[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host, ryan brownlee.
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We made our annual trek over to Cary, North Carolina for the USA Baseball NHSI Tournament to sit down with some of our ABCA member coaches. Today we're joined by St. John Bosco's Andy Rojo, Gloucester Catholic's Dennis Barth, Baylor School's Greg Ellie and Castile's Matt Denny. Let's welcome everyone to the podcast.
All right here with Andy Rojo, St. John Bosco.
Go way back now with ABCA, so thanks for sitting down with.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for the invite.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Congrats on last year, by the way.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Huge.
I know how difficult it is to win that thing, so congrats.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Thank you very much to you. Thank you.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: How's this team compared to last year's team?
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Well, we have a lot of the core players coming back, so we have pretty much seven returning position players back, so they have a lot of experience coming back. Really talented group.
We have Julian Garcia back healthy. He missed all last year, so it's still a pretty Hungry group. Even though we accomplished something last year that had never been done before. So we're excited. Yeah. Off to a good start.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Are you able to prepare for this tournament with the opponents at all or are you just coming out and trying to do your thing?
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Well, a little bit.
We started off Trinity League play last week, so that kind of got us a little warm up. And a lot of the California teams, if you notice, we just don't have that many games under our belt because we have a late start.
So I think Olu's maybe the fourth, fifth game. Harvard, Westlake, same thing, just like us. So. But we're ready to go. Yeah, it's go time.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Do you have any in game charts that you guys use? What do you like to use in game?
[00:03:51] Speaker B: We just kind of our own. You know how every staff kind of has their own thing that they developed, but nothing digital really. It's just all old school paper charts and just note taking. I think one of the strengths of our staff is we do quite a bit of in game adjustment. So we're old school. We read swings and position the defense accordingly. And so it's been working out so far.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: What about your in game responsibilities over the years? Have those changed?
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Not really. You know, it's interesting. The older I've gotten as a coach, I've gotten away from the actual skills and drills portion of it as a head coach. And I'm really focused more on the mental preparation of things, making sure the team is right from a chemistry standpoint, the energy standpoint, making sure everybody knows their role going into that game. So mine is more from an emotional mental standpoint. And that's kind of the way I like to keep it pregame and post game and coach third and coach third.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: You got tips for that because that's not an easy thing to do when you first get in to start coaching.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: No, it isn't. A lot of it is just positioning, you know, getting yourself in the right spot. You know, guy at first base, you got to go really towards the left field corner to make sure he sees you. But we give our runners quite a bit of leeway and say pretty much the decision is yours if the ball's in front of you. Really, you're just looking for me if the ball's behind you. But yeah, a lot of it is positioning and just getting in the right spot. If you have to shut a guy down late, you're still in a good spot. And you know, fortunately, many years ago, I was blessed when I was at Long Beach State TJ Bruce was there with us, and a former college coach of mine, Mike Ashman, who throws batting practice for the Angels, said, hey, do you guys want to come out to Angel Stadium? And you guys can speak with Dino Ebel. So this is before he went with the Dodgers. And so, man, I picked up so many good points. I still stay in touch with Dino and he's really kind of giving me the foundation.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: What were his tips?
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Same thing, just positioning, communication, especially with a guy at second base, just being real loud. If you look at him, he has his hands, you know, together and constant communication. And it's simple, but yet difficult just to kind of stay focused, you know, throughout the game.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: The thing I key on is like a runner at second base where you'll see the third base coach back up towards home plate.
I think that's like the biggest tip is like, because guys forget. I'm like, if you, if you're in doubt, start working back towards home to give yourself a longer look on. On holding a guy or sending a guy.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And then on the flip side of that, if you have runners at first and second, second, you almost have to start pushing. Once you clear this guy, you gotta let him go and you gotta pick up the next guy. And that's probably the one where you get caught up a little bit, because the guy at first sometimes wants to push and assumes he's gonna come to third automatically. So, yeah, it's challenging, but it's fun.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: You know, training for you guys. You're usually probably on the field, but today you might be inside. Does that training look any different if you maybe have to go inside?
[00:06:47] Speaker B: No, it's been pretty straightforward. We've been here.
Myself and a couple other coaches have some experience here at this facility.
We prepped our guys and we're fortunate to have two Team USA guys on the team. So this is like a home home field advantage to them right now.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: I mean, how cool is it for you to come all the way out here as much as you've done with USA Baseball?
[00:07:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I've been involved.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: It's funny you say that. I've been involved for about 10 years. Part of the NTIS program. Been the regional director for the Southwest and the south. And you know, we're going to play Castile today. And you know, Harwood, I coached Thomas Brooks when he was an 11 year old. So still was physical dude McGraw and warmer rusty Nelson. And so I'm looking at all these guys and go, man, I remember These guys were 11, 12 years old. So it's pretty fun to see their development.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: How has your practice planning evolved over the years?
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Just, you just get a little more detailed, you know, every year you base it a little bit off of the type of team that you have. The structure stays the same. Like I tell the guys, you're not really reinventing. It's the same 5, 6, 7 components that everybody else uses across the country and at different levels. But we've really gotten into more of the details.
