Ryan Whiteley - 2026 ABCA/ATEC High School Div. II Coach of the Year

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host ryan brownlee. This episode is brought to you by Rapsodo Baseball. Great coaching starts with knowing what to work on next. Rapsodo gives coaches the objective data, video and instant feedback they need to make every rep more purposeful with 20 plus hitting and pitching data points, live on live capabilities, seam orientation, scripted sessions and more. Rapsodo's Pro 2.0 and Pro 3.0 units help coaches dial in on player development for their athletes with pro level data and ball tracking technology. From establishing baselines to validating adjustments and tracking progress, Rapsoda takes the guesswork out of development. Measure what matters, train with purpose. Learn more by emailing salespsodo.com or visit their website rapsodo.com baseball this episode is sponsored by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. 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Now onto the podcast Ryan Whiteley, head baseball Coach at Carl Albert High school, is the 2026 ABCA ATEC High School Division II Coach of the Year. Whiteley has built his career around developing players, building relationships and creating a culture where winning becomes a byproduct of doing things the right way. In 2026, Whiteley led Carl Albert to the Oklahoma Class 5A state championship, adding another championship chapter to one of the state's premier high school baseball programs. This was the Titans fourth state championship since 2021. A Lawton, Oklahoma native and Lawton Eisenhower graduate, Whiteley played his college baseball at Hutchinson Community College before finishing his playing [00:03:00] Speaker B: career at Cameron University. [00:03:02] Speaker A: Whiteley then began his coaching career in his hometown before taking his first head coaching position at Cash high school in 2017. Whiteley arrived at Carl Albert as an assistant baseball and football coach, spent four years learning under longtime Titans head coach Tim Lavallee along fellow assistant Tony Boreham. Before taking over the program. Today, we're going to talk about that journey, lessons he's learned along the way. What makes Carl Albert baseball and football culture so special, developing young athletes and building a championship program. Let's welcome Ryan Whiteley to the podcast. Okay. Appreciate you making time for me. [00:03:37] Speaker B: Yeah, no problem. [00:03:38] Speaker A: High school guys. [00:03:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Especially as, you know, coach football as well. So we got some, we could do some stuff on the weekends and all that, so. [00:03:48] Speaker A: All good. So how's football? [00:03:49] Speaker B: It's always a busy time. It's going good, it's going good. It's. We're moving right along. We're had a, had a thriller, you know, this past Friday with Guthrie, you know, had to kick a field goal the last seconds to win it, 17, 16. So it's pretty, pretty wild one. [00:04:07] Speaker A: You guys as good at football as you are baseball? [00:04:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, We've, we have the, you know, in the school of history, we have 20 total state championships in football, which is the most in Oklahoma. And currently tied the, that last win Friday tied the longest winning streak in 11 man football here with 58. Yeah. So have a chance to break that next week. [00:04:33] Speaker A: All right here with Ryan Whiteley, ABCA Tech High School Division 2 coach of the year, head coach at Carl Albert since 2021. But I think four state titles since 2021 now. [00:04:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we've had four of those. One in 21 and 22. Or excuse me, 23, 24 and then again this past spring in 26. [00:04:55] Speaker A: Love it. Congrats, by the way. It's awesome. [00:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Hey, who was the head coach at Hutch when you got there out of high school? [00:05:04] Speaker B: So whenever I got there out of high school at Hutch, it was John Winta and he was there. I think he left maybe at the semester possibly and went down to Odessa. And then Kyle Crooks came on, you know, my second year there. He was his first year and he's. He's awesome. So I, he's kind of one of my main role models. [00:05:29] Speaker A: I mean, what were some of the things you learned from Coach Crooks? I mean, he's been successful at every level he's been at. [00:05:34] Speaker B: Oh, man, it's, you know, just the passion for the game, you know, just the intensity of the work. You know, he'll work the dog out of you, but at the end of the day, you know, in the back your mind that, that he cares about you. He cares about what's going on outside the game, you know, and it's just. He was great. You know, it's just all around great man, great coach. And again, we still go to their, their coaches clinic they put on and be actually this coming next weekend. I think October 5th up there they have a coaches clinic and we always try to go up there to that. And I mean, we learn something from it every year up there. You know, he just, he's, he definitely knows the game and it's always fun to be able to talk to him and about the game and kind of see what those guys are doing because like you said, they're, they're always successful and finding ways to win. [00:06:28] Speaker A: He's a good example of continual learner too, because he still reaches out to me about stuff when we, when we post stuff or something that he has questions on. He still reaches out to me and he doesn't need to do that because he's a more successful head coach than I ever was. But he does a really good job. Like if he sees something that, that he feels I can implement in the program, like he'll reach out and ask questions about it. He's really, really good. [00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah, no doubt. And I think that's, you know, a lot of it too is just, you know, always continuing to learn. You know, I mean, that's, that's big, you know, I mean, I think that's why we continue to go to the clinics we go to and I mean, I'm, I'm picky about it. I mean, I'll go to that clinic as long as I can, you know, just because I know I'm going to learn something when I go there and. But yeah, that's, it's always something, you know, and something we try to as well as always evaluate, you know, after the season and figure out what we need to do better and find a way to do it. You know, whether that's learning from another coach or finding drills to do that we haven't done. You know, there's, there's all kinds of tools out there to, to help you out with that stuff. [00:07:34] Speaker A: You know, what do you feel like you have had to adjust with over the years here with coaching? [00:07:41] Speaker B: You know, I think for, for us was we haven't really done it yet, but I mean, just the technology of the game, you know, the way the game's moving with the spin rates and, you know, we have to calculate exit v lows and, and all that stuff, and that's what the players