June 4, 2025 • 44 mins
Ever wonder how top high school baseball programs consistently develop winning cultures? Coach Blake Iles of Olathe East High School in Kansas pulls back the curtain on his coaching philosophy that's produced multiple 20+ win seasons and championships.
What makes Iles' approach unique is his genuine commitment to empowering those around him. His assistant coaches don't just stand around during games – they have "full control" over their areas of expertise. This delegation creates a coaching environment where everyone feels valued and players receive specialized instruction from coaches dedicated to their development. As Iles explains, dividing responsibilities allows him to focus on game management while ensuring players get the attention they deserve.
The conversation dives deep into player buy-in, with Iles sharing the remarkable story of transforming his second-best shortstop into a two-time All-State center fielder despite the player never having played outfield before. "That had nothing to do with me," Iles humbly reflects, "it had everything to do with him buying into saying, 'Hey, coach, you see this in me, I want to work hard at it.'" These moments of transformation happen when coaches communicate honestly and players embrace new challenges.
Transparency emerges as a cornerstone of Iles' coaching philosophy. Following advice from his mentor, he practices "brutal honesty" with players and parents alike. When dealing with playing time questions, he cuts through confusion with direct conversations about where players stand. While this approach might seem harsh initially, it creates clarity and trust. Players and parents might not always like what they hear, but they never have to wonder where they stand.
Perhaps most refreshing is Iles' emphasis on making baseball fun again. From blaring music during practices to giving players autonomy in game situations, he creates an environment where hard work and enjoyment coexist. "There's a reason baseball is called a game," he reminds us. "It's a game, it's meant to be fun."
Whether you're coaching high school baseball or leading a youth team, this episode offers practical wisdom for developing a program where players and coaches thrive. Subscribe now and learn how transparent communication, empowered assistants, and fun-focused practices might transform your coaching approach this season.
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.
- Follow: Twitter | Instagram @Athlete1Podcast
- Website - https://www.athlete1.net
- Sponsor: The Netting Professionals
- https://www.nettingpros.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged why you should
give your assistantsdecision-making power during
games, developing a winningculture beyond just wins and
losses and player buy-in.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Three years ago that had never played a lick of
outfield in his entire life.
But the kid could absolutelyfly.
He was the second bestshortstop in my organization but
the best was the same age ashim and he played shortstop and
so he was never going to playshortstop.
I moved out to center field andhe was a two-time all-state
center fielder and again, thathad nothing to do with me, had
everything to do with him buyinginto saying, hey, coach, you
(00:35):
see this in me, I want to workhard at it.
And he took it and ran and hewas awesome with it.
So you know, there's stories onboth sides where you get the
kids that are willing to adaptand do what is best for the team
to help them win, and there'sother ones saying, no, I'm, I'm
a left fielder, I'm a thirdbaseman and I'm not moving off
the third base.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So today the show takes us to Kansas, specifically
Olathe East High School headbaseball coach, blake Isles.
Next on Baseball CoachesUnplugged.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken
Carpenter, presented by AthleteOne.
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.
(01:26):
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
champions productivity andsuccess.
(01:46):
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 (02:02):
Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is
powered by the nettingprofessionals, improving
programs one facility at a time.
The netting pros specialize inthe design, fabrication and
installation of custom nettingfor baseball and softball.
This includes backstops,batting cages, bp turtled
screens, ball carts and more.
We also design and installdigital graphic wall padding,
(02:22):
windscreen, turf, turfprotectors, dugout benches and
cubbies.
The Netting Pros also work withfootball, soccer, lacrosse and
golf courses.
Contact them today at844-620-2707.
That's 844-620-2707.
Or visit them online atwwwnettingproscom.
(02:43):
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, and I need to start
off the show with a huge thankyou to you, the listener, and to
every guest of Baseball CoachesUnplugged.
To you, the listener, and toevery guest of Baseball Coaches
(03:05):
Unplugged.
We've hit 25,000 downloads andwe're excited to keep it rolling
.
If you get a chance, hit thatsubscribe button.
Leave us a review.
It helps us to grow the show.
Now to my guest out of Kansas,blake Iles.
Thanks for taking time to be onBaseball Coaches Unplugged.
(03:27):
I appreciate you having me.
I'm excited.
Well, we talked earlier and yousaid you just wrapped up your
season and for my research youput together another strong
season.
The question I always, like I'minterested in here is what's
your approach to addressing theteam after that last out is made
(03:49):
?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, it's never a conversation that you want to
have and every year going intoit I've tried to prepare
something, to have something tosay.
And I'll be honest with youthis year I didn't prepare
anything.
I was not prepared to lose thatgame.
I told the boys all going intoit we had kind of had an
(04:12):
up-and-down season, notnecessarily from the wins and
losses, but we gave away toomany free bags and we had talked
about free 90s and we talkabout pressure 90s.
We want to steal as manypressure 90s as we can from the
other team and we were givingtoo many of those away.
And that's something that wetrack during the game and after
each one of our games win orloss we would really talk about
(04:32):
guys.
We gave away too many and it'sgoing to come down to at the
very end, it's going to comedown to the minute details.
And the previous year regionalchampionship again, it came down
to a very minute thing.
We uh had a guy that groundedback to the pitcher and the
pitcher fielded it perfectly andstarted running to the mat or
first base and then the balljust simply fell out of his
(04:53):
glove.
So, uh, we talked about littlethings and in in the regional
championship game.
We didn't walk a single player,we didn't make a single error
and my pitcher went a completegame.
If you would have told me atthe beginning of the game, I
would have said we would havewon the game.
I had nothing prepared To makea short answer, real long, for
you.
I just looked at the guys andsaid, guys, I got nothing for
(05:15):
you.
I said I love you.
I don't know what to say.
I said you guys did everythingI asked and we still didn't come
out on top.
But that's the game of baseball, and I don't know what lesson
we just learned, and somedaywe're going to figure out what
lesson we learned, but it was ahard one, right then.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, that's tough when you play a great game and
you know, like you said, that'sbaseball.
It's sometimes the mostfrustrating world when you do
everything right and it stilldoesn't work out for you.
But going into the season thisyear you talked a little bit
about your pitching was probablygoing to be a little bit of a
(05:52):
concern and you know youproduced a 20-plus win season.
Talk about how you got yourpitchers to step up when going
in you thought maybe that wasgoing to be one of our areas
that's going to struggle alittle bit.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, and again, that was a huge testament to them.
And you know, two, three yearsago we had had a little bit
issue where our pitching staffwasn't as strong, and so I went
out and found what I thought tobe a real pitching coach and
Patrick Adkins, one of myassistants, and I kind of just
told him I said, hey, you gotfull autonomy to do whatever you
want and he, he puts together aplan for the guys and has a
(06:32):
workout for them, a mentalityplan for them, and he kind of
just took it and ran and thatwould.
That was a huge part of it.
And ultimately the boys, theboys stepped up and went.
I told him early on in theseason several guys are going to
get opportunities to show whatthey can do.
And we had a kid that freshmanyear start on the freshman team,
sophomore year was on our Cteam, junior year was on JV and
(06:55):
then this year was his onlyopportunity to play varsity and
he stepped up in a huge way forus.
And so again, you're right, itall just kind of fell into place
for us and we had several othertalented arms that didn't get
very many innings and I had tokeep going up to them and saying
guys, I know you want to pitchand I know you want innings, but
trust me, like when we get intothe state tournament and we get
(07:15):
into crunch time, we're goingto need you to come through.
And you know, obviously itdidn't work out that way that we
were able to meet him in thestate tournament.
But you know, yeah, I wish Ihad a better answer for you to
how it, but again, it's just howhard the boys worked in the off
season and and coach Adkins,you know having that daily
routine with the guys, Well, youknow it's a, it's gotta be a
testament to the, to the youngguy that waited his turn.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And then, you know, you always talk about guys who
you know they get frustrated andsometimes say, ah, you know I'm
never going to get my shot andeither become a you know a
player that's a problem, or aplayer that ends up quitting and
he sticks around and he, heends up getting his opportunity
and makes the most of it.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, and, and good for him too.
He's, he's got an opportunity.
He's going to play next year atQuincy university, so he's
going to get the opportunity toplay at the next level.
And again, just a great storyof a kid that continually
improved every year andcontinued to work hard.
And you know, another reasonour pitching was as good as what
it was is because one ourdefense.
(08:19):
We pride ourselves on playinggood, solid defense.
It goes to kind of how weprepare at practice and some of
the routines that we do.
But we told our pitchers if wedon't give free bases, you know,
let your defense work.
We got a pretty solid, you know, seven guys standing behind you
and then, same thing, ouroffense was pretty solid and
when you can put up numbers inthe first couple innings and
(08:40):
jump out to a lead, it takes alot of pressure off of those
guys and they know they can justgo out there and pitch free and
loose and pitch with a lead.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, you know you just mentioned there that you
know some of the routines you dowith your defense.
Could you kind of share alittle bit about as far as what
you guys do defensively, becauseI've always been a believer
that in high school baseball ifyou just make the routine plays
you got a pretty good chance towin a game.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah.
So it's kind of a uniquesituation.
We play on all turf on everyone of our fields that we play
on our turf, but our practicefield is grass and it's not a
good grass infield at all.
Anyway, it's got lips galore.
We really can't even use it fordefensive purposes.
So two years ago, um, I wasfortunate enough to have one of
(09:31):
the booster dads that kind ofcleared a space out there for us
and it's about a 60 by 40 area,and we took the old football
turf when they replaced thefootball field and just kind of
threw it down over the grass andit's got lumps, it's got bumps,
and and we tell our boys if youcan be good fielders on this,
you're going to be good fielderson the real turf.
