June 29, 2025 • 44 mins
Coach Joey Gonzalez shares how the Marathon Dolphins baseball program has transformed into one of South Florida's hottest teams, capturing back-to-back conference championships and their first district title in 2025. He reveals the program-building philosophy that combines academics with athletics, explaining how his coaching staff has created a complete development pathway from youth leagues through high school.
• Marathon's 2025 season included hosting regionals with record crowds of 600 fans
• The team succeeded with just five seniors who maintained a remarkable 4.25 GPA average
• Coach Gonzalez played for Louis Leo, who later mentored him and entrusted him with coaching Leo's twin sons
• The program faces unique travel challenges, requiring up to $50,000 in annual fundraising
• Discipline is identified as the most crucial element in developing successful baseball players
• Every member of Marathon's coaching staff has deep ties to the Keys baseball community
• The summer program includes 6:30 AM workouts with 15 dedicated players focused on strength training
• Marathon's athletes balance academics with late-night returns from games, completing homework on bus rides
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joy (00:03):
Thanks for tuning in to the Bring Joy podcast.
We're in season five and it'sall about baseball, talking big
leagues to the little leagues,yankees to the Conchs and
everything in between.
I'll share my joy for the gamewith you and, whether you're a
fan of baseball or goodstorytelling, you'll be
entertained and each episodewill bring a little joy to your
day.
So sit back and relax.
Let's do this thing how wedoing baseball fans.
(00:38):
We're in for a good one today.
I'm excited to talk baseballwith Coach Joey Gonzalez, head
coach of one of the hottestbaseball programs in South
Florida, the Marathon Dolphins.
Welcome to the show, coach.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (00:47):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here with youtoday.
Joy (00:50):
Very good, Very good.
So that's not an overstatement.
Right To say that Marathon isone of the hottest programs in
South Florida.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (00:58):
I respect you highly for saying that.
You know, I think we're finallygetting to the point here in
Marathon where we're earning therespect of a lot of these South
Florida teams and we're tryingto work our way into that top
tier, no doubt.
I think this year wasdefinitely a step in the right
direction and we look tocontinue just building up and
getting into that top levelthere for sure.
(01:19):
So I think we're moving alongthat line, no doubt.
Joy (01:22):
All good, yeah, yeah, and part of part of being a winning
program is owning it too.
Right, absolutely.
And yeah, the last two yearsyou all have won the conference
championship and 2025 washistorically successful.
You won the district tournament, district champs.
You end up um hosting regionaluh tournament as well, so I mean
(01:45):
you're coming off a high, nodoubt.
I know that high schoolbaseball networks in South
Florida were talking about you.
I saw a marathon on several top20 lists.
So it's happening.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (01:59):
It is, it is.
You know it's still kind ofsurreal.
You know me as a former highschool baseball player in
Marathon and coming up throughthe system and never really
being a part of a winningprogram throughout my high
school days.
It's a lot of fun to see thisfull circle moment of just being
able to lead and guide our boysand see the year-long
(02:20):
investment, what we didn't havefor so many years in the past,
investment what we didn't havefor so many years in the past
and and and now we're startinglittle by little to to enjoy
that success that we're puttingso much work for forward to get
to congratulations on yoursuccess.
Joy (02:33):
You definitely got everyone paying attention and talking
about marathon baseball, myselfincluding.
I mentioned before we startedrecording.
I need to get me a marathon hat, yeah we'll get you hooked up.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (02:43):
We'll get you hooked up.
We'll get you hooked up.
Joy (02:45):
I look good in blue, I look good in red, but I look good in
blue too.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (02:49):
I think you could pull it off from time to
time.
Joy (02:52):
I got to get up there and watch a couple games before I
can earn that hat, though, butyou know we're here at the end
of June.
You've had a little more than amonth actually to process the
2025 season season.
How would you summarize, like Isaid, the historically
successful year?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (03:09):
I think in one word and I mentioned that
word just a few minutes ago it'ssurreal.
It's really surreal, the paththat we took to get to that
district title this year.
Anybody that knows marathonbaseball and understands how we
build our program, theyunderstand that we are typically
a very young squad and weweren't, by any stretch of the
word, old this season.
(03:30):
We only had five seniors.
We were heavy in the lowerlevel in terms of ninth and
tenth graders and the beauty ofMarathon Baseball is that we
build our kids from sixth gradeon up.
We're all on one campus so wekind of get that feeder group
and we mesh them together withour older guys and we started
that from day one last year andwe got those young kids who we
(03:51):
see as future guys here in ourprogram and we started to mold
and build.
And next thing, you know, wehave three or four of those
younger guys starting on ourvarsity program and eating up
big innings on the mound,getting spot starts defensively,
and they were huge contributorsto what we were able to
accomplish this year.
You know we didn't start off ashot as I wanted to, but that was
(04:13):
all right.
You know we faced someadversity.
We had a couple of really goodteams on our schedule early on
and I think we got out to a twoand three start.
So it wasn't the best five gamestretch I wanted to start the
season, but it was a great testto see how the boys, how the
young ones especially, weregoing to react and overcome that
little hiccup.
You know.
Early on.
And from that point forward wekind of hit our stride and it
(04:35):
seemed like we were winning.
We were winning every week.
We weren't necessarily sweepingevery week, but we were at
least grabbing two out of threeevery week that we were on the
field and one thing led to thenext and we were right there
playing for a district titleagainst a really good team, and
we were able to pull it offthere at the end.
Joy (04:51):
Yeah, and the city marathon , I hear, was popping, I know,
as the season went on and youguys started stacking wins, like
you were referring to, thestands were getting more packed
every game.
I'm sure.
Absolutely yeah, it was reallyexciting.
The city was.
The stands were getting morepacked every game, I'm sure.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (05:04):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it was really exciting.
Our boys feed off of thatenergy.
You know, just like Key West,we're a small town and we all
love each other, we all knoweach other and we're all
invested for the same reason.
We want to see our young kidsdo well and be successful.
And, like you said, as westarted winning ballgames,
friday nights went from 150 to300.
(05:26):
And then we win the districttitle and we host regionals.
We have to call the local parksto bring in more bleachers.
We had 600 people.
