, I'll get kindergarten kids who need help tying their shoes. It's a to eighth graders that, that think they know everything and I also coach a coach a middle school girls Basketball team in the off season. So that, that's making me lose my hair more than the baseball. It's, it's a treat though. It's, it's a good time.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Yeah. When developmentally when do you see that switch? It is seventh and eighth grade in it where they start to feel like.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: They got fifth to sixth and then like, like you seventh grades when they start you can really see a change and they're growing up and hopefully we've molded them into, to being good people and good citizens of the community. That's, that's the goal.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Kindergarten would have been my. If I had to do it at the, the K through 8. I would have stayed with the kindergartners.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Yeah, kindergartens tell you how they feel too. They, they had, they hold. I was tying one kid's shoe and he, I'm down underneath. He's like coach, I love your comb over. I'm like that's great.
They say whatever they feel they're going to say it.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: So you feel like that's your. Why then is really focusing on the whole person.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure, for sure. And our, the school I work at, it's, it's very hands on. Like you learn through hands on type things like you do and it's the whole child. I mean you gotta, you gotta mold the whole child to be good citizens and to be an asset to the community.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: You guys have any challenges then at Jesuit you kind of meet high school. What are your guys challenges?
[00:23:47] Speaker B: We have about 800, about 800 kids. So 800 boy, all boys school. And that's one of the challenges I'd say for some of them not having girls here. But it is staying on. I mean the academics is really, really tough. Like we have to stay on them on the academic side. That's probably the main challenge we face is just making sure the kids are getting the work done. Getting, getting here on time.
We have, they have mass that they can't miss on certain days. If they're late they can't play or practice. It's, it's a lot. It's. I mean it's. The academic side's a lot for them but they, they all get it done and they know it's going to help them in the long run.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: So when do you guys start practice then?
[00:24:24] Speaker B: The afternoons we start four o'clock is stretch. Some days we'll go. They get out at 2:43 on certain days. So we'll do a 3:30 stretch and go till about 6, 6:30.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: How long does it Take you to get from Trinity to jettison.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: It's like. It's like a three minute drive.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: It's like a three minute drive. One of the. One of the coaches I work with is one of the basketball coaches here. One of the. One of the kindergarten assistants is one of the assistant football coaches. So that's the kind of pipeline we have over, I guess, from. From Trinity coaching over to Jesuit.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: You all have to work on the field.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I'm the water guy. I water it for every game. I'm an infielder, so I know how I used to like it, and I get to try to get it right. We have a field guy that does the grass. He'll mow for us and fertilize, does a great job. But plate, mound, clay, we get all that ready and we stripe it. And game day, you get out there.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: Early in the morning and water.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: Sometimes if I like spring break, I will. Like on Saturdays, I'll come and water it. Especially, like during the season, I'll get over here and do it.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Because that's a fine line for you all with. With your material is getting it wet enough, but not too wet.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: It's. Yeah, it's. It gets tricky. It gets tricky. It's. By the third inning, I feel like it's a desert already. But it's. We're figuring it out. We're figuring it out.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Is this ultimately what you see yourself doing forever? Being assisted or you want to take over your own program at some point?
[00:25:50] Speaker B: I've actually had a few calls to come over and take over a program. But, I mean, I love being able to work at Trinity and come here and do what I can with Miguel and our coaching staff here. And Miguel's like my brother, and I love them and I love being around them. And it's just a great environment to be here. Who knows what the future holds? You never say never for anything, but I really, really enjoy where I'm at right now.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Do you feel like kids have changed over the years?
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Yes and no. I feel like our group of kids here is pretty. We get the same. Pretty much the same kid year out, year in, year out. If you're a Jesuit student, you're held to a certain standard, and if you're not, you won't be here long. They'll. They'll get you out of here. It's. If you don't meet their standards, and I love that. So basically, we get a lot of the same type kids.
You see it over. My son came here, my daughter Went to the sister cool. The sister school Academy of Holy Names and they're at Florida State now and they had a great education.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: What are the standards that Jesuits talks about?
