National High School Invitational (NHSI) - Part II

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host, ryan brownlee. Baseball is a story told across generations through the players, the moments and the gloves that shape the game. Now that story comes to life in Rawlings, the Finest in the Field book available now for pre [email protected] each of the 50 gloves is presented through detailed photography and paired with immersive essays that place the artifact within its historical context. Captivating imagery, period advertisements and additional memorabilia further illuminate the era each glove represents. Reserve your copy [email protected] and be among the first to experience baseball's evolution as told through the story of these iconic gloves. 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 NettingPros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Miner know that the ABCA sent you. Now onto the podcast. We made our annual trek over to Cary, North Carolina for the USA Baseball NHSI Tournament. Sit down with summer ABCA member coaches. Today we're joined by Regis Jesuits Matt Barr, Tampa Jesuits Miguel Menendez, Trinity's Rick Arnold, and Nolensville Zach Hudson. Let's welcome everyone to the podcast. All right here with Matt Darr. Again, this is round three for us. [00:02:39] Speaker B: Yeah, this is our fourth year here. [00:02:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:42] Speaker B: But yeah, for [00:02:46] Speaker A: I want to dive in a little bit more on the coaching side of things. You know, we've kind of done the history of the program a little bit, but are you able to prepare at all for the opponents for this? [00:02:58] Speaker B: I'd say it's very limited. Right. It's probably looking at stats if you can get on Game Changer and maybe find some stuff. You know, back in Colorado we have guys that scout the teams and you know, so I have a pretty in depth report on guys, but it's pretty limited, honestly. For you. [00:03:16] Speaker A: What are your favorite in game Charts that you like to use. [00:03:20] Speaker B: For me, when I have a, when I have access to like the full reports, it's basically tendencies on pitchers, on counts that we have and then also for hitters when we're scouting hitters in terms of, you know, what they tend to do, certain counts, what they tend to do, you know, in certain situations, things like that. [00:03:42] Speaker A: With your practice planning, we've talked a little bit about practice planning. How does that evolve for you over the years, like from when you started to where you're at now? How's that evolved for you over the years? [00:03:50] Speaker B: Good question. I think for me I've really. The longer I've done this, the more I've. I don't want to say the practices have shortened a lot, but I think they've definitely become more targeted, specific foundation, fast moving. I think kids have evolved even in the last 12 years. I've done this at, you know, Regis in the last 20 years overall, where you've got to keep things moving and active because they're just, they're not wired the way to stay attention span for a long time. [00:04:19] Speaker A: So yeah, I think all coaches are different. Do you get them the practice plan before practice? Do you wait till they show up? How do you handle? [00:04:27] Speaker B: We post it so when they arrive, it's posted. They have list of like pre practice duties field wise. And then they can see at that point, although they will know in general today's an offensive day, today's a defensive day, you know, that kind of stuff. So they can plan but in terms of specifics, they won't know how you [00:04:45] Speaker A: hand out those responsibilities for pre practice, [00:04:48] Speaker B: it's just posted and they figure it out. [00:04:50] Speaker A: They figure it out? [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah, like it's not necessarily specific. Like this kid does that. I mean pitchers may work on the mound, but in general, like moving tarps off, putting out bases, you know, I'm a big believer in like they, they need to do it collectively. So that's kind of the plan, you [00:05:06] Speaker A: know, with kids evolving then how does training change for them over the years? How's training or practice change for them over the years? [00:05:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I, it's been, I think like there's been more like most all kids at this point, especially high level kids have their own hitting coach, their own pitching guys. So it's less, it feels like to me, less individual teaching and more team work concepts. Right. Because you can teach a hitting philosophy, but chances are those guys are getting nine different philosophies. Right. So not that it's all bad, but I think it just, It. It ends up creating. I don't know. Sometimes it wastes time. It feel like because they have their own idea, they'll listen to you, but they're like one ear out the other type thing, and I don't know how effective it is. [00:05:59] Speaker A: You know, we talk about swing coaches versus hitting coaches, and obviously they go to their swing coach, but during practice, you're their hitting coach because situational hitting. How do you attack situational hitting practice? [00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And like, you know, I tell kids all the time, like, obviously I'm. It's not worth the battle to say you can't have your own hitting swing or, you know, whatever coach. But, you know, I talk to them all the time. Like, your hitting coach is teaching you how to have success in a cage with launch, angle, exit, velo, stuff like that. And when it's 42 degrees and the wind's blowing in 30 miles an hour, I need a kid that can hit the ball the other way or bunt, because we're not going to have success hitting the long ball, you know, especially in a place like Colorado where you got the elements and stuff like that. [00:06:41] Speaker A: We get this question a lot at the rookie mentorship meeting at the convention from assistant coaches. From a head coach's perspective. How. How do you know when you're going to give assistants more responsibilities on field or anything else with the program? How do you know when you're going to give assistant more responsibilities? [00:06:57] Speaker B: That's a good question. I think. You know, my staff I've had for a long time, so I'm trying to think, like, when I hire, like, say a JV coach or whatever, and you notice them taking steps on their own, like, whatever that is, you feel like you can give more to them. Right. And you trust them. I think that's what you. When you see them proactively take stuff, then it gives you that opportunity. [00:07:23] Speaker A: That's been my tip to them. Like, hey, whatever they're giving you to do right now, do that really well. And then they're probably going to give you more responsibilities. If you handle that one responsibility you have really well, they'll