NAIA World Series Coaches (Part II)

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host, ryan brownlee. This episode is sponsored by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Netting Professionals specializes in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for backstops, batting cages, dugouts, BP screens and ball carts. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, dugout cubbies, and more. Netting Professionals is an official partner of the ABCA and continues to provide quality products and services to many high school, college and professional fields, facilities and stadiums throughout the country. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoettingpros.com, visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you now on to the podcast this week's ABCA Podcast is part two of On Location Interviews from Lewiston, Idaho for the NAI World Series. In this episode, we'll hear from Johnson University's Dave Serrano, Georgia Gwinnett's Tommy Goodale, Southeastern's Gabe Grinder, Mid America Christian's Brett Stanton, and Doan's Josh Oldman's. As always, I appreciate the coaches for taking time out of their schedules to sit down with me. Let's welcome everyone to the podcast. I hear Dave Serrano, Johnson University, third season, but 40 and 12 overall, but been building this thing. So congrats coach. Thank you, thank you. [00:02:06] Speaker B: It's a pleasure to be here. [00:02:07] Speaker A: Very, very happy for you. [00:02:09] Speaker B: Appreciate that. [00:02:10] Speaker A: You know, when you took this over, is this kind of what you envisioned for it? [00:02:16] Speaker B: To be honest with you, no. What I envisioned was building a program to kind of assist people. And one of the things I got the blessing of my athletic director, Brandon Perry, was when I took this job, I kind of wanted to be a bridge for young men that didn't get Division 1 offers out of high school or junior college guys that didn't get Division 1 offers and have them come to Johnson and then build their resume up, do well academically, put some numbers up, and then because of the people I know around the country, make some phone calls and we've had some success with that. And then to put young assistant coaches around me to allow them to grow under what I've learned from some spectacular coaches and mentors and then push them up to the next level. And it's kind of like a giving back to what has happened to me over my career. So yes, I wanted to be successful. I wanted to build this program for the university. It just happened a lot quicker than I thought it would. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Just kind of speaks to doing things the right way too though. [00:03:11] Speaker B: Well, I hope so. I've tried to do that my whole career. I've been, like I said, I've been. I was raised right by my parents and I've been taught by some spectacular coaches that that won at a high level but won with class and did it right along the whole way. [00:03:24] Speaker A: Is this your eighth World Series appearance? [00:03:26] Speaker B: It's my eighth World Series. I'm very proud to say that. [00:03:28] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:03:29] Speaker B: Very proud to say that. Third, third one is the head coach. As with all three different teams programs and two of them being first times, it was UC Irvine in 07 and now Johnson in 2026. [00:03:42] Speaker A: And you're getting to coach with Kyle now? [00:03:44] Speaker B: Yes, I get to coach with Kyle. A beautiful story. Kyle's wife Sydney, they just had their second daughter last yesterday morning and Kyle is en route right now from Knoxville. So he will make the first game, which I know there was some skeptic. He was a little skeptical one way or another. But everything's turned out right for the Serrano family, which is good. And the most important thing is Sydney and the baby Cory Parker Serrano is doing well. [00:04:10] Speaker A: Is the Knoxville area turning into a hotbed, you guys? Walter State ut No, I'll tell you, [00:04:18] Speaker B: there's some good baseball out there. Obviously the University of Tennessee and what they've been doing. And then Walter State is very successful now that you know I liked it in a sarcastic way. There is another good baseball program in the confines of Knoxville boundaries and that's Johnson University. And I think what I'm so proud of is that this season has brought light to that and which is good for our baseball program but even better for our university. [00:04:42] Speaker A: What are the strengths of your guys? Team looks like it can hit a little bit. A lot of stolen bases. ERA is good. [00:04:47] Speaker B: We steal the bait. We steal a lot of bases. We could create havoc on the bases. I think our top two guys, Luke Wilson and JJ Menacini are can create a lot of havoc. And then we've got some guys behind them. Travis Hobins seeking Isaac Fernandez, Mitchell Birdsall that can drive and runs. I think it's a pretty balanced lineup. Our starting pitching is really good in my opinion. It's really carried us throughout the year. We have some pieces in the bullpen. I think in this tournament format, especially the first two games, we can really spread our pitching out. But for me, the best part about this team are the players and the, the relationships and the love they have for each other. This is a true team and I'm very proud of them. I joke with them all the time that they may be over me and done with me. I'm not over them yet and I want to stay with them as long as I can because I can't tell you how proud I am and I'm taking away the scoreboard and the success, how proud I am of them as people. They make such positive impacts wherever we go and they really have united as a team and I don't want to just give them credit. We're going to have a slew of people that are coming in from all over the country. We have kids from all over, a lot of from the west coast that'll be here this week. The families have been a huge part of our success. They have bonded together and I think it creates a bond throughout the players. And it takes a lot to have success, especially success this fast. And there's a lot of people to thank for that. [00:06:08] Speaker A: And you look historically here, teams that do play in action offense, you look at Westmont's one here, Hope International's won here, west coast style, you know, which I call more action oriented offense. So obviously the way you guys play a little bit, plays well here in this ballpark. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Well, I, you know, people, because of where I'm from, say west coast style offense. Mason Graves runs our offense and he's not from the west coast and he does a good job. He does a good job of breaking down the pitchers reads and all that. We do a great job of stealing bases. So it can be construed as a West coast offense. I like to call it a pressure offense. We create pressure on the defense and, and I am aware of that. I have talked to coaches that have had success here and that kind of style is successful. The other thing that's really important here is you better play defense. And the field's a little slow. We practiced the other day. The field's a little slow. Our numbers are really good defensively. I think we stack up with some of the better teams in the country and. But we got, we got to pitch, play defense and create havoc on offense for us to be successful. [00:07:05] Speaker A: Yeah, because they've gotten rain here in the last couple of years. It was really hard out there. And you walk the first yesterday. The grass is in Great shape. So it should play more normal than what people are used to, rather than the past where it was a little bit of a parking lot out there. [00:07:17] Speaker B: Yeah. What I recognized in our practice the other day is the infield grass a little slow when we're doing some cuts and relays, the ball wasn't getting through the gap real well. And so I think that bodes well and I think it creates some opportunities to take some extra bases here and there. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Coaches that have been here before that you reached out to, how'd they tell you to prep, like, coming the week up? Because it's different. You're here for a long time, so you have a lot of downtime. Did you tweak training at all? [00:07:45] Speaker B: No. I think the biggest thing is I told the team this. I wanted them to stay focused and enjoy the stuff we're doing and allow me to use my experience of the other places I've been to championships. And I know from experience that when a team comes somewhere for the first time, it's their first trip, they get so caught up in everything, they forget why they're there. And I've continually reminded them. And as I told them last night in the bus when we got back from the banquet is okay, now we click. Now we switch over to its baseball mode from here on out. We're getting ready to practice today. We'll have a good little practice. We've got the parade tonight, which will be really exciting. I'm really looking forward to. And then at 11 o', clock, our first pitch. And I'm hoping that our guys are focused. And I know because of how much love they have from each other, they'll hold each other accountable. And we will be focused at 11 o' clock tomorrow. [00:08:30] Speaker A: Players to watch this week. Looks like Colby Reynolds on the mound. [00:08:33] Speaker B: Yeah, Colby Reynolds on the mound. Like I brought up already, Luke Wilson and J.J. menacini. Travis Hovinseek. And I'm very proud of him. One of the young men that walked on this campus, as I did, in the summer of 2024 or 23, I should say. He's been with me the whole time. He's a guy to look for. But like I said, we've got some guys. That's the thing. When you're a special team, there's different guys that rise to the occasion. Another good player we have is Braden Frank. He hasn't had a great year for him, and I just had a talk with him the other day. You will forget all about your regular season if you go out and Have a great World Series. And you know, it's, it's. So we've got a lot of pieces to it. You know, we've got, you know, Tyler Barfield on the mound, that was a transfer from St. Andrews. It's been a big plus for us. Jacob Hockamee, who's a third, is one of our rotations and Caleb Townsend out of the bullpen. So we have a lot of pieces. And another guy, I don't want it for his bodie8 guy that doesn't get a lot of recognitions. He's that puzzle piece we bring in after the starter and he's just done a fabulous job. His ERA is under two for the year, so we have a lot of pieces. And like I said, the thing I'm holding on to is this team doesn't want to split up from one another. They want to be together for a long time. [00:09:47] Speaker A: And to win something like this, you're probably going to have somebody that comes out of the woodwork to help you this week that maybe you didn't expect. [00:09:53] Speaker B: I don't look that far, to be honest with you. I look to. I'm thinking about Southeastern right now. I'm not looking to win it. That's obviously everyone's ultimate goal. But I'm just, and I don't want to be cliche when I say this, I want our guys to focus on winning that first pitch of the game, winning that first out of the game, winning that first inning of the game and simplify it because if you look down the road too much, then you're going to get sniped early. [00:10:15] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go? [00:10:17] Speaker B: No, I want to thank my administration. I want to thank Daniel Overdorf, who's actually here, our president of our university, Brandon Perry, who gave me this opportunity three years ago. He actually thought I was joking when I said I was interested in this job and I proved him wrong. And I like doing that. There's a lot of people to thank that have. You know, I get it. As the head coach of a program, you get almost too much accolade when you're successful. You get too much accolade when you're not successful. There's a lot of people, my assistant coaches, my players, our families, our administration, the support staff at the university. There's a lot of people to thank for our success. And I'm just proud as a leader of this program. I'm proud that Johnson University is being, being talked about at the NAI World Series in 20, 26. [00:11:02] Speaker A: Good luck this week. Thank you. All right here with Tommy Goodale, Georgia Gwinnett, but took over in January, but had been an assistant in 22 and 23, but coming in 49, 6 overall. Thanks for sitting down with me, Tommy. [00:11:16] Speaker C: Hey, appreciate you having me, Ryan. [00:11:18] Speaker A: Amazing job taking over in January. [00:11:20] Speaker D: Thank you. [00:11:21] Speaker A: Just talk about that whole process a little bit. [00:11:22] Speaker C: Yeah. I think the beauty of it is that I had been there for two years as an assistant and worked under sheets, lived it, worked it felt it changed my life and helped me grow. So when I got the phone call and had the opportunity, it was a no brainer for my wife and I to make the move. And then it really comes down to the people in the building, the people that can help. Working with Sheets, working with Terrell, our whole staff, between Beggs and Strip and Zach and then, you know, BD and Fletch, all the way to Dr. Potter and Ms. Sandra. Everybody plays a huge role. You can't do what we do without everybody helping out. And so that transition and kudos to the guys, man, because someone said the other day, like, congrats on having them all stay. It had nothing to do with me. It had everything to do with what they went through in the fall and the band of brothers that they had created. And they decided as a group that they were going to stay. And so they were eager to get after it and work really hard. And they've been doing, continuing to do that all spring, which has been awesome. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Was it kind of a benefit that you're getting ready to play almost right away as soon as you showed up? [00:12:22] Speaker C: Probably, yeah. Golly, I don't know. We had a couple of days before our first game. We kind of went into right away into a live script to kind of evaluate the guys and kind of see where we were. But yeah, it probably did help. It definitely helped that they went through a fall and Sheets way of doing things and teaching and all that kind of stuff definitely paid off. But yeah, in the grand scheme of things, it probably did help that we had a game within the first week of being there. [00:12:45] Speaker A: I mean, what was the first team meeting like? What's your message there? That first team meeting showing up? [00:12:51] Speaker C: Okay, I'll give you a little bit behind the curtains. So one of the things I want to make sure I do was when I walked into that room, I knew all the faces and in there. And so I had created flashcards and I had gone over for really the drive there and the first morning before I met with the guys had gone through flashcards and had everybody's name. So what I wanted to do in the. In the room, and it's easy to talk about it, but it's a lot harder to kind of put it in motion, is show them that I care and that there is a big picture here and that the standard is going to stay here and we have to continue to do things on and off the field to the same level it's always been done. And then I started dropping names and some eyes kind of got big. And I think you can talk about how much you care, but if you don't show it, they don't really care how much you know about baseball or what you're going to do on the field until they realize you are invested in who they are as a person. So that was basically the main message and the benefited. [00:13:37] Speaker A: You had been there before, huge. [00:13:40] Speaker C: Knowing the people in the room, in the building, having worked with Dr. Potter when he was with compliance to no. 1. Topoleski, who was working as an assistant with us back in the day and now runs our facilities to Shira, is the head trainer and she was our trainer when I was here. And so having those conversations, knowing those relationships and just really jumping right back into it, kudos to them. But that definitely helped in the ease of the whole thing. [00:14:04] Speaker A: What strength of this year's team seems like, really good offensively, but also really good on the mound, too. [00:14:09] Speaker C: Yeah, honestly, I would say the love for each other and how much they enjoy playing for each other, they're a tough bunch. And watching them be resilient and continue to show up for each other and just really buy into the process and buy into who they are and really enjoy the journey along the way, you know, to where we came from, from January 13th or 14th, one of those days in there to where they are now, it's awesome to watch them grow and continue to show up every single day and say, hey, we don't care what our record is, we don't care what we're ranked. We know that if we don't put our best foot forward today, we're not going to get to where we want to get to. So it's been probably their maturity has stepped out the most. [00:14:44] Speaker A: To me, still running the basis, I mean, 226 stolen bases, maybe not to [00:14:48] Speaker C: the same clip of what we once did. [00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's still. [00:14:51] Speaker C: But I think the beauty of it, too, and obviously being present where we are, but realizing the big picture, too, is that in the offense that we have Grant Pullman is the only one back. And so when you look at the roster and the guys that are in the lineup every single day, it's all new. It's an all new offensive style. Now, did guys steal bases in junior college and did guys steal bases in high school? They're still on the team, yes, but we may run at a different clip than other teams do. And so I think the beauty of it is that the offensive group that's here now is coming back minus Grant, which we missed. But yeah, run the bases. Still do. The triple B offense, it works. You don't, you know, I don't. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We just got to make sure they understand why and when and what the purpose is. Yeah. [00:15:33] Speaker A: What does triple B stand for? [00:15:34] Speaker C: Somebody does bases, barrels and bunts. Yep, bases, barrels and bunts. And we do that on the field in game, but we also work on that in practice to about the same percentage wise as we'll execute that in the game. [00:15:43] Speaker A: What about pregame for that? [00:15:45] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, we do run bases in the pregame. You got a cage group, a field group, a baserun group, and a defensive group. And that first group on the bases is doing a hit and run for the first time at first, and they do a couple runs at first and a couple at second. During normal weak bp, we'll mix into Vandy bunts. I think Corbin done that in the past. So you're bunting one at a time. You get five bunts total. Everybody's moving in a group, do a lot of four corner bunts. And then we spend a lot of time in practice hitting barrels and we talk about green shots and line drives and really just staying through the baseball and the beauty in it for us. The thing is, we play in a big ballpark and so if you're going to hit a ball out of there, you got to hit the ball hard on the line. And so it definitely pays off when we go to other places and play. [00:16:23] Speaker A: You have to manage pitching any different this week? [00:16:26] Speaker C: I don't think so, no. Dustin Bates has done a phenomenal job with the pitching staff. It was probably my first practice we were out there and I'm watching the guys kind of graduate or, or gravitate towards him on the pitching side of things and watching him have conversations and watching how they take what he says and they chew on it and they're like, hey, I'm gonna go work on that. So I really have every, every trust in him. We do talk about it. A lot. Look at the splits, think about what we're gonna do here and then really trust his in game intuition on which we're gonna do. [00:16:57] Speaker A: Any good surprises on the roster? [00:16:59] Speaker C: I don't think so. [00:17:00] Speaker A: It was all pretty fresh for you. [00:17:01] Speaker C: Yeah. I did say this the other day to the guy with Lewis and Tribune. You know when you get guys at break, you know and you really bank on those guys filling spots that you may have avoid from the leftover from winter break. You know we had a left handed pitcher and Jake Cawthorn come in from UTSA and he's gotten some awesome opportunities. But being able to watch Jake and how he manages his emotions and the team and holds people in check like talk about bottom of the G claw and knowing what it takes. It's awesome to watch him in the dugout. He's always trying to find a way to help the Grizzlies win, whether that's him on the mound or him in the dugout. So that's been an awesome, maybe not surprise, but awesome presence in the dugout for us coming in at the semester, which was probably the biggest one. [00:17:43] Speaker A: What has he relayed from guys coming from Division one? [00:17:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we have a lot of guys that have played Division 1 and I think the beauty of it is that our practice style, the communication is very similar to Division 1. Our facilities are pretty close to that of a mid major but they really talk about the love and the care level that we provide for them and I think that that's unique to who we are and how we do things and really want to find a place that they realize that we care about them and love them as a person just as much as we do as a player. [00:18:11] Speaker A: Any adversity in the spring? [00:18:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean we showed up at some fields physically, I'm not sure we show up mentally a few spots, but then again like you can learn through success and we did that kind of early on in the season and we won some close games that we didn't play our cleanest baseball and then we showed up to some games where we didn't play remotely close to who we are in our style of baseball and I think the guys really learned and grew from that. We had a couple of come to Jesus moments throughout the season and we really had to have some tough conversations and to their credit they responded the right way. You know, we didn't play well on a midweek, we bounced back and had a really good practice the next day and and they really took the next best step forward. [00:18:51] Speaker A: How do you relay that to those guys? Because they're not always going to take that to heart at times, but it speaks to the volume of your roster. [00:18:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the beauty of the whole thing is if you're honest with them from the jump and you tell them what they need to hear, whether they want to hear it or not, and you are consistent on that approach and it is who you are every single day. When you have to have a tough conversation with them, they realize you're doing that because they need it, not maybe because they want it. And like I said, they have responded really well to that this season. [00:19:18] Speaker A: End of the year, any conversations with roller bench guys that change at all? [00:19:23] Speaker C: Nope. We'll do the same thing. Nothing special that changes. I know you've heard a bunch of times from guys wearing the G claw, but we're going to just continue to play baseball and go pitch by pitch, inning by inning and try to win game one. When an opportunity comes, what do you [00:19:36] Speaker A: feel like prepared you the most for this opportunity? [00:19:40] Speaker C: Prepared me the most, obviously. Working for Sheets and really learning and growing. He kind of took me under his wing and we talk about tough conversations we had him and I appreciated the fact that he coached me the same way he coached the players. And I was young and I wanted to learn and I wanted to continue to try to elevate who I was in the baseball realm, but also in like the personal side of things. So he's been a huge help. Can't say enough about Jeff Willis at LSU units, man, watching him be, I mean, I think he's a Hall of Famer on the field for sure, but, but a Hall of Fame person walking into the office every single day and really pushing me to always do better and do more and continue to push myself has been awesome. [00:20:18] Speaker A: But what about Jim Callahan? [00:20:19] Speaker C: Yeah, Jim was great. You know, playing for him at Ambrose was, was awesome. He actually gave me my first opportunity to coach. I was a fifth year senior, had no eligibility left. He let me coach, throw bp, hit fungos, coach first base. And that was talk about challenging, right? Like we just won a conference tournament, we'd just go to the opening round. Golly, seven or eight of the guys that are playing every single day, I just played with them. And so now my role had kind of changed on being their friend to kind of being their coach. And I appreciate all those guys for working with me through that. We're still good friends to this day, but there were some tough conversations to have. But yeah, Jim Callahan was awesome all the Way back to Casey Aldridge. My high school coach was a huge help. Brian Baker was our assistant coach in high school. And the knowledge that they shared and the structure that we had in high school, you just continue to build and grow. I mean, every place you go, even Dan Skirk at Murray State, you learn how to do things and how to put a practice plan together and how to relay a message and how to show up consistently every single day and give your team exactly what you want. And then listen to guys like Corbin talk and Eric Bakketch talk, you just take little snippets. I was talking the other day with some coaches and I always am thinking about what Tim Corbin says about sometimes in coaching it's not what to say but when to say it. And sometimes you can't say something and just kind of let them work through it. And then once they've worked through it, then you can kind of have a [00:21:37] Speaker A: conversation with them and winners win. I mean, you go down the list of the guys that you've worked for, they, they all have been successful. What are some of the common traits of all those guys? They're all probably a little different personality [00:21:47] Speaker C: wise for sure, but there's a lot of different ways to win, I would say for sure, the consistency aspect and they're competitive to their core and they have standards and they have ethics that definitely play a factor in all those things. But man, they're go getters. There's