February 4, 2026 • 59 mins
A small-town program doesn’t stumble into seven state titles and five Hall of Famers by chance. We sit down with coaches shaped by Coldwater, Ohio and the late legend Lou Brunswick to unpack how a people-first culture, simple fundamentals, and joyful competition built a winning standard that still travels across the state. The stories are rich: Lou treating the star and the 16th man the same, scheduling bigger schools without apology, and yes—calling squeeze from a bus with a turn signal after getting tossed. The lessons run deeper than trophies: build trust, respect every role, and keep it loose so players compete free.
We trace coaching paths that started as bat boys and Pony League mentors, ran through pro ball and college, and returned to high school dugouts with a clear blueprint. You’ll hear why fundamentals still beat flash—clean relays, timely bunts, strike-throwing, and disciplined base running—and how that approach turns teenagers into resilient teammates. We also tackle the modern game: coach-to-catcher and coach-to-pitcher communication, where tech can sharpen tempo and decision-making without stealing leadership from the field.
Then comes the debate every spring stirs up: should Ohio shift to double elimination or best-of-three at the district level? With turf fields and tighter schedules, these coaches argue baseball deserves a format that rewards depth and consistency, not just a single dominant arm. Through it all, the thread is human: fathers and sons balancing love and standards, the sting of losses that teach more than wins, and the quiet satisfaction of doing things the right way every day.
If you value clear teaching, culture that lasts, and stories that make you grin on the way to practice, you’ll feel at home here. Subscribe, share with a coaching friend, and leave a quick review telling us your take: double-elim or best-of-three?
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Mark as Played
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:01):
Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
I'm your host, Coach KenCarpenter.
And today I got a Hall of Famegroup of coaches together.
And uh I would like to start offuh rather than uh uh me
introducing who's going to be onthe show, Mark.
First off, I gotta say congratsfor you being inducted into the
(00:23):
OHS BCA, which here is Ohio, uhHall of Fame.
Uh and if you could to set thestage here for today's show, you
kind of introduce the coachessince you know these guys very
well.
SPEAKER_06 (00:39):
Yeah, it it was probably a couple weeks ago I
reached out uh to all of themhere.
And I wanted to do it after thethe effect of the uh clinic and
so forth.
But uh I got thinking, you know,and Co-Water now has five, five
(00:59):
guys, Lou Brunswick, TrentDeuce, Brian Harlem, Greg
Wilker, and myself that are inthe Hall of Fame now.
And I I really think, and youguys step in and correct me if
I'm wrong on it, I really thinkthat is a an Ohio record.
I thought it was important thatwe get everybody together.
(01:21):
And so what I did is I reachedout to them, Kenny, and see if
we could set a time to geteverybody on at a given time and
talk about our years going allthe way from Coldwater to where
it took us to our present-dayjob and school, and just talk
(01:42):
baseball.
SPEAKER_03 (01:44):
Well, sounds good.
Well, you guys all played forthe legendary Lou Brunswick at
Cold Water High School in Ohio.
And tell me about yourexperience as a player playing
for Coach Brunswick, and we'llstart off.
Let's just start with Trent.
unknown (02:00):
Let's just start with Trent.
SPEAKER_07 (02:03):
Um Well, I had an interesting history because I
actually didn't play, I onlyplayed two years.
Uh I played my sophomore in mysenior year.
Um, I thought I was gonna be thenext John Lway, so I was
focusing on football, and then Irealized I wasn't Lway.
Um so, but Louis, um LouieClinton.
(02:25):
You know, first of all, LouieLouie was uh I appreciate Louie
letting me play my senior yearbecause he was all over me my
junior year to play, and I wasjust I didn't want I was just
hooked on football.
And and I know he was he was nothappy with me, but he did uh his
senior year, he let me play, andit was a great experience.
We won the state title oursenior year.
Um but um but uh but I learned alot from Lou.
(02:49):
I I actually grew up with theBrunswick household.
Jeff's my age, me and Jeff werebuddies from the get-go, and so
I kind of grew up in the house.
So um I learned baseball from avery young age.
I I guess I learned theimportance of baseball because
it was a big deal in theirhousehold, and I was there all
the time.
Um, so I I learned uh a lotgrowing up through the years.
I mean, you could you name it.
(03:10):
I mean, how to throw, how tohit, and you know, your
mentality and so on and soforth.
But uh, you know, just just I Iyou don't have enough hours to
sit here and let me tell youeverything that that that Lou
taught me.
SPEAKER_03 (03:23):
So well, Coach uh Coach Greg Wilford, what tell me
a little bit about it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:28):
Well, I was a 1979 graduate, and uh I was the
youngest of seven, and so CoachBrunswick, he knew our family
very well, and my parents hadthe the utmost respect for him.
And uh Coach Brunswick was hewas more than a he was more than
a teacher and a coach for me.
He was he was a true fatherfigure.
My father passed away when I wasin second grade, so he was a
(03:49):
outstanding role model for me.
Um so I just had a greatexperience playing for him, and
just the lessons that I learnedfrom him, you know, I I tried to
uh take through my my years ofcoaching, you know, and and some
of the main lessons work ethic.
You know, I watch him, and youknow, when you're 16, 17 years
old, you really don't understandhow hard the person is working
(04:09):
at it.
But once I started teaching andcoaching myself, I'm thinking,
how did Coach Brunswick do that?
You know, he would drive amorning bus route, you know, he
he was coach all teach all day,coach all day, and then he'd he
would drive us to the game, andit was just amazing.
You know, so that's a big thing.
But the work ethic, and he justhe treated everyone the same.
You know, it didn't matter ifyou were the best player or if
(04:29):
you were the 16th best player,you know, he treated everyone
with respect.
And those were some of thevaluable lessons I learned from
Coach Brunswick.
And I think that's the reasonwe're all here today.
SPEAKER_03 (04:40):
Yes.
Well, Mark, you were in thehouse, so what's that?
Well, you you were in the house.
You grew up with him as yourdad.
SPEAKER_06 (04:48):
Yeah, it um just going off of what those guys
said, you know, and I always goback to a thing that that Trent
said a couple years ago.
And I think this is importantwith all of us because I I think
it's why the foundation ofColdwater Baseball still goes on
and on and on.
(05:08):
Um is because uh Trent made thecomment.
The thing that stands out aboutyour dad is uh is what I took to
Van W Butler, what what theseother guys took to the other
schools too is the idea of uh hewanted you to learn baseball and
(05:29):
he wanted to excel, he wanted towin, but the biggest thing he
wanted you to be was yourself.
He wanted you to be yourself,whoever that may be, and fall
within the parameters of theprogram and you know go out and
have some fun.
And and and two of the biggestthings that really gets me with
(05:51):
dad is is is the relationshipand the care that I personally
felt with him, with all hisplayers and so forth.
We all had the ultimate goal.
We never went around the theschool saying we're gonna win a
state title.
We always knew that that wasalways a plan because it was
(06:11):
cool water, that's what youstrive for.
But it was just the magicalexperience we had.
It was just something you had toexperience because uh baseball
was was was life and it was itwas a great deal.
SPEAKER_03 (06:28):
Well, Aaron, you're you're here representing your
dad.
Um did did your dad talk to youabout his experiences with coach
Lou Brunswick?
SPEAKER_00 (06:41):
Um, yeah, a little bit.
Uh I know just hearing storiesof Lou from my dad or from
anyone around Cold Water, therewas great things.
Uh kind of like they said, kindof like my dad kind of learned
from Lou and kind of in hiscoaching style, a lot of it had
to do with relationships um withyour own coaching staff and with
the players.
I think building thatrelationship and that trust um
(07:04):
in everyone.
Uh I think that's was a bigthing that my dad took from Lou,
uh playing underneath him andwinning some state titles with
Lou.
And I think that seems like alot of us here learning from Lou
and then so on, like that's howprograms are kind of built
relationships, the foundation,some of those core values that
Lou definitely um instilled inall of you guys, then my dad,
(07:26):
and obviously down to me, andeven Coach Clinky, uh now the
head coach at Coldwater, a lotof those things, um, just are
still in the programs.
Um I knew of Lou a little bit,uh uh, but not too much.
But yeah, he definitely had somestories of Lou.
How he coached was kind of howmy dad then learned how to
become a coach and learned fromLouis.
So that's just a great thing tosee with everyone's day.
SPEAKER_04 (07:48):
So I'd like to read it stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (07:51):
If I could, I'll just have a test down edit for
it.
If everybody, if you could justcheck your volume and make sure
it's not turned all the way up.
If you can just take it down acouple ticks, sometimes that it
creates that echo.
I don't know if you guys areanswering.
SPEAKER_07 (08:08):
It's too loud.
Yeah, a little bit too loud, butyeah.
Okay.
Is that better?
SPEAKER_03 (08:19):
Yeah, I think it is.
Yes.
Okay.
Well, uh, Tom Brunswick.
You're in the uh you're in themiddle of the screen here, and
you are the uh person that'sstepping in to represent your
dad.
(08:39):
Tell me about that experiencegrowing up with your dad and
what he's what he taught youabout the game of baseball.
SPEAKER_05 (08:50):
Okay.
Well, I can speak for Tom asLou's son and playing for him,
and then I can speak for whatLou might say about what the
three gentlemen have uh justtalked about.
Uh being dad's son, um it was anhonor to play for dad.
Um we never felt never felt thepressure of playing for dad when
(09:11):
he was coaching.
That's who he was.
He was our coach.
And when we came home, that'swho he was, was a dad.
And we never talked about thegame very much when we came
home.
Once we came home, the game wasover.
We never really talked about it.
He went his way, I went my way.
And then the next day we did thesame thing.
So um, it was an honor to playfor dad.
(09:32):
Um, it was a privilege.
We set high standards in the70s, graduated in 76.
We wanted to win the state.
We never did.
We made it to the district inthe regionals a few times or
never made the state.
It wasn't until Mark uh in 83and 84, his teams won the state
back to back, and then Jeff in87.
(09:53):
And I was so proud for them, asproud of them as it as we would
have won it.
So we didn't get to win it, butuh, hopefully we raised the bar
pretty high.
And those guys, they stormedright through, they won back to
back, and then they won it in 87again, so um we didn't get a
chance to win it, but um, we areso proud of uh brothers, and
(10:14):
I'll never forget the smile ondad's face when he won it
in '83, and then again in '84.
Huge smile.
You know, it was 25 years beforehe won a state title, before his
teams won a state title.
There were many times he wastelling me, I'm not gonna coach
you because it's too tough whenyou lose.
And I'm sure all the coacheshere have felt that feeling when
(10:36):
you lose that last game.
It's like, wow, we put all thisin here, and sometimes you lose
a close game, could have goneeither way.
That the feeling the next threedays is just tough.
And I remember he told me, I'mnever gonna coach you, Tom.
I said, What?
Yeah, I was only nine years old.
He said, Yeah, I'm not gonnacoach you.
Well, three days later, he'stelling me uh let's go ready
(11:00):
season now.
Playing for dad was um an honor.
It was fun.
It was better when you went twofor four and won the game than
you went 0 for 4 and lost.
But uh regardless, there's upsand downs with that.
And I would say this as speakingfor Lou, to all the coaches here
that um have uh Aaron Tech,Coldwater, Mark and Del Fountain
(11:24):
for the most part, Greg atMillbury Lake, and Trent at uh
Vandalia, their programs areextension of what dad would have
done.
He'd be very proud of uh allthree of you.
All four of you guys.
Um he would say, Yep, you guysare doing it the way we would do
it.
Because I'll tell you, they'reabout relationships.
They relate to the kids firstbefore they're baseball players.
(11:47):
That's one thing dad did was umhe he knew the players before he
knew what what they could do onthe baseball field.
Um, he built trust with them, heknew them as as people, and then
uh, you know, they're a personfirst, then a second baseman,
then a short stuff.
He built long-lastingrelationships, and I thought was
the the best thing he did.
(12:07):
And all the coaches on on thisboard right here have done the
same thing.
They got relationships that goon and on and on forever.
So we would be proud of all thecoaches here.
And uh to have five guys thatplayed at Coldwater and then on
the Hall of Fame feels specialto him.
SPEAKER_03 (12:28):
Definitely well let me ask you, Coach, the um did
your experience playing atColdwater as a baseball player
uh play any sort of role in youbecoming a baseball coach?
SPEAKER_01 (12:46):
Is that for me, Ken?
SPEAKER_03 (12:48):
Uh coach Coach uh Trent.
SPEAKER_07 (12:51):
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, I mean, uh so when I wentto college, you know, they asked
me my major, I said eligibility.
And uh then I had to come upwith a real answer at some
point.
And uh so I um like I said, I Igrew up, I grew up really at the
Brunswick House.
(13:11):
My a lot of my youth was there.
I mean, it's what I knew.
And then my first couple yearsof college, I played at Bowling
Green, and we never made a lotof tournament runs at BG, so
we'd be done kind of early, andI'd come home and I'd always
throw BP for Louie because theywere always deep in the
tournament.
And I guess it just kind of grewon me, you know.
And uh, so I decided that's whatI wanted to do.
(13:31):
So yeah, it had a huge impact onme.
I teach solar space kind of likeLouie did.
Um so um without a doubt.
And and I'm gonna add to whatMark said about I I always
remember this.
