Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the ABCA's podcast. I'm your host Brian Brownlee.
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Joining us this week on the ABCA podcast is ABCA NJCAA Division 3 Assistant Coach of the Year Ramon Garza. Garza was recently named the head coach at Dallas College Mountain View after taking Dallas College Eastfield to the NJCA World Series last season. Eastfield had a phenomenal season winning the Dallas Athletic conference title, going 255 in league play. Garza was previously an assistant at UT Dallas, where he finished up his playing career after graduating from Cornell in the Ivy League. Get your pad and pen ready because Coach Garza gives us the blueprint for coaching this next generation of players. Let's welcome Ramon Garza to the podcast here with Ramon Garza ABCA NJCA Division 3 Assistant Coach of the Year was at Dallas College Eastfield. They went 50 and 15 this year with a World Series appearance, but now the Head coach at Dallas College Mountain View. So Ramone thanks for hooking up with me.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: What's an Ivy League education do for you?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: You know, I like that question, but the biggest thing I'd say is just gives you a little bit of confidence, I would think. You know, I kind of went into that thinking, all right, I'm gonna have to go through, you know, the Navy seals of education, in a sense. And a big part of that was just the cultural change and the weather. You know, you're in upstate New York and so you kind of had to bear down and go through some things and you're like, damn, if I can make it through sunsetting at 4:00 on a, you know, on a weekday, I can make it through plenty. So I say that's the biggest thing. But I'm sure there's other ways where it helps.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Mayor Texas kid, San Antonio. How'd they find you?
[00:03:53] Speaker B: You know, I was fortunate enough to have two older brothers that played college baseball. My oldest brother played at Stanford and ended up transferring over to Georgetown to finish his career there. He's now the associate head coach at Rutgers.
My middle brother played at tcu, transferred to Sanjay and played a year and then finished at Georgetown as well. And so I got to see, you know, kind of D1 baseball in two different perspectives and kind of realized, all right, you need to. To make yourself valuable at this level for sure.
And so for me, I started going, okay, well, how do you do that? Education is a big way to do that. It's a little bit harder to recruit talent for some of these educational schools. And I kind of, in essence, reached out to them in a sense, too. But I think, you know, I was going to showcases in the Northeast and I happened to. To come across them and, you know, you kind of go from there. But I was certainly looking for a school like that when, when I was going through showcases. We went all throughout the Northeast, Philly, New Jersey, everything like that, trying to find a spot like that. And super fortunate that, you know, I was able to play there. I mean, really good experience while I was there.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: And you learned from them that it's okay to go far away from home.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, you know, I encourage even some of my guys that I think there's benefit to that. Right. For some guys, it's not going to work. It's not going to make sense. Some guys need to be close to home. Some guys don't want to deal with the weather or cultural changes or anything like that. But, you know, it gave me A completely different perspective. You know, I'm born and raised in Texas, and Texas and New York are just two different, two different places. You know, you get into an elevator with somebody here in Texas, they're gonna, they're gonna create small talk with you. That's not necessarily always the case in New York, but it's good to get different perspectives and kind of learn about different areas and engage with different people. So it was, it was a good experience.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Played a great high school program, correct?
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, Very great high school program. Coach Chance Chapman runs San Antonio Reagan down there. Has done an incredible job of running a consistent program on a year to year basis and certainly a, a big reason why, why I was able to go on and play at the Division 1 level and, and now be able to coach and we maintain a good relationship and he's, you know, he runs a great program.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Then you finished up at UT Dallas?
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Yep, that's correct. I graduated from Cornell. Everything was going on with COVID Yeah. And moved down here and did two years there.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: You're one of the original grad transfers.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's right. You know, the Ivy League at the time wasn't allowing post grad and so I, I quickly, I graduated in the fall and I quickly had to find a place. And a lot of places were like, we have zero room and super fortunate to coach Shoemake and coach Graves. UT Dallas was like, come on, let's bring it on. And great experience there too. Won two ASC championships in the time there. And I mean, can't complain. That was really good.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: You had a great career. Who was the manager at Harwich when you were in the Cape Le?
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Oh, man, you're testing me.
I should know it too. He's probably gonna get.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Angler's been there forever, right?
[00:07:02] Speaker B: I think so, yeah. I, I know he, he had a sweet Cadillac. That's what I remember it was, he was. And what an awesome dude. What an awesome experience that was.
You know, I, I kind of got called up for the tail end. It was told, hey, we need somebody to come in and kind of help us, you know, make it two playoffs and gives, you know, get some guys off their feet and what, what a great experience. I'd encourage any baseball player, if they have the opportunity, do whatever you can to go play there. That's, that's, you know, that league is unmatched.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: It is, it's like nothing you've ever seen before. I try to tell people that I coached him and played up there and it's it's like baseball and Mars up there.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: It's a different experience. I mean, you're playing on high school fields, and you think, all right, what's the difference? And you're like, nope, it does not feel like high school. It feels like I'm playing on a field from the 1920s. Like, it's just such a cool experience.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Then you played for Charlottesville, and then that. That probably got your foot in the door to manage there, correct?
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I had a really good experience in Charlottesville when I played, so I actually started on a temp contract, just trying to, you know, prove a point there. At the time, my brother was at the University of Virginia's director of video and scouting, and so it made sense for me to, okay, I'm gonna live with him. I train with him and.
And play for Charlottesville, and was fortunate enough to have. To have earned a spot there. Mike Padawano, Jeff Burton gave me an incredible opportunity there. Super fortunate for it. And I definitely think that, you know, my time there had a bit of an impact on my ability to go back and manage. I like to think that I left an impression that was good enough, that they're like, all right, well, we'll give them. We'll give them a chance to manage. But certainly was, you know, was super grateful. And what a great city and organization to be able to play for. I mean, if it's. If it's not the Cape, Charlottesville is. Is got to be up there in the top places to be. I mean, constantly at the top of the Valley League, constantly winning, having guys from big programs.
Just an incredible city, too. You know, summer ball. You always hear these. These terror stories of, man, they're in the middle of nowhere and. But what an incredible place to be. And you have the Charlottesville faithful that are always out there supporting you, too, and just overall, really good experience.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Did you have to set your roster that summer that you managed?
[00:09:20] Speaker B: I walked into a roster. It was late. It was a late, late addition. I think something had happened with the former head coach. They had somebody lined up, and he was unable to do it. And so, you know, I kind of found myself in a really good situation there and a really good opportunity. And Jeff Burton, I know, was instrumental part in putting that.
Putting that roster together, but, wow, what an incredible roster, too. I'd have to go back and really re. Look at it, but a number of draft picks on that team both that year and the following year.
Just a number of really good players at the collegiate level that are still Playing super grateful to be able to get to work with those guys. What a way to get your, you know, your foot in the door.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Were you able to keep most of your roster for the whole summer?
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, you know, we, we had guys that were still in playoffs or in the College World Series or so we had guys that kind of filtered in late, but we did keep a good portion. Obviously you still have injuries or you have maybe one, one too many at a certain position where it doesn't really make sense logistically.