want, you know, and then, and it's Hard for us to give it to them at the high school level, at least for us, where we're at, because we don't have that technology. And, you know, we're trying to find ways to feed them that information or find ways to, you know, persuade them that it's not all about that stuff and we just got to go play ball. But, um, you know, I think that's something. That. That's been kind of something there and, you know, just, I think too, just managing the workload of the athletes, you know, I mean, with the amount that these guys are playing throughout the summer now and, you know, stuff like that with these showcase teams and stuff is just, you know, trying to just kind of establish and make sure their workload and like, we're not overworking them in a sense, and, you know, just trying to get that kind of feel for, you know, how much, how. How much can we push them and, and those things. [00:08:49] Speaker A: Do you have anything you're using to manage workload? What are you keeping track of? How are you tracking their workload? [00:08:53] Speaker B: No, not really. You know, I mean, really right now. I mean, and now that you say that, probably something to look into to try to figure that out if there was a way to track it, probably pretty. Pretty good. But, you know, I think right now we're just communication with the kids, you know, just communicating, you know, who you're playing for in the summer, are you playing any fall stuff, are you doing this, doing that, and just trying to, you know, find out what we need to do on our end, you know, as far as. How much can we push you in our off season? You know, are you. Because, I mean, if you're going and playing every weekend right now, I mean, we don't. We kind of need to lay off a little bit, you know, because we're out of season, so. But I think just kind of communication with the kid and just trying to make sure that, you know, we're not. We're not pushing them past what they need to be pushed. [00:09:40] Speaker A: Have you had much, many injuries? Have you guys dealt much with injuries? [00:09:45] Speaker B: You know? No, not really. Just the freak stuff here and there where you, you know, maybe have a collision or something and, you know, with the, with the filters and get a concussion or you get a, you know, broke bone, sprained ankle type thing like that. But as far as arm injuries, we haven't. I haven't dealt with many of them. I mean, we've dealt with sore arms, obviously, but, you know, nothing crazy. [00:10:08] Speaker A: How do you work through sore arms? I Think that's a. That's an ongoing conversation for coaches with players to, you know, the difference between being sore and being injured. [00:10:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a tough one, you know, because it's. You want, you want, you don't. You don't. You want your kids to be tough, you know, and you want them to work through the stuff. At the same time, you don't want to push them toward the point where they're going to get injured. You know, I think, I think I try to just do the best I can to explain them, you know, as far as the most, the most of the common, you know, the common occurrence is it comes up right at the beginning when we start, you know, and we start throwing, we start getting into the throwing program and then, you know, a few guys will trickle in, hey, my arm sore, you know. Well, for one, where's it sore at? You know, I think that's a key thing there. And, you know, just. I try to explain to them, hey, you know, if. If I haven't lifted weights in five years and I go in there and put, you know, 225 on the squat rack, my legs are going to be sore the next day, you know, I mean, so you're going to be sore and you just kind of have to throw through it. I said, so give it a few days, you know, and see how we go from there. But, you know, it is tricky because obviously you don't want to put those kids at risk if they're. If they're dealing with something more than just soreness. [00:11:19] Speaker A: Has your throwing program evolved much over the years? [00:11:24] Speaker B: You know, I would say it as far as the amount of throwing. No type of throwing. Yes. I think that the, the evolution that we've kind of come into terms with and what we've done is it's just finding ways to mimic game like throws in our throwing program. You know, I mean, it's. I think that whenever I first started out, you know, coaching and whenever I was, you know, start a head coaching job at Cash Oklahoma, and before I got to Carl Albert, and I think a lot of it was, you know, we're going to try to get a lot of throws in, you know, I was kind of behind that standpoint where we're going to try to, you know, get a lot of throws in a short amount of time, things like that, and we're going to try to make good throws and there's consequences for football flies over your head and all those things. But we never really spent time on, you know, redirecting the ball, so to say. Like, I mean infielders, you guys, you know, now this time through you're working like you're taking a cut and you're relaying it in or we're working from a ground ball position, mimicking a throw. You know, outfielders were flipping the ball up to ourselves, catching it, you know, working that throw and just trying to get more game like throws in, you know, scenarios and same thing, you know, even with the catchers having them get down in their catching stance and throw from there just in the pregame or in the, in the throwing warm up, you know, just because I do think that, you know, it's something where you can get those reps where, you know, it's something you do every day. So you might as well take advantage of that time to find a way to practice a game like situation. [00:13:05] Speaker A: You have them long toss much? [00:13:07] Speaker B: Oh, we do, you know, every. I kind of leave that up to them. Once we get going, you know, we'll try to at least long toss them, you know, once or twice a week early and then kind of once we get going through our, through our season and things, we always have the time built in for it if they, they feel it. So it's kind of more of a player thing kind of once we get going, if they feel like they need it, then we definitely have the time for it. [00:13:36] Speaker A: Did you know you're going to get into coaching when you're in college? [00:13:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I, I pretty much knew all the way through high school. I was. Come from a family of coaches and, you know, my, my granddad was a coach, my dad was a head football, head track coach, you know, and I just happened to pick up on baseball and I think it's something that, yeah, I've always wanted to kind of do and follow those footsteps. [00:14:00] Speaker A: What'd you learn from Coach Lavalley? [00:14:04] Speaker B: I mean, I think it was, you know, just. I think that he did a really good job of, you know, managing the practice, managing the players. And I think that was something that I was able to kind of pick up on. I think that, you know, he did a really