And so, um, we go up to thatlittle turf area every day and
(09:52):
and and get our work in and andwe always end it with the
perfect something, whether it'sperfect 30, perfect 25, um,
whatever it is and and we haveto be perfect fielding and
throwing, and the boys do areally nice job of holding them
to that standard.
And that took a while to get towhen we first started.
You know we'd get to 17, 18 andthey'd make an error and they'd
get pretty frustrated.
But you know, uh, the guys thathave been part of the program
(10:14):
for long enough know the reason.
We're doing it and we'll get to.
You know, if we're going to 25and we get to 22 and make an
error, they love it, they, theyjump right back in, they say
let's go, let's start back overat one.
There's times where Coach and Iare hitting the fungos and we
probably would have given it tothem because they maybe bobbled
it just a little bit and stillmade the throw and they're like
nope, we've got to start overguys.
(10:35):
So it's the standard that theyhold each other to that we feel
kind of bring us to that leveldefensively.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, was there a time during the season where you
thought these guys are startingto figure it out and I, I
believe at one point you had a14 game winning streak?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, you know, and we had started last year too, I
think 12 and 0 is what westarted last year.
And so you know, we were rankednumber one, two, something like
that last year as well, and andthe boys kind of got caught up
in that a little bit in therankings and kind of started
feeling a little bit too goodabout themselves and then we
went on, I think, a four gamelosing streak last year.
So going into this year, youknow, they said rankings don't
(11:17):
matter, we don't care aboutrankings, and it was all about
what are we going to do, and wetalk about it all year long.
The only team that can beat usis us, and as long as we go out
and play our game.
We felt pretty confident, youknow we were going to be in a
position.
And so this year the boys neverdid.
They never focused on, you know, what that number was or what
the winning streak was.
And even when we lost, theythat it didn't care, because
(11:39):
they knew that wasn't the gamethat mattered.
They wanted to keep buildingtowards something bigger than
that and you know they evenbrought it up a couple of times
Even after wins.
They're like guys the only onesthat can beat us is us, and we
didn't play very well today, andif we do this late in the
season, it's going to cost us.
So they were just a differentgroup in terms of how focused
(11:59):
they were on what their goalswere.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, what does it mean?
To have a winning culture,which that's something that
you've has clearly established,but beyond just wins and losses,
and how do you continue todevelop that?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I mean, I think it kind of goes back to when I
played in high school.
I mean, some of my best friendsto this day are my high school
buddies, and it's just.
I don't remember all the winsand losses, as I'm sure you're
similar to it too.
You remember the times thatyou're with your buddies, and
it's a little different time.
Where we traveled we had to go.
At least an hour was ourclosest, you know road game, and
so we spent tons of time on thebus playing cards and goofing
(12:42):
with each other.
And so I try to just make surethat when we're at practice,
that I not necessarily trickthem, but trick them into making
sure that they have fun.
We have we have music blaringall the time at practice, um,
and it's a good time.
Like we, we make sure thatwe're having fun down there and
and laughing and goofing around.
But they understand that whenit gets a little bit too much
(13:02):
and it's time to work, it's timeto work.
But it's again a testament tothem of that over and over and
of the same routine.
They kind of know what toexpect when we go down to
practice and when practice isover, they hang out, they stay
down there in the dugout theygoof, I mean.
They truly enjoyed being aroundeach other and again, that's
just a testament of them wantingto continue to work and get
(13:27):
better.
I'm fortunate enough to havereally good players as part of
our program that play club levelat the high level and have
aspirations of going on andplaying at the next level, so
they kind of know what it takesand we run our practices a
little bit differently than alot of teams around here.
We practice all four of ourteams.
We have four.
We have a varsity, juniorvarsity, a seed team and a
(13:49):
freshman team and anywhere from55 to 65 guys are a part of our
program in a given year and wepractice all of them together
down at the same field and whatwe call it is Hawk Diamond.
We're the Olathe East Hawks andwe named our field Hawk Diamond
and we practice, all you know,55, 65 of us down there together
and at times it's kind ofchaotic.
(14:12):
But I think it's huge that thefreshmen are practicing right
next to our seniors and theseniors get an opportunity to
lead the freshmen and show themwhat it's like, and then the
freshmen get an opportunity tosee hey, this is what it's going
to take for me to play at thenext level.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
And this is the standard that I got to get to,
so it's been a lot of fun tojust watch them interact with
each other.
I spoke to a coach today on thephone and you know he said that
you know he's an assistantcoach and you know we were just
talking about baseball ingeneral and he said that once
the game starts, he has zeroinput, and I so I thought you
know, why not ask you howimportant are your assistant
(14:49):
coaches to what you do?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And do they have any input during the game?
Yeah, so when I was anassistant kind of same thing,
like I felt like when I was theC team coach and I would come up
to the varsity games, you know,I didn't have that connection
with those kids, and so I'd seesomething and I'd be like, hey,
maybe we should be doing this.
And they're like who's this guy?
Because we didn't have thatday-to-day interaction.
And so I always said I wantedto make sure that my assistants
(15:18):
felt valued as we went throughit.
And so I've been, fortunateenough, eric Harrington and
Murray Drescher, two of myassistants that have been with
me since the beginning.
And Coach Drescher, he has theinfield and, like I said when I,
when I tell him, hey, infield,you guys got the next 30 minutes
.
Sometimes he's up there 40minutes and I don't, I don't
mess with him, so he has fullcontrol of all of the infield.
(15:40):
And then Harrington, he has ouroutfield and, same thing, he
has full control over theoutfield.
And so, yeah, in games I willgive a suggestion and I'll say,
hey, is our left fielder too fardown the line?
And he's like, no, we've talkedabout it, we want them here and
here and here.
So they have full communicationand they come in and they
immediately go to him and theytalk to him when they go through
it, and same thing with ourinfielders.
So we've kind of divided thatup so that way.
(16:04):
You know it's hard I meanyou've, you've been at, you've
done it as a coach when you'retrying to watch every single
position and call pitches andand you know, make sure guys are
positioned correctly and thenstill understand the situations
of the game.
I try to delegate as much ofthat as possible and I've been
fortunate enough to have anawesome assistant staff to help
me out with that.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
This time of the year when seasons come to an end, in
every state, you know,ultimately in each division
there's only going to be onehead coach.
That's really happy.
That's just the nature of thegame.
But I wanted to ask you youknow I kind of wrote this out
just a scenario here when itcomes to the state tournament
(16:51):
and you know you've got 55, 65guys in your program and for the
sake of all right, you're inthe state tournament.
You know maybe you're gettingbeat.
State tournament.
You know maybe you're gettingbeat.
And this is the last time.
These for a lot of your playersin high school that's the last
(17:11):
time they're going to put on auniform.
And I guess you know high schoolcoaches have to handle all
kinds of stuff.
It's crazy, and you know.
And parents can get emotionaland in the back of your mind.
You know I don't know how it isin Kansas, but here in Ohio you
get a one-year contract that'srenewed every year.
(17:33):
So coaches have to sometimesbalance.
You know, all right, if thewrong parent is upset, you know
I might not be here next year,you know.
So, um, what do you do whenyou're in that situation, do you
(17:54):
?
I always kind of treat it as if, hey, it's the tournament.
This is varsity baseball.
Best nine are out there,regardless of grade level.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah yeah, um, it's, it's hard and and even, same
thing, you have that seniorthat's been a part of your
program for four years, who's aphenomenal kid and you and you
wish you could find more time,more innings, more at bats for
it and you just can't be goodbased on the talent level that
you have.
(18:23):
And, um, I've been reallyfortunate.
Same thing, to have a reallysupportive uh administration, uh
, my head principal.
She has never once said I needyou to win x number of games.
Uh, you know she hires me to tobuild young men because, like
you said, very few of them aregoing to get to go on and play
the next level and we all knowthe percentages of who gets to
(18:44):
play division one, who gets toplay professional ball, and it's
, it's very minute, and so youknow, there's the saying that
you, all of them, are going tobecome husbands and fathers and
young men in our society.
So anything that we can teachof those values and and and
baseball is that sport thatteaches those values more than
any sport.
I think that you can, um, but,yeah, it's, it's tough and you
(19:05):
know, like I said, I've neverfelt that I was, I was on the
chopping block or anything likethat.
But one of my coaching mentors,dale Reed, he's kind of
well-known here in the KC Metroarea.
He's run a club team for a longtime called the KC Bullets.
I was fortunate to coach a 16Uteam underneath him for about
six or seven years and you know,he told me one time he said
(19:29):
tell parents exactly the truth,just be truthful with them.
And it seems really obvious.
But he said too many timescoaches kind of sugarcoat things
and they want to tell them whatparents want to hear, even what
the kid wants to hear about man, you're a great player and
you're a great hitter and youknow that's great to hear and it
(19:54):
might, you know, put a Band-Aidon it for there.
But eventually a bandaid hasgot to get ripped off.
And so he, he gave me thatadvice and I've kind of been
brutally honest with kids righton the bat.
I tell some of these seniors,you might not play a single
inning, are you okay if youdon't play a single inning this
year?
And you know they all come insaying, oh, absolutely, I'm fine
and I'm going to.
They stop and ask again.
I said, are you really okaywith that?
And so I've tried to be asbrutally honest with with
parents and with with players,and and honestly, I feel that's
(20:21):
helped because it's eliminatedsome of those conversations at
the end.
And it's come up every now andthen hey coach, why am I not
getting more?
And it's a simple question of,well, who are you better than?
Are you better than so-and well, no, are you better than so?
And so no, that's why you'renot playing and it.
It sounds rude, but it it's.
