Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host, ryan brownlee.
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Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you. Now on to the podcast.
I want to wish everyone safe travels the Convention this week. We will have our convention preview kicking off here this Wednesday.
Let's have a great week y'. All.
Kicking off Convention week is 2025 ABCA ATEC NJCA Division 2 Coach of the Year Pasco Hernando Head Coach Lyndon Coleman Coleman led the Bobcats their first ever NJCA championship this spring after taking over as head coach in 2019, Coleman named athletic Director in March. Following in the footsteps of PHSC legend Steve Winterling. Coleman also spent time as a player and assistant coach at PHSC during Coleman's tenure. PHSC has a 2019125 record overall and 125 and 75 record as head coach.
Coleman picked up his 100th win in just his third full season as head coach at Hillsborough Community College on March 7, 2022 with a 15. 3 win.
Coleman has five NJCA D2 region championships and five trips to the NJCA D2 SE District 10 tournament in North Carolina.
For the first six years of Coleman's coaching tenure, PHSC was not in the conference. In the first year of the Sun Lakes Conference, Coleman won the regular season conference championship. In 2019. As Coleman's first season as PHSC head coach, he led the Bobcats to a third place finish at the NJCA D2 World Series in Enid, Oklahoma.
For his accomplishment, Coleman was awarded Coach of the Year honors by the NJCA and the American Baseball Coaches association for the Southeast District. Let's welcome Lyndon Coleman to the podcast.
I here with Lyndon Coleman, ABCA Atech and JCA Division 2 coach of the Year. But Pasco, Hernando State, also an alum, but was an assistant there as well, but named athletic director in the spring. And thanks for jumping on with me.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Thank you. Appreciate it.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: How gratifying was it for you as a, as a Pasco alum winning it last year?
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Well, it's just one of those things you spend your entire life dreaming of.
You know, I got a little bit of taste of it in 2019 when we went there, to be honest with you, in 2019 we really didn't know what we were doing. We were just going out there because there was baseball games we played out there.
But yeah, I was very fortunate. Steve Wernerling went out there and who was my athletic director who was also the head coach at Pasco and then also started the program. He was my, my ad in, in 2019 and he went out there and I believe 2015. Is it 20 or that?
Yeah, 2014 they went out there, they got four. So he helped me out tremendously with going out there but it was still, you know, just managing coaching, being a first year head coach at the college level. I was in summer collegiate baseball for years. But you know colleges is a whole other animal.
But then going out there in this past year was, was, was awesome.
Just to see the kids faces and how they, the joy that they got. I mean it was a high that you can't get anywhere get anywhere else.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: How did you adjust the schedule having been out there in 2015? What, what were the differences for you then coming back to it? Because Enid's a different bracket, you know that we have with, with you guys at Enid, Grand Junction, Lewiston. There's some funky brackets. What did you adjust with the schedule for the guys to, to play a little bit better this time around?
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Well, I think the first time I went out there I felt like everything, we were rushed, so it was like everything was so tight with our, with our times and getting out there. And then all of a sudden, because we had to play, we had to play the first round, it was like, it was like you got out there, you went to the dinner, next day you played.
So this time I wanted to make sure that we have plenty of time.
So instead of leaving in the middle of the afternoon, we left really early in the morning and got out there before.
And then the other thing that I did was, is we didn't allow our guys to go to the games.
So our guys basically just hung out at the hotel. We spent a ton of time with our host family. We spent a ton of time doing things in Enid and around the surrounding area. But we, we. I didn't let my guys go out and just hang out at the ball field for, for all those days and watching all those other games. And I think that that helped out a lot with just being rested. And when they got to the field, they were, they were excited to be there and play.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Plus the weather can beat you up a little bit out there at times.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah, we were very fortunate.
You know, the first year we went out there in 2019, it was raining and it rained like the first two or three days. And you know, they were playing games and finishing games at 12:30, 1 o' clock in the morning, starting games at 8 o' clock the next day.
Guys were slipping on slide an outfield. But this last year, the weather absolutely beautiful. We didn't have one hiccup on the, on, on the timing, the weather schedule. You know, some games get pushed back just because scores get, get, you know, ran up a little bit. But the only raindrops we had in Enid when games were being played this year was the, when we were getting the final couple outs to win the national championship.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Did you feel like this team had a chance to do that coming out of last fall?
[00:07:55] Speaker B: You know, there's certain moments in time that things start to, you start to see some things that it's like, you know, we might have something special here, you know, but you also got to kind of take a step back too, because this is, this is baseball.
And in my personal opinion, the three previous years before, before I thought we heard good enough teams to compete for a national championship before and we, we couldn't get out of the state of Florida.
The one year FSCJ beat us and they went out and got third at Enid. And then the next two years, St. John's river beat us in the. In the state tournament, went out, got third at the, you know, the. The. The World Series.
And the crazy thing about that was, is we won the conference all three years, and we hosted the. The region tournament all three years and lost it all three years. So, you know, we. We did some special things in those years. You're like, yeah, this is the year, this is the year, this is the year. But then you don't have that big hit. You don't have that big strikeout. You make that air in the wrong spot. You know, the other team robs a home run, and you.
You just. You don't have the opportunity to be able to go to Enid. But there was a couple things that happened.
You know, one was an FSW has got an incredible baseball team down there in Fort Myers. And we showed up in the fall game early, and I think we put up 24 runs on them and 14 innings. Just showed up and just mashed.
And I was like, oh, these guys got a chance. Because, you know, FSW arms, they're. They're no joke. They're 1994 up to five sixes and sevens one after another. And, you know, you know, that day I was like, man, we have, you know, 10 or 12 guys that can. That. That can catch up to a fastball.
But I'll tell you where, you know, the. The one thing that I think, personally that really set this team apart from a lot of other teams was when Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton came through. And I tell everybody this, and people just kind of look at me like, oh, this has nothing to do with baseball, but we were out for about two and a half, three weeks when those hurricanes came through. And this area was just absolutely devastated. I mean, we had five, six foot of water come off the coast and just wipe out home after home after home. On the other side of us, 19, and, you know, schools closed down for a little while, and when we did pick back up, we still weren't able to practice, but we as a team, and I couldn't make it voluntary.
I couldn't make it as a. As a school project. But I set it up because it was a local family in this area that got hit that was a alumni of one of our players. So there's a father of one of our players, and they got flooded out. And I just, literally just for a week, set up schedules and times, and I said, hey, here's a name. You can show up. If you don't want to show up, you don't have to show up. You don't have to show up.