It was just something thathasn't been seen at Marathon,
frankly, ever, and I've beenaround the program for 20 years
and I've never seen the crowdslike we had this year.
It was just.
It was a lot of fun and theboys earned it.
They earned every bit of that.
Joy (05:45):
And how proud does that make you feel as an alumni of
Marathon High School, of theprogram.
How proud is that for you.
And then also to see your boys.
They must be like celebritiesaround town.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (05:57):
I mean.
To me it's everything.
You know, this is what I dreamtof when I took over the program
.
I didn't take over the programjust to go through the motions
and just be another regularcoach who just is there from
January to May.
I took over the program to makea lasting impact and to make
baseball relevant in town again,and I think we're finally
(06:19):
getting to that point where wehave an 8U, we have a 10U, we
have a 12U, we have a middleschool, we have a JV, we have a
12U, we have a middle school, wehave a JV, we have a varsity,
we finally have the ladder thatyou need to be successful, and
our boys at the top, my coachingstaff.
I think we've built that, andnow the younger kids are playing
year-round and it's just areally beautiful thing to see
(06:40):
what we've got going on rightnow.
Joy (06:42):
It's an exciting time and it seems like like they got the
right guy at the helm.
So you mentioned I think yousay you have five seniors- yes,
ma'am.
Are any of them going on andplaying ball at the next level?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (06:58):
So this group of seniors was probably
the most unique group of seniorsthat I've ever coached in my
entire life I've been around theprogram obviously my whole life
, but coaching between assistantand varsity head coach about 12
years now and by far the mostunique group of guys.
I'll start with the academicside, because that in itself is
remarkable and me, as a teacherat the high school, I think it's
(07:19):
very important to mentionacademics first.
This group of five had anaverage GPA of 4.25.
So they were also-.
Joy (07:29):
You said 4.25.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (07:32):
4.25 average across the board for all
five of those young men Exactlyso.
We started talking recruitingin their junior year.
They were kind of unsurebecause they were so academic
driven and we got.
We got to the point in therecruiting process where three
out of my five were offered theopportunity to play at the next
level Mason, my tallright-handed pitcher who grew
(07:54):
into his own and became my acethere towards the end of the
season.
And then the Leo brothers whomany from down South know, coach
Lewis Leo, who I took over forhe was my head coach is a state
champion from Key West in theclass of 98.
His boys were also afforded theopportunity to play at the next
level.
Joy (08:12):
They went on their visits.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (08:14):
You know they did all of those fun things
and it didn't work out on thebaseball side because of how
academically driven these threeyoung men were.
One of them had a full academicopportunity at UMass, which is
where his home state was, inMassachusetts Mason, and he went
forth and took that academicopportunity because his goal and
dream was to go back home andI've got to tip my cap to that
(08:37):
and just respect that.
You know what I mean.
And the twin brothers samesituation, but again, you know,
one chose a better packageacademically at Florida Atlantic
.
And then our other twin brotheris going to be pursuing the
fire department and he's alreadydone his first two years within
the high school.
So he's going to stay local andhe's got all of that covered as
well.
So, in short, none of them aregoing on to play ball.
(09:00):
Three had a great opportunityto play at the next level, but
takes nothing away from whatthose young men are going to
accomplish in their lives.
Joy (09:07):
No, absolutely, and being able to play ball at the next
level is one path to get there,but it's not necessarily about
playing ball right.
You use baseball to get tocollege and to continue your
education and opportunity, andit sounds like you have some
really talented young men andyou know that kind of student
(09:27):
athlete.
It's got to be a coach's dreamit is.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (09:32):
I mean having such a young group of
guys and having such leadershipat the top.
Such strong leadership at thetop.
It sets the tone and ittrickles down to the rest of
those kids who who look up tothem.
They go, the eighth gradersgoing, moving into ninth grade,
say, wow, they're graduatingwith a 4.2.
If I'm a, if I'm a good ballplayer and I have good grades, I
have the best of both worlds.
(09:53):
I can put it all together.
You know what I mean.
So there's there's no doubtthat they were.
They were tremendous leadersfor us.
Joy (10:05):
I'm glad that you mentioned Louis Leo, because I watched
him play when he was a boy andhe was a hell of a ball player
and then keeping up with his twoboys and seeing the success
that they had at Marathon, Iknow that that had to be special
and he's still a big part ofMarathon athletics, right.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (10:20):
Absolutely yeah.
So I'm glad you brought himback up because Coach Leal is a
full circle moment for me.
He is the only baseball coachthat I've ever had in my life.
He was my middle school coach,he was my high school coach, he
was my mentor.
He was.
He was everything that a highschool student would look at,
(10:42):
look for in a coach high schoolstudent would look at, look for
in a coach.
It was Louis Liu, and when Iwent off to college, obviously
we stayed in contact because wewere, we're basically we're
family.
You know we're not blood butwe're family.
And he knew my goals and heknew my dream was to come back
home and teach and eventuallyget into the baseball, get my
foot into the baseball program.
So he, as soon as I returnedand got hired by the Monroe
(11:05):
County School District, hestarted mentoring me again on a
more adult professional leveland kind of took me under his
wing, brought me in as hisassistant, gave me the head
middle school coaching positionand gave me a few years to get
my feet wet with the middleschool program.
And then, when his kids hit ourmiddle school, he was ready to
take a step back and become aparent and that was in our plans
(11:28):
.
And he told me.
He said listen, it's your timeto shine.
I've groomed you up from thetime you were 12 years old.
Now my kids are 12 years oldand I'm ready for you to lead
them to their graduation and totheir next step in their careers
.
And it gives me the chillstalking about it, because now
those kids are like my own andstep in their careers.
And it gives me the chillstalking about it, because now
those kids are like my own.
And, wouldn't you know it, theyboth just graduated, and Louis
Liu was in the stands watchingme coach them.
Joy (11:50):
That's beautiful.
I've got.
I had chills and now I get, Iget tears in my eyes.
It's you know, my podcast isall about the joys of baseball
and how much joy it brings.
That story you just told is aclassic and that's what it's all
about.
And that's the other thingright Beyond the game, when the
more you stay in baseball andtalk to baseball people, you
(12:11):
realize how many threads thereare that connect us and I think
that's really special.
Thank you for sharing that.