But I think, you know, that's one of the biggest challenges in summer baseball is can you create an environment that is both productive for them and, and in a sense entertaining enough to keep them. They've been playing baseball since January. They're like, I want to go home for a couple weeks and can you create that environment that's that they really feel bought into and that they're getting better and improving and we worked really, really hard to be okay. Look, you're here for a number of reasons. You're representing the city, but you're also improving. You know, I told those guys all the time, you know, you can go back home, but the guy that's trying to beat you out at whatever school you're at, how do you know that he's going back home?
And so super fortunate to have those guys basically, basically all the way through. And I think that ultimately is the difference in why, you know, you can win championships. And one thing that they take great pride in in that organization is, hey, we're going to make this environment as good as we possibly can for you guys. So it's not a miserable drag of summer bowl.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: You know, I mean, what was your player development plan for the summer ball guys when, when you had them for the.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: In Charlottesville?
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I, I think Charlottesville or summer ball in general, you know, it lets you kind of focus on reps, right? That's, that's the biggest thing. You have the opportunity to go fine tune approach. You have the opportunity to go fine tune mechanics because the application is right there in front of you on that day. You work on something and you immediately get to see the results of that work. And there were a number of players who really benefit, benefited for something like that. You know, we had a few players that their at bats came, you know, few and far between at the programs they were at, and yet they're still trying to prove something.
And so getting them immediate feedback on what they're working on is huge. And so I really tried to focus on making sure that these guys are, you know, getting their reps, getting the time to play. We did a really good job of mixing guys around, getting them different parts of the lineup, different positions, just making them as versatile as possible. So when they go back to their, to their own places, they have the best opportunity to, to go forward and play. And I think it showed. You know, I think there was a number of guys who either went back and played a different position or who learned enough about their swing and about their mechanics to, to go out and be productive. And we saw a number of guys on that roster who, you know, in the next year or two shot up and turned out to be some incredible top notch players. I mean, across the country that, that end up getting drafted. And you look back and you're like, you know, even if I was just the, the stepping stone for them to do that, you know, just, just for them to build confidence, that's a big one too. You know, I think you got guys that, you get to this big time level and you start looking and go, man, like, there's some, there's some really good guys around here and you're able to go to the Valley League and, and you know, knock the ball around a little bit and have success. I think that builds a lot of confidence going back. Like, hey man, I worked my butt off all summer, I had success. Like, I deserve to be here just as much as you do.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Did you take anything back to UT Dallas with you from that experience?
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Oh, 100%.
You know, one of the things that I think I really took is that you, you got to get the most out of your players. And we don't always do that as coaches.
For example, one of the things I like to tell my guys, I would rather you be 50 or I'd rather be 100 bought into what you're doing with your swing than 50 bought into what I'm telling you. And 50 bought into what you believe. Okay, either be 100 bought into what I'm telling you or 100 bought into what you believe. Because you can't go up to the plate with this doubt in your mind and this. 50. 50. Okay, well, I'm gonna try to do it a little bit like coach, but also I think that this works for me.
And that's something that, you know, that's just one example. But you know, getting the most out of your players from a confidence perspective, from a managerial perspective, right? Like, do guys want to play for you? Are they leaving it out on the line because they know that you have their best interest in mind. And so I, I try my best to relate to these guys, to make sure they know that I'm here to help them, whether that's, you know, doing the little things that they wouldn't expect. Right. Like, I had a player call me at like 11 o'clock a couple nights ago and he was like, coach, sorry to call you so late. I'm super excited. Something you told me in the swing is really working. Can we talk about it? And he's like, I know it's late. And I'm like, yeah, man, let's do it. And I think it's little things like that, where we can be a little bit more personable that make the difference. Because, you know, players, players love that and they want to go play for a guy who cares about them.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: With Ivy League education, was, was there ever a doubt that you're going to get into coaching or were you going to go do something else?
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I'd say there's, there's a few times where you go, okay, well, am I going to fully utilize this, you know, degree in finance that I have? And I like to think that, you know, I got budgeting to do and things like that. So there's, you know, there's still the finance being applied there, but there was a time where, you know, I was working as a, as a financial advisor where I was like, all right, let's, let's test these waters out. And it's very quickly that you go, yeah, you know, I'm making a bigger impact in baseball than, and, you know, you can't really pass up on the opportunity to, to be an impact in this sport. I think, you know, the real important moments for us as coaches, the really big moments, are seeing guys go and, and develop and look back and be able to point at you as a mentor or an impact on them in a positive way, that you can't put a price tag on that. And, you know, as, as good of a career path as finances, and as much as I, I still try to be as useful as possible in that realm, you really can't put a price tag on, on, on having those relationships. I think those are the kind of things you will remember for a very long time.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Were you able to separate playing with the guys that you, you played with and coaching them at ut?
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I think part of that stems from my last two years there. My, my two years there in the program and how I went about my business. I think I commanded a lot of Respect in that, in that clubhouse because of they knew that, hey, look, Garza is going to be the first one there and he's going to be the last one to leave. And so when you return, I think you get this kind of respect of okay, like, hey man, like he's not here to just joke around with us. Like if he's giving us advice or he wants to, you know, take us out and hit, like, I think, I think that there's a good reaction there and a good healthy respect there. I also think your role, you know, I was kind of on the. As a volunteer assistant. I also think part of your role is to kind of get in the clubhouse a little bit and see where the mentality is and kind of be able to relay that back to the coaching staff. So part of it is, hey, okay, he has those relationships and he still knows these guys and he can tell us, you know, what's going on with the health of the clubhouse. So it was a little bit of both. But I think, you know, there was times where, you know, I'm taking night classes so there's times I get out of class at 9:30 and I flip the lights on in a cage and I'm there and people are like, all right, dude, what are you doing? Like, so that kind of, those kind of things and it translates to now, you know, if you're the guy that said, all right, what time you want to stay here till where it's freezing and I'll still go hit with you, I think you end up commanding, you know, a little bit more respect and guys go, man, all right, like this, this guy's legit, this guy cares. So similar concept and you guys built.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Something good at Eastfield. What were some of the challenges for Division 3? JUCO.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, particularly at Eastfield, you know, I think the biggest challenge was managing expectations, right? You have a team that had been to back to back national finals and was so close, was knocking on the door, wasn't able to, to fully, you know, knock it down. So I think you have these expectations of you're starting the year as the number two team in the country. You got so and so committed here and so and so committed there. You know, how do you, how do you go about focusing on the little things when all you can think about is the big thing of, of getting back to the, the national championship game. And so I think one of the biggest challenges for sure was, all right, how, how are we going to be detail oriented? How are we going to make sure that we are doing things correctly on a daily basis and don't get complacent. And you know, there were times where we got complacent throughout the year. You know, there were times where we did the little things. Right. And there were also times where you look and go, man, we got comfortable there and we got away with it too, you know, which you know is typically encouraging when, you know you have that much talent on a roster that you can say, man, we got away with some things there, but we also had a lot of really hard working guys, you know, and a skipper who, man, he knows what he's doing. Coach Martin is, runs an incredible program over there and you know, I even tell recruits, I go, look, you're not going to find me saying anything about that program, so let's move on and just talk about Mountain View. Right? So runs an incredible program. Really knows what he's doing and really knew how to focus guys back in. You know, you see this guy who knows how to get animated and knows how to get you locked in the zone and sometimes you saw him take a step back and, and kind of be the calm guy who related to them, who, hey, let's refocus. You know, that's a big loss. But look, we're here, we're all right. Right. So that's just many years of experience and, and, and knowing the game and knowing how to get the most out of your players. I mean, so much to be learned from him that, you know, you probably can't do it all in a year, but certainly a lot that I took from that program.