good job of just kind of letting the coaches kind of coach and do their thing, you know, and I think that's always important, you know, as a, as a head coach. And I think that's something that, that I enjoyed working for him as an assistant coach is because we kind of had that freedom that we felt like we could go out there and get after and coach the guys and, you know, and he kind of let us. Let us do those things. But he was, he was really good. You know, he was fun to work with and I really enjoyed the time that I had there working underneath him. [00:14:56] Speaker A: Have your on field responsibilities changed much since you took over as head coach? [00:15:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, just as far as, you know, coaching, you know, in the third base box, you know, now as the. As the head coach and stuff like that. But, you know, whenever I was with coach the Valley as an assistant, I kind of did most everything from the, from the dugout. I was kind of that guy that, you know, was charting things and doing that stuff. And, you know, I think that's something too. And you said, you know, things you learn. I think there's a lot of things you can learn from different types of charts, you know, you know, from the charts that we did at Cash. So when I come up here and started working with coach the Valley, I think there's a lot of things different that we did as far as just charting stuff that, you know, I picked up on as well and. But. But yeah, I mean, it's changed some. I mean, I, I kind of try to keep an even kill, you know, whether it's an assistant roll, a head roll or whatever it is, you know, I mean, at the end of the day, you're just going out there and coaching ball. So. [00:15:59] Speaker A: You have any tips for coaching third base? [00:16:05] Speaker B: No, not really. I mean, I guess look out if it's hit at you, but I mean, no, I. You know, we tried to. We kind of went into the wristband deal. I was never big into the wristband thing. And, you know, finally our. One of our assistant coaches, Coach Baza, kind of talked me into going to it, and we've been doing that. So, I mean, it was a. It was a learning experience for me too, last year in the. In the box over there because I'm trying to call out numbers and. And then I was like, you know, that was kind of. The thing is, like, I don't want to yell out three numbers every. Every play. I'd rather just have a way to signal it. So we were trying to figure that [00:16:44] Speaker A: out and so I. It's touches that the numbers were touches on the body. Yeah, it still looks like. I think that's the easiest way to do it. Yeah, it looked like we were given signs. Plus it's easier with some of your flash signs to get your right signs in because you're still going off touches. [00:17:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:01] Speaker A: So literally it was 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. So like you can do it however you want. But I felt like it was easier for the players to see it because. Same thing. Like, you guys go play the state championship. It's going to be loud. [00:17:16] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. [00:17:16] Speaker A: I just felt like it was awkward for kids to hear. They couldn't hear, but they could actually see your signs. [00:17:22] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's exactly right. I mean, it's pretty identical to what you just said is what we were doing. But yeah, it was. It was good. [00:17:30] Speaker A: From a junior college coach, too. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Okay. [00:17:32] Speaker A: In Iowa, when I was at Western Illinois, Arnie Chevera was the head coach of Blackhawk, and so he would give the signs even though it was the numbers. So he helped me kind of work through that because I was like, that makes way more sense to me than screaming out numbers, especially with the flash sign stuff and. Right. And sometimes you got dead signs too. Like, I thought it was easier just to kill signs. Have some kill dead signs too, to start with that. Okay. Nothing's hot right now. [00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's, that's. That's all good stuff, you know, I think. And two, it does give you the. The option of like, hey, I forgot this is called this number out real quick. You know, it also gives you that option. And. And then, you know, I think what kind of drove me to. To start doing them were I'm trying to figure out a way, like, how can I signal that we're gonna fake bunt run and we're gonna do all this stuff. And, you know, Coach Bob is like, well, put it on a wristband. I'm like, okay, I guess. Here we go. We'll try it out. [00:18:29] Speaker A: It's hard to repeat it at any level, but you guys have been so consistent, you know, and you did mention kind of tweaking things. Does your message change from year to year? Is it pretty consistent year to year? Because you guys have been really consistent with your program. [00:18:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that. I think the message always kind of stays consistent, you know, as far as how we get there, what we do. You know, we're always looking and learning, trying to figure those things out. But the message is the same. You know, we. Some of the things that we always tell our guys is our kind of. Our key thing is we're going to defend the standard. It's kind of what we use. And I mean the standard. And I told them long before I came and long before you guys came, the standards been set here at this program and where it's our job to continue it, you know, and try to keep it going. So we use that, you know, and also kind of just use the analogy of just climbing up a mountain throughout the season, you know, can't, can't take steps back. You know, it's one step at a time. Win, lose, whatever we, we do in a game, we got to continue to climb to the top, you know, because at the end of the day that's where you want to get and. But, you know, I think all that's good. I think the messages are good. I think everything's, you know, how you practice and all those things. But at the end of the day, I mean, your kids have got to respond to it, you know, and our kids do a great job and they always show up, work hard, and I think that's a big part of it right there. [00:20:00] Speaker A: Many of your guys go play after high school. You have many guys go play after high school? [00:20:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we have a few that'll go. We have, you know, quite a few playing in the JUCO level right now. We got a couple in the, in the Division 2 level. We had a kid from, oh, I guess graduated in 2024, the Tanner Norman. He's at Western Kentucky now after a couple years at Murray State. And Jordan Hawkins last year got drafted and went to the Rangers and he's out in Arizona right now doing that deal. So. But yeah, we've got, we usually send quite a few guys out and you know, it's been mostly junior college type kids, but yeah, it's been, it's been pretty successful on that stance, on that side of it. [00:20:45] Speaker