It's what the kid needs to hear, not what the kid wants to hear
sometimes, and it's it's.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
It's a learning lesson that we try to go through
and, like you said, you knowwhen they walk away from high
school, whether they go off tocollege or or just go straight
into the working world, the, theboss, ain't going to be
sugarcoating things.
You know you get the job doneor the next guy.
You know it's how it is andthat's part of life, I guess,
(21:00):
and you know.
But but then then you know Ifeel bad for because there's a
lot of really a lot of reallyreally good coaches who lose
their job just because mom ordad aren't happy.
And you know I you almost feellike, well, the AD, you know,
(21:27):
remove the coach, or do I wantto continue to deal with this?
And then it becomes a biggerissue for me.
So it's a tough situation to bein.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, and I think part of that is that
transparency.
I mean the more transparentthat you can be in your program.
And I tell parents all the timeI welcome them down to my
practice.
If you want to come watchpractice, come watch practice.
And you know very few do.
Sometimes they do, but you knowI feel I have a pretty good
relationship with a lot of theparents in the program and you
know we go to booster events andwe have a booster golf
(21:54):
tournament and you know, uh, Ifeel having those conversations
with those parents over therekind of hopefully eliminated.
But yeah, ultimately there's,there's always going to be, you
know, one or two.
It's that rule of 33, 30% ofthe people that are going to
love you, 33% going to hate you,and then there's that 33 in the
middle that you don't knowwhere they're at.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
So, yeah, well, you know, you mentioned earlier
there that, uh, here in ohiothey talk travel baseball.
You called it club.
I don't know if it's travelclub, whatever it may be, but uh
, what are?
What's your advice on tellingyour players all right, hey,
you're going to go play for thisteam.
(22:34):
You know, as a high schoolcoach, it's almost like wow, you
know, don't get caught up wherethey're pitching you too much,
or you're on that team andyou're going to play outfield.
But the high school level,you're going to be my third
baseman or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
The high school level you're going to you're going to
be my, my third basement orwhatever it may be.
Yeah, um, so in Kansas and Idon't know when you're allowed
to have contact with them wedon't get to do anything
baseball related with our kidsuntil the first week of March.
So we can do off seasonworkouts but there can't be a
ball, a bat, a glove, nothing wecan.
(23:13):
You know, we can weight liftand that's about it.
So we have to put a lot oftrust into the clubs and the
travel ball that are around forthe boys to get to work in, and
I've tried to build thatrelationship.
I have a really goodrelationship with most of the
clubs kind of here in KansasCity, most of the travel ball
organizations, because, again,they get to work with them nine
months out of the year and I getthree months out of the year.
So you know if we're trying tocompete against each other it's
(23:37):
going to be real difficult.
And so you know there's quite afew of the club owners that
they'll talk him and I will talkquite often, and you know one
of them in particular.
He always kind of gives me arundown of his players.
I hear the players that arecoming in here are the strengths
that I think they have.
Here's where I think they canplay and he's never pushy about
it.
You know, he's just kind ofgiven it to me for my
(23:58):
information to do it as I please.
But yeah, I think just havingthat open communication is huge,
and I do.
At my first parent meeting youbrought up, you know, I got you
playing third base but you playleft field for your travel ball
team.
You know I put up a graphic atthe beginning of the year.
I asked the kids you know whattravel ball organization they
play for?
And then I put it all on onescreen on a PowerPoint, and I
(24:21):
show parents like guys, I got 42clubs or 42 travel ball
organizations here and I got 26shortstops.
I need four.
Like so you know kindorganizations here and I got 26
shortstops, I need four.
So kind of letting parents knowthe goal is to get on the field
and if you want to get on thefield, then maybe having that
ability to do so because younever know what you're going to
be in college as well it worksfor some, it doesn't for others.
(24:43):
There's been some kids I'vetried to move to the outfield
because of their athleticism andthey haven't really bought into
it and it didn't really workout for them.
And on the flip side, I had akid three years ago that had
never played a lick of outfieldin his entire life, but the kid
could absolutely fly.
He was the second bestshortstop in my organization but
the best was the same age ashim and he played shortstop and
(25:04):
so he was never going to playshortstop.
I moved him down to centerfield and he was a two-time
All-State center fielder andagain, that had nothing to do
with me.
It had everything to do withhim buying into, saying, hey,
coach, you see this in me, Iwant to work hard at it.
And he took it and ran and hewas awesome with it.
So you know, there's stories onboth sides where you get the
kids that are willing to adaptand do what is best for the team
(25:25):
to help them win.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
And there's other ones saying, no, I'm, I'm a left
fielder, I'm a third basemanand I'm not moving off the third
base.
So, yeah, yeah, it's a tough tojuggle with, for sure.
Well, you talked uh earlierabout before we we started
recording about your experiencewith the kansas city royals.
If you could just uh for theaudience, talk a little bit what
what you did with them and anduh how that impacted you as a
coach.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, so when Dayton Moore was the manager here for
Kansas city, um, his, his sonwas a really nice player he's
actually playing in the minorleague organization now but, um,
he kind of created what theycalled the Royal scout team and
they would create, um 17, 16, 15year old kind of travel ball
teams and they would go down toAtlanta 15-year-old kind of
travel ball teams and they wouldgo down to Atlanta and to some
(26:13):
of these bigger tournaments andtry to get what we think was
kind of the best of the best inthe KC Metro and KC area to kind
of go compete with these teams.
And the Royals kind of used itas an opportunity to see what
other high school players areout there and we have an
opportunity to go to these, youknow, tournaments and see and
things like that.
And plus, we got to see whatkind of players or the Royals
(26:37):
got to see what kind of playerswe had here in the KC Metro.
And it was crazy.
I got an email from the Royalssaying we'd like you to come
coach for us.
And it was surreal I've been aRoyals fan my entire life and to
get that email saying that theywanted me to come help them.
I had to pinch myself.
And so for four years I got theopportunity to kind of go
(26:59):
around with the 17U scout teamand just kind of manage my own
or not my own manage the travelball scene and go down to
Atlanta and go to some of thesebigger tournaments and play
against some of the best of thebest.
And you know, it was surreal,it was really really cool to see
some of those athletes.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yes, definitely you know based on your experience as
a head coach.
You know both as a club-levelcoach and you know for your high
school experience.
Someone is going to be takingover a program.
Tell me one thing a coach mustdo and one thing you would say
(27:40):
whatever you do, do not do this.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I mean I think the must is you got to meet the kids
where they're at.
You got to make it fun.
I mean there's a reasonbaseball is called a game.
It's a game, it's meant to befun.
If you let it beat you up,it'll tear you apart.
I mean I'm still not over ourloss from two weeks ago of the
regionals.
But it's funny.
(28:09):
You had mentioned earlier thatyou know only one coach gets to
be crowned champion or be happyat the end of the season and our
state tournament's going onright now and so I'm kind of
following it through GameChanger and things like that.
This afternoon and my assistantsends me a text and said only
one coach doesn't have to feelwhat we're feeling right now.
(28:48):
So you know we're down becausewe lost in the regionals, but
them losing at state, they'rejust as bummed.
And so you know, kind of keepingit in perspective, right, tried
to be everywhere.
I tried to be at every JV game,be at every C team, be at every
freshman game and really, youknow, be involved with every kid
.
And I wasn't doing my ownvarsity, as you know.
I was doing them a disserviceand luckily I had a good enough
(29:09):
relationship with a couple ofkids and actually my center
fielder Parker Esparza was thekid's name he came up to me and
he's like, coach, you're notgiving us enough time, like, I
understand what you're doing,you're trying to run a program,
but we need you, we need you tobe part of us.
And you know, I think the factthat he had that relationship
with me and he felt comfortableto tell me that, you know it was
a huge eye opener for me.
(29:30):
And so you know, be where youare, be at the team that you are
, don't always look for thatnext step, and you know that's
the importance of having that,that coaching staff around you.
I, I am fortunate enough I I'msure a lot of coaches say it,
but I think I have the bestassistant coaching staff there
is.
I, I can be gone and I trustthat things are going to be ran
smooth.
(29:50):
And you know, part of that isbecause they have that freedom
to do what they want to at anormal practice.
So when I'm gone, reallynothing's that much different.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I hate losing or love winning, and why.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Oh, I hate losing more.
I am, I am, and I tell my kidsthis all the time.
I am such a poor sport.
If we play paper rock scissors,I'm going to try to beat you at
it.
If we're going to shake hands,I'm going to try to shake hands
harder than you.
I absolutely cannot standlosing and my own kids know that
.
My son's a seventh grader nowand he just beat me in pig, I
think about two months ago, andhe got so excited because it was
(30:26):
the first time he'd ever beatme and he knew he actually beat
me, because I don't even let myown kid win.
But don't get me wrong, I lovewinning, but man, I hate losing
and I'll stay within theparameters of the game, but man,
I will do almost anything towin.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Runner on first base.
One out tie game bottom of theseventh.
What signal are you giving thebatter?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Well, I kind of went away with giving signals two or
three years ago and we havedifferent cues that we want to
use.
And I'm not a guy that standsover in the third base box and
does a bunch of stuff, becauseyou know kids will miss that
stuff.
And you tell a kid to steal andhe gets a bad jump, and then
you know kids will miss thatstuff and and and you tell a kid
to steal and he gets a bad jumpand then he gets thrown out and
(31:14):
then I'm mad.
So, uh, I've kind of went awayfrom all that and we go from
different reads and things likethat.
So, um, the sign that I'm givenis have fun and breathe.
Uh, I tell my kids that a lot.
We do a lot of visual training.
We talk about the mental aspectof it.
