3 Leadership Lessons That Ignited A State Championship

Send us a text

Championship teams aren't born—they're built through transformative moments. When Olentangy High School was run-ruled by their rivals midway through the 2025 season, head coach Ryan Lucas watched something remarkable happen. His players, on their own accord, gathered in the locker room for an honest conversation about identity and commitment. That player-led meeting sparked a stunning turnaround—16 wins in their next 17 games culminating in an Ohio Division I State Championship.

What separates merely talented teams from champions? Lucas reveals it's the unsexy fundamentals most programs overlook. While teams obsess over hitting, Olentangy dedicated precious practice time to base running and mastering catching and throwing. The results spoke volumes: they committed just one error through the entire tournament while scoring 34 runs and allowing only 5. Beyond strategic decisions, Lucas shares his evolution from a hard-nosed authoritarian to a relationship-focused leader who recognizes each player's unique personality. "I don't think the kids have changed," he reflects, "society has changed, and you can't be stubborn."

The championship journey contains powerful lessons for coaches at any level. Lucas details his practical approach to the unavoidable challenge of playing time conversations, the specific drills that built their balanced attack, and the emotional Father's Day moment when he embraced his 12-year-old son after the final out. Whether you're building a high school program or coaching at any level, this masterclass in culture-building demonstrates how adversity, properly channeled, becomes the foundation for ultimate success. The blueprint for champions isn't just found in talent—it's discovered in how a team responds when everything isn't going their way.

Join the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast where an experienced baseball coach delves into the world of high school and travel baseball, offering insights on high school baseball coaching, leadership skills, hitting skills, pitching strategy, defensive skills, and overall baseball strategy, while also covering high school and college baseball, recruiting tips, youth and travel baseball, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.

Support the show

• Follow: Twitter | Instagram @Athlete1Podcast
• Website - https://www.athlete1.net
• Sponsor: The Netting Professionals
• https://www.nettingpros.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
What does it take to turn a good high school baseball
team into a state champion?
Today, I'm joined by Ryan Lucas, head coach at Olentangy High
School in Ohio, fresh off of astate championship run that
didn't just rely on talent.
It was built on culture, beliefand total team buy-in.
Coach Lucas shares how heturned a group of teenagers into

(00:26):
a connected, committed andchampionship caliber team, and
the moments behind the scenesthat made the difference.
In this episode, you'll learnthree things the culture
building strategies that turnedOlentangy from contenders into
champions.
How to get your players tobelieve in something bigger than
themselves and each other.
And what coach Lucas changedabout his relationship style

(00:50):
that transformed how his teamresponded in the biggest moments
.
If you're a coach looking tobuild a program and win when it
matters most, this one is amasterclass.
Brian Lucas next on BaseballCoaches Unplugged.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken
Carpenter, presented byAthleteOne.
Baseball Coaches Unplugged is apodcast for baseball coaches
With 27 years of high schoolbaseball coaching under his belt
, here to bring you the insidescoop on all things baseball,
from game-winning strategies andpitching secrets to hitting
drills and defensive drills.
We're covering it all.

(01:27):
Whether you're a high schoolcoach, college coach or just a
baseball enthusiast, we'll diveinto the tactics and techniques
that make the difference on andoff the field.
Discover how to build a winningmentality.
Inspire your players and getthem truly bought into your game
philosophy Plus, get the latestinsights on recruiting,
coaching, leadership andcrafting a team culture that

(01:48):
champions productivity andsuccess.
Join Coach every week as hebreaks down the game and shares
incredible behind-the-scenesstories.
Your competitive edge startshere, so check out the show
weekly and hear from the bestcoaches in the game.
On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Baseball Coaches Unplugged is proud to be
partnered with the nettingprofessionals, improving
programs one facility at a time.
The netting professionalsspecialize in design,
fabrication and installation ofcustom netting for baseball and
softball.
This includes backstops,batting cages, bp turtles
screens, ball carts and morerack stops, batting cages, bp
turtles screens, ball carts andmore.

(02:25):
They also design and installdigital graphic wall padding,
windscreen, turf, turf protector, dugout benches and cubbies.
The Netty Pros also work withfootball, soccer, lacrosse, golf
courses and now pickleball.
Contact them today at844-620-2707.

(02:46):
That's 844-620-2707.
Or visit them online atwwwnettingproscom.
Check out Netting Pros on X,instagram, facebook and LinkedIn
for all their latest productsand projects.
Hello and welcome to BaseballCoaches Unplugged.
I'm your host, coach KenCarpenter.
Hey, don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button and tell a

(03:08):
friend about the show.
Check us out every Wednesday,where we sit down with some of
the best baseball coaches fromacross the nation.
And now to my sit down withOhio Big School State Champion,
baseballball Coach Olin Tangy'sRyan Lucas.
It's 2025.

(03:29):
Ohio Big School State Champion,ryan Lucas.
Head coach at Olin Tangy HighSchool Coach.
Thanks for taking the time tobe on Baseball Coaches Unplugged
.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Absolutely.
Thanks, ken.
I appreciate it, lookingforward to it.
I've always wanted to be onyour podcast, so I know we've
talked over the years aboutdoing it, so now we finally did
it.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes, we finally got a chance to pull it off.
That's what's great aboutsummertime.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah.
Well, you know I got to startoff with the big moment when the
fire was made and you're statechamp, what was the first thing
that kind of goes through yourmind?
Uh, well, there's a range ofemotions.
Um, you know, it happens sofast, coach, that you know when

(04:16):
you go through it, it's, ithappens, and again, it's so fast
that all you want to do is justcelebrate with, with, with,
with your guys and with your,with your players.
Uh, we were fortunate.
You know, the the dugouts downin Akron sunken down, um, so
I've always wanted to jump inthe dog pile.
I always thought that's what Iwould do, uh, but I couldn't

(04:37):
make it out there.
Our whole staff it was really aspecial moment.
Our whole staff was together inthe dugout and we're
celebrating, and obviously thekids are on the field and they
got a big dog pile going on.
But what was really cool wasI'm trying to get out to the
field and I get to the bottom ofthe steps and I look up and my

(05:00):
son, who's 12, was standing atthe top of the steps and he has
his arms out and he was like Dad, we did it and it was, I mean,
it was Father's Day.
So that was really cool momentfor us.
So at that moment I'm justhugging him and crying because
I'm with him and getting toexperience that, which was

(05:20):
interesting because my son'steam he plays on 12 U6.
They were in Canton that weekend.
So how are they in the samearea that summer at the same
time as we're playing in thestate championship?
And you know how we do it ascoaches you schedule a year in
advance and I'm looking at thestate.
I always look at the statetournament and I'm always

