August 18, 2023 • 27 mins
Our guest today is Mike Napoleon who happens to be my brother-in-law and, in spite of that, is a very successful baseball coach at New Trier HS in Winnetka, IL. Plus, in his spare time, he’s an assistant football coach. What we really respect about Coach Napoleon is his ability to win WITH THE HAND HE GETS DEALT EVERY YEAR! In this episode, we talk about coaching style, philosophy, and evaluation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to up On Kaine Presents Taylor Scouting. Coach Randy
Taylor's bringing his forty plus years of knowledge to you.
This is Taylor Scouting and now here's coach Randy Taylor.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hi, folks, this is Randy Taylor. They call me Coach
Taylor and we're doing another episode of the up On
Game Network Taylor Scouting Podcast. And you guys, you know
you can catch us on the up On Game Network
on all of the podcasts sites like iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts,
(00:40):
anywhere you get your podcasts. You can get us on
YouTube on the Upbound Game Network. Up On Game Presents
Taylor Scouting. And like always, we're being brought to you
by LeVar Arrington and the Upbound Game Network. Fired up
to be here again. We're going to talk about winning today.
(01:04):
And my guest is Mike Napoleon, who happens to be
my brother in law and is a very successful baseball
coach at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and
in his spare time he coaches a little football. So
what I really respect about coach, and he'll probably give
(01:25):
me a hard time that I was so complimentary, But
what I respect the most about Mike is his ability
to win with the hand he gets dealt every year,
and as high school coaches, I think that is a
normal process, but not everybody wins that way. This April,
(01:47):
Mike won his nine hundred and fifty first game, which
made him the winningest high school baseball coach in the
state of Illinois. And that's there's some good baseball being
played in this state. What I want to do is
welcome coach. Really glad to have you, and uh, thanks
(02:07):
for coming on.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Well, thanks, thanks man, I appreciate uh and just adding
some some insights to the program. I hope.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, you will do just fine. I know it you. Uh,
so let's do this. Give give us a brief rundown
of your coaching career, not not a lot of details,
but just kind of your path.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
All right. So after I graduated from college, I went
to You Buy Champagne, and I got a job at
Quigley South, which is on the south side of Chicago,
and I was coaching basketball and baseball. And I was
an assistant coach there and two years two years there
(02:54):
and the job open up at Notre Dame High School
in Niles. It's an all boys Catholic School and and
the head best baseball job opened up, and I applied
for it, not knowing that I shouldn't. Okay, And at
twenty three years old, I'm not sure many people would
give me a chance to get the job, but I
(03:15):
ended up getting a job. You know, you start throwing
out names that you find out who they know that
you know, and you start telling them, may can you
make a phone call for me? And that's how I
got the Notre Dame job. And I was there for
six years, and then I left there, went to Danville Schlharman.
I was there for a year, went to Providence, was
(03:36):
there for five years, and then I Providence in New Lenox,
and then I went to New Churre High School and
I've been there for the last twenty eight years.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
That's a great career I've followed. You've been to a
lot of those games. I think maybe I didn't make
it to Danville, but but I'm not quite don't remember that.
And so what I want to do is find out
how much any wins do you have now in baseball?
How'd you finish the season?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Okay, so you know I'm not a counter. I have
two sons, I'd like to count my wins and my
dad and they they're they're the counters. They keep they
tell me how many wins I have. But at the
end of this season, we now have nine hundred and
sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's awesome. Coach, I want to talk about your kids.
You and Melanie have a couple of very good coaches
in the family. Talk briefly about their journey a bit.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Well, it started out with me being a young father
and being a head coach, and being a coach, just
being a gym rat myself. I used to take Dusty
when he was a little kid two years old, three
years old and a stroller to our practices, to our games,
sometimes to our JV games or whatever. And you know,
(05:00):
it got to a point where Melanie, my wife, would
be like, Oh, they're gonna hate it. They're you're you're
you're gonna drive them out of the sport. They've been
with you all this time. Well, I got news for you.
They're both college coaches now and enjoying life. So they
ended up working out. Okay, I'm glad that they had
(05:20):
the experiences of me being a coach and them enjoying
the sports that I was coaching. So both of them
are big football fans, they both played football, they both
really enjoy football. I'm sure that if they weren't in
the baseball world, they'd be coaching football. So we still
keep abreast of everything. We have a nap men chat
(05:44):
on our on our phone that only the three of
us talk to each other. And my wife would be like, hey,
have you talked to the boys?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah? I have.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
We've been chatting all day long, you know, so what
whatever happens in the sport world, well we'll feedback and forth.