We always had fun, like Louisalways had fun, and and I
coached with Tom and for theMariners, man, we had fun.
Like Tommy had fun, like he heit wasn't a stress thing, man.
(13:55):
He could always lighten the moodto get you to play in that mode
um where you're not, you know,your sphincter's not too tight.
And uh I and Louie always didthat.
We would laugh, we just alwayslaugh.
There's always something tolaugh at.
I just I always remember that.
Just keep it loose, you know,don't take it too seriously.
We were all serious competitors,but there, you know, there's got
(14:15):
to be a fine line there.
So that that was another bigthing I I got.
SPEAKER_01 (14:20):
Coach Wilker.
Yeah, just uh piggyback whatTrent said, you know, just uh
Coach Brunswick, it was aboutembracing that competition.
You know, he he loved tocompete, you know, and that's a
big thing I always try to getacross uh to my players, you
know, enjoy the competition, youknow, win or lose.
You know, the other thing I wantto talk about was just the
tradition.
You know, I got into coaching.
I remember Coach Brunswick cameto me because I'd I was working
(14:42):
uh locally, and uh he said,Coach, he goes, uh Greg, why
don't you why don't you whydon't you coach a pony league
team?
And Mark may remember this.
Mark's uh is between us.
We had two pony league teams,and a couple of my buddies
coached Mark's team, and acouple myself and a couple of
other buddies, we coached theother team.
And uh that was a very talented,very coachable group, obviously,
(15:04):
because they went on and wonback-to-back championships a few
years later.
And I I was hooked on coachingat that point because I just I
love that group of kids, youknow, and and I just remember
competing as I'm not if Markremembers this, but I can still
remember Mark when we played ourteam played you guys, and and we
we ran a squeeze play and beatyou guys.
I can't remember who waspitching, but you were catching
and you were pretty fired up.
(15:25):
And your dad goes, Mark, theythey beat you fair and square.
Well, several years later, we'replaying.
I brought my team down from LakeHigh School, and I had a pretty
good team then.
And one of my players hit athree-run homer to tie it up in
the in the seventh or top of theseventh.
Coach Brunswick beats us in thebottom of the seventh with a
squeeze play.
You know, he just looks at me inthe dugout and just flashes that
grin, you know.
(15:46):
And so he that's like but uh alot of a lot of great memories,
you know, just that tradition,and and I hope they continue
passing on down.
SPEAKER_03 (15:55):
Well, Mark, you were uh you know, playing for your
dad.
Did that have uh influence onyou becoming a baseball coach?
SPEAKER_06 (16:02):
Uh Tom and I didn't have a chance.
Yeah, we had to.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm kidding.
Yeah.
Honestly, with all that, um Iwent, Kenny, it's interesting
because I didn't know where mycoaching career was gonna go
(16:23):
because I got drafted by theMets in '84.
And and I'm I'm not, you know, II face it straight on.
My years of professionalbaseball, I went in the third
round.
I was pretty good uh coming outof high school and everything,
but uh my professional daysweren't that good.
Uh it was a rough life, it was arough go for me.
(16:47):
And um I know I spent I I know Ispent a couple years there just
trying to find a job, hopefullyget through four years of of
college and see once where thatwent.
So the coaching stuff uh was wasa byproduct of what my years
with Pro Bowl was.
(17:08):
And I just that was my only wayto stay in the game.
And so I wanted to give back alittle bit in regards to you
know my knowledge that I hadwith kids, but because of my
experience there, my time was alittle bit longer getting into
coaching.
My first year of coaching was atthe year of 29, I was 29 years
(17:29):
old.
So um, you know, it wasn'tcoaching right away because I I
truly thought I was gonna be uha big league player at one given
time.
Obviously didn't work out, andso I had a couple years there
where I was I was trying to findmyself.
SPEAKER_03 (17:48):
Makes sense.
Well, Tom, what what are yourthoughts?
SPEAKER_05 (17:58):
I also was drafted uh out of high school, not as
high as Mark was, but I wasdrafted.
So I got a chance, and um once Igot the chance, I took it.
And uh as Mark mentioned, theminor league days are tough.
You're gone for six straightmonths.
Back then there's no cellphones, no way to connect it no
(18:18):
way home, there's no phone boostat 7:30 on Saturday night, all
collect.
That's how I talked to myparents.
I wrote letters.
Uh but I my dad told me if andwhen you sign, you are gonna go
to college.
And I said, Well, I'll take youradvice on that, Dad.
But you know, I think I'm gonnabe a big leader, like we all
(18:41):
think we're gonna be.
But let me tell you, once Ishowed up at the spring
training, there's a pretty goodball players, not only in
America, but uh the othercountries too.
Venezuela and Puerto Rico andDominican, we know where they
come from.
I mean, they're they're verygood ball players, so I thought,
oh boy, I better go to college,and I'm glad I did.
That's the best advice dad evergave me.
(19:03):
It's the best thing I ever didbecause by the time I was
released for the third time, Ihad a college degree.
It's like, go ahead and releaseme, I'll just go teach.
And I was ready to I was readyto do something regular, you
know, outside of a Pro Bowlafter doing it for seven or
eight years.
So as I was playing, I tried tolearn as much as I could about
(19:25):
the game.
About what would be good for ahigh school player.
What's good?
What would help them win?
Well, you know, I probablylearned more from my dad than I
did any of those pro coaches.
The pro coaches, you know,they're more focused on the high
draft picks, they're they'rethey're but I learned more from
(19:46):
my dad.
And maybe it wasn't on thefield, but I learned how to
treat people, treat them as uhrespectful.
It doesn't matter if he's thebest player or the 16th best
player, best player.
You treat them all the same, andyou win as a team and you lose
as a team.
So I thought uh maybe I'll trycoaching.
(20:07):
So I started coaching a littleJB over at Salina and uh did
that and coached the Grand LakeMariners for 12 years, um, the
head coach a few of those years,I at least 10 of them, and then
coached Cower Acme 23 years.
So a lot of different levels.
But uh, you know, speaking fordad to the coaches on this panel
(20:31):
here today, he would say justkeep it simple.
It's not about exit level, it'snot about radar, it's about
feeling the ball, doingfundamentals, throwing strikes,
getting the butt down, gettingthe relay, making plays.
Many times when he coachedteams, we might not have the
(20:53):
best looking uniform.
The other teams in the otheruniform might have looked better
and stronger, bigger andstronger.
But the kids in the co-uniformsalways look better at final
metals and always had disciplinefor the game.
A lot of times the cavaliershave a three, the other team had
(21:14):
to be two.
You had to beat it.
You had to beat the colourcavaliers.
Um mistakes they happen.
Discipline, fundamentals, keepit fun, a lot of passion.
(21:35):
Set your goals high and uh youknow, if the state turned win
the win the MAC, you know, sure.
Uh but the the goal is always towin the state.
And it's seven times we've donethat for uh it's a lot of years
going on too, but they stilldon't win.
It's hard, it's really hard.
You know, it's just thankful forgetting seven state titles.
(21:57):
But I would say this one, Dad.
Um When the season starts, hedoesn't just say, guys, this
year we'll win an estate.
He coaches every team the same.
You start from day one and justbuild blocks.
One day at a time.
Try to get better each day.
You know, be a be a be a goodteammate.
Do what it takes to win.
Don't worry about individualawards.
(22:18):
Let's do this as a team.
And I'd say all the coaches onthis panel exactly, exactly.
And coach Harlan exactly thesame way.
You'd be very proud.
SPEAKER_03 (22:29):
Well, Aaron, you were uh currently coaching there
at Coldwater, and you know, Iguess you know, I I I have to
ask you, the uh you're youplayed in Coldwater, correct?
SPEAKER_00 (22:44):
Yes, yep.
SPEAKER_03 (22:45):
So did that play a role in you becoming a coach?
SPEAKER_00 (22:49):
Yeah, I definitely did.
Um growing up uh with my dadbeing the head coach ever since
I was one, I think was actuallythe first year he was the head
coach.
Um being a bat boy all thoseyears, just seeing how he
coached just the program ingeneral.
Um I just kind of fell in lovewith baseball, sports, all
sports really I played, but likebaseball is my favorite.
I think by the time I playedwith him for the those four
(23:12):
years, uh by the time my senioryear came around, I kind of had
an idea.
I was going to play baseball atSinclair, uh JUCO.
Um, but I knew, I mean, I wasn'tgoing big leagues like the
Runswick over here, but I kindof had an idea that I wanted to
coach, so I was gonna go intoeducation uh and then eventually
coaching.
And then while I was in college,uh my dad kind of gave me those
(23:35):
first opportunities.
I started coaching Pony Leaguefor my brother, my younger
brother Evan.
Um two years of pony.
Uh and then as he got into highschool there, I also coached him
junior acne.
Um so those are kind of mygetting my feet wet in the
coaching uh world over here atColdwater.
Um loved it.
And then obviously, with megoing to school for education,
(23:56):
uh, once I moved back home fromcollege, uh I became part of the
staff over at Coldwater,coaching JV uh for two years
there uh while my dad was stillthe head coach.
And then eventually, uh nowrecently it'll be my fourth year
uh with the Varsity staff underCoach Clint East since my dad
passed.
Uh but yeah, I think justcoaching, uh playing under my
(24:19):
dad, coaching with my dad therea little bit, and obviously um
just the program in generaldefinitely led me uh to wanting
to coach and being with the kidsand seeing those relationships
um develop and how relationshipswith players can go a long ways.
I remember growing up and mydad's former players would come
up to him at whatever event,where we were.
(24:41):
My dad kind of knew everybody,and a part of that was through
coaching.
A lot of people from Coldwaterplayed for him, came back to
Coldwater, and knew him as CoachHarlemer.
I think that was a big thing tome that I'd love to see, uh, and
I want to be part of that.
So that definitely core tobaseball under my dad, and
obviously Lou starting it uhwith the program definitely led
(25:01):
me to this trajectory to coachwho I am today.
SPEAKER_03 (25:07):
Well, I I got a two-part question.
What would one change you wouldlike to see in high school
baseball and a positive that youtake away from the game today?
And we'll go back to you, uh,Coach Deuce.
SPEAKER_07 (25:25):
Um the positive is uh, you know, just despite all
the travel ball that's going onum today, I I think there's
there's still a lot of of heartand soul that goes into to high
school baseball.
I think there kids are are theythey're sold out in spring.
(25:45):
They really are.
And it's a and it's differentthan summer ball.
It's more of a it's more of ateam attitude.
Um and you're you're playing infront of fans.
You know, sometimes you getsometimes you get some nice
crowds.
You don't really get that a lotof that in summer ball.
Um and it and I think it teachesit teaches kids how to it's more
of a college attitude becauseyou're going to class um and
(26:08):
you're playing ball and you'rerepresenting your school um and
you're representing your youknow your community.
Um so I I still think it's it'sthere's a lot of positives in
that.
And um, so I still think it's abig deal, despite you know, the
the rise of of travel ball.
Um what was the other part ofthe question, Ken?
SPEAKER_03 (26:25):
Uh change what you would like to think.
SPEAKER_07 (26:28):
Oh, changes.
Uh I mean the only thing I'dreally I think they've made a
lot of good changes.
Um I I think once you get to thedistrict round of tournament, it
should be it should be a doubleelimination.
Um a lot of states do that.
Um I I'd like to see I I thinkit's possible, especially now
with all the turf fields.
You know, I know they're worriedabout rainouts, you know, and
(26:50):
there's not enough time.
There is enough time now withall the turf fields.
There's enough around to to doit, um, where you can play a
best two out of three and uh andyou can do it in a three,
four-day period.
Um so I I'd like to see that.
That's one change I'd like tosee in Ohio.
Once you get past, you know, getpast the section all round, um,
you get to the districts, and Ithink that'd be a cool thing.
SPEAKER_03 (27:14):
Well, Coach Walker, you uh uh what is the positive
you'd like that you've noticedand what would you like to see
change?
SPEAKER_01 (27:21):
Definitely positive would be the uh quality of
coaches.
Uh up in northwest Ohio here,the coaching was just
incredible.
I think we played numerous tripsto the state from the streets uh
between Ferrisburg, Maumee, andso on.
(27:42):
So they're probably coachingoutstanding.
I believe it's like crackmarkseven, like crackmark seven.
Correct.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, whereas if you're gonnanever win flip away.
So I hope it just doesn't beclose to five.
SPEAKER_03 (28:09):
Mark, how do you feel about this?
SPEAKER_06 (28:14):
Well, on the well, on the button, just denominating
with the rest of the guys on thepositive stuff.
Yeah, it's um the kids arecommitted.
They they really are are arecommitted, like Trent said, to
start the spring and so forth.
There's just a lot more dynamicsfor the kids nowadays, uh, a lot
(28:35):
more opportunities and so forth.
Um kids can practice as long asthey want to want to and so
forth game.
Not negative, but things thatchange.
Would be I like the idea of whatyou talked about, but maybe like
(28:58):
if we reach a lot of Windowsseries, maybe two about three,
something like that, a littlebit.
And I think discuss that quite abit.
SPEAKER_04 (29:08):
Um, how do you feel about it?
SPEAKER_05 (29:26):
Oh, as a positive, oh, there's so many.
There's so many.