(05:41):
mapping stuff out.
I'm always doing that stuff forthe previous year and and I
just happened to look at myson's schedule a year in advance
and I'm like, ooh, they're inCanton during that weekend and I
just said to myself how coolwould that be.
And then you move on, um, butit happened and, uh, you know it
was really neat.
They got they.
They actually won theirtournament.
It was a huge tournament forthem and they won the Canton

(06:02):
tournament.
So they had a huge trophy andthe whole team was in the stands
and they had the trophy withthem.
So, um, but to, to have my sonat the top of the steps and be
able to you know, just usembrace, um, on father's day
went into state championship wasreally cool.
Um, and then you know, to answeryour question, you don't really
.
You don't really start thinkingabout it until everybody's done

(06:25):
celebrating.
And then you're on the fieldand you're sitting there and
you're on the line and they'recalling out the state runner up
and they're announcing everybodyand our guys go through it.
But you look up and you look inthe stands and you're
overwhelmed because there's amillion people there and you're
like, wow, we really just didthis.
But then you start thinking asyou reflect, you start thinking

(06:46):
about the people that make ithappen.
You know the players, all thecoaches we've had in our program
.
So that's going through my mind.
One of the things that I wasmost proud of during that whole
state tournament run was howconnected our entire program was
.
It was amazing.
I've never experienced that inmy 13 years here was how
connected everybody was in termsof the players doing what they

(07:09):
had to do.
All the assistant coaches, whomy staff was elite during this
whole tournament run.
They dug into the stats andinto the game plans and spray
charts and making sure that ourkids had all the information
they needed to have to besuccessful and I it allowed me,

(07:30):
as a head coach to deal with.
You know, when you go to thestate tournament, it's a certain
, it's a different set ofresponsibilities in terms of now
you got media, you got peoplecalling you, channel 10 came out
and did a big story on us, oncoach Riley.
That passed away Our coachprevious, which I know.
You know Jeff Riley, um, fromway back, um, so like you have
to handle all that stuff as thehead coach.
But then also you're practicingand you're trying to get your

(07:53):
guys to continue to get betterand making sure they're not
rusty, cause at the statetournament when you win the
region, you get a week off.
Well, I think we had eight daysoff.
So, and most of the teamseverybody and people don't
realize that, but most of theteams are, you know everyone's
done and you're trying to find agame.
Maybe if you have one in yourback pocket from a rain out

(08:13):
earlier in the year, well, wedidn't have that.
You know we have turf and wehave.
We played all our games.
Well, now it's become okay.
We got to practice, we got tomanage all that stuff.
So during that whole stretch,like our boosters, everybody was
just hey, coach, what do youneed?
What do you?
How can we help you with this?
How do you need?
You know, whatever it may be,our athletic director, our

(08:36):
administration, just everybodywas connected.
Every I didn't have to dealwith one issue and everything
was seamless.
And, uh, like coach, coachTracy, um, his son, who's the
manager of the Clippers, hisson's on our team.
Well, he reached out and waslike, hey, if you guys want to
practice at Huntington field,we're out of town.
You guys can practice atHuntington field before you go
to Akron.
Well, that's a greatopportunity for our guys Number

(08:59):
one to be just have thatexperience of going to
Huntington park and practice onHuntington park.
But it's very similar to whatAkron Rubberneck Stadium looks
like.
So we had that opportunity togo do that and practice there
before we left to go to Canton.
And it was just, everything wastaken care of.
The communication was eliteGetting on a charter bus, our

(09:22):
parents had Chipotle and hadboxes and everybody name on it.
Like everybody had the rightorder, like there was no issues
with, like somebody got thewrong order or didn't get the
correct food or didn't get which.
In life that's what happens.
And I was just like I'mstanding there on the field when
we want it and I just was kindof soaking it all in and I'm
looking out there and I'm likejust thinking about all the

(09:44):
people that it goes into doingsomething like this.
But I was just so proud beingthe head coach and the leader of
the program.
How connected just from acoach's staff, players, boosters
, other parents, just everybodywas involved and it just made
the experience just somethingthat everyone's going to

(10:05):
remember for the rest of theirlife and, um, it was just
special, it was really specialyes, well, that was a great run
by you guys and you know, youknow I think about that when you
you get to the end.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
You know the whole season prepares you for that, in
the league alone that you're in, not including your
non-conference, that preparesyou for that, that state
tournament run.
Now I got to ask is there aspecific game, practice or team
meeting that you know may havebecome a turning point for your

(10:40):
group, something that kind ofshifted your momentum and said,
man, we're, we're, we really gota good thing going?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, we got really good
players.
So that helps.
But every year is a journey.
Every year has differentchallenges, different obstacles.
As you get older as a coach andget more experience, you get
better at handling thosesituations.
So this year was you get betterat handling those situations.
So this year was, you know, westarted off we had great off

(11:10):
season.
You know, the last two yearswe've been under 500, but that
was more.
We always, you know, we hadgood players.
I love our guys, I love all ouralumni.
We just weren't good enough incertain areas and we went
younger, knowing that we had anopportunity to do something,
maybe special this year.
So we went younger and wechallenged ourselves the last

(11:30):
couple of years.
But we had a really good offseason.
We always take an annual springtrips.
We went to Myrtle beach and wewe ended up playing Anthony
Wayne the first day there todivision two state champion and
we ended up beating them 6-1.
So out of the gate it was agreat challenge for us to see
who we are and kind of the teamwe're going to have in Merle

(11:53):
Beach.
And then we played LickingValley down there in a scrimmage
.
They're the Division III statechampion.
So we got tested early and andthen, like you said, you know,
our league is so good, um, youknow, top to bottom it's really
really good and um, so we wentthrough there and I, we were
eight and six and I actuallywrote this down in case you, in

(12:16):
case you asked me, april 28th.
So April 28th we're, we're, uhyeah, so we're around eight and
six and we're playing Olin TNGBerlin, who we're around eight
and six, and we're playingOlentangy Berlin, who's wearing
the state final four.
Last year Mike does a great jobwith his program.
They have really good players.
We have a tremendous amount ofrespect for them.
So we go to their place andit's a league game and we're up

(12:39):
one nothing in the fourth inningand they go in the bottom of
the fourth and they put 10 up onus and they put 10 up on us and
they put 10 up on us and theyend up run rolling us 11-1.
And we had some stuff and itwas just baseball.
I mean, first of all, elliotwas pitching.
He's an elite level pitcher.

(13:00):
We didn't do some things that wenormally do and it was the
first time that I felt like ourteam didn't handle adversity and
didn't go through that stretchof that portion of that game
very well.
Well, we didn't overreact ascoaches.
We took the.
Sometimes when all of a suddenit's 10-1 or whatever you're

(13:21):
like, let's just get run-rooted,get out of here so we can get
back to our place and kind ofregroup.
That's where we were.
We had some stuff go on thatgame that we have competitive
players and we have competitivecoaches, so some stuff.
I'm not going to speak out ofhouse, but some stuff happened,
some things were said and thosethings.