[00:19:57] Speaker A: Biggest benefit being the Dallas metro area.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's a couple, I think there's a talent. I think particularly at the JUCO level, you know, there's also the experience of, I think it being a little bit more like a four year experience. You know, I think one of the, one of the major downfalls of JUCO baseball at times is, you know, the location.
I think it can get really tough on these individuals when you're maybe in an area that there's not a lot, a lot going on outside of baseball. And it's easy to lose perspective. Right. So I love that, you know, our guys can finish practice and go down to a Rangers game, you know, or, you know, they can go hang out together as a group. I love that, you know, we got to serve our community here and with the North Texas Food bank and things like that, you know that. I think you, you may not always get that at some areas, but the talent Pool is obviously tremendous here in Dallas, and that's something to pull from. But, you know, I also think that, that, that. That's huge to. To be in an area where you're like, wow. And you also look and you go, okay, what's going to make it easier for a scout to come. To come see your guys? Right? Can. Am I going just to this one city where it's going to take me seven hours, there's no airport, and then I got to drive back and that's a full day to see one guy. Or am I here? And, you know, I go, boom. I get to go see Mountain View, I get to go see South Lake Carroll. I get to go see, you know, this great high school. And. And now you're seeing three to four players at a time. So there's. There's definitely some benefits to being in a major metroplex, and we're super fortunate to be three minutes down the road from Dallas Baptist. So that's great.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: And it looks like Coach Martin gave you a lot of responsibilities on and off the field.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: Yeah, certainly. And huge respect for.
For him for allowing me to do that, because that certainly did a lot for me in terms of, you know, learning.
I got the hitters and I had the infielders, and there was a lot to get to apply there and get to do, but there was also a lot to learn from being the one that's running that right. And, you know, he would approach me and say, all right, what are we doing? What are we doing with the hitters today? And I would say, I want to do this. And sometimes he might look at me a little crazy, but he would ultimately side with, you know, what we're doing. And I think that that's. That was awesome. That was something that, you know, helped me to. To learn a little bit, but also gave me some responsibilities that, you know, I get to. I get to now go forward in my career and say, look like, you know, I. I was very much responsible for this or that. And so, you know, we had a really good dynamic there. I think we both saw eye to eye on a lot, you know, from hitting to in game management to, you know, I remember in my interview talking about, he goes, are you a launch angle guy? And I was like, look, in my opinion, a head high line drive back up the middle has the highest chance of getting you a base hit. And he just starts. He go, all right, we're good. We just had to cover that before.
So, you know, what were some things.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Hitting wise, that he felt like were unorthodox.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: You know, sometimes we just like to challenge our guys, and I don't even think it's necessarily unorthodox per se. At the higher level of baseball, I think, you know, I'll give you an example. Sometimes I would bring, you know, the. The dual mini hack attacks out, and I have that thing 45ft away. It's cranking a fastball. And then we throw a slider out there, too, that looks like a major league slider from that distance. And guys are just struggling. And he's like, well, do we need them to. Are we going to break their confidence? And I just want you to think through it. And I was like, yeah, I'm thinking through it. I want these guys to be challenged a little bit because I think, you know, we can do a better job of stimulating what the experience is going to be in game. And one of the things that we talked about a lot was dominating fastballs. And it's really easy to dominate fastballs when we're throwing to you. And, you know, a fastball is coming, and it's coming at 40 miles an hour, right? It's really hard to dominate fastballs when you have this idea planted in your head that it might be a slider, right? Or it could be a curveball. And so that's going to help you to really train that instinct to, I stay on fastball, okay? I just got two curveballs in a row that I swung through. I stay on fat, can't get beat by the fastball, right?
And so things like that. But, you know, I also get a little bit of a boost of confidence when I have players that played for me at Eastfield that are now at the D1 level. They go, coach, you're never going to believe this. We have three hack attacks going now. Fastball, change, up slider. He's like, I thought you were crazy. And I was like, I'm not crazy. You know, I. I try to learn from. From those who know what they're doing at this level and have been doing it for a long time. And I think at the upper echelon of D1 baseball, it's about challenging hitters, and that's where you're really going to see growth. And I look back on my career and I'm like, man, I spent a lot of time feeling good and on mechanics and making sure it was repeatable, but I wish I would have challenged those mechanics more and pushed it and pushed velocity, and I definitely think that that's a lot of room for growth.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Did you have that approach as a player to stay on the fastball?
[00:24:53] Speaker B: I did. And, and the idea is, you know, you always want to be on time for those that, that's going to be the easiest, the easiest pitch to hit. Right. I tell my guys, you know, our job is for the barrel to be as in the zone as long as possible. Make it really hard for that ball to miss our barrel. I don't like to think of this like I have to hit the pitcher's pitch, right? It's the pitcher's job to make sure he misses our barrel. Well, what's the toughest pitch to miss a barrel on? Typically the one that's coming straight at you. Right. So my approach was, you know, towards the end when I think I started having success in college and you know, that's one of the, the things that I like to tell my guys, look, I, I've had failures at the, at the college level and I've also succeeded. And here's what I was doing when I was succeeding and staying on fastballs was, was big because you work yourself into some pretty plus counts when you're, when you're doing that right. If, if, oh, you're looking to dominate the fastball and you're able to spit on spin, that's in the dirt. I mean, good luck, right? You can double up on that. Now. I've seen that pitch twice and later on in the at bat, I have a much better opportunity to hit it or even oh, oh, if you flip me in a curveball, okay, you have two choices. Throw me the fastball, which I'm already on, or throw me the same pitch that you just threw me that I just saw. Right. So obviously there's pitcher tendencies that you have to consider and sometimes you make adjustments. But I definitely think at this level, I mean, your ability to hit the fastball is everything. You know, there's that old adage, you know, you hit the fastball all the way up to what, like double A, and then now you have to prove you can hit the curveball as well. Right.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: So did you have to adjust your recruiting eye? You were at a four year level for a long time. Did you have to adjust your recruiting eye at all going to the two year level?
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I think one of the things that at UTD is that kind of goes under the radar is UT Dallas is an incredibly good academic school and so you're kind of limited in, in the players that you can go after and it's very difficult to, to recruit when, when you have that aspect.
But I think the shift really goes from, you know, looking at players who are high academic that are not going to struggle in the classroom, that are going to be able to handle the course load.