Uh Greg mentioned uh the thequality of coaches is is
tremendous.
Um I've been to the State Clinicthe last two years, last year
when Trent Gun Inducted and thisyear when Market.
And uh it's amazing the theamount of good coaches there
(29:48):
are, and uh which is soimportant because um you know
it's it's up to them and thenext generation to pass it on.
We gotta keep the game going anduh to pass it on from one
generation to another.
Uh to some they might say it's aslow game.
(30:08):
Well, it's not if you look atall the things that happened
between the pitches and uh dothe things right, and the
coaches need to keep making itfun, keep making it important.
Great coaching.
Um speaking for my dad, youknow, back in when he started,
maybe that's the case, not thecase.
I know um some coaches uh backthen maybe just did it because
(30:31):
they needed a coach.
Um, you know, it's a stipend.
Uh not always, but uh there's alot of good coaches in this
area.
There's a lot of good coachesstatewide.
There's a lot of good coachesall over the place.
Um I think it's good andcompetitive.
I love uh the the competition inthe spring.
(30:51):
The seven divisions is good.
Um it gives you know it giveseveryone a chance, especially in
the upper level, which Trent wasdoing it.
You know, that it was not fairfor him to play that some of the
schools are three to four timeslarger than them.
Um I think it's a great game.
(31:12):
I'm okay with the changes thatthey made, and I don't think
that they need to make a lot ofchange.
Speaking for my daddy, uh whathe probably to know it probably
wants to work.
I remember the change growth in35, 32, and 34, 38 and when you
(31:37):
square one, we all need thatsound that I would say you would
like to get, but unfortunately,you know, there's sometimes when
I chose that.
You know, I like the ten in thegame.
(31:58):
I like that's going to gap alittle bit more.
Um, but that's not going tohappen easier for something we
can do.
But I think it's a great game.
I don't think we need to do toomuch with it.
If Daddy was here today, I thinkyou'd say the same.
You know, the kids count asanything.
Um you know, I don't think weneed to do too much.
(32:19):
It's a great game.
Let's let's keep going.
SPEAKER_03 (32:23):
Well, excuse me, Aaron, um you're the young guy
on this panel, and uh, you know,what is there a change that you
would like to see?
And is there some positive apositive that you've noticed?
SPEAKER_00 (32:36):
Um, going off positives, uh, really agree with
what Trent said at the start.
Um the just the spring game, thehigh school teams, I think
there's definitely value insome, especially this area of
the programs that really investinto the spring ball and not as
much into that select travelball.
I know that's a big thing uhkind of now, and that's kind of
more of a negative, I would say,would be the select ball,
(32:59):
especially at a youth age, but Iget the high school level.
But just the spring ball.
I think the competition isgreat, uh, especially in the
school that's really value it.
Uh it means a lot to schools.
Uh, I know, like Coldwater andLake and Vendelia, um, and you
get those atmospheres uh atVeterans Field in a big league
game, and it means a lot.
It leads me a lot to thecommunity, and I think the kids
(33:21):
see that as well.
Um, other positives recentlythat they've changed, uh, I know
like the technology now thatthey're using uh with in-game.
I know we used it at Coldwaterthe last couple years with the
coach to catcher communication.
Uh some people might not love itbecause catchers don't have to
call games anymore.
(33:42):
But uh sorry to tell you, evenif a catcher's going to college,
the college coach is stillcalling a lot of the games.
I know I caught in college abouteight years ago, and my pitching
coach, uh Essen Claire, wasstill calling games.
So I mean you could say somepeople don't agree with that,
and now they're doing the thecoach to catcher and pitcher.
Um I think coaches candefinitely take a benefit from
(34:04):
being able to talk to thepitcher kind of in your ear.
I know it's a trial this year.
I know it's something that we'regonna try to implement, and
that's something I think CoachClinky should have to figure out
how much can I talk to thispitcher compared to that
pitcher.
Like, can he handle him and myhim and my his ear?
And like, how much can I say?
Am I just gonna call pitches forthis pitcher?
Can I tell him, hey, you're nottalking your glove, you need to
(34:26):
stride out more, like you needto slow down, like just the pace
as well.
Some of those things I think arebeneficial.
Um and I know they're doing thewhole the second or the first
base, having the running basenext year in Ohio, uh like the
orange base or whatnot.
Um, some people don't love it,some people do.
I'm indifferent about it.
Um, I think in the end it'sgonna avoid, I guess, more
(34:48):
injuries if you see that.
Um, but I don't think that'sgonna affect the game too much.
I know they're doing it incollege already.
I'm gonna be surprised if theMLB implements it here in the
next five years as well.
Uh but one thing I think that Icould like to see change, um,
also what I can talked about, umjust the tournament in general,
how you can kind of make it adouble elimination or a best two
(35:09):
out of three.
I know just thinking of othersports, football, normally the
best team always wins.
Right?
Baseball, that might not be thecase based off if you have one
good pitcher that you have tothen go face, you might have the
better team overall.
But if you got to go face onedominant arm that's throwing 95,
uh you you might lose that game.
(35:29):
You gotta play them, that's howto play them.
Uh arms, then you might stillarms be able to move on.
Um pitching wise.
Um if you don't have thatdominant arm, you don't have
that tough arm, uh I thinkthat's one thing, and I've got
(35:52):
one thing too.
Um I would like to see change alittle bit.
SPEAKER_04 (35:57):
That's two out of three, best two out of three, uh
for the thing, higher thanhigher than you know, I I I
gotta ask this question.
SPEAKER_03 (36:09):
Funniest story or forest memory at cold water or
coach.
Trent, we'll start with you.
SPEAKER_04 (36:18):
We'll start with you.
SPEAKER_07 (36:21):
Um funniest memory of Louis?
Is that what you is that whatyou're asking?
SPEAKER_03 (36:27):
Yeah, funniest memory or fondest memory, either
one.
SPEAKER_07 (36:31):
Um well, I I I obviously have a lot of them.
Um probably when he got thrownout at Parkway, um and our AD,
Mr.
Lobianco, who's also the fatherof all the players had to come
in and coach us.
Um so it was a home run ball,and it was oh my god, it was
(36:51):
six-foot foul.
And I I don't I don't know.
I don't know.
They called it fair.
I don't know if it was Alhard orwhat.
They called it fair, and uhLouis just went bonkers.
Yeah, and uh yeah, he gottossed, and uh I don't know why
that one.
I mean, we had so many, like Isaid, we won the state title our
senior.
There's just a lot of greatmemory.
(37:12):
I don't know what it was thatone was just I guess I never saw
Louie that upset.
I mean, he was just he went offon this dude, and uh yeah, and
and in came Lobo, a little guy,a little Italian guy coaching
us.
It was actually kind of it waskind of surreal.
We came back and beat him, itwas a big game, so yeah, I I
(37:32):
don't know why that one kind ofsticks out in my mind.
SPEAKER_01 (37:36):
Coach Wolver uh a couple of them.
First one who was uh responsiblefor for doing the field early
on.
Um but we walked out there andthere were actually two foul
lines, and uh the custodian thatput the lines down, he had
problems with the the chalkerthere.
So I remember Coach Brunswicktalking to umpires.
He goes, Well, today we're gonnaplay the inside line instead of
(37:58):
the outside line.
You know, I always remember thatone.
Um the other one, my senioryear, we lost uh because Coach
Brunswick, he uh he was so usedto making tournament runs, we
lost the first game of thetournament at St.
Mary's.
They had a uh gentleman named uhSisko was on the mound.
Galen, I don't know if you guysremember, Galen Sisko was a
pitching coach there years agofor Kansas City.
(38:20):
His son had a third ball we justcouldn't hit.
We lost five to two or five tothree.
And Coach Brunswick, you know,just we had a good group of kids
and he didn't he didn't want theseason to end.
So he somehow he got us in thetournament at Indy in Indiana,
and we were playing some reallygood competition.
It was towards the end of May.
You know, whereas most coacheswould have been ready to you
know cash in, call the season.
He just wanted to keep playing.
(38:40):
So we played some really goodcompetition, and and Coach that
the umpire was terrible, and hegot tossed out.
And again, I didn't see CoachFriends get upset like that very
often.
He got tossed out of the game,and back then there was no
assistant coach.
So he's flashing signs from thebus.
You know, the the players, I'mout there coaching first or
third base, and you know, he'sputting a squeeze sign on, and
and uh it was a lot of fun.
(39:02):
It was a great memory comingback from Indiana, it was a
great way to end our season.
SPEAKER_06 (39:07):
Mark can to add on to that story, because that was
a story I was gonna bring up.
I was gonna ask Coach Wilker ifhe remembered that.
And do you remember CoachWilker?
The guy's name was Hi Cobb.
SPEAKER_01 (39:23):
I absolutely do.
And he threw more.
SPEAKER_06 (39:25):
Hi Cobb we were playing to Caleb, Indiana, and
they were ranked number one inthe state.
Yes.
And we were hanging around andwe were really playing some
pretty good ball.
And I was a bat boy at thattime, yeah.
So Louie Badgett and all thoseguys were in the stands, they
were yelling at the umpires andso forth.
(39:45):
And actually, Dad got thrown outwhen he said, Don't let the
rankings intimidate yourdecisions.
And that umpire turned aroundand kicked him out, and he went
straight to the bus.
And when he flashed the leftturn signal, that meant steal.
When he went to the right one,that was hit and run.
(40:09):
And he flashed him.
And the coach that helped withthat, Coach Wilker, wasn't it
Mike Romac?
SPEAKER_01 (40:18):
Was Mike Romack in there?
Possibly, but I don't I don'tthink we had an assistant coach
in, Mark.
I he didn't have an assistantbecause it's like I interject
you here.
SPEAKER_05 (40:30):
Yeah, go ahead, all right.
So we're talking uh dad likebeing a hothead and stuff, you
know.
And uh these two two things he'sbeen thrown out of two games.
Well, I got a third.
Uh this bus thing happened inthe early 60s when we're at uh
Wapauck St.
Joe, and I was a five-year-oldbat boy, and uh basically all I
(40:53):
did was play it in the dirt,steal people's gloves.
I wasn't much of a bat boy.
But uh sitting on the bus, andall of a sudden dad showed up on
the bus.
I said, What are you doing inhere, Dad?
It's cold out there.
I know, but what are you doing?
He said, I got kicked out.
I said, Oh, okay.
All right, there's that WapakSt.
Joe.
And he did, he did the turnsignal thing there too.
(41:16):
You know, the left one was asteal, the right one was a butt.
So he had practice for thatdecal tournament.
He'd already done that.
And yes, Mike Romack was the uhcoach back in '62 when Louis got
thrown out of that game.
So yeah.
So um the three games he gotthrown out, we've mentioned here
today, and that's probably theonly three I remember him
getting thrown out.
(41:37):
But um the turn signal and thebusting is uh two of those
things he did um getting thrownout.
SPEAKER_04 (41:45):
Um getting thrown out.
SPEAKER_03 (41:48):
Well, you know, I I gotta say, you know, he prepared
for every situation.
But uh Aaron, uh what is uh yourfondest memory playing at
Coldwater or 20th Coldwater?
SPEAKER_00 (42:05):
Uh yeah, my fondest memory will definitely be my
sophomore year uh whenever wewon state in 2014.
Uh I started catching mysophomore year there.
That was when my dad's firststate title.
Uh I think winning it his firstone uh was really special.
He could be a part of that team.
Um being a bat boy going up.
(42:25):
There was lots of times when hewas close.
Uh lost finals, the lost and thefinal 2014.
Finally getting his first uhwith me on the real team uh
special for me and special uhfor him as well.
That was gonna be my fondestmemory.
But going off kind of you guysare talking about uh I don't
(42:47):
have too many memories of Lou.
Like I said, I mean I'm theyoung guy here.
But anytime Lou made his walkover to uh the diamond, whether
it was practice or practiceafter games, I think my dad did
a really good job of letting thekids that might not have known
who Lou was, uh like who he was.
He was the former coach, umeverything he used to say,
(43:08):
anything that he knows Loutaught him.
That's what my dad kind of usedto say.
He kind of learned from Lou.
I think anything, and then wekind of knew who Lou was.
Uh obviously, me growing up, Iknew who he was, but some of my
friends or my teammates mightnot have.
And I think anytime he cameover, he would talk, pull a few
guys aside, whether it'spitchers, um, or he'd sit there
and kind of talk to the wholeteam at times.
(43:28):
I remember when I was in highschool, and I think everyone
just really kind of listened.
Uh Lou definitely had a lot ofknowledge about the game in
general and uh all those statetitles he won.
I think everyone would just sitthere and listen, and then we'd
eat I remember one time we leftpractice, and uh one of my good
friends, uh not the biggestbaseball guy, uh, but we kind of
(43:49):
left practice and we were likegetting our cars and he kind of
looks over at us, he goes, Dang,that that loo guy is he kinda
knows a lot about baseball,doesn't he?
And then we kind of looked at itand we're like we're like, Yeah.
Like he won a lot of statetitles, man.
So even he even he was sittingthere listening uh to what Lou
had to say to us as we were youknow 17, 18 year olds.
Uh so yeah, those are some greatmemories I have playing at
(44:11):
Coldwater.