When you're dealing with higher end athletes, as we're fortunate to have again, some of it is not so much skill suggestions, it's just more some mental adjustments, some visual adjustments and making sure guys are in a good spot.
We have athletes and what I always say is athletes are able to make adjustments a lot faster than non athletes. So there's not too many things that you need to do from a physical standpoint. You got to give them the freedom to explore a little bit and they've earned the right to do that.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: You talked a little bit about the mental side. Do you feel like you have some tips on the mental side to help guys?
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Well, let me go back to, you know, my kind of my foundation. I played for Dennis Rogers, ABCA hall of Famer at Riverside City College. So, you know, as I tell everybody, I won the baseball lottery twice. I got to play for him as a player and then I started my coaching career underneath him. And he was one of the first ones to really, really dive into the mental side of it in the early 90s. And a lot of it is because of Ken Reviza.
You know, we had him come out, talk to us.
Coach Rogers played for John Scalinas at Cal Poly Pomona. So I'm just blessed to be part of that kind of lineage. And really it's first thing you got to just remind your players, this is the world's most difficult game to play.
The game doesn't always reward you when you want to be rewarded. And you're not always going to get the result based on all the work that you put in on the timing that you want. So it's really helping guys manage those highs and lows, especially when they're going through a funk. It's like that was a good swing, you swung at a good pitch, you were in the right spot, just didn't get rewarded.
So it's just dealing with teenagers that and they're talented guys just managing that really. And that's kind of been one of our other strengths as a coach and staff, is just keeping things really, really day by Day we don't get too far ahead of ourselves.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: We get this question a lot at the rookie mentorship from young assistant coaches that are trying to get into it. What are some tips for some assistant coaches to maybe get more responsibility from their head coach, but other tips for assistant coaches?
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Well, you know, it's an interesting.
When I look back at my coaching career again, I started off with a very veteran, just wise coach and Dennis Rogers and then I got a chance to play and coach for some other pretty solid guys. What I tell young coaches is when you're young, what you lack in experience and wisdom because you're young, you have to make up with energy and really getting into attention to detail, just absorb everything. As you get older, you have less energy.
Right. But you have more wisdom. And so just be patient with your transition. You're no different than a rookie baseball player. You're no different than a freshman player starting high school. You're just trying to take everything in, pay attention to as much information because you lack experience, you're not going to have that ability to have that confidence to say, okay, this is what's going to happen. So you just got to be there. You kind of start off as a player coach, you got to be there for the player. Got to be there before practice, after practice, you got to be the guy, you know, feeding and doing the extra work for the guys and earning the players trust. And through that, you earn your head coach's trust as well because you know, you're in it, you know, 100%.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Well, I think we were all that way. As a young assistant, you probably feel like you deserve more responsibility than probably what you've earned at that point.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: No question. Yeah, and it's kind of one of those, you know, you want to do as many things as you can and it's kind of just slow down. You're not quite ready for that particular role.
But yeah, I mean, and be prepared to coach at any level. It really doesn't matter.
This is the first time I'm coaching high school and if you were to ask me 10 years ago if I was going to coach high school baseball, I never would have even considered it.
And to be quite honest with you, of all the levels I've been at, this has by far been the most enjoyable spot that I've been at.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Well, how gratifying is it whether you're dealing with younger kids?
They're still trying to figure the world out too at that point. How gratifying is that?
[00:12:06] Speaker B: You know, it's even more so now you know how they have this quote with players that they're late bloomers. Well, I'm a late bloomer dad. Okay, so I'm 52 years old. I have a five year old and three year old. Right. So why do I bring that up? Because I think the perspective I have now as a parent really allows me to actually be a better coach. And so I understand These guys are 15, 16, 17 years old.
And I see a lot of these guys as my own kids. And so my patience, my daughters have given me a level of patience that I didn't think I had before or didn't have before. And so it allows me to just let the guys know, hey, you got a long ways to go. Just be patient with yourself, forgive yourself when you make a mistake and things of that nature. So that's really the biggest thing, is to really have them learn the ability to slow things down. Today's done, flush it out. We got a chance. Probably the greatest thing about this game, you get to do it the next day. No matter what happened the previous day.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Different recruiting landscape now. How are you helping them navigate the recruiting process now? Because you've been in the college side for a long time. It's way different on the recruiting side now for kids and draft wise too.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, back X amount of years ago, it was D1 or bust. Right. That was kind of the mentality. And now really it's about, it's about fit. It's about what makes the greatest sense for you academically. Because we're a private school, we have some kids with pretty good grades and I mean, I'm a JC product. I mean, I think that's like two free years of development before you really got to go out and Prove yourself.