[00:26:56] Speaker B: It's about obviously God first and they're held to a high standard just with their academics. They wear coat and ties.
Be prepared and know your role.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Do you have challenges then teaching wise with the schools you're at or do you have flexibility?
[00:27:21] Speaker B: I have flexibility. My Trinity administration is great too. They know we all coach here. If I have to go to a game they'll let me get out and leave a little bit early if I need to get over here. And it's my principal's son comes here and her husband was an alumni here. So it's been great.
What are my family's been great. My wife, she's my, we're empty nesters now. So my wife's like yeah, go do what you have to do. If you help the team it's. She's been great as well.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: What do you feel like does make a great assistant coach?
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Being there whenever he, whenever Miguel needs something, I'm there. If I gotta throw BP if he needs me doing the outfielders one day I'll do the outfielders. He I we do all kinds of advanced scouting teams. We're playing, we talk on the phone almost every night just about upcoming opponents who we're going to face. We try to get all information on them and use that to our advantage because our goal is to win a state title, national title every year. So we have to be prepared. And whatever he needs I'm going to.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: Do crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.
So as you get into then done with spring then what do you guys do in the summertime?
[00:28:32] Speaker B: In the summer everybody goes their own way basically. We do have all the 8th graders that are coming in. We have a freshman team for the summer and they will play a JV schedule. They get, they get their butts kicked a little bit. They're playing some older kids but, but we want them to get a taste of what our culture is like right from the start to see if you can handle it. We'll do that. Then we run a couple summer camps. We get about 150, 160 kids to those camps in the summer. We do two weeks of that and then we start back over in August.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: And you talked about and that's one of the focuses that we have here is trying to retain kids when they get to the big field. What are some of the other things you're doing with those young kids? To get them ready for the big field. Besides team defense, it's throwing pitchers.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: It's. I was opponent. I like, I used to play pony ball. I like that 13 and 14 year old. I like when they pitch at 54ft. The game was cleaner. What I'm seeing now is that first 13, 14 year old age in the big field. There's 30 walks, there's no defense being played. There's. The catchers aren't great. It's. I just feel like there's a lot to be, to be desired. So I really focus on not so much wins and losses, but trying to do the things right. Like if we have to play, we play a simulated game where I pitch just so the defense gets involved for practice. Obviously games you can't do that but, but even like if you go down to the seven, eight year old level, when this kids start pitching, we play games and they knew kids would pitch first two innings so their bottom players would bet first and second and third lineup. That way when the coach pitch started, their big dogs are up. I hated that. I hated that. I'm like let's mix up the. Anywhere they pitch. Like do the fourth and fifth where the kids pitch. That way you can't adjust your lineup. Everybody's got to face everybody. Maybe I may be wrong, but I just, I don't see, I don't see the quality of baseball that lower level like it used to be.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: And I agree with you on the 54ft. I think there needs to be more of an emphasis of transitioning with those intermediate bases and intermediate pitching.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: I love the 5480. It's, I mean it's better for the arms, better for base running. I don't know if you've seen some of these 13 year olds running 90 foot bases. It's.
You get thrown out from the outfield, which I hate that kid gets a nice hit, gets thrown out. And it's sad. I'm like you did your job. It is what, I mean it is what it is. Keep doing it.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: With the amount of technology that's out there now for kids, what have you guys had to adjust to over the years?