SPEAKER_06 (44:13):
Hey Kenny, Ken, can I interject there going back
with Aaron because being able tohave a father-son relationship
and coaching and and and and atColdwater like Tom and myself
have definitely had.
Aaron, share with us what whatwas your fondest, fondest memory
(44:35):
type thing with you and your dadin coaching or even playing in
those years?
SPEAKER_00 (44:43):
Um yeah, I mean the fondest I'd say while I was
playing for him was definitelywinning state with him, I guess
the biggest moment I kind ofsaid.
But playing uh with under my dadand then him being dad at home,
uh kind of like you said, Markand Tom uh with Lou.
Most of the time when we were athome, uh we kind of went our own
(45:03):
ways.
Uh would eat dinner, mom wouldonly have dinner ready after
games and whatnot.
Um but we really wouldn't talktoo much about the game unless I
brought it up.
So I think that was one thing Ialways respected uh from his
standpoint, um, whether it was agood game or bad game.
If it was a good game, normallymom's chippy or my siblings, I
was the oldest, my siblings aretalking about the game and
(45:23):
whatnot.
Uh, but even if it was like abad game and we lost, um dad
wouldn't really bring it up toomuch unless I asked, and
normally I asked.
And I had I had my opinions uhthat I would I would say like
why didn't we do this?
Or and sometimes he would justbe like, you just play, like you
don't worry about what hisdecisions he made.
But I think at times he alsolistened.
(45:44):
Uh I think hearing thatperspective uh from a player, um
what the boy what the guys thinkuh as well, uh not just other
coaches, uh, could definitelybenefit him.
But um yeah, it was a great uhpoint of him.
He definitely held me to ahigher standard, I would say, uh
than anyone else.
Uh just how I went about mybusiness, I think, growing up,
(46:05):
playing the game, um, alwaysexpecting me to be the leader of
the team.
Uh not just me, but not justfriends.
A lot of my friends.
A lot of my friends.
I grew up with a bunch ofbuddies eight, seven, or eight,
all the way to we were seniors.
Uh, and them being around mydad, he definitely pushed, I
noticed, and he even said thisafter we graduated uh to a lot
(46:26):
of my buddies.
Uh he was able to push us morethan he kind of could other kids
because he knew uh how theywould react, and they knew my
dad well enough being my friendover the years and him coaching
them when we were eight, all theway until we were 18.
Um but I think that's uh a goodthing about coaching.
He knew when, and I'm startingto learn a little bit of how you
(46:48):
can coach certain guys.
You can't coach every guy thesame.
Um other guys can handle certaincriticisms.
Sometimes you gotta be allpositive to a player because
he's not gonna handle handle theharsh stuff.
Uh, but I think that wassomething that he was good with,
not just with me uh as a sonplaying for him, but also other
people as well.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (47:08):
Well I I'd like to ask this of every podcast guest,
and I kind of have an idea whatyour answer is gonna be, but I'm
gonna try anyways.
Coach Deuce, hate losing or lovewinning?
SPEAKER_07 (47:27):
Um both.
Um I mean I think I think youprobably learn more from the
losses, unfortunately.
And they and they stick with youlonger, so so you probably hate
losing.
Maybe more than winning,unfortunately.
We've never won a state title,so I mean, every every year I've
(47:50):
coached has been a loss the lastgame.
So I've I haven't been asfortunate as you know, Aaron,
and and uh Greg, did you getone?
SPEAKER_01 (48:01):
Yeah, um hate hate losing.
I mean it's it's it's again it'sit's a no state title.
No, we we made it uh state finalfour once.
Um okay.
SPEAKER_07 (48:11):
All right.
So Aaron, I guess you're theonly guy that's ever you know
coached us, you know.
Were you on that?
Well you were play, you were aplayer.
I was playing.
SPEAKER_00 (48:22):
I wasn't I was on the staff until 21 after COVID
by the time they're gonna.
So as a coach, as a coach.
SPEAKER_07 (48:28):
Well, none of us, none of us, we're all sh none of
us not, I guess.
So yeah, I mean thatunfortunately that last game,
you you know, it sticks with youall winter and drives you.
So uh and that I guess that'swhat you try to avoid.
We just haven't had a lot ofsuccess doing it, I guess.
SPEAKER_01 (48:45):
So yeah, that'd be my answer.
I'd agree with Trent.
Coach Walker, hate hate losing,you know.
But like you said, you you learnmore from your losses, you know,
and you just try to move on, um,and and and enjoy the wins, you
know, and and it's it's toughsometimes, you know, because
we're all so competitive, youknow, that you think you're
gonna win every time you go outthere, just like we did with
(49:06):
Coach Brunswick.
We we thought we were gonna winevery didn't matter who we were
playing, you know, and you guyscan vouch for this.
He always he we played a toughschedule, you know, he played
the larger schools.
I remember when I was in highschool, we'd go to Lima Bath or
Elida, you know, and and hewanted to play a really good
schedule.
He wasn't afraid to lose.
You know, and he always saidwe're never we're never gonna
apologize if we lose to ouropponents.
(49:28):
And I always remember that.
You know, that's why I tried toyou know get across to my
players over the years also.
You know, we always wanted toplay a tough schedule.
SPEAKER_03 (49:36):
Coach Brunswick, Mark.
SPEAKER_06 (49:40):
Yeah, it it's losing.
I I'll tell you, Kenny, I I wasnever a very good loser.
You know, honestly, it was sortof my downfall a little bit.
Uh, you know, like they saidwith winning and losing, I you
know, when you win, you got tocherish those moments too a
little bit.
But um, I wish I would haveslowed down a little bit.
(50:00):
I wish in my early years I wouldhave slowed down.
Uh would have cherished thosemoments a little bit more.
Yeah, you do learn from thelosing part of it and so forth.
But uh yeah, it got it gotskewed with me a little bit as
far as that kind of stuff.
Um, but losing, it it stickswith you, no question.
(50:21):
I wish I I wish I had betteroutlets, I guess you would say,
when it came to losing.
Um it drives you, like Trentsaid, no question.
Sometimes it drove me too much.
And um if you want to see theopposites in a father-son or
(50:41):
whatever, you go to LouBrunswick and you go to Mark
Brunswick, and you absolutelyhave opposite personalities.
There's nothing in common there.
You know, dad would be, I'llnever forget the one time I'm
down there in Buffalo.
I wasn't real good at pitchingchanges, and he had it down to
(51:02):
about a batter or two.
He was so good at that.
And so my guy was struggling.
I was trying to get him throughsix so we didn't have to use
another guy and things likethat.
I said, Dad, get over here.
Get over here and just cornerthe dugout.
He said, Son, I'm retired.
And he went back to his icecream cone and started, kept
(51:22):
eating his ice cream cone.
He said, I'll be there when Iget there.
SPEAKER_01 (51:29):
I just want to add something.
Mark, it always amazed me thatyour father was able to, you
know, we didn't have many toughlosses, but driving the bus
home.
Because I remember that when Ifirst started coaching after a
few years, you know, we had ahard time finding bus drivers.
The transportation directorasked me, Greg, you want to uh
get your license to become a busdriver?
I said, No way.
I said, I don't want to drive abus home after a three to two
loss to Elmwood or you know aloop school.
(51:51):
I don't know how your dad didit, but he he was you know, he
just had that calming influenceall the time.
unknown (51:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (51:58):
I guess I can speak for dad.
SPEAKER_05 (52:00):
Yeah, I'll speak for dad here.
I'd say definitely the losses uhwere uh tough on him.
Uh now he only lost 150.
And he won 750.
But um, you know, the losses arereally tough on dad.
As I told you guys earlier,after the one loss in the
district finals, he wasbasically done coaching.
(52:23):
Like I'm not doing this anymorebecause the losses hurt too bad.
And uh he wasn't gonna comeback.
Three days later, he was readyfor acting practice.
Now you learn a lot more fromyour losses, as as dad did too.
But um, you know, um, I justsaid, why don't you just win
them all?
He said, Well, son, it's hard todo.
Well, when Mark in 83, they didwin them all.
(52:46):
It wasn't like every singlegame.
Were you undefeated?
And then in 87, or was it 90,they won every single game, too.
And that's unheard of inbaseball, winning every single
game, and they did it twice hereat Cole Wars.
That's unheard of.
You know, for for many yearswhen dad coached, they had a
couple years where they'rebarely over 500, never under
(53:07):
500, but barely over 500.
It wasn't until Mark and thoseguys uh start playing and they
they start having gaunty recordslike they did in Trent and my
brother Jeff and Logo and thatgroup, they you know, they had
records where they didn't win20.
That was always the goal here,Cole were to win 20.
They won 30.
(53:27):
And that's pretty darn good whenyou only have a 27-game
schedule.
So uh you learn from your winsuh and your losses, mostly your
losses.
So there's a saying you're neveras bad as the bad loss.
You're not that bad.
You aren't as bad.
If you lose 13 to 2, which theCavaliers hardly ever did, um,
(53:50):
you're not that bad.
If you win 20 to nothing, youaren't that good.
You're somewhere in between.
And that's where the coachingcomes in, and that's where, you
know, uh what he was very goodat, and all the coaches on his
panel are good at too, and CoachHarlem was too, was um they
always stay positive.
No matter how crushing it off,sometimes as a coach, it was
(54:12):
just so crushing that you couldjust say, I I can't do this
tomorrow, but the sun comes up,you get ready, and you get get
your guys ready and do it again.
And that's the great thing aboutbaseball, is you get a chance to
do it every day.
You don't have to wait sevendays.
Usually it's the next day andyou're back out there.
Oh, dad uh mark, don't cutyourself short.
(54:32):
He those losses were tough onhim, too.
Very tough.
He did not like them.
He did not like them at all.
Very mild-mannered guy.
And uh, Greg, as far as drivingthat bus back, uh, he drove it
back, but it was always easierwhen he drove it back after a
win and versus a loss.
I can remember a few times wherethey lost a tough game and they
(54:53):
lost in a bad way.
And uh I was with him on the wayhome, and uh he's yelling at the
guys on the bus yet.
You know, he's driving, he'syelling at him looking back
there.
I think one of the guys maybelaughed after a game.
And that's a no-no.
After you lose, you don't laughon the bus.
And one of the guys snickers orsomething, and Lou let them all
have it.
(55:14):
So, you know, I was like, Dad,just focus a little bit.
You gotta get us home here, youknow.
But he did it.
The losses are never easy, butum they're I guess they're
necessary to learn from, butdon't mean you have to like
them.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (55:29):
Well, Aaron, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (55:31):
I'd have to agree.
Yeah, it's definitely thelosses.
Uh, I think when you when youthink about it, uh when you win
games that you didn't play wellin, I think you uh can even be
upset, even though you won.
And like they said, like takeall your wins, uh, don't take
any for granted.
Uh, but it's definitely thelosses are definitely harder.
I know for my dad a little bit.
He didn't always act like theyaffected him too much um at
(55:53):
home.
Uh not in front of me at least,but I know uh speaking with my
mom uh since he's passed andstuff, like he definitely had a
lot of hard times uh with someof those losses, especially
those tournament runs.
Uh you just come up short.
But uh, like they said, you findyour way to bounce back, get up
the next day.
Um baseball's a roller coaster.
(56:14):
In the losses, you find thepositives to tell your team, uh,
just to keep them kind oflevel-headed.
Uh, and then in the wins, you'vegot to find the negatives as
well.
Uh so but just win overall winsand losses, definitely the
losses, definitely uh more toughthan than winning the win, I
think.
SPEAKER_03 (56:31):
Well, I I I'd like to throw mine in there.
I when I was at Buckeye Valley,all of our league games, we
would have to ride with thesoftball team because of the
busting issues that we had.
Anytime there was an ice creamstand along the way, softball
team always made plans to get anice cream code.
(56:56):
And and and then we turned on toHoover Road with the school
guns.
Winner lost, winner lost,softball team was required to
sing the fight call.
So if we lost a game every timethat I was just playing, it was
it was tough.
(57:18):
But I couldn't say anythingbecause the softball coach was
the athletic coach.
He was my boss.
Well, guys, it was great to haveyou guys on here.
Tom Brumman, Greg Wolker, GregVolker, Tom Boom, and Aaron
(57:39):
Harleman.
Aaron Harlem.
Thanks for taking time to be onbaseball coaches on the blue.
SPEAKER_06 (57:46):
Hey, Ken.
Can I interject just one thing?
Yes, go ahead.
Um, because Tom had brought itup with 750 wins with dad.
Um, and I know Trent Trent hadmade the point of, you know,
obviously didn't have a statetitle.
Well, if he would have been in alot of these other divisions, he
(58:09):
would probably have about fouror five by now.
Trent's sitting at about sixhundred and some wins.
Sorry, Trent, I I had to dothis.
He's got uh two sons that wereabsolutely dynamite.
You know, obviously Damon is nowin the in the pro ranks, and
Kobe now is committed and isgoing to Ohio State.
(58:30):
He's a junior this year.
And if Trent hangs on longenough, I don't know, Trent.
I don't know.
Um, I think uh the old Wileyveteran that he might be able to
surpass him in in wins and soforth.
But I just want to give a shoutout once Trent has Trent has one
(58:50):
of the state-of-the-art DivisionI programs in the state of Ohio.
