Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host, ryan brownlee.
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Next up on the ABCA podcast is our NCAA Division 2 baseball preview with the Dean of D2, Wayne Cavati and Colorado Mesa head coach and ABCA Division 2 chair Chris Hanks. Cavaddy has been covering all Division 2 athletics for over a decade now. Hanks has been the head coach of the Mavericks since 1999. The Division 2 season kicked off last weekend.
Here's hoping we get a break in the weather for everybody. Let's welcome Wayne Cavatti and Chris Hanks to the podcast.
All right here with Wayne cavati, dean of D2, as I always call him, but I think it's still at wayne Cavati underscore D2 and then Chris Hanks, Colorado Mesa, but Division 2 ABCA Division 2 chair. So thanks for finally connecting. The weather didn't really help much, but thank you guys for jumping on with me.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah, a little early to be Thawing out like this for baseball season, I wasn't really ready for it. Yeah.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Coach Hanks, do you want to kind of recap the convention a little bit and then talk about the proposals?
[00:03:19] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, we had a great convention in Columbus.
I got to go see the shoe for the first time.
So that was. That was a highlight for me.
Yeah, the convention, we. We covered a lot of things, but I guess at the forefront were the two proposals we put forth that were defeated at the NCAA convention by the ads, the management council. So that was disappointing, but we did get to the floor, and we need to look at, you know, how to continue to improve Division 2 baseball moving forward.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Wayne, how. What's this weather gonna do? How much is this gonna affect people right now? Because it seems like with Nai and Juco, it's. It hammered them with last weekend. There was a lot of adjusting with their schedules.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah, well, the big one, you know, the Houston Winner Invitational at least is in Houston, so it's going to be traveling there. It's not going to be the games that are affected. It's going to. Let's see who can get there because there's another storm on the way.
As of right now, I haven't heard anything as far as postponements or anything, but, yeah, it's going to cause havoc. You know, Tampa has to come up here to open against Georgia College. So, you know, the roads are much better.
I'm in Georgia. They're opening against Georgia College. I'm in the Atlanta area. That's two hours away. The roads are much better here. But again, this weekend is supposed to drop and get cold again. So hopefully, you know, hopefully that we get to see some baseball that's a. That, you know, college baseball has always been a rolling start. You know, coach, you know, you start. You have to start two weeks later than most people because you're shoveling snow for the first two weeks of when everyone else is playing. So that's just part of D2. Well, college baseball in general at all.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Levels, and just running down the top 25 poll here, it looks like a lot of the same teams that were there last year with Tampa, Central, Missouri, Stroudsburg, ut, Tyler, Northwest, Nazarene, North, Greenville. Didn't get there, but had a good year last year. Northwood, Florida, Southern, Minnesota State, Catawbao by Angelo State, Mesa, Lenore, Ryan, Point Loma, Millersville, Cal State, Monterey Bay, Westmont, Grand Valley State, Seton Hill U, Indiana, Felician, Belmont, Abbey Davenport, California, Pennsylvania and West Florida. So it seems like a lot of the same schools from last year, too.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: In that top 25, I think that you have to. You have to look, you know, the transfer portal has changed the game, you know, and you have to look at the programs that, you know, I've been covering D2 baseball, sheesh, 12 years now, right. And that top 25 that you read, 18 of them are always there. You know, they're always in the tournament, they're always in the hunt. And with the way the transfer portal is now and the turnover and the changes and everything, you got to go with the programs that proved before the transfer portal that, you know, change doesn't affect them.
And I think it's more so now than ever before. That's why you got to Tampa to number one. Even Central Missouri, that lost so many people, you know, that Coach Crooks is going to happen right back in it, Right. And the central region is no joke, you know, so that says a lot.
And then you look at, like a Minnesota State, for example, and they have a ton of returners, which is a huge advantage. And I think that boosts them over a couple other teams higher up the rankings, even though historically they may not be like those other teams. But you got to look at the programs that have a history with the way that change is going on at the D2 level in particular.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Coach Hanks, have you had to adjust your recruiting much over the years?