probably end up giving you more responsibilities for sure. [00:07:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:37] Speaker A: What are you trying to get out of today? Good game yesterday, but what are you really. Good game yesterday. What are you trying to get out of today? [00:07:46] Speaker B: I mean, obviously winning is important, but I think, like, more than anything, it's. I talked to the kids last night about the importance of learning from adversity. You know, in our state tournament setup, you know, it's a double elimination bracket. Right. So we just, we hopefully got better yesterday by learning how to have a tough loss and bounce back in a similar type scenario where you're gonna face two good teams, two good arms, probably, you know, that sort of stuff. So I think you want to get out of that, that ability to draw from that later down the road because, you know, it's, it's not easy to bounce back after a loss, but in the, it's the reality of how the system. [00:08:26] Speaker A: And it's early in the year too. [00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And, and the guy was really good. Right. Sometimes you gotta, you gotta tempt your guy. I mean, it may have been, I may have been the best. [00:08:36] Speaker A: How many, I don't know how many teams would have hit him yesterday? [00:08:40] Speaker B: I, in my long time doing this, it may have been the best performance against us like in just like Domino. I mean, we really didn't have a lot. We had one opportunity in the sixth, you know, to get runs. Otherwise, you know, most of the time when you see kids, you get a few innings where you leave guys on and you look back, I was like, I don't even know if I can say what we could have done different other than not have him on the bump. Right. That would have been the best solution. But yeah, you know, yesterday you get [00:09:07] Speaker A: to hit on the field, today you guys are in the indoor cages. Does that look different for you hitting wise or pre game wise when you are on the field? Because you deal with it in Colorado, I'm sure too, where some days you may be on the field for pregame, but then other days you might be inside training a lot more. [00:09:20] Speaker B: I think when you get inside. And I've always said, like, historically we've, I feel like we've always been one of the better hitting teams that come here. And part of it, I think, is because we're indoors for three months and we really work on swing stuff. Right. Where California, Florida schools are all outside. And I do think time in the cages really helps you narrow the focus a little bit. When you're outside hitting, you tend to get caught up in the. What's going on, how far you're hitting it instead of the proper swings. [00:09:50] Speaker A: But those of us that have coached in the north, we go through that. We feel like our swings are really short coming out of the gym, but then you get outside for a while and the swings start to get long. Do you have any tips for maybe shortening swings back up when they need to? Because. Because that's gonna happen once you get outside. And you want to start seeing the ball fly. You might get a little bit long with your swing. Do you have any tips on try to bring their. [00:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll do some drills, you know, like some opposite field drills or some stuff where, you know, you put the cage off to the side and throw from different angles just to try to shorten it up. I think a lot of times it's talking to a mentally wise about that. Like for example, to your point, like yesterday we talked a little bit about what the Morse kid is like. Young hitters tend to try to do more when a kid's throwing harder, which in reality you've got to shorten your swing and just straight to the ball instead of trying to swing harder. You're like, he's throwing 95, I gotta catch up. [00:10:42] Speaker A: Just touch it. [00:10:43] Speaker B: Let him provide the power, let him provide the veto off the bat and just get to the ball. [00:10:48] Speaker A: Have your in game responsibilities changed much over the years? [00:10:52] Speaker B: I've given more away. Don't coach the bases. I haven't done that for a while. I don't call pitches. I think it's, it's managing, right. It's the bigger picture. One of my mentors a while ago said, you know, as the, as the head coach or the manager, you just watch the first four innings and then you, you integrate yourself in the last three. And a lot of times it's that way, right, with moves, pitching, that sort of stuff. [00:11:17] Speaker A: Love it. All right, thanks for your time, Matty. [00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. [00:11:19] Speaker A: Here with Miguel Mendez, Tampa Jesuit. Really good game yesterday, by the way. Very well played game on both sides. What do you think about yesterday? [00:11:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, obviously two really talented arms on the mound, you know, which we knew we were going to get right Going into that game, it's like, all right, can you sneak through the first one somehow? And their guy was tough and. But I thought we played pretty well. I think Kaden competed his butt off out there and gave us a chance and, you know, they made a couple more plays than we did. I thought we had some opportunities and. But really happy and excited to get to play a team of that caliber and glad it was a good game and we competed well. [00:11:54] Speaker A: You guys have had a rich tradition of arms. I mean, what do you attribute to that? Obviously some of its talent. But you guys have done such a good job of developing arms. [00:12:03] Speaker C: I mean, obviously I got to give the players credit what they've done and what they do when they come in. But our pitching coach does a tremendous job. They buy into the culture of the program. They buy into the weight room and you know, guys just want to compete. And I think the other thing is like iron sharpens iron, right? Like they've had to kind of compete for innings and it's just kind of helped them compete. And you know, we've been fortunate that guys have been successful when they come out of and left our place. [00:12:27] Speaker A: Can you prepare for something like this with teams you probably haven't seen before? [00:12:30] Speaker C: It's tough. I mean, it's a little easier nowadays just because of social media. [00:12:34] Speaker D: Right. [00:12:35] Speaker C: And honestly, like our guys have probably played against some of these guys throughout in summer events and showcases and things of that nature. But still to, you know, it's hard to. It's hard to kind of see unless you know somebody in the area to try to get a scout on board to see how they play. Like it's tough till you get out there, but I mean that's what makes it fun. [00:12:51] Speaker A: What do you guys use in game chart wise? Do you use anything? [00:12:54] Speaker C: So we do, you know, we're still a little traditional old school here. [00:12:58] Speaker A: We've talked to. [00:12:59] Speaker C: But we started using 643. It's come out with an amateur one now and we've been using that and it's. And honestly, literally we've been using it for like a week and a half and it's been awesome. It's been a game changer for us to be able to go and keep it and kind of. We still been doing our old school by hand, but we started doing. Implementing that a little bit more and we're excited to kind of continue to do that. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Have your in game responsibilities changed much over the years since you started? [00:13:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm probably a little more hands off. Like I don't coach third. My third base coach has had to deal with a family issue. He's actually not here. He was supposed to come up yesterday and something happened but. But I usually. He kind of runs the offense usually. I got a pitcher coach that calls all the pitches. I used to do everything and now I do nothing, write a lineup. But it's changed. But I think that's because I just have such a great staff. Like I can let them do their thing and you know, they're. And we're. We've been together so long. They've been with me since I've been here 12 years now. And we all kind of see things the same way. So it just makes my life easier and I can just kind of manage the dugout and you know, I tell Everybody, like, I don't even coach baseball. I coach culture, like, every day. Handle the baseball stuff. I handle the culture stuff. [00:14:01] Speaker A: And we hear that word a lot. Like, when somebody says, I handle culture, what does that mean to you? [00:14:05] Speaker C: To me, it's about the tradition and legacy of our program, what we do, and it's making sure guys understand. And we talk about all the time. Like, when you graduate, your job's not done. It's how did you leave those guys behind you? Are they ready to take your place and become leaders? Our guys, like, you know, we had Vincent De Carlo, who's a freshman at NC State, was at our game last night. He came out to support the guys. And it's like, those kind of things we take pride in, you know, Jamie Arnold came and, you know, but right before he left for spring training and came and talked to our group. And so we get those kind of things, and guys want to pour back into the program. And that makes me feel good. And that's what we talk about. To me, that's what culture is. [00:14:37] Speaker A: When those guys come back, what do they try to relay to the guys? [00:14:41] Speaker C: You know, it's funny, like, the number one thing is how much they miss Jesuit baseball and playing right in high school. Like, as much as they've had great college careers and playing pro ball now, like, it's nothing's. Like, being there and, like, just to enjoy the moment and to enjoy your time there and not kind of always look at. Peek ahead of what's next. Just kind of be in the moment. And that seems to be the constant theme with our guys when they come back. [00:14:59] Speaker A: How gratifying is it for you with your Tampa roots? [00:15:02] Speaker C: It's great. I mean, to be able to be there and be a part of it and to help kind of, you know, kind of keep the rich tradition of school going. I mean, it means a lot. And for us to be able to come out here and represent and hopefully play well while we're here, like, it just. It means the world to me, you know. [00:15:18] Speaker A: Now then, training wise, practice practice wise, because what are you doing then? Training. Synopsis, your role shift, you know, how are you kind of just touch pointing everybody, you know? [00:15:27] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, I still like, you know, when we do team defense, team offense, like, it's still kind of leading the way, but it's like, when we, like, to me, I'll be honest with you, my favorite part of practice, when we do individual defense, because I get to go handle the catchers. That's my responsibility. I love it. You know, I didn't love that we had a pass ball to allow to run to score last night. I wear those a little more personally. [00:15:45] Speaker B: Right. [00:15:46] Speaker C: But I love spending that time with those guys. And then it's like you said, it's just kind of overseeing and managing our coaching staff and making sure. Touching base with them. Like, hey, what do we need to work on today? What needs to be in a practice plan, you know, and turn them loose to let them go. Like, they're so. They do such a great job. I mean, you've had Louis Martinez on the. On the podcast here as assistant coach of the year, and he does a great job with our infielders. Like, I don't mess with infielders. I'm like, look, he's way better at it than me. Like, go deal with him. Like, he's got it. And I feel that way with all of our guys. Like, everybody's kind of got their niche and their role and they bought in. And I think a big factor is the ABCA and going to the convention and taking our staff there and just kind of always kind of looking at new ideas and how we can get better and improve and, you know, and it's those kind of things that I think have, you know, allowed us. For me, it gives me more time to kind of self reflect, self scout. How can we be better as a program and focus on those areas? [00:16:33] Speaker A: And that's why you come and play in things like this, because it's going to be those strong, small things that. That'll either allow you to win or lose games. [00:16:40] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely. Right. And just getting able to talk to other coaches and see how they do things from different areas. Right. Like, I'm intrigued. We don't. We don't play a lot of small world, but I'm always intrigued by the California that, you know, west coast ball that they call it. Right, Whatever. But I'm always like, how can we do things? How can we incorporate things to get better and all those kind of things? So to me, when you come to these kind of events and you see people from all different parts of the country, it's like, let me pick their brain. What are they doing? How are they. Why are they successful? Can we, you know, steal some of that? Right. I think coaches are the biggest thieves out there. [00:17:07] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:07] Speaker C: We're always looking for ways to get better. But to me, like, that's the benefit in one of the, you know, major, you know, obviously want to play great competition. We want to show well, and we would have loved to Won the tournament. Now, you know, we're going to try to finish three and one here. But to me, it's. It's about those things and how we can bring stuff back to our program to be better and go compete for a state championship. [00:17:23] Speaker A: Do you have any preset, pregame stuff for catchers that you have them do daily? [00:17:27] Speaker C: So