Hopefully he's watching thisepisode.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (12:22):
And if he's not, we'll make sure.
We'll make sure to get him thelink for sure.
I know he tunes in.
Joy (12:26):
Yeah, that's, that's, that's good stuff.
So you talked about you knowstudent athletes.
You mentioned already that thatyou're a teacher.
Talk about that, you.
You are a teacher and aninstructor.
What do you?
What do you teach and yourealize what an opportunity you
have to impact so many youngpeople.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (12:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know I take joy in teachingat the high school and having
the opportunity to interact notonly with my students but with
my athletes on a different leveldaily.
So, to touch on what I do, I amthe going into my 10th year of
teaching.
I'm the 12th grade ESOL teacherand the ESOL contact for our
entire school, 6 through 12.
(13:07):
I initially started as the ESOLteacher for our entire high
school, 9th through 12th grade,which, for those of you who
don't know what ESOL is, it'sbasically our immigrant
population, all of ournon-native English speakers.
So kids from Cuba, puerto Rico,all over the globe, not United
States.
I work with them to get tograduation and to teach them
(13:28):
English and recently, as we hada larger influx of immigrants,
they brought on a couple moreESOL teachers to help ease the
load for myself, I'm able to nowfocus specifically on our 11th
and 12th graders, our older kids, and help them get to that
finish line and pursue eithercollege or the workforce, but
get them to that high schooldiploma and just see them
(13:49):
successful in life beyond highschool.
So that's what I do.
Joy (13:53):
That's doing a lot for your community and for those young
lives.
So I saw something on socialmedia recently where you were
congratulating one of yourformer students who I believe
he's in the track, running trackand having a lot of success at
the college level, and I justthought it was so cool how proud
(14:16):
you were of him, not as hisformer coach, but as as his
former teacher.
It's really special.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (14:22):
Yeah, no, that was that was.
That's one of my, I would say,top three coaching slash
teaching moments I've ever hadin my 10 years at Marathon.
That was an unbelievableexperience.
So I'll just touch on thatbriefly.
His name is Pedro and hearrived to us as a super shy
(14:44):
immigrant student his 10th gradeyear.
He barely knew how to say helloin English, came over from
Venezuela with his mother.
His dad was already here forsome time, so he was able to get
them over legally through theprocess and he came to me and of
course I was the first one togreet him at the high school,
because I'm the one who intakesour immigrant students and I
test them and I give them theirevaluation and see where they're
(15:06):
going to be placed.
And of course he didn't knowany English.
So he landed with me and heimmediately said Mr Gonzalez,
I'm a soccer player, I'm excitedto be able to join the soccer
team.
And, mind you, it was earlySeptember, two months out from
soccer.
I'm like, all right, well, I'mthe assistant cross country
coach at the time.
So there's no better way to getyou in shape for soccer than to
(15:27):
throw you on the cross countryteam and see what you're made of
soccer than to throw you on thecross country team and see what
you're made of.
So we did that and one thingled to the next.
He became this unbelievablerunner distance for cross
country.
Made it to states with the teamhis first year, participated in
soccer, enjoyed his time insoccer but absolutely fell in
love with the running.
Then he did track in during thespring season, became a
(15:50):
three-time.
Now we'll fast forward to 12thgrade, became a three-time state
participant for cross countryExcellent.
My wife and I took him on arecruiting trip up to Alabama.
We flew him out.
He got an invite to thenational running tournament and
his goal was to run under a17-minute 5K.
(16:11):
We had been in contact withDaytona State, which is the most
elite junior college forrunning in the state of Florida,
pretty much in the wholesoutheastern region, and the
head coach, joy Wilson, is hername.
She told me.
She said if we could get himunder a 16.45 at the national
(16:32):
tournament, he's got ascholarship.
So we did that.
We got him at a 1641, and hewent on to Daytona and fast
forward a couple years.
He's running at FIU on anathletic scholarship to finish
up his career.
Joy (16:46):
That's big time.
That's big time.
Thank you for sharing that.
I saw something online and Ihad no idea how much influence
you had on him.
So again, your opportunity toimpact in the community and from
the classroom to the ball fieldreally makes a difference.
Speaking of coaching, do I seethat you coach T-ball and Little
(17:09):
League I do.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (17:10):
This year was my first year I did.
I was the spearhead for mydaughter coach T-ball in Little
League I do.
This year was my first year Idid.
I was the spearhead for mydaughter's T-ball team my
daughter's six years old, goinginto the first grade.
And of course, how can I say noto that?
How can I say no to that whenI'm around all of these kids all
day long who aren't blood tomyself?
But then I tell my daughter no,I'm not going to coach your
(17:36):
t-ball team.
There was no way of doing that.
So right smack dab in themiddle of our varsity baseball
season, I found some time andwent out and coached t-ball for
my daughter.
It was an absolute blast.
Joy (17:41):
That's fantastic.
What's one of the fundamentalskills that you teach in Little
League that the player can takewith them to the high school
field?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (17:53):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I think the mainfocus for our young ones because
it was it was a very youngT-ball team.
We had fourth, fifth orfour-year-olds, five-year-olds
and some right on the cusp ofsix, so a lot of them just for
the first time put in a club ontheir hands.
Yeah, so so I mean we were.
We were just teaching thefundamentals of of what foot to
(18:13):
step with, how to throw, how tobreak down for ground balls and
some of them even further back,what base to run to after you
put a bat, put the bat on theball.
So it was.
It was a lot of fun justteaching them the basics and and
I think they learned a ton.
You know, we went from fromkids chasing balls after they
hit it off the tee to kidsrunning all the way around and
(18:33):
our pitcher fielding it andstepping and throwing to first.
So it was a.
It was a good time, goodexperience.
Joy (18:38):
That's awesome.
What's?
What's your daughter's name?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (18:41):
My daughter her name is Gabriela and I have
a little, a little boy who he'sgoing into pre-K.
He's four years old, his nameis Adrian, and my wife's my
wife's.
We're expecting number three inSeptember.
Congratulations, thank you.
Thank you.
We'll be a family of five realsoon.
Joy (18:58):
Yeah, you're working on your own team.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (19:01):
Yeah, working on my little, my own
little squad.
But that's it Five.
Five of us total and we're goodto go.
Joy (19:07):
That's plenty.