[00:06:54] Speaker C: Yeah, we've made a lot of tweaks and adjustments over the years, but we.
We continue to stay with a high school base primarily because of where we're located. We don't have great access to, obviously, Division 1 schools in our state where, you know, homegrown Colorado kids, you know, might choose to stay close if it doesn't work out somewhere. You know, when we compare ourselves to Texas, you think about all the division ones in Texas, and if those kids choose to transfer and if they are going to go Division 2, you know, we see them largely stay closer to home. I think you get that in the south, and of course, the south is much more condensed and everything's closer together. So, you know, where we're located, we're a little bit out on an island. So we, you know, we get a few.
We've gotten a couple transfer portal kids, but largely we bring them in and develop them and let them grow up in our program. That's our model.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Wayne, do you have a preseason player and pitcher of the year lined up yet?
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Just one.
I don't know about that. I do, Coach. I like Cameron Cartwright. I think he's He's a great player.
You know, there's a whole bunch that we've been looking at.
Pitcher wise. Matty Brown on North Greenville is lights out. I can't believe they were able to keep them. I mean, it helps when your whole coaching staff is former MLB players and you know, you're getting a valuable education as a baseball. Baseball player on that team.
Those are two guys that immediately come to mind when you, when you ask about.
And then Bussy on Francis Marion, who had an unbelievable year and they, they bulked up this offseason with a great transfer class. He could be in there as a player of the year. There's, there are quite a few players this year that I'm very happy decided to stick in Division 2 and are going to make player of the Year and pitcher of the Year very, very difficult to, to pick apart.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: And exciting news, extending the contract to go to Kerry again.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, it's, it's the greatest show on earth.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: It's a great setup. It's a great setup.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: You got all the fields there.
You know, I think, you know, Coach, you've been there like Colorado, Mesa, people travel there because it's a, it's a great, you know, obviously not as much if it was closer, but you travel there because it's just such a great venue. It's, it's roomy, it's, it's spacious, it's.
It's tough to hit home runs. But last year, man, they were, they were cranking home runs out of there. It was, it was a wild postseason. But yeah, it's just a great venue. And you know, it's USA Baseball. You get to see a little something extra and special while you're there.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Wayne, are you doing your Power 10 again?
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it actually just came out and I have most of the teams. I got Tampa, Central Missouri at 1 and 2, UT, Tyler, North Greenville at 3 and 4, East Stroudsburg at Minnesota State at number 6, Northwest Nazarene and Northwood I have at number 8. I really like Northwood. They have. Talking about returners and that magical season they have. They have a lot of those guys back.
Catawba and Florida Southern at number 10. Don't worry, Coach. You're right there. You're at 11 and Angelo State is 12.
And then I actually have Grand Valley State because I do the first five out. I have Grand Valley State at 13, Lenoir Ryan at 14 and Point Loma at 15. I really think Grand Valley State returns a lot. That Midwest region is always A wild card. And I think if you catch hot and you have returners like that, you can make a lot of noise.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Coach Hanks, where do you guys. Where are you at early on? You at home early on here?
[00:10:28] Speaker C: We open up well, yeah, largely, but we open up actually next weekend at Cal Poly Pomona and then we'll be home. And we have, we have Quincy, we have Augustano, we have msu, Billings, all at home at our place.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Love it. You driving or flying to California?
[00:10:50] Speaker C: We're flying.
We have direct flights from Grand Junction right into John Wayne Airport.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome.
I'm hoping to get out.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Augustana is going to be a great matchup. You two teams. I think Augustana has a little 39 win team, didn't make the tournament. I think they're coming into the season with a little chip on their shoulder. I actually have them right around 25 in my top 25. I think they, they have a lot of good returners.