we have tried to, you know, we try to. Here we. We were gonna bring the machine with travel was a little bit tougher, but we try to do a lot of stuff with machine. We'll do heavy ball, bare hand stuff, like just stuff to kind of wake up and activate the body and that kind of stuff. But I mean, that's stuff that, you know, I think we've. Everybody's seen clips of. We try to jump on board with a lot of that stuff. [00:17:45] Speaker A: At our convention with the rookie mentorship, we get a lot of questions. You've had great assistants and you haven't really had to deal with new assistants, but, you know, for a young assistant trying to get into it, how can they kind of gain more responsibility or how should they go about that, asking for more responsibilities? [00:18:02] Speaker C: You know, I think the biggest thing, like with our guys is, you know, when you come in and just put your head down and work and gain trust, like, that's the best thing, right? Be where your feet are. I know, I hear that a lot on the podcast, but really, be where your feet are. Be the best you can. And as you do that and you start to gain trust, the head coach is going to give you more responsibility. You know, we've been fortunate. Our guys have. I think they don't want to be the head guy somewhere else. Like, we've. They've had opportunities, but they just want to stay and work and, you know, we. I appreciate that. Trust me, I don't want to have to, like, always replace guys. But. But you know, my goal, like I tell them all the time, if you want to be a head coach, my goal is to try to help you learn, be the best you can and get you out. So you can go be a head coach somewhere if that's what your goal is. And if you want to be here and be the best guy you could be, that's great, too. Obviously, we'd love to have you and keep you here for as long as possible, but to me, just put your head down and work and. And I think you gain a lot of trust that way. [00:18:48] Speaker A: I thought you did a good job handling umpires last night. It doesn't always go your way. I Thought you did a good. I thought both sides did. Because it wasn't just. Yeah, it was. [00:18:54] Speaker C: No, no, it was both. [00:18:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought you did a good job. Just talk about managing umpires, too, because I think that's a big point of. It's hard times, and I was not. [00:19:04] Speaker C: I probably thank. I appreciate it. My wife. I can't wait to show this to my wife and tell her this. But, no, it's. It's a challenge at times. I've gotten better as I've gotten older. Right. Like, you. [00:19:14] Speaker B: You. [00:19:14] Speaker C: When you're young and fiery, like, everything. Always personal. Like, I've learned, you know, I've learned over the years. To me, it's like, if I get so hyped up at the umpires, my. My kids are going to get hyped up, and then they're not going to play the game the way they're supposed to be played. So I try to stay as calm as possible. I'm not always great at it, but I tried to be it. And last night was. It was a tough. It was. You know, it was tough both ways, and. And I didn't want to take away from either team. Like, I thought both guys did such a good job. And it's like, you get out there to a point. [00:19:39] Speaker A: Outcome of the game, because I thought for both sides, there was tough calls. [00:19:42] Speaker C: For both sides. Exactly. And that's the thing. It's like, you know, sometimes, you know, you get out there. I mean, I'll be honest. I think my first thought was, like, the last thing I want to do is get thrown out into a game of USA Baseball. [00:19:50] Speaker B: Right? [00:19:50] Speaker C: Like, oh, shoot. But those kind of things. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Edit it. [00:19:55] Speaker D: All right. [00:19:55] Speaker C: Sorry. But those kind of things, like, you know, it goes through. It went through my mind, obviously. But, yeah, you know, it's just, you know, it's. Umpires are trying to do the best they can. Right? [00:20:05] Speaker E: You. [00:20:05] Speaker C: You want it, you got to go fight for your guys. Sometimes, like, I tell our guys, like, I'm going to fight for you, but there's a line, and we just got to play through it. Like, it's. It's the same for both sides, like you said, and that's the big thing. Just. Just keep competing. [00:20:15] Speaker A: I think, too, like, you don't know what type of stuff that home plate guy is seeing, exactly. Elite. Elite on. [00:20:22] Speaker C: And I think that was probably the biggest thing last night. [00:20:25] Speaker A: Like, they probably haven't seen arms like that consistently where. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough for those. [00:20:30] Speaker C: It's Gonna be tough sometimes. [00:20:31] Speaker A: Elite arms. [00:20:32] Speaker C: And that's what I told our guys. Like, it's two elite arms that probably, like you said, he probably hasn't seen a lot of that. And it's, it's tough and something like just go like the good thing. It was like you said it was. It was consistent both ways. So, like they're fighting the same thing we're fighting. Just go compete. [00:20:44] Speaker A: Did you talk to him much after the game last night or just kind [00:20:46] Speaker C: of a little bit, but not. [00:20:48] Speaker A: Are you a post game guy? Do you talk much? [00:20:50] Speaker E: We do a little. [00:20:50] Speaker C: I try not to say too much post game because if we won, they don't want to hear me anyway. If they lose, they don't want to really don't want to hear me. So we spent more time when we got back to the hotel, ate dinner. We kind of talked a little bit. We, you know, I talked a little bit post game. We do, but I try not to hit too much. It's really either like on a road trip, we could do a little bit more in the hotel or the next day before the game or before practice. We try to hit it, but it was just more of like, you know, the. You could tell there was disappointment. Right. Because now you can't win the tournament. But it's like there's still a job to do, right. We got to go 3 and 1. Like that's, that's what we came here to do. We got to win as many games we can and just keep competing. Right. There's still a lot of really good baseball left to play. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Using this as a team building. Yeah, trip too, because obviously you probably don't stay in many hotels up to this point, do you? [00:21:32] Speaker C: No, we went. We were in Jacksonville last week for a night. It was a quick kind of trip where we went like a Thursday, Friday. And just, just because this was such an expense that we didn't do too many hotels. But like I told them, like, we've got to get comfortable because you go down to the state tournament and you're gonna have to stay in a hotel and get ready to play. And it's like trying to get them to experience those kind of things so they can, you know, hopefully have success if we can make it that far. [00:21:51] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go? [00:21:53] Speaker C: Just my coaching staff and probably my wife, Lori. Right. She's the, the reason I get to do this. You know, she spent a lot of time and my kids are a little bit older now. I have a junior on my baby's a junior on the team, but she spent a lot of times by herself at a lot of sporting events while I was at practice and doing things. So, yeah, I got to give her a shout out for sure. [00:22:12] Speaker A: Give some tips on coaching your own son or daughter. [00:22:15] Speaker C: I don't know if I'm the right one. I caught my oldest son, so I don't know if I'm the right one to give some of those tips. [00:22:19] Speaker A: Well, speak to that a little bit. Obviously, tough decision, but you're doing what's best for the program. [00:22:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And, you know, we had that talk when my son. We came here and came to Tampa with my old oldest. It was even my youngest, it was like, look, I got to do what's right. This is, you know, this is what pays the bills here. And it was tough. Like, we had a really good team. It was the COVID year 2020. We were number one in the country and we had a lot of returning guys and some big time guys. And, you know, but for him, I think he, you know, the good thing was, is he took it well. He continued to work. He made the team as a senior the next year and, you know, and it was, you know, played a key role for us. So, you know, coaching your son is tough, right? Like, you always want to be. That's where Louie and I have such a great relationship. It's like, all right, Louie, you got him today. I'm ready to kill him. Like, you take him and he'll handle it and do some of those things. But I've gotten better. I tell my oldest all the time, like, your younger brother got the best, better version of me because I've learned from all my mistakes with you. And it's just tough. I try to, like, there's that fine line of when to be dad, when to be coach. And, you know, I've probably. I don't want to say baby. My younger one, but he definitely, he definitely got a better version of dad and coach than my older one did. [00:23:25] Speaker A: I think that's been the biggest tip with the high school guys, that you have to allow your sisters to do most of the coaching and to be able to separate that. [00:23:33] Speaker C: Dad, coach, yes, absolutely. For sure. My youngest is like, he's good. Like, we go hit all the time on our own, and that's great and that's kind of our time. But at practice it's, you know, he's an outfielder, which is great. I don't have to deal with him. We got a guy that handles that And. And then Louie kind of handles the hidden stuff, so I could just kind of leave him alone. And then when it's one on one, we get to be, you know, dad and son again. [00:23:52] Speaker A: Thanks for your time. [00:23:52] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:23:53] Speaker E: Appreciate it. [00:23:53] Speaker A: Rick Arnold from Trinity. [00:23:55] Speaker D: Yes, sir. [00:23:56] Speaker A: Good win yesterday for you. [00:23:57] Speaker D: Thank you. [00:23:58] Speaker A: What'd you talk to the guys about after the game, if anything? [00:24:00] Speaker D: You just talked about being mentally tough and taking advantage of opportunities, right? We didn't get a ton of opportunities, but we didn't give up many. So just being mentally tough and being, you know, staying focused and in literally taking advantage of every chance we get, you know, to make something happen. [00:24:13] Speaker A: I just thought you guys in the first standing, you had a chance that game could have got away from you guys in the first place. You guys bear down. Just showed a lot about your team's mental toughness. [00:24:21] Speaker D: That's exactly. That was exactly the message. And literally, you know, we didn't. We had a couple chances, like I said, to give them a couple runs, and when we didn't, we just kind of stuck, dug our feet in and didn't give up anything early. And that gave us some momentum and some confidence that we needed. [00:24:38] Speaker A: Do you prepare for the other teams in this. Can you prepare for the other teams? [00:24:41] Speaker D: You know, we watch as much video as we can on anything we can get our hands on. You know, we try to watch them at bats, but it's so hard because you're seeing these guys one time and [00:24:49] Speaker E: you don't know them. [00:24:50] Speaker D: It's not like your state or your regional opponents where you can, you know, you can see games all year long. This is such a challenge and such a, you know, such an honor to be here. But it's, it's, you know, we didn't come just to show. We came to win, and we're going to try our best to win every inning of every day. [00:25:04] Speaker A: Good arm free yesterday. [00:25:06] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Are you heavily involved with the arms for the pitchers? [00:25:09] Speaker D: Yeah, my background's in pitching, but I got a young pitching coach, Nick Parrish, who does a really, really good job. He played for me, played summer ball for me, so he's been around me for. He was my son's roommate in college, so we have a really good rapport. And he's so good with our pitchers. I'm involved because, again, that's my background. But. But he's. He's so good with our guys. And we've got some guys really bought in to, you know, they do their stuff on their own like they all do, but they bought into what we do and following our program, and they've. They've really taken advantage of every opportunity inside and out our program. [00:25:37] Speaker A: I think all coaches deal with that. Now. How do you kind of blend with what they're doing on the side with maybe their own facility, and then when they come back to practice, how are you handling that? [00:25:44] Speaker D: Well, you have to blend it. You know, look, it's these, these kids are trying to get to the next level. We know we can help them, but if they've got someone else can help them, all the better. I mean, shame on me for not, you know, embracing them getting better. The biggest thing we stress is avoiding the overuse and making sure that we're at least communicating, if not to the. To their. To their private instructors, at least to them. So we're on the same page and we've had a lot of success doing it. And I give, again, Nick, a lot of credit and I give the people we work with a lot of credit. [00:26:09] Speaker A: Yeah. How do you manage. What's that conversation like when you're talking about workload with people they go to? [00:26:14] Speaker D: Well, generally we put on the kids that communicate to us and we give them the parameters when we want to start, what we're going to do and how much we'd like for them to kind of shut down and what our belief is on that, which is no different than most coaches across the country. You