So I think personally, I've gotten to be a better
coach as I've gotten older, because I kind of listen
to my sons and on what's the new new phases
and baseball and you know, like how they treat kids,
(06:18):
and I go to their practices and watch them coach,
and I'll pick up I'll pick up things, And I
think that's one thing that has helped my career as well.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And some of the technology probably that that they see
on a regular basis might have trickled to you. Yeah, coach,
is there a philosophy or goals you use to be
a successful coach at this level?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Well, I think one of the biggest things you touched
on earlier that I have a district that feeds into
our school, and we're fortunate enough to have a very
large district of four thousand kids. But I firmly believe
that that having youth coaches and that you know of
(07:13):
almost every one of our youth coaches in our district
has played for me. Let me say that again, almost
every one of our district youth coaches have played for me.
They get paid two thousand dollars a summer and and
that's a credit to the organization that lets them do this.
(07:35):
But from eight eight you on up all the way
up to thirteen you, I've had kids. And you know
there's three four teams per age group. So eight you be,
meaning eight years old and under. Okay, so the next
one's nine you, ten you, eleven, you, twelve you. So
we have that many coaches that have played for me,
(07:58):
and you know, in a twenty eight year span, and
I guess you're going to have a lot of alumni
that want to get back into coaching. And that's one
thing that has helped me develop kids at an early age.
I also have I'm also a big part of our
incoming freshman camp. Our incoming freshman camp isn't just a
(08:20):
week long thing in the summer. Our Incoming Freshman camp
is a six week long thing. We do it for
an hour and forty five minutes a day, for five
days a week for six weeks. And I'm there along
with my two assistants, are two freshman coaches, and we
get a good feel. And there's anywhere between fifty and
(08:41):
sixty kids at this camp. And these are all kids
wishing and hoping that they'll make the freshman team at NUTURE,
And I think that has something to do with us
being good every year. We also develop our hitters with
a hitting camp we have hands on with when we
(09:03):
have all my coaches except for one. All my coaches
are involved in some way some aspect of summer camp,
whether it be evaluating kids, whether it be conducting a
scrimmage and doing drills, setting up drills, setting up stations.
(09:29):
And I have a lot of my coaches except for two,
that have been with me for the last twenty years, Mike.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
At the college and pro level, a key to success
is consistency and stability in rosters and coaching staff. A
bit about like what you've been talking about at the
college level, you recruit to maintain that. At the pro level,
you pay the players to maintain that. In high school
(09:58):
in my opinion, and there's more of a steady turnover
of talent with graduation, and then you have the incoming freshmen,
and not every class coming in is equal. You've talked
a little bit about how you deal with that with
the camps and all those kind of things. Give me
(10:20):
a little bit more of your process of taking these
kids from that the summer of the youth and all
the way through to their senior year so they live
through your program.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, we first of all make sure that no kid
from the district leaves to go to a Catholic school. Okay,
so we identify all the really really good athletes and
we make sure that we are in touch with them
as far as saying, hey, you know, we have a
camp coming up, you might want to come to this
(10:57):
camp to inviting a group of kids with the really
good players included, to come out to a home baseball game,
home basketball game, home football game, getting getting them on campus.
And I don't think it's recruiting, it's just showing showing
(11:18):
them what uh uh you have the offer, you know,
as far as a in district school, we uh let
it be known through Twitter and Instagram, using social media
of our kids doing well. And we've we had four
(11:41):
kids going to play college baseball this this past year,
two of them at the University of Saint Louis SO
or Saint Louis University. So we've had a lot of
success in sending kids to colleges, and so to say that,
I just want to keep make sure that the best
players are coming to NUTURE, not leaving to go to
(12:03):
an AID district school. That's number one priority. Number two,
I think it's a lot of it has to do
with our lower level coaches and getting them involved and
me getting involved in the summer to make sure that
they're on the right track. And what they're doing is improving.
Kids grow at different paces. So though you might have
(12:27):
a smaller kid, we might see a lot of good
things fundamentally from him, but right now he's just physically weak.
And then we get him in a weightlifting program and
by the time they're juniors, they're a guy that is
contributing ont of our city level. So we keep higher
numbers because we have a lot of coaches in our program.
(12:48):
We have eight coaches along with the volunteer. Our volunteer,
by the way, is Carrie Would. And yes, it's the
same Carry Would, So you know, just having his name
beotiated with our program toens of draw kids as well.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
So and his son's not a bad picture, right.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
His son's going to be he's a twenty twenty four kid.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
How well do you get to know your players?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Well, very well. I'm a teacher at the school as well.