SPEAKER_03 (58:58):
Yes, definitely.
And you know, thanks, Mark.
SPEAKER_07 (59:02):
But uh I always I feel like all all these guys are
uh all these guys are greatcoaches.
What do they always say, fellas?
Not the X's and O's, Jimmy's andJoe's, the Jimmy's and Joe's.
That always helps.
SPEAKER_06 (59:18):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (59:19):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Yeah.
I missed the question there,guys.
SPEAKER_03 (59:28):
Well, guys, thanks for taking time to be on
baseball coaches and button.
SPEAKER_01 (59:33):
You're very well.
Thanks, Kenny.
Thanks for doing that.
Thanks, Ken.
All right, enjoyed seeing youguys.
Yeah, thank you.
Good to see you.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (59:43):
Thanks, uh, I I hit the stop record button.
Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
I'm your host, Coach KenCarpenter.
And today I got a Hall of Famegroup of coaches together.
And uh I would like to start offuh rather than uh uh me
introducing who's going to be onthe show, Mark.
First off, I gotta say congratsfor you being inducted into the
(00:23):
OHS BCA, which here is Ohio, uhHall of Fame.
Uh and if you could to set thestage here for today's show, you
kind of introduce the coachessince you know these guys very
well.
SPEAKER_06 (00:39):
Yeah, it it was probably a couple weeks ago I
reached out uh to all of themhere.
And I wanted to do it after thethe effect of the uh clinic and
so forth.
But uh I got thinking, you know,and Co-Water now has five, five
(00:59):
guys, Lou Brunswick, TrentDeuce, Brian Harlem, Greg
Wilker, and myself that are inthe Hall of Fame now.
And I I really think, and youguys step in and correct me if
I'm wrong on it, I really thinkthat is a an Ohio record.
I thought it was important thatwe get everybody together.
(01:21):
And so what I did is I reachedout to them, Kenny, and see if
we could set a time to geteverybody on at a given time and
talk about our years going allthe way from Coldwater to where
it took us to our present-dayjob and school, and just talk
(01:42):
baseball.
SPEAKER_03 (01:44):
Well, sounds good.
Well, you guys all played forthe legendary Lou Brunswick at
Cold Water High School in Ohio.
And tell me about yourexperience as a player playing
for Coach Brunswick, and we'llstart off.
Let's just start with Trent.
unknown (02:00):
Let's just start with Trent.
SPEAKER_07 (02:03):
Um Well, I had an interesting history because I
actually didn't play, I onlyplayed two years.
Uh I played my sophomore in mysenior year.
Um, I thought I was gonna be thenext John Lway, so I was
focusing on football, and then Irealized I wasn't Lway.
Um so, but Louis, um LouieClinton.
(02:25):
You know, first of all, LouieLouie was uh I appreciate Louie
letting me play my senior yearbecause he was all over me my
junior year to play, and I wasjust I didn't want I was just
hooked on football.
And and I know he was he was nothappy with me, but he did uh his
senior year, he let me play, andit was a great experience.
We won the state title oursenior year.
Um but um but uh but I learned alot from Lou.
(02:49):
I I actually grew up with theBrunswick household.
Jeff's my age, me and Jeff werebuddies from the get-go, and so
I kind of grew up in the house.
So um I learned baseball from avery young age.
I I guess I learned theimportance of baseball because
it was a big deal in theirhousehold, and I was there all
the time.
Um, so I I learned uh a lotgrowing up through the years.
I mean, you could you name it.
(03:10):
I mean, how to throw, how tohit, and you know, your
mentality and so on and soforth.
But uh, you know, just just I Iyou don't have enough hours to
sit here and let me tell youeverything that that that Lou
taught me.
SPEAKER_03 (03:23):
So well, Coach uh Coach Greg Wilford, what tell me
a little bit about it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:28):
Well, I was a 1979 graduate, and uh I was the
youngest of seven, and so CoachBrunswick, he knew our family
very well, and my parents hadthe the utmost respect for him.
And uh Coach Brunswick was hewas more than a he was more than
a teacher and a coach for me.
He was he was a true fatherfigure.
My father passed away when I wasin second grade, so he was a
(03:49):
outstanding role model for me.
Um so I just had a greatexperience playing for him, and
just the lessons that I learnedfrom him, you know, I I tried to
uh take through my my years ofcoaching, you know, and and some
of the main lessons work ethic.
You know, I watch him, and youknow, when you're 16, 17 years
old, you really don't understandhow hard the person is working
(04:09):
at it.
But once I started teaching andcoaching myself, I'm thinking,
how did Coach Brunswick do that?
You know, he would drive amorning bus route, you know, he
he was coach all teach all day,coach all day, and then he'd he
would drive us to the game, andit was just amazing.
You know, so that's a big thing.
But the work ethic, and he justhe treated everyone the same.
You know, it didn't matter ifyou were the best player or if
(04:29):
you were the 16th best player,you know, he treated everyone
with respect.
And those were some of thevaluable lessons I learned from
Coach Brunswick.
And I think that's the reasonwe're all here today.
SPEAKER_03 (04:40):
Yes.
Well, Mark, you were in thehouse, so what's that?
Well, you you were in the house.
You grew up with him as yourdad.
SPEAKER_06 (04:48):
Yeah, it um just going off of what those guys
said, you know, and I always goback to a thing that that Trent
said a couple years ago.
And I think this is importantwith all of us because I I think
it's why the foundation ofColdwater Baseball still goes on
and on and on.
(05:08):
Um is because uh Trent made thecomment.
The thing that stands out aboutyour dad is uh is what I took to
Van W Butler, what what theseother guys took to the other
schools too is the idea of uh hewanted you to learn baseball and
(05:29):
he wanted to excel, he wanted towin, but the biggest thing he
wanted you to be was yourself.
He wanted you to be yourself,whoever that may be, and fall
within the parameters of theprogram and you know go out and
have some fun.
And and and two of the biggestthings that really gets me with
(05:51):
dad is is is the relationshipand the care that I personally
felt with him, with all hisplayers and so forth.
We all had the ultimate goal.
We never went around the theschool saying we're gonna win a
state title.
We always knew that that wasalways a plan because it was
(06:11):
cool water, that's what youstrive for.
But it was just the magicalexperience we had.
It was just something you had toexperience because uh baseball
was was was life and it was itwas a great deal.
SPEAKER_03 (06:28):
Well, Aaron, you're you're here representing your
dad.
Um did did your dad talk to youabout his experiences with coach
Lou Brunswick?
SPEAKER_00 (06:41):
Um, yeah, a little bit.
Uh I know just hearing storiesof Lou from my dad or from
anyone around Cold Water, therewas great things.
Uh kind of like they said, kindof like my dad kind of learned
from Lou and kind of in hiscoaching style, a lot of it had
to do with relationships um withyour own coaching staff and with
the players.
I think building thatrelationship and that trust um
(07:04):
in everyone.
Uh I think that's was a bigthing that my dad took from Lou,
uh playing underneath him andwinning some state titles with
Lou.
And I think that seems like alot of us here learning from Lou
and then so on, like that's howprograms are kind of built
relationships, the foundation,some of those core values that
Lou definitely um instilled inall of you guys, then my dad,
(07:26):
and obviously down to me, andeven Coach Clinky, uh now the
head coach at Coldwater, a lotof those things, um, just are
still in the programs.
Um I knew of Lou a little bit,uh uh, but not too much.
But yeah, he definitely had somestories of Lou.
How he coached was kind of howmy dad then learned how to
become a coach and learned fromLouis.
So that's just a great thing tosee with everyone's day.
SPEAKER_04 (07:48):
So I'd like to read it stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (07:51):
If I could, I'll just have a test down edit for
it.
If everybody, if you could justcheck your volume and make sure
it's not turned all the way up.
If you can just take it down acouple ticks, sometimes that it
creates that echo.
I don't know if you guys areanswering.
SPEAKER_07 (08:08):
It's too loud.
Yeah, a little bit too loud, butyeah.
Okay.
Is that better?
SPEAKER_03 (08:19):
Yeah, I think it is.
Yes.
Okay.
Well, uh, Tom Brunswick.
You're in the uh you're in themiddle of the screen here, and
you are the uh person that'sstepping in to represent your
dad.
(08:39):
Tell me about that experiencegrowing up with your dad and
what he's what he taught youabout the game of baseball.
SPEAKER_05 (08:50):
Okay.
Well, I can speak for Tom asLou's son and playing for him,
and then I can speak for whatLou might say about what the
three gentlemen have uh justtalked about.
Uh being dad's son, um it was anhonor to play for dad.
Um we never felt never felt thepressure of playing for dad when
(09:11):
he was coaching.
That's who he was.
He was our coach.
And when we came home, that'swho he was, was a dad.
And we never talked about thegame very much when we came
home.
Once we came home, the game wasover.
We never really talked about it.
He went his way, I went my way.
And then the next day we did thesame thing.
So um, it was an honor to playfor dad.
(09:32):
Um, it was a privilege.
We set high standards in the70s, graduated in 76.
We wanted to win the state.
We never did.
We made it to the district inthe regionals a few times or
never made the state.
It wasn't until Mark uh in 83and 84, his teams won the state
back to back, and then Jeff in87.
(09:53):
And I was so proud for them, asproud of them as it as we would
have won it.
So we didn't get to win it, butuh, hopefully we raised the bar
pretty high.
And those guys, they stormedright through, they won back to
back, and then they won it in 87again, so um we didn't get a
chance to win it, but um, we areso proud of uh brothers, and
(10:14):
I'll never forget the smile ondad's face when he won it
in '83, and then again in '84.
Huge smile.
You know, it was 25 years beforehe won a state title, before his
teams won a state title.
There were many times he wastelling me, I'm not gonna coach
you because it's too tough whenyou lose.
And I'm sure all the coacheshere have felt that feeling when
(10:36):
you lose that last game.
It's like, wow, we put all thisin here, and sometimes you lose
a close game, could have goneeither way.
That the feeling the next threedays is just tough.
And I remember he told me, I'mnever gonna coach you, Tom.
I said, What?
Yeah, I was only nine years old.
He said, Yeah, I'm not gonnacoach you.
Well, three days later, he'stelling me uh let's go ready
(11:00):
season now.
Playing for dad was um an honor.
It was fun.
It was better when you went twofor four and won the game than
you went 0 for 4 and lost.
But uh regardless, there's upsand downs with that.
And I would say this as speakingfor Lou, to all the coaches here
that um have uh Aaron Tech,Coldwater, Mark and Del Fountain
(11:24):
for the most part, Greg atMillbury Lake, and Trent at uh
Vandalia, their programs areextension of what dad would have
done.
He'd be very proud of uh allthree of you.
All four of you guys.
Um he would say, Yep, you guysare doing it the way we would do
it.
Because I'll tell you, they'reabout relationships.
They relate to the kids firstbefore they're baseball players.
(11:47):
That's one thing dad did was umhe he knew the players before he
knew what what they could do onthe baseball field.
Um, he built trust with them, heknew them as as people, and then
uh, you know, they're a personfirst, then a second baseman,
then a short stuff.
He built long-lastingrelationships, and I thought was
the the best thing he did.
(12:07):
And all the coaches on on thisboard right here have done the
same thing.
They got relationships that goon and on and on forever.
So we would be proud of all thecoaches here.
And uh to have five guys thatplayed at Coldwater and then on
the Hall of Fame feels specialto him.
SPEAKER_03 (12:28):
Definitely well let me ask you, Coach, the um did
your experience playing atColdwater as a baseball player
uh play any sort of role in youbecoming a baseball coach?
SPEAKER_01 (12:46):
Is that for me, Ken?
SPEAKER_03 (12:48):
Uh coach Coach uh Trent.
SPEAKER_07 (12:51):
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, I mean, uh so when I wentto college, you know, they asked
me my major, I said eligibility.
And uh then I had to come upwith a real answer at some
point.
And uh so I um like I said, I Igrew up, I grew up really at the
Brunswick House.
(13:11):
My a lot of my youth was there.
I mean, it's what I knew.
And then my first couple yearsof college, I played at Bowling
Green, and we never made a lotof tournament runs at BG, so
we'd be done kind of early, andI'd come home and I'd always
throw BP for Louie because theywere always deep in the
tournament.
And I guess it just kind of grewon me, you know.
And uh, so I decided that's whatI wanted to do.
(13:31):
So yeah, it had a huge impact onme.
I teach solar space kind of likeLouie did.
Um so um without a doubt.
And and I'm gonna add to whatMark said about I I always
remember this.
We always had fun, like Louisalways had fun, and and I
coached with Tom and for theMariners, man, we had fun.
Like Tommy had fun, like he heit wasn't a stress thing, man.
(13:55):
He could always lighten the moodto get you to play in that mode
um where you're not, you know,your sphincter's not too tight.
And uh I and Louie always didthat.
We would laugh, we just alwayslaugh.
There's always something tolaugh at.
I just I always remember that.
Just keep it loose, you know,don't take it too seriously.
We were all serious competitors,but there, you know, there's got
(14:15):
to be a fine line there.
So that that was another bigthing I I got.
SPEAKER_01 (14:20):
Coach Wilker.
Yeah, just uh piggyback whatTrent said, you know, just uh
Coach Brunswick, it was aboutembracing that competition.