know, the fear is that they're trying to get that work in and how do they, how do they do that in that downtime? But there's guys, you know, around our area, around our area that are pretty good about making sure they, they manage it and make sure that there's not a ton of throwing. They can do a lot of other things, too, and we do as well. [00:26:43] Speaker A: Nice. Your in game responsibilities change much over the course of your career as far as how. What your responsibilities are for games? [00:26:50] Speaker D: Not a ton. You know, when I started at Trinity 12 years ago, you know, I like. I coach third base. I'm going to do that as long as I can move my butt in and out, you know, in and out of the dugout. And as the head coach, I think that's important, the high school level. Personally now, I think it's great when you have someone else who can do it too. But I've always found that it works better for us. And, you know, we manage defensive plays, the bunt, the bunt situation, the first and third situations, and, you know, I'm making the final calls, but I've Got a lot of great. I've got a former head coach in my staff. I've got four or five college and former pro guys that are on our staff. So we've got a lot of experience. We blend it all. We have a system that, you know, I'll ask a question, I'll get a quick answer, then we make a decision, we roll with it. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Give some tips for coaching third base, stay aggressive. [00:27:34] Speaker D: You know, I look especially at the high school level, right? I've got a little experience coaching in college. Never coached third in college except for one game, but when our head coach got kicked out. But, but I just think you got to stay aggressive, right? You, you got to pay attention to what's going on. You know, we preach to our kids on second base, know where the outfitters are, but I think there's a lot of coach that don't pay enough attention to that themselves. The simple things, you know, the attention to detail. You know, where's that third baseman playing? How far away from the bag is he? How far can you get off on your secondaries and spots? I mean, the attention to detail is something that I know my kids get tired of hearing me harp on, but I know they're benefiting from it. We're never going to let up on that. [00:28:07] Speaker A: What about practice planning? How much that evolved for you over the years? [00:28:11] Speaker D: It's evolved because we've changed with some current trends and stuff, but man, we've got a really regimented. We've got, you know, we start off with rstr, run, stretch and throw and they've got their band work window. And then we've got some individual work we do. We call it green White days. Green days are one set of drills, white's another. We do that every other day. And then. And that's kind of our individual work. Then we do some individual position work for 15 minutes and we've got several different things they do, you know, infielders and outfielders that do different. And then we roll into a defensive. Most days of defensive fundamental, whatever that is, one or two a day for 30 minutes. Then we roll into BP or live at bats or sometimes a sim game, depending on the situation. And, and then I also flip that. Sometimes I'll flip and do the sim game or the on field BP before I do the defense, just so that doesn't get too monotonous for them. But we, man, we, we move from one session to the next and get it done. [00:28:57] Speaker A: Long toss, guys, long toss. [00:28:58] Speaker D: We do, we do long toss now again, we have A kind of individualized approach with our pitchers depending on their situation. So, and Nick manages that really well and we oversee that. But we have, when we do our run, stretch and throw in the throwing window of that they work out to whatever, you know, 150, 180, 210, 240. But as they work back in, then they finish some quick hands. It's a really standard. It's not rocket science. [00:29:22] Speaker E: Right. [00:29:22] Speaker D: It's just a really standard. [00:29:23] Speaker A: Some guys still don't know. [00:29:24] Speaker D: Yeah, and that's a shame because I think it benefits kids every day to have and that to me that routine is that attention to detail and there's times where our kids will kind of get away from some of the focus on it. We gotta, you know, get on them. But when they get back on it, they, they, they buy in. [00:29:38] Speaker A: We get a lot of questions from young assistant coaches. Give some inexpensive, inexpensive experience to maybe young assistant that's trying to get into this thing. [00:29:46] Speaker D: Look, I, I was that guy not, you know, a long time ago, but it doesn't, it seems like yesterday to me. I think you've got to ask questions, you know, I think you got to be respectful about it, but you've got, you got to know your place, right? And you've got to, and to me, you've got to take your time kind of just assessing situations on an individual basis in terms of what questions you want to ask when. But even in game, I don't mind a coach asking me a question. Coach, what were you thinking? What were you doing? I'm flattered by that actually, because, you know, if they want to know, hopefully they're going to help. I've got one of my assistants, I've had a couple of them going to be highest coaches in the area, head coaches in the area. And you know, and I learned as much from them as they learned from me. Even as young coaches and much less the veteran guys like, I just think every day, you know, you got a chance to figure out something. A way to communicate to a kid is the big key. That's another thing I do. I walk around as much as I can, you know, if I don't have any other responsibilities on a given day during our stretching window, you know, We've got a 10 minute window there and I'm, I'm, I'm asking them about their siblings, especially our younger players, younger players that are up on varsity because, you know, the freshman sophomore, I'd be playing with the big boys. They, they're a little Uncomfortable. But if I can get to know their family a little bit, know if they've got sisters or brothers, some of them I already know about, but the ones I don't, I try to get to know just to develop that trust. And I encourage our young coaches to do the same. [00:30:57] Speaker A: What about gaining more responsibility as an assistant coach? Getting more responsibility as an assistant coach? [00:31:01] Speaker D: Yeah, you know, like that's, that's something that, that I, from my experience that's earned like with my pitching coach. I mean again, he played for me in summer ball for six years on the circuit, right. And, and then he played for me four years at Trinity and then he, he was roommates with my son in college and they played together. So I've seen him for mature from a, from a 9 year old kid through, you know, through a 25 year old man and in the baseball