A: What are they reeling back as far as the differences when they leave, as far as tips of anything or how to adjust to the next level. [00:20:55] Speaker B: I think that the main thing is, is they, they most of the time they come back and they're like, well, you were right, you know, because we tried to tell them over and over and over again and we tried to, you know, at our practices and kind of how we do it, you know, obviously we not going to be able to do it at that level just because, you know, we're, we're not that. We're. We're still, at the end of the day, we're still high school and then that's college program. But we try to do the best we can to kind of give them the idea of what it's going to be like, you know. And you know, every college is different. They do do things different, but at the, at the end of the day we try to, you know, just tell them like it's a step up. So it's going to get harder. You're going to probably struggle at first. You just got to, you know, keep going through it and. But they, they always seem to do good. You know, our guys, when they get in there, they always seem to jump right in and, and, and don't miss a beat. [00:21:51] Speaker A: You run the same with your different levels. Everything structured pretty similar. As far as you guys have freshmen also JV or varsity. [00:21:59] Speaker B: Yeah, so we have varsity. And then I guess you could say we have three schedules. You know, we have a varsity, we have a jv, we have a freshman team. Our freshman team usually ends up taking some of our sophomores, you know, like a younger team to go with, but it's for us. I don't ever, I try my best not to refer to varsity and JV and all those things throughout the season. I'm saying, you know, hey, guys, we're, you know, we're, we're all Carl Harbor Titans. And, you know, you guys just so happen to be playing in our minor league system right now. And if you go down there and tear it up, then by gosh, we're going to call you up to the big league. So we kind of treat it more like the, the minor leagues, you know, the actual, that kind of system. As far as we don't make a. All right, these guys, you're, you're the 20 varsity guys, no matter what. You know, if we got a varsity guy that struggles and you need to go, you need to go down and get some at bats in the JV level. If we have a JV guy that's filling up the strike zone or tearing it up at the plate, then let's come see if you can do it at the varsity level. [00:23:09] Speaker A: So you'll play younger guys if you need to. [00:23:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. Last year we had, I believe, three, I know for sure, three freshmen that were on the field in the state championship game. So, yeah, I mean, if, if they're, if they're good enough and they show it, then yeah, absolutely, we're going to put them out there. [00:23:28] Speaker A: How are those conversations with maybe having to send a player down? [00:23:34] Speaker B: Good. I mean, I think that if you lay it out in front of them and they know and they expect, you know, that and it's no surprise to them, I think that it works out really good, you know, and the kids are pretty accepted to it as far as. Yeah, Coach, I probably do need to go down and get some at bats. I don't know, I'm not feeling good right now or whatever the Case is. And, you know, it's a. It's a time too. Like, for me, maybe we're working on something in the cage on a guy that's struggling, and, you know, I say, let's. Let's go down here and do it where I can go to this JV game and I can actually sit in the dugout and we can talk and do those things. I don't have to worry about necessarily coaching third base and all those things. And, you know, and I can actually watch and we can see. Try to carry over what we've been working on into a game, you know, where it's not as much pressure, you know, so to say, as far as they can go out there and don't have to be too worried about striking out or messing up in that setting, as opposed to just going out and trying some of the things that we've maybe tweaked with the swing or whatever. [00:24:37] Speaker A: When are you trying to make adjustments with them? You making mechanical adjustments or what type of adjustments are you making with them? [00:24:44] Speaker B: A lot of the things that, you know, as far as a hitter, you know, with, for us, is a mechanical adjustment that happens during the season is probably going to be timing. Are you on time, ready to hit, and then are you keeping your head still? I think those are the two main ones now as far as completely overhauling and changing stances and all that. I mean, it's too late at that point, so we just got to check their timing and check their, you know, make sure their head's not drifting forward on them. And things like that are just kind of some things we look for. But right now they're working out in the offseason, doing some things, and now it's more. So let's. Let's really dive into it and try to see if we can make sure we're on the right track as far as making sure your swings right. And do we need to change your. How you're set up and your stance and all that? That's probably what we're doing right now out there as far as that goes. [00:25:36] Speaker A: You have any set hitting drills? [00:25:40] Speaker B: Not really. I think that. Just the basic stuff for us, you know, I mean, we. We use the machines. We use live arms, tees, front toss. I mean, all that stuff as far as drills go. No, I mean, not really. I mean, I think that if we were working one on one with the kid, we may have some stuff that we do with them if we see something that we're trying to fix. But mostly it's just going in and swinging. And I think for us hitting wise, it's kind of like we talked about with the throwing program is we're trying to mimic game type situations in there too. Like we're gonna, hey, these are two strike at bats, you know, you have to foul it off or fight it off. And you know, if they, if we're in a two strike at bat cage or whatever and we hit a foul ball then you know we're excited about it because we live to the next pitch. You know, just trying to mimic those things and you know, even, even hit by pitches, I mean practice those, you know, I mean it's something that you never think about, you know, I mean if you want your. We kind of ask our guys and really demand our guys that if the ball is coming at you, I mean as long as it's not going to hit you in a bone or cause injury, like serious injury, then stay in the box and wear it. You know, you guys wear all that protective stuff and let's learn how to use it. And so we practice that some, you know too and. But just finding ways to replicate game stuff is kind of what we're more about in there. [00:27:08] Speaker A: Do you get a lot of free bases offensively? You guys get a lot of hit by pitches? [00:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I would say so. We had last year we kind of struggled a little bit on it. I think in 2025 I think was our most that we've had in school history at 94. And then the year before