We have meetings. You know, I get to know him
when they walk in the doors as freshmen, because I've
been at the freshman camp and every I'd say one
hundred percent of them we're at we're at the freshman camp.
So they got to know me at at a young, young,
early level. Some of them went to my hitting camps
(13:37):
when they were in seventh and eighth grade, so they
I've known a lot of these kids. Some of them
are younger siblings of kids that I've had in class,
or older or younger brothers of of ex players, so
the families have known me. I've been in the district.
(13:58):
I lived in the district, my sons have gone to
school there, and I'm a big part of the district.
Just being a face of New Chrier, I would say, uh.
In the athletic department being a football coach and baseball coach,
so I know the families. I really get to know them.
(14:19):
We have meetings with each kid in the fall about
their previous season, and I let them know. And I'm
a truth teller, Randy. I think you know that about
me is that I'll tell the kids the truth. I'll
say it, and I won't sugarcoat things. I'll say it
in a way they understand. And I will let them
(14:39):
know exactly where they where they where they are as
far as talent wise goes. And if it's a problem
in a classroom, I will let them know that too.
That Hey, right now, you're you're a you're a C student.
You need to get the grades up. You'll you will
have no place to go after you graduate here. No
no school is going to watch you. You're gonna be
(15:00):
going to a you know, maybe a smaller, lesser school
maybe I don't know. And if you have any aspirations
about playing baseball, we need to get the grades up.
So I let them know everything. I know what their
grades are, I know what classes are in I know
what teachers.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
They have.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I know their families because we once the once the
kids are are on the team, I start we started
having parent groups and parent meetings and things like that.
We have a parent to get to know you uh thing.
The first week once the team is selected, we go
to Arizona and the last this past year, we went
(15:40):
to Arizona and one of the family of the of
the kids were represented by somebody in their family. So
doing is spending a lot of time with them during
the season. You know, we did a we did a
we had a game at h at Guaranteed Rate Park
this past year which is Socks Socks Park, and that
(16:02):
was a big event. We went downstate. We were third
and we placed third in the States, so that was
a big event. So you really get to know your families.
Your your call. They're called upon by me two to Hey,
we need treats for the bus rides home. We need this,
we need we need breakfast for the kids. And when
(16:24):
they board the bus, who's in I have. I have
a team moms that will take care of all that
stuff as well. So yeah, I know my families.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
That That's kind of my next thing because I think
we evaluate everything and I know you don't like to
say you're evaluating the player's family and their parents or
even their lifestyle or other activities, but doesn't that does
that impact the way you coach these youngsters sometimes.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well, you got to know if they're if they're going
through some hard times for whatever reason. Okay, we had
a situation this past year where we had a call.
We had a call of a weekend in Bloomington because
a kid was going through a situation. So you, dude,
you have to know what's going on with your kids'
(17:21):
lives outside of baseball, outside the field, because if you don't,
you're just I don't think you're just in tune to
what they're what they're thinking. And I'll tell you what
that really you know, it's a it's a bad situation,
but we've turned it into something that is positive for
a team chemistry and just it's the right thing to do,
(17:42):
you know at the time. So, yeah, you have to
know your kids. I don't think I don't think I
know them as well before to see before they make
the team. I don't use any of that as part
of how they make the team and why they make
the team. But once they're on the team, We really
(18:04):
really take initiative to understand who they are as a person,
really get into their personal life a little bit, just
so that if they if they're if they're acting out
a character, there must be something going on.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Have you changed your coaching style from year to year?
I guess you could call it growth or you learn
or that that kind of thing, or or is it
just you've done everything the same way and the players
adapt to you.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
No, I never do anything the same way. There are
some fundamental things, some fundamental absolutes that have to stay similar.
And some of my older school drills still work today.
But as far as philosophy and some goals, I think
(18:58):
those have changed. And I think that my style, if
that's a if that I can use, that my style
has changed a little bit because I think I think
I learned a lot when my kids were playing for me,
you know, and how I would treat them as opposed
to other kids, and I was like, this is wrong.
(19:20):
I don't want them to dislike who I am, and
I just I just learned to be more mature. I
became more mature, and I just I started saying like better,
better ways of saying things. Let's put it that way.
I still get upset. I still get in kids' face
(19:40):
and they know when it's coming. But you know what
was funny, Randy, is that this past year I had
I had seniors who knew, who knew what I wanted,
and they would approach the kid that they would be
lined to the kid before I got to them, and
they would go like this, knap snaps, I got it,
(20:01):
I got it, I got it, And sure enough they
did that.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
That is a that is a way that you have
developed them as leaders, right or they they just have
that in them.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no no. I think
it has everything to do with developing leaders. And in fact,
two of the kids that were doing this weren't captains.