world. Right. And so he's earned more responsibility and I give it to him as soon as he earns it. And truthfully, I'm probably old school. I'm probably tough to please in a lot of ways just because I'm kind of a paramilitary background, being a retired policeman and homicide detective. So I kind of demand that. But guys, coaches have bought in just like our kids do. And ultimately that responsibility I give to them pretty quick as they earn it. You know, our first base coach and our guy that hits our IO like he earned some stuff pretty quick in terms of handling, but he does our bunt coverage every day and that's his defense especially. And then he, you know, he hits IO, which I take a lot of pride in. We have a very specific routine we go through moving our feet, dynamic work in that IO communication, so, so important to us. And so those coaches, and then when they get more that responsibility, man, they tend to really love what they're doing. [00:32:13] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go? [00:32:15] Speaker D: Shout out to USA Baseball for putting this on, man. And for Viton Trinity High School. We're, like I said, we came here to win, but we also came here to get some great experience and be around some of the best programs in the country. And I'll tell you, Tampa Yesterday, what a first class organization, first class people. And we can play them 10 times. To me, those are two first round picks, man. I've been around a lot of pros and those two guys are both pros yesterday. Yeah. [00:32:40] Speaker A: Thanks. [00:32:41] Speaker D: All right. Thank you, brother. [00:32:41] Speaker C: Appreciate it. [00:32:42] Speaker A: Here was Zach Hudson, Nolensville. Good bounce back win today for you guys. [00:32:48] Speaker E: Yeah, we, that's and that's what I told him yesterday is I want. That's kind of the first time we'd been punched in the mouth really. So I was, I was interested to see how they bounce back and they did a great job. Del Barton's got a great program and we knew that. But you know, Parker Vandercook for us set the tone and was, was really good, pounded the zone. So, you know, very pleased with how he bounced back today. [00:33:05] Speaker A: You guys ever played in front of that many scouts? [00:33:07] Speaker E: I don't think so. We've had a lot of scouts before. We've been fortunate enough to have some, some big time guys. But you know, at one point, you know, you're coaching third, you look up and it's like, man, that's a lot of scouts up there for sure. [00:33:17] Speaker A: But good for them though because you got to get used to it at some point. [00:33:20] Speaker E: Yeah, that's right. You know, that's what I tell them. Like you're, if they're here to watch you play, you're a good ballplayer. So something you got to get used to and be able to handle it. So it's obviously an awesome experience for them. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Are you able to coach like with scouting, are you able to scout in this type of deal? A little bit. [00:33:35] Speaker E: A couple of our assistant coaches came over early yesterday to watch. We may have a little bit of time this afternoon, but you know, you got to kind of take care of the boys first and you know, try and fill their time a little bit. But when we get a chance, we'll come over here. [00:33:47] Speaker A: Do you have any go to pregame charts or in game charts that you guys use? What do you guys like to use? I like asking that question. [00:33:52] Speaker E: So among our coaching staff, we kind of do a couple things. I keep a spray chart and just, just a pitcher tendency chart. And then one of our assistant coaches kind of will watch position in the box stride, you know, open, closed, hard on the front side. Just kind of looking for some tendencies. And then we have a chart, you know, that says okay, if he's hard on his front side, how do you attack that? So something. And we, we've challenged our pitchers in the dugout to have charts. So, so they're, they're doing it and that. So we've tried to create some habits of what are we looking for, how do we attack it. So trying to empower them with knowing how to attack it. [00:34:24] Speaker A: How have your in game responsibilities evolved over your career? [00:34:28] Speaker E: Yeah, it's, it's a great question. It kind of Depends on the team, I think. So like when we have. So Evan McIlvaine catches for us. He didn't catch today, but you know, he's kind of a coach on the field for us, so. So we let him call the game mostly. But today, you know, we. So I called every pitch that we threw today. So it's kind of day to day. I've done a little bit of everything. You know, we kind of divvy up responsibilities amongst the staff as far as positioning and once again trying to empower the kids with reading swings and trying to shift and shade and you know, what pitch is coming and how to attack that pitch. [00:34:59] Speaker A: Pitch calling is an art. How has that evolved for you over the years? [00:35:02] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, same thing. You know, it depends on who we have throwing, you know, what are their strengths? You know, because we may have, we may watch them a team we're going to play, see them facing up arm, we may want to attack them totally differently. So once again it's all about reading swings and you know, trying to not get into predictable tendencies and, but also pitching to our strengths. You know, we want to pride ourselves in knowing what our pitchers do well and we don't want to necessarily try and deviate from that. We want to pitch with our best stuff. [00:35:31] Speaker A: What about practice wise? How's that practice planning evolved for you over the years? [00:35:34] Speaker E: Yeah, that's something, man. I tell the guys like maybe too much time, but I spent spend, I mean a couple hours a day planning a practice. You know, I just, I hate wasted time. I hate just meaningless standing around. So we try and be as efficient as possible, take advantage of every inch on the field that we can. You know, we don't have necessarily the best facilities in the world but you know, if we got some cage time, like I don't want 10 guys in one cage. So once again just trying to be efficient, maximize time and maximize space. [00:36:06] Speaker A: You know, when you talk about that, how are you relaying that to the players? Are you posting it? Are you sending it pre practice? Like when are you relaying it to players, what you're doing for practice? [00:36:14] Speaker E: So as soon as it's done, I print it off, have group text by class, I text it out to them, send an email to the coaches. And usually the email to the coaches is pretty detailed. Like hey, here's what we're doing. I don't love to micromanage, but I want to micromanage time. But if we have 30 minutes of individual D, I'm going you to let them do their Thing with the coaches, do their thing with the kids, and we have a great coaching