[00:31:06] Speaker B: There's your coach. There's so much we, we, we have so much advanced the analytics now with the spin rates. The exit vlogs is a huge thing now nowadays, which we actually, we like to do that stuff too just to see where kids are at, they're progressing and hitting ball square. We know when the ball's squared up but the spin rate thing's Huge. And we like to. We do get. We do put our machine. We set up our machine for certain spin rates. That way the kids can see it. What we're going to be seeing and I think that's actually helped us is using the machine. We've. We've talked to a few big league teams who. They said they. They use a lot of machine which we used to never use the machine. But we, we got, we got a couple machines out and we use it on the field now and we, we pump the velo up a little bit because we see a lot of velo and it's actually transitioned. It's translated into. In our performance.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: I think, I think it's interesting when you look at some of the numbers too. Exit velocity but also bat speed where it's not necessarily how much bat speed you have. I think some of that is sequencing things for guys is I think they use their body more efficiently. They get. They get better output on their exit velocity but their swing spread may not be as high as some other guys.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Right. And that's another thing going back to the, to the weight training. We'll do a lot of things baseball related. We're swinging and torque. Just trying to get that torque. So I think that's actually helped as well. Which we. When I, I mean when I played we didn't. It wasn't training like that. It was just bench press push ups. Now it's more I think baseball related type stuff which is great.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Anything you've changed your mind on over the years?
[00:32:42] Speaker B: I'm close to changing my mind on. Me and Miguel discuss this and our other coaches. The two strike approach which I'm a big two strike approach. Guy shorten up, get a base that's striking out now is okay. But I played. You're embarrassed to strike out. But it's, it's and some I. I do still like a two strike approach especially at the high school level because guy you put the ball in play. A lot of teams make mistakes. We always joke around that if we bonded for 27 straight outs we'd win the games because you can't. They can't handle the bunts. Like if we just put the ball in play you're going to win most of your games. But I do see the two strike approach in college and pro level guys don't make errors. You got to hit the ball hard. So I mean I'm close on that one. They might get me soon to do away with a two strike approach independent.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: I still think if runner at third Lesson two outs and it's a tight game late then. But, but you have to right safety squeezes in play. Like there's some other things you can do to score runs with. Maybe not right swing.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Yeah, and I'm also. There's. We've, we've always done contact play with one out at third. I think there's certain situations you don't always go to that with who's on deck and situational type things where I used to be sold. I went out contact play. We got a school, we got to go and contact. But there's, I think there's some, some, some truth into to seeing who's on deck, where you at in the lineup, that sort of thing. Yeah. So if you get thrown out at home, you got first for your number three hitter, what good is that? The two outs, what have been some, a couple things.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: What have been some of your characteristics of your favorite players you've coached over the years?
[00:34:23] Speaker B: I mean, first of all, attitude. I mean, if you can tell the kids that, that you can't tell if they're doing good, doing bad, if they've gotten four hits, if they went over four, that's what I love to see when the kids are even keel. Like if, if I know killing over four and he's still cleaning the dugout and picking up his teammates, I always tell them, look, these scouts, when they're here, you may go for four. But if, if your attitudes right, you're hustling, nobody knows about it. It's when you're pouting and this kid had a tough day. It's, it's all about the attitude.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: I mean, have they been. I, I think that's a characteristic of the better ones is they have a short memory for. Short memory for good and bad.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: For sure.
If you can make an error in the sixth inning, come in a seventh, get a base hit or strike out in the seventh, come out, make a great play in the bottom of the seventh to win the game.
We've had kids in the past that one at bat and they strike out their game. You could tell they're going to have a tough game.
It's not fun to deal with, but.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: It happens because there is pressure on you guys. How much time are you spending on peak performance?
[00:35:33] Speaker B: We, we really, we get into it. We hit with. We have sessions where we talk to the kids, we do different activities with them. We do.
Or one of our coaches did a thing last year or like for testing on paper testing, that sort of thing.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: And that's where The John Gordon stuff comes into though.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Last year actually did the hard hat.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: All that kind of is in the same vein. You know, maybe people don't consider that peak performance, but I still feel like book club and that stuff.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: Goes towards.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Well, last year the book we did was the hard hat book. And that was our theme all year. We had a hard hat in the dugout. We won the state title. Everybody got a hard hat at our. At our little banquet and had stickers on at state champions. But that was the theme last year, hard hat.
Who knows we'll pick this year. But. But he does a great job with that. Yeah.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: There's some art to picking that theme depending on your team. Every year's different. And trying to pick a theme for that team.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. I'm sure we'll talk about it usually on the convention time is when.
Yes, for sure. Love the convention.
[00:36:43] Speaker A: Do you have a fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back but. But looking back now helped you move forward?