They were just seniors that have been with me for
two or three years. So they understood, they understood, and
they didn't have sour grapes because they wanted captains, okay,
(20:34):
but they were the guys that were on the bench
or like one of them was a DH so he
didn't play the field, so he knew, he heard everything,
and he was he was he wanted to learn. So
the kids going to Manhattan, He's going to go play baseball.
So he wanted to learn. He was a sponge when
it came to me talking, and so he picked up
(20:57):
on everything and he was he was accurate in everything
he did this year. I was so happy for him.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You coach a high school team and you coach a
summer travel type team or do they call them travel teams?
But is there a difference between the way you coach
and or organize each of those No.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I mean, well, nowadays, Randy, I think you have to
be in order to be successful. I think you got
to be a twelve month year coach. You know. Unfortunately,
even though I'm still coaching football now, but I think
you got to coach in the summer. Baseball was meant
to be played in the summer, and we play about
twenty five games. Were down we used to play. We
(21:42):
used to play forty games, but we're down to twenty
five games this summer, and which is a good, good mix.
I think of kids playing multiple sports, which we definitely encourage.
Do I change the way I coach or no? No,
I coached the saying I coach like each game is
the seventh game in the World Series. But you know,
(22:05):
but I still I still I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I'm not a guy that wants to win it all costs,
you know. I want to see kids be put in situations,
and that's how I coach in the spring. I want
to see him be put in situations where if they succeed, great,
this is awesome. If they don't succeed, I go, oh, okay,
we got to work on something.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
You mentioned football. You're also an assistant football coach for
the Trevians and are in the middle of practicing and everything. Now,
how what's the difference between coaching football and baseball? Obviously
the sports are different, but just from a coaching and
and a leading and discipline and all that kind of stuff,
(22:49):
what's the difference.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Well, as you know, I'm not just a varsity assistant.
I'm the offensive coordinator, which takes up way more time
than being than being like a running back coach. Okay,
I'm scripting every play we do in practice for four
(23:13):
days a week in practice, so yeah, that's a lot.
I'm taking more of a back seat as far as uh,
getting on getting on personnel, getting on kids. I leave
that up to their position coaches. And if the position
coach doesn't tell the kid like I'll watch the play,
(23:38):
he'll do something not right, and then he'll come back
and he won't get he won't get pulled and talk
to and I'd be like, hey, whoever, like Mike, how
come you didn't pull him out and talk to him.
I was gonna do it after I go no, do it,
and do it right away. So I'm kind of coaching
(23:58):
coaches as well, so that which I don't mind. I
don't mind that, but to say difference between the two
and I'm I'm that type a personality where like, I'm
an assistant coach, but I'll I'm not really an assistant,
(24:19):
Like I take charge a lot, a lot more than
a lot of coaches would if they're an assistant role.
And I used to get on kids a little bit more,
a little bit more motivation during football at New Trier.
It wasn't the number one sport. You'd have to recruit
(24:40):
more kids to get out, to come out. We have
an unbelievable number of kids out right now. We have
we have over eighty kids on the varsity and listen
to this. Randy seventy three on the JV team, seventy
three on the sophomores, seventy three sophomores are out for football.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
It's crazy that that, and when you get that kind
of numbers, you're competing against other schools that are probably
not even close to that.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
No, right, right, Well, I mean, I'm sure Loyola has
a bunch, but it's yeah so. But I mean, between
the two styles of coaching, I guess I used to
be a little bit more voisterous in football, like every day,
and in baseball it would be only like two days
(25:28):
a week.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, yeah, Hey, we'll wrap it up. It was great
having you on the show. We talked about a lot
of good stuff. And again, I know that I like
watching you and I like being around the fact and
how you do things because you win and you find
ways to win and it's fun for us and my
(25:52):
wife and I. But do me a favor. Will you
say happy birthday to your dad.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Pat, Happy birthday to my dad.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Absolutely, we won't sing on this, but we'll say happy birthday.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Hi Will ninety one years old man, the oldest Napoleon,
the oldest Napoleon ever.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, you'll pass that. You're gonna go to Oh god,
you'll be one hundred and five.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I hope I make the sixty five.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
You will, brother, I love you man. Thanks for coming
on the show.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Got it. I'm going to wrap it up here The
up On Game Network, Up on Game Presents on YouTube,
Taylor Scouting. You can follow me on Twitter at our
Taylor FB Scout. You can subscribe to The up on
Game Network. You can follow our podcast iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts,
(26:49):
wherever you get your podcasts, rate and review us, and
we just again thank you for having us on your
screen or your mind monitor or your Spotify or wherever
the heck you get us. So thanks, thanks a lot, folks.