I think at this level you're more looking for players that you can help prepare for a situation like that. I tell recruits and parents all the time that part of our job here as a junior college program is to kind of get your feet wet when it comes to what is it going to look like at a four year. Right. How do I manage my time in terms of studying, practice, you know, class and all of these things. And even a social aspect too, which I think is important for college students. Right. Like I, I think it's great that my guys will get together and go to a Stars game or the Maps game, because I think that there's that balance. How do I manage that? Right. When somebody says, hey, you want to come out and go to a Rangers game tonight, but you have a test the next day, I think it's important that you learn how to make those decisions before you get to the four year level where there's a little less leeway with, you know, with those situations. So yeah, certainly I think it shifts, but just in a, in a different sense. I don't think, you know, you're still looking for high talented, high ceiling individuals. I think you're just looking to provide a little bit different of an experience.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: And that guidance, I think is probably the most important thing for them.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: I mean, if they can play, they need the other stuff more than, than the on the field stuff. They need to manage themselves away from it.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, that's part of what our job is as junior college coaches and something that, you know, I learned from Coach Martin that is never going to be, is never going to be seen. Right. It's really hard to see behind the doors of the one on one meetings of, of what goes on when you bring a player in and you sit them down and you talk about life choices and you talk about, you know, their degree progress and you talk about grades and those kind of heart to heart conversations that can make a real impact on a player, but the results don't necessarily show on the field. So, you know, 23 years, I got to see, you know, Coach Martin been doing that for 23 years and I got to see a little bit of man, you know, he's been doing this for a while. You imagine the kind of impact you have over the course of that, you know, career Every year you have players that you're making an impact on. So it's, it's definitely on us to make sure that we become a really good mentor and, you know, at times a good friend to these players who might be going through something or might need that advice in order to go on to the next level and be successful.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Do you feel like it helps because you are close in age range to the guys that you're coaching right now?
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, it's, it's a dual edged sword. I think it can, it can help and it can hurt at times if you let it.
You know, I think that was really important to me coming in here was being able to, you know, make that difference between being an assistant coach and being a head coach. You know, part of, again, part of my role at Eastfield was, hey, I need to know what's going on in the clubhouse. I need to have an idea to how guys feel and be able to take that to, to coach Martin. Fortunately, I have really good staff here. Josh Merrill, my pitching coach, who has kind of taken over that role. Right. He's 25 and so he's able to do that as well to relate to the players in a way. I always want to remain approachable as a head coach. I want to be somebody that you should feel comfortable having a conversation with or coming into my office. But there's certainly a sense of, you know, you're not going to be as personable, you can't, you're not going to be behind the scenes as much when you're, when you're making decisions about the lineup and you're trying to shape culture and things like that.
But you know, that's, that's the importance of having a really good assistant coach. And you know, I think I found one here that's done a great job in the time here of kind of taking over that role.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: What do you feel like it is about your generation? Because my kids are similar in age range. I think it's about building a community.
Yeah, generation has figured that out better than the rest of us. Like, I think mine was a little bit, I think Gen X's were about building community, but not to the extent of where my contact with your guys generation. It's much more about let's build a community here and let's try to help everybody in our community.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, we brought in kind of the pillars that were going to be the backbone of this program and we titled that C4 and it's classroom competition, community and culture. Right.
And I think that those all build upon each other and really what we're trying to do here as coaches and mentors, a large portion of players at the college level are not going on to play professional baseball. As much as you can help players to get to that level.
A lot of what we do is community building and building up player. And before you can have a, a thriving community, you need to have individuals that can, you know, that can, that can handle their own and that can contribute to that community in a positive way. Right. One of my favorite things that, that I have seen is, you know, clean your room. Start there, right. You know, if your room's messy, your life's typically messy, right. And I love that idea because that's essentially what we're learning to do here at this level, right. How do we make sure that our lives are, we have good time management and we're doing things correctly so that way we can go on to serve our community and we can go on to be positive impacts culturally. I think that that's, that's crucially important. So you look and you go, okay, what's the first thing that we prioritize? It's the classroom, right? It's really hard to have success on the field to be a positive impact in your community if you can't take care of the little things that you have to do. Showing up to class and, and you know, turning in assignments and things like that. And so everything kind of builds on itself and it starts on a very, hey, make sure that your situation is organized and you're doing things the right way and you're going to be able to go from that and be a positive impact in the community and, you know, it's super encouraging to see my guys and the kind of impact that they have. When I walk around campus and a professor will stop me and say, man, we loved having your guys or whatever the situation may be. That's, that's super, that's super good for me to see because I'm like, wow, that's, that's going to be huge when these guys go out into the world and have the opportunity to positively impact their community.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: I've never met a good leader that wasn't able to self manage.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've all been there, right? I mean when, when you're taking the clothes out of the dryer and you leave it on the bed, it's because your life is chaotic at that point, right? Like when you have the time and things are under control and you're task managed you'll sit there and you'll fold that clothes and you put it away immediately. Right? So I love it. I think that's such a fair representation of, you know, our ability to. To be selfless and act towards. And it's important for me, Right. Like the way we act towards our teammates. One of the things that, culturally, that I wanted to shift when I first got here was, okay, we just got done with practice. Where are you when we start picking up the field? Right. Are you the first one in the dugout taking your cleats off? Are you the one grabbing water? Where are you? And one of the things that we don't have right now is guys that go to the dugout when we start picking up the field, right. Like, I remember we had to talk about it, and it was more than just a talk, but the next day we had. We had about 20 guys holding the hose from.
I was like, I don't. I don't need this many. We can find other ways to do this, but super important, right? Like, I think it's super important to be acting in a manner that is selfless and that is oriented towards your teammates. That's going to carry over into games, right? Runner on third, less than two outs. What kind of hitter are you going to be in that situation? Are you going to be the guy that gets the job done or that's trying to rail ball out of the yard and ends up striking out?
So it translates into baseball. Yes, but it's going to translate into the world in a way that we probably won't see for years.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: And you're going to have to address things like that because some of your guys have never heard anything like that.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah. You know, I think, you know, this is. Some of them are coming straight out of high school. We have a couple transfers as well, and so not a lot. I. I think I've been able to be a part of what I hope to create, which is a D1 environment. Right. We talk about it all the time. I would love to have a scout come out here from a D1 school and look at the way we practice and go about our business and say, man, this looks really close to what we're doing, or exactly like what we're doing. And so you try to create that culture. And. And the other aspect I tell guys is, look, we're going to aim small, Ms. Small. We're going to aim for you to be prepared to go to the best Division 1 program that you can. The best Division 1 program in the country. And if you decide to go to a, you know, an academic D2 or D3, or if you decide to go to a mid major, whatever the case may be, you know, you're going to be prepared for those programs because you know how to do things the right way, you know how to go about your business.