But we spent 250 man hours in that house ripping up floorboards and drywall and gutting the house and doing all those sorts of things.
And we didn't have one person. Miss. Many guys spent more time in that house than what they were asked to spend in there.
And they just literally became extremely selfless in that moment. And when that stuff happens and it's not like it's, it's just, hey, eight or nine kids. Because I think every single one of us have eight or nine guys that would, would do that for anybody, right? It was the whole team. I mean, it was guys red shirting. It was guys that were potentially going to get cut, guys that, you know, we weren't able to make the baseball team. It was, it was, everybody was in there doing whatever they could to, to help out. We didn't have one person. Miss. We didn't have one person show up late. We didn't have one person complain. And it was awesome, awesome to see. And that's where that, like, selflessness comes, where, you know, the team starts to potentially come, come together.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: But, you know, that's just a Habitat for Humanity project every fall now.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I don't want a hurricane to come here again, but holy smokes, like, it was just where it became that, that bonding moment, you know. And in the spring, you know, we, we, we didn't start off that rock. We didn't start off that great. I think most people don't, don't, don't start off that great.
And then about mid year, you know, when I moved to a kid that's never played shortstop before, so actually, correction, he hadn't played shortstop since he was 12. I moved him to shortstop and that's when our, our season, season turned dramatically.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: How do you turn, how do you pull the trigger on that kid hasn't played since he's 12. But you know, it's probably the best thing for your team at that point. Did you just start throwing them out there with. Taking ground balls to see if he could do it?
[00:12:58] Speaker B: So we always take ground balls at shortstop.
All our players. If you're an infielder, you take ground balls at shortstop, you know, and the least amount of ground balls you take in our programs at second base.
So you're taking ground balls at shortstop, you're staking ground balls at third, you know, so I knew that there was something there. And he had, he had, he had an arc. And the guy that was there, he was an unbelievable Shortstop, he just wasn't hitting. And Grant Jordan, what was hitting, and he was making some plays at second, making some plays at third. And I just called him, I said, listen, you know, we. We just need a little bit more juice in the. In the lineup so I can add depth. And the only way to do that is to. To put you at. At short.
And I said. I asked him, I said, when's the last time that you played short? And he says, I haven't played short since I was 12, coach. And then he said, the reason why I knew he had a chance. He goes, but it's a. But it's a kid's game.
So I was like, okay, he's just going to go out and have fun. What's ironic about it is he made four errors at shortstop all year and ended up becoming the national defensive player of the Year after. After that.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: So, Mookie bets moment.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, we're.
I think a lot of people over compl.
Over complicate infield play, you know, so we keep it real simple here. You catch the ball, you set your feet, you know, and you throw the ball to third base. I don't think there's much of a difference between third base and shortstop. And, you know, second base is obviously a little bit different just because the distance of the. Of. Of. Of the throw. So.
But, yeah, I mean, when we made that decision, it was incredible because we, you know, we had one error at the catching position all year.
We had four errors at shortstop, five errors at second base, and we had one air at center. So we played 62 baseball games and made 11 errors up the middle. I think anybody that knows anything about baseball is probably gonna be like that. They have a pretty good baseball team, historically.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Your roster the same in the fall and the spring, or do you. You bring guys in at the break?
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Sometimes, yeah, we move some things around. I'm typically in the 33 to 36 range in the fall, and then we used to have a roster limit of 26 in the state, and then it got bumped to 28. Now it's at 30.
I don't even think I'm going to be able to roster 30 this year. I'm probably going to be in the 27, 28 range, but I bring anywhere between. I bring. I brought in anywhere between one guy in the.
In the. For the. At the end of the fall, into the spring, up to. Up to four.
So last year we brought in four. This year, we're.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: We're bringing in three really good Numbers offensively and on the mound too. Do you try to keep it simple there as well? Because I think people are over complicated and hitting and pitching now too. But do you keep it simple there too?
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So we don't have a batting cage here.
So I think that batting cages, in my personal opinion create this illusion that you are getting work in and hitting. Because it's like, oh, it's a little overcast, a little cold, or it's a little rainy today or the field's wet or whatever. You know, let's just go slot the guys in from one to two for, for cage. And you know, the guys go down there and you know they hit off the tee, they hit some front toss, they do some machine work, but you know it's like yeah, they swung the bats, but it's not to the level of what it takes to become a better hitter. So not having a batting cage at our place, I mean literally we have a single barrel, it's the net's got holes and I have caution tape around it so that people from the local community don't even come in to use it. But what it's forced to do is, you know, we have two turtles on the cage on, on the field. So we have a turf field and we have two turtles. We have, you know, four machines, we have two senior hacks, we have two junior hacks, we got two L screens, we got two pitchers ramps, we got all that stuff.
And what it does is, is it forces us to actually go out and hit on field.
And I think that there's so much more benefit to hitting on the field than, than hitting in a cage. Because you know, there's guys that, that, that, that do this all the time. They're like, hey coach, I smoked that ball in the cage or cage bombs or I hit the ball really hard and the next thing you know they come out on the field, it's just routine fly out to the center field, routine fly out to the left fielder. So we, we do our best to get anywhere between 40 and 60 swings on the field at every single day. So minimum five days a week, sometimes six days a week. As close to game like as possible to where those guys can see flight and ball flight and where it goes per week.
Whether that's off of a senior hack that's replicating a 92 mile par fastball or a junior hack that's moved in that's raised up, that you know, is replicating a right handed slider or a left handed slider, or there's A coach, you know, throwing live pitches in there to where it's simulated live game BP, you know, we're doing some sort of 40 to 50 to 60 swings with all our hitters between five and six times a week with some sort of variation with that right there on the, on the offensive side.
And then what. The final thing we add in there is competitiveness.
So we make some sort of game out of it.
We make some sort of point game. You know, there's winners to the winners because of spoils, they get to go home, the losers have to go run or do something else. And you know, if you show up to one of our batting practices, a lot of times there's a lot of people talking crap to each other.
There's some banter going on.
It's just not, hey, you know, hit your two backside singles and take a couple, hit a couple of ground balls and then the next guy's up. You know, there's, there's, there's cones out on the field, you know, telling guys where we want the ball to be hit. There's a single being hit up the middle and guys are getting excited and putting pressure on their teammates to perform.
So. And we kind of do a similar thing with the, with, with the pitchers.