that we were actually broke our own record when 2024 we were at 92 and then we broke our own record again at 94. So that's one of our big deals offensively, you know, is we're always going to try to find that free base. And especially if you get that gift of a two strike count and you get that curveball hanging over there and it's coming at you, then let's take that base. [00:27:49] Speaker A: You guys steal many bases too? [00:27:53] Speaker B: We, we do. I think, I think as far as a straight steal, maybe, maybe not. It's more so like ball and dirt reads. Trying to get some stuff like that, you know, we, we like to utilize just kind of showing bunt, you know, with the guy on base to make sure that the defense plays it right and if they give us a base we're going to run in behind it, some things like that. But you know, as far as just straight stealing bases, we got some guys that can run for sure that can get it done. I think our I think our top guy last year was, like, at 31 for the season, which is pretty good. I think it's. I think our individual record in the season is, like, 47. I want to say it was, but. But, yeah, he. You know, I would say most of those are coming off of ball and dirt reads and things like that. [00:28:46] Speaker A: How often are you working on ball and dirt in practice? [00:28:49] Speaker B: Well, we didn't do a very good job of it this last year because we didn't work on it enough. So the years that we do good at it are the years we really work it, and we work it about every day. And that's something that we got to get back to, you know, because it's something that we might have done a total of five times throughout the whole year. Last year in practice, and it definitely showed up for us. You know, I mean, I'm over there yelling at them, trying to figure out, hey, why are we not going? That ball's in the dirt, and you're still standing there, you know, why are we not running? And I'm just thinking in the back of my mind, we haven't practiced this, you know, and it's. It's one of those things. It's. It's tough. If you expect them to do it in the game, then you're gonna have to practice. And that's something that we kind of failed on last year, but we'll definitely get back at it, and hopefully we can get those ball and dirt reads going again. [00:29:38] Speaker A: Someone that's taken over high school program for the first time, what tips would you give them? [00:29:45] Speaker B: Man, that's a good question. I think a lot of it has to do with where it's at, you know, I mean, are we at a big school, small school, you know, stuff like that. But at the end of the day, I think you got to get on board with your players. Number one. You got to show them that you're going to show up every day and work hard for them. And then I think that trickles down to. Once you have them, I think that will trickle down to the parents and just, you know, the. Get on board with your administration in the building and, you know, make sure that you're on top of that with them in the school. And, you know, but I think for me, it takes. It takes everybody, you know, I mean, it takes from our assistant coaches. I mean, that'd be another one. I mean, if you're gonna be a head coach, you're gonna have to have good assistant coaches behind you if you want to be successful and you know, but it takes the whole village of people to make that run smooth. So I guess my advice would be don't try to do it all by yourself. [00:30:50] Speaker A: Do you meet much with the parents? [00:30:53] Speaker B: No, not really. You know, we, we have, we have our booster club, you know, it has a couple parents and we'll meet every now and then, but then we have a big parent meeting to kind of kick off the season. We usually do that in October. So we kind of start kicking off fundraisers and stuff like that that we're going to do for the spring and. But, but no, we don't, we don't usually have, you know, as far as sit down meetings and things like that. Not many. It's kind of one thing we tell the players and you know, I really try to communicate that with them is if you have, I mean, I tell them if you have any issues or you're concerned about your playing time or you're concerned about this or that, then I want to hear it from you. You know, I'd like for you to come in the office and knock on the door and say, hey coach, what, what's the deal? How can I, how can I get going here? You know, but. And they do, they do a good job of that. I try to. Because that's something they're gonna do later down the road. You know, they, they're not. Hopefully whenever they're 25 and they're working a job, they're the parents not gonna come knocking on the door, you know, to see why they're not doing what they're supposed to do. They have to go in and do it themselves. So kind of try to teach them those things now, you know, to get them going in that direction. [00:32:07] Speaker A: What are your set? Fundraisers. Fundraisers you do during the year. [00:32:11] Speaker B: So we do ham and turkey sale right there around Thanksgiving. Those will come in. We actually will kick that off here at the first week of October when we do our parent meeting. And then we do. In the past we've sold bed sheets. Yes. Which. Whenever. That's, that's what I thought too. [00:32:37] Speaker A: So like Carl Albert sheets or. [00:32:39] Speaker B: No, they're just regular old bed sheets. And I was kind of skeptical about it. I was like, I don't know, maybe I guess we can try it. And it did really good and we've done it for a couple years, so. But that's, that's been a good one. You know, they're. And, and there's just basically your advertisement stuff, you know, your wall signs and and all those things for. For just that. For. For the advertisement of the. I mean, that's probably our biggest, most successful one there, you know, is just the businesses and the community that support us are. Are big and. And. And, you know, they helping us out. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Use technology to communicate with the entire program. [00:33:23] Speaker B: Yeah, so we. We use. For my players, I now use. It's a. Called a thrill Share app because they have the daily now, you know, in Oklahoma, I'm not sure if it's the law in every state, but we can't have direct communication with our players through way of a text or stuff like that. Now we can. We can email them, you know, through their school email, and we can do that stuff. But then as far as just a group message to communicate, we have to use this. It's the thrillshare app, which is kind of directed through our school, so we're able to do that. And then our parents have a separate group that we use for them as well. [00:34:03] Speaker A: When do, you know, when it's time to kind of tweak something with the program? [00:34:10] Speaker B: I think that. I think that you always wanted to do it, you know, whether it's. I think that if you kind of just sit there and you're doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, it just kind of becomes the point where, you know, for one, you and your coaches