Uh and thanks Mike Napoleon. M m m mmmmmm
Welcome to up On Kaine Presents Taylor Scouting. Coach Randy
Taylor's bringing his forty plus years of knowledge to you.
This is Taylor Scouting and now here's coach Randy Taylor.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hi, folks, this is Randy Taylor. They call me Coach
Taylor and we're doing another episode of the up On
Game Network Taylor Scouting Podcast. And you guys, you know
you can catch us on the up On Game Network
on all of the podcasts sites like iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts,
(00:40):
anywhere you get your podcasts. You can get us on
YouTube on the Upbound Game Network. Up On Game Presents
Taylor Scouting. And like always, we're being brought to you
by LeVar Arrington and the Upbound Game Network. Fired up
to be here again. We're going to talk about winning today.
(01:04):
And my guest is Mike Napoleon, who happens to be
my brother in law and is a very successful baseball
coach at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and
in his spare time he coaches a little football. So
what I really respect about coach, and he'll probably give
(01:25):
me a hard time that I was so complimentary, But
what I respect the most about Mike is his ability
to win with the hand he gets dealt every year,
and as high school coaches, I think that is a
normal process, but not everybody wins that way. This April,
(01:47):
Mike won his nine hundred and fifty first game, which
made him the winningest high school baseball coach in the
state of Illinois. And that's there's some good baseball being
played in this state. What I want to do is
welcome coach. Really glad to have you, and uh, thanks
(02:07):
for coming on.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Well, thanks, thanks man, I appreciate uh and just adding
some some insights to the program. I hope.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, you will do just fine. I know it you. Uh,
so let's do this. Give give us a brief rundown
of your coaching career, not not a lot of details,
but just kind of your path.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
All right. So after I graduated from college, I went
to You Buy Champagne, and I got a job at
Quigley South, which is on the south side of Chicago,
and I was coaching basketball and baseball. And I was
an assistant coach there and two years two years there
(02:54):
and the job open up at Notre Dame High School
in Niles. It's an all boys Catholic School and and
the head best baseball job opened up, and I applied
for it, not knowing that I shouldn't. Okay, And at
twenty three years old, I'm not sure many people would
give me a chance to get the job, but I
(03:15):
ended up getting a job. You know, you start throwing
out names that you find out who they know that
you know, and you start telling them, may can you
make a phone call for me? And that's how I
got the Notre Dame job. And I was there for
six years, and then I left there, went to Danville Schlharman.
I was there for a year, went to Providence, was
(03:36):
there for five years, and then I Providence in New Lenox,
and then I went to New Churre High School and
I've been there for the last twenty eight years.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
That's a great career I've followed. You've been to a
lot of those games. I think maybe I didn't make
it to Danville, but but I'm not quite don't remember that.
And so what I want to do is find out
how much any wins do you have now in baseball?
How'd you finish the season?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Okay, so you know I'm not a counter. I have
two sons, I'd like to count my wins and my
dad and they they're they're the counters. They keep they
tell me how many wins I have. But at the
end of this season, we now have nine hundred and
sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's awesome. Coach, I want to talk about your kids.
You and Melanie have a couple of very good coaches
in the family. Talk briefly about their journey a bit.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Well, it started out with me being a young father
and being a head coach, and being a coach, just
being a gym rat myself. I used to take Dusty
when he was a little kid two years old, three
years old and a stroller to our practices, to our games,
sometimes to our JV games or whatever. And you know,
(05:00):
it got to a point where Melanie, my wife, would
be like, Oh, they're gonna hate it. They're you're you're
you're gonna drive them out of the sport. They've been
with you all this time. Well, I got news for you.
They're both college coaches now and enjoying life. So they
ended up working out. Okay, I'm glad that they had
(05:20):
the experiences of me being a coach and them enjoying
the sports that I was coaching. So both of them
are big football fans, they both played football, they both
really enjoy football. I'm sure that if they weren't in
the baseball world, they'd be coaching football. So we still
keep abreast of everything. We have a nap men chat
(05:44):
on our on our phone that only the three of
us talk to each other. And my wife would be like, hey,
have you talked to the boys?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah? I have.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
We've been chatting all day long, you know, so what
whatever happens in the sport world, well we'll feedback and forth.