The D3 baseball and being in Southern California, every single level is big time, you know, So I encourage our guys, look, check the ego at the door just because where you start, I know you want to play in omaha and Division 1, all the top 25 programs, but really when it's all said and done, you're trying to get that four year degree, you're going to end up probably finding the girl you're going to end up marrying, you know, lifelong friends and things of that nature. So we're big on just having guys go towards the program that really wants them. And what's the best fit academically and also financially too for our families and
[00:14:19] Speaker A: a lot of championship programs at all levels out on the west coast.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: Oh, no doubt.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Nai. D2, D3 juco. I mean, obviously it's a lot of championship programs and a lot of the
[00:14:29] Speaker B: head coaches at the D2, D3 NAI and JC level, especially in Southern California, West coast, are former D1 guys that have just kind of settled in that stage of their life where they don't want to go out and chase every event and every player in the summertime. So, like, nope, I'm good right here, 10 minutes away from my house. And so it's just quality baseball in Southern California.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: What are you trying to get out of today? It's going to be a good matchup.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: You know, we're just trying to get what we try to get out every day and just play to the best of our potential. We have a very talented team. It's athletic, it has the ability to play the game fast. And so that's it. We're just trying to play to the best of our abilities and whatever happens, happens, and walk away knowing that we gave it our best.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go?
[00:15:12] Speaker B: A shout out, man, you know, I want to give a shout out to our athletic director, Vince Brown.
Anybody in Southern California knows that Vince Brown, he's a coaching legend, 40 plus year high school coach, lifetime ABCA member.
And he was my first hire at Bosco.
And so since I had never coached at the high school level with all the rules and everything, with parents and everything, that everyone was scaring me not to take the job. Right.
I brought him on thinking he was going to be just a real solid veteran, kind of bench coach that can guide me through every single thing that you need to get guided through with high school. And then a month. So we brought him on and then a month later, the school made an AD change and Vince was actually the AD at two previous schools, so they snatched him away from me.
But I swear it's been a godsend too, because we have an AD who's a baseball coach at heart.
His son pitches at Georgia. He's here today. He actually snuck away, believe it or not, drove out to Georgia to go
[00:16:20] Speaker C: see his kid yesterday, pitch on Tuesday
[00:16:22] Speaker B: or a couple days ago. And so just shout out to Vince Brown. He's the glue to our entire program and it's been a blessing to have him on board.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: What were his tips about dealing with parents?
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Big breath right now.
[00:16:34] Speaker C: I just took.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Really. He just said, look, you gotta understand, we have great parents, but at the end of the day, just the way I see my kids, every single parent's gonna view the game just at their Kid and sometimes they may not see the big picture.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Yeah, of course.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: And so just say, just make the best decision for the program or for the team. And the rest can be handled as long as you're doing the right. Right by the program and by the team. So.
[00:17:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: So thanks for coming. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
[00:17:03] Speaker C: Here.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Dennis Bard, Gloucester Catholic. Dennis, thanks for jumping on with me.
[00:17:07] Speaker C: Thanks for having me on.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: It means a lot. So, you know, you've seen a little bit everything, you know, different levels to, you know. What have been the biggest changes for baseball that you've seen over the years?
[00:17:18] Speaker C: Oh, a little different brand of K nowadays because they're coming through. You know, they don't play little League anymore, hardly any. They come through travel ball playing from seven parents have to pay to play and all that stuff. I don't know if it's good or bad.
There's a great travel tournament my nephew works for perfect game. They do a great job and all that stuff. But sometimes it gets a little crazy with the parents nowadays and the kids, you know, I don't know if they get used to playing every day. Like I believe you got to play every day to get better. So that's what we try to do at Gloucester Catholic in my Brooklyn. We still play Legion and we play both travel tournaments in Brooklyn. We let the kids play 60 games this summer rather than just playing on weekends. That's a big difference for me. I think you get better by playing. It's a little old school, I guess because nowadays they think you got to play throw weighted balls and do everything else. I think you should play games and
[00:18:06] Speaker A: the training part of that too. The practice piece of that is important.
[00:18:08] Speaker C: Yeah, there's practice, but that's what we like. We believe in taking in IO every day, taking BP every day at the field.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: You know what I mean?
[00:18:15] Speaker C: We want to do it before the game. So we, we play in the summer for Brooklyn. We get there at 4 o' clock for a 6, 5, 45 game. Go through the whole gamut. Take BP, then we take IO. Pitchers throw bullpens in between starts. We run out on a regular five man rotation, just like the big ones.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: You know, you feel like that's probably the biggest thing for arm health is making sure they're throwing in between starts.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: Yeah, like, you know, we like to throw charts for control and you know, we keep them in post it and make it competitive and so they see themselves get better. That's how the kids get better, by seeing it. You know, you got to show Them their improvement. So we try to char everything, whether it's during the game or the bullpens in between, and we monitor progress and we gun the guys and all that stuff. It's more important that we just keep building arm strength, especially this early season. Right now with us, we're just getting out of, out of the gym. So.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: Yeah. How far along are your arms right now at this point?
[00:19:03] Speaker C: Well, that was our first game yesterday, so we're not, we're only like three, four.