Our pitchers get downhill four times a week off of a mountain. So I believe that there's throwing development where, you know, that's for the off season, that's for, you know, winter break, it's for summer break, it's for when you're not playing. So that's long tossing and going and stuff like that. We do not long toss in our program. We throw off the mound and you only have so many bullets a week. And I believe that, you know, if you're going to stand on the white line and throw it 300ft in the left center field and that guy that you're throwing it to is, can run 30ft and go catch it. I don't think you're working on accuracy that much and I don't think you're working on strike command that much. So, you know, we get our guys out to 120, 150, and they get their arms loose and then we stick them on the mound. And if they're going to throw 80% plus effort wise, it's going to be working off that rubber, working down that hill, and they're going to be working towards a catcher, whether that's a catcher that's in front of home plate or a catcher that's behind home plate, because it's A short box or a full bullpen or he's doing that to a hitter. That's, that's, that's in the box.
But you know when you're going to throw in our program and you're going to throw with effort, you're going to throw intent, there's going to be some sort of target you're, you're throwing to and I think that helps out our guys a lot. And just pure strike command.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: What are they doing on their non slope days?
So they're up those non slope days. What are they doing?
[00:20:55] Speaker B: So a typical, typical week is this, this is a quote unquote pitching development week. Like we're learning how to pitch is your Monday day is a prep day to get off the mound on Tuesday against a hitter. And a Monday prep day is, you know, you show up, you do all your prehab stretching.
We're huge in the flexibility. We spend a boatload of time on the pre side of, of arm care.
And then they go into bands, they go into plow care, some variation of plow care, which is driveline program. But we don't do the underload, overload stuff. And then they go throw to about 120ft and then they're, they're on a mound, you know, throwing you between 18 and 25, maybe up to 30 pitches depending on how they feel that day.
And then on a Tuesday, which is, that's a mid level throw day, then on Tuesday that's a high intent day where they're gonna blow it out that day they're gonna do the same thing that they did on Monday, but they're gonna add in, add in hitters and they're gonna throw anywhere between 15, 20 or 30 pitches to a hitter. Wednesday is a recovery day, that's active rest. So a recovery day is, is, is active rest, which all their prehab stuff, they're going through all their plow care stuff, they're going through all their bands. And then instead of getting off a mound and, and throwing to a catcher, they're just going to play light catch.
And then Tuesday they do Monday's program again and then Friday they do Tuesday's program again. So there's four days off the mound, two really heavy, two mid level, there's one active recovery day.
Saturday is supposed to be an active recovery day. I think most of our guys do it. I don't know if all our guys do. We don't have practice and then Sunday's an off day.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: So that's typically how it works for Us, we've had a lot of success with that.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: I'm with you. I think more time. I think the command piece is, you know, ours was a little different, but our starters got two bullpens in during the week and I just felt like it allowed them to throw more strikes.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: And kept them healthier too.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I think some of the issue with, with health is this and, and you know, if you're blowing out, if you got 20 arms and you got seven to eight guys hurt a year, maybe 10 guys hurt, you're doing something wrong. You know, in my personal opinion, I agree and I think most people will agree with that. Right.
Also, you know, when I talk to coaches that say, hey, we have had an arm injury in two or three years, I also think that that is a problem as well. And the reason for that is, is I don't think you're pushing your guys enough. You know, and there's a little bit of a risk and a reward to pitching development and velocity and all those sorts of things. And with that you do have to push your body to the point where it could potentially break down.
So, you know, we are a program that generally has one to three guys that are, you know, going through some sort of progression for Tommy John or whatever. We've been very fortunate. We haven't had any shoulder surgeries in years. And I think that, that, that is way out of the game for the most part. Just because, you know, back when I was growing up, it was. Everybody tore their labrum, everybody tore their rotator cuff.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: But a lot of the piece has gotten so much better on all that. I think that's where the plyo care balls. I think everything that, that players are doing now for the shoulder, I think that's alleviated a lot of those issues.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Well, I also think that the, the, some of the mechanical things that are being taught as well, you know, the inverted W was, was, was a Mark Pryor and Brandon Webb. You know, there was a lot of guys that did that and you know, the capsule tears, you don't hear that stuff anymore. And also when you start using the weighted balls, you know, you can't have a high elbow because the, the, the strength. You can't carry a 32 ounce ball in your arm with your elbow way above your head.
So you know, when you have a five ounce baseball in your hand and that's all you throw your entire life, you can have some, some, some poor mechanics there.
But when you put a 32 ounce ball in anybody's hand and you Say, hey, throw this. You know, you, you, you get your arm into a completely different spot. And I think that's a lot of the things that have changed. And it took, you know, years for that to happen. I mean, now we're into the point where, you know, when I first started coaching, you know, it was like, hey, weighted balls are a new thing. And, and the only people using weighted balls were the pro guys, and it was trickling down into some college guys.
Now the, the guy, every single guy that you recruit almost use weighted ball. So it's completely transformed the, the, the, the arm, the arm path and movement path of, of every recruit that you're getting in a, in, into college now. So, and with that, you know, we, you know, we have one to three guys. And our, on our World Series team last year, we threw five arms and that's all it took for us to win the national championship. And three of the five arms that we threw blew out the year before and had Tommy John, all three of them had Tommy John rehabbed them and brought him back and, and, and got them and they were all bigger, stronger, faster, they all threw harder, they all felt better, you know, and, and so the Coco Eaton over here in Tampa did all three of them. So thank you, Coco, for, for fixing.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Our three guys that was on our podcast this week was a return to throw protocol that, that Randy Sullivan and, and Alan Jager actually put together. Now does that adjust at all in the springtime? You know, with, with the four days off, off the mound, depending on your, your rotation, guys, you know, your schedule probably dictates that a little bit to be able to still do that, correct?
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So starters will be three times a week.