people that you may surround yourself in life that will talk about a problem and acknowledge a problem and then there's people in life that say, hey, this is the issue, this is how we're gonna fix it. And working for those guys has been huge because every obstacle you have, whether it's fundraising money or like, hey, we need this to take care of whatever it is. If you dwell on the problem, you ain't finding a solution. So I think all those guys that I've been able to work for and been around have all been solution finders and fixers. And if you can be that, you can find success anywhere you are in life. [00:22:32] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go? [00:22:34] Speaker C: I mean, my wife's been huge, golly. She's 39 weeks pregnant and we gave our vows last summer and that was, you know, whatever we do in life, we're going to make sure to have conversations and make sure it's the best thing for us. And from the moment I said this could be an opportunity, she's like, let's go. We're in and to move in our whole house in about 72 hours and going to Georgia without even a place to live. She's been on board and I'm telling you, man, she was a soccer player in college, so she kind of understands the X and O's of baseballs now. And she asks me tougher questions than I think I've ever been asked in an interview. So really appreciate her and her love for these guys and for me and for the program and for the vision of continued sustained success here at Georgia Gwinnett. [00:23:13] Speaker A: Good luck this week, coach. Thank you, coach. Appreciate you. Alright, here with Gabe Grinder, Southeastern University, second season as head coach but alum was longtime pitching coach but coming in at 46 and 16. So congrats for getting here. [00:23:27] Speaker E: Thanks, sir. [00:23:29] Speaker A: What have you loved about Southeastern? [00:23:33] Speaker E: The biggest thing that I love is we get to change lives there. It was a big reason I went there in college. I needed to change the scenery. And when I played for coach Beck there, he put me on the right path in life. So to have the opportunity to go back there and then do that with the, the guys that we have, it means the world to us. My wife and I, we love it there. It's our ministry to do baseball and watch guys grow up. So that's probably my favorite part. And then crap. Winning some baseball games helps out too. [00:24:03] Speaker A: I feel like that's a common theme with a lot of the NAI coaches is trying to do it. I mean it says the right way to play behind you. But I do really feel like that's not lip service from the kids coaches here. I really feel like the NAI coaches are trying to do it the right way. [00:24:15] Speaker E: Yeah. And I think, I think that's a lot with small college NAI because a lot of NAIs are faith based and it gives us the opportunity to yes, coach baseball, but also use it as a ministry to grow guys. So you definitely see that a lot at this level for sure. [00:24:31] Speaker A: What were your biggest adjustments going from pitching coach to then taking over the program? [00:24:38] Speaker E: I think pitching guy, there's less responsibility, there's less day to day work. And I think the greatest transition when I coached for Matt Parker, he told me this and he was right, is that you go from being the guy that people like to you're the man that and he's an idiot. What's he doing? And they don't like you all the time. And you got to be okay with that. You got to know that, hey, we're here to make these guys better. And push them. And sometimes not everyone's going to enjoy that. And hey, that's okay. It's part of the job. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Do you feel like pitching coach, though, is the hardest job on the staff? Because you're dealing with more guys than probably the other coaches are. [00:25:14] Speaker F: You are. [00:25:15] Speaker E: You are. I think it depends when you're. When you're an assistant, who your head guy is. Put it that way. If they're a pitching guy before, then, yeah, it's a hard job. They were hitting guy. They just yell at you because you're giving up more runs than they're scoring. So I think it just depends. But no, I mean, when I was at Oklahoma west, my last time as an assistant, our offense was awesome. So if we scored 10 and we gave up 11, man, I felt like crap going home at night. So it. It just depends where you're at. But it's a job that I think if done right, yeah, there's a lot that goes into it if you want the guys to be good strengths of [00:25:49] Speaker A: this year team seems like it's another balanced team for you guys. [00:25:52] Speaker E: Very balanced. I was talking with the coach the other night. I don't know if we even have an All American on this team. I think it's just a collective unit that plays really well together and they complement each other with what they do. So it's a different team for sure than I think years pass of what people expect from Southeastern, but nonetheless, it's still a good baseball team. We made it back here. [00:26:13] Speaker A: Last game. Last 5, 6 game in the history of the NAI. [00:26:16] Speaker F: Correct. [00:26:17] Speaker E: Yep. Yep. Last one. This will be it. People ask me if I like the 560. I said, I don't know. It's the only thing I know. So I guess I like it. We were the six seed last year, five seed this year. I'm looking forward to the new format next year. I think it's great. I think when it came out there, maybe some people that didn't enjoy it, but I think when you're playing for a national title, when you can reset your pitching staff and it's 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, if you get there, it makes a world of difference because you're gonna find out real quick, hey, who is the best team here? [00:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah, you can go in a lot of different directions with that, but with this bracket, like. And Grand Junction was dealing with it too, like, you just can't. It's not. You can't make it fair for anybody. [00:26:56] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:26:56] Speaker A: One through 10, it's just there's gonna be games like this where it just happens with 1 through 10. [00:27:01] Speaker E: Absolutely does. [00:27:03] Speaker A: What are some other keys for you guys this week? [00:27:06] Speaker E: Continue to play the baseball that got us here. I watched day one yesterday and there was good and there was bad and I just. What I watched, I said to myself, man, if we're gonna win or we're gonna lose, we're going to do, do it the way that got us here. For better or for worse. [00:27:24] Speaker A: You've been here a bunch. Do you prep any differently now for this? Because Billy Barry and I talked about it. You know, everybody does it different. Tennessee Wesleyan goes live a lot. Do you get. Did you change anything as far as your prep practice? [00:27:36] Speaker E: The exact same way that we have. Our on field practice here at Harris Field was the same as what it normally would be at home. We didn't change anything. We still practiced in pants like we always do. We didn't go shorts just because hour at the World Series now. No, we kept everything the same because I told our guys, I said, hey, pressure's off. Like you made it to the World Series. Now it's just how many wins can you accumulate and how much fun can you have while you're out here? So we haven't changed anything that we do. [00:28:00] Speaker A: You always practice some pants? [00:28:02] Speaker E: Always. Even in South Florida we do it. [00:28:04] Speaker A: I appreciate it. Thank you. I'm. I'm a. If you're gonna play in it, you gotta practice in it. So I appreciate that. [00:28:09] Speaker E: I think our guys think I'm crazy some days when it's 100 plus, but. [00:28:12] Speaker A: Yeah, but you got playing that what [00:28:13] Speaker E: was wrong playing it. [00:28:14] Speaker A: So let's do it for sure. Love it. What are some players to watch here? [00:28:18] Speaker E: Cooper Ceselski has been really good for us offensively. Armani Cosa, we give him a hard time because he just turned 18 and he hits leadoff for us. He's been awesome. He's a good one to watch. And then on the mound, Baylor start getting one for us. And then I think we've got a really good bullpen that complements each other with the different things that they can do. And to single out one guy there, I don't think I can wear. We kind of live off of the bodywork of everyone and that kind of makes those guys who they are. So I think those are a few guys to watch out for this week and the skills that they got and what they'll show. [00:28:53] Speaker A: Those guys come in as bullpen guys or were they starters before they got to you? [00:28:59] Speaker E: I'm trying to think here. Out of our bullpen guys, almost all of them were bullpen guys at their junior colleges that they were at. I think we got one guy that kind of mixed back and forth forth between starter and reliever, but majority of our bullpen guys are bullpen guys. [00:29:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Does that give you a little bit of probably comfort knowing because they've had to do it before they got to you so you're not having to train them how to come out of the pen? [00:29:19] Speaker E: Yeah, for sure. We were particular with that. We kind of knew we had to retool our whole bullpen because last year I didn't love our pen. I thought our, our strength was on the front side of the staff. And this year I think our strength's more middle endgame than it is on the front of the staff. But I always tell people you got to have one or the other if you're going to be good. You either got to be really good at the front side or really good at the backside. If you get both, crap, that's awesome. But just be good at one or the other. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Any surprises this week, you think out of guys, maybe guys that maybe haven't contributed this week, but maybe some guys might surprise us. [00:29:49] Speaker E: There's always one. [00:29:50] Speaker A: There is, isn't there? [00:29:51] Speaker E: Don't ask me who it is to win this thing. [00:29:53] Speaker A: There's going to be some. [00:29:54] Speaker E: There's always one that will rise to a different level that you just didn't expect. I like last year we definitely had that where guys just played above their pay grade of what they had been all year. So there will be someone. I don't know who it's going to be, but if we're going to stay here a while, someone will show up. [00:30:09] Speaker A: Is that a conversation to have with your role and your bench guys that you know, there might be one of you guys that maybe hasn't gotten a lot of time, but just be ready because you might get an opportunity here this week. [00:30:18] Speaker E: We have a talk all throughout the year. I mean, we got two big swings out of our bench guys in the regionals where we put them in tough pinch hit spots and they make you look smart when they do that stuff. I'm not really that smart. They're just really good ballplayers. But we have those conversations with guys all throughout the year and they've bought into. And again, I think that's why we're sitting back here at the World Series because guys have have accepted the role and really thrived inside of it. Any adversity this year, ton, ton, we. We are on our fourth second baseman of the year. Our starter from last year hurt his shoulder early. His replacement hurt his shoulder. We've used two different center fielders at second base, so, yeah, had a ton of adversity. We've lost guys in the rotation out of the bullpen, but I think it's a good group of guys because I think since we had that, like, final last purging of players, I think we're 101 since then. So it's been good to watch the guys kind of fight through stuff and get themselves where they're at now. [00:31:16] Speaker A: What do you feel like has helped you the most at this point in your career? Career [00:31:21] Speaker E: being a bad head coach early on, be honest, I learned a lot from mistakes. I joke with alum that I coached way back in Kansas eight, nine years ago and say, man, I've calmed down. I've learned how to deal with stuff like, man, those guys are lucky. So I think losing as a head coach has been one of the greatest teachers I've ever had. And you still learn with the wins. But my first year as a head coach, I think we went 17. No, sorry, 20 and 26. And then I took over a bad Division 2 program. We lost there. And you grow greatly if you want to. And I think those have been the greatest lessons for me in coaching. [00:32:01] Speaker A: That's part of experience too, though. I think that that happened to all of us. You're supposed to be like that as a young coach, and then as you get older, like, you figure out what's important, what's not important. [00:32:09] Speaker E: Yeah, you do. I think when you get into it, you have an idea of, I'm going to do it this way, and then you suck at it. And you think, well, I gotta change some stuff. We're gonna be any bit better. So I've learned a lot through failures, and I'm thankful for those failures because it's put us where we are now. [00:32:23] Speaker A: What about Adrian Dankle? [00:32:25] Speaker E: It was tough taking over after him. He won a lot of baseball games. There's a lot of pressure, and I'm just thankful for good players that help keep this thing rolling. Because I told him when I took over, I said, hey, you created a monster. And my hope is that can just keep that thing rolling and. And not let slip what you created here. So he. Big shoes to fill, put it that way. [00:32:47] Speaker A: But yeah, but I give you a lot of credit because they say, don't. You don't want to be the guy after the guy. And You've done a great job. And so, like, give some tips on that, because that's really hard to do. You see it over the history of college baseball. You see a guy that takes over from a guy that's won a lot of games doesn't always work out for him. [00:33:02] Speaker E: I think a lot of times, guys, and I don't know, I'm speculating here, maybe they try to be who the person before them was. And I just came in and said, I'm going to do it how I want to do it. For better or worse, we're going to do it the way we've always done it and what's made us successful and. And I think there's similarities. [00:33:22] Speaker C: Right. [00:33:22] Speaker A: Well, I'm. I'm going to put my stamp on things rather than plug and play here. It's been really successful. [00:33:28] Speaker E: Yeah. And I think you just. You have to find the right players that fits your system, and you got to coach your way, and hopefully it leads to success like the guy before you. And we've been lucky in two years that it's done that, and hopefully we can continue to do that. [00:33:41] Speaker A: I asked about throwing bp, and I was surprised because pitching guys, usually the ego gets involved and they try to get guys out, but that's probably a benefit, too, because probably for that bp, you are probably trying to get guys out, right? [00:33:52] Speaker E: Yeah. We were throwing Velo yesterday, and one of my guys keyholed me. I was like, all right, hit this then. And I just sunk it under his hands and took his thumbs. [00:33:59] Speaker B: And. [00:34:00] Speaker E: Yeah, there's a little bit that still comes back in there. You want to get them? For sure. I try to make him feel good, but, man, the picture of me just like, I'm old now, and like, boys, you still ain't getting me. I'm gonna get after you. [00:34:11] Speaker A: Well, challenge BP is a. Is a thing now. Like, I think we've changed in a good way where BP should be challenging. If you want to get ready for a game because the pitcher is trying [00:34:21] Speaker C: to get you out. [00:34:22] Speaker E: Yeah, we don't. We don't take much RBP anymore. It's a lot of machine work to challenge the guys and get them grumpy. And I think that's a challenge for guys when they come to us because we recruit a lot of guys. Hey, you take BP off the machine? No. Okay. It's not going to be easy when you get here, boys. And it's fun to watch those guys grow. One of the best college hitters I've ever had. He hated machine bp but he got to the point of saying I know it's going to make me better so I'm just going to do it and wear it. And he sucked at BP all the time but he'd get in the game and crush people. [00:34:55] Speaker A: How do you get them through the timing piece? I think that's what coaches probably deal with the most off a machine is the hitters timing. Do you have any tips for helping hitters get their timing off the machine? [00:35:04] Speaker E: We vary distances a bunch so there's difference there and then I don't know. It's a simple thing but I think it's helped our guys. We tape the end of our hack attack so they can see it come out the hole way easier and then we try to be really good. The same pace of dropping it in all the time because you can speed them up a little bit sometimes with that but I don't know if it works. It seems to help us out though with that. But I think there's just a level of you're gonna have to figure out the timing of the machine and get that rhythm down a little bit. [00:35:37] Speaker A: Love it. Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go? [00:35:40] Speaker E: Coach Beck changed my life and put me in the right direction. And Matt Parker, he taught me everything I know today as a head coach I'm thankful for those guys in my life. [00:35:49] Speaker A: Good luck dad. [00:35:50] Speaker E: Thanks sir. [00:35:53] Speaker F: Alright. [00:35:53] Speaker A: Here with Brett Stanton, Mid America Christian. Sixth season as head coach but seventh overall. Coming in at 43 and 13 now after the win yesterday. So congrats. [00:36:03] Speaker F: Appreciate it, appreciate it. [00:36:04] Speaker A: Hard fought win yesterday. [00:36:05] Speaker F: There's nothing easy about them. [00:36:09] Speaker A: That's probably about what you expect here too though, right? [00:36:12] Speaker F: Yeah. I think this is 10 teams that deserve every right to be here and I mean we just saw it yesterday. Every lower seed won and I think to people who don't research it or look into it, they'd be surprised. But I don't think any of us coaches are surprised by who won or the ability to win. [00:36:29] Speaker A: Are you looking forward to the new format next year? Where kind of I think they're going to seed everybody, right? [00:36:34] Speaker C: Yes. [00:36:35] Speaker F: I mean I'm looking forward to it to be honest. I haven't really done much research into this our first time here and you know, I was telling a couple people around town I've enjoyed it so much. I think we might as well just come back, you know, every year, which is the hope. But the new format from what I've seen I think will be a better scenario overall. I think. [00:36:56] Speaker A: Did you talk to many coaches that have been here before, before you came out here? [00:37:01] Speaker F: Quite a few. Talked to, you know, some guys that were here in the past, like Mike Ross at usao, Jeremy Kennedy gave me some words of advice. Neff gave me some words of advice. And I think there's some. There's a lot to it. I've been fortunate to be a coach and play, you know, coach in some other World Series juco World Series and such. So it wasn't. It's something I'm a little, you know, familiar with, but the scale here of just the crowd and the environment different and I think our guys, there's a lot of fun distractions, but they are distractions. And so it's something we've had to manage and work around a little bit. But I never can't remember playing an 8:30 game. So that was interesting. But no, overall it's been great and [00:37:47] Speaker A: I sent it out last night. I think the opening ceremonies is still one of the best traditions we have in college baseball. [00:37:53] Speaker F: It's pretty cool. It was better than I was expecting, which is awesome. You know, and you have some expectations and hearing it from other coaches in the past and guys that played here, you got to go out and see it for yourself whether you're playing here or not. Just take a trip. It's a pretty amazing place. [00:38:12] Speaker A: Strength of this year's club, I mean, looks balanced. Slotstone bases, high batting average, really good era. You've had six shutouts. So kind of bounce up and down, huh? [00:38:23] Speaker F: Well, we pride ourselves on being a pitching and defensive first team. You know, we're, we're, that's our major focus. We have the talent on offense to do some good things. We can win in a multitude of ways. You know, we can leave the yard, we can play the bunt game and we can also pitch it and play, you know, pitchers duel. So we have the tools to do many things, you know, so it's, it's, it's a balanced team. Team is a really good way to say it. And they're tough. Team battle testing. [00:38:50] Speaker A: What are you doing today on the off day? [00:38:52] Speaker F: We are going to rest our bodies, do some laundry. We're probably going to get some recovery on the yoga session, trying to just rest it a little bit because you got to get in the routines and especially if you win, you got to stay in that routine. So there's probably going to be a new food place that we try just to experience that. We've done some really great places like, like Effie's and I don't know who in the heck orders a full burger at Effie's Burgers, but they are, they are a man amongst boys. That's an impressive feel. [00:39:23] Speaker A: And then more of a full workout tomorrow then. [00:39:25] Speaker F: Yeah. So we'll get a practice in. Our honorary coach is phenomenal. He's just set up a with Hillcrest Aviation. He's going to set up a barbecue for us and so we're going to do some devotion. Some guys are going to go to church and then we'll get a little practice in and so it's, it's a full Sunday unfortunately. But yeah, you know, we're ready to do it. [00:39:45] Speaker A: How long have you guys done yoga? [00:39:47] Speaker F: We've done, you know, some form of that recovery yoga and just med ball work for, you know. We've done it pretty much forever. It's probably been a bigger focus this year, especially like after a series and stuff like that. I think the guys absolutely hate it. I think they don't like it at all. And whenever we say we're doing, doing recovery, their faces, you know, look like the fruit loops just got stolen. But overall I think it matters. [00:40:12] Speaker A: Do you think it's helped with limiting injuries? [00:40:14] Speaker F: Yeah, I think so. I think injuries, injuries are just, they're freak things, you know, you never know. You don't see it very often. It's always guys saying like he twisted his ankle on the, on the water box or something. You know, it's never just normal slide in a second. So stuff. So I think it does help with just, just your recovery overall and just understanding we're gonna play at 80% the whole year. Pretty much that hundred percent was gone in summer and so I think it helps with that. [00:40:43] Speaker A: How nice to have a guy like Taft. Liam. [00:40:46] Speaker F: Oh, Liam for one, he's just a character. So he's a perfect for that role. He's oozing with confidence all the time. We were at the elementary school playing musical chairs and he got matched up for the championship with the little fourth grade girl. And I thought for sure he was going to push her down or something. I was so worried because he's competitive like that. But she got her victory on her birthday. He's been great. He was a two way player in junior college and turned into a position or pitcher only. And our staff's done a great job. Kyle Barrett worked with him great. Made some phenomenal adjustments and all of a sudden the velo starts popping. He's in the zone a little bit more and I mean we probably used him a lot. Way more than we wanted to in the beginning part of the year, because I think he had like nine saves before we got through April. But he's been a huge part of our success. Just closing the door down. [00:41:37] Speaker A: Talk about the difference of that mentality between being a starting pitcher and a reliever. [00:41:42] Speaker F: You know, I did both in college and I don't understand the difference. So you're asking the wrong guy, probably. I think you just go out there and get out. I realized when I was, you know, when I've done it as a coach now, I think guys think they've got to be this amazing guy coming out of the pen. You gotta have the Tommy Trumpets playing. It's like I gotta do a bow and arrow after a third out and just go out there and just compete. And so you're asking the wrong guy. Just go get outs. That's the name of the game, man. Just go compete. [00:42:10] Speaker A: Any good surprises on the roster this year? [00:42:13] Speaker F: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of surprises. [00:42:18] Speaker E: We were. [00:42:20] Speaker F: To be honest, a lot of our starters have come back and they've been great surprises in general. They just boomed. You know, we hit absolutely awful in the fall. Like, I mean, some of our guys were just terrible. I mean, I think we had some guys only get like two, three hits all fall. And I was always like, man, we might have the best pitching staff in the world. I don't know. But one big surprise. It's not a surprise to me, but probably to a lot of people around the country. You know, Nick Hill was with us last year, but he had rotator cuff surgery. And we always knew he was a really good player. And he worked his tail off over the summer and got to a spot where he could get back to play. And I wasn't sure if he was ever going to throw again. And he worked so hard and ended up winning a Gold Glove in our league of packages, third base, which is the first one that we've had in school history. And I think third base is the hardest place to play on the infield as far as fielding percentage. And then he goes out and hits 24 dingers, sets all sorts of records for us. So I think he's a surprise to everybody else, but we knew he had the ability. But he's a guy who would tell you my fall was terrible. And so I'm really happy for him. He's worked his tail off to get back into playing, and it's awesome to watch him compete. [00:43:35] Speaker A: Do you think some of that for the fall for some guys though is it's. It is boring in the fall at times because it's not the same as the spring. The lights aren't the same. The lights are not as bright as 100%. I think just some guys go through the motions in the fall. [00:43:49] Speaker F: I think it's something to that. And then I think for some reason I've had a lot of guys that perform well in the spring tell me coach, I just not a fall player. And I'm like I gotta feel