We do what we call sunny days.
It's not a new thing, I didn'tcome up with it, but you know we
(31:35):
start every practice, everygame with sunny days where we
visualize positives happening.
We visualize negatives happenand and and hopefully, what
they're visualized is that rightthere.
And you know cool story aboutit.
I had a kid last year in theregional semifinal game.
He's playing left field and flyball goes out to him, a kid
tags up and goes home and heguns him at the plate Not the
(31:58):
best arm that we have on theteam, but just makes a really
nice play and throws the kid out.
And he comes in after the gameand he said, coach, this is what
I visualized before the game.
He's like during, during sunnydays, I visualized throwing a
dude out, so it was really coolto see you know how proud he was
of, like man, this, this reallydoes work.
This I you know.
I saw this coming into fruition.
(32:19):
So again, a really short answerthat you asked me.
That I made really long.
I'd probably just tell the kidsswing, have fun and stay simple
well, I, I guess, I.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Well, I guess I got to ask.
I mean, how would you do asqueeze play then?
Speaker 2 (32:35):
So we do have a couple signs.
I do have signs, so I do havesteel signs that I will put on.
We do go through signs and Ihave some.
But kids know they got thegreen light all the time and we
talk about different numbers ofwhen they have green light,
yellow light or red light.
Um, but yeah, we will haveprobably talked about that prior
(32:57):
to the inning.
If it's in that seventh inningsaying, hey, if this happens,
then we're going to do this andthen we're going to do this.
But, um, yeah, I, uh, we have afew signs.
We didn't do a lot of squeezeplays.
We had probably 12 bunt singlesthis year and I don't know if I
called a single one of those,other than the kid looked at me
and I gave him a little winkbecause we saw the third baseman
(33:18):
back Again.
It's cool because it puts theownership on them and they think
, hey, I'm going to bunt ratherthan coaches making me bunt.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I like that.
That makes sense because a lotof times you can give a bunt
saying no and the kid is like,oh man, I don't want to bunt,
and then they give you ahalf-hearted attempt and you're
like I got to let him swing nowbecause he doesn't want to do
this.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah well, and earlier this year I mean, I had
a kid.
We had runners at first andsecond and it was a close game.
I don't know if it was tied orwe were down one or something.
But one of my faster kids wasup and he's a really good bunter
, and I went up to him and Isaid, hey, what do you think
about bunting right here?
And he's like, ah, this guy,and he was kind of a little
(34:06):
funky three-quarter sidearmpitcher and he putting that
ownership back on him.
And I asked him I said, do youwant a bun?
He's like I'd rather hit here.
And so I said, go for it.
And he battled and battled andfouled three or four off and
then ended up slapping one overthe short stop heads.
That scored the run.
And again, just just a reallycool moment that he felt
comfortable enough to say, coach, I don't want a bun, or I don't
feel comfortable bunting withthis arm slot that I got here.
(34:28):
And so really cool opportunityfor that kid.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Well, if you could take over one college baseball
program, which one would youtake over?
Vanderbilt, Tennessee or Texas,Texas?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Oh I don't know I think going to a Tennessee or
what's that.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Or you could insert your your team that you would
want to coach.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Um, with the, with the landscape of college
baseball right now and the wholeportal and everything like that
, I don't know if I'd want tocoach college.
Um, man, I, I love where I'm at, you know I I know that's a
cop-out answer Um, I don't thinkI'd want to be a college coach.
I love the high school game.
I love being able to still kindof, you know, make that impact
(35:18):
on the kids and seeing them inthe hallway every day.
I'm a high school math teacherand you know.
So getting to see the kids inthe hallway every day and then
get to see them out in theplaying field, I just think
there's a huge benefit of that.
So I'm going to take thecop-out easy answer and say I'm
going to stay at the high schoolranks, okay.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Well, obviously I would think you follow college
baseball.
Who do you think is going towin the College World Series?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Oh, man, I don't know .
It's been fun to watch the, theacc, the sec tournament and
heck even flipping over to big10 tournament and watching some
of those guys.
Um, I'm a, I'm a kansas fan.
Kansas is playing pretty wellright now.
Um, you know, it's still cool.
Some of the kids that I hadfrom from when I coached with
the royal scout.
They're kind of scattered allover the SEC and so there's a
(36:08):
couple down at Arkansas, onedown in Tennessee.
So you know, again I'm pullingfor KU.
But man, I don't know.
Vanderbilt's pretty tough.
They look really good in theirchampionship series.
I'm probably going to have togo with Vanderbilt.
Yeah, if I were to pick asurprise team to win it all, I
(36:34):
would say west virginia.
I mean they, they had a realnice season and well, and you
could say that.
But but kansas ended the seasonwith a 3-0 sweep of west
virginia and only didn't win thebig 12 because of a one-game
series that got rained out.
So little plug for my jayhawksthere that they should have won
the big 12, but um jay oxplaying pretty well right now
too yeah, well, I guess I'm westvirginia fan.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I had coach randy maizey on and uh and uh, my wife
graduated from wvu, so I gottakind of play it safe all right,
I'll give you fair enough.
Yeah, well, let me ask you thisthe can you share an
unbelievable or funny story fromall your years of coaching?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
An unbelievable is I lost a game.
So this was before you couldintentionally walk people just
by saying put them on.
But we lost the regionalchampionship my junior year of
high school because we tried toput a guy on and we weren't able
to throw four balls to thecatcher and just play catch.
So that was a prettyheartbreaking one.
That's not real funny, but thatone still kind of hurts on that
(37:39):
aspect of it.
But no, I mean I can't think ofany one particular story.
Just I guess my first year ofbeing a head coach.
You know everyone says enjoy it, enjoy it, enjoy it.
And it's real hard when youkind of get wrapped up in it.
And we were playing a reallygood Shawnee Mission East team
(38:02):
and actually Dayton Moore's son,robert Moore, was playing on
that team and they were a reallytalented group and they
probably should have won thegame.
It was about the fifth inningand we were in the first base
dugout and so I'm having to runover the third base dugout every
time.
Again, I'm just so wrapped upin the game.
About in the fifth inning I kindof stopped and we were up, I
(38:22):
think, 4-1 at that point, kindof to the point where I was like
, you know, we might actuallywin this game and get to go to
the state tournament.
And I just kind of stopped andlooked up in the stands and just
saw how many people were thereand really enjoyed, you know,
kind of took all in that moment.
And so you know, I guess to anyyoung coach or veteran coach
just it's hard but to stop andreally enjoy the environment
(38:45):
that you're in because you knowwe're we're lucky to get what to
do, what we get to do every day.
And, um, you know, I I tellpeople all the time I don't do
much, I just have a front rowseat in the third base box.
You know it's, it's just ablast to be around the kids,
just to try to enjoy as much ofit as you can.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah, I, I was speaking to somebody the other
day and they we were talkingabout things that you just never
thought you would see inbaseball.
And I end up realizing that myfirst year as a head coach.
We played the team.
I believe they went on to winthe state that year but we lost
(39:23):
to them on a pitch that we threw, that hit home plate and
bounced over the backstop andthe plate was.
You know, I swear the plate wasway above where it should have
been.
And then my final year as a headcoach, we're playing one of the
good teams here in Central Ohioand it ends up they got the
(39:44):
two-time player of the year forDivision I and bases loaded
bottom of the seventh 3-2 countand he hits a moonshot foul ball
at Ohio Dominican Universityand first base comes over.
(40:04):
Catcher comes over.
Pitcher comes running over.
We're all in the dugout.
I look over and one coach.
He's trying to get out of theway.
He falls over.
Everybody's getting back.
We've got a first base and he'sabout 6'3".
He reaches over the dugout,fencing there in front.
(40:24):
I'm like we're going to winthis game.
I'm like, wow, he reaches overand a player on our bench had
his glove on, reaches up andknocks it out of his hand.
You know, and then I'm like westill have to get out there and
throw another pitch and geteverybody you know settled down.
(40:50):
He goes back out.
Next pitch base hit, we lose.
That's how my career ends,right there.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yeah, I think every year something happens.
And again now I'm coaching myson's 12-year-old team and you
know, you see some crazy stuffthere too.
But you know, know, this gameis an awesome game but it's a
terrible game.
Every year there is somethingthat you see that you're like
man, I've never seen that happenin this game and, um, that's
(41:19):
the the joy of it, that's thethe excitement of it, but uh,
it's the frustrating part aboutit as well.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Well, I actually had a game where I helped out a
friend of mine when my son wasplaying college and I was just a
volunteer, so I would help himout.
And we had Dave Malecki whopitched 10 years in the big
leagues.
We had Mike Lockwood who wonhis highest AAA.
(41:46):
I mean, our coaching staff wasjust incredible, you know, and
there were times during theseason where we would look at
each other.
Here's Dave Malicki, who's seeneverything in Major League
Baseball and he's like I'venever seen that happen before.
That's what makes baseballgreat, I guess, you know, and
(42:08):
the stories and the coaches thatget together.
And to me that's the best partabout baseball, I think, is what
players and coaches rememberfrom the games and, like you
said earlier, not so much thescore but something that may
have happened on the bus or in apractice in the middle of the
(42:29):
winter, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Yeah, oh for sure.
All my high school buddies.
We would hang out at my onebuddy's house in the basement
all the time.
This was back when Nintendo wasstill a thing, but we'd sit
there and play RBI baseball onthe Nintendo and play Euchre.
I mean, I never knew how toplay Euchre until I was around
all my baseball buddies and wewould just sit there and play
cards nonstop with them.