[00:36:50] Speaker B: Like for me personally, like in playing.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Career or coaching, anything. It's wide open.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Well, playing career, when I shut it down, tore my knee, tore my acl. Actually it was the season had just ended. Came home playing in the church league softball game. Tore my ACL first game out. My son was born that week. I wasn't sure if I was going to retire, if I was going to keep playing.
So that kind of, that kind of put me. Put me down a little bit and I ended up retiring after that, which. Which it didn't.
Looking back, it was the best thing for my family. My son was just born. I was able to spend time with him coaching. I mean in the coaching. It's, it's. Honestly, it's been great at Jesuit. There hasn't been many instances where I wanted to leave or been depressed coming. It's. It's. I look forward to coming to the field every day.
The more, the more times I can get over here, the great, the better.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: Being an empty nester now is your routines. Have your routines or habits changed at all?
[00:37:52] Speaker B: It's morning. It's so quiet at the house now. The kids are home for Thanksgiving and it's loud on a regular night. I'll fall asleep just watching TV on my chair. Next thing I know it's like two in the morning. But now it's. I'm up. I can hear all the noise going on. It's, it's, it's fun though when they're home. It's great.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: And both are At Florida State.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: Both are at Florida State.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: How far apart in age are they?
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Son. My son is 22. My daughter's 19. One's a senior, he's a senior, she's a sophomore.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: Yeah, we have the same.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: So he, he might be back home. He might be back home with me for a little bit after he graduates. We'll see. We'll see what job he gets, where it's at, but it's got limited time before you got to find something.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: You're still parenting them, though. Like, that's the thing. I think you, as your kids get older, you're still trying to parent them.
[00:38:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And they, and they. I talk to both of them almost every day. The. We talk every day and, and they tell me about their classes and, and they're. They got boyfriend. My daughter's got a boyfriend, my son has a girlfriend. And, and they talk about that. They. They'll tell us everything. It's great. It's. No secrets. No secrets with them. And it's just been a blessing.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that's the cool thing is you get to do adult things with them now.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And it's. When we're in Tallahassee, we have a good time. We visit and go to the football games, which has been tough this year, but. But we have a good time hanging out with them. And it's. It's great.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: What others.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: I'll be happy not pay for the apartments, though. Next year, once he moves back, I get a break on one of the apartments.
[00:39:23] Speaker A: What are some other resources you dive into that you feel like help? You could be teaching, could be coaching.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: I, I mean, I'm on. I look at all these videos. Trent Mongero does a great job with the infield stuff. The, the, the. I'm on Tick Tock, but my Tick Tock is a lot of baseball. That's all the baseball feeds. I've learned so much from, from just watching and listening to the, to the infielder, infielding coaches speak on that and different drills that I incorporate with our practice. And you have to be able to learn at this age. Stop still learning. And I, I can dive onto X or tick tock and YouTube and all the podcasts and just to, just to gain knowledge from all these other coaches. It's. That's one of the great things about the convention. Listening to the clinic speakers is awesome. But also talking, just talking to the other coaches. What do you do at practice? What do you guys do? And learning from your peers. It's. It Helps out tremendously.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: I think Tick Tock's been a good addition, actually.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Yeah. For the baseball portion. Yes, for sure. It's.
I use. I mean there's so many good videos on that.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: And they're just, they're quick. It's two years, maybe a minute now.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: I, I didn't, I, I was hesitant to start it and then when I got into it I was like, yep, this is, this is the next and we shiny thing that's going to come down the pike for.
[00:40:39] Speaker B: We have our coaches thread. We have our coaches thread here and we'll send a video on TikTok and it could be a drill that we want to have saved on our thread. We can go back to it. We have probably a library of stuff where you want to see a certain drill. We'll just go watch the video again and run it.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: Do you have a favorite ABCA convention story?
[00:41:00] Speaker B: I've been to so many trying to think of all the speakers we've listened to. We really, really enjoy the, the networking. I mean it's going to the dinner with the guys going, I love the expos, the trade expos and talking to those guys and all the new gadgets they're selling and just hanging out. I mean I've seen so many speakers. I've learned so much from them.