are going to get tired of doing it and the players are going to get tired of doing it and, you know, yeah, it's successful. I wouldn't say that we tweak a lot, but we try to find something here or there that we can. As far as how to know when, I don't know that we've ever experienced the problem of having to try to figure out when to change something. I think it's been more so about getting out in front of it before we get to that point. But like I said, we try to do something different, you know, every year, whether it's tweaking what we're doing at practice or, you know, how we're, you know, handling a bump coverage, or we may make a slight adjustment on a double cut on the defense or something just to kind of, you know, keep them on their toes, you know, because there's. There's thousands of different ways to. To, you know, to do things. And I think the more we can kind of show them those things and implement it, I think the more they learn the game by doing that too, you know, so we try to. We try to keep them on their toes. As far as kind of changing something, we don't completely overhaul anything by any means, but just a little tweak here or there, you know, as far as how we maybe cover a bunt or, you know, how we approach our hitting or kind of how we do some stuff like that, we try to kind of keep that consistent, you know, year in and year out. [00:35:54] Speaker A: You play on big enough fields where you're going to have to get into some double cut situations. [00:35:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, usually, you know, when you. It's kind of funny because for us here, you know, we. We go through every game playing on a high school field, and there's some high school fields here that are. That are pretty big where you need them. But the, but the main thing. And you know, when you get to the state championship game, you know, you're playing at the brick town, the AAA ballpark, or you're playing up in Tulsa at the 1Oak, which is a double A ballpark, and you go from playing on these high school fields, which are a little smaller, to now all of a sudden you're on this big, you know, stadium, and it's. You definitely have to have that in your back pocket, you know, for sure, in case you have to use it. [00:36:38] Speaker A: Do you try to get to a bigger field then? Especially for fly ball, it's not just double cuts, but it's fly ball communication, too, because they got to go a lot longer distance. So sometimes, especially with the infielders, they. They come in to play a lot more on. On some of the fly ball communication stuff. [00:36:53] Speaker B: Yeah, no, we definitely do try to do that if we can. You know, we're not obviously able to do it every year, but if we're able to go somewhere and do that, you know, like the Bricktown, they. They host some games, you know, throughout the spring and actually we got lucky this year as Coach Phillips over at UConn gave me a call just the other day and was like, hey, let's. Bricktown wants us to come over there and play. And they want, you know, me and you to play. So let's. You. What do you think? So we got that scheduled up, ready to go, so that'll be our. Our game. We get a chance to go play out there and kind of get a feel for that. And. But it's. It is different, you know, as far as. And. And really in 2023, I kind of like that the way we did it, because we played the state tournament at Jinx High School and we played all three games there, you know, and we didn't move to the bigger field. And it was just kind of nice to be at a field consistently through the whole week or the whole weekend, you know, which was nice. Instead of, you know, going from, you know, high school field for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and all of a sudden you're in that big field. But at the end of the day, it's, it's baseball, you know, it's, it does, it does. I think it does change the game a little bit for sure because the, the field's deeper and, and some things, but you still got to go out and play, you know. [00:38:14] Speaker A: How are you teaching fly ball communication? What's the communication with somebody that's calling for the ball and then do you have any verbals with, with the guys that are around them? [00:38:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So we basically stole this from, from Coach Cooks, you know, at his clinic we went to a couple years ago. But he, we, we use our infielders. We'll call. When they call the ball. Our infielders will use the term eye and our outfielders will use the term ball. That way they can differentiate between who's calling it. Is it an outfielder, Is it an infielder? Same thing with our catcher. The catcher will use ball. So if we're in the infield, then the catcher knows if he hears I that an infielder is coming to get it and he's got priority there. And then now the infielders know if it's a ball over their head that they're listening for ball to know that it's an outfielder coming in. So they got priority over that. But we use that. And then as far as walls, like foul balls, where up against the wall, things like that, we'll use the terms green, yellow and red. And if the ball is in play, we're yelling green, green, green. If it's close to the fence, it's yellow. If we know it's out, then it's red. Just trying to communicate that with them. [00:39:22] Speaker A: Where'd you pick that up from? [00:39:24] Speaker B: So I picked that up from, I believe it was Stillwater High School. We were playing them a couple years back and they were doing that and we were like, what are you? I asked their coach after the game, I was like, what were you, what were you calling green, yellow? They said, oh, we were talking about fly ball communication. I was like, never thought of that, but that's a great idea. So we're going to take it. [00:39:47] Speaker A: You deal with many multi sport athletes? [00:39:50] Speaker B: We have a few. We have probably. Oh, I'd say there's about Four or five that are football guys playing football right now. And we'll have a few, couple in basketball, you know, that we'll get a little bit later, you know, after we kind of start rolling in our season, we'll get those guys. We got a couple guys that wrestle. So. Yeah, I mean, I think we definitely, you know, have some multi sport guys. We do have about, let's say about 20 that are, you know, baseball only. And we probably sit around 40 total, you know, whenever we have our full roster of guys with us. [00:40:30] Speaker A: You still love coaching football? [00:40:32] Speaker B: Yeah, oh yeah, it's, it's, it's fun. [00:40:34] Speaker A: Receivers, right? Is that what I read? Yeah, wide receivers? [00:40:37] Speaker B: Yeah, wide receivers, yeah. So I've been doing that and ever since I got into teaching and coaching, it's always been, you know, football and baseball for me. But it's, it's fun. It's. I enjoy it. I enjoy the atmosphere on the Friday nights and, you know, all that, all that good stuff. [00:40:53] Speaker A: So it's, and the tradition, I mean, that makes a huge difference too. The guy, the