(42:53):
You know, those are thememories that you hope we can
instill in the kids that wecoach and you know, hopefully
they can, you know, when they'relarge, talk about memories that
we were able to have with themas well.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Well, it's Blake Howells and I want to make sure
I'm saying it right Olathe highschool in Kansas, coach, great
stuff.
And uh, you know really gladyou took the time out of your
day to to jump on the podcastwith me here and uh, you know,
enjoy your summer and uh and I'msure good things are going to
(43:31):
happen again for you next year.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
I appreciate you having me on Ken.
It was a lot of fun and, yeah,I appreciate it, and hopefully
our paths cross again for sure.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Special thanks to Blake Giles.
Baseball Coach is Unplugged.
Is proud to be partnered withthe netting professionals,
improving programs one facilityat a time.
Contact them today at844-620-2707, or visit them
online at wwwnettingproscom.
Be sure to tune in everyWednesday where we sit down with
(44:02):
some of the best coaches at thehigh school, college and
professional level from acrossthe country.
As always, I'm your host Coach,Ken Carpenter.
Thanks for listening toBaseball Coaches Unplugged.
Thank you.
Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged why you should
give your assistantsdecision-making power during
games, developing a winningculture beyond just wins and
losses and player buy-in.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Three years ago that had never played a lick of
outfield in his entire life.
But the kid could absolutelyfly.
He was the second bestshortstop in my organization but
the best was the same age ashim and he played shortstop and
so he was never going to playshortstop.
I moved out to center field andhe was a two-time all-state
center fielder and again, thathad nothing to do with me, had
everything to do with him buyinginto saying, hey, coach, you
(00:35):
see this in me, I want to workhard at it.
And he took it and ran and hewas awesome with it.
So you know, there's stories onboth sides where you get the
kids that are willing to adaptand do what is best for the team
to help them win, and there'sother ones saying, no, I'm, I'm
a left fielder, I'm a thirdbaseman and I'm not moving off
the third base.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So today the show takes us to Kansas, specifically
Olathe East High School headbaseball coach, blake Isles.
Next on Baseball CoachesUnplugged.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken
Carpenter, presented by AthleteOne.
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.
(01:26):
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
champions productivity andsuccess.
(01:46):
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 (02:02):
Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is
powered by the nettingprofessionals, improving
programs one facility at a time.
The netting pros specialize inthe design, fabrication and
installation of custom nettingfor baseball and softball.
This includes backstops,batting cages, bp turtled
screens, ball carts and more.
We also design and installdigital graphic wall padding,
(02:22):
windscreen, turf, turfprotectors, dugout benches and
cubbies.
The Netting Pros also work withfootball, soccer, lacrosse and
golf courses.
Contact them today at844-620-2707.
That's 844-620-2707.
Or visit them online atwwwnettingproscom.
(02:43):
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, and I need to start
off the show with a huge thankyou to you, the listener, and to
every guest of Baseball CoachesUnplugged.
To you, the listener, and toevery guest of Baseball Coaches
(03:05):
Unplugged.
We've hit 25,000 downloads andwe're excited to keep it rolling
.
If you get a chance, hit thatsubscribe button.
Leave us a review.
It helps us to grow the show.
Now to my guest out of Kansas,blake Iles.
Thanks for taking time to be onBaseball Coaches Unplugged.
(03:27):
I appreciate you having me.
I'm excited.
Well, we talked earlier and yousaid you just wrapped up your
season and for my research youput together another strong
season.
The question I always, like I'minterested in here is what's
your approach to addressing theteam after that last out is made
(03:49):
?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, it's never a conversation that you want to
have and every year going intoit I've tried to prepare
something, to have something tosay.
And I'll be honest with youthis year I didn't prepare
anything.
I was not prepared to lose thatgame.
I told the boys all going intoit we had kind of had an
(04:12):
up-and-down season, notnecessarily from the wins and
losses, but we gave away toomany free bags and we had talked
about free 90s and we talkabout pressure 90s.
We want to steal as manypressure 90s as we can from the
other team and we were givingtoo many of those away.
And that's something that wetrack during the game and after
each one of our games win orloss we would really talk about
(04:32):
guys.
We gave away too many and it'sgoing to come down to at the
very end, it's going to comedown to the minute details.
And the previous year regionalchampionship again, it came down
to a very minute thing.
We uh had a guy that groundedback to the pitcher and the
pitcher fielded it perfectly andstarted running to the mat or
first base and then the balljust simply fell out of his
(04:53):
glove.
So, uh, we talked about littlethings and in in the regional
championship game.
We didn't walk a single player,we didn't make a single error
and my pitcher went a completegame.
If you would have told me atthe beginning of the game, I
would have said we would havewon the game.
I had nothing prepared To makea short answer, real long, for
you.
I just looked at the guys andsaid, guys, I got nothing for
(05:15):
you.
I said I love you.
I don't know what to say.
I said you guys did everythingI asked and we still didn't come
out on top.
But that's the game of baseball, and I don't know what lesson
we just learned, and somedaywe're going to figure out what
lesson we learned, but it was ahard one, right then.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, that's tough when you play a great game and
you know, like you said, that'sbaseball.
It's sometimes the mostfrustrating world when you do
everything right and it stilldoesn't work out for you.
But going into the season thisyear you talked a little bit
about your pitching was probablygoing to be a little bit of a
(05:52):
concern and you know youproduced a 20-plus win season.
Talk about how you got yourpitchers to step up when going
in you thought maybe that wasgoing to be one of our areas
that's going to struggle alittle bit.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, and again, that was a huge testament to them.
And you know, two, three yearsago we had had a little bit
issue where our pitching staffwasn't as strong, and so I went
out and found what I thought tobe a real pitching coach and
Patrick Adkins, one of myassistants, and I kind of just
told him I said, hey, you gotfull autonomy to do whatever you
want and he, he puts together aplan for the guys and has a
(06:32):
workout for them, a mentalityplan for them, and he kind of
just took it and ran and thatwould.
That was a huge part of it.
And ultimately the boys, theboys stepped up and went.
I told him early on in theseason several guys are going to
get opportunities to show whatthey can do.
And we had a kid that freshmanyear start on the freshman team,
sophomore year was on our Cteam, junior year was on JV and
(06:55):
then this year was his onlyopportunity to play varsity and
he stepped up in a huge way forus.
And so again, you're right, itall just kind of fell into place
for us and we had several othertalented arms that didn't get
very many innings and I had tokeep going up to them and saying
guys, I know you want to pitchand I know you want innings, but
trust me, like when we get intothe state tournament and we get
(07:15):
into crunch time, we're goingto need you to come through.
And you know, obviously itdidn't work out that way that we
were able to meet him in thestate tournament.
But you know, yeah, I wish Ihad a better answer for you to
how it, but again, it's just howhard the boys worked in the off
season and and coach Adkins,you know having that daily
routine with the guys, Well, youknow it's a, it's gotta be a
testament to the, to the youngguy that waited his turn.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And then, you know, you always talk about guys who
you know they get frustrated andsometimes say, ah, you know I'm
never going to get my shot andeither become a you know a
player that's a problem, or aplayer that ends up quitting and
he sticks around and he, heends up getting his opportunity
and makes the most of it.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, and, and good for him too.
He's, he's got an opportunity.
He's going to play next year atQuincy university, so he's
going to get the opportunity toplay at the next level.
And again, just a great storyof a kid that continually
improved every year andcontinued to work hard.
And you know, another reasonour pitching was as good as what
it was is because one ourdefense.
(08:19):
We pride ourselves on playinggood, solid defense.
It goes to kind of how weprepare at practice and some of
the routines that we do.
But we told our pitchers if wedon't give free bases, you know,
let your defense work.
We got a pretty solid, you know, seven guys standing behind you
and then, same thing, ouroffense was pretty solid and
when you can put up numbers inthe first couple innings and
(08:40):
jump out to a lead, it takes alot of pressure off of those
guys and they know they can justgo out there and pitch free and
loose and pitch with a lead.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, you know you just mentioned there that you
know some of the routines you dowith your defense.
Could you kind of share alittle bit about as far as what
you guys do defensively, becauseI've always been a believer
that in high school baseball ifyou just make the routine plays
you got a pretty good chance towin a game.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah.
So it's kind of a uniquesituation.
We play on all turf on everyone of our fields that we play
on our turf, but our practicefield is grass and it's not a
good grass infield at all.
Anyway, it's got lips galore.
We really can't even use it fordefensive purposes.
So two years ago, um, I wasfortunate enough to have one of
(09:31):
the booster dads that kind ofcleared a space out there for us
and it's about a 60 by 40 area,and we took the old football
turf when they replaced thefootball field and just kind of
threw it down over the grass andit's got lumps, it's got bumps,
and and we tell our boys if youcan be good fielders on this,
you're going to be good fielderson the real turf.
And so, um, we go up to thatlittle turf area every day and
(09:52):
and and get our work in and andwe always end it with the
perfect something, whether it'sperfect 30, perfect 25, um,
whatever it is and and we haveto be perfect fielding and
throwing, and the boys do areally nice job of holding them
to that standard.
And that took a while to get towhen we first started.
You know we'd get to 17, 18 andthey'd make an error and they'd
get pretty frustrated.
But you know, uh, the guys thathave been part of the program
(10:14):
for long enough know the reason.
We're doing it and we'll get to.
You know, if we're going to 25and we get to 22 and make an
error, they love it, they, theyjump right back in, they say
let's go, let's start back overat one.
There's times where Coach and Iare hitting the fungos and we
probably would have given it tothem because they maybe bobbled
it just a little bit and stillmade the throw and they're like
nope, we've got to start overguys.