[00:11:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I know they were a little salty over that last year and I understand why. Yeah, you know, it's one of those deals.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Wayne, do you feel like that every year though, like there's going to be probably. It's really hard to probably get the entire field correct where there's going to be some teams that are going to probably get left out. That should.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've talked about before, Ryan, it's got to be a 64. You know, look at the South Central. You know, you have six good teams in the Lone Star and you know, luckily for you, coach Colorado Mesa is always there. Right? Like, but the RMAC is generally underrepresented, you know, because there's so many, there's so much depth in that massive Lone Star Conference and it's a six team region. You know, you got to figure out a way. I don't, I'm not, I'm not one of those people that is vehemently against regionalization. I'm just, I just think it needs to be fine tuned and find a way to get a, you know, a balance amongst every region.
And yeah, I just, I think it's. To your point, it's. It's impossible to get it right. There's going to be snubs. You look at, you know, the Southeast region with the SAC and Conference Carolinas, like there's 15, 16 teams there. It's impossible to get it. All right. So, yeah, if there's a way, if there's ever a day that we can get to 64 teams, I think that we Kind of see more of a balance and less snubs, as, you know, people like to call them. But it's always going to be really hard to get.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: I've been on that soapbox. Division one has it and Division three has it. Division two should have it. It should be the same for all three levels. I don't care about access ratios. It should be the same for all three levels. Coach Hanks, how would you fix that?
[00:12:57] Speaker C: My fix is to go to four super regions and to, you know, you can, you can have the selection process even with the current number of teams. You can, you can still have two regionals within a super region, but you, you move the teams around. I think they can afford to do that. I just not sure they're willing to at this point.
And you might have to draw the map out just a little differently to accomplish that. You know, it becomes problematic in the west because things are more sparse, of course.
But that would give an avenue where conceivably you could get two Sunshine Conference teams at the World Series. Well, you could get two teams from any conference. And I think that's what ultimately everybody wants is to, is to get the best representation or have the best chance to get the best teams there.
But also from a student athlete experience. I can't tell you how many times in my career we've just gone through a conference tournament where we've played a, you know, a conference rival three times, played him in the conference championship, and then have gone to Texas and open up with them four days later after. You know, there's no, there's nothing good about that experience for players, coaches, fans, anybody. It's, it's just if we're, if we're really serious about student athlete experience as is stated, then at some point we gotta put some action behind some words.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: And Wayne, you got some news coming out here. I just interviewed Noah Sharp. You guys are starting a Small College Baseball Player of the Year award, correct?
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been, we started talking about it last year. There's a bunch of these small college baseball guys. It's me, Robbie, Noah, like you said, Jim, Robert Fry at D2 baseball.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: The main ones.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
So it's really cool. And you know, what we're looking for here is a unified Small College Baseball Player of the year.
Obviously, each of us have way more knowledge in our respective fields, so we're going to pull that together and there's going to be at least one finalist from each level. We're going to announce our.
We're not calling it a Preseason watch list because of the rolling start that we talked about earlier. So we're going to have the watch list, like first week of March area somewhere around there.
And then, you know, and then we're going to talk about finalists as the years go on. As the year goes on. And I think it's just a great way to bring the spotlight on these players. Even if it's just a watch list, it kind of opens your eyes. If you're at the D3 level or D2 level and you're like, oh, who's this guy? Who's that guy? You know, And I think it's, you know, to be covering D2 as long as I have. You do it because you have a passion for it. You do it because you have a connection to the players and the coaches and, you know, D2 baseball coaches.
You guys are here forever. And that's what I love about it. It's like I could send an email and get it back in like five minutes, you know, because you built that relations.
And to be able to be asked by Robbie to be part of this, it was just very.
It was an honor and I'm glad that they welcomed me on and I'm really excited to get it going. And the official announcement comes out Wednesday morning, so we're really excited.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: And Noah and I talked about it. I think over the history of the Golden Spikes Award, there's maybe been maybe three or four non Division 1 players that have been honored with that. I think we are thinking Bryce Harper maybe. I think Bo Mills won at the one year with Lewis and Clark State, but there hasn't been very many. And obviously there's great baseball at every level. So it's nice to be able to shine a light on. On the better players at every level that we've got.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Coach, wasn't. Was Hayden the first D2 finalist?