So I, I think it was. It's certainly important to come in and first things first, let's establish culture and the way we're going to do things. I tell my guys, you know, with some of the developmental work that we do, if you do it 99 correct, then it's 100 a waste of time. You have to be doing it 100% of the time every time you do it. And I can't be sitting here watching you do it too. You know, you have to be knees bent, chin tucked, pushing through a, a ball on fundamentals, or else it does not, it does not do anything for us. So certainly the way we go about our business has changed and, and it reflects because I think the guys love it and I think it does a lot for their confidence when they go, man, you know, I just did 100 reps at my very best. Focus and discipline. I feel prepared to come into the game and do this right now.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: So how was the interview process at Mountain View?
[00:36:35] Speaker B: Yeah, so, you know, I think there was, there was a couple of interviews. I got to meet with the athletic director, both of Dallas College, Ms. Sadia Jones and coach Leroy Phillips.
And we got to, you know, talk about what my vision would be for the program and, you know, how things would be different from Eastfield to here.
And then I also got to meet with the coaching staff here on the campus and kind of talk to them about culturally, what we're trying to do as a coaching staff and what we're trying to achieve.
So it was a multi pronged interview where, you know, I think you get to really lay out on the table what your vision is for a program. And I think we just see eye to eye. You know, I get along really, really well with all the coaches here and we all have kind of a shared vision for what we'd like to do with Mountain View athletics and the kind of impact that we'd like to have on, you know, the Dallas community, the Oak Cliff community.
I think it's really exciting when you get to go into work and, and have those kind of relationships where, man, we see eye to eye. And I think as coaches we can often forget that, that, hey, like, this is, this is your job. Like, there is an aspect of that, of like enjoying the people that you work with. And that's something I didn't even realize at Eastfield until I was getting ready to leave and I was like, oh my gosh, like, I loved the people that I worked with, right from the AD to Coach Martin to, you know, whatever it was, it was like, man, this is, this is awesome. Like, I really enjoy it. And you don't think about the situation where you're like, man, what if I don't enjoy working with, you know? And so any time that you get the chance to work with people that you really enjoy working with, it's, it's such a blessing. And certainly that's the case here. We all get along and we all have a really good vision for what we'd like to do here.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: You have any tips for interviewing? And the reason I ask is, I mean, you've been pretty much 100% on jobs, so I like that. Obviously you're doing something right. And we'd get a lot of questions from coaches on like, how do I move up, how do I get jobs? So obviously you're doing something right in the interview process.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I'd like to keep that ratio. I'd like to keep adding a thousand for that's great, or just retire and leave it at that. But I'd say, you know, it's all about being prepared. Right. I think the number one thing that either a coach wants to see or an athletic director wants to see is a vision and a detailed process for how you're going to implement that. Right.
You know, I had a vision in mind, but, you know, it took me 27 page document to lay out everything that I'd like to do with this program. You know, when I interviewed at Eastfield, I, I same thing was walking in with a very detailed plan of what I plan to do with the hitters, how we're going to practice on a daily basis.
I think, you know, you would like to at some point be able to take that plan and hand it over to AI and I should be able to know how to run one of your practices. Right? So that's the level of detail that I think shows, okay, you're prepared, you have a vision for this, you spent time making sure that, that this can be applied. Right. I think when you go in and say, okay, we're going to change culture and we're going to recruit better, okay, how are you going to do those things? Right? Like, what's your actual plan? What, what happens when you see a Roadblock, right? So, you know, the. The difference being I go from Eastfield, which has had tremendous success over the, you know, past few years, whereas Mountain View we have not over the past couple years. And you say, okay, what is that going to do to recruiting? And I think having to go in there with a plan say, look, this is the situation that we're in and where we're at recruiting, this is how we get ourselves into better footing and move the ball forward. And having that kind of plan, I think is going to be. It's going to be huge. I think that's how you. That's how you really prove, hey, I'm ready for this position, and I want it, too.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: Did it take you long to line your staff up?
[00:40:29] Speaker B: I got super, super fortunate with my staff.
It didn't take me long at all because sometimes when you know who the right guy is, you know who the right guy is and you mix well. And I had a couple of interviews, but for me, it was important to go get a guy who was all about the developmental side of. Of pitching. I wanted a guy where pitchers can come in and feel comfortable being their goofy self with, right? Like, they can talk about mechanics, they can talk about how they're developing, and they can go be weird with, you know, your pitch. You know, I always say pitchers are weird, and that's. That's great. Like, be goofy. You know, you look at Trevor Bauer, right, who's always doing goofy mechanics and talking about things like, I love that idea. And, you know, I got coach, Coach Josh Merrill, who has had some experience working with trad. He worked at Covo, which is another pitching lab here.
He worked with DBAD in. In the area and just had really good connections with the Dallas select baseball kind of realm.
And the biggest thing is, man, does he want to create a culture here as well? I think it really excites him where he goes, man, we can go into a program and really make a difference. And it's super exciting when your recruiting coordinator calls you and it's super giddy about a new commit that we just got. Man, this is going to do great things for a culture and impact. It's like, wow, what more can you ask for out of. Out of your assistant coach than to be just as bought in as you are? And I think that's the biggest thing. Do. Do your assistant coaches feel like they are building the program as well? Do they feel like they are bought into it and involved in the program? If you can get that and you can get your players on the same page. You know, I think it's huge. One of the things that I tell both my coaches and my players is, look, we have an opportunity to leave a legacy here, right? Like, we've seen the condition that Mountain View was at. We have an opportunity to go make big changes in the way that Mountain View is viewed to the outside world. And that's exciting. You want to be able to look back in five, 10 years and go, oh, that was me. I was the first class that really shifted, you know, how Mountain View is viewed and what kind of program they are now. They're a powerhouse, and that's because of me, right? So that's something that, you know, super, super, super glad to have Coach Merrill on board because, man, he does things the right way.
[00:42:46] Speaker A: Anything you feel like you, you weren't prepared for. I don't know if everybody's completely prepared for their first head gig, but, but anything you feel like you weren't prepared for.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: You know, you try to do your best to kind of predict what's going to come down the road.
I think right now, my field does not take water really well. At third base, maybe that's a pretty good one.
No, but, you know, on a more serious note, I, I, I, I think that things just, they come up, right? I think you kind of find yourself as a CEO of sorts, and that's exactly what this job's about. And one of the great things about having a business degree is that you kind of know how CEOs operate. And one of the things that CEOs are, you're kind of firefighters, right? Like, here, this just came up. You got to put out this fire.
This just came up. You have to do this. And, and so I wouldn't say I was, you know, unprepared for it by any means, but I, I would say it's one of those things that you can't really, you know, prepare for a specific situation. It kind of just comes up, and you're going to, you're going to have to figure out how to handle it. And so definitely those situations come up, whether it's an issue with a professor or grades or, you know, an issue with a player or something like that, right? That you kind of just have to, on the spot, make a decision. But, you know, I think the important part in, in times like that is having a really good, you know, system around you between the coaches that you work with on campus, your athletic director, former mentors, you know, fortunately, a brother in baseball and, and, you know, coaches at UTD Right down the road who. Who were great that you can. You can reflect on. You can rely upon to, hey, you know, how would you handle this situation? I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly. And when you have that community around you, man, it's. It's super impactful to be able to go on and feel confident in the decisions you're making.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: I think that's the best thing about the job, is that it's different every day.