(10:35):
So it's the standard that theyhold each other to that we feel
kind of bring us to that leveldefensively.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, was there a time during the season where you
thought these guys are startingto figure it out and I, I
believe at one point you had a14 game winning streak?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, you know, and we had started last year too, I
think 12 and 0 is what westarted last year.
And so you know, we were rankednumber one, two, something like
that last year as well, and andthe boys kind of got caught up
in that a little bit in therankings and kind of started
feeling a little bit too goodabout themselves and then we
went on, I think, a four gamelosing streak last year.
So going into this year, youknow, they said rankings don't
(11:17):
matter, we don't care aboutrankings, and it was all about
what are we going to do, and wetalk about it all year long.
The only team that can beat usis us, and as long as we go out
and play our game.
We felt pretty confident, youknow we were going to be in a
position.
And so this year the boys neverdid.
They never focused on, you know, what that number was or what
the winning streak was.
And even when we lost, theythat it didn't care, because
(11:39):
they knew that wasn't the gamethat mattered.
They wanted to keep buildingtowards something bigger than
that and you know they evenbrought it up a couple of times
Even after wins.
They're like guys the only onesthat can beat us is us, and we
didn't play very well today, andif we do this late in the
season, it's going to cost us.
So they were just a differentgroup in terms of how focused
(11:59):
they were on what their goalswere.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, what does it mean?
To have a winning culture,which that's something that
you've has clearly established,but beyond just wins and losses,
and how do you continue todevelop that?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I mean, I think it kind of goes back to when I
played in high school.
I mean, some of my best friendsto this day are my high school
buddies, and it's just.
I don't remember all the winsand losses, as I'm sure you're
similar to it too.
You remember the times thatyou're with your buddies, and
it's a little different time.
Where we traveled we had to go.
At least an hour was ourclosest, you know road game, and
so we spent tons of time on thebus playing cards and goofing
(12:42):
with each other.
And so I try to just make surethat when we're at practice,
that I not necessarily trickthem, but trick them into making
sure that they have fun.
We have we have music blaringall the time at practice, um,
and it's a good time.
Like we, we make sure thatwe're having fun down there and
and laughing and goofing around.
But they understand that whenit gets a little bit too much
(13:02):
and it's time to work, it's timeto work.
But it's again a testament tothem of that over and over and
of the same routine.
They kind of know what toexpect when we go down to
practice and when practice isover, they hang out, they stay
down there in the dugout theygoof, I mean.
They truly enjoyed being aroundeach other and again, that's
just a testament of them wantingto continue to work and get
(13:27):
better.
I'm fortunate enough to havereally good players as part of
our program that play club levelat the high level and have
aspirations of going on andplaying at the next level, so
they kind of know what it takesand we run our practices a
little bit differently than alot of teams around here.
We practice all four of ourteams.
We have four.
We have a varsity, juniorvarsity, a seed team and a
(13:49):
freshman team and anywhere from55 to 65 guys are a part of our
program in a given year and wepractice all of them together
down at the same field and whatwe call it is Hawk Diamond.
We're the Olathe East Hawks andwe named our field Hawk Diamond
and we practice, all you know,55, 65 of us down there together
and at times it's kind ofchaotic.
(14:12):
But I think it's huge that thefreshmen are practicing right
next to our seniors and theseniors get an opportunity to
lead the freshmen and show themwhat it's like, and then the
freshmen get an opportunity tosee hey, this is what it's going
to take for me to play at thenext level.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
And this is the standard that I got to get to,
so it's been a lot of fun tojust watch them interact with
each other.
I spoke to a coach today on thephone and you know he said that
you know he's an assistantcoach and you know we were just
talking about baseball ingeneral and he said that once
the game starts, he has zeroinput, and I so I thought you
know, why not ask you howimportant are your assistant
(14:49):
coaches to what you do?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And do they have any input during the game?
Yeah, so when I was anassistant kind of same thing,
like I felt like when I was theC team coach and I would come up
to the varsity games, you know,I didn't have that connection
with those kids, and so I'd seesomething and I'd be like, hey,
maybe we should be doing this.
And they're like who's this guy?
Because we didn't have thatday-to-day interaction.
And so I always said I wantedto make sure that my assistants
(15:18):
felt valued as we went throughit.
And so I've been, fortunateenough, eric Harrington and
Murray Drescher, two of myassistants that have been with
me since the beginning.
And Coach Drescher, he has theinfield and, like I said when I,
when I tell him, hey, infield,you guys got the next 30 minutes
.
Sometimes he's up there 40minutes and I don't, I don't
mess with him, so he has fullcontrol of all of the infield.
(15:40):
And then Harrington, he has ouroutfield and, same thing, he
has full control over theoutfield.
And so, yeah, in games I willgive a suggestion and I'll say,
hey, is our left fielder too fardown the line?
And he's like, no, we've talkedabout it, we want them here and
here and here.
So they have full communicationand they come in and they
immediately go to him and theytalk to him when they go through
it, and same thing with ourinfielders.
So we've kind of divided thatup so that way.
(16:04):
You know it's hard I meanyou've, you've been at, you've
done it as a coach when you'retrying to watch every single
position and call pitches andand you know, make sure guys are
positioned correctly and thenstill understand the situations
of the game.
I try to delegate as much ofthat as possible and I've been
fortunate enough to have anawesome assistant staff to help
me out with that.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
This time of the year when seasons come to an end, in
every state, you know,ultimately in each division
there's only going to be onehead coach.
That's really happy.
That's just the nature of thegame.
But I wanted to ask you youknow I kind of wrote this out
just a scenario here when itcomes to the state tournament
(16:51):
and you know you've got 55, 65guys in your program and for the
sake of all right, you're inthe state tournament.
You know maybe you're gettingbeat.
State tournament.
You know maybe you're gettingbeat.
And this is the last time.
These for a lot of your playersin high school that's the last
(17:11):
time they're going to put on auniform.
And I guess you know high schoolcoaches have to handle all
kinds of stuff.
It's crazy, and you know.
And parents can get emotionaland in the back of your mind.
You know I don't know how it isin Kansas, but here in Ohio you
get a one-year contract that'srenewed every year.
(17:33):
So coaches have to sometimesbalance.
You know, all right, if thewrong parent is upset, you know
I might not be here next year,you know.
So, um, what do you do whenyou're in that situation, do you
(17:54):
?
I always kind of treat it as if, hey, it's the tournament.
This is varsity baseball.
Best nine are out there,regardless of grade level.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah yeah, um, it's, it's hard and and even, same
thing, you have that seniorthat's been a part of your
program for four years, who's aphenomenal kid and you and you
wish you could find more time,more innings, more at bats for
it and you just can't be goodbased on the talent level that
you have.
(18:23):
And, um, I've been reallyfortunate.
Same thing, to have a reallysupportive uh administration, uh
, my head principal.
She has never once said I needyou to win x number of games.
Uh, you know she hires me to tobuild young men because, like
you said, very few of them aregoing to get to go on and play
the next level and we all knowthe percentages of who gets to
(18:44):
play division one, who gets toplay professional ball, and it's
, it's very minute, and so youknow, there's the saying that
you, all of them, are going tobecome husbands and fathers and
young men in our society.
So anything that we can teachof those values and and and
baseball is that sport thatteaches those values more than
any sport.
I think that you can, um, but,yeah, it's, it's tough and you
(19:05):
know, like I said, I've neverfelt that I was, I was on the
chopping block or anything likethat.
But one of my coaching mentors,dale Reed, he's kind of
well-known here in the KC Metroarea.
He's run a club team for a longtime called the KC Bullets.
I was fortunate to coach a 16Uteam underneath him for about
six or seven years and you know,he told me one time he said
(19:29):
tell parents exactly the truth,just be truthful with them.
And it seems really obvious.
But he said too many timescoaches kind of sugarcoat things
and they want to tell them whatparents want to hear, even what
the kid wants to hear about man, you're a great player and
you're a great hitter and youknow that's great to hear and it
(19:54):
might, you know, put a Band-Aidon it for there.
But eventually a bandaid hasgot to get ripped off.
And so he, he gave me thatadvice and I've kind of been
brutally honest with kids righton the bat.
I tell some of these seniors,you might not play a single
inning, are you okay if youdon't play a single inning this
year?
And you know they all come insaying, oh, absolutely, I'm fine
and I'm going to.
They stop and ask again.
I said, are you really okaywith that?
And so I've tried to be asbrutally honest with with
parents and with with players,and and honestly, I feel that's
(20:21):
helped because it's eliminatedsome of those conversations at
the end.
And it's come up every now andthen hey coach, why am I not
getting more?
And it's a simple question of,well, who are you better than?
Are you better than so-and well, no, are you better than so?
And so no, that's why you'renot playing and it.
It sounds rude, but it it's.
It's what the kid needs to hear, not what the kid wants to hear
sometimes, and it's it's.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
It's a learning lesson that we try to go through
and, like you said, you knowwhen they walk away from high
school, whether they go off tocollege or or just go straight
into the working world, the, theboss, ain't going to be
sugarcoating things.
You know you get the job doneor the next guy.
You know it's how it is andthat's part of life, I guess,
(21:00):
and you know.
But but then then you know Ifeel bad for because there's a
lot of really a lot of reallyreally good coaches who lose
their job just because mom ordad aren't happy.
And you know I you almost feellike, well, the AD, you know,
(21:27):
remove the coach, or do I wantto continue to deal with this?
And then it becomes a biggerissue for me.
So it's a tough situation to bein.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, and I think part of that is that
transparency.
I mean the more transparentthat you can be in your program.
And I tell parents all the timeI welcome them down to my
practice.
If you want to come watchpractice, come watch practice.
And you know very few do.