(13:43):
So when you go play in an oldand tangy school, you don't have
to have a bus, so the kidsdrive to the game.
Well, after the game, usuallytypically the kids just go home.
We don't go back to the awaygame, we go home.
We don't need to go back to theschool.
Well, we just got beat 11-1.
And I remember walking out ofthere.
I'm like this could go good orbad, it can go left or right.

(14:07):
We're eight and six, we have atalented team, but let's see
kind of who we are While we goback to the locker room.
Everybody's there, all theplayers are there.
So everybody went back to thelocker room.
I didn't have to say anythingto them.
They went back to the lockerroom and we were probably in

(14:30):
there for about an hour or twocollectively as a group talking
about, and we didn't overreactand yell and scream and do any
of that stuff.
We just sat down and said, hey,who do we want to be, like, how
do we want to play the game?
And kind of reflected back onmaybe some of the goals that we
talked about at the beginning ofthe year, like, hey, we're
halfway through the stretch hereand we still got a lot of
baseball left to play and allour stuff's still out in front

(14:51):
of us and we haven't lost it.
Yeah, we got beat, we got runruled, we got embarrassed
because it's a league game butit's also a rival, so it humbles
you a little bit.
And it became like, all right,who do we want to be?
And it became like all right,who do we want to be?

(15:18):
And our kids in the locker roomstarted talking.
And that's when I was like,okay, we got a chance, need to
do this better, I need you to dothis better, whatever it may be
.
But it was all player led stuffand I remember walking out of
there, we said everything wewanted to say.
And the good thing aboutbaseball is especially that time
of year is, with rain, outs andeverything, you can play the

(15:40):
next day and you can play theday after that and you can play
the day after that and you can.
So if you get beat, you couldstill have a great week.
And, um, it was a Monday.
Well, we had a game.
We had to go to Jerome the nextday, and that was a Tuesday,
and we played Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday.
I mean, you know how it is as abaseball coach, that's what it
was.

(16:05):
And all of a sudden, I rememberwe went to Jerome that Tuesday
and I got off the bus and I'mlike, okay, it's either going to
go this way or it's going to gobad, and we're going to figure
out who we are.
And we came out and we startedswinging it and, just from a
team atmosphere, we were moreconnected and I think of the
word trust.
I think we got trust out ofthat whole experience and we

(16:28):
kind of reflected back and said,okay, we didn't handle that
game at Berlin the right way.
This is what we need to do ifthat ever happens again.
But we're a good team, let'sstart trusting one another.
And if we can start trustingone another, then we can start
doing some things, because we'retalented enough to do it.
And that was the turning pointand we were eight and six at

(16:50):
that moment we won 16 out of ournext 17 games to finish the
year and the only game we lostwas we had to play Berlin again
and that game was tied 0-0 inthe fourth and it got suspended.
Well, we didn't play the gameuntil like the last, like we

(17:11):
finished it up, the last gamebefore tournament play, and it
was 0-0 in the fourth.
From a mindset of me, you'reonly playing a couple innings.
We had, like, whoever scorestwo runs is probably going to
win the game.
So we came out and we sw swungit and we scored a run and then
I got our shortstop, carter Hyer, thrown out of the plate.

(17:32):
I should have sent him, and Isent him because I was thinking
all right, if we can get tworuns, we're going to win the
game.
Well, he gets thrown out.
Changed the momentum.
Berlin came out, did a greatjob.
They started hitting the ball.
They beat us two to one, butthat was the only game that we
lost.
After that April 28th game,during that whole stretch going
all the way to the statechampionship game.

(17:52):
So, without a doubt, thatmoment at Berlin when we got run
ruled and just the way our kidshandled that whole situation
because I've had teams in thepast that don't handle failure
that well, it's high schoolathletics that's a hard thing to
do and that was the specialthing about this group is they

(18:14):
were player led, they were tough, they held each other
accountable and it was just.
That was a fun experience forme personally as a coach that
you see kids do that, becausethat's what we're always talking
about.
That's a thing like how can youhandle adversity, how can you
do this and uh, and they didthat and we kind of just took
off and we didn't look back andit was fun well, you know it's.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
it sounds like you know you were probably better
off to lose that game than youwere, if you were to want it,
because it made your team reallycome together and, like you
said, they were all back at thelocker room and probably outside
of winning the statechampionship.
That'll probably be one of thethings that, 10 years from now

(18:58):
that's probably what they'regoing to remember is how they
get together.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
Yeah, there's no doubt.
And after that game, when wewent to Jerome the next day, you
know as coaches you're like,okay, do you need to change some
things?
So you know, and there was akid who's a sophomore in our
program, who was a varsity guy,ty Wahlberg.
He wasn't playing that much andour goal even at the beginning
of the season was to try to gethim as much playing time as we

(19:26):
could.
He's a really good player.
He's young Now it's a veteranteam, so how can we try to
figure out how to get him time?
So after that game that we lost,it was a good opportunity for
us as coaches.
We kind of tinkered with somethings.
We put him at third and movedCooper Tracy to.
Cooper was at third and wemoved him to second.
And Dominic Peroni, who wasanother senior, we moved him

(19:48):
from second base to right field.
And literally it was amazing.
Not only did our kids handlelike that situation at Berlin
the right way, but just it'samazing that the little change
that you can make in a lineup ordefensively, what it does for
the confidence of your team, allof a sudden Ty goes in at third

(20:09):
and made a couple of plays andall the kids now are like, okay,
he's really good over there, wetrust him.
And then Cooper can playanywhere, he's that good, he's
at second and he's playing well.
And then Perrone's saying dang,he's really good and he went to
right field, he starts makingsome dive catches and then it
becomes okay, well, now I feellike our defense is set you know

(20:30):
what I mean Right where we wantit, and then all of a sudden we
start hitting it, we startpitching it.
We became very balanced as ateam and as a coach.
That's every single team youcoach.
That's what you're striving foris how can you get a balanced
team?
Can you pitch it really well?
Can you play great team defenseand make all the plays and

(20:51):
maybe some exceptional plays inthere Offensively?
Can you swing it?
Can you have great quality atbats?
Can you move runners?
Can you get in scoring position?
You do all those types ofthings and then on the base,
pass.
Can you be disruptive?
Can you be aggressive?
Can you do those things to helpyourself win games?
And I felt like when we madethose changes and our kids

(21:13):
bought in and as player led, Ifelt like once we hit that
stride, we just didn't look backand it was like I said earlier
it was a lot of fun.
Well, looking back over thecourse of your career?

Speaker 1 (21:24):
what's the biggest change that you've made in how
you approach your job as abaseball coach today?