I pitched my number one probably into the fifth Inn. That was his, you know, he was at the top. He ran out of gifts a little bit, lit up two runs in the fifth. But you know, he's going to be a real good pitcher for us. He did a real good year last year and it's just a matter he's coming off a little minor arm surgery last year at the end. So again, it's just we're building them up now from. We start out like 30 pitches and they keep going up like 15 as they get. Weather gets warmer. This is warm for us. So, you know, yesterday everybody's complaining about the cold. It was one of our warmest days yet.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: So I'm with you. I'm a Midwesterner, so last night was perfect.
[00:19:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I was like, I don't know what they're complaining about, but they're coming from Florida, California and all these other places. We're coming out of the gym.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Can you prep for something like this with the teams you probably haven't seen before?
[00:19:51] Speaker C: Nah, you, you know, we can look on game change and all that stuff and get their stats and all, but you can't, you can't duplicate playing 20 games or 16 games, 17 games. You know, we've had, we had four scrimmages and truthfully, to get four scrimmages in, we split the JV and varsity. Played two varsity scrimmages on the same day, so we didn't really have the squad together just to get as many innings in for our pitchers and all that stuff before we came down here. But four games in cold weather, guys are only throwing two, three innings at the most, so had to split them up.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: What are you tracking in game. As far as chart wise? As far as chart wise, what are you tracking?
[00:20:25] Speaker C: Well, we got charts on the other team. We got charts, you know, what their pitch sequence and all that stuff.
Basically what we used to do in your brain now you do on charts. That's all. It makes you a little smarter. So make sure you don't forget the. And then the game gets, you know there's so much more digital computers and all that stuff and analytics, you know it stuff's good but it can also bog it down a little bit too much.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: Have your in game responsibilities changed much over the years?
[00:20:50] Speaker C: Not for me. I still do the same thing but I got real good coaching staff.
My assistant Stevie Mondo played pro ball. He's you know a pro guy. He does a real good job. I got dj, I got all ex players or guys that coached against me or with me for a long time. So we all have different responsibilities during the game and we do. They do a pretty good job. I hope our record been pretty good. So I guess we've been doing something right.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: We get this question a lot at the rookie mentorship deal at the convention that we run from young assistants. Give some inexpensive experience. Some young assistants trying to get into it right now.
[00:21:21] Speaker C: Oh, I mean I think the best, one of the best things you can do is go to the ABCA convention. It's an awesome learning spot. It's not just the guide, the clinicians, the that you're here speak but it's just going out and having lunch with people and you know I'm a good friend of mine is Billy Godwin that you know I met through over the years at the clinic he started. He worked with my brother was called the hit doctor for a long time. They did camps years ago. I met him when he was this small time carry academy coach here and now he's a big shot Yankee scout. You know saying but you know like that friendships like that you meet over beat the people. This year I didn't get to go Ohio State. One of my ex players is an assistant in Ohio State. I really wanted to go, just didn't work out family wise this year.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: You think that's probably the best thing about the convention is meeting new people and maintaining those connections?
[00:22:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I've done it like for the high school level, the college level and the Legion level. You're meeting a lot of good coaches and you're getting exposed to their ideas and it's a great thing for marketing your kids.
You go out there, every college in the country is there just about. So it's a great thing for our kids to get exposure and recruit it.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Have your practices evolved much over the years?
[00:22:28] Speaker C: Sure, I mean I'm a big ABCA podcast guy. I got every videotape there is, I think that's ever come out. Now they ain't videotapes, they're you Know you stream them, whatever like that, you know. So I'm old school. I got these old ones on eight track cartridges and all that crap. But it goes on and projects. They got all the coaches. I'm a constant video watch everything, you know, always learning. One of the best things I did, I went to spring training.
Well Arizona fall training instructional. So see one of my ex players went up there to watch him play. But then I went to all the minor league training complexes. The A's, Chicago, the Giants were all there. It was awesome, awesome experience.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Do you have maybe a cassette tape or video, VHS tape that you go back to that maybe like that's not on the website. We only go back so far. Do you have a favorite one?
[00:23:16] Speaker C: Barry Davis, he coach a rider for a long time, was at Gulfstream County College. He's got an indoor practice thing and a guy from Kansas. I use his videotape a lot of time.
So there were some of my. They like infield, inside training practice. Breakout was pretty good and on the field so you know I use them as fallbacks. You know what I do, they got like a general 18 drills where you get a little bit of everything incorporated. It's pretty good. You can get a lot of work done in like an hour and we
[00:23:42] Speaker A: have a lot of cold weather coaches that listen and watch. Do you have any tips for keeping competitive practices inside when you're inside?
[00:23:49] Speaker C: Well, we try to do it where they're playing live at bats as much as possible. That's the whole thing for us to come down at this tournament. We're not playing any games and we're 16 games behind. We got to make them like competitive at bats. So you know, with counts 11 02, you know, got to put pressure on guy on third, less than 2. We also got to make contact, simulate the game as much as possible with the hitters and the pitchers. The pitchers got a whole runner's one and the whole same time we're pitching. So you got to try to make it as game like as possible, duplicate it indoors because you're going to come out and play and we didn't really play great yesterday, but we really didn't play that bad. They're good.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: What are you trying to get out of the day?