Sometimes they do, but you knowI feel I have a pretty good
relationship with a lot of theparents in the program and you
know we go to booster events andwe have a booster golf
(21:54):
tournament and you know, uh, Ifeel having those conversations
with those parents over therekind of hopefully eliminated.
But yeah, ultimately there's,there's always going to be, you
know, one or two.
It's that rule of 33, 30% ofthe people that are going to
love you, 33% going to hate you,and then there's that 33 in the
middle that you don't knowwhere they're at.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
So, yeah, well, you know, you mentioned earlier
there that, uh, here in ohiothey talk travel baseball.
You called it club.
I don't know if it's travelclub, whatever it may be, but uh
, what are?
What's your advice on tellingyour players all right, hey,
you're going to go play for thisteam.
(22:34):
You know, as a high schoolcoach, it's almost like wow, you
know, don't get caught up wherethey're pitching you too much,
or you're on that team andyou're going to play outfield.
But the high school level,you're going to be my third
baseman or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
The high school level you're going to you're going to
be my, my third basement orwhatever it may be.
Yeah, um, so in Kansas and Idon't know when you're allowed
to have contact with them wedon't get to do anything
baseball related with our kidsuntil the first week of March.
So we can do off seasonworkouts but there can't be a
ball, a bat, a glove, nothing wecan.
(23:13):
You know, we can weight liftand that's about it.
So we have to put a lot oftrust into the clubs and the
travel ball that are around forthe boys to get to work in, and
I've tried to build thatrelationship.
I have a really goodrelationship with most of the
clubs kind of here in KansasCity, most of the travel ball
organizations, because, again,they get to work with them nine
months out of the year and I getthree months out of the year.
So you know if we're trying tocompete against each other it's
(23:37):
going to be real difficult.
And so you know there's quite afew of the club owners that
they'll talk him and I will talkquite often, and you know one
of them in particular.
He always kind of gives me arundown of his players.
I hear the players that arecoming in here are the strengths
that I think they have.
Here's where I think they canplay and he's never pushy about
it.
You know, he's just kind ofgiven it to me for my
(23:58):
information to do it as I please.
But yeah, I think just havingthat open communication is huge,
and I do.
At my first parent meeting youbrought up, you know, I got you
playing third base but you playleft field for your travel ball
team.
You know I put up a graphic atthe beginning of the year.
I asked the kids you know whattravel ball organization they
play for?
And then I put it all on onescreen on a PowerPoint, and I
(24:21):
show parents like guys, I got 42clubs or 42 travel ball
organizations here and I got 26shortstops.
I need four.
Like so you know kindorganizations here and I got 26
shortstops, I need four.
So kind of letting parents knowthe goal is to get on the field
and if you want to get on thefield, then maybe having that
ability to do so because younever know what you're going to
be in college as well it worksfor some, it doesn't for others.
(24:43):
There's been some kids I'vetried to move to the outfield
because of their athleticism andthey haven't really bought into
it and it didn't really workout for them.
And on the flip side, I had akid three years ago that had
never played a lick of outfieldin his entire life, but the kid
could absolutely fly.
He was the second bestshortstop in my organization but
the best was the same age ashim and he played shortstop and
(25:04):
so he was never going to playshortstop.
I moved him down to centerfield and he was a two-time
All-State center fielder andagain, that had nothing to do
with me.
It had everything to do withhim buying into, saying, hey,
coach, you see this in me, Iwant to work hard at it.
And he took it and ran and hewas awesome with it.
So you know, there's stories onboth sides where you get the
kids that are willing to adaptand do what is best for the team
(25:25):
to help them win.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
And there's other ones saying, no, I'm, I'm a left
fielder, I'm a third basemanand I'm not moving off the third
base.
So, yeah, yeah, it's a tough tojuggle with, for sure.
Well, you talked uh earlierabout before we we started
recording about your experiencewith the kansas city royals.
If you could just uh for theaudience, talk a little bit what
what you did with them and anduh how that impacted you as a
coach.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, so when Dayton Moore was the manager here for
Kansas city, um, his, his sonwas a really nice player he's
actually playing in the minorleague organization now but, um,
he kind of created what theycalled the Royal scout team and
they would create, um 17, 16, 15year old kind of travel ball
teams and they would go down toAtlanta 15-year-old kind of
travel ball teams and they wouldgo down to Atlanta and to some
(26:13):
of these bigger tournaments andtry to get what we think was
kind of the best of the best inthe KC Metro and KC area to kind
of go compete with these teams.
And the Royals kind of used itas an opportunity to see what
other high school players areout there and we have an
opportunity to go to these, youknow, tournaments and see and
things like that.
And plus, we got to see whatkind of players or the Royals
(26:37):
got to see what kind of playerswe had here in the KC Metro.
And it was crazy.
I got an email from the Royalssaying we'd like you to come
coach for us.
And it was surreal I've been aRoyals fan my entire life and to
get that email saying that theywanted me to come help them.
I had to pinch myself.
And so for four years I got theopportunity to kind of go
(26:59):
around with the 17U scout teamand just kind of manage my own
or not my own manage the travelball scene and go down to
Atlanta and go to some of thesebigger tournaments and play
against some of the best of thebest.
And you know, it was surreal,it was really really cool to see
some of those athletes.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yes, definitely you know based on your experience as
a head coach.
You know both as a club-levelcoach and you know for your high
school experience.
Someone is going to be takingover a program.
Tell me one thing a coach mustdo and one thing you would say
(27:40):
whatever you do, do not do this.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I mean I think the must is you got to meet the kids
where they're at.
You got to make it fun.
I mean there's a reasonbaseball is called a game.
It's a game, it's meant to befun.
If you let it beat you up,it'll tear you apart.
I mean I'm still not over ourloss from two weeks ago of the
regionals.
But it's funny.
(28:09):
You had mentioned earlier thatyou know only one coach gets to
be crowned champion or be happyat the end of the season and our
state tournament's going onright now and so I'm kind of
following it through GameChanger and things like that.
This afternoon and my assistantsends me a text and said only
one coach doesn't have to feelwhat we're feeling right now.
(28:48):
So you know we're down becausewe lost in the regionals, but
them losing at state, they'rejust as bummed.
And so you know, kind of keepingit in perspective, right, tried
to be everywhere.
I tried to be at every JV game,be at every C team, be at every
freshman game and really, youknow, be involved with every kid
.
And I wasn't doing my ownvarsity, as you know.
I was doing them a disserviceand luckily I had a good enough
(29:09):
relationship with a couple ofkids and actually my center
fielder Parker Esparza was thekid's name he came up to me and
he's like, coach, you're notgiving us enough time, like, I
understand what you're doing,you're trying to run a program,
but we need you, we need you tobe part of us.
And you know, I think the factthat he had that relationship
with me and he felt comfortableto tell me that, you know it was
a huge eye opener for me.
(29:30):
And so you know, be where youare, be at the team that you are
, don't always look for thatnext step, and you know that's
the importance of having that,that coaching staff around you.
I, I am fortunate enough I I'msure a lot of coaches say it,
but I think I have the bestassistant coaching staff there
is.
I, I can be gone and I trustthat things are going to be ran
smooth.
(29:50):
And you know, part of that isbecause they have that freedom
to do what they want to at anormal practice.
So when I'm gone, reallynothing's that much different.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I hate losing or love winning, and why.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Oh, I hate losing more.
I am, I am, and I tell my kidsthis all the time.
I am such a poor sport.
If we play paper rock scissors,I'm going to try to beat you at
it.
If we're going to shake hands,I'm going to try to shake hands
harder than you.
I absolutely cannot standlosing and my own kids know that
.
My son's a seventh grader nowand he just beat me in pig, I
think about two months ago, andhe got so excited because it was
(30:26):
the first time he'd ever beatme and he knew he actually beat
me, because I don't even let myown kid win.
But don't get me wrong, I lovewinning, but man, I hate losing
and I'll stay within theparameters of the game, but man,
I will do almost anything towin.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Runner on first base.
One out tie game bottom of theseventh.
What signal are you giving thebatter?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Well, I kind of went away with giving signals two or
three years ago and we havedifferent cues that we want to
use.
And I'm not a guy that standsover in the third base box and
does a bunch of stuff, becauseyou know kids will miss that
stuff.
And you tell a kid to steal andhe gets a bad jump, and then
you know kids will miss thatstuff and and and you tell a kid
to steal and he gets a bad jumpand then he gets thrown out and
(31:14):
then I'm mad.
So, uh, I've kind of went awayfrom all that and we go from
different reads and things likethat.
So, um, the sign that I'm givenis have fun and breathe.
Uh, I tell my kids that a lot.
We do a lot of visual training.
We talk about the mental aspectof it.
We do what we call sunny days.
It's not a new thing, I didn'tcome up with it, but you know we
(31:35):
start every practice, everygame with sunny days where we
visualize positives happening.
We visualize negatives happenand and and hopefully, what
they're visualized is that rightthere.
And you know cool story aboutit.
I had a kid last year in theregional semifinal game.
He's playing left field and flyball goes out to him, a kid
tags up and goes home and heguns him at the plate Not the
(31:58):
best arm that we have on theteam, but just makes a really
nice play and throws the kid out.
And he comes in after the gameand he said, coach, this is what
I visualized before the game.
He's like during, during sunnydays, I visualized throwing a
dude out, so it was really coolto see you know how proud he was
of, like man, this, this reallydoes work.
This I you know.
I saw this coming into fruition.
(32:19):
So again, a really short answerthat you asked me.
That I made really long.
I'd probably just tell the kidsswing, have fun and stay simple
well, I, I guess, I.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Well, I guess I got to ask.
I mean, how would you do asqueeze play then?