So they, they have their, they have their extended out start that they're going to have, you know, 80 to 110 pitches or whatever it is. But then in between that period of time, because we do active rest, right, we want to make sure that they are actively moving and actually throwing and actively lifting that. You know, they're still going to have a short box into a full pen, into their, into their.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: That's what I said. Our guys through two in the spring, they shoot three shortstop, short box, extended bullpen, and then they threw against somebody else.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't flag around here either. So I don't believe in the flat ground. Some guys will do some flat ground work a little bit, but I think that the biggest issues with flat ground is that you don't have the slope. And then also a lot of people do flat grounds wrong because the guy that's catching it, they're standing up. So when you throw a breaking ball in flat ground, your release points up here, but your release point needs to be out here to be able to throw it off of the mount at 60ft 6 inches. So you're actually practicing the wrong release.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Our flat ground guys had to get down.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And I see that, I see that happen all the time everywhere and I'm just like, yeah, no wonder why that that team doesn't throw good break them balls because they over there doing flat ground work and they're popping it up out of the hand and then we go out there pitch and every single one of their guys are just popping, breaking balls up out of their hand by their ear, not getting out front on top.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: Sometimes when we were stretching it out and on the pull downs coming back in, I would make the guy receiving to get down even though it's a further distance to force guys to get out through it. To force them to get through their throws.
[00:29:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the best time, that's the best time to practice a change in.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: It is, it is for anybody that's. That wants tips on change ups. It's long toss, change up grip or extend catchers too. Because you talked about moving the catcher back. I think moving the catcher back is a great time for, for catchers. So. And go ahead.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: 70 foot, 70 football pins.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: With change ups. And then just then. And you know the other thing people don't understand too, it's a great time for your catcher work on blocking.
You know, so we start, I start chewing, I start chewing on a lot of guys. Right. Right then and there. And it's like, hey, that's our, that's our, that's our. You complain about not getting blocking drills and all I said right. There's 22 blocking drills. We got 22 arms coming through and we're throwing all these balls in the dirt to keep it in front, buddy.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: You guys lift before or after practice?
[00:30:00] Speaker B: We, we lift on our own here.
So. And I, and I think that's the best way to do it.
And the reason why we do it this way is because of, it's a flexibility.
So I mean I was a guy that left love to lift it at 10 o' clock at night. I mean, I mean that was just me. It's just the way I did it. I go through my whole entire day. I knew what my day had to entail. You know, my, my coach ran me that day. He didn't run me that Day I had to run the bases, I had to steal.
Oh, we just showed him hit bp. You know, I had a good idea what we were doing. So I ate, I went to the gym, I lifted, I went home, I took a shower, I went to sleep and you know, by 12 o' clock I'm, I'm out, right?
But some people, I mean they love to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and go lift. I think those people are the craziest people in the world. But there's people that get massive in the weight room at 6 o'. Clock. There's people that get massive in the weight room right before practice. There's people that get massive in the weight room right after practice.
So we do guide our guys very heavily in the weight room of what they should be doing, how they should be doing. It's all completely different. We got guys on stretching programs that aren't even allowed to touch a dumbbell or weight right now just because if they did lift they would be too big and they wouldn't be flexible enough to be able to manipulate, move the baseball. So we back those guys off and they go on stretching program. You know, we have other guys that are on, on food programs that you know, they, they have to meet a certain number of calories each and every single day of certain types of food groups to be able to, you know, be even, even be able to be on the baseball field with us. Because if you don't get bigger and you don't get stronger, you're going to get hurt. So like you have to become more physical to become more durable to then therefore you know, allow us to, to be able to practice you. If I just let you come out here and practice and eat your Twinkies and O's and your fast food, you know, you're, you're, you're, you're, with my experience your arm's gonna get hurt. So you know, we have to change food, we have to change the, the way you sleep, we have to change the, the, the what you do in, in the weight room. And most of our guys lift in small groups anyways. So you know, and there's a crunch fitness. I don't know if you guys have more where you guys are at, but Crutch Fitness has multi million dollar gyms and we have one right by the apartment complex. So a lot of our guys stay at and they just walk right, right across the street.
You know, and I'm an athletic director. So you know, for us to build Crutch Fitness gym on college campus cost us like 7, 8 million dollars. So you know, for 9.99amonth, these guys can, can go get a multi million dollar weight room facility. Right, right there.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: So how are you assessing maybe who's, who's too mobile and needs more strength or guys that maybe are too bound up, that need more mobility?
[00:33:01] Speaker B: I think you see it in the way they move and I think that's just experience on, on, just on the field, you know, so, you know, just, just by watching them on the baseball field and running and whatever. And I say this to people all the time. I mean it's more, more. We run into this more with not the guys that need to gain weight and need to gain size. It's a lot of the guys that, that, that think the more they lift and the more they work out and the better they eat and the better they take care of themselves and they're that really good kid that's, you know, over analyzing, overdoing it, over training. Those are the kids that, it's like, hey listen, dude, you're, you're £215. You know, you're an extremely physical kid here and you're coming out here and you can't, you can't hit the baseball out of the ballpark, you know, and, and so, you know, it's like, how's that possible? You're 250. I got 192 pounder here that, that's hitting every other pitch out of the ballpark. You're 215 pounds and you can squat 500 and you can bench 280 and you do all these other sorts of things, but you can't even hit the ball at ballpark. I, I don't think the reason why you can't hit the ball farther is because you can't squat 550 or 600 pounds. You know, I think that there's another issue that you have and the reason why you can't hit the ball. Ballpark.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: You have your masters in sports psych. How much are you using that with, with your guys?
[00:34:37] Speaker B: All the time. They just don't know it.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: It's sprinkled in.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: Oh, it's, it's all the time. Yeah, they, these kids need a lot these days, so, and, and that every single one needs something different.
So they're, you're getting a whole nother slew of, of kids. You know, they just come from totally different backgrounds.
You know, I think that when I was growing up, you know, maybe when you were growing up was a little bit different. But you kind of cookie cutter a lot of stuff with a lot of, a lot of the guys just because a lot more people were raised similarly. You know, and today everybody's raised completely different. You know, some kids are still getting spanked and some kids aren't getting spanked. Some kids have never gotten told no. And some kids have been getting told no their, their, their entire life, you know, so. And, and you are a product of your environment. And whatever your environment was previously is what you're gonna, what you're gonna be. So. But the one thing is our standard never changes here. And I tell our guys from the first, first step, I don't care where you come from, I don't care what you do. We're all human beings, we'll make adjustments. The standard is going to be here and you're going to meet those expectations. If you don't, you're not going to make it here.
And when you start meeting those expectations, I don't care how good you are, I'm going to raise the bar a little bit higher.
So there's nobody in our program that has met my expectations because my expectations always keep raising on every single player.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: So your messaging didn't change at all with this group this fall, your new group?
[00:36:18] Speaker B: No, no.
So same thing, you know, show up and, and dominate each and every single day. So you know, you gotta get better every single day. And whatever happens in six months from now, you can't control it.