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Am I or.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: He was definitely on the list. I remember that he was.
[00:16:47] Speaker C: He was on the list.
That was just a few years ago, so I don't remember specifically, but yes, he was on the list.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I definitely remember that.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: What else. What else we need to cover here?
What are you guys looking forward to for the season?
[00:17:05] Speaker B: It's baseball season. I mean, I'm just excited, you know, I think, you know, I don't want to dwell on the transfer portal. It's very different. But I also think D2 baseball is at a. At a bigger advantage than other sports because the NAIA and JUCO levels have so much talent that when, you know, these. These schools lose some transfers they, they can replace it and get, and bounce right back. And that's why I was talking about these teams that just know how to do it and find these guys. And even if it's high school, you know, in, in the Colorado area, it's just keeping that tradition going. And, and it's exciting. You know, it's crazy for me. Cause as, as you know, Ryan, the teams I look at most up close and personal are North Georgia and Shorter because they're pretty much right here for me and North Georgia. No Tom Cantrell, you know, like, it's going to be wild to walk into that stadium, which is a great stadium if you've ever been there. It's a great stadium. It's going to be wild to walk in there and, and you know, see Nolan Belcher, who is Georgia College. That's how I know him. And now he's here where, you know, you walk in and Tom Cantrell's been there for, what was it, like, 31 years, 28 years, whatever it was. And so, yeah, there's a, there's a few things I'm excited about, but it's just, it's just that baseball's here.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And I do feel like the roster cap for Division 1, eventually we're going to look up in the next four or five years, be like, okay, that's the right thing for everybody. And then the trickle down effect, that would be, be great for everybody.
Coach Hanks, what about you? What are you looking forward to? I mean, what season is this for you?
[00:18:36] Speaker C: This will be season 28. As a head coach, you still get butterflies?
[00:18:42] Speaker A: No, no, no.
[00:18:45] Speaker C: More, I guess, excitement, I would describe it. I mean, it's a long haul. Right. And, and so it's important not to overreact. I don't think, whether you do poorly or well out of the gates.
You know, except for that in the, our selection process, that first game of the year can be the reason, you know, you're in or out. We, we got to explain that to our kids, especially the kids that come out of junior colleges. We get several JC kids, you know, and that of course, that they come from places where, yeah, if you, if you don't do well the first two weekends, you know, it's not fun, but it doesn't really matter. You have to get into the tournaments in advance. Right.
And it's not that way with the ncaa.
You know, the opening series or two can have a large effect.
And then you got to wait to see how the team you played did because that has an effect. Right? You know, last year we opened up real well. We thought down at Cal Poly Pomona and they were picked preseason number two in the ccaa and but then they, they lost a lot of one run ball games. They had a good club, but they didn't have the season. So that didn't help us a lot. And you just don't know how it's going to shake out. But you know, it seems like every year goes faster and, and so it's going to be over before we know it. We got to enjoy the ride and appreciate every day and being with these kids and, you know, pushing them all we can.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: Yeah, the days are long, but the years are short.
Yeah, I love that quote.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: I love that quote. So.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: All right, thank you two for jumping on with me. I appreciate it. And hollering if you need anything. Hopefully I run into you guys this spring at some point.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: Wayne, thank you for all you do. Wayne's the best baseball. Ryan, you too. You guys do a wonderful job and you're both appreciated more than you than you know.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Thank you, sir.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Thank you very much. Thank you and thanks for having me.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Ryan, the game of baseball has grown at all levels in large part to what our sports writers are doing to shine a light on every level. Thanks to all our sports writers for all their hard work and covering the game of baseball. It's your yearly reminder to get out there and support all your local colleges.
Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale and Matt Weston, ABC Office, for all the help on the podcast.
Feel free to reach out to me via email r brownleypca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok Coach Babca or direct message me via the Myabisa app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off with American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: And you know that way Yep Wait.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: For another day.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: And the world will always return as your love is never for yearning and you know that way Wait for another day.