Speaker 2 (32:35):
So we do have a couple signs.
I do have signs, so I do havesteel signs that I will put on.
We do go through signs and Ihave some.
But kids know they got thegreen light all the time and we
talk about different numbers ofwhen they have green light,
yellow light or red light.
Um, but yeah, we will haveprobably talked about that prior
(32:57):
to the inning.
If it's in that seventh inningsaying, hey, if this happens,
then we're going to do this andthen we're going to do this.
But, um, yeah, I, uh, we have afew signs.
We didn't do a lot of squeezeplays.
We had probably 12 bunt singlesthis year and I don't know if I
called a single one of those,other than the kid looked at me
and I gave him a little winkbecause we saw the third baseman
(33:18):
back Again.
It's cool because it puts theownership on them and they think
, hey, I'm going to bunt ratherthan coaches making me bunt.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I like that.
That makes sense because a lotof times you can give a bunt
saying no and the kid is like,oh man, I don't want to bunt,
and then they give you ahalf-hearted attempt and you're
like I got to let him swing nowbecause he doesn't want to do
this.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah well, and earlier this year I mean, I had
a kid.
We had runners at first andsecond and it was a close game.
I don't know if it was tied orwe were down one or something.
But one of my faster kids wasup and he's a really good bunter
, and I went up to him and Isaid, hey, what do you think
about bunting right here?
And he's like, ah, this guy,and he was kind of a little
(34:06):
funky three-quarter sidearmpitcher and he putting that
ownership back on him.
And I asked him I said, do youwant a bun?
He's like I'd rather hit here.
And so I said, go for it.
And he battled and battled andfouled three or four off and
then ended up slapping one overthe short stop heads.
That scored the run.
And again, just just a reallycool moment that he felt
comfortable enough to say, coach, I don't want a bun, or I don't
feel comfortable bunting withthis arm slot that I got here.
(34:28):
And so really cool opportunityfor that kid.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Well, if you could take over one college baseball
program, which one would youtake over?
Vanderbilt, Tennessee or Texas,Texas?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Oh I don't know I think going to a Tennessee or
what's that.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Or you could insert your your team that you would
want to coach.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Um, with the, with the landscape of college
baseball right now and the wholeportal and everything like that
, I don't know if I'd want tocoach college.
Um, man, I, I love where I'm at, you know I I know that's a
cop-out answer Um, I don't thinkI'd want to be a college coach.
I love the high school game.
I love being able to still kindof, you know, make that impact
(35:18):
on the kids and seeing them inthe hallway every day.
I'm a high school math teacherand you know.
So getting to see the kids inthe hallway every day and then
get to see them out in theplaying field, I just think
there's a huge benefit of that.
So I'm going to take thecop-out easy answer and say I'm
going to stay at the high schoolranks, okay.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Well, obviously I would think you follow college
baseball.
Who do you think is going towin the College World Series?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Oh, man, I don't know .
It's been fun to watch the, theacc, the sec tournament and
heck even flipping over to big10 tournament and watching some
of those guys.
Um, I'm a, I'm a kansas fan.
Kansas is playing pretty wellright now.
Um, you know, it's still cool.
Some of the kids that I hadfrom from when I coached with
the royal scout.
They're kind of scattered allover the SEC and so there's a
(36:08):
couple down at Arkansas, onedown in Tennessee.
So you know, again I'm pullingfor KU.
But man, I don't know.
Vanderbilt's pretty tough.
They look really good in theirchampionship series.
I'm probably going to have togo with Vanderbilt.
Yeah, if I were to pick asurprise team to win it all, I
(36:34):
would say west virginia.
I mean they, they had a realnice season and well, and you
could say that.
But but kansas ended the seasonwith a 3-0 sweep of west
virginia and only didn't win thebig 12 because of a one-game
series that got rained out.
So little plug for my jayhawksthere that they should have won
the big 12, but um jay oxplaying pretty well right now
too yeah, well, I guess I'm westvirginia fan.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
I had coach randy maizey on and uh and uh, my wife
graduated from wvu, so I gottakind of play it safe all right,
I'll give you fair enough.
Yeah, well, let me ask you thisthe can you share an
unbelievable or funny story fromall your years of coaching?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
An unbelievable is I lost a game.
So this was before you couldintentionally walk people just
by saying put them on.
But we lost the regionalchampionship my junior year of
high school because we tried toput a guy on and we weren't able
to throw four balls to thecatcher and just play catch.
So that was a prettyheartbreaking one.
That's not real funny, but thatone still kind of hurts on that
(37:39):
aspect of it.
But no, I mean I can't think ofany one particular story.
Just I guess my first year ofbeing a head coach.
You know everyone says enjoy it, enjoy it, enjoy it.
And it's real hard when youkind of get wrapped up in it.
And we were playing a reallygood Shawnee Mission East team
(38:02):
and actually Dayton Moore's son,robert Moore, was playing on
that team and they were a reallytalented group and they
probably should have won thegame.
It was about the fifth inningand we were in the first base
dugout and so I'm having to runover the third base dugout every
time.
Again, I'm just so wrapped upin the game.
About in the fifth inning I kindof stopped and we were up, I
(38:22):
think, 4-1 at that point, kindof to the point where I was like
, you know, we might actuallywin this game and get to go to
the state tournament.
And I just kind of stopped andlooked up in the stands and just
saw how many people were thereand really enjoyed, you know,
kind of took all in that moment.
And so you know, I guess to anyyoung coach or veteran coach
just it's hard but to stop andreally enjoy the environment
(38:45):
that you're in because you knowwe're we're lucky to get what to
do, what we get to do every day.
And, um, you know, I I tellpeople all the time I don't do
much, I just have a front rowseat in the third base box.
You know it's, it's just ablast to be around the kids,
just to try to enjoy as much ofit as you can.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah, I, I was speaking to somebody the other
day and they we were talkingabout things that you just never
thought you would see inbaseball.
And I end up realizing that myfirst year as a head coach.
We played the team.
I believe they went on to winthe state that year but we lost
(39:23):
to them on a pitch that we threw, that hit home plate and
bounced over the backstop andthe plate was.
You know, I swear the plate wasway above where it should have
been.
And then my final year as a headcoach, we're playing one of the
good teams here in Central Ohioand it ends up they got the
(39:44):
two-time player of the year forDivision I and bases loaded
bottom of the seventh 3-2 countand he hits a moonshot foul ball
at Ohio Dominican Universityand first base comes over.
(40:04):
Catcher comes over.
Pitcher comes running over.
We're all in the dugout.
I look over and one coach.
He's trying to get out of theway.
He falls over.
Everybody's getting back.
We've got a first base and he'sabout 6'3".
He reaches over the dugout,fencing there in front.
(40:24):
I'm like we're going to winthis game.
I'm like, wow, he reaches overand a player on our bench had
his glove on, reaches up andknocks it out of his hand.
You know, and then I'm like westill have to get out there and
throw another pitch and geteverybody you know settled down.
(40:50):
He goes back out.
Next pitch base hit, we lose.
That's how my career ends,right there.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yeah, I think every year something happens.
And again now I'm coaching myson's 12-year-old team and you
know, you see some crazy stuffthere too.
But you know, know, this gameis an awesome game but it's a
terrible game.
Every year there is somethingthat you see that you're like
man, I've never seen that happenin this game and, um, that's
(41:19):
the the joy of it, that's thethe excitement of it, but uh,
it's the frustrating part aboutit as well.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Well, I actually had a game where I helped out a
friend of mine when my son wasplaying college and I was just a
volunteer, so I would help himout.
And we had Dave Malecki whopitched 10 years in the big
leagues.
We had Mike Lockwood who wonhis highest AAA.
(41:46):
I mean, our coaching staff wasjust incredible, you know, and
there were times during theseason where we would look at
each other.
Here's Dave Malicki, who's seeneverything in Major League
Baseball and he's like I'venever seen that happen before.
That's what makes baseballgreat, I guess, you know, and
(42:08):
the stories and the coaches thatget together.
And to me that's the best partabout baseball, I think, is what
players and coaches rememberfrom the games and, like you
said earlier, not so much thescore but something that may
have happened on the bus or in apractice in the middle of the
(42:29):
winter, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Yeah, oh for sure.
All my high school buddies.
We would hang out at my onebuddy's house in the basement
all the time.
This was back when Nintendo wasstill a thing, but we'd sit
there and play RBI baseball onthe Nintendo and play Euchre.
I mean, I never knew how toplay Euchre until I was around
all my baseball buddies and wewould just sit there and play
cards nonstop with them.
(42:53):
You know, those are thememories that you hope we can
instill in the kids that wecoach and you know, hopefully
they can, you know, when they'relarge, talk about memories that
we were able to have with themas well.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Well, it's Blake Howells and I want to make sure
I'm saying it right Olathe highschool in Kansas, coach, great
stuff.
And uh, you know really gladyou took the time out of your
day to to jump on the podcastwith me here and uh, you know,
enjoy your summer and uh and I'msure good things are going to
(43:31):
happen again for you next year.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
I appreciate you having me on Ken.
It was a lot of fun and, yeah,I appreciate it, and hopefully
our paths cross again for sure.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Special thanks to Blake Giles.
Baseball Coach is Unplugged.
Is proud to be partnered withthe netting professionals,
improving programs one facilityat a time.
Contact them today at844-620-2707, or visit them
online at wwwnettingproscom.
Be sure to tune in everyWednesday where we sit down with
(44:02):
some of the best coaches at thehigh school, college and
professional level from acrossthe country.
As always, I'm your host Coach,Ken Carpenter.
Thanks for listening toBaseball Coaches Unplugged.
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!