You can only control what you can do on, on this day. So you know, we don't talk about Enid, we don't talk about going out to Enid. Our guys last year, I'd say half of our team didn't even know where Enid was or whatnot. So. And we talked about the three previous years before. I mean our guys knew where Enid was at, they knew how to get there, what were, were doing and all that stuff. And I think that, you know, we were focused on something that was, you know, six weeks out and whatever and you know, you gotta, you gotta win, you gotta win today to be able to get to where you want to go, go tomorrow. So we start focusing on, on, on, on day to day things.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Plus Florida is so competitive. Like nothing every year is going to be a challenge to get through your, your schedule and then also to, to try to get there. I know there's auto bids now but, but your guys schedule is so hard.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: Well, we played 28 teams that were ranked and we would play 28 games.
So you know, we 52 and 10 or whatever the record was, but 28 of those games. But. And the other, what's funny about that is, is if you take the Division 1 teams that we played that weren't ranked and you just move them down to D2, every single one of those teams would have been ranked in division too. So you know, we're playing 35, 40, 40, you know, D2 quote unquote quality ranked nationally ranked baseball teams a year. So how do you. Very fortunate.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: How do you get your freshmen through that? They probably haven't played that type of schedule. I know they've played competitive travel ball and high school baseball, but not the type of schedule that you guys play. And you're going to get punched in the mouth sometimes. How do you, how do you get them ready for that?
[00:38:18] Speaker B: Well, the beautiful thing about the state of Florida is just the density of talent. And you know, you go to other states, there's, there's, there's, listen, there's other states and other regions of the country that, that can come down and they can beat teams in the state of Florida and you see that the national level all the time. But the difference is, is they got to drive 6, 8 hours, 10 hours to go play team as nationally competitive as them. You know, I drive 40, I drive an hour and a half and I can get to cf, I can get the Polk, I can get to State College of Florida, I can get to HCC and I can get to get to St. Pete.
CF's got a national championship. Polk's been out to Grand Junction. State College of Florida is arguably the winningest team in the state of Florida. With all the history between Tim Hill senior and Tim Hill Jr. Get HCCs won a national championship. They play at steinbrenner. You know, Saint Pete for, for 20 years under Dave Pano was arguably one of the best teams in the entire country. And we're just talking about junior college, you know, we're not even talking about the University of Tampa. That's a D2 program just down the road that just won their 10th national championship in ninth under Joe Erso that either he was a player or head coach of. And then you got Southeastern, which is an AI program that's got couple national championships. Weber and this is all within an hour and a half of my college, you know, and that doesn't include that. We got Tampa Jesuit, we got, that's high school program here. Then we got, you know, Calvary Christian and we got some of the best high school baseball programs like Plant and Steinbrenner and Sickles and East Lake and you have land o Lakes and you got Mitchell High School and all that stuff.
So it's just the density of talent. I think our guys, it's a little bit easier of a transition for them just because they're so used to just. It's more natural for them to play that, play that level.
But yeah, it's a grind for the freshman. But I think that most importantly, you make the fall so, so hard that, that they like leave the fall and they're just like exhausted that they over break, get some rest and they re energize and the spring is easier than the fall.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: With the transfer portal on nil now, is that an advantage for y' all down there with junior college? Because Maybe the Division 1 rosters especially have gotten older.
Is that an advantage for y' all from a recruiting standpoint?
[00:41:03] Speaker B: Here's my answer on the transfer portal.
The transfer portal really hasn't changed much for junior college.
It's changed a lot for the four year schools because the four year schools had a lot more restrictions on what they could and couldn't do.
So but now, you know, you can, you can play at four different division ones and four different years and you can take four different nil deals and you can leverage that and you can go from one program, program, program, and then you can go play professional baseball after four years. Well, technically, you could have done that if you started in Junior College 20 years ago. You could have went to St. Pete, then you could have went to Pasco, and then you could have went to, you know, university, you know, and moved around in that way. So from the junior college standpoint, you know, the transfer portal, 15, 20 years ago, it was a, it was, it was, it was a cell phone, you know. Now it's, you know, populates on, on, on the interwebs, whether somebody's gotten in or not. But most of the deals that are done are done before they even hit the transfer, hit the transfer portal. So by the time they're in the transfer portal, I almost guarantee it, it's too late. Because our rules in junior college do not overlap the NCAA rules. So you don't technically have to go into the transfer portal in NCAA to go junior college. So that day that you decide not to go back to the school, well, technically you don't have to anyways, but out of respect, the correct way is talk to your coach, say you want to transfer, and then from there you don't technically have to be in the NCAA a Portal to go, to go to go Junior college.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: We're trying to get some of that streamlined for y'. All. Actually, we're trying to. But yeah, I mean, what's the benefit been with coach Winter Lang along the way? I mean, he pretty much played for him, were an assistant with him, then took over and then now in the AD spot. I mean, how, what of a kind of benefit is that for you to have some that's been in your shoes?
[00:43:07] Speaker B: Well, the history that he has is incredible. You know, the people that he knows just, you know, a lot of times I call him and it's like, hey, where do I find this? Where's this at? Where's that at? Where's this?
He makes things, he cuts through the red tape on that. And what it's really done for our program with baseball is, you know, we have all our stats, we have every, I think we have almost every pitch that's been thrown in our program. We have every player that's been on our program, you know, so that history is, is, is not lost here.
And that's one thing that I got with our new basketball coach. The other day with a meeting, I was like, hey, like, we got to get with our old basketball coach, we got to get with Steve. We got to get with all these guys that have been here forever because we got to make sure that all the sports have this stuff archived here just because, you know, a lot of the four year schools and whatnot that are big universities, they had sids, they had ads, they had all these managers, they had all these types of people. But a lot of that stuff here, our school was, was done through the coaching staff. So the coach did a good job with it. You got it. If the coach didn't do a good job with it, you didn't have it. But you know, Steve is incredible with NGACA rules. He's incredible with eligibility, he's incredible with. He was, he was stats. You know, he ran the stats in the state for back in the day when, you know, you didn't have the presto. So everybody will call him and say, hey, you know, score was 4 to 3. You know, we beat this person, whatever, whatever, whatever.