So I think personally, I've gotten to be a better
coach as I've gotten older, because I kind of listen
to my sons and on what's the new new phases
and baseball and you know, like how they treat kids,
(06:18):
and I go to their practices and watch them coach,
and I'll pick up I'll pick up things, And I
think that's one thing that has helped my career as well.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And some of the technology probably that that they see
on a regular basis might have trickled to you. Yeah, coach,
is there a philosophy or goals you use to be
a successful coach at this level?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Well, I think one of the biggest things you touched
on earlier that I have a district that feeds into
our school, and we're fortunate enough to have a very
large district of four thousand kids. But I firmly believe
that that having youth coaches and that you know of
(07:13):
almost every one of our youth coaches in our district
has played for me. Let me say that again, almost
every one of our district youth coaches have played for me.
They get paid two thousand dollars a summer and and
that's a credit to the organization that lets them do this.
(07:35):
But from eight eight you on up all the way
up to thirteen you, I've had kids. And you know
there's three four teams per age group. So eight you be,
meaning eight years old and under. Okay, so the next
one's nine you, ten you, eleven, you, twelve you. So
we have that many coaches that have played for me,
(07:58):
and you know, in a twenty eight year span, and
I guess you're going to have a lot of alumni
that want to get back into coaching. And that's one
thing that has helped me develop kids at an early age.
I also have I'm also a big part of our
incoming freshman camp. Our incoming freshman camp isn't just a
(08:20):
week long thing in the summer. Our Incoming Freshman camp
is a six week long thing. We do it for
an hour and forty five minutes a day, for five
days a week for six weeks. And I'm there along
with my two assistants, are two freshman coaches, and we
get a good feel. And there's anywhere between fifty and
(08:41):
sixty kids at this camp. And these are all kids
wishing and hoping that they'll make the freshman team at NUTURE,
And I think that has something to do with us
being good every year. We also develop our hitters with
a hitting camp we have hands on with when we
(09:03):
have all my coaches except for one. All my coaches
are involved in some way some aspect of summer camp,
whether it be evaluating kids, whether it be conducting a
scrimmage and doing drills, setting up drills, setting up stations.
(09:29):
And I have a lot of my coaches except for two,
that have been with me for the last twenty years, Mike.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
At the college and pro level, a key to success
is consistency and stability in rosters and coaching staff. A
bit about like what you've been talking about at the
college level, you recruit to maintain that. At the pro level,
you pay the players to maintain that. In high school
(09:58):
in my opinion, and there's more of a steady turnover
of talent with graduation, and then you have the incoming freshmen,
and not every class coming in is equal. You've talked
a little bit about how you deal with that with
the camps and all those kind of things. Give me
(10:20):
a little bit more of your process of taking these
kids from that the summer of the youth and all
the way through to their senior year so they live
through your program.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Well, we first of all make sure that no kid
from the district leaves to go to a Catholic school. Okay,
so we identify all the really really good athletes and
we make sure that we are in touch with them
as far as saying, hey, you know, we have a
camp coming up, you might want to come to this
(10:57):
camp to inviting a group of kids with the really
good players included, to come out to a home baseball game,
home basketball game, home football game, getting getting them on campus.
And I don't think it's recruiting, it's just showing showing
(11:18):
them what uh uh you have the offer, you know,
as far as a in district school, we uh let
it be known through Twitter and Instagram, using social media
of our kids doing well. And we've we had four
(11:41):
kids going to play college baseball this this past year,
two of them at the University of Saint Louis SO
or Saint Louis University. So we've had a lot of
success in sending kids to colleges, and so to say that,
I just want to keep make sure that the best
players are coming to NUTURE, not leaving to go to
(12:03):
an AID district school. That's number one priority. Number two,
I think it's a lot of it has to do
with our lower level coaches and getting them involved and
me getting involved in the summer to make sure that
they're on the right track. And what they're doing is improving.
Kids grow at different paces. So though you might have
(12:27):
a smaller kid, we might see a lot of good
things fundamentally from him, but right now he's just physically weak.
And then we get him in a weightlifting program and
by the time they're juniors, they're a guy that is
contributing ont of our city level. So we keep higher
numbers because we have a lot of coaches in our program.
(12:48):
We have eight coaches along with the volunteer. Our volunteer,
by the way, is Carrie Would. And yes, it's the
same Carry Would, So you know, just having his name
beotiated with our program toens of draw kids as well.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
So and his son's not a bad picture, right.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
His son's going to be he's a twenty twenty four kid.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
How well do you get to know your players?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Well, very well. I'm a teacher at the school as well.
We have meetings. You know, I get to know him
when they walk in the doors as freshmen, because I've
been at the freshman camp and every I'd say one
hundred percent of them we're at we're at the freshman camp.