You know, he he loved tocompete, you know, and that's a
big thing I always try to getacross uh to my players, you
know, enjoy the competition, youknow, win or lose.
You know, the other thing I wantto talk about was just the
tradition.
You know, I got into coaching.
I remember Coach Brunswick cameto me because I'd I was working
(14:42):
uh locally, and uh he said,Coach, he goes, uh Greg, why
don't you why don't you whydon't you coach a pony league
team?
And Mark may remember this.
Mark's uh is between us.
We had two pony league teams,and a couple of my buddies
coached Mark's team, and acouple myself and a couple of
other buddies, we coached theother team.
And uh that was a very talented,very coachable group, obviously,
(15:04):
because they went on and wonback-to-back championships a few
years later.
And I I was hooked on coachingat that point because I just I
love that group of kids, youknow, and and I just remember
competing as I'm not if Markremembers this, but I can still
remember Mark when we played ourteam played you guys, and and we
we ran a squeeze play and beatyou guys.
I can't remember who waspitching, but you were catching
and you were pretty fired up.
(15:25):
And your dad goes, Mark, theythey beat you fair and square.
Well, several years later, we'replaying.
I brought my team down from LakeHigh School, and I had a pretty
good team then.
And one of my players hit athree-run homer to tie it up in
the in the seventh or top of theseventh.
Coach Brunswick beats us in thebottom of the seventh with a
squeeze play.
You know, he just looks at me inthe dugout and just flashes that
grin, you know.
(15:46):
And so he that's like but uh alot of a lot of great memories,
you know, just that tradition,and and I hope they continue
passing on down.
SPEAKER_03 (15:55):
Well, Mark, you were uh you know, playing for your
dad.
Did that have uh influence onyou becoming a baseball coach?
SPEAKER_06 (16:02):
Uh Tom and I didn't have a chance.
Yeah, we had to.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm kidding.
Yeah.
Honestly, with all that, um Iwent, Kenny, it's interesting
because I didn't know where mycoaching career was gonna go
(16:23):
because I got drafted by theMets in '84.
And and I'm I'm not, you know, II face it straight on.
My years of professionalbaseball, I went in the third
round.
I was pretty good uh coming outof high school and everything,
but uh my professional daysweren't that good.
Uh it was a rough life, it was arough go for me.
(16:47):
And um I know I spent I I know Ispent a couple years there just
trying to find a job, hopefullyget through four years of of
college and see once where thatwent.
So the coaching stuff uh was wasa byproduct of what my years
with Pro Bowl was.
(17:08):
And I just that was my only wayto stay in the game.
And so I wanted to give back alittle bit in regards to you
know my knowledge that I hadwith kids, but because of my
experience there, my time was alittle bit longer getting into
coaching.
My first year of coaching was atthe year of 29, I was 29 years
(17:29):
old.
So um, you know, it wasn'tcoaching right away because I I
truly thought I was gonna be uha big league player at one given
time.
Obviously didn't work out, andso I had a couple years there
where I was I was trying to findmyself.
SPEAKER_03 (17:48):
Makes sense.
Well, Tom, what what are yourthoughts?
SPEAKER_05 (17:58):
I also was drafted uh out of high school, not as
high as Mark was, but I wasdrafted.
So I got a chance, and um once Igot the chance, I took it.
And uh as Mark mentioned, theminor league days are tough.
You're gone for six straightmonths.
Back then there's no cellphones, no way to connect it no
(18:18):
way home, there's no phone boostat 7:30 on Saturday night, all
collect.
That's how I talked to myparents.
I wrote letters.
Uh but I my dad told me if andwhen you sign, you are gonna go
to college.
And I said, Well, I'll take youradvice on that, Dad.
But you know, I think I'm gonnabe a big leader, like we all
(18:41):
think we're gonna be.
But let me tell you, once Ishowed up at the spring
training, there's a pretty goodball players, not only in
America, but uh the othercountries too.
Venezuela and Puerto Rico andDominican, we know where they
come from.
I mean, they're they're verygood ball players, so I thought,
oh boy, I better go to college,and I'm glad I did.
That's the best advice dad evergave me.
(19:03):
It's the best thing I ever didbecause by the time I was
released for the third time, Ihad a college degree.
It's like, go ahead and releaseme, I'll just go teach.
And I was ready to I was readyto do something regular, you
know, outside of a Pro Bowlafter doing it for seven or
eight years.
So as I was playing, I tried tolearn as much as I could about
(19:25):
the game.
About what would be good for ahigh school player.
What's good?
What would help them win?
Well, you know, I probablylearned more from my dad than I
did any of those pro coaches.
The pro coaches, you know,they're more focused on the high
draft picks, they're they'rethey're but I learned more from
(19:46):
my dad.
And maybe it wasn't on thefield, but I learned how to
treat people, treat them as uhrespectful.
It doesn't matter if he's thebest player or the 16th best
player, best player.
You treat them all the same, andyou win as a team and you lose
as a team.
So I thought uh maybe I'll trycoaching.
(20:07):
So I started coaching a littleJB over at Salina and uh did
that and coached the Grand LakeMariners for 12 years, um, the
head coach a few of those years,I at least 10 of them, and then
coached Cower Acme 23 years.
So a lot of different levels.
But uh, you know, speaking fordad to the coaches on this panel
(20:31):
here today, he would say justkeep it simple.
It's not about exit level, it'snot about radar, it's about
feeling the ball, doingfundamentals, throwing strikes,
getting the butt down, gettingthe relay, making plays.
Many times when he coachedteams, we might not have the
(20:53):
best looking uniform.
The other teams in the otheruniform might have looked better
and stronger, bigger andstronger.
But the kids in the co-uniformsalways look better at final
metals and always had disciplinefor the game.
A lot of times the cavaliershave a three, the other team had
(21:14):
to be two.
You had to beat it.
You had to beat the colourcavaliers.
Um mistakes they happen.
Discipline, fundamentals, keepit fun, a lot of passion.
(21:35):
Set your goals high and uh youknow, if the state turned win
the win the MAC, you know, sure.
Uh but the the goal is always towin the state.
And it's seven times we've donethat for uh it's a lot of years
going on too, but they stilldon't win.
It's hard, it's really hard.
You know, it's just thankful forgetting seven state titles.
(21:57):
But I would say this one, Dad.
Um When the season starts, hedoesn't just say, guys, this
year we'll win an estate.
He coaches every team the same.
You start from day one and justbuild blocks.
One day at a time.
Try to get better each day.
You know, be a be a be a goodteammate.
Do what it takes to win.
Don't worry about individualawards.
(22:18):
Let's do this as a team.
And I'd say all the coaches onthis panel exactly, exactly.
And coach Harlan exactly thesame way.
You'd be very proud.
SPEAKER_03 (22:29):
Well, Aaron, you were uh currently coaching there
at Coldwater, and you know, Iguess you know, I I I have to
ask you, the uh you're youplayed in Coldwater, correct?
SPEAKER_00 (22:44):
Yes, yep.
SPEAKER_03 (22:45):
So did that play a role in you becoming a coach?
SPEAKER_00 (22:49):
Yeah, I definitely did.
Um growing up uh with my dadbeing the head coach ever since
I was one, I think was actuallythe first year he was the head
coach.
Um being a bat boy all thoseyears, just seeing how he
coached just the program ingeneral.
Um I just kind of fell in lovewith baseball, sports, all
sports really I played, but likebaseball is my favorite.
I think by the time I playedwith him for the those four
(23:12):
years, uh by the time my senioryear came around, I kind of had
an idea.
I was going to play baseball atSinclair, uh JUCO.
Um, but I knew, I mean, I wasn'tgoing big leagues like the
Runswick over here, but I kindof had an idea that I wanted to
coach, so I was gonna go intoeducation uh and then eventually
coaching.
And then while I was in college,uh my dad kind of gave me those
(23:35):
first opportunities.
I started coaching Pony Leaguefor my brother, my younger
brother Evan.
Um two years of pony.
Uh and then as he got into highschool there, I also coached him
junior acne.
Um so those are kind of mygetting my feet wet in the
coaching uh world over here atColdwater.
Um loved it.
And then obviously, with megoing to school for education,
(23:56):
uh, once I moved back home fromcollege, uh I became part of the
staff over at Coldwater,coaching JV uh for two years
there uh while my dad was stillthe head coach.
And then eventually, uh nowrecently it'll be my fourth year
uh with the Varsity staff underCoach Clint East since my dad
passed.
Uh but yeah, I think justcoaching, uh playing under my
(24:19):
dad, coaching with my dad therea little bit, and obviously um
just the program in generaldefinitely led me uh to wanting
to coach and being with the kidsand seeing those relationships
um develop and how relationshipswith players can go a long ways.
I remember growing up and mydad's former players would come
up to him at whatever event,where we were.
(24:41):
My dad kind of knew everybody,and a part of that was through
coaching.
A lot of people from Coldwaterplayed for him, came back to
Coldwater, and knew him as CoachHarlemer.
I think that was a big thing tome that I'd love to see, uh, and
I want to be part of that.
So that definitely core tobaseball under my dad, and
obviously Lou starting it uhwith the program definitely led
(25:01):
me to this trajectory to coachwho I am today.
SPEAKER_03 (25:07):
Well, I I got a two-part question.
What would one change you wouldlike to see in high school
baseball and a positive that youtake away from the game today?
And we'll go back to you, uh,Coach Deuce.
SPEAKER_07 (25:25):
Um the positive is uh, you know, just despite all
the travel ball that's going onum today, I I think there's
there's still a lot of of heartand soul that goes into to high
school baseball.
I think there kids are are theythey're sold out in spring.
(25:45):
They really are.
And it's a and it's differentthan summer ball.
It's more of a it's more of ateam attitude.
Um and you're you're playing infront of fans.
You know, sometimes you getsometimes you get some nice
crowds.
You don't really get that a lotof that in summer ball.
Um and it and I think it teachesit teaches kids how to it's more
of a college attitude becauseyou're going to class um and
(26:08):
you're playing ball and you'rerepresenting your school um and
you're representing your youknow your community.
Um so I I still think it's it'sthere's a lot of positives in
that.
And um, so I still think it's abig deal, despite you know, the
the rise of of travel ball.
Um what was the other part ofthe question, Ken?
SPEAKER_03 (26:25):
Uh change what you would like to think.
SPEAKER_07 (26:28):
Oh, changes.
Uh I mean the only thing I'dreally I think they've made a
lot of good changes.
Um I I think once you get to thedistrict round of tournament, it
should be it should be a doubleelimination.
Um a lot of states do that.
Um I I'd like to see I I thinkit's possible, especially now
with all the turf fields.
You know, I know they're worriedabout rainouts, you know, and
(26:50):
there's not enough time.
There is enough time now withall the turf fields.
There's enough around to to doit, um, where you can play a
best two out of three and uh andyou can do it in a three,
four-day period.
Um so I I'd like to see that.
That's one change I'd like tosee in Ohio.
Once you get past, you know, getpast the section all round, um,
you get to the districts, and Ithink that'd be a cool thing.
SPEAKER_03 (27:14):
Well, Coach Walker, you uh uh what is the positive
you'd like that you've noticedand what would you like to see
change?
SPEAKER_01 (27:21):
Definitely positive would be the uh quality of
coaches.
Uh up in northwest Ohio here,the coaching was just
incredible.
I think we played numerous tripsto the state from the streets uh
between Ferrisburg, Maumee, andso on.
(27:42):
So they're probably coachingoutstanding.
I believe it's like crackmarkseven, like crackmark seven.
Correct.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, whereas if you're gonnanever win flip away.
So I hope it just doesn't beclose to five.
SPEAKER_03 (28:09):
Mark, how do you feel about this?
SPEAKER_06 (28:14):
Well, on the well, on the button, just denominating
with the rest of the guys on thepositive stuff.
Yeah, it's um the kids arecommitted.
They they really are are arecommitted, like Trent said, to
start the spring and so forth.
There's just a lot more dynamicsfor the kids nowadays, uh, a lot
(28:35):
more opportunities and so forth.
Um kids can practice as long asthey want to want to and so
forth game.
Not negative, but things thatchange.
Would be I like the idea of whatyou talked about, but maybe like
(28:58):
if we reach a lot of Windowsseries, maybe two about three,
something like that, a littlebit.
And I think discuss that quite abit.
SPEAKER_04 (29:08):
Um, how do you feel about it?
SPEAKER_05 (29:26):
Oh, as a positive, oh, there's so many.
There's so many.
Uh Greg mentioned uh the thequality of coaches is is
tremendous.
Um I've been to the State Clinicthe last two years, last year
when Trent Gun Inducted and thisyear when Market.
And uh it's amazing the theamount of good coaches there
(29:48):
are, and uh which is soimportant because um you know
it's it's up to them and thenext generation to pass it on.
We gotta keep the game going anduh to pass it on from one
generation to another.
Uh to some they might say it's aslow game.
(30:08):
Well, it's not if you look atall the things that happened
between the pitches and uh dothe things right, and the
coaches need to keep making itfun, keep making it important.
Great coaching.
Um speaking for my dad, youknow, back in when he started,
maybe that's the case, not thecase.
I know um some coaches uh backthen maybe just did it because
(30:31):
they needed a coach.