And he'd sit in his computer over there and I honestly don't know how, I don't know how people coach baseball 30 years ago. I mean, I've started just recently. We've always had cell phones, but with landlines and you guys are sending memorandums around campus and not knowing where to go and how to get to South Florida. State College and driving here and there, traffic. Oh, I, I don't know how baseball was played 35 years ago. I would, I would love to just transport myself, you know, 35, 40 years ago in, in the late 80s and just figure out how, how did you get umpires to, to the field? How did you know if they're going to be on time or not? You know, did they show? Did they not show? Who were you getting? How did you assign them? I mean there's a million things that, that those guys did, you know, 30, 35 years ago. It just, it just blows my mind that they got done.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: And is that your vision as an athletic director, kind of trying to build a culture for all the teams now like you did with baseball?
[00:45:37] Speaker B: Yeah, we have, we have extremely competitive sports here. We have softball, we have volleyball, we have basketball and men's, women's cross country and we just started soccer a couple years ago. Our, our volleyball team has been, been phenomenal for years. They've won a National Championship 2010.
Our men's women's cross country team has been nationally ranked every single year that they've been in the, in the state. Our softball program's been the World Series a couple times.
So, you know, like anything, right, you know, we're in a population of a service district of about 1.3 million people.
We're very fortunate that we're still work as a two year school on the athletic side. But we have, you know, almost 13,000 students. We have 4,000, you know, our sort of students that are in an AA program.
You know, we have AS programs, we have the police academy, we've got the fire academies, we got the welding academy, we got electrical, we have nursing, we have dental, we have all these programs and we also have four year business programs too. So you know, with those four year business programs, if someone, you know that say at a community college is running out of classes at that school and he can't use his eligibility because running out of classes at Pasco.
If you want to study business, I can throw you in a four year business program and you're still eligible at the detail level. So which is, which is very fortunate for all our sports.
And you know, we're no longer a community college, we're a state college and allows us to draw from a big area and we, we, we really dive into the, the local area and many of our student athletes are local.
And so I, I take a lot of pride in that, you know, as an athletic director and as a baseball coach, just making sure that you're taking care of your service district, that, that the school is, you know, supposed to be helping out, you know. And in 23, we played a weekend series and I wrote the final game of the lineup. We had the number one ranked offense in the entire country.
We had seven players and our starting pitcher and we won the. We swept the weekend. We scored like 40 some runs and gave up less than 10.
And seven of our players slept in their own bed that night with their parents and the starting pitcher slept in his own bed that he graduated in high school with and with his, with his parents.
And you know, we were ranked down on seventh, eighth in the country and we were had the number one offense in the country based upon on numbers and we were, it was players from the high schools right down the road. I take a lot of pride and pride in that.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: Did you have to adjust your baseball responsibilities at all with taking over as athletic director with your staff? I mean with the baseball, the assistance did you have?
[00:48:45] Speaker B: Well, I'm very fortunate. I have a grounds guy.
Yeah, I have a grounds guy that takes care of the grounds.
So, you know, when I first became the coach here, I had to. Steve took care of the grounds. So, you know, he was out there mowing and edging and doing all that type of stuff. But we were able to get it to a point where it's like, hey, if I'm mowing and weed eating and edging 20 hours a week, am I really helping the student athletes here at the college? And they're like, no. So we're very fortunate we got that position. And I'm also very fortunate that Braden lineman's here.
He was on my 2019 World Series team. He worked grounds for me for, for a year. He was also one of my paid assistants. And now, you know, he's in a situation where with his work, he's got a full time job, but he gets. Mondays he works remote. Fridays he works remote. He lives just right down the road. He went to the local high school. He coaches third base for us. He's, he's, he's dynamite. He's one of the best third base coaches and in the entire country is just challenge anybody to show up and watch where he positions and moves his feet and all that type of stuff. He does just like a double a third base coach.
And then we have Derek Curlew who, you know, went to a local high school here and then he played at here for a couple years and then ended up opening up his own gym. So he's got live Fit performance right down the road.
He does nutrition, he does strength, he does agility, he does personal training, training in this area. And he volunteers, he volunteers for us. We also have Larry Beets who coach, he's the winningest high school baseball coach in Pasco County. And then he was also here as an assistant under Steve for seven years and as assistant under me for, for three years. And he's still around and heavily involved. And we run the Beach Classic in the fall where you know, we have eight teams come in and play and it's extremely competitive and there are eight of the best teams in this area for high school school baseball. And we play a two week tournament out here in honor of everything that Larry beach did in this, in this area. So it's just having that core consistency of guys and you know, I'm forever indebted to those guys because they sacrifice so much time, energy and effort and they all have a little piece of the program that they can, that they can, that they can help us out with. So it's just kind of delegating those tasks and then from my standpoint is just kind of overseeing and making sure and holding those players accountable to what those guys are trying to get them to do.
[00:51:25] Speaker A: And you have field turf, right? You have it on the.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So we have Astroturf put it in. I have a half Astroturf infield and actually it is built and designed exactly the same way that Eden's is.
So our guys play at our place and then they go to Enid and it's the same.
[00:51:43] Speaker A: Love it.
Do you have a fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now it helped you move forward.
[00:51:51] Speaker B: Say that again.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: So it's a fail forward moment. Something along the way could be professionally or personally something that you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now it helps you move forward.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: Well, you know, I was diagnosed with melanoma on my 30, 35th birthday. Stage three melanoma.
And that was in the, was that the 24 season.
So that's when we had Chris Arroyo and Aiden Corn and that was, that was the year before we won the national championship, you know, and so just kind of getting hit with that and then, you know, I end up having to have surgery. Had a big old. I got like a 12 inch scar on my back where they removed all that stuff. And then I started, you know, cancer treatments after that season was over with. But we are currently 63 and 12 since the, since the.
Was at the Polk State Polk State series. So I was diagnosed with cancer. How to break it to the team. And then, and then I didn't really want to just like out there, just tell everybody about it. But the issue was, is it was in the middle of the season. So if it was like in the summer Christmas break, I probably could have hit it a little bit. But when you, when you have, I, I just wanted the questions and I just wanted everybody to know. So I just kind of like put it out there of what I, what I had.
But that was a big distraction for, for that team. We didn't really have that great of a year, but we went to Polk State College and I think we were first in the conference or maybe we were tied for first or whatever it was.
And we got smoked. And I had surgery on that Monday. I drove down with Steve, met the team. I was in a sling and we just got smoked. Like, it was like we did not play baseball the way that our guys were taught.
And so that Monday I came in and I completely took everything from, from every single player.