So is it harder to coach?
Coach Joey Gonza (19:12):
five-year-olds or 15-year-olds.
I think it's a healthy balance,you know, I think they both
come with their challenges.
The 15-year-olds you got todeal with Sometimes you got to
put some egos in check and yougot to balance the academics
with that as well and it's moreof a task where with the
five-year-olds it's more of likean attention thing.
Hey, stop playing with thegrass, get out of the dirt, stop
(19:33):
picking your nose.
We got a game to play.
Joy (19:37):
That's good stuff.
I love it Speaking of yourdaughter and women's sport is
blowing up.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (19:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
Joy (19:48):
I'm starting to pay more attention to softball.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (19:51):
Really cool that there's opportunity for
girls to keep playing beyondhigh school high school as well
absolutely yeah no, my daughter,my daughter's taking a little
liking to, uh, to running aswell, so that's, we'll see where
that leads her.
You know me with a that, thatsmall window of cross country in
my background, it'd be.
It'd be fun to see if she shetakes that up.
(20:15):
We were actually up at Disneylast week for a little family
trip and I was doing my morningjogs around the lake by the
hotel and she's like daddy, Iwant to get up early with you
and do a lap around the lake.
So she got up, mom, mom wassleeping in with my son and we
took a little, took a littlemild jog at six years old.
So I think we might have alittle runner in our future.
Joy (20:30):
Yeah, it sounds like you have a good athlete.
So you mentioned you were anathlete at Marathon.
What position did you play andhow good were you?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (20:39):
Yeah, you know, I was a left-handed
pitcher and I was a firstbaseman primarily first base my
entire career.
And then we had a need myjunior year, for somebody to
come in and eat up some innings.
So I started developing alittle bit more as a pitcher.
I didn't throw too too hard,you know.
I was an upper 78 to 81 guywith a couple of decent pitches.
(20:59):
I just threw a lot of strikes.
I didn't fall behind too much.
I was just one of those guyswho would give you seven innings
on 75 pitches and sometimeswe'd win, sometimes we'd lose,
but I was sure to get you 80%strike.
So I like to tell my guys youknow, it's not about how hard
you throw the ball, it's abouthow confident you are and how
(21:21):
accurate you throw.
And luckily the shift haschanged from when I used to play
.
Now we've got a few guys whoare living in that culture of
getting that velo and learninghow to do it healthy in the
right way.
So we're finally getting tothat point where we have a bunch
of hard throwers and now we'rejust working on getting that
command that I emphasized tothem so much.
So you know I was a decentballplayer.
(21:43):
I think I was a 340 guyoffensively my senior year and
it was different.
You know, it was a lotdifferent when we played.
We played because we enjoyedour time out there and it was
tough to play for championships.
We had westminster, christian,florida, christian all of those
at the time those recruitingpowerhouses year in and year out
.
So it was.
It was really tough to swallowthat every year, knowing that
(22:06):
you'd have to see that at theend of the season and we didn't
have the talent that we have now.
Joy (22:09):
So we enjoyed our time out there, for sure, but what we've
got now is just a completelydifferent breed, for sure so
let's talk about that a littlebit, because I see that
following the key west conks, weget to a certain point and
you're going to run up on theseprivate schools that are
recruiting all these players andit makes it real hard to
(22:31):
compete and it can befrustrating.
Marathon's a smaller school.
I know you guys are in a classthey call the rural class.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (22:39):
The rural class.
Joy (22:40):
Rural class.
And so how do you find thecompetition?
Is it an even playing field?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (22:48):
You know.
So this is obviously.
This past season was the firstyear that the rural
classification was formed andit's very interesting.
I'm glad you brought that upbecause, like I said for so long
, marathon Baseball we would hita brick wall at the end of the
regular season First round ofdistricts.
We would hit a brick wall andwe knew with this rural
(23:09):
classification we had theopportunity to get through that
first round.
Now there are some unbelievablytalented teams in the rural
classification when you getbeyond that first round.
In the past that first round waswhere we were done.
Now I think for a very longtime we're going to be able to
get our way through that firstround and compete for district
(23:29):
titles.
But as soon as we get throughthat first round you're going to
have to bring your A gamebecause you've got Fort Meade on
the other end, and that's theteam who we saw four different
times this year.
We beat them in the title.
Fort Meade was a top 100 acrossthe entire state, all seven
divisions all year long.
They were top five in our ruralclassification all year long.
(23:50):
So once you get beyond thatfirst round, the competition is
just like any other big nameprivate school opponent that
you'd play.
So, in short, getting to thatpoint.
Although it may be a little biteasier getting through that
point, you're still going tohave to have one hell of a squad
to get through that point.
Joy (24:09):
Yeah, it's challenging as a fan, because I followed the
Lady Conks softball team andthey ran into the same thing.
You get so far and then you runinto that school who has
recruits from not only all overSouth Florida but some pull from
other countries and everything.
So not to have sour grapes,right, it is what it is.
(24:30):
You've got to put your bestteam on the field and compete.
But uh, it is what you thinkabout the three game series.
How did that work out for youas a coach?
What's your thoughts on that?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (24:43):
yeah, you know, for us we were on the
short end of the three gameseries, but in my opinion a
three-game series proves yourbest team.
There's been so many times wherea mediocre middle-of-the-road
team has had one horse on themound and has been able to ride
that horse all the way down tothe end, and that wasn't the
(25:04):
case this year.
We had a couple guys that couldreally throw strikes, but we ran
into a Fort fort meet who hadthree guys who were 80 88, one
guy who ran it up to 90 and theywere the better team.
This year we got the best ofthem in the district title game.
It was a small scrappy gamewhere we were able to squeak out
a 2-1 win and we won a districttitle and we we're not going to
(25:25):
take that away at all, but in athree, in a three game series,
you tip cap.
They had three upper 80s guysand they deserved to win that
series because they outpitchedand outperformed us.
So I think this year, andhopefully moving forward, not
only does it give our boys anopportunity to play more games,
but it gives the team theopportunity to show who's the
(25:47):
deepest come postseason, whichis ultimately what you want to
see.
You want to see what team hasthe most to offer at the end of
the season.
Joy (25:55):
Right, right, it was tough traveling as a fan following
your team, right, even as a fan,it's hard to get up and go and
keep going.