[00:44:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I. I do. I do like that. Yeah.
Finance is not in. In some sorts, don't get me wrong. There's. There's a lot of good parts to finance, and I. I still enjoy, you know, helping people when I can, but there's nothing like showing up and you're like, oh, okay, so we can't hit today, so we're gonna try and bunt and steal and hit run and things like that or whatever the situation may be. You know, I. I think that there's that kind of, you know, put. Put out the fires, right, And. And be adaptable, and I love that aspect. This job definitely keeps you on your toes, and it keeps you invested. And, you know, you think about a big part of this job, which is recruiting, getting to interact with so many different players and so many different desires and needs and wants, what they want out of college experience, that it just keeps you. You're not doing the same thing ever. You're not talking to the same player. It's just a whole different experience every day. So that's. Yeah, I'd agree.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: Do you have a favorite CEO out there?
[00:45:36] Speaker B: CEO.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: CEO. Do you have a favorite CEO that you studied?
[00:45:40] Speaker B: You know, it kind of crazy, but we did a lot of case studies when I was in school of like, you know, what was Facebook doing at the beginning and what was Southwest Airlines doing at the begin? And interestingly enough, a lot of it applies to how you run a program, right? Like, you look at some of these companies that go on to be extremely successful in massive companies, and when they were tiny, when nobody knew about them, or when they were just being overshadowed by some of these bigger companies, they were culturally awesome. They had employees that were bought in that wanted to make a difference at the program, that they were taken care of. You look at the employee benefits and the way that CEOs interacted with employees when the company wasn't very big and even companies that are big, right? Like, does your CEO, you know, treat everybody the same way?
And that, you know, that makes. That makes a huge difference. And so I, I don't know. I, I probably could. I, I don't. I probably. Like, obviously, yeah, it would have to, I'd have to think back on it. But you, you look at guys who, who are extremely successful and, and men and women are extremely successful at being a CEO. What they do really well is they are involved in all aspects. They are interacting with every level. They, they create an environment that is, that people want to be a part of.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: And they're solvers. I think that's a big one. Is their problem solvers.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you see this on, on Elon Musk and he's like, man, the guy doesn't sleep, right? Like, he goes from one problem to the next and he figures it out. And I'm like, well, all right, well, if he's doing that at 50 or whatever and he's, he's going to be okay. If he doesn't get up and go to work that day, then, you know, I, I can do it too, you.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: Know, So I think about balance a lot because you hear that word a lot. I think as a younger person in any profession, you're not going to have balance. Like, you see the older people that are successful in their profession that may have balance, but they did a lot of imbalance before they got to that balance point.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And, and you know, that's one of the things that I, I kind of understand where we're at as a program and where I'm at in my coaching career that I'm trying to use to our advantage. You know, we, I'm 26. My assistant coach is 25. We have a younger staff, and one of the things that we like to tell recruits is look like we don't have a wife, kids, a dog or plant to even go home to and have to worry about. Right. So our whole time is spent doing this and building what we love, and that's Mountain View baseball. And so you have to consider, okay, who's going to go the extra mile for you? Who can go the extra mile. Obviously, you know, that's not to say that families are not important. There's obviously a time for family and separating those and making sure that you have a work life balance and whatnot. But hey, you know, if I'm at this point in my life, I'm going to take advantage of it and I'm going to pour everything I have into this program and I'm gonna, I'm gonna let my players reap the benefit of that. Hey, I'm always around. I'm always here. I don't have anything to run back to. Let's. Let's make this work. And I think that's one thing that recruits have really liked about this program so far. Between the culture that we're implementing the D. One way of going about our business and the other aspect is, man, we are going to work very, very hard for our players, both to prepare them and to. To get them to the next level.
And we have brought in, you know, even thus far, we've had a tremendous recruiting class of 2025s and a 2026 that is committed that you go, man, we're really excited about the future Mountain View baseball. And I know that they're counting on us to. To work really, really hard, and we plan on doing it. We plan on being there for them.
[00:49:16] Speaker A: Do you feel like social media is good or bad for this generation of players?
[00:49:20] Speaker B: Oh, man, I feel like anything with an algorithm is dangerous. I know that might be off on a little bit of a tangent, but.
[00:49:28] Speaker A: I'm right with you on it. I am right with.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: I tried. I'm not on social media, particularly on anything with an algorithm. Like, I. I'm. I'm off of Instagram. I'm off. I have Twitter for.
Really, For. For work.
Twitter is a tremendous tool to find players, but even Twitter I'm moving away from. There's an app called recruiting service called Prolong. It's an app that's trying to take Twitter and make it a little bit, like, I guess, cleaner. And, you know, one of the. One of the things I don't like about Twitter is you go find a player and you're like, players up to 95. No, that's a retweet. Oh, here's his prom photos. Okay. Now here's the. Here's the player. Right? So even. Even Twitter I'm moving away from. And Prolook is starting to build its platform a little bit, and I love it, being able to filter by state and, you know, everything like that.
Yeah, yeah. Really good guy. I've gotten to meet with him and talk to him about it too. And I'm like, man, like, hopefully this thing takes off because this. This is a great platform, and I've started using it, and I like it for the area because I think it's more centered here in Dallas. You're gonna have more. More population here.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: But we talked about that. He was on the podcast with me, and we talked about it. Like, it. There needs to be more trusted sources. I think for coaches and for players, there needs to be more trusted sources out there of this is where we need to go to look. We ran a youth camp in D.C. and I talked to the parents afterwards and that was a lot of the questions for the parents, like, hey, where can I steer my kid? He's online looking at baseball stuff. Where can I steer my kid to actually look? And I'm like, well, we're trying to get it streamlined, but there's still going to be some of that white noise out there. But there needs to be more trusted sources out there.
[00:51:12] Speaker B: I think one of the biggest things for parents too, that the questions I get a lot is managing expectations. Right. And I don't think many of the recruiting services or platforms right now do a very good job of that. You know, you have a player that may not be ready for D1 baseball, that's only focused on D1 baseball and they're not getting any feedback from the platforms that they're using about whether or not that's a good target for them. Right. You can be on Twitter and message every D1 coach in the country and not have any idea of whether or not you're a D1 coach caliber player. I think, you know, when you have, you know, services that are starting to, you know, all right, here are the metrics in one place and you go look at so and so on this platform. Who's committed, he's committed to Oklahoma State, right? You go, okay, I'm not throwing 95, so I probably need to shift my focus more towards this area. Right? So that's, I think that's crucially important too. And we even have to do it at this level and go, look man, like I know you're really interested in going to a D1 or a D2 straight out of high school, but we really think you could benefit from, from this development. Well, if that player has had enough time of having his sights set on that level, it's really hard to, to break that bias and to get them more in line with. All right, you know, you're, this is probably the better route for you and probably ultimately the route that's going to result in a better situation for you at a four year level. Right. Like one where you're actually going to be contributing and a part of the program. So there's certainly, you certainly looking for, for ways to, to improve that. And social media is, it's a tough one. It's, it's, it's great. I mean I use it, but I'm hoping to get away from it as well.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Do you have a fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now helped you move forward?