Andy Stankowich just taught so much. Just the juco coaches. I, I like to pop into the, to the youth clinics for the travel ball just to hear what's going on there and the hot stove, the panels and just we have a great time.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: How do you know when you're going to add new stuff in? I mean, you're going to get. You drink from the fire hose at the convention. How do you know when you're going to, when you're going to implement something maybe right away or you're going to wait and hold off.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: I'll see what like I'll, I. The drills I do. I love the drills we do now. And, and once it gets stale, I know you can tell once you do something too many times, it gets stale. I'll mix in something new. And then some kids like some kids. Every kid doesn't learn from the same drill. So I may see I saw this at the convention. Let's work on this with him today only. See how it goes and, and go from there. If it's, if it's successful, will bring the rest of the infielders in. But every kid needs different things.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I just, I think that's the art of the coaching piece of it. Figuring out what works.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Players, when everything, it's. I mean, player A, different player B from player C. You just got to try to get them confident. A lot of it's confidence. If they believe they're going to make plays, they're going to make plays.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Coaching first base.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: I do, I coach first base.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: Coaches third.
[00:42:40] Speaker B: No, he actually. Tim Knowles coaches third. Miguel. Miguel likes to manage like Tim runs the offense at third. I'll coach first. Miguel could talk to the hitters in between that bats, that sort of thing. We have Ryan Stanley, Mike Swenson, our pitching coach, Daniel Gibson's in there and they, they're working with the hitters, seeing what they see. If we can find something that he's tipping, just different things we can do. And that's great to have them in there and let Tim just run the offense at third. Works out great for us.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: You guys still out of bases?
[00:43:09] Speaker B: We are. And we're going to try to steal more this year. We're putting in a. We're trying to implement a new system. We're going to try to take some bags and that's. We're going to try to run.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: You working on some of the hybrid stuff with leads?
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: It works.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: We're working on it. It does.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: It works. It's fun.
[00:43:26] Speaker B: We're going to try that. We're going to try some new things this year. We've learned a little bit from it, from the clinics.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: Got to be patient, though. I know live by the sword, die by the sword thing because I know the kids are going to get kicked off at times. So you just got. You got to be patient with it.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: As a coach, I'm sure we'll lose some, get some picked off, some thrown out stealing, but we're gonna, we're gonna be patient with it. We did it through the fall and we had some games. It was great. I mean, I think one game you stole 13 bags, which is a lot. It's a lot for us.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Love it. All right, what's some final thoughts before I let you go?
[00:43:57] Speaker B: I'm just. I want to thank ABCA and the Marine Corps. Just. This is. This is such a great honor. It's been. I've been so excited. I mean, I can't wait to get to the convention and I appreciate you having me on the podcast. I love listening, trying to learn. I want to learn every day. And if I can get 1% better every day, I mean, that's better for our team, I would think. And looking forward to. Will you be at the convention? I'm sure, yeah.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:23] Speaker B: Meeting you in person.
[00:44:24] Speaker A: Do all the hot stoves, run the youth stage, help with the high school, you travel, small college stuff. I got my hands in a little bit. Everything at the convention.
[00:44:32] Speaker B: All right, great. I'll make sure I come say hi and everybody.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: The youth stage.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: All right. Beautiful.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:44:39] Speaker B: I'll pop in there and listen. Thank you. I appreciate your time.
[00:44:42] Speaker A: Thank you.
You see why Jesuit has the type of success they have in talking to Coach Martinez. He has a tremendous feel for culture and coaching amateur players. Best elected Jesuit this spring as they go after another championship. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale, Matt west and Antonio Walker in the ABC office. For all the help on the podcast, feel free to reach out to me via email, rbrownleighbca.org Twitter, Instagram and TikTok CoachBCA or direct message me via the MyBC app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: And you know that way Yep Wait for another list and the world will always return and your love will never for your name and you know that Wait wait for another.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: D.