figure out a way to get that out of this thing. Good grief. Because I don't want to watch four months of not doing great. So I don't know what it is. I think there's definitely something some guys just do better with a uniform on. It's a real thing. I think. [00:44:13] Speaker A: What do you feel like has helped you the most at this point in your career? [00:44:16] Speaker F: I've had just great, great mentors. Jeff Sykes down at Warner is who I played for. I feel like he had a bajillion wins and he was just a great guy overall and mentor taught me a lot, gave me a lot of chances, helped me a lot throughout my playing career there. Working for a guy like Kurt Russell at Western Oklahoma State College, he should be a Hall of Famer. He's taught me a ton of just accountability, toughness really. Time to grow up type deal and realize this is actually what you want to do and if you, you want to do it, it looks like this and it's absolutely awful sometimes for it to look like this and then just good support. I've had great, great coaching staffs work for me here. Some have been with me since we took over and that's a big part of it. You got to have a good staff and you got to have guys that want the same thing and then you got to get lucky with players. I don't think that's talked about enough. We've had a couple all Americans that, that weren't big time players in the past. Just really good players played for us. Maybe got four at bats and juco before and those guys bloom and then all of a sudden you look so smart for signing them. But you got to get lucky with those guys because we were a rebuild program and I've had coaches ask me like what was it like year three or four. Well, we got an armament not everybody was after and he turned out to be an all American. That changed things for us, made us get to a regional. So there's a lot of that's luck, but. And great support from like my wife. I mean, she's phenomenal. My kiddo's phenomenal. Our alumni support is amazing. Our support at the school with our facilities and everything like that, it's really boomed this and you know, I joke around, I used to call and nobody know who the heck we are. Now we're getting called and that it's awesome for the school to get that kind of call, you know, reciprocated support. [00:46:11] Speaker A: What are some tips for assistance trying to get into this thing? [00:46:16] Speaker F: Don't do it for money, I'll tell you that much. And you know, you need to have some goals set. You know, if your goal is to be like I want to, I want to be the next Tim Corbin. Okay, that's great. And I think it's phenomenal. You better go out there and work. And it's got to be your sole focus to where you get it, to where it's a second nature thing. It's not something that you can't have a family with or anything like that. I think that's a misunderstanding. I think it's. You've got to get to a spot where you're realizing coaching and being a dad is basically the same thing. And if you're able to do that, it becomes easier and you enjoy it more. So coach where your feet are at. Don't be looking for the third, fourth job ahead. I think that screws up more than ever. It screwed me up before. And also when you think you figured it out, you didn't. So don't worry. You're just as lost as the rest of us. That's my advice. [00:47:13] Speaker A: I think having children probably changes you the most as a coach. [00:47:17] Speaker F: I tell recruits I'm a dad first, I'm a teacher second, a coach way down here. There's a lot of people in baseball smarter than me. How many of them care more than me? That becomes a different, different story. But that. That's our secret sauce, I think. [00:47:31] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go? [00:47:33] Speaker F: Shout outs? Yeah. You know, my brother's been a big supporter of us. He manages in pro ball with the Boulders in the Frontier League. And he. He grabs Nai guys, you know, to play for him, so. And then many of them got picked up in the affiliated ball. This is a great level. Nai is a phenomenal level. And you come out here to Lewiston, you'll see some pretty stinking good ball players and some really good coaches. A lot of coaches started out in Nai so It's a great, great time to come out here. Another shout out. I'd like to just give is all the players that played in the past that aren't here now that made this possible. We don't want to forget you guys. You guys built this thing. You believed in something and you got this to a point where we could get here. And so big shout out to the MACU community, baseball players and all the support that we've ever had. Our ad, Marcus Moeller, is phenomenal. Our President PG5. We're very blessed and we hope to make this a mainstay. [00:48:39] Speaker A: Congrats. [00:48:40] Speaker F: I appreciate it. [00:48:41] Speaker A: Good luck the rest of the week. [00:48:42] Speaker F: Thank you. [00:48:45] Speaker A: Here, Josh Altman, Stone head coach since 2016. Was in system from 07 to 15, but now 47 and 10 overall. But thanks for jumping on with me. [00:48:56] Speaker D: Yeah, you bet, Ryan. Thank you. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Tough one yesterday. But what did you tell the guys afterwards? [00:49:00] Speaker D: Yeah, so we talked to our guys about this. It happened at a conference tournament where we got beat game one. And I just came back and said, guys, the goal is to be 1 0. You don't win the tournament in one game. [00:49:12] Speaker C: So. [00:49:12] Speaker D: And especially the way this tournament's set up, it's actually, you play one game a day, it's doable, right? You come back and you just play a nine inning sprint that day. So when you kind of look at it that way, I felt like our guys actually kind of got. You could just see like a sense of relief after I said that in their face. And we've been there before, so, you know, we've played some really good teams. We've been a little bit of a tournament team. Our bats can get hot. We have a pretty good offensive team. So, you know, I think they like our odds and I like our odds going into today because it is. It's just a. It's a sprint. It's a nine inning sprint. And, you know, we've done all right this year, so. [00:49:42] Speaker A: And I think the good thing too now is going forward, you win today, you're going to play a team that's coming off of a loss, too. So that's the benefit. You know, you don't ever want to lose, but that's kind of the benefit of losing early is because now you're facing somebody that's coming off of a loss. [00:49:55] Speaker D: Exactly. And I talked to our guys too, about the way the tournament sets up. You know, you win, lose, lose, win. Yeah, there's maybe a day or two difference, but, you know, you both end up at a similar Spot in the bracket. So, I mean, it's. Yeah, you just go one and oh, each day. [00:50:07] Speaker A: And you got off day tomorrow to reset too, then, too. [00:50:10] Speaker D: Yeah, that helps. Obviously, it helps with a lot of different things, right. Pitching coming back, and just like you said, the mental reset. Now you feel like you come off a win today, you get a day off, and now you feel like you're right back in a driver's seat. [00:50:21] Speaker A: Did you talk to any coaches about coming out here to prep for being out here? [00:50:25] Speaker D: Yeah, I talked to a couple different coaches, a couple coaches, obviously, that have been here before, some of my guys, a couple mentors of mine. So, yeah, and it's funny because, you know, after playing a game, you reflect, okay, what did these guys say? How did we play? And, you know, I can definitely see where they're coming from. A lot of their advice, and we try to follow that advice, you know, try to be the loose team, the team that doesn't add pressure. As a coaching staff, that was something that we tried to do, make sure we're not adding pressure to the guys. The lights are bright anyway, right? It's our first time as a program here, so we felt we did a pretty good job of that in our dugout. Mark guys kind of were talking to us after. We're like, yeah, it wasn't extra pressure from you guys. It's just we all just wanted to win and, you know, we got a little bit tense at times, and that's what's going to happen in these championship games. But I think now being there, right, like, you experienced it, and now I think they're just kind of ready to settle in and play some baseball. And hopefully we see that out of them today. [00:51:14] Speaker A: What have you loved about being at Doan? [00:51:16] Speaker D: Man, the great thing about Doane is it's a small school and it's like being. It's. I've never really owned my own business, but from what I understand, it's like owning your own business, right? Like, they let you know, they, I've got great leadership, and they just say, hey, you know, you do what you do, and they just kind of let me run with it. And I love that. [00:51:35] Speaker A: Right? [00:51:35] Speaker D: So as you can do as much or as little as you want with it, but it's awesome. I have great support there now, you know, we've made some upgrades and our president wants to be the best, and that's awesome, right? Like, when you get to work for somebody that also wants to be the best, it just. It helps keep that passion going. And, you know, our culture now is such that there's a lot of great alumni support. So I'm getting text messages from guys that are. That have played there, you know, long before I played college baseball. And they're just so proud of the team and where we got to, and they want to be a part of it. So it's a. It's a family atmosphere, for sure, something I'm pretty proud of. [00:52:09] Speaker A: So what are the strengths of the team? [00:52:11] Speaker D: We're a competitive, resilient group. Like, we talk. Our values are compete, consistency, and team over me. So those are the three things that we talk about daily. We talk about them from day. Day one in the fall. And I think our team plays that way. We're very competitive. You know, I had a couple coaches even comment to me after yesterday's games, like, man, you guys are. They're competitive at bats. It was a competitive game. You're never going to give up. And you can see that in the, you know, the tournament championship game, in the 1716 victory and the. In the tournament, in the regional tournament where we're down and we scrap back in. Like, that's one of our strengths, right? Like, we just never give up. [00:52:41] Speaker A: So you do anything in the fall [00:52:42] Speaker C: to help with that? [00:52:43] Speaker D: We compete in the fall. We try to compete every day at practice. And it might not be the whole game, the whole practice is a game, but there's something within every practice. It's a competition. [00:52:52] Speaker A: What about pregame too, though? Components pre game, pregame? [00:52:56] Speaker D: It depends on the day. It depends on what we, you know, it's. You feel like as a coach, you have your finger on the pulse of the team somewhat, but, you know, it's kind of like, okay, do we need to compete a little bit better today? So maybe that time is, you know, it's. There's an execution piece. Maybe we didn't get bunts down. So, like in bp, it's competitive, right? Like, how many buns did you get down? We've done that occasionally the day before, I think sometimes or the day after. That's a lot of compete, you know, maybe where it's a little lighter day for some programs. It might be lighter for us, too. But the focus is, hey, we're competing how many times if we didn't get a runner out, if we didn't score runner from third with less than two outs, you better believe that one of our rounds in BP is how many times out of seven can you score the runner from third less than two outs? And we keep score and the guys compete, you know, and they're, and they're, you know, they jockey back and forth too. It's pretty fun. [00:53:40] Speaker A: Who've had good seasons for you, man. [00:53:42] Speaker D: Carter Roth is just having an amazing year, you know, knock on wood. He gets a, has a good game or two here moving forward and he'll be the, he'll, he'll lead the nai in hits, which is awesome. Grant Summers has had a great year for us. Tanner Nelson, our catcher has done really well. Jett Grossert's been hurt. He stepped up. He's hitting really well after coming back from a hamstring injury that really kind of lingered on him for quite a while. And honestly as a team, you know the saying the rising tide lifts all boats. I mean that's kind of what you see from our team. There's a couple guys have done really well in the bullpen for us recently. Ethan Merck is one of those guys. Cade Bridges has started the year not as well as he wanted to after a meeting. And what do I need to do? You know, it's just great to see those guys so proud of how they've responded. And I, I think that goes back to the values, right, like the competing every single day, the resiliency of our team. So those are guys that have really stepped up. Gabe Rodriguez has had a great year. Nick Yard was having a great year before his injury. So you know there's, there's a lot, you know, when you do well, there's a lot of guys that step up for us. But I mean all those guys have had really good years. [00:54:49] Speaker A: Do you feel like back to ball skills are coming back for hitters? [00:54:52] Speaker D: Yeah, oh absolutely. As a. [00:54:54] Speaker A: You were saying a lot less strikeouts now. [00:54:56] Speaker E: Now. [00:54:56] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:54:58] Speaker D: You're saying as a, just as a [00:55:00] Speaker C: whole, as a whole back to ball [00:55:01] Speaker D: skills at the college level. Yeah, yeah. Oh, 100%. Right. Like you see there's a lot of guys that are still swinging and they're going to get their swinging misses. But the best hitters have that bat to ball skill and that's one of the things that like that. I mean you talk about our guy, Carter Roth, the top of our lineup. He has tremendous bat to ball skills, a lot of really great mid swing adjusts and just, I mean that's why he's got as many hits as. And we have a few other guys in our program that are like that. But I mean he's just a glaring example of what you just said there for sure. [00:55:27] Speaker A: What do you feel like has helped you the Most in your career up to this point. [00:55:30] Speaker D: Oh, man. I think it's just there's a couple things, but I think having a great mentor and Jeremy Jorgensen, he was my predecessor at doan. I played for him at junior college. I mean, that's probably been the largest help. I mean, a very supportive wife at home has helped that as well. Right. Like having somebody that's there and that loves you win or lose, you know, like, that's. That's huge. That helps the bounce back. Right. So those are probably two of the largest things that I would contribute. And, you know, I guess the other thing I would say is just, you know, my faith and love for Jesus Christ our savior. And, I mean, it just helps keep you grounded, you know, for sure. [00:56:07] Speaker A: How proud are you of getting here? I mean, getting here for the first time, it's got to be great for you. [00:56:10] Speaker D: Yeah. Even just you saying that, Ryan, I feel like a little bit of goose. Goosebumps, you know, just getting here, but because this was a vision that Coach Jorgensen and I had when we got to Doane. You know, Coach Engel playing for me and. And being I was his pitching coach. And then he comes over, takes over as the pitching coach for me as I get the head coach job. I mean, it's just a dream that we get here. We got a taste of it when we came out for the regional, and then just being able, just knocking on the door so many years and finally breaking through. It's. Yeah, it's. It's quite the accomplishment, for sure. Very proud of that. [00:56:39] Speaker A: You played summer ball out here? [00:56:40] Speaker D: I played summer ball in. [00:56:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:42] Speaker D: Was it Boise in the Boise Summer League? I did that one year. I did, yeah. [00:56:47] Speaker A: Beautiful area. [00:56:47] Speaker D: It is cool. It's very cool. I never made it this far, you know, when we were out this way, when I played. But, yeah, it was a pretty cool area, man. I didn't know at that time, Right. I'd be wanting to get back here so bad, but it was a cool area. Yeah, for sure. [00:57:02] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go? [00:57:04] Speaker D: Oh, man, I don't. I don't know. I mean, we've got all of our assistant coaches, Their families came out. My family came out. I just. That's the love and support that you have when you coach at a. You know, in a family atmosphere. A lot of people back home watching just. I know this. Everybody, thanks for the support, and I appreciate everything that ABCA has done, appreciate everything that Nai's done to make this a championship event. [00:57:25] Speaker A: So thanks for your time. [00:57:26] Speaker D: Yeah, thanks Ryan. Thank you. Appreciate it. [00:57:29] Speaker A: I say it every year. Lewiston is bucket list item for a baseball fan. The town really embraces the teams and players during the event. It's also a beautiful part of the country in the Pacific Northwest. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt west in the ABCA office for all help with them podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email rbrownlebca.org Twitter, Instagram and TikTok coachbapca 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. [00:58:05] Speaker F: Keeps on turning and your life is not for yearning and you know that [00:58:15] Speaker A: way Yep wait for another day [00:58:21] Speaker F: and the world will always return as your life there before yearning and you know that way [00:58:36] Speaker A: Wait for another [00:58:41] Speaker B: day.