tradition you have for football and baseball makes a huge difference. [00:41:01] Speaker B: Oh yeah, no doubt. Hey, I'm lucky. I'm, I'm very blessed to be at the place I'm at, you know, and it's, it's awesome. Like you said, the tradition of the school is outstanding. It's something that was here long before I came, you know, and, and again, I'm just, I remember whenever we were at Cash or ever I was coaching at Cash, I remember, you know, Coach Dozier was here coaching at Carl Albert and he put up a email looking for a game and I'm like, let's, let's go try to play them. I mean, I don't know, we'll see what happens, you know, and so we came up here and just, you could tell immediately that it was a first class program and first class school. And just when the opportunity came from for me to get here, I was definitely happy to take it. [00:41:48] Speaker A: How are those standards similar with the football program and the baseball program? [00:41:54] Speaker B: I think they're equal. I mean, I think they're pretty equal through for all of our sports. You know, I think that it's, you know, it's the standard of just going out and being able to represent your school, you know, represent your community, doing those things and doing it to the best of your ability, you know, and it's tough. It's, it's, it's stressful for sure, because, you know, I mean, in baseball, you know, you, it's like I tell them at the beginning of the year, look, it's an expectation that you guys make the state tournament. It's an expectation that you make it through the state championship game. I said, but at the end of that, though, guys, is understand that that's a huge accomplishment that you make just to get to the state tournament every year. And it's something that, you know, it's not just going to happen just because you wear a ca on your hat. It doesn't just automatically occur. So, you know, just try to feed them that and make sure that they know that if they want to continue to keep us going in the right direction, it's going to ultimately come from our players and they're going to have to work to go keep it going. [00:43:04] Speaker A: You have any rules over social media or phone usage? [00:43:09] Speaker B: You know, we just basically following what, what the, what the state law is, you know, as far as our players, you know, you know, it's. I. We don't use phones whenever we're practicing, you know, and doing those things or in games, you know, we don't. Obviously, we don't want the phones to be put up and put out of sight, and we don't want that stuff. And you know, social media, it's. It is what it is. You know, it's a. It's. You're not going to deter them from it. It's going to be out there. You just try to make them make smart decisions and, you know, just, hopefully they understand that whenever they put something out there, it's. It's out there. So we just try to kind of guide them in the right direction is, you know, make sure that you're. If you're using social media, that you're being smart with it and not doing something that's going to possibly, you know, have an effect on you. [00:44:06] Speaker A: Any tips for parents? They're sending their kids to high school for the first time and dealing with high school sports for the first time. [00:44:15] Speaker B: Just let them play, you know, let them go play, have fun. If they, if they're able to go in and be a contributor and a starter, then great. If they're not, then as long as they're out there having a good time and having fun, and then let them go, you know, and that's kind of our main goal with. With what we do with our. With our guys is, you know, I. At the end of the day, guys, you're playing a game. It's high school baseball. You're playing a game. You're. You're all out here, because that's what you want to do. You want to play a game, you want to have fun. So let's, let's do it. No matter your talent level, no matter if you're a starter, if you're not a starter, you know, just come out and enjoy it. As long as they're enjoying it and having fun, then just let them play. [00:44:59] Speaker A: Love it. You have a fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now, it helped you move forward. [00:45:08] Speaker B: Man, it's a tough one. [00:45:14] Speaker A: Everybody's got to answer that one. [00:45:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:17] Speaker A: Could be personal or professional. [00:45:19] Speaker B: Okay. Something that I was going to fail at. [00:45:27] Speaker A: Something that you thought maybe was going to set you back, but looking back now, it helped you move forward. [00:45:34] Speaker B: See. Well, [00:45:47] Speaker A: I've got a bunch of them, so. [00:45:49] Speaker B: You do. That's, that's a tough one. [00:45:52] Speaker A: I mean, the one I use a lot is I messed up a phone interview with Kansas State when I was at jmu. But that turned into a positive for me because they asked a bunch of recruiting questions that I was not prepared for. So, yeah, basically spent a lot of that rest of my time at James Madison learning how to actually be a recruiting coordinator, and that's how I got my job at Iowa. So that was a set. Even though that was an initial setback with Kansas State, like, I'm in a much better position now because, yeah, what I thought at the moment was, was not great, but handled it right. And I think that's part of the human process is, you know, taking life's little setbacks and, and turn them into positives. I think all successful people do that, and some, whatever their way is that they deal with setbacks, I think they're, they're able to turn them into positives. [00:46:43] Speaker B: Mm. Yeah. I mean, I, I think that maybe thinking of something, you know, just trying to, you know, obviously whenever you, you have a career, you know, you're a high school teacher and a coach and you're at a spot and you're, you're rolling right along and then, you know, you make a move. I mean, I think that anytime you do that, it's. There's obviously the possibility of a setback. You know, I think when we, when we came up here initially to Carl Albert, we were bouncing around from rent house to rent house because it was trying to find a place to live. And, you know, are we really making the right decision? You know, we had a home that we just built in Lawton and we were rolling right along down there and we were from Lawton originally and you know, just making the move up here and I think that was probably would be the, would be one for me that I, that I would say, you know, but, but now that, hey, we're settled in, we've, we've got us at home. We built a home up here now and everything. And so it's, it's definitely a push forward for sure. [00:47:50] Speaker A: How's that conversation go with your wife as far as, hey, this, is this something we need to do? [00:47:56] Speaker B: Well, she's, she definitely understands because she was, her dad is a high school football or was a high school football coach still is. He actually coaches here at Carl Albert with us. It's kind of funny because my wife has a twin sister and her