[00:52:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. I think my, my freshman year at Cornell, I'm going in here with, you know, tremendous success at the high school level. Was the Texas High school all star, was in the all star game. We were, we had two state final appearances.
You know, I'm walking in thinking, okay, I'm going to make a huge impact in a difference. And I worked that way and I went about my business the right way and worked really hard to become faster, more explosive, better defensively, a better hitter.
And then I show up my freshman year and start off fantastic. I remember feeling on top of the world because I mean, what a, what an experience that my first collegiate game was at Blue Belt park playing against Texas A and M, facing against, you know, their 1, 2 and 3. All got drafted, I'm pretty sure. And you know, I think one of them's. I believe that game. He's in the big leagues for the, I want to say the Padres or. And so I'm up there in my first.
I had a double to right. I'm feeling good taking off the bat, like just, just letting the swagger fly, you know, and calling hey, time Blue like all you know how and had it. Had a pretty good weekend that weekend. Just feeling all right, this is, this is hard work paying off, but keep, keep grinding. And then mentally, you know, you go through a slump and you start. And when you're not, you know, you set this game and you're like, whoa, am I not that player anymore?
For some guys who maybe never had that in, in high school or, you know, even at the college level, I just think it's a different experience in general. And so ended up not having the freshman year that I wanted to have, neither on the field nor in the classroom.
And at that point I was like, man, how do you recover from this? Because I thought I did everything correctly. I thought I worked the right way and I had the right intent and you know, I'm super fortunate for that. And I tell guys all the time, I am not afraid to tell you that as a player, I had failures as well, as well as I had successes. Because you need to know what it's like to be in those situations and you need to have confidence that you can bounce back from that. Right. When I see a guy in the slump, I'm like, man, I have been there. I know what you're feeling. Here's what you can do to get out of that or, you know, you had a bad year, here's what you can do to bounce back. That I know works because it worked for me.
So as much as I'd like to have hit.400 that year and gone on to be the Ivy League player of the year and whatnot, man, there was a lot of benefit to. To not meeting the expectations that I set myself that year.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: Was freshman summer kind of the thing for you that got you back righted?
[00:55:26] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I think it was big, for sure. I think summer ball is. Is for whatever reason, starting to be a less utilized tool.
You know, when I was playing, it was like, you don't. There's no other question. You're going to play summer ball. And I think now it's like, oh, well, you can play if you want to. And guys go, oh, I'm just gonna go home and get stronger. And I'm like, yeah, okay. You know, you might put on five pounds of muscle because you're not running around it, but, man, there's a huge benefit to what it can do for you between the way you work, mechanics, confidence, all of it. And it certainly helped me get my. My start to get my confidence back. Still wasn't the player that I wanted to be leaving there by any means. I was in Woodstock, Virginia, with the River Bandits that year.
Wasn't the player that I wanted to be leaving there. But, man, it did. It did a lot.
And then, you know, you go up to. I went there and had a decent year in the Valley, went home.
And that's when, you know, the Kate called, and it was like. I remember it was like 11pm on. I don't remember, like, Wednesday night or something like that. And I'm working out in the gym, and they're like, hey, we need you on a plane at 5. And I was like, all right, 5pm you know, 5am Tomorrow. I was like, all right, six hours. All right, let's do it.
Don't sleep. Throw everything in a bag, and let's go. And going up there and facing the kind of talent that you faced and. And just being able to go and compete with, not really any worry, because you're like, man, I'm just this cyber league kid who's getting a chance. Let's just go have fun. And I end up facing a kid doing, I think, drink Xavier, he's doing 100 miles an hour. I just get sawed off the first at bat, and I'm like, all right, that was silly. Come back up. And I remember my hitting Coach this time was like, all right, I want you to pull the ball to the foul pole. And I'm like, every coach is like, right center, right center, right center. What are you talking about? And he goes, in this situation, pull it. And so I end up pulling one that gets caught up in the wind. And I don't care on paper, nobody can tell the difference. Like, huge winds up, wind gusts out there, and Massachusetts, it just goes over the fence. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm back. Like, here we go.
And so, no, it does a lot for you, confidence wise, I think, you know, work ethic wise. What I tell my guys now is confidence is not a product of the, you know, of your results. It doesn't, oh, I'm doing good. I have confidence. I'm doing bad. I don't have confidence. What I learned in my time and something that I didn't know my freshman year is confidence is being able to look back at the way you prepared for a situation and say, okay, anything that happens here is because of baseball. That's the way baseball is. Sometimes you line a ball out, sometimes you strike out, sometimes you don't. You don't get it done. But I'm not going to look back at the way I prepared and have any doubts about it. I didn't leave one swing on the table. My mechanics, I was fully bought into my approach. I was fully bought into. I don't have any doubts about this. And when you can do that, man, is it freeing playing this game? Because you can look back and go, hey, it happened. It's, you know, it's baseball. Instead of looking back and going, you know, I'm this. Am I this player? Am I this player? And you can't play this roller coaster ride of confidence. You got to look back and go, okay, I did everything I could to prepare for this.
[00:58:28] Speaker A: So do you talk about mental, like, verbal talk, verbal self talk with guys? I think swing thoughts are important. I think all that stuff plays into staying confident in tough situations.
[00:58:38] Speaker B: Sure, sure. 100. I talked. You know, for me, big thing was visualization that, you know, I didn't really buy into until I was at utd, but. And it was nice because my night classes got out right next to the field. And I love that there was nobody out there. It was quiet. I would go up, stand. I don't know if Coach Graves or Coach Shoemake know this, but now you do.
I would go stand at the plate and I would just visualize that I knew who the pitchers Were so I would look ahead. I wanted to do a scouting report on them. And, you know, that's something that we, that we try to do here as well. Just to give guys something to visualize. Not necessarily because you're going to get a, a ton of information. You know, at this level, film is a lot harder to come by, but just because you want to give your guys a little bit of something to think about. Going into the. So I would look at film and then I'd go out there and I just visualize. Okay, here's my approach. Oh, well, fastball. I'm on it. Oh, oh, curveball. Okay, I take now I've seen it once. You can't throw it again. And you just walk through all of these situations and I think, you know, I think there's definitely something that it does for you mentally. And so I'm big on visualization.
I think that there's definitely some benefit towards it. I'm also big on, you know, how you handle certain situations.