[00:24:24] Speaker C: Well, we just want to get through seven innings. That's one thing we first accomplished and we got a game got away with in the bottom of six yesterday. But we're trying to. We got a lot of young pitchers who are going to be up next for us pitching in order to get them some experience and, you know, we might get clocked four times out here. We don't really care. We know we're gonna get better by the end of this tournament.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: Any shout outs you want to give?
[00:24:45] Speaker C: Shout out to my little Riley Bell's back home. My granddaughter's back home, so I'm missing her right now. Wish she could have calmed down. She's gonna be a little good, little left handed switch hitting shortstop? I think so we'll see.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Do you ever take for granted growing up in a baseball family?
[00:24:59] Speaker C: No, I, you know, I was born August 25, 1961. My dad was away at the American Legion World Series. He wasn't even home.
My godfather called out to tell him congratulations. And my father said, what do you congratulate me for? We won last week. He forgot all about that. My mom was pregnant.
But that's. He was in the middle of the World Series. Dave McNally was on one of the other teams and Rusty stops. So I was named after the two captains of the 1961 Brooklyn teams. That's how baseball's kind of embedded our family vacation. When I was growing up, we went to the Legion World Series every year, wherever it was. Keene, New Hampshire, South Dakota. We flew all around the country to go see it.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: Thanks for your time, Dennis.
[00:25:39] Speaker C: All right, thank you.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Greg Alley, Baylor School down outside of Chattanooga, correct.
[00:25:44] Speaker D: Yeah, in Chattanooga.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: In Chattanooga.
Good win yesterday for you all.
[00:25:48] Speaker D: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Talk about that a little bit.
[00:25:50] Speaker D: Yeah, it was a fun game and, you know, opening up first round of NHSI and faced a really good Aquanis team and, you know, back and forth, got a little. Got a little rowdy and fun. The intensity got up, but, you know, our guys just stayed the course. And, you know, I thought it was a good baseball game all the way around, so really proud of them.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: How are you able to prep for something like this with teams you probably haven't seen before?
[00:26:11] Speaker D: And I think you just come in here and you got to play your game. If you sit there and try to, you know, micromanage or adjust to who you're going to face, you know, you just get out of your element. So I think baseball's. Baseball is a game where you got to kind of stay true to who you are and, and just keep playing your way. So
[00:26:27] Speaker A: for you, end game wise, have you handled anything different over the course of your career in game management or any of that stuff here? Just anytime over the course of your career?
[00:26:36] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. You know, absolutely. I mean, I think you got to be Able to tweak some of that, you know, yesterday. You know, I think when you get to get to this thing, you're just trying to win one game at a time and not look, look ahead. So, you know, I think that's kind of what we did.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: What are your go to as far as keeping track and game for chart wise as far as pitch tendencies? What do you keep any of that stuff?
[00:26:57] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, our pitching guys definitely will. You know, I let them handle that and kind of, you know, rely on them to trust their judgment and they know our guys. But I think too, like I said, you got to roll with your strengths and, and if you can, you can, you can attack some of their weaknesses, great. But you got to play your game.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: What about training wise? What's evolved for you over the years, coaching wise as far as training, practice
[00:27:17] Speaker D: or any of that? Oh, man, we, you know, we're big on our, on our sports performance and strength program. I mean we travel with, with our strength coach, Bryce Johnson.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: He's here.
[00:27:27] Speaker D: So, you know, we're big on movement, big on, you know, just, just functional, functional strength and, and being able to do things that, that translate to the game of baseball. So that's, that's big on us. We're getting ready to go through our whole warmup routine. We do a lot with crossover and, and torque bands and a lot of their stuff. So we like those guys over there at crossover symmetry. So that's a lot of what we use to warm up pre game.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: You guys produce some elite, elite hitters. What do you feel like you do different, if anything, to develop hitters?
[00:28:00] Speaker D: I don't know if it's, if it's anything different. As much a plan of the combination of strength in sports performance and rotational movement, you know, approach, you know, that's something we really tried to harp on this year, really with a good group of hitters, really athletic hitters is just, you know, making sure our approach is right when we get in the box. But you know, the biggest thing is I think you surround dudes with dudes and they continue to get better. And you know, that's the great thing about our program. We've been fortunate to have some really great hitters over the years. Cooper Kenney and Nick Kurtz and Henry Ford and Henry Godbout and a lot more probably that I missed. But when they're around each other, they just pick up from each other and you know, one day when the guy doesn't want to get after it, the other guy does. And so, you know, Kind of our big thing is nobody has to be the man because, you know, you're surrounded by a bunch of guys who are really good.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: When somebody says hitting approach, what's that mean to you?
[00:28:52] Speaker D: I think, you know, you gotta have. You gotta have some rhythm in the box. You've gotta have, you know, your game plan in your mind on what you're gonna do when you get in there.