You know you're marathons 50miles north of Key West, so you
have those same travelchallenges.
Talk about that a little bit.
How does that add to thepressure of your program from a
(26:16):
funding standpoint, from a fanstandpoint?
Talk about that 100%.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (26:22):
You know this is a really good point you
bring up because not manyprograms other than Key West and
Marathon High School understandwhat it takes to pull off a
season full of travel.
Key West is fortunate enoughthat they are able to host a ton
of games.
You know they have anunbelievable facility and just
their history of Key Westbaseball.
(26:43):
Who doesn't want to go downthere and play at Rec Switch?
You know?
But for us we still split.
We play 12 home, 12 awaytypically and people don't
realize it's a 12-monthfundraising commitment.
As a coach and as a program youhave to have tens of thousands
of dollars to be able to pulloff these travel days.
(27:04):
Even the one day where you goup to Miami play at 5 o'clock,
you're back home at midnight.
It's still a four or fivethousand dollar event If you're
taking a charter bus.
People don't realize the amountof money it takes to pull these
things off, let alone now inour rural classification where
we want to see our districtopponents and we have to go four
(27:25):
hours, five hours, six hours toplay these district opponents.
You're staying in a hotel one,two, three nights, three times a
year.
You need $40,000 or $50,000 infundraising to pull those
efforts off, and it's a very,very tough task.
But I think that's what makesour programs both of our
programs so unique is that weunderstand the commitment it
(27:45):
takes to be able to pull thatoff.
Joy (27:48):
And you really have to tip your caps to the community and
your business partners and helpsupport, because when you're
talking about that kind of money, that's a big investment and
we're fortunate, go ahead.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (28:02):
Coming from such a small community, it
feels like sometimes you'reasking the same generous
business donors over and, overand over and they will never
tell you no, because they knowhow essential it is to the
growth of the program.
So it's like you said, joe, youhave to.
You have to just respect everycommunity member that puts their
hand in making this possible,because they're the ones who do
(28:24):
it year in and year out.
You're the banner fundraisers,this that, the plaque sales, the
dinners, car washes.
They're there every step of theway.
Joy (28:32):
And those are.
I was just going to add to thatwe're fortunate to come from
such tight-knit communities,right, where we show up and
support our kids, especiallysupport each other.
But when it comes to Keys, keyskids there's a lot of support
(28:53):
behind those program.
Talking about tip your cap, I'mlistening to you talk about the
, the amount of hours on theroad with your players and gotta
tip your cap again to your kidswho did so well in school.
You know being on the roadplaying the game and then
turning around and driving backhome and going to school the
next morning and for your kidsto have the success they did in
(29:17):
the classroom, that's somethingspecial.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (29:20):
Absolutely, you know, I think.
I think it makes it makes it alittle bit easier for our kids
to understand the importance ofacademics.
When their head coach and theirassistant coach, which is my
brother, were both schoolteachers at Marathon.
When their head coach and theirassistant coach, which is my
brother, were both schoolteachers at Marathon you know
it's me at the high school level, him at the middle school level
, spearheading our younger kids,which some of them travel with
our varsity as well.
They understand it doesn'tmatter if we're home at midnight
(29:42):
.
You've got to on our way backfrom our game.
I don't care if we won by 10 orwe lost by 10,.
Your Chromebook is open, You'reknocking out your homework and
when you get home you're goingto bed and at 7.15, when the
bell rings, we're going to seeyour faces in class, because
it's a reflection of us and ourprogram.
So they buy into knowing that,while my coaches are also
(30:02):
teachers and if they don't setthe standard for us, it's going
to make them look bad as well.
So we've got to respect thefact that they are mature enough
to see that, which is huge.
Joy (30:14):
Talk about you.
You mentioned your brother andyour coaching staff.
You all have roots, deep roots,in the Keys and Marathon, and
how does that add to the qualityof your program that you and
your staff are part of?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (30:31):
You know, I think we've put together what I
would call a power team interms of our coaching staff.
We've got Coach Leo.
You can't leave him out.
He's our athletic trainer andhe's got a hand in everything we
do.
We've got my dad at the verytop as the head of our booster
program, who, for those of youwho don't know my dad, is a Key
(30:54):
West Baseball state championfrom the class of 84 as well.
Joy (30:57):
I had that on my list, so I'm glad you brought it up.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (31:00):
Let's go.
There you go.
I've got my brother, who's myright-hand man.
He's my first base coach.
He's my analytical guy.
He's the guy up here whodoesn't talk much but he
dissects a lot of the thingsthat I don't necessarily catch
during the course of a game.
Who's also an alumni from theclass of 2010 at Marathon High
(31:20):
School.
We have my strength andconditioning coordinator, who is
the owner of our local gym herein Marathon, coach Chris Cook.
He spearheads all of ourstrength, our off-season
workouts, our in-season workouts, our keeping our kids healthy,
giving them the nutritions thatthey need, the way to eat, eat,
the way to go about theirlifting.
Also a former marathon highschool graduate, who from the
(31:43):
early 2000s, who played atJacksonville University after
high school.
And then we've got coach KylePierce, who's our pitching coach
, which is a very familiar namedown south as well.
He was a former marathon bornand raised, and then, of course,
we had the, had the few yearswhere marathon baseball was, you
know, on a down, and he wentdown south and got a couple
(32:03):
really successful seasons downat Key West before going on and
playing at the Division II levelas well.
And then Coach Chad O'Rourke,who his son was Mason, our
pitcher, who just graduated, andhe's been our tech guy.
He's just been our anythingwewe-need type guy.
He just oversees everythingkind of like my dad and
financially has been a hugebooster and supporter for the
(32:24):
program.
So we definitely can't leavehim out.
Joy (32:28):
And it comes to mind it takes a village right.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (32:32):
It does, it does.
It's not a one-man show.
It's not a two-man show.
You need a group of guys allpulling on the same side of the
rope, that are in it for theright reason.
Joy (32:40):
Well, it sounds like you have a great crew, and is
everybody coming back for the26th season?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (32:46):
Everybody's coming back.
So when I took over this willbe my seventh season as the
varsity head coach it was myself, my brother, my dad who's now
the head of the booster.