And the only thing that they had was their turfs. They had their cleats, they had their socks, they had their practice pants. I took their six pairs of pants that I gave them that are 125 a pop from Rollins. They had their sliders, they had their practice a four. You know, it's like an eight dollar shirt that we get with a number on the back had that. I took all their game tops, I took two of the three of their hats and we had like a two hour powwow in the dugout about how, you know, we've just lost our direction of where we're going with this program, you know, and we take everything for advance advantage of everything that everybody's bought and purchased. And you know, we have lights, we have turf. You know, back in the day, you know, our guys used to show up and play for completely different reasons, for the reasons that you guys play for and just went down all of that stuff. Just, you know, how the expectations of what our program, the direction our program is supposed to go. And I'm sitting there in the sling, you know, getting ready to start cancer treatments and all these other sorts of things. And we end up winning 11 games in a row and going from third in conference to first in conference, winning conference hosting. And then we ran into the tournament and South Florida State College just played a couple incredible games against us and they robbed the home run. It was just one of those things ended up happening. But you know, since then it's just changed the, the, the perspective of, like, what you're trying to do. And, and winning baseball games is so very important.
And I talk about winning baseball teams all the single all the time. But there's, but winning relationships, I think is, is, is. Is more important and winning those relationships with your players. And what it's done is it changed the way that I treat our players, the way that I communicate with our players, how. How empathetic I am to. To. To them on, you know, just them dealing with issues and problems and just transitioned into, you know, building our players up so that they can learn how to deal with adversity rather than telling them, hey, like, you know, forget about that. Move on. Dig your heels in. No, it's. You got to teach your guys how to, how to live through adversity and how to overcome that adversity.
[00:56:28] Speaker A: Love it. We need much more of that. Much more of that. How do you have it? Take any precautions now with melanoma? Do you have to take.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: So I just had my fifth PET scan, so I'm technically a year and a half out.
I did immunotherapy for a full year, and that was.
It's not like chemo.
Chemo is completely different than immunotherapy, but it still just runs you down and, and, and kicks you.
But, yeah, that came back negative. So, you know, I'll get another one in six months, and then after that six months, then I should be going in for a year. But I'll always have to get monitored and checked up. I'll probably be seeing the oncologist the, the rest of my life because, you know, I was very fortunate my wife caught it. So she caught it on my back and she forced me to go in. And I was supposed to go in at 12 months because, you know, I'm. I'm in Florida. I'm out in the sun all the time, and I got a bunch of moles on my, on my body. So I go twice a year because of it.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: My dad's had so much stuff scraped off his skin. He coached for a long time, but I, I go every six months to get stuff checked.
[00:57:44] Speaker B: Well, the beautiful thing about melanoma is, is you can have it 100 times. It's just. You just got to make sure you catch it in stage one, and you catch it in stage one, they. They go and cut it out, and you're good.
It's the same thing of basal cell. I've had basal cell on my forearms, which is a much slower, more progressive One, but the one thing I will say is that basal cell is much more of a sun related cancer. That's, that's, that's developed and it takes a lot more, more time and that's usually like, like what's being frozen off of people, you know, when you, that type of stuff. Melanoma is not necessarily a, a sun related cancer.
It's more of a, a manipulation of the, of like a mole or the melanocyte. So, you know, my place that I had, it was on my shoulder. But I'm from Indiana. You know, I spend a ton of time outside and you know, I spent a lot of time outside, but I never spent a week my shirt off. So, you know, and I have, I've had, I've had, you know, moles removed and checked and had issues with moles in places that, you know, haven't seen the sun and very much ever.
So just because you're like, hey, I, I'm not outside, I'm outside, you know, I'm sitting inside. Whatever. You should, you should get your, your skin checked just because if you're proactive on it, then you should be fine. You should, you will never deal with the issue. The issue is if you, you never do anything. And really, at the end of the day, melanoma kills people like me. You know, they're 33, 34, 35 years old, and you're like, oh, I don't need skin. I'm 35 years old. Well, by the time that you feel sick to go see the doctor, you're looking at your stomach, they're looking at your heart, they're looking at all these other areas. But really what killed you is this little mole on the back here, your calf that, you know, that's where it originated and that's where it started. Just because you ignored it.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: How'd you rally through the immunotherapy?
[00:59:49] Speaker B: You know, you just dig your heels in. Just dig your heels in and go. You know, I was, I spent a lot of time and I spent a lot of time hanging out at the hotel, at the World Series just because it's a lot. And immunotherapy is much easier than chemotherapy. Chemotherapy. But for me, it felt like every single day I had like a mild flu. And in some days it was much, it was much heavier. So without the stomach nausea. So it was like constant headache. It was like you felt like you're running a fever, body aches, you know, you're just, you're just, you just run down. But I think it's just like anything else, right? Like you have, you have your guys on your team that are battling through being tired and weak and, and you know, I think just sports, you know, put you in that, puts you in that situation where, you know, you got to dig your heels in and keep moving forward and you just got to, you just got to fight your way, fight your way through it. You know, those guys were out there battling for me, and I had to go out there and battle for them.
[01:00:53] Speaker A: Tips for coaches on keeping maintaining your relationship with your significant other coaching.
[01:01:00] Speaker B: Well, two things. Number one, I will tell you a story about Riley Fisher. So keeping relationships with players is. And, and my wife is extremely important. So don't think that because I'm going to Riley Fisher. But one thing that I started doing is I started going around and asking my players just during practice, I said, hey, how you doing? What's going on? Everything good, right? And I'll tell you right now, we would not have won the national championship if I did not have this in my playbook of going around talking to our guys.
And usually a lot of leaders are afraid of doing that because they don't want to draw out problems, you know, or potential issues.
So what they do is they just kind of ignore it because they know if they go talk to that kid, then he's going to tell him something. Something. They're gonna have to deal with it, right?
So I was doing that one day, a couple days before we were leaving to go out to Enhan. I was just seeing how everybody was feeling. I was seeing how everybody was ever. Next thing you know, I get to Riley Fisher, who's their number two starter. He's got 10 wins on the year. He's ends up committing the Law Tech. He's 91, 93 up to 94.
And I think you learn a lot about your plays by doing this. But I walked up to him and say, hey man, what's going on? Everything good?
And he's like, yeah, my arm feels great. And he says, my toe is killing me. And I'm like, what, your, your toe? And he goes, yeah, my, my mom was, you know, I think I got an ingrown toenail. You know, I was trying to dig this out and do this other type of stuff. I'm like, let me see that thing. So I looked at it and I was like, holy smokes. Like, this is not good. Like it's his push off foot. And so I, I instantaneously took a picture of it. Our second baseman's dad was a Podiatrist. And I sent him the picture. I'm like, what the heck's going on with this guy's foot?