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Well, I think that's a good question.
I think and it's part of growth, it's part of life and just
growing up, I think.
You know people always say thekids have changed so much.
This you know in 2025.
I don't think, necessarily, thekids have changed, society has
changed and I think you got tobe able to adapt with the times

(21:59):
and you can't be stubborn.
So I remember when I first gothere in 2013 and you know we
went through the stretch 2013 tolike 18.
It's always funny those alumscome back and they're like coach
, you're so soft and you're nottough on these guys anymore and
we're still tough.

(22:19):
I think hard is good, like thehard thing and the right thing
are usually the same thing.
We want hard, we embrace hard,we want to try to challenge our
guys and do different thingslike that.
But I think nowadays you don'tneed to be screaming and yelling

(22:41):
and doing all those types ofthings.
You've got to adapt and itbecomes more of Can you have
great relationship with yourguys and can you connect with
them and know everybody'spersonality.
I think I think me as aneducator.
Um, I'm an interventionspecialist, so, as I've grown in
my job and I and I'm inmeetings about mental health and

(23:02):
suicide and things like that.
I'm in so many of thosemeetings that it's changed my
perspective on how I treatpeople and how I handle people
and for our players, I just wantto connect with them and kind
of feel everybody has adifferent personality.
Some guys like to be challenged.
You can be harder on some guys.
Some guys you got to put yourarm around them and just say,

(23:24):
hey, you're good, and just getthem to be confident and then
just teach them along the way.
So I think I've changed in thatregard is I don't treat
everybody the same.
I just it's more individualizedbased.
But again, we still havestandards.
We still expect the same thingin our program.
I think it's a balancing act ofyou know, can you, can you

(23:46):
relate to the players?
Can you, can you make sure notonly you trust them, but can
they trust you?
I think that's a huge thingbecause that's when development
starts and their confidencegrowth is when you start doing
that type of thing.
So I think that's more thananything.
How I've changed is my abilityto kind of just connect more

(24:08):
with our guys individually andsee what kind of motivates them.
So just connect more with ourguys individually and see what
kind of motivates them, and alsoour coaching staff, like being
able to manage.
You're the head guy, you're theCEO of the program.
How do you manage your coachingstaff?
Again, everybody has differentpersonalities, everybody has
different strengths.
How can you get the?
I just wrote down on a piece ofpaper the other day when I was

(24:33):
thinking about future stuff andI was thinking about my job, and
the first thing I wrote downwas my job is to make sure I get
the right people on the bus.
Well, that's my job.
To make sure I get the rightpeople on the bus.
That goes from boosters tofamilies to players.
Making sure we have the rightcoaches on players.
Making sure we have the rightcoaches on staff.
Making sure we have the rightplayers, guys that are high

(24:56):
quality guys, high characterguys that believe in the same
things we believe in and thatare talented.
So that's where I've changedprobably the most is just my
ability to do those types ofthings with the kids.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
To help a coach out there who might be listening.
What do your practices looklike during the grind of the
season?
How do you balance thatteaching competing?
And I believe I had the WAPAKinetic coach on a couple
episodes back and he has atheory that at the end of the
season they don't practice thatmuch.

(25:33):
He wants them fresh.
So how do you deal with?

Speaker 3 (25:35):
that.
I think it's a balancing act.
I think it goes back to you gotto know your team.
Nowadays, I feel likeeverything's.
Obviously you get a month inAugust where it's a dead period,
but it's 11 months out of theyear.
It's fall workouts anddevelopment, it's winter
practices, it's or not practices, but six man stuff, um, and

(25:58):
then you go into your season andyou have team practices,
obviously, um, but you just gotto manage like.
You just got to have a goodfeel of your team and and where
they're at in the season, um,are they young?
Well, you can do a little bitmore competitive things.
Are they older and more veteran?

(26:21):
Where they don't necessarilyneed that stuff.
They need more rest.
Um, that's the feel that youhave as you go through the
season, um, and in baseball,like I said, you play every
single day.
Sometimes you know you can gothrough two week stretches where
you play every single day.
Well, a day off is is a goodthing, and I actually I've been

(26:42):
fortunate because while theyextended the season, that allows
us, you know, another week orwhatever to do stuff.
So, instead of having we don'tdo a lot of double headers on
Saturdays anymore, like we didback in the day, um, and it's
allowed me personally, my son's12, he has all his summer
tournaments in April and May.
So we give our guys the weekendoff, or if the in most of our

(27:05):
guys, they come up and they hiton their own and they do things
like that.
But that's their time to, kindof it's.
It's a great time for them tokind of individually work on
whatever they got to work on andyou get some rest.
It's a great time for us tokind of get away from each other
.
You know, as a player and coach, just, we don't have to talk
all the time, um, but then itallows me to go and watch my kid
.
So, um, we've tried to balance,like all those types of things.

(27:27):
We have a committee, we have a,you know, captain committee.
So I, I lean on those guysheavily like hey guys, where are
we at?
Do we need a day?
Do we need to do?
We need to practice this more?
Do we need to do that more?
You know, whatever it may be,and and and it goes back to
relationships and trust Canthose guys, can they not be, yes
, guys?
Can they actually come and talkto you and tell you things that

(27:50):
you need to hear as a coach.
I think that's very importantand in our program that's what
we strive to do is to make surethat we don't have just a bunch
of yes guys.
We have a bunch of captainsthat come in there and they say,
coach, this is what we got todo and it's player led and those
guys listen to each other andthey trust me and I trust them.
And sometimes it's hard becauseyou're like do I want to have a

(28:13):
weekend off?
And then you got a league gameon Monday.
It becomes hard, but you got tojust trust them and again
they're all hitting on their ownand doing what they need to do.
Now we had a veteran group, soyou can do things like that.
If it's a younger team, likewe've done in the past, we may
be practicing a little bit more.
And then I think the otherthing is we continue to lift

(28:34):
during the season, so thatallows us to stay physically and
mentally where we need to bethroughout the year, which has
helped us.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
One of the hardest parts of being a coach is poking
that starting lineup.
And you know it's varsitybaseball and not everybody gets
to play.
What is your approach tohandling those tough
conversations when it comes toplayers and even parents, and

(29:05):
especially?
You know, I spoke to a coachlast year and they made it to
the state championship and hetalked about a parent just
rippening after they lost thestate championship and it was a
player who played in the gamewho started.