Coach Leo and Coach Chad camein my second year when Mason
moved into town and then, as westarted seeing slow successes,
coach Kyle finished college.
(33:07):
He jumped on board.
We brought him in, and my thirdyear we brought Coach Chris,
our strength coordinator, andall six of us have been pushing
in this direction together anddon't plan on slowing that
anytime soon.
Joy (33:18):
I love it and I see that your boys are out there working,
putting in work in the weightroom, working in the cages.
What is the summer program andwhat is the goal of the summer
program?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (33:30):
Yeah, absolutely, you know so.
So we're, we're like I alludedto a little while ago we're
young, we're going to be youngagain.
I have one, have one seniorreturning next year and my core
group of guys are going to beincoming juniors and they're
extremely, extremely, extremelytalented ballplayers.
But we knew losing three majorpower bats.
(33:50):
We had three guys that aregraduating, three out of our
five that together had 95 basehits and hit an average the
three of them of 365.
So that's a hard thing toreplace.
So we knew getting theseyounger guys in the weight room
was on the forefront and gettingsome muscle on these guys and
just getting back to the basics.
(34:11):
We have a couple of our realtalented kids off playing summer
ball Dylan Williams, who's upnear the upper 80s range right
now on the mound playing on theScorpion Scout team.
A couple of our young guys aredown south with you guys doing a
lot of travel, and Reefer Ella,he's playing on the Padres
Scout team.
So we've got different piecesmoving around, but we all come
(34:34):
together when we're in town andwe get a three-day-a-week
lifting session, which isbaseball specific lifts, led by
Coach Chris Cook, our strengthcoordinator.
We do that at 8 am.
We go for about an hour and ahalf and then we do about an
hour and a half on the field.
After that we get our long tosssession, we get our bullpen in,
we get our cage working for theguys who aren't throwing pens
and we go about three hours.
(34:55):
We go through it for about athree hour cycle, three to four
days a week and then the daysthat we're not grouped together.
All the kids have Coach Chris's24 hour gym code and they go in
and do team lifts together.
So I think we've got a nicesystem and we've got our core
group of 12 to 15 bought in allsummer, which we're super
excited about.
Joy (35:15):
It sounds like you've got all the right things happening
and you've got kids that arewilling to put in the work to
make it happen, not getting toofar.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (35:23):
That's the difference, you know.
That's the difference from whatmarathon baseball used to be
and what marathon baseball isbecoming is.
You nailed it.
We can preach it all we want,we can ask the kids all we want,
but they've got to show up.
And we've got 15 kids showingup every day, waking up at 6.30
in the morning on their summersoff to show up at 7.45 and get
(35:44):
their lift and get theirpractice.
And that's all you could askfor as a coach.
Joy (35:49):
Speaking of coach and what a coach asks for.
What makes a good baseballplayer?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (35:55):
What makes a good baseball player?
Discipline Very simple.
Joy (36:00):
What are we?
A good baseball playerDiscipline.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (36:01):
Very simple Discipline.
You know you have to have goalsand you have to have goals.
You have to have goals that arerealistic and you have to have
goals that might be tough toreach.
But you've got to lay a path toget to both of those realistic
goals and you've got to lay apath to get to both of those
realistic goals and you've gotto lay a path to get to those
goals that are hard to attain.
And if you are not disciplinedand you don't take every single
(36:25):
step in that path to get tothose goals, it's not going to
happen.
It's not going to happen.
I have a young man who's cominginto the 11th grade who embodies
the word discipline.
He's a kid who didn't see muchaction his 10th grade year.
He's got a great arm, he's gota developing fastball.
He threw about 15 innings forus and did a really good job.
(36:46):
But he came up to me at the endof the year and he said, coach,
I want to be a top of therotation guy.
And I told him I said listen,we're getting to the point in
our program where we've got todevelop and we've got to be
disciplined and it can't just bea January to May commitment.
It has to be a 12-monthcommitment and he asked me.
He said what do I do?
I said you take it uponyourself to become disciplined.
(37:08):
I laid it out there.
I said you can hang up thecleats right now and pick them
up again in December, january,or you can lace them up in a
week after we get over ourelimination loss in the Sweet 16
and put your nose down and getto work.
And he's evolving unbelievably.
He's in the weight room fivedays a week.
He's driving up to West Palmand he's doing Cressy pitching
(37:32):
clinics twice a week up at theCressy facility.
I saw videos of Jacob Burnhamthere and a couple other Key
West alum up there.
He's doing all of the thingsthat we told him to do that take
discipline.
He's sacrificing time on thewater, sacrificing time on the
sandbar, because he knows whathe wants and he knows what it's
going to take to get there.
(37:52):
So I think that one worddiscipline is what makes a good
ballplayer for sure.
Joy (37:57):
Nicely done, coach.
So I that one word, discipline,is what makes a good ball
player for sure.
Nicely done, coach.
So I have this new new thing Iwant to try out to to wrap up an
episode, to end on a segmentcalled for the cycle.
All right, so I'm going to askyou four questions yeah all
right, they get harder as we goall right all right, so let me
see, let me find them here, youready.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (38:19):
I think so you can't make me look crazy now
.
Joy (38:23):
No, no, no, no, no.
We're good.
I have confidence You're goingto be good at this.
What's your favorite besidesMarathon Dolphin?
What's your favorite baseballteam?
Coach Joey Gonzal (38:31):
Unfortunately , the Miami Marlins
Unfortunately.
Joy (38:35):
Hey, they broke my heart so many times.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (38:38):
I don't know how I keep going back to
them.
I really don't.
Joy (38:41):
Listen, Bubba, it's.
The worst relationship I everhad in my life is with the
Marlins.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (38:45):
It is awful , absolutely awful.
You know it's our hometown teamand we got to show up when
we're only one of 4,000 peoplein the stands.
Joy (38:54):
No, you know, when I was a kid, like your dad, florida
didn't have a team, and so atleast you grew up in a time
where Florida and now the MiamiMartins exist.
But yeah, you got to be toughto be a Martin fan.
So tip my hat to you on thatone.
And no shame, because thatshows you got a plenty heart.
(39:15):
All right, best baseball movieever.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (39:19):
I love the Sandlot.
Joy (39:21):
That's mine too, coach.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (39:22):
I am a Sandlot guy through and through.