Um, you know, it's a stipend.
Uh not always, but uh there's alot of good coaches in this
area.
There's a lot of good coachesstatewide.
There's a lot of good coachesall over the place.
Um I think it's good andcompetitive.
I love uh the the competition inthe spring.
(30:51):
The seven divisions is good.
Um it gives you know it giveseveryone a chance, especially in
the upper level, which Trent wasdoing it.
You know, that it was not fairfor him to play that some of the
schools are three to four timeslarger than them.
Um I think it's a great game.
(31:12):
I'm okay with the changes thatthey made, and I don't think
that they need to make a lot ofchange.
Speaking for my daddy, uh whathe probably to know it probably
wants to work.
I remember the change growth in35, 32, and 34, 38 and when you
(31:37):
square one, we all need thatsound that I would say you would
like to get, but unfortunately,you know, there's sometimes when
I chose that.
You know, I like the ten in thegame.
(31:58):
I like that's going to gap alittle bit more.
Um, but that's not going tohappen easier for something we
can do.
But I think it's a great game.
I don't think we need to do toomuch with it.
If Daddy was here today, I thinkyou'd say the same.
You know, the kids count asanything.
Um you know, I don't think weneed to do too much.
(32:19):
It's a great game.
Let's let's keep going.
SPEAKER_03 (32:23):
Well, excuse me, Aaron, um you're the young guy
on this panel, and uh, you know,what is there a change that you
would like to see?
And is there some positive apositive that you've noticed?
SPEAKER_00 (32:36):
Um, going off positives, uh, really agree with
what Trent said at the start.
Um the just the spring game, thehigh school teams, I think
there's definitely value insome, especially this area of
the programs that really investinto the spring ball and not as
much into that select travelball.
I know that's a big thing uhkind of now, and that's kind of
more of a negative, I would say,would be the select ball,
(32:59):
especially at a youth age, but Iget the high school level.
But just the spring ball.
I think the competition isgreat, uh, especially in the
school that's really value it.
Uh it means a lot to schools.
Uh, I know, like Coldwater andLake and Vendelia, um, and you
get those atmospheres uh atVeterans Field in a big league
game, and it means a lot.
It leads me a lot to thecommunity, and I think the kids
(33:21):
see that as well.
Um, other positives recentlythat they've changed, uh, I know
like the technology now thatthey're using uh with in-game.
I know we used it at Coldwaterthe last couple years with the
coach to catcher communication.
Uh some people might not love itbecause catchers don't have to
call games anymore.
(33:42):
But uh sorry to tell you, evenif a catcher's going to college,
the college coach is stillcalling a lot of the games.
I know I caught in college abouteight years ago, and my pitching
coach, uh Essen Claire, wasstill calling games.
So I mean you could say somepeople don't agree with that,
and now they're doing the thecoach to catcher and pitcher.
Um I think coaches candefinitely take a benefit from
(34:04):
being able to talk to thepitcher kind of in your ear.
I know it's a trial this year.
I know it's something that we'regonna try to implement, and
that's something I think CoachClinky should have to figure out
how much can I talk to thispitcher compared to that
pitcher.
Like, can he handle him and myhim and my his ear?
And like, how much can I say?
Am I just gonna call pitches forthis pitcher?
Can I tell him, hey, you're nottalking your glove, you need to
(34:26):
stride out more, like you needto slow down, like just the pace
as well.
Some of those things I think arebeneficial.
Um and I know they're doing thewhole the second or the first
base, having the running basenext year in Ohio, uh like the
orange base or whatnot.
Um, some people don't love it,some people do.
I'm indifferent about it.
Um, I think in the end it'sgonna avoid, I guess, more
(34:48):
injuries if you see that.
Um, but I don't think that'sgonna affect the game too much.
I know they're doing it incollege already.
I'm gonna be surprised if theMLB implements it here in the
next five years as well.
Uh but one thing I think that Icould like to see change, um,
also what I can talked about, umjust the tournament in general,
how you can kind of make it adouble elimination or a best two
(35:09):
out of three.
I know just thinking of othersports, football, normally the
best team always wins.
Right?
Baseball, that might not be thecase based off if you have one
good pitcher that you have tothen go face, you might have the
better team overall.
But if you got to go face onedominant arm that's throwing 95,
uh you you might lose that game.
(35:29):
You gotta play them, that's howto play them.
Uh arms, then you might stillarms be able to move on.
Um pitching wise.
Um if you don't have thatdominant arm, you don't have
that tough arm, uh I thinkthat's one thing, and I've got
(35:52):
one thing too.
Um I would like to see change alittle bit.
SPEAKER_04 (35:57):
That's two out of three, best two out of three, uh
for the thing, higher thanhigher than you know, I I I
gotta ask this question.
SPEAKER_03 (36:09):
Funniest story or forest memory at cold water or
coach.
Trent, we'll start with you.
SPEAKER_04 (36:18):
We'll start with you.
SPEAKER_07 (36:21):
Um funniest memory of Louis?
Is that what you is that whatyou're asking?
SPEAKER_03 (36:27):
Yeah, funniest memory or fondest memory, either
one.
SPEAKER_07 (36:31):
Um well, I I I obviously have a lot of them.
Um probably when he got thrownout at Parkway, um and our AD,
Mr.
Lobianco, who's also the fatherof all the players had to come
in and coach us.
Um so it was a home run ball,and it was oh my god, it was
(36:51):
six-foot foul.
And I I don't I don't know.
I don't know.
They called it fair.
I don't know if it was Alhard orwhat.
They called it fair, and uhLouis just went bonkers.
Yeah, and uh yeah, he gottossed, and uh I don't know why
that one.
I mean, we had so many, like Isaid, we won the state title our
senior.
There's just a lot of greatmemory.
(37:12):
I don't know what it was thatone was just I guess I never saw
Louie that upset.
I mean, he was just he went offon this dude, and uh yeah, and
and in came Lobo, a little guy,a little Italian guy coaching
us.
It was actually kind of it waskind of surreal.
We came back and beat him, itwas a big game, so yeah, I I
(37:32):
don't know why that one kind ofsticks out in my mind.
SPEAKER_01 (37:36):
Coach Wolver uh a couple of them.
First one who was uh responsiblefor for doing the field early
on.
Um but we walked out there andthere were actually two foul
lines, and uh the custodian thatput the lines down, he had
problems with the the chalkerthere.
So I remember Coach Brunswicktalking to umpires.
He goes, Well, today we're gonnaplay the inside line instead of
(37:58):
the outside line.
You know, I always remember thatone.
Um the other one, my senioryear, we lost uh because Coach
Brunswick, he uh he was so usedto making tournament runs, we
lost the first game of thetournament at St.
Mary's.
They had a uh gentleman named uhSisko was on the mound.
Galen, I don't know if you guysremember, Galen Sisko was a
pitching coach there years agofor Kansas City.
(38:20):
His son had a third ball we justcouldn't hit.
We lost five to two or five tothree.
And Coach Brunswick, you know,just we had a good group of kids
and he didn't he didn't want theseason to end.
So he somehow he got us in thetournament at Indy in Indiana,
and we were playing some reallygood competition.
It was towards the end of May.
You know, whereas most coacheswould have been ready to you
know cash in, call the season.
He just wanted to keep playing.
(38:40):
So we played some really goodcompetition, and and Coach that
the umpire was terrible, and hegot tossed out.
And again, I didn't see CoachFriends get upset like that very
often.
He got tossed out of the game,and back then there was no
assistant coach.
So he's flashing signs from thebus.
You know, the the players, I'mout there coaching first or
third base, and you know, he'sputting a squeeze sign on, and
and uh it was a lot of fun.
(39:02):
It was a great memory comingback from Indiana, it was a
great way to end our season.
SPEAKER_06 (39:07):
Mark can to add on to that story, because that was
a story I was gonna bring up.
I was gonna ask Coach Wilker ifhe remembered that.
And do you remember CoachWilker?
The guy's name was Hi Cobb.
SPEAKER_01 (39:23):
I absolutely do.
And he threw more.
SPEAKER_06 (39:25):
Hi Cobb we were playing to Caleb, Indiana, and
they were ranked number one inthe state.
Yes.
And we were hanging around andwe were really playing some
pretty good ball.
And I was a bat boy at thattime, yeah.
So Louie Badgett and all thoseguys were in the stands, they
were yelling at the umpires andso forth.
(39:45):
And actually, Dad got thrown outwhen he said, Don't let the
rankings intimidate yourdecisions.
And that umpire turned aroundand kicked him out, and he went
straight to the bus.
And when he flashed the leftturn signal, that meant steal.
When he went to the right one,that was hit and run.
(40:09):
And he flashed him.
And the coach that helped withthat, Coach Wilker, wasn't it
Mike Romac?
SPEAKER_01 (40:18):
Was Mike Romack in there?
Possibly, but I don't I don'tthink we had an assistant coach
in, Mark.
I he didn't have an assistantbecause it's like I interject
you here.
SPEAKER_05 (40:30):
Yeah, go ahead, all right.
So we're talking uh dad likebeing a hothead and stuff, you
know.
And uh these two two things he'sbeen thrown out of two games.
Well, I got a third.
Uh this bus thing happened inthe early 60s when we're at uh
Wapauck St.
Joe, and I was a five-year-oldbat boy, and uh basically all I
(40:53):
did was play it in the dirt,steal people's gloves.
I wasn't much of a bat boy.
But uh sitting on the bus, andall of a sudden dad showed up on
the bus.
I said, What are you doing inhere, Dad?
It's cold out there.
I know, but what are you doing?
He said, I got kicked out.
I said, Oh, okay.
All right, there's that WapakSt.
Joe.
And he did, he did the turnsignal thing there too.
(41:16):
You know, the left one was asteal, the right one was a butt.
So he had practice for thatdecal tournament.
He'd already done that.
And yes, Mike Romack was the uhcoach back in '62 when Louis got
thrown out of that game.
So yeah.
So um the three games he gotthrown out, we've mentioned here
today, and that's probably theonly three I remember him
getting thrown out.
(41:37):
But um the turn signal and thebusting is uh two of those
things he did um getting thrownout.
SPEAKER_04 (41:45):
Um getting thrown out.
SPEAKER_03 (41:48):
Well, you know, I I gotta say, you know, he prepared
for every situation.
But uh Aaron, uh what is uh yourfondest memory playing at
Coldwater or 20th Coldwater?
SPEAKER_00 (42:05):
Uh yeah, my fondest memory will definitely be my
sophomore year uh whenever wewon state in 2014.
Uh I started catching mysophomore year there.
That was when my dad's firststate title.
Uh I think winning it his firstone uh was really special.
He could be a part of that team.
Um being a bat boy going up.
(42:25):
There was lots of times when hewas close.
Uh lost finals, the lost and thefinal 2014.
Finally getting his first uhwith me on the real team uh
special for me and special uhfor him as well.
That was gonna be my fondestmemory.
But going off kind of you guysare talking about uh I don't
(42:47):
have too many memories of Lou.
Like I said, I mean I'm theyoung guy here.
But anytime Lou made his walkover to uh the diamond, whether
it was practice or practiceafter games, I think my dad did
a really good job of letting thekids that might not have known
who Lou was, uh like who he was.
He was the former coach, umeverything he used to say,
(43:08):
anything that he knows Loutaught him.
That's what my dad kind of usedto say.
He kind of learned from Lou.
I think anything, and then wekind of knew who Lou was.
Uh obviously, me growing up, Iknew who he was, but some of my
friends or my teammates mightnot have.
And I think anytime he cameover, he would talk, pull a few
guys aside, whether it'spitchers, um, or he'd sit there
and kind of talk to the wholeteam at times.
(43:28):
I remember when I was in highschool, and I think everyone
just really kind of listened.
Uh Lou definitely had a lot ofknowledge about the game in
general and uh all those statetitles he won.
I think everyone would just sitthere and listen, and then we'd
eat I remember one time we leftpractice, and uh one of my good
friends, uh not the biggestbaseball guy, uh, but we kind of
(43:49):
left practice and we were likegetting our cars and he kind of
looks over at us, he goes, Dang,that that loo guy is he kinda
knows a lot about baseball,doesn't he?
And then we kind of looked at itand we're like we're like, Yeah.
Like he won a lot of statetitles, man.
So even he even he was sittingthere listening uh to what Lou
had to say to us as we were youknow 17, 18 year olds.
Uh so yeah, those are some greatmemories I have playing at
(44:11):
Coldwater.
SPEAKER_06 (44:13):
Hey Kenny, Ken, can I interject there going back
with Aaron because being able tohave a father-son relationship
and coaching and and and and atColdwater like Tom and myself
have definitely had.
Aaron, share with us what whatwas your fondest, fondest memory
(44:35):
type thing with you and your dadin coaching or even playing in
those years?
SPEAKER_00 (44:43):
Um yeah, I mean the fondest I'd say while I was
playing for him was definitelywinning state with him, I guess
the biggest moment I kind ofsaid.
But playing uh with under my dadand then him being dad at home,
uh kind of like you said, Markand Tom uh with Lou.
Most of the time when we were athome, uh we kind of went our own
(45:03):
ways.
Uh would eat dinner, mom wouldonly have dinner ready after
games and whatnot.
Um but we really wouldn't talktoo much about the game unless I
brought it up.