(29:27):
You know.
So it it's never easy, butposting that lineup is a
challenge because I always, deepinside, would be like man.
I'd love to get every guy inthe game, but that doesn't
happen yeah it, you know it.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
First of all, I love all my guys, just like all the
coaches, and run their program.
You love all your guys and youwant all your guys to play.
I think what we try to do andit's not an exact science, we
don't do it right all the time.
I think what we try to do is beas proactive as we can possibly
be.
We have meetings throughout thefall and winter and spring and

(30:10):
I meet personally, individuallywith every kid in our program
and we talk about like, okay,what are your goals, what's your
developmental plans, what youknow, all these things, what
team do you want to be on, andthose things.
So we do that in the fall andwinter and then, as you get
closer to the spring, we startlooking hard at okay, you're
going to be on this team, but Idon't necessarily know how much
you're going to play, cannecessarily know how much you're

(30:32):
going to play, can you handlethat?
So we're proactive and havemeetings ahead of time and say,
hey, this is what your rolecould be.
And we always tell the kids youcan accept it on one level,
like on game day you see thelineup and you're not in it.
You have to accept it on onelevel in terms of I'm a great
teammate.
I'm going to do everything Ican today to be a great teammate
and help our team win.
Whether it's go shag balls,whether it's go warm up the

(30:53):
right fielder, go get foul balls, do the stats, do charts, do
whatever you got to do, I got tobe a great teammate.
But then you don't accept it onthe other level that we got
practice tomorrow and you'retrying to beat the guy that's
playing in front of you out.
So you got to accept it on onelevel, on game day, but then you
can't accept it on the next daywhen it's practice time.

(31:14):
So we try to do that and I justthink authentic communication
and being you know, continue totalk to them and say, hey, this
is where we're at, this is whatwe're thinking about.
You know, with this team thisyear, as soon as we started
going through that stretch ofplaying and winning, I mean the
lineup was the same lineup everysingle game.

(31:35):
And as a coach, you look downthere and you're like, okay,
who's going to pout, who's goingto have bad attitudes?
And, to our guys' credit,everybody in the dugout was
positive.
They were all about the teamand that's all.
We talk about it all the time.
Coach Trestle has the podcastall about the Team and we stole
that from him because we hadmeetings I can't tell you how
many meetings we had as a groupthat it would be titled All

(31:56):
About the Team and that's whatyou got to think about.
Now our parents know that Idon't talk to them about playing
time or talk to them aboutother kids, so there's not a
whole lot of other conversationsthat's going to happen between
me and a parent, because that'sall they usually want to talk
about is playing time andsomebody else's kid.
So our parents already knowthat I don't talk to them about

(32:18):
it.
So I don't get approached withthat stuff too often.
And then if I do get approachedwith it on that stuff, then I
will politely say hey, we don'ttalk about that, will politely
say hey, we don't talk aboutthat.
But we try to handle it thatway and try to handle in-house
with our kids and making surethey know exactly where they
always stand, which I think isimportant, because if I was

(32:38):
playing, I would want to knowexactly where I stood in the
coach's eye all the time.
Okay, am I a starter If I'm astarter, what does he want from
me as a starter?
Do I bought it really well,whatever it may be?
If I'm non-starter, what doeshe want from me as a starter?
Do I bought it really well,whatever it may be?
If I'm non-starter, what doeshe want in terms of how I can
develop, in terms of gettingmore playing time, or how can I

(33:01):
be the best teammate I canpossibly be?
So we try to do our best to beas proactive as we can possibly
be.
It happens so fast couldpossibly be.
It happens so fast.
The season, especially in thespring.
It goes by so fast that I thinkthat's something that's always
a goal of mine every single yearwhen I reflect on how do I
handle anything better.

(33:21):
It's always that I needed tocommunicate better with guys
that don't play as much and makesure they're on the same page
as us.
That way there's no issues.
And again, we had a veterangroup so and we had, you know,
12 guys that had just graduated.
So guys know, okay, now it'snext man up and I get

(33:42):
opportunities and we can kind ofgo from there.
But that's typically how we doit in our program.
Well, you know you were a.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
You were a great player and you've been coaching
for quite a while now.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
What is something that high school coaches don't
spend enough time working on?
And you look, and our time hereis my 13th year, or I just
finished my 13th year here atOlentangy.
I don't think, team like coachother teams, and especially us
back in the day, I don't thinkwe spend enough time on base

(34:31):
running and I think everybodyhits all the time.
I think you hit ground balls,you hit fly balls, you do drills
that you see at clinics, you doall those types of things right
.
Well, I found that, especially,we got turf and it's a huge
advantage the teams that haveturf, especially in the spring

(34:55):
is that you can practice baserunning all the time and we got
better at it just because wepracticed it and you are what
you practice.
You know what I mean.
Your team's going to be likewe're going to be good at the
things that we really focus on.
Well, we try to be as balancedas we can possibly be, but base

(35:17):
running something that, as astaff, we talked about when we
were getting turf we were likewe got to get better at base
running because even when itrains, you can still get on
there and do some stuff and um.
So I think our kids developedreally good base running
fundamentals and we do differentthings, like in drills, where
we still have base runners,where they can get, because I

(35:38):
feel like a lot of kids don'thave feel anymore and instinct
with base running, especiallywhen the ball's hitting the
outfield is where's the ball?
Like.
Everyone has their head down,everyone's listening to the
coach.
You know, whatever Our bigthing is, get your head up and
see the ball, and we don't.
I don't want to be constantlydoing this or put my hands up.
I want you to have an instinctand get a feel for the game and

(36:00):
get that extra bag.
And if you can get that extrabag, so I think we've developed
big time in that area and that'ssomething that when I was
younger, we didn't do enough ofand that when I was younger, we
didn't do enough of.
And when we play against teams,I noticed that they don't base
run it like we base run it orlike some other teams that are
elite in our area base run andthose teams are easy to play

(36:21):
against because they'reone-handed.
If you're a basketball playerand you're sitting here saying,
okay, he's a right-handed guy,we got to force him left, we're
going to.
He's a right-handed guy.
We got to force him left.
We're going to make him aone-handed player.
It's the same thing in baseball.
If they get on base and theystand at first base and they
don't do anything they don'tsteal, they don't hit and run,

(36:42):
they don't bunt, they don't dowhatever to get their guys in
motion it becomes easy to coachagainst those guys Because now
all you got to do is just pitch.
You know, let's pitch a coupleground balls, do whatever we got
to do, let's get that guy out,let's hit it and score a couple
runs.
We're gonna win.
So it's not rocket science, butI just feel like there's not
enough really good base runningteams.
Um, that I always that.

(37:02):
I feel you know what I mean andthat's something that we try to
get really good at is our baserunning, um.
And then the other part ismaster catching and throwing.
I mean, from day one, that'sall our kids hear from me is
master catching and throwing.
If we got a chance at all to beany good, we got to be able to
catch it.
We got to be able to throw it.
The teams that can't catch itand throw it, you're going to

(37:24):
beat them.
You're going to absolutely beatthem and especially when you
got a team that can put the ballin play or whatever they throw
the ball around, there's a run.
So I just think for us it'sbeen very like we've tried to
develop can you master catch andthrow?
Can you be really good atmaster catch and throw?
The team that we had this year,our fielding percentage was like
0.988 in that tournament.