I'm not a movie guy, but when Ikick back and I watch a movie,
I find myself watching theSandlot.
Joy (39:31):
That's number one.
I love it.
All right, you've talked alittle bit about this earlier.
Mm-hmm.
All right, you've talked alittle bit about this earlier.
How important is analytics tobaseball and to matching the
needs of our current athletesthat are inundated with data?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (39:57):
up on the analytics, we're going to fall
behind and that's the bottomline, because everybody around
you is using analytics to movetheir game to a different level.
And I found it challenging thisyear this was our first year
taking that step to the moreanalytical side.
We got our Rapsodo, we got ourpitch calling through Pitch Calm
and, excuse me, making thatadjustment, making that move
from that more old school lookto that new school, breaking
(40:18):
down data and through a machine,more so than just out of a hand
, it does, it does evolve yourprogram in ways that you
wouldn't really think about whenyou look at it from a, from a,
from a further distance away.
So I do think analytics it hasto have a healthy balance.
So I think I think there'sstill important, important
components of getting to thebasics of what old school
(40:39):
baseball is, but you still haveto mesh both of them together
because if not, you're going toget left behind.
Joy (40:45):
Very good, good answer on that one.
All right, this is the last one.
This is the hard one for thecycles.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (40:53):
All right.
Joy (40:54):
What's a life lesson that baseball has taught you?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (40:58):
A life lesson that baseball has taught
me.
A life lesson that baseball hastaught me don't get too high
and don't get too low.
Don't get too high and don'tget too low for me as a player,
I enjoyed my baseball career.
I knew that beyond high schoolI had other goals and I was
honest with myself and I knewthat baseball probably wasn't
(41:19):
going to be in the equation posthigh school other than what I
did with my club team at FGCUand things of that nature.
A lot of these kids that wecoach on a daily basis are in
the same situation.
You have a small group of kidswho are elite, who are going to
move on and who are just diehardand extremely passionate and
take everything that they do toa different level.
(41:42):
But I think that theoverarching message for all of
our young athletes, especiallyour baseball players, is just to
not get too high when the goodis good and not get too low when
the bad is bad, because if yougo out and you're throwing a gem
but you strike out three timesoffensively, you can't let that
(42:03):
those three strikeouts get toyou, because you still got to
put your team on your back onthe other side of the ball.
So you've got to find a balancewhere you stay level-headed and
you know the task at hand isgreater than the few errors or
the few kick balls or the fewstrikeouts that you had.
So don't get too high, don'tget too low, for sure.
Joy (42:21):
Good one, coach.
I loved it.
All your answers Well done.
That was my first time to trythat.
I think I'm going to.
I like that.
I like that.
You set the bar high.
I really enjoyed ourconversation, coach.
I've been paying attention fromafar.
I promise you this I'm gonnahave you back on the show when
(42:42):
it comes closer to the 2026season.
I want to hear all about it,but also bigger than that.
I'm gonna get in the stands anduh, watch you and your boys go
at it.
I'm a big fan, coach.
Thank you love it.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (42:54):
Thank you so much and I'm here anytime you
want to.
You want to grab me?
Just shoot me a text, give meme a call.
I think we're unique down herein the Keys.
For too long people have lookedat us as two separate entities,
two separate programs.
They look at us as Marathonversus Key West and, let's be
honest, we're two differentprograms but we're all pushing
in the same direction.
(43:14):
I told my boys we need to gosupport Key West in their
regional game.
We need to go do these thingsbecause we are one group and I
have a lot of my young guys whowork their way up as young kids
with you guys before they get tome.
So I think it's only right thatwe respect each other and that
we push each other and wesupport each other the best way
possible.
(43:34):
And you coming up and being inthe stands next year will be
absolutely huge for me and somany of my boys know you through
social media and they wouldabsolutely love to see that.
So I appreciate that.
Joy (43:46):
I'll make it happen, and I love being able to meet some of
your players at the playoffs, atthe recs.
It was really cool to see them.
They probably thought I wascrazy because I wanted to take
their picture and get theirautographs and all that, but
that's what I do.
I'm a fan, right?
I can't help myself.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (44:03):
They came up to me right away.
They knew exactly who you were,don't worry, they knew exactly
who you were.
Joy (44:08):
Well, that's good stuff and I know who they are and I want
to watch them play.
So thank you so much.
Bye-bye, go baseball, gobaseball.
I'm joy newlish and Iappreciate you tuning into my
podcast.
My purpose is to bring joy intomy life and the lives of others
(44:28):
.
If you enjoyed this episode,drop a review, share and
subscribe, because there's a lotof good stuff on tap.
You can also follow bring joyon youtube and instagram, or
check my website atjoynoodlescom.
Now go, bring joy to the peoplein your world.
Until next time, much love.
Thanks for tuning in to the Bring Joy podcast.
We're in season five and it'sall about baseball, talking big
leagues to the little leagues,yankees to the Conchs and
everything in between.
I'll share my joy for the gamewith you and, whether you're a
fan of baseball or goodstorytelling, you'll be
entertained and each episodewill bring a little joy to your
day.
So sit back and relax.
Let's do this thing how wedoing baseball fans.
(00:38):
We're in for a good one today.
I'm excited to talk baseballwith Coach Joey Gonzalez, head
coach of one of the hottestbaseball programs in South
Florida, the Marathon Dolphins.
Welcome to the show, coach.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (00:47):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here with youtoday.
Joy (00:50):
Very good, Very good.
So that's not an overstatement.
Right To say that Marathon isone of the hottest programs in
South Florida.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (00:58):
I respect you highly for saying that.
You know, I think we're finallygetting to the point here in
Marathon where we're earning therespect of a lot of these South
Florida teams and we're tryingto work our way into that top
tier, no doubt.
I think this year wasdefinitely a step in the right
direction and we look tocontinue just building up and
getting into that top levelthere for sure.
(01:19):
So I think we're moving alongthat line, no doubt.
Joy (01:22):
All good, yeah, yeah, and part of part of being a winning
program is owning it too.
Right, absolutely.
And yeah, the last two yearsyou all have won the conference
championship and 2025 washistorically successful.
You won the district tournament, district champs.