So they got to know me at at a young, young,
early level. Some of them went to my hitting camps
(13:37):
when they were in seventh and eighth grade, so they
I've known a lot of these kids. Some of them
are younger siblings of kids that I've had in class,
or older or younger brothers of of ex players, so
the families have known me. I've been in the district.
(13:58):
I lived in the district, my sons have gone to
school there, and I'm a big part of the district.
Just being a face of New Chrier, I would say, uh.
In the athletic department being a football coach and baseball coach,
so I know the families. I really get to know them.
(14:19):
We have meetings with each kid in the fall about
their previous season, and I let them know. And I'm
a truth teller, Randy. I think you know that about
me is that I'll tell the kids the truth. I'll
say it, and I won't sugarcoat things. I'll say it
in a way they understand. And I will let them
(14:39):
know exactly where they where they where they are as
far as talent wise goes. And if it's a problem
in a classroom, I will let them know that too.
That Hey, right now, you're you're a you're a C student.
You need to get the grades up. You'll you will
have no place to go after you graduate here. No
no school is going to watch you. You're gonna be
(15:00):
going to a you know, maybe a smaller, lesser school
maybe I don't know. And if you have any aspirations
about playing baseball, we need to get the grades up.
So I let them know everything. I know what their
grades are, I know what classes are in I know
what teachers.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
They have.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I know their families because we once the once the
kids are are on the team, I start we started
having parent groups and parent meetings and things like that.
We have a parent to get to know you uh thing.
The first week once the team is selected, we go
to Arizona and the last this past year, we went
(15:40):
to Arizona and one of the family of the of
the kids were represented by somebody in their family. So
doing is spending a lot of time with them during
the season. You know, we did a we did a
we had a game at h at Guaranteed Rate Park
this past year which is Socks Socks Park, and that
(16:02):
was a big event. We went downstate. We were third
and we placed third in the States, so that was
a big event. So you really get to know your families.
Your your call. They're called upon by me two to Hey,
we need treats for the bus rides home. We need this,
we need we need breakfast for the kids. And when
(16:24):
they board the bus, who's in I have. I have
a team moms that will take care of all that
stuff as well. So yeah, I know my families.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
That That's kind of my next thing because I think
we evaluate everything and I know you don't like to
say you're evaluating the player's family and their parents or
even their lifestyle or other activities, but doesn't that does
that impact the way you coach these youngsters sometimes.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well, you got to know if they're if they're going
through some hard times for whatever reason. Okay, we had
a situation this past year where we had a call.
We had a call of a weekend in Bloomington because
a kid was going through a situation. So you, dude,
you have to know what's going on with your kids'
(17:21):
lives outside of baseball, outside the field, because if you don't,
you're just I don't think you're just in tune to
what they're what they're thinking. And I'll tell you what
that really you know, it's a it's a bad situation,
but we've turned it into something that is positive for
a team chemistry and just it's the right thing to do,
(17:42):
you know at the time. So, yeah, you have to
know your kids. I don't think I don't think I
know them as well before to see before they make
the team. I don't use any of that as part
of how they make the team and why they make
the team. But once they're on the team, We really
(18:04):
really take initiative to understand who they are as a person,
really get into their personal life a little bit, just
so that if they if they're if they're acting out
a character, there must be something going on.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Have you changed your coaching style from year to year?
I guess you could call it growth or you learn
or that that kind of thing, or or is it
just you've done everything the same way and the players
adapt to you.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
No, I never do anything the same way. There are
some fundamental things, some fundamental absolutes that have to stay similar.
And some of my older school drills still work today.
But as far as philosophy and some goals, I think
(18:58):
those have changed. And I think that my style, if
that's a if that I can use, that my style
has changed a little bit because I think I think
I learned a lot when my kids were playing for me,
you know, and how I would treat them as opposed
to other kids, and I was like, this is wrong.
(19:20):
I don't want them to dislike who I am, and
I just I just learned to be more mature. I
became more mature, and I just I started saying like better,
better ways of saying things. Let's put it that way.
I still get upset. I still get in kids' face
(19:40):
and they know when it's coming. But you know what
was funny, Randy, is that this past year I had
I had seniors who knew, who knew what I wanted,
and they would approach the kid that they would be
lined to the kid before I got to them, and
they would go like this, knap snaps, I got it,
(20:01):
I got it, I got it, And sure enough they
did that.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
That is a that is a way that you have
developed them as leaders, right or they they just have
that in them.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no no. I think
it has everything to do with developing leaders. And in fact,
two of the kids that were doing this weren't captains.