(37:45):
I think we had one error.
We had one error and like wemade all the plays and then we
also made a couple exceptionalplays, and that's what we always
talk about and then we base runit really well and that's
something we've really developedthat.
So, and going back to the statetournament, here's a stat for
you that I wanted to throw itout.
We scored 34 runs in thetournament and only gave up five

(38:08):
runs tournament and only gaveup five runs the entire
tournament and we had a 0.5 toour 0.5 or 0.25 era from
district semi to statechampionship.
It was unreal, unrealperformance by our kids.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
You know it's you know it's the thing I always
would say is just make theroutine play and you got a good
chance of winning a big ballgame.
You know the it's great whenyou get the, the fantastic
diving catch or whatever.
But it's those routine plays,you know, shortstop fields it
and then they throw it in thedirt or sail it into the dugout.

(38:44):
That's when you you run intotrouble and, like you said, you
just focus on things and make ita critical part of practice.
You got a good chance of beinggood.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah, and I think I think from my experience teams
beat themselves, Most teams beatthemselves.
So if and again I keep usingthe word balance and trust and
those types of things but if youcan develop the balance that
you need and the fundamentalsthat go with it, and then you
add in I'm fortunate enough tocoach in an area at Olin's,
Angie, where we have goodplayers, so you throw in that

(39:20):
combination and then if you canget them connected, if you can
get them to play hard, andtogether you got a chance to win
big and that's fun for me.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Have you developed over your career like a certain
drill that you do in practice?
It's a win big and that's funfor me.
Have you developed over yourcareer like a certain drill that
you do in practice?
It's like every year we aregoing to do this drill because
this is my favorite drill.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
You know, everything we do is try to be fundamental
based.
But then I think like I lovelistening listening to when I
have time I listen to yourpodcast.
When I have time, I listen tothe ABCA podcast and you go to
state clinics and you go to allthese other things and you learn

(40:04):
different drills and you'relike, ooh, that's pretty cool.
I think our kids would lovethat, because I think changing
some stuff is good for the guys,because you can't do everything
the same thing over and overand over and you're going to
lose them.
However, there's basic,fundamental stuff that you got
to do.
I'm a routine-based guy.
We start practice, we doindividuals, we do all those

(40:27):
types of things.
Then we go into team, then wego into base running, then we go
into hitting.
We try to do it like whole,part, whole.
Get them, have them play alittle bit, see what we got to
get better at, come back, breakit down, do some individual
stuff you know, delegate out anduse, utilize all your coaches
and and utilize all the space.
When you have turf, it becomesmuch easier because you can do a

(40:48):
lot of different things at once.
So we try to do all.
That's how we try to organizeour practices and try to make
them as competitive as possible,but then also throw in some new
stuff where our guys they gotto start.
They got to listen to you,because at times if it's still
the old stuff, they stoplistening.
And I always tell our staff,every time you coach something,
you got to coach it like it'sthe first time you've ever

(41:09):
coached it that way.
It's the same basicfundamentals Get your club out
and down, work through the ball,all those types of things we
continue to do.
But then you got to throw insome new stuff that these high
school kids they got to turnaround and they go.
Okay, I got to listen, or coachis going to be all over types
of things and it makes it funfor practices.
But I would say one of thethings that I really enjoy to do

(41:37):
from an offensive standpoint,because I throw batting practice
all the time to our guys andbatting practice can get old and
it can get, like you know,everybody goes through and so
you're trying to do differentthings.
I saw a video one time.
It was called Jungle Hittingand it was just situational base
, so we had guys on second,third or maybe they start at

(41:57):
second.
But instead of then gettingtheir 10 to 12 swings and then
they rotate out, our guys haveto situationally do something to
move the rub.
So they start at second base,they get one pitch.
So now you're putting somepressure on them that they got
to execute that one pitch like agame.
All right, coach just saidthere's no outs to the guy on

(42:18):
second.
Can I hit a ground ball backsideand I'd give him the situation
hey, it's sixth inning, zero,zero game.
Can I hit a ground ballbackside and move that runner to
third so we can get a sack, fly, squeeze, maybe hit another
ground ball to a middleinfielder, score a run.
Now we win the game.
And it teaches them to be allabout the team.
And that's why I really enjoythe drill, because it makes them

(42:42):
focus more on the team and lessabout themselves.
Our kids hate it because theywant to try to hit the ball out
in batting practice every timeand it drives me insane.
But it's a great drill.
To where you know, now, all ofa sudden you move to runner.
Now the next guy comes up andhe's got to get the guy at third
base in.
Well, now you're just, you'reteaching your guys.

(43:03):
It's just like in a game, yougot to trust each other.
So like if I give a sack buttto somebody who may be hitting
well, so like if I give a sackbutt to somebody who may be
hitting well, instead ofshrugging his shoulders and not
giving a great attempt at itwhich we've all been there
before now they'll lock in andthey'll say, okay, I trust the
guy who's on deck to get them in, and that's when you got

(43:25):
something special.
So that drill makes those guysfeel that way and think that way
All right, I'm going to move arunner over because the guy
who's coming up next is going toknock them in with a base hit,
sack, fly, we're going tosqueeze, we're going to do
whatever we got to do and we'regoing to win the game 1-0.
And with the pitching we have,that's usually what happens.
So that's probably my favoritedrill, because we can teach the

(43:53):
different types of how to toplay the game the right way, or
at least how we feel to play thegame the right way.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Um, and it makes them be all about the team and less
about themselves what advicewould you give a high school
coach trying to build their ownchampionship culture?
And the other part of it iswhat would you tell him to avoid
?

Speaker 3 (44:15):
that's a good question, coach carp.
Um, I would well, I I thinkit's important.
You got to be yourself.
I think you got to be yourselfand coach to your personality
and you got to be willing to toyour personality and you got to

(44:36):
be willing to, uh, adapt andwork well with people and you
got to.
You got to have a great skillof listening to your team and
your and your players, andthat's something that I've had
to get better at because I'd bestubborn and wouldn't listen,
and I think I've gotten betterbecause I've listened more than
I talk.
Um, so I think it's importantyou got to be yourself.
I think it's important you gotto be yourself.
I think it's important you gotto be around great people.
I've been fortunate in my, youknow, all the way back to when I

(44:57):
was, you know, eight, nine, 10,11, you know all that stuff.
I had great youth coaches.
I had great high school coaches.
I had an opportunity to move toCincinnati and be around elite
level basketball coaches,baseball coaches.
We won the state championshipat Lakota East in 2011.