You know, it's what the old adage, you know, you fail to prepare or prepare to fail, whatever.
You know, I think that's. That's the biggest thing with our guys is just going in there with an idea who they are, and don't try to be something you're not.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: We get this question a lot from assistant coaches. If you're dealing with a young assistant coach, how do you know to give him more responsibilities as he's going?
[00:29:20] Speaker D: I think it's a combination of both. I think a guy who's eager and wants it, but then also, you know, being able to push them along. You know, we've, over the last two years, really kind of, you know, I'm not a big micromanage guy. I trust guys. And so I think being able to just hand something off and go, this is your baby, and then seeing how it goes, and then adding in pointers here and there, you know, I came off the bag off a third two years ago, and it's the best thing for me because now I can kind of measure the temperature in the dugout, and, you know, I trust my guys on the bases to do what they do.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: Is that hard for you to let go of coaching third base?
[00:29:56] Speaker D: At first it was. And then after about two games, realizing, wait a second, I can watch everything.
It was awesome. So I would not go back.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: That's been kind of a common theme with the interviews is a couple guys still coach third, but a lot of guys felt like it was more beneficial for them to move to the dugout so they can. They can basically manage the team a little bit better from the dugout.
[00:30:16] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. I think it gives me a better kind of barometer on what's going on. Instead of trying to run an offense and then run in there and figure out, oh, wait a second, I got a guy who's cramping up, or I got a pitcher, it doesn't feel quite right, or he doesn't have his curveball today, I'm not finding that stuff out. I can kind of just stay even keel throughout the whole thing.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: And you guys. Guys doing arm care right here? Yeah, kind of lay out the program for that with arm care, with what you guys are doing.
[00:30:41] Speaker D: So, I mean, our arm care is evolved over the years. You know, we, we do a lot with crossover symmetry.
We use arm care. So the sensors, that's been huge for us the last two years. Just being able to kind of track, being able to see kind of what guys are doing.
Really amazing at the correlation between whether they get a flag or whether it shows that they're down that day. And kind of how we can adjust whether it be a bullpen or even game day, you know, just different things like that. So. But, you know, I think the biggest thing is the guys take ownership of it. You know, I've talked to a couple other guys who watch our guys go through it and you know, we have to stay on them. But then they realize the benefit of it.
These out, these guys all have big dreams. So I think that's the biggest thing is they understand, like, this is going to put me in a position to succeed. So, you know, this is, this is why I'm doing it.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: Hey, with the arm care sensor, what's the printout you get for guys or what's it relaying to you as far as guys?
[00:31:34] Speaker D: Oh, man, you know, it's, it's got a. I'll be honest, I trust our strength guy, Bryce with that stuff.
Almost just completely blindly he'll come to me with stuff and then obviously I know how to read certain things on it, but when it comes into the science and the biomechanics, I trust him on it. And our pitching coach, and they look at it and they're like, hey, this is what's flagging.
You know, obviously I understand the fatigue of it, but you know, it'll do rotation, grip pressure, external rotation, all sorts of different metrics just kind of give them a good idea on where they're at.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: You guys have gone on to the next level where it's Caldrick, pro wise, what are they relaying back to you as far as when they get to the next level?
[00:32:16] Speaker D: I think the biggest thing we're seeing, whether it be, you know, college or even pro, is they feel like they were prepared when they got there.
And that's the biggest thing for us. Like, obviously we want to win and that's the goal of the program is go out and win and win national, I mean win state championships and compete on a national stage. But watching these guys succeed at the next level is what we're about as a staff.
It's the development, it's the player development. Side that really drives us.
So I think that's the biggest thing is we're seeing. I've had coaches call me and go man, my strength guy said your guys come in here and they know how to. I don't have to teach them that stuff.
Is it a perfect science? By no means. There's definitely things that they have to learn, but I think it makes the learning curve shorter for our guys.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Moving on, any other shout outs you want to give before I let you go?
[00:33:00] Speaker D: No, no. I mean it's, you know, USA Baseball, this has been awesome.
You know, super excited to be here. It's. We, you know, we've got a unique situation. We were invited twice in 20 and in 21. So those two teams I had, you know, that we had at Baylor in 20, 21, you know, it's everything that we had hoped it would be. I just wish they could have done it then. But you know, all in due time and kind of God had a plan. So yeah, we're here in 26, enjoying it and you know, hopefully we can go out compete today.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: Thanks for your time, Greg.
[00:33:29] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: Thank you, Matt. Danny, again, year two for this, but you and I go way back now, so thanks for sitting down with me again.
[00:33:36] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:33:37] Speaker C: Appreciate it.
[00:33:38] Speaker A: Is there any way to prepare for opponents out here?
[00:33:42] Speaker E: No, I mean, honestly I was mentioning yesterday, like we kind of prepare for the worst, if you will, or the best teams. Obviously we're always preparing for May, you know, back home, but just being able to be complete, honestly, like all facets of the game, being able to do different things because you're just not going to come over here and just bully up pitchers for four games, that's not going to happen.