So I think that was one thing Ialways respected uh from his
standpoint, um, whether it was agood game or bad game.
If it was a good game, normallymom's chippy or my siblings, I
was the oldest, my siblings aretalking about the game and
(45:23):
whatnot.
Uh, but even if it was like abad game and we lost, um dad
wouldn't really bring it up toomuch unless I asked, and
normally I asked.
And I had I had my opinions uhthat I would I would say like
why didn't we do this?
Or and sometimes he would justbe like, you just play, like you
don't worry about what hisdecisions he made.
But I think at times he alsolistened.
(45:44):
Uh I think hearing thatperspective uh from a player, um
what the boy what the guys thinkuh as well, uh not just other
coaches, uh, could definitelybenefit him.
But um yeah, it was a great uhpoint of him.
He definitely held me to ahigher standard, I would say, uh
than anyone else.
Uh just how I went about mybusiness, I think, growing up,
(46:05):
playing the game, um, alwaysexpecting me to be the leader of
the team.
Uh not just me, but not justfriends.
A lot of my friends.
A lot of my friends.
I grew up with a bunch ofbuddies eight, seven, or eight,
all the way to we were seniors.
Uh, and them being around mydad, he definitely pushed, I
noticed, and he even said thisafter we graduated uh to a lot
(46:26):
of my buddies.
Uh he was able to push us morethan he kind of could other kids
because he knew uh how theywould react, and they knew my
dad well enough being my friendover the years and him coaching
them when we were eight, all theway until we were 18.
Um but I think that's uh a goodthing about coaching.
He knew when, and I'm startingto learn a little bit of how you
(46:48):
can coach certain guys.
You can't coach every guy thesame.
Um other guys can handle certaincriticisms.
Sometimes you gotta be allpositive to a player because
he's not gonna handle handle theharsh stuff.
Uh, but I think that wassomething that he was good with,
not just with me uh as a sonplaying for him, but also other
people as well.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (47:08):
Well I I'd like to ask this of every podcast guest,
and I kind of have an idea whatyour answer is gonna be, but I'm
gonna try anyways.
Coach Deuce, hate losing or lovewinning?
SPEAKER_07 (47:27):
Um both.
Um I mean I think I think youprobably learn more from the
losses, unfortunately.
And they and they stick with youlonger, so so you probably hate
losing.
Maybe more than winning,unfortunately.
We've never won a state title,so I mean, every every year I've
(47:50):
coached has been a loss the lastgame.
So I've I haven't been asfortunate as you know, Aaron,
and and uh Greg, did you getone?
SPEAKER_01 (48:01):
Yeah, um hate hate losing.
I mean it's it's it's again it'sit's a no state title.
No, we we made it uh state finalfour once.
Um okay.
SPEAKER_07 (48:11):
All right.
So Aaron, I guess you're theonly guy that's ever you know
coached us, you know.
Were you on that?
Well you were play, you were aplayer.
I was playing.
SPEAKER_00 (48:22):
I wasn't I was on the staff until 21 after COVID
by the time they're gonna.
So as a coach, as a coach.
SPEAKER_07 (48:28):
Well, none of us, none of us, we're all sh none of
us not, I guess.
So yeah, I mean thatunfortunately that last game,
you you know, it sticks with youall winter and drives you.
So uh and that I guess that'swhat you try to avoid.
We just haven't had a lot ofsuccess doing it, I guess.
SPEAKER_01 (48:45):
So yeah, that'd be my answer.
I'd agree with Trent.
Coach Walker, hate hate losing,you know.
But like you said, you you learnmore from your losses, you know,
and you just try to move on, um,and and and enjoy the wins, you
know, and and it's it's toughsometimes, you know, because
we're all so competitive, youknow, that you think you're
gonna win every time you go outthere, just like we did with
(49:06):
Coach Brunswick.
We we thought we were gonna winevery didn't matter who we were
playing, you know, and you guyscan vouch for this.
He always he we played a toughschedule, you know, he played
the larger schools.
I remember when I was in highschool, we'd go to Lima Bath or
Elida, you know, and and hewanted to play a really good
schedule.
He wasn't afraid to lose.
You know, and he always saidwe're never we're never gonna
apologize if we lose to ouropponents.
(49:28):
And I always remember that.
You know, that's why I tried toyou know get across to my
players over the years also.
You know, we always wanted toplay a tough schedule.
SPEAKER_03 (49:36):
Coach Brunswick, Mark.
SPEAKER_06 (49:40):
Yeah, it it's losing.
I I'll tell you, Kenny, I I wasnever a very good loser.
You know, honestly, it was sortof my downfall a little bit.
Uh, you know, like they saidwith winning and losing, I you
know, when you win, you got tocherish those moments too a
little bit.
But um, I wish I would haveslowed down a little bit.
(50:00):
I wish in my early years I wouldhave slowed down.
Uh would have cherished thosemoments a little bit more.
Yeah, you do learn from thelosing part of it and so forth.
But uh yeah, it got it gotskewed with me a little bit as
far as that kind of stuff.
Um, but losing, it it stickswith you, no question.
(50:21):
I wish I I wish I had betteroutlets, I guess you would say,
when it came to losing.
Um it drives you, like Trentsaid, no question.
Sometimes it drove me too much.
And um if you want to see theopposites in a father-son or
(50:41):
whatever, you go to LouBrunswick and you go to Mark
Brunswick, and you absolutelyhave opposite personalities.
There's nothing in common there.
You know, dad would be, I'llnever forget the one time I'm
down there in Buffalo.
I wasn't real good at pitchingchanges, and he had it down to
(51:02):
about a batter or two.
He was so good at that.
And so my guy was struggling.
I was trying to get him throughsix so we didn't have to use
another guy and things likethat.
I said, Dad, get over here.
Get over here and just cornerthe dugout.
He said, Son, I'm retired.
And he went back to his icecream cone and started, kept
(51:22):
eating his ice cream cone.
He said, I'll be there when Iget there.
SPEAKER_01 (51:29):
I just want to add something.
Mark, it always amazed me thatyour father was able to, you
know, we didn't have many toughlosses, but driving the bus
home.
Because I remember that when Ifirst started coaching after a
few years, you know, we had ahard time finding bus drivers.
The transportation directorasked me, Greg, you want to uh
get your license to become a busdriver?
I said, No way.
I said, I don't want to drive abus home after a three to two
loss to Elmwood or you know aloop school.
(51:51):
I don't know how your dad didit, but he he was you know, he
just had that calming influenceall the time.
unknown (51:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (51:58):
I guess I can speak for dad.
SPEAKER_05 (52:00):
Yeah, I'll speak for dad here.
I'd say definitely the losses uhwere uh tough on him.
Uh now he only lost 150.
And he won 750.
But um, you know, the losses arereally tough on dad.
As I told you guys earlier,after the one loss in the
district finals, he wasbasically done coaching.
(52:23):
Like I'm not doing this anymorebecause the losses hurt too bad.
And uh he wasn't gonna comeback.
Three days later, he was readyfor acting practice.
Now you learn a lot more fromyour losses, as as dad did too.
But um, you know, um, I justsaid, why don't you just win
them all?
He said, Well, son, it's hard todo.
Well, when Mark in 83, they didwin them all.
(52:46):
It wasn't like every singlegame.
Were you undefeated?
And then in 87, or was it 90,they won every single game, too.
And that's unheard of inbaseball, winning every single
game, and they did it twice hereat Cole Wars.
That's unheard of.
You know, for for many yearswhen dad coached, they had a
couple years where they'rebarely over 500, never under
(53:07):
500, but barely over 500.
It wasn't until Mark and thoseguys uh start playing and they
they start having gaunty recordslike they did in Trent and my
brother Jeff and Logo and thatgroup, they you know, they had
records where they didn't win20.
That was always the goal here,Cole were to win 20.
They won 30.
(53:27):
And that's pretty darn good whenyou only have a 27-game
schedule.
So uh you learn from your winsuh and your losses, mostly your
losses.
So there's a saying you're neveras bad as the bad loss.
You're not that bad.
You aren't as bad.
If you lose 13 to 2, which theCavaliers hardly ever did, um,
(53:50):
you're not that bad.
If you win 20 to nothing, youaren't that good.
You're somewhere in between.
And that's where the coachingcomes in, and that's where, you
know, uh what he was very goodat, and all the coaches on his
panel are good at too, and CoachHarlem was too, was um they
always stay positive.
No matter how crushing it off,sometimes as a coach, it was
(54:12):
just so crushing that you couldjust say, I I can't do this
tomorrow, but the sun comes up,you get ready, and you get get
your guys ready and do it again.
And that's the great thing aboutbaseball, is you get a chance to
do it every day.
You don't have to wait sevendays.
Usually it's the next day andyou're back out there.
Oh, dad uh mark, don't cutyourself short.
(54:32):
He those losses were tough onhim, too.
Very tough.
He did not like them.
He did not like them at all.
Very mild-mannered guy.
And uh, Greg, as far as drivingthat bus back, uh, he drove it
back, but it was always easierwhen he drove it back after a
win and versus a loss.
I can remember a few times wherethey lost a tough game and they
(54:53):
lost in a bad way.
And uh I was with him on the wayhome, and uh he's yelling at the
guys on the bus yet.
You know, he's driving, he'syelling at him looking back
there.
I think one of the guys maybelaughed after a game.
And that's a no-no.
After you lose, you don't laughon the bus.
And one of the guys snickers orsomething, and Lou let them all
have it.
(55:14):
So, you know, I was like, Dad,just focus a little bit.
You gotta get us home here, youknow.
But he did it.
The losses are never easy, butum they're I guess they're
necessary to learn from, butdon't mean you have to like
them.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (55:29):
Well, Aaron, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (55:31):
I'd have to agree.
Yeah, it's definitely thelosses.
Uh, I think when you when youthink about it, uh when you win
games that you didn't play wellin, I think you uh can even be
upset, even though you won.
And like they said, like takeall your wins, uh, don't take
any for granted.
Uh, but it's definitely thelosses are definitely harder.
I know for my dad a little bit.
He didn't always act like theyaffected him too much um at
(55:53):
home.
Uh not in front of me at least,but I know uh speaking with my
mom uh since he's passed andstuff, like he definitely had a
lot of hard times uh with someof those losses, especially
those tournament runs.
Uh you just come up short.
But uh, like they said, you findyour way to bounce back, get up
the next day.
Um baseball's a roller coaster.
(56:14):
In the losses, you find thepositives to tell your team, uh,
just to keep them kind oflevel-headed.
Uh, and then in the wins, you'vegot to find the negatives as
well.
Uh so but just win overall winsand losses, definitely the
losses, definitely uh more toughthan than winning the win, I
think.
SPEAKER_03 (56:31):
Well, I I I'd like to throw mine in there.
I when I was at Buckeye Valley,all of our league games, we
would have to ride with thesoftball team because of the
busting issues that we had.
Anytime there was an ice creamstand along the way, softball
team always made plans to get anice cream code.
(56:56):
And and and then we turned on toHoover Road with the school
guns.
Winner lost, winner lost,softball team was required to
sing the fight call.
So if we lost a game every timethat I was just playing, it was
it was tough.
(57:18):
But I couldn't say anythingbecause the softball coach was
the athletic coach.
He was my boss.
Well, guys, it was great to haveyou guys on here.
Tom Brumman, Greg Wolker, GregVolker, Tom Boom, and Aaron
(57:39):
Harleman.
Aaron Harlem.
Thanks for taking time to be onbaseball coaches on the blue.
SPEAKER_06 (57:46):
Hey, Ken.
Can I interject just one thing?
Yes, go ahead.
Um, because Tom had brought itup with 750 wins with dad.
Um, and I know Trent Trent hadmade the point of, you know,
obviously didn't have a statetitle.
Well, if he would have been in alot of these other divisions, he
(58:09):
would probably have about fouror five by now.
Trent's sitting at about sixhundred and some wins.
Sorry, Trent, I I had to dothis.
He's got uh two sons that wereabsolutely dynamite.
You know, obviously Damon is nowin the in the pro ranks, and
Kobe now is committed and isgoing to Ohio State.
(58:30):
He's a junior this year.
And if Trent hangs on longenough, I don't know, Trent.
I don't know.
Um, I think uh the old Wileyveteran that he might be able to
surpass him in in wins and soforth.
But I just want to give a shoutout once Trent has Trent has one
(58:50):
of the state-of-the-art DivisionI programs in the state of Ohio.
SPEAKER_03 (58:58):
Yes, definitely.
And you know, thanks, Mark.
SPEAKER_07 (59:02):
But uh I always I feel like all all these guys are
uh all these guys are greatcoaches.
What do they always say, fellas?
Not the X's and O's, Jimmy's andJoe's, the Jimmy's and Joe's.
That always helps.
SPEAKER_06 (59:18):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (59:19):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Yeah.
I missed the question there,guys.
SPEAKER_03 (59:28):
Well, guys, thanks for taking time to be on
baseball coaches and button.
SPEAKER_01 (59:33):
You're very well.
Thanks, Kenny.
Thanks for doing that.
Thanks, Ken.
All right, enjoyed seeing youguys.
Yeah, thank you.
Good to see you.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (59:43):
Thanks, uh, I I hit the stop record button.
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