staff. So send it out to them, post it in the locker room, post it in the dugout, and then we'll talk through it at the beginning of practice. [00:36:41] Speaker A: How long have you been doing group text by class? [00:36:43] Speaker E: Well, probably five or six years. We used to do like, you know, I forget snap. No, what? Group me or something like that. It wasn't group me, but something similar. It's just kind of been the most efficient way and the best way to do it. [00:36:56] Speaker A: We get a lot of questions from young assistant coaches, especially at the convention, like the rookie mentorship. How can a young assistant maybe handle their responsibilities, but then get more responsibilities? [00:37:06] Speaker E: Well, I think asking good questions is always a good thing. And I think whatever role you're in, be the best at that role. Ask for honest feedback from a head coach. We have individual meetings with all of our coaches at the end of each year, and I think just having a conversation of, hey, here's what I want to do. I want to grow in this. You know, sometimes there's some schools who are probably just fortunate to get a body, but some. Some coaches are fortunate. They, hey, I want to grow in this profession. I want to be a head coach one day. So I've tried to draw people in on, you know, scheduling, budgeting, fundraising, all that stuff. There's so much, you know, head coach coaching ball is a sliver of it. There's so much more that goes into it. So just kind of exposing them to those different responsibilities and roles. [00:37:45] Speaker A: You have any fundraising tips? [00:37:47] Speaker E: Man? Not really. What we've done, we've done golf scrambles. We've done like kind of text a thons. We basically just send out texts and calls and ask for money. Everything's more expensive than it should be. So it's always an uphill battle. But our parents do a great job. [00:38:01] Speaker A: Talk about your time at MTSU a little bit. [00:38:03] Speaker E: Yeah, so I was there from 2007 to 2010. Played for Coach Peterson. Jim McGuire was an assistant. Mike McClary was an assistant. It was an awesome time. Awesome, awesome group of guys we played, played with. 2009, we were conference champions, playing the Louisville Regional. So, you know, I think it probably helped form who I am as a baseball coach. You know, Coach Pete was tough nose and hard nose and old school and, you know, learned a lot from him. But now Mike McLauri is actually a coach in our district. So it's kind of. It's kind of weird to go from, you know, you recruited me a long time ago and was a coach of mine and now you were kind of like peers and we talk, you know, on the phone multiple times a week. So, so. But yeah, it was a great, great time of my life. Met my wife there, so a lot of, lot of good memories there for sure. [00:38:44] Speaker A: Developed good arms and good players over the years. Talk about a little bit about player development. [00:38:47] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. So I mean that's something that, you know, at mtsu, they did a great job of that and something, you know, it's just you got to be intentional. You know, player A doesn't look the same as player B. Development's going to come at different times. You know, at our level at high school, you know, we see a freshman who's a little bitty guy, but man, he's got a great, great swings, got a great mechanics, he's going to be really good versus a guy who's big now and strong, that he's got some holes he's going to get exposed when, as the game catches up to him. So yeah, just, you know, individual conversations and, and trying to talk about like what do, what do you look like, what is, what do you want to be? What do we see you as? So something that we, you know, try and pride ourselves in. [00:39:24] Speaker A: What did you relay to the guys after the game yesterday? What did you talk about? [00:39:27] Speaker E: So we talked about, you know, we got punched in the mouth. First time that's happened all year. Not to say we should have won the game because it was, it was a big gap, but a lot of what ifs, you know, we didn't play clean. Wyatt Claytor, who is our, who's our, our ace? Virginia signee. Uncharacteristic. Uncharacteristically. Just didn't command it well. Walked a lot of guys, but when we were in the zone I thought we had a good plan of attack, but they did what good teams do, they took advantage of it. We kicked the ball to, you know, I think it's, it was the top of the fourth, first pitch of the inning, ground ball, third base, and we kick it, you know, that if we make that play, that inning maybe looks different. They end up scoring four runs. So just when we talk about the margins get so narrow when you play elite baseball, the margins just get so narrow that you got to play catch at a high level and you got to take advantage of other teams mistakes. [00:40:14] Speaker A: What's the rest of your schedule look like as far as for Tennessee? [00:40:18] Speaker E: Yeah, so we jump right into district series next week. So Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. Thursday we have a three game district series against Franklin. So when we get back we'll be at about the halfway point in our season. When May hits, it's post season time. So we'll be in the home stretch of district series. We do three game series which I love. Kind of has a tournament feel to it every week and so we'll be ready to go and compete and see what we can do. [00:40:40] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give Mike Morrison? [00:40:43] Speaker E: So Mike Morrison was my head high school baseball coach. Just retired last year. I got to coach against him for last nine years which has been cool. So he's retired now. He calls me and checks in on me every now and then. I'd say him for sure. George. I saw assistant coaches George Jones and Carlos Mosley have been awesome. They're huge fans of yours. We all listen to your podcast. If I'm mowing the field, I probably got your podcast in my earbuds. So now I love your stuff man. And this is a great honor to be here. [00:41:08] Speaker A: Thanks for your time Zach. [00:41:09] Speaker E: Appreciate it man. Thank you. [00:41:11] Speaker A: Appreciate everyone taking time out of their schedules to interview with me. It's a tight schedule at the USA Complex, so not easy to get everyone lined up. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale, Matt west and the ABC Office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email or brownleybca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, Coach Brundca or direct message me via MyBCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave a better feels behind you. [00:41:51] Speaker B: And you know that way Yep Wait [00:41:55] Speaker A: for another day [00:42:00] Speaker B: and the world will always return as your life is there before yearning and you know that wait Wait for another D.