(45:18):
And to be part of that and tobe part of their staff and the
basketball staff that was atLakota East just if you're
around really good people andyou take the time to listen and
absorb all the information thatthey're teaching and how they do
it, and then have your ownvision of how you want to run
your program and utilize all thestuff you've learned back in

(45:41):
the day from all these types ofpeople, but do it in your way.
Like you know what I mean.
There's so many people that,especially young guys, they try
to be like somebody else andthat usually is what gets into
trouble.
Just be you like.
Just be you.
Handle situations the way youwant to handle situations,
because then it becomesauthentic and then people can
trust you and it's just easierthat way.

(46:03):
So I would do that and then Iwould just of of with the
players, the coaches, theparents, um, set a standard of
what you want your program to beall about and don't waver from
that Um.
And and like you know, nowadaysyou hear so many times you were

(46:25):
talking about earlier you getparents that complain or parents
that do this or that.
I think you got to set astandard and like, hey, this is
how we do it.
People at O&T and G know thatthey're not coming up to me
after a game and talking to meabout something negative because
I'm going to blow them up and Idon't care.
That's what's going to happen.

(46:46):
So parents know that and I,like all our parents, I think
our families are tremendous, Ithink our boosters are
tremendous.
But there's one thing that Idon't cross that line on is we
don't talk about flight time, wedon't talk about other kids,
and that's usually what parentswant to talk to me about.
Now, if there's something elsethat they want to talk to me
about, I'll sit down and listenall day long.
And how can I help them?

(47:08):
How can I help their family?
How can I help their kiddevelop and do whatever we got
to do to fix whatever situationmay be up.
But I would say to a youngcoach don't be afraid to
discipline, don't be afraid ofbut you got to do it the right
way.
You can't use profanity and youcan't be strict.
You can still discipline and dothings a certain way to make

(47:31):
sure everybody knows.
Okay, that's the standard ofour program and that's what we
try to do here.
So that would be my advice.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Hate losing or love winning.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
Hate losing, hate losing, I think the next day.
So we win the state on a Sundaynight and I had to come up here
on the press box to getsomething Monday morning and you
start and I got media guidesand I got all this stuff on my
desk from the state tournament.
And you start and I had thedepth chart of like I got names

(48:06):
for the next eight years on mydesk and this is how we do it if
you're running a program andall those types of things.
So I started looking down.
I'm like man, we just we'relost 12 guys from our team.
I hate losing.
So what's the plan to get usback?
You know how do we keep thisgoing and the momentum that we

(48:28):
have right now.
So hate losing far more than Ilove to win, far more.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Well, you thought I believe that's gonna be uh
effective next season.
Is it next season, or is it?

Speaker 3 (48:44):
27 I thought it was 27 but I think it's.
Yeah, it's 27, but we're gonna.
We, we got our, we got somestuff at our turf that needs to
be replaced um, so we're justgonna have them come in and put
the peg down.
I, I think it's great, I think,think anything, um, I think
anytime that you can dosomething for player safety is

(49:04):
is a positive.
Um, I don't see any negatives.
I, the only I was tellingsomebody the only negative, the
only negative that I could seeis you know, all these schools
that have turf, now you gottahave the turf company come in
and they got to put the peg in.
That's, that's the onlynegative and the only negative,
and it'll cost money.
So the negative is what aboutthe programs that and even if

(49:27):
they don't have turf, they justgot a traditional field the
programs that don't have thebudget that an Olin Tangy has?
Now they got to get a base peg,they got to get a new base,
they got to do all those typesof things.
But I think the player safetything outweighs that.
That's very minor what I justtalked about, the player safety.
I've seen so many issues wherethe ball's going down the first

(49:49):
baseline.
It's bang, bang, the runner,the first baseman, collide, it
becomes an issue.
We had a situation we playedHilliard Darby at our place and
Gilkerson.
He was running to first Our kid.
There was a throw on the inside, our kid went to catch it.
He ran into Gilk and he hurthis leg and he couldn't play for

(50:10):
a couple of games.
So I think that avoids it if wehave the double bag.
And then I think it's alsogoing to help the umpires too.
It's going to absolutely helpthem with just line of sight,
like in terms of he ran out ofthe baseline.
I mean, how many times have youseen that call where the coach
is going out and no one knows,did he go in the baseline?

(50:32):
Did he come out of it, whatever?
I just think that's going tokind of the gray area is gone
Now it's black and white andit's going to help those guys
out too.
So I think that's a positivething as well.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
I like to throw these ones in here and kind of just
put you in a hypotheticalsituation.
Sure, you're coaching an MLBteam and you can have three
pitchers on your staff, twostarters and a closer.
Group A you get Paul Skeenssonand billy wagner's, your

(51:04):
reliever.
Group b you get, uh, terryscooble hold up.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
Let me write this down real quick.
Okay, I don't have a pen.
Randy, johnson's my first guy.
Okay, go to the second.
The second one, tarek.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Scooble, he's your lefty, you got Nolan Ryan and
your closer is Mariano Rivera.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
Rivera.
So you're going.
I want Nolan, ryan and Rivera.
I'm old school.
I like all the old school guys.
There you go.
Can I do that?

Speaker 1 (51:43):
I was wondering, because it's tough to pass on
Randy Johnson.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Randy, yeah yeah, can I throw in my?
How about this?
These three guys Rocco Bucci,who was a sophomore pitcher for
us this year, who was a dog,cameron Burch, who was a senior,
who was my two, and those guyswent back.
We only threw three guys alltournament Rocco Bucci, cameron

(52:10):
Burch and then Cooper Tracy wasour closer.
Those three guys, I'll takethose three.
I like Nolan Ryan, I like allthose guys, but I'll take my
three old Tangy guys.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Now that you've reached the top, have you you
know you you mentioned itearlier about what you're going
to do to keep next year's teamhungry and, uh, replace what
sounds like a lot of greattalent?

Speaker 3 (52:34):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, we have good players.
So like we have good playersand good young players, um, that
are now have an opportunity toshow what they can do.
So that's the mindset now is wehave really good players.
We got to do a great job ascoaches to keep developing them
and put them in situations to besuccessful.
But yeah, I mean I'm excitedwith what we just did.

(52:58):
Obviously it was a tremendousthing, but I just I enjoy
coaching.
It's funny because I would makejokes like, hey, if we ever win
it, I'm going to throw my keysto somebody and I'm out.
I would always make those jokesand I just I enjoy, I enjoy

(53:18):
coach.
I'm at the age now I'm 44.
I have a great teaching job.
I work with unbelievable kidsand staff and administration.
We do it right and I get achance to try to make a
difference with my kids atschool and the same thing here
at the baseball program.
We have tremendous kids in ourprogram and we have great

(53:40):
families and we have a great,great support staff and I just I
enjoy coaching and it's like wego 10 and 15 next year.
I'm going to enjoy coachingbecause it's just it's.
It's been a lot of fun and, um,I just I love the people that
we have in our program right now.
So, um, that's kind of whereI'm at.