I'm big on flesh breaths. You know, that's something that coach Pepacelli was big on at Cornell and, and, you know, I'll take that with me everywhere. I think that that's great. Right? I, I also think that we have to be realistic in, you know, how we deal with frustration. So I tell guys, look, like, I don't want you to try and hide frustration. Frustration, that's not going to do anything for you. Like, it's okay to be frustrated. Go about your business in a professional way. Frustration doesn't mean slam your helmet, throw your bat. Right. I can be frustrated. But once you've allowed yourself to be a little frustrated, now here's how you bounce back correctly. Here's how you take a flush breath and make sure that, you know that that at that doesn't carry over to defense or carry over to the next at that. And so I'm big on trying to get the most out of the players. Just from the confidence perspective and from the mental aspect of things. I think there's so much untapped potential at all levels with some of these players and how they handle failures and success and, you know, averages and oh, man, my average is going to take a 30 point dip. So, you know, I think it was my brother that told me when I was playing in Charlottesville, like, just to give you an example, on the offensive side of the ball, all we're focused on is go get that next base hit. That's it. Go hit that next ball hard, right? Because it throws out all the expectations of the day. I think before that, I was like, all right, oh, for two, I'm gonna need two hits by the end of this game to get this back into something that's reasonable. Right? Okay. No, I'm over two. What am I worried about? The next hit? Oh, you're one for three now. Okay. What are you worried about the next hit? Are you over four? You're worried about the next hit?
And so, you know, over the course of a season, what happens is you start trending in the right direction because, you know, your 0 for 4 turns into a 1 for 4. Your 2 for 4 turns into a 3 for 4, because all you're focused on is that that next step bad, instead of trying to pull yourself out of a rut. And, well, if I'm over three, but my. My one hit was a home run, so I'm one for four. The home run. That's not a bad day. Like, you can't play baseball like that. It's going to be a very tough life.
[01:01:43] Speaker A: So I think the visualization piece also gives you some comfort because it's a preparation thing, too. I think you get those mental reps, but then I think you do get some comfort out of the visualization part, because, you know, you're trying to invest some time into getting better. And I think it does take a little bit of pressure off you. I think you see the game differently. I think it slows things down a lot for you. But I think it goes into that preparation part, like, hey, I'm doing everything I can to try to be good.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And like I said, that's that you want to be able to look back both individually and as a team. You know, our team goal is not to win as much as it's back there. Right. Our number one priority is not to win a national championship, because what can happen is you do everything correctly, and one fair call goes foul or one ball goes strike, and then you're no longer in control of that. Right. So it can't be a focus on as much as what our aspirations are to win national championships. That can't be the primary focus because you're not necessarily 100% in control of that. Right. You could line out 27 outs at 110 miles an hour, and you did everything right. And they have three blue pits that resulted in one run. How on earth is that your fault for. Right. So, yeah, I think you. You also have to, like, have this. This idea in your mind of what your goals are going to be. And I Think that really is going to shift the way you play the game too. Visualization is, is really good at getting you. Okay, here's, here's what this is going to look like. I think you're right. There's that confidence in preparation that is unmatched. I think it's, you know, it's big for players to go up to bat going, okay, what happened? Like, we're good, right? So I think that was some of the most. Playing in the Cape was some of the most fun baseball that I ever had because I was like, okay, I remember my, my very last I bat on the cape. It was 98 mile an hour fastball. I got jammed on 98 mile an hour fastball. I started to catch up on 98 mile fastball. I followed straight back and I'm like, freaking 90 mile an hour slider that I swung and spun around three times. It was like, all right, man. Like, you did okay. Well, you did what you did what you could. You're trying to make adjustments. Like, just having that confidence, like I'm doing what I can to be prepared for these is gonna, it's gonna make the game far more enjoyable. And I want my guys to enjoy the game because I've done that where your, your mind is spinning like crazy and you're trying to manage. Okay, I gotta go 2 for 4 here to bring my average back up. There's. That's no way to play the game right. And when you're playing the game the right way, you're gonna play the game better.
[01:04:09] Speaker A: You have any morning routines or any. It could be evening routines that you feel like help. You could be working out, nutrition, I mean, you're in good shape. So that's the reason.
[01:04:18] Speaker B: For now. For now, yeah. Well, I appreciate that, but, yeah, I, you know, I try to get workouts in. My coach, Meryl is big on, we're going to do workouts before the. And I love it when you have somebody who sees eye to eye with you before games too. Just, you know, you can manage stress that way, you know, get it all out of your system. But I like to start with, I like to have my drive in with either a phone call to somebody that you care about and somebody that you enjoy talking to. That's just going to give you perspective, right? So I'll call my brother every morning. And sometimes that shifts into baseball naturally, but we try to keep it family oriented and talk about things and, you know, call your family members, call your mom, call your, you know, just to give you a little Bit of perspective if nobody answers. My new thing is I'm on to some audiobooks now that just keep me in a different. I'm just thinking about something, something else, right. And I'm going through the Lord of the Rings, which should keep me occupied till, I don't know, 20, 27 or something like that. So I have, I have plenty of time. But just something that, whether, you know, I know a big thing for me at times, the Bible too. I, you know, I'll listen. I went through a Bible recap which would take you on a daily, kind of 15 minute on your drive to work, would take you through things and anything like that, that's just going to give you perspective and, and not make, you know, not make it to where your whole focus and your only gaze is, is on what you're doing in baseball. Because the reality is there's. There's so much more to even this job than just, okay, we need to have winning results and we need to hit this and we need to pitch that. So that's, that's been super good for me and, you know, again, super fortunate to have people that have been there that I go, okay, you know, give me perspective. And they go, man, yeah, it's. It's a long journey as a coach and so keeping that healthy mentality is important.
[01:06:08] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts before I let you go?
[01:06:13] Speaker B: I first just have to say thank you to Coach Martin for the opportunity that he put up. You know, I obviously wouldn't be in the situation that I'm in, certainly wouldn't be put up for that award if it wasn't for the opportunity he provided and the kind of program that he runs. Such an incredible dude, incredible influence on his guys.
Super fortunate to have been able to have that. I'll also say, you know, I'm really looking forward to Mountain View being being put on the map. I have to show a lot of confidence in the kind of players that we have and the kind of the way they're going about their business and the recruits that we've been able to go after. I mean, I think anybody who looks at our recruiting board right now is going to go, whoa, like, there is some major changes coming that we're really excited about.
But yeah, I think, I think we're really excited here and obviously thank you for having me on. And I love the ability to talk like this because I love to get thoughts out there and get different perspectives from people and I think it's super beneficial to coaches to get some different perspectives and hopefully that this is something that somebody needed somewhere, right, that gets them the next job or whatever the situation may be.
[01:07:20] Speaker A: Thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Have a great spring.
[01:07:22] Speaker B: Thank you.
[01:07:23] Speaker A: Man, I feel really good about the future of baseball with coaches like Coach Garza leading the next generation of players. I wish Coach Garza the best of luck on his next stop on his coaching journey.
Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale, Matt west and Antonio Walker in the ABC office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email rbrownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram and TikTok coachbeabca or direct message me via the MyABCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
[01:08:06] Speaker B: Now and you know that way yep wait for another.
[01:08:16] Speaker A: And the.
[01:08:17] Speaker B: World will always return as your life there before your name and you know that wait.
[01:08:31] Speaker A: Wait for another.
[01:08:37] Speaker B: Day.