You end up um hosting regionaluh tournament as well, so I mean
(01:45):
you're coming off a high, nodoubt.
I know that high schoolbaseball networks in South
Florida were talking about you.
I saw a marathon on several top20 lists.
So it's happening.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (01:59):
It is, it is.
You know it's still kind ofsurreal.
You know me as a former highschool baseball player in
Marathon and coming up throughthe system and never really
being a part of a winningprogram throughout my high
school days.
It's a lot of fun to see thisfull circle moment of just being
able to lead and guide our boysand see the year-long
(02:20):
investment, what we didn't havefor so many years in the past,
investment what we didn't havefor so many years in the past
and and and now we're startinglittle by little to to enjoy
that success that we're puttingso much work for forward to get
to congratulations on yoursuccess.
Joy (02:33):
You definitely got everyone paying attention and talking
about marathon baseball, myselfincluding.
I mentioned before we startedrecording.
I need to get me a marathon hat, yeah we'll get you hooked up.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (02:43):
We'll get you hooked up.
We'll get you hooked up.
Joy (02:45):
I look good in blue, I look good in red, but I look good in
blue too.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (02:49):
I think you could pull it off from time to
time.
Joy (02:52):
I got to get up there and watch a couple games before I
can earn that hat, though, butyou know we're here at the end
of June.
You've had a little more than amonth actually to process the
2025 season season.
How would you summarize, like Isaid, the historically
successful year?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (03:09):
I think in one word and I mentioned that
word just a few minutes ago it'ssurreal.
It's really surreal, the paththat we took to get to that
district title this year.
Anybody that knows marathonbaseball and understands how we
build our program, theyunderstand that we are typically
a very young squad and weweren't, by any stretch of the
word, old this season.
(03:30):
We only had five seniors.
We were heavy in the lowerlevel in terms of ninth and
tenth graders and the beauty ofMarathon Baseball is that we
build our kids from sixth gradeon up.
We're all on one campus so wekind of get that feeder group
and we mesh them together withour older guys and we started
that from day one last year andwe got those young kids who we
(03:51):
see as future guys here in ourprogram and we started to mold
and build.
And next thing, you know, wehave three or four of those
younger guys starting on ourvarsity program and eating up
big innings on the mound,getting spot starts defensively,
and they were huge contributorsto what we were able to
accomplish this year.
You know we didn't start off ashot as I wanted to, but that was
(04:13):
all right.
You know we faced someadversity.
We had a couple of really goodteams on our schedule early on
and I think we got out to a twoand three start.
So it wasn't the best five gamestretch I wanted to start the
season, but it was a great testto see how the boys, how the
young ones especially, weregoing to react and overcome that
little hiccup.
You know.
Early on.
And from that point forward wekind of hit our stride and it
(04:35):
seemed like we were winning.
We were winning every week.
We weren't necessarily sweepingevery week, but we were at
least grabbing two out of threeevery week that we were on the
field and one thing led to thenext and we were right there
playing for a district titleagainst a really good team, and
we were able to pull it offthere at the end.
Joy (04:51):
Yeah, and the city marathon , I hear, was popping, I know,
as the season went on and youguys started stacking wins, like
you were referring to, thestands were getting more packed
every game.
I'm sure.
Absolutely yeah, it was reallyexciting.
The city was.
The stands were getting morepacked every game, I'm sure.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (05:04):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it was really exciting.
Our boys feed off of thatenergy.
You know, just like Key West,we're a small town and we all
love each other, we all knoweach other and we're all
invested for the same reason.
We want to see our young kidsdo well and be successful.
And, like you said, as westarted winning ballgames,
friday nights went from 150 to300.
(05:26):
And then we win the districttitle and we host regionals.
We have to call the local parksto bring in more bleachers.
We had 600 people.
It was just something thathasn't been seen at Marathon,
frankly, ever, and I've beenaround the program for 20 years
and I've never seen the crowdslike we had this year.
It was just.
It was a lot of fun and theboys earned it.
They earned every bit of that.
Joy (05:45):
And how proud does that make you feel as an alumni of
Marathon High School, of theprogram.
How proud is that for you.
And then also to see your boys.
They must be like celebritiesaround town.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (05:57):
I mean.
To me it's everything.
You know, this is what I dreamtof when I took over the program
.
I didn't take over the programjust to go through the motions
and just be another regularcoach who just is there from
January to May.
I took over the program to makea lasting impact and to make
baseball relevant in town again,and I think we're finally
(06:19):
getting to that point where wehave an 8U, we have a 10U, we
have a 12U, we have a middleschool, we have a JV, we have a
12U, we have a middle school, wehave a JV, we have a varsity,
we finally have the ladder thatyou need to be successful, and
our boys at the top, my coachingstaff.
I think we've built that, andnow the younger kids are playing
year-round and it's just areally beautiful thing to see
(06:40):
what we've got going on rightnow.
Joy (06:42):
It's an exciting time and it seems like like they got the
right guy at the helm.
So you mentioned I think yousay you have five seniors- yes,
ma'am.
Are any of them going on andplaying ball at the next level?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (06:58):
So this group of seniors was probably
the most unique group of seniorsthat I've ever coached in my
entire life I've been around theprogram obviously my whole life
, but coaching between assistantand varsity head coach about 12
years now and by far the mostunique group of guys.
I'll start with the academicside, because that in itself is
remarkable and me, as a teacherat the high school, I think it's
(07:19):
very important to mentionacademics first.
This group of five had anaverage GPA of 4.25.
So they were also-.
Joy (07:29):
You said 4.25.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (07:32):
4.25 average across the board for all
five of those young men Exactlyso.
We started talking recruitingin their junior year.
They were kind of unsurebecause they were so academic
driven and we got.
We got to the point in therecruiting process where three
out of my five were offered theopportunity to play at the next
level Mason, my tallright-handed pitcher who grew
(07:54):
into his own and became my acethere towards the end of the
season.
And then the Leo brothers whomany from down South know, coach
Lewis Leo, who I took over forhe was my head coach is a state
champion from Key West in theclass of 98.
His boys were also afforded theopportunity to play at the next
level.
Joy (08:12):
They went on their visits.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (08:14):
You know they did all of those fun things
and it didn't work out on thebaseball side because of how
academically driven these threeyoung men were