(54:01):
I know we just won the state,but I just enjoy being around
the type of people that we havehere at Oral Tangent.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Well, I got to get this one in and uh, all time
funny story from all your yearsof coaching and I got to wonder
if, uh, maybe, uh, chris Fugatemight be a part of that.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
Well, coach Fugate might be a part of that.
Well, coach Fugate, so I playedfor Coach Fugate and he's a
mentor of mine.
I'm actually going golfing withhim tomorrow, which I haven't
played golf in a year becauseI've been so busy and he's a
scratch golfer.
So he's going to steal all mymoney because he's going to want
to play for money on the firsttee box.
That's what he's a scratchgolfer, so he's going to steal
all my money because he's goingto want to play for money on the
first tee box.
That's what he's going to say.
I mean, obviously we have greatstories here at Ong Tangi.

(54:47):
Some of them we probably can'ttalk about.
I know we have greatrelationships with.
I think the umpiring aroundCentral Ohio has gotten better,
significantly better aroundCentral Ohio has gotten better,
significantly better, and justmy time from 2013 to 25, we have
some really good umpires andwhen I was younger, I was quick

(55:14):
to go out on the field and argueand say things that I shouldn't
say.
So I'm sure Bart Andrews hassome stories that he would love
to share with you, but a CoachFugate story, I'm trying to
think I'll take it back when Iwas a player.
So it was the same situation asOlentangy Burlett is.

(55:35):
Hilliard Darby was a brand newschool, so my junior year we had
no seniors, so we were thefirst graduating class in 99.
So my junior year we arepracticing.
We're not very good becausewe're.
I mean, he's trying to build aprogram and something happened
on a bus.
We had an away game.

(55:55):
We're driving back.
We just got beat.
We weren't very good.
Somebody threw a hat out thewindow and it was something
stupid like that.
Well, we get to the field andfugue's not happy.
So it's like a friday and it'snine o'clock at night.
Well, we're running polls untilsomebody tells coach figure,

(56:16):
who threw the hat out?
Because no one would say whothrew the hat out.
Well, we're running poles.
And back in those days kids nowthink of poles like you go to
the pole, that's one.
No, you go to the pole and yougo back, that's one.
And we would do poles.
We'd do 20 poles a day and thatwas part of that's just how it

(56:36):
was back in the day.
Now I mean we had, I had ourguys run five poles last year
after a game that we lost and Igot a letter sent to the
superintendent and to my adminthat I was too mean because we
ran five poles.
But back to my story is we'rerunning all these poles and I

(56:56):
had nothing to do with this.
Like throwing the hat out thewindow is we're running all
these poles and I had nothing todo with this.
Like throwing the hat out thewindow.
And we're running and we'rerunning.
I'm tired, I just caught, soI'm exhausted from catching and
it's a Friday.
So we played every day thatweek and I caught every day.
So we get to like me and thiskid who didn't like each other.
We kept bumping shoulders, likewhen we got past each other at

(57:18):
center field.
We'd cross each other, we'dbump shoulders and I'm like you
know what?
I think if I try to get in afight with this kid, coach
Fugate's going to have to stopthe whole team from running
poles.
So I'm just going to take itand I'm going to see if I can
get in a fight with somebody.
Now my record in fighting islike 0 and 10.

(57:39):
I'm not very good at fighting,but we hit each other, we bumped
each other on our shoulders andinstead of continuing to run,
we stopped and we startedwalking towards each other and
then all of a sudden, out of thecorner of my eye, I could see
Coach Fugate and the rest of thestaff.
They're now walking towards theoutfield and they're like, oh
hey, everybody stop running.
And then they got everybodytogether and then we had like a

(58:01):
50 minute coaches meeting, youknow, in terms of like this is
how we got to play the game andall this stuff.
So I think that that one comesto mind just because I was
trying to get out of running.
And it's a good strategy.
To get out of running is try tofight somebody, and the coach
didn't know there you go, you go.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Well, I figure it's one of those guys that you know
he's a great storyteller andhe's had some great ones himself
and you know he's a lot of funand just hate to see that.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
You know that he's uh he's retiring and stepping away
yeah, yeah, him, and then ryanalexander, a couple other guys
yeah, I know it's just part of Imean, I know they wanted to do
stuff with their families and itgets.
I have a 12-year-old and he'sgetting older and those moments
start creeping through your headof like I need to.

(58:51):
I mean, when you're a baseballcoach, you're at the field all
the time and I know Chris hadsome things that he wanted to do
outside of baseball that I wasglad to see him come back.
I know when he first got out,what was that four or five years
ago, I was glad to see him comeback and continue coaching.
I know, for me he's one of mybetter friends.
He's my mentor.

(59:13):
I've learned so much from him.
I mean, hell, our signs arevery similar.
I think our sack bunt is theexact same sack bunt that he has
or squeezes, because there'stimes in games where he's
looking at me and I'm looking athim and we're both like we know
each other's signs because it'sthe same stuff, the fact that I

(59:42):
can coach against him and we'reso close.
That's been a lot of fun for mebecause he does it right.
And I'll be honest because nowmy responsibility.
I'm a Central District Boardmember and I had so many coaches
when I first got here in 2013.
I'm young, I don't knowanything and I'm scared to death
, and I had so many people olderguys that would just reach out
to me and help mentor me.

(01:00:03):
And that's what I want to donow is we have such great
younger coaches in central Ohiothat that's all I want to do is
just be a resource for somebodythat I can help them, like the
older coaches the previouscoaches did for me, and that's
my way to kind of give back tothe game, just like you know,
you're giving back to the gamedoing these podcasts.

(01:00:25):
I think it's tremendous.
So thank you for having me andthank you for what you do with
these podcasts, because I reallyenjoy when I get you know half
hour at my desk, I pull thepodcast up and I'll listen and
it's good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Yes, well, thank you very much, and it's Ryan Lucas,
the 2025 Division I StateChampion for Ollantangy High
School Coach.
Wow, some great stuff that youshared there that I'm sure a lot
of coaches will benefit fromand, you know, really looking
forward to seeing what you doagain next season.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
I appreciate it.
Thanks, Carter.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Special thanks to Ryan Lucas for joining Baseball
Coaches Unplugged.
Today's episode was powered bythe Nettin Professionals
improving programs one facilityat a time.
Contact them today at844-620-2707, or you can visit
them online at wwwnettingproscom.

(01:01:28):
Be sure to check us out nextWednesday for a new episode.
As always, I'm your host, coachKen Carpenter.
And thanks for joining BaseballCoaches Unplugged.