husband, myself and their dad all coach football here, so it's a family affair. But she was born and raised in a coach's household, so she gets it. She actually, whenever I started throwing around the words Carl Albert, she was all about it. One of their good coaching buddies, Mike Corley was the football coach here whenever we came up here in 2017. And he actually coached with Coach Madden, which is my father in law coached with him and Lawton a few years before that. And so we knew him, you know, and we're able to make that move up here. So it's, we kind of had some ties to it, I guess you could say. So it wasn't just a move in the dark. But yeah, it's always fun. But she definitely understands. It's, you know, coaches, wives are, are special. You know, they're, they're, it's, it's a, it's a something where, you know, you're gone all the time, you know, and for them to be able to support you through that and, you know, not, not be to the point where he's like, oh, you gotta, you gotta be home and you gotta be doing this and you're gonna be doing that and they, they get it. So it's, it's, it's definitely good and she's, she's great. She, she's truly supports everything and it's, it's awesome. [00:49:37] Speaker A: You have any morning or evening routines you do every day, you have any daily habits that you like, that you feel like help you, [00:49:46] Speaker B: you know that I would say in, in the mornings if, if I'm, if I'm doing it right, you know, I'm trying to get it in there and get a little bit of a workout done, you know, just to kind of keep my mind and my body right. But, you know, that's as far as a habitual habit. It doesn't happen that I try to keep it going as best. I think that's about, you know, really it, you know, I mean, I think, obviously, I think for, you know, any, probably any coach, I would say it's important at the end of the day that you make time to come home and spend some time with the family, you know, I mean, so I think that that's something we always try to do. I mean, I know it's maybe not a flashy habit or anything like that, but just coming home at the end of the day and spending time with the wife and, you know, just hanging out, you know. [00:50:35] Speaker A: What do you use when you go in the weight room? When you're able to get in there? What do you do? [00:50:41] Speaker B: So we go in, you know, we've been going in. Me and one of our assistant football coaches also helps me out with coach baseball. We, we go in, you know, try to get in there three days a week in the mornings before school and we'll do some, we'll do some, some leg workout, you know, on Monday, a little upper body Tuesday and just kind of tie it all in on Thursday. So try to do that and get them, maybe go out and get a little run in around the school or something before we get rolling. But nothing crazy by any means. [00:51:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Who handles your strength and conditioning for the program for football and baseball? [00:51:16] Speaker B: Well, for football, it's, it's Coach Douglas, which is the one that I was just telling you about that, that I go and we work out in the morning. He also has some. And again, he's also on our staff for baseball. So our school, we have weight class built in our day. So our first hour is going to be where we have most of our off season baseball only guys and maybe mixed in with a few wrestlers, things like that. But then we have, you know, multiple hours of that with other sports in there throughout the day. And then, you know, sixth hour we have our football guys in there and so we get that kind of weight room workout in, in the school day and Coach Douglas runs those. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Love it. [00:52:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:04] Speaker A: I think everybody should do it. There's some great research and we all knew, like if kids exercise on a daily basis, they're going to be much smarter, Healthier, but also smarter. [00:52:13] Speaker B: For sure. Yeah. [00:52:15] Speaker A: Brain activity. Excited about coming to Chicago? Yeah. [00:52:19] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. I can't wait. We're excited. We, we can, we've been there one time before. My wife's been there a couple Times before. I've been there once. But, yeah, we're excited. We. We really liked Chicago when we came the last time. [00:52:33] Speaker A: It's a magical city. It's going to be a great, great time. Yeah, it's awesome. I think that's one of the best things we do is announce the coaches before. It's awesome. [00:52:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome. I can't wait. I'm excited about it. [00:52:45] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts before I let you go? [00:52:49] Speaker B: Oh, man. Well, I would say, you know, just, you know, keep. Keep rolling, you know, keep, Keep going forward. You know, like you said, just if you run into a setback, you know, like you just talked about, you know, the, the fail forward moment, you know, move forward from it and, and keep going in the right direction. And, you know, at the end of the day, if it's a. If it's a high school or college or whatever, you're coaching, I mean, you're. They're kids playing a game, right? So make sure they're having a good time and having fun and stay on top of them, though, at the same time. [00:53:24] Speaker A: Ryan, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it. [00:53:26] Speaker B: All right. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. [00:53:27] Speaker A: Hey, by the way, my son sent this to me. I guess they do Ryan meetups all over the states. Yeah, the one he sent me was at Mall of America in Minneapolis. So it was like. Oh, no, it was guys and girls. Like, yeah, story. I tried it. My daughter's name is Nora, but I wanted to name her Ryan Jr. And there you go. I couldn't get my wife on board with naming my daughter Ryan Jr. [00:53:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:53] Speaker A: But, yeah, there are Ryan meetups out there, so maybe. [00:53:56] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Thanks for your time. Right. [00:54:01] Speaker B: All right, thanks a lot. [00:54:02] Speaker A: Congrats again to Coach Whiteley and the entire Titans program on this well deserved honor. Winners win. And beautiful to see a high school program upholding the standard for winning in all sports. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale, and Matt Weston, the ABCA office. For all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email or brownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, coachbehrnerbca or direct message me via the MyABCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. [00:54:30] Speaker B: Thanks. [00:54:30] Speaker A: And leave it better for those behind you. [00:54:44] Speaker B: And you know that way Yep Wait [00:54:48] Speaker A: for another day [00:54:52] Speaker B: and the world will always return as your love is there before your name and you know that I wait Wait for another D.