And I think the sooner you get the players to realize that, you know, and have a plan B, the more success you're going to have over here.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: What'd you take coming out here last
[00:34:10] Speaker E: year that we could play with anybody, honestly, you know, we had number one Corona last year, beat until the last out.
You know, we're going up against another giant out here and we're trying to get ourselves in a position where we're amongst those types of programs. You know, you hear about the California's and the Florida, Florida's and the Stoneman Douglases and Jesuits and Trinity's and all those schools, the Harvard Westlakes. And since I've taken the job, that's been a goal of ours to be a national contending team. And I think we're knocking on the door and you know, I Think our players have that expectation and are excited for that and really run towards that,
[00:34:47] Speaker A: which helps you play better going back home, coming out of here.
[00:34:50] Speaker E: Yeah, usually, yeah, I do worry a little bit about some hiccup games and some trap games because, you know, people think that maybe they're not as good as they are here, which just isn't true. I mean, we don't have a, we don't have a cupcake in our league. Our league is really tough in Arizona.
And I think honestly coming out here and seeing some of these big arms, we, you know, we saw the Kozark kid a couple years ago who's dominating, you know, doing great things at Texas. And we see guys all the time that right away they step in at the college level and they do some good things. So I think sometimes our players and even myself underestimate a little bit our schedule. You know, we go to California in the fall and play all those Trinity League teams and we do that on purpose to, you know, prepare us. But I think it helps our guys to the next level to not have, you know, a big learning curve and the game's not too sped up for them when they get, when they get to college.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: What in game charts do you like to use?
[00:35:42] Speaker E: We really keep it simple. I mean, we have some that we, that some of our own that we make up just pitching basically tendencies, different counts and try not to be too predictable with some of those.
We only really have two charts, a hitting chart and a pitching chart. And it's pretty old school.
I'm a little bit more feel than it is. We have a game plan, obviously, and we have a scouting report, obviously. But I just think sometimes in high school you can get caught up too much into scouting reports and things like that. That sample size is different. You know, my lefty is different than somebody else's righty. And so, you know, when you have two or three games, I think you get, you know, I hear sometimes when we're playing teams and they'll say, hey, shift, pull hitter. And it's like, man, if they only knew this guy doesn't pull the ball.
But I think you can get stuck with some of that at times. And so we do keep it simple and just kind of have more of a feel than we do anything else.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: Have your in game responsibilities changed over the course of your career?
[00:36:39] Speaker E: I used to keep what we call a gold card. Now it's blue, but I used to keep a card that, you know, just kind of jot stuff down. My first base coach does that now so I can manage a little bit more, you know, an inning or two ahead of time and look at some potential problems or some, you know, opportunities to kind of try to expose the other team. So really I'm just managing the lineup.
I have given more to my pitching coach, my catching coach as far as calling, calling pitches and managing the staff a little bit. But it's been pretty coach third base and probably will do that until I'm in a wheelchair, I think.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: So what are some tips for coaching third base? Yeah, that's not the easiest thing to do when you first get into it.
[00:37:20] Speaker E: No, it isn't. I think there's a lot of things that I've learned probably in the last five, six years. I pay attention a lot to when I think I watch more college baseball. I mean I just junkie of it. I love it. I don't really watch professional baseball. It's just college all the time. And I study the third base coaches in that regard and I think you can control the tempo a little bit. Especially like this tournament, we don't have a pitch clock. So I can kind of slow things down if I need to or speed them up and have different conversations and kind of work that a little bit. I think just being active and having a presence about you.
One of the things I really try not to do, and I'm guilty of it, you know, probably five times a year, is to not show emotions, not show body language, you know, whether it's a bad swing or whether it's a take with bases loaded or, you know, whatever that is. I really try not to show up my players in that way. But just having a, having a presence and feeling confident, I think kind of, what's the word? Projects onto, onto players as well.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: I think you're really forward thinking and you're always trying new things. Have you added anything new training wise, practice wise here recently?
[00:38:29] Speaker E: Yeah, we've done a couple things. We have a, during our bp, our last round of each group, I think we put it in right after we left here. We might have done it right before but we have something called specials now and we just work high IQ plays, you know, double dekes and dekes in the middle of the infield and just different plays, plays there. We've also mixed in probably in the last month or two into our BP sessions called Keep it out of the net. And you know, we have names for all of our BP very in the off season it's just straight bp. We don't really do a lot. It's More swing analytics than it is, like approach and things like that. But once the season starts, it's, you know, we did that barnstormer thing and there's just all kinds of different BPs. So we added keep it out of the net. And we got beat this year by Brophy. And it really started after that. They had a kid on the mound that was just really good. And he was throwing, you know, I don't want to say a bad breaking ball, but he was throwing a get me over breaking ball in up counts. And we would just take it. It was 2 0, so we would take it and then he would throw the nasty one after that. And he knew that we weren't going to swing at that. And so we kind of changed our approach when we're feeling that through an inning or, you know, through the order once or twice.