And he goes, he's got a ingrown tail now.
He's like, whose is that? And I said, it's Riley Fishers. And he, he goes, he goes, he needs to get that taken care of today.
And he'll feel instant relief, everything. So I started getting on the phone, but we ended up sending him down to, to Fort Myers and, and you know, they end up relieving that. And he, because he was just going to fly to Enid with an ingrown toenail. If he would have done that.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: Infected too.
[01:03:21] Speaker B: Yeah, he would have, he wouldn't have pitched.
[01:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: So he was still tender when he threw in the, in, in the World Series.
But, but it was, it was, it was, it was fixed. It would, it would have been way better than if you had a pitch with an ingrown toenail. So I think that, that, that's huge with your players. It's just walking up to them, you know, especially like when you're hitting double barrel BP and there's all this other stuff going on and you're just kind of leaving your hitters alone because you've been up there, you know, berating them for, for 30 minutes. You just go out in the outfield and say, hey, what's, what's going on? How's class? How's school, house, family, you know, and start talking to them like that. I think that's big.
The, the one thing with, with, with your wife or your significant other, I think it's extremely important that you find one that supports your career.
And I think that I went to a showcase this past weekend that I've been going to for like 13, 14 years, and there's like 20, 30 coaches that go to it every single year.
The original ones that I went to 13 years ago, I'm the only one that's still coaching college baseball. Everybody else is doing something, something else.
And I'll tell you right now, if your wife is not supportive of you and your position as, as a, as a, as a baseball coach, and that's what you want to do for the, for the rest of your life is coach baseball.
Something's going to give.
[01:04:51] Speaker A: You have to have that conversation up front.
[01:04:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just like in the dating.
[01:04:56] Speaker A: Dating process, you have to have that conversation up front.
[01:04:58] Speaker B: And it's the same thing with your financials. You know, you need to talk about financials. You know, what are your Goals, what do you want to do? It's the same thing about, you know, whether you're gonna follow Jesus or, or not.
[01:05:10] Speaker A: Like there's, like, there's some fundamental differences. Like everybody says opposites attract. I don't agree with any of that. You, that those fundamental things, you have to be on the same page with your significant other.
[01:05:22] Speaker B: That's right. And, and if you're, and if you're going to coach baseball, you got to throw that in there. So when you do your, when you do your dating and you ask, hey, what are the five or six things we have to agree upon to, to be able to move forward for the next 50 years, whatever that says, Gordon, Ram, you know, Ramsey or whatever, throw the baseball one in there.
And you know, they need to understand that, you know, I am shared with, you know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. My children are shared with 30, some other guys on the baseball team.
And I get phone calls at 1 o' clock in the morning, you get phone calls at 5 o' clock in the morning. And it's just a part of our family and it's a part of our life. But my wife was an all American softball player at Barrie. She grew up.
Her younger brother played college baseball. So she, she understands it, she gets it. And I think that that is if you're coaching and you're trying to choose your significant other, I think that helps you out immensely. If you are, you know, dating or choosing someone that's, that's, that played sports before, I'd be very concerned if they never played sports before. And what I would do is I'd start having them, you know, come around.
And even for my wife, it's still difficult for her, but I think that after, you know, we won the World Series and she saw the families and she saw what it did for our program, she saw what it did for our community, she's starting to see, hey, like this is a little bit bigger than just than what we got going on inside her own house. So it's like you gotta, you gotta think like everybody that's in your life, they end up in your house too.
So then your house ends up at college and in your dugout too. So you just gotta, it's a whole big blended hot mess.
[01:07:21] Speaker A: It is, it is. If you had a chance to reflect on winning this, getting this award.
[01:07:28] Speaker B: Starting to, you know, it's, it's the hardest thing I've ever done.
You know, is, is winning, is, is winning that, the, the national championship and you know, there's so many variables that go into it. You got to be, you got to be incredibly good. Like your team from 1 to, to 28 on the roster has to be, has to be really good. You have to be lucky.
There's luck that plays into a timing, you know, not, not running into a left handed pitcher that your team's not good, you know, can't hit, you know, making sure the matchups are right with your, your pitchers and all that stuff. You know, just a ball being hit and it hits a foul line, you know, or gets robbed or, or you know, an umpire makes a bad call in the wrong spot. You know, there's so many things that go into to that and then being healthy, you know, those are things you just can't necessarily control. It's just making sure the, the right guys are healthy. I mean who we had our first baseman who was going to hit in the three hole. He blew out his knee before the season even started.
Our number three starter that we had, that was, that was rolling, he blew out his elbow and then we had our number one number two bullpen arms went down midway through, midway through the spring.
So it's just, I think it's something that I'll be able to reflect on in a few years as things start to maybe slow down.
[01:09:02] Speaker A: Well, when you and I were trying to get connected to record and then I looked and I'm like, oh, he took the AD job. I'm like, he's, it's not, he's not just coaching. He's got a, he's got a lot of, a lot of stuff in the air right now with his response.
[01:09:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And it was awesome. We just had a ring ceremony. Love it. On, on December 3rd 13th we brought everybody back. I mean we had over 200 some people here.
It was you know, three hours. I spoke for 52 minutes and up there. And the reason why I know that is because I can speak for a long time. So somebody hit record and they're like oh coach, you were under an hour. Good job.
You know, we unveiled the banner in the gym and went out. We have the brick array. We have the new stadium entrance. We have here. We have the sign in left field that we put up for, for the guys. It was just good to get a ton of closure on, on just the season. You know, not closure on, on, on winning, but just closure on just finishing giving the guys the rings and be able to, to move forward on. That was, was, was incredible. Cool.
[01:10:02] Speaker A: Thanks for your time, Lynn. I appreciate it man. It's great. Having you on.
[01:10:04] Speaker B: I appreciate it.
[01:10:05] Speaker A: Thank you sir.
[01:10:06] Speaker B: Yep, thanks.
[01:10:08] Speaker A: I love Coach Coleman's passion for his program is a no nonsense approach to getting players to compete for spots and helping the Bobcats win. You can see why Pasco has the type of success they do in one of the most competitive baseball areas in the country at any level. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABCA office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email rbrownleybca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, coachboabca or direct message me via the MyBCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association.
Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