They were just seniors that have been with me for
two or three years. So they understood, they understood, and
they didn't have sour grapes because they wanted captains, okay,
(20:34):
but they were the guys that were on the bench
or like one of them was a DH so he
didn't play the field, so he knew, he heard everything,
and he was he was he wanted to learn. So
the kids going to Manhattan, He's going to go play baseball.
So he wanted to learn. He was a sponge when
it came to me talking, and so he picked up
(20:57):
on everything and he was he was accurate in everything
he did this year. I was so happy for him.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You coach a high school team and you coach a
summer travel type team or do they call them travel teams?
But is there a difference between the way you coach
and or organize each of those No.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I mean, well, nowadays, Randy, I think you have to
be in order to be successful. I think you got
to be a twelve month year coach. You know. Unfortunately,
even though I'm still coaching football now, but I think
you got to coach in the summer. Baseball was meant
to be played in the summer, and we play about
twenty five games. Were down we used to play. We
(21:42):
used to play forty games, but we're down to twenty
five games this summer, and which is a good, good mix.
I think of kids playing multiple sports, which we definitely encourage.
Do I change the way I coach or no? No,
I coached the saying I coach like each game is
the seventh game in the World Series. But you know,
(22:05):
but I still I still I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I'm not a guy that wants to win it all costs,
you know. I want to see kids be put in situations,
and that's how I coach in the spring. I want
to see him be put in situations where if they succeed, great,
this is awesome. If they don't succeed, I go, oh, okay,
we got to work on something.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
You mentioned football. You're also an assistant football coach for
the Trevians and are in the middle of practicing and everything. Now,
how what's the difference between coaching football and baseball? Obviously
the sports are different, but just from a coaching and
and a leading and discipline and all that kind of stuff,
(22:49):
what's the difference.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Well, as you know, I'm not just a varsity assistant.
I'm the offensive coordinator, which takes up way more time
than being than being like a running back coach. Okay,
I'm scripting every play we do in practice for four
(23:13):
days a week in practice, so yeah, that's a lot.
I'm taking more of a back seat as far as uh,
getting on getting on personnel, getting on kids. I leave
that up to their position coaches. And if the position
coach doesn't tell the kid like I'll watch the play,
(23:38):
he'll do something not right, and then he'll come back
and he won't get he won't get pulled and talk
to and I'd be like, hey, whoever, like Mike, how
come you didn't pull him out and talk to him.
I was gonna do it after I go no, do it,
and do it right away. So I'm kind of coaching
(23:58):
coaches as well, so that which I don't mind. I
don't mind that, but to say difference between the two
and I'm I'm that type a personality where like, I'm
an assistant coach, but I'll I'm not really an assistant,
(24:19):
Like I take charge a lot, a lot more than
a lot of coaches would if they're an assistant role.
And I used to get on kids a little bit more,
a little bit more motivation during football at New Trier.
It wasn't the number one sport. You'd have to recruit
(24:40):
more kids to get out, to come out. We have
an unbelievable number of kids out right now. We have
we have over eighty kids on the varsity and listen
to this. Randy seventy three on the JV team, seventy
three on the sophomores, seventy three sophomores are out for football.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
It's crazy that that, and when you get that kind
of numbers, you're competing against other schools that are probably
not even close to that.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
No, right, right, Well, I mean, I'm sure Loyola has
a bunch, but it's yeah so. But I mean, between
the two styles of coaching, I guess I used to
be a little bit more voisterous in football, like every day,
and in baseball it would be only like two days
(25:28):
a week.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, yeah, Hey, we'll wrap it up. It was great
having you on the show. We talked about a lot
of good stuff. And again, I know that I like
watching you and I like being around the fact and
how you do things because you win and you find
ways to win and it's fun for us and my
(25:52):
wife and I. But do me a favor. Will you
say happy birthday to your dad.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Pat, Happy birthday to my dad.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Absolutely, we won't sing on this, but we'll say happy birthday.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Hi Will ninety one years old man, the oldest Napoleon,
the oldest Napoleon ever.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, you'll pass that. You're gonna go to Oh god,
you'll be one hundred and five.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I hope I make the sixty five.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
You will, brother, I love you man. Thanks for coming
on the show.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Got it. I'm going to wrap it up here The
up On Game Network, Up on Game Presents on YouTube,
Taylor Scouting. You can follow me on Twitter at our
Taylor FB Scout. You can subscribe to The up on
Game Network. You can follow our podcast iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts,
(26:49):
wherever you get your podcasts, rate and review us, and
we just again thank you for having us on your
screen or your mind monitor or your Spotify or wherever
the heck you get us. So thanks, thanks a lot, folks.
Uh and thanks Mike Napoleon. M m m mmmmmm
Host
LaVar Arrington
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