No more of that. Right now it's strike mode. If he throws a strike, we're hitting it. I don't care what the count is. I don't care plus or down. We're just gonna keep it out of the net. I heard it somewhere on Instagram or Twitter, and I like that approach. Even with two strikes, you know, the goalies or the catchers, the net, like, we're the goalie. Just keep it out of it. Don't let any balls in the net. And I think it's helped. I think it's helped a little bit. And so we're adding that about once a week.
We're very cognizant about who we are and being humble. We know as well, like, there's not very many teams that are just going to line it up and, and throw heaters by us. Right. It's. That's going to be rare.
Their chance to beat us most likely is by being able to throw backwards. And that's really been the case for a couple of years now. And I've been thinking and reaching out to buddies and hitting coaches and all over, like, how do we combat that? You know, because typically, yes, you don't want to swing at a slider 2 0, but when that's how they're beating you, you have to fight, find a way to adapt. And so that's really the only thing that we've probably added recently.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Plus, once hitters understand you can ambush that ball and send it out of the yard.
[00:40:45] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: And all you gotta do is do that one time as a lineup. If you're one guy, if he ambushes a 20 breaking ball and punishes it.
[00:40:52] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:40:53] Speaker A: Then the pitcher and the other team's
[00:40:55] Speaker E: back on there, a little bit of doubt, and then they know they can't do it. Yeah, for sure. No doubt.
[00:40:58] Speaker A: Because then the players are like, coach, you told us that he weren't going to swing too low on a break and ball. And then the guy just ambushed a double in the gap with it. For sure. We get this question a lot with the rookie mentorship, with young assistant coaches that are in that room.
How, as a head coach, how do you know when you're able to give an assistant more responsibilities?
[00:41:19] Speaker E: Yeah, that's a unique question for us. I think there's, like, in my coaching career, I would either want to be the guy that has 15 head coaches in Arizona, none. And I'm in the nun right now. And so I don't believe any of my coaches want to be head coaches anymore. JJ Sverra has played at asu. His dad was the coach at asu. He's been a head coach at Mountain Point when I left. David Lopez has been to five state championships as a head coach and a couple as an assistant. And hall of Famer Mike woods from Hamilton Son is on my staff. We have a great staff. Coach Chase does our, our pitching staff. So they're, they're happy.
You know, we have ASU football right around the corner and Dillingham is holding his coaches as well, and quality of life is a big deal. They're on campus coaches, which is incredibly rare for high school to have that many.
But I just try to make them happy, you know, get them the gear, get them, get them this. But I think, to be honest, like, the more responsibility I give them, the happier it makes them.
I'm kind of a OCD control freak at times when it comes to paperwork and lineups and things like that, but the things that I can delegate to them and, or give them responsibility for, I have all the faith in the world. All of them, literally all of my coaches could be head coaches tomorrow and do a great job and so thankful that they, they are happy and they, they want to be, you know, a part of this for a while.
But, yeah, I think they're. I trust them with everything. I mean, I can. That's part of the best. I feel like I had this a little bit when I was at Greenway, where my staff, I could be in the stands and watching and we can get it done. And I think when I do that, if I can go down and walk down to the bullpen and put some pressure on, you know, a sophomore pitcher to throw a strike you know, and there's times I'll say, all right, strike right here, middle of his bullpen. Strike right here or you're done right.
[00:43:09] Speaker B: Ball.
[00:43:10] Speaker E: See you. He's done right. And I can't do that if I'm working with the infielders and the hitters and everyone else. And so we have very specific roles, outfield, bunting, defense, infield, all those things. So, yeah, I think they're excited about the challenge and the opportunity, and they do an unbelievable job.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: Different here in Arizona, I'm sure you're on the field probably for majority of your games. For pre game, may have to go inside. Does that training look any different for you, having to go inside?
[00:43:35] Speaker E: Yeah, we're kind of used to adapting a little bit. We are taking pre game on the fields today in this tournament, to my knowledge, but we just got done with the Boris Classic last week, and there was no pre game. And so it gets us out of a routine a little bit. But I think it's the same for both clubs. And, you know, these kids are, you know, we're from a little bit of an affluent area, but there's some junkyard dogs here. They're tough and they don't care if it's the asphalt or turf or grass or wet, dry, it doesn't matter.
They're very competitive and looking forward to these kinds of events to. They know how badly I want to be on this map, and I know how badly they want to be on this map, and so it's not going to be for a lack of preparation or desire that things don't go that way.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: So thanks for the time, Matt.
[00:44:19] Speaker E: Yep, you bet.
[00:44:21] 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 Weston, the ABC Office, all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email or brownleebca.org, twitter, Instagram or Tik Tok CoachBearerscribe or direct message me via the MyBC app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off with the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
[00:44:59] Speaker E: For your name and you know that
[00:45:04] Speaker A: way Yep Wait for another day and
[00:45:10] Speaker D: the world will always return as your life Never for year and you know that way
[00:45:24] Speaker E: Wait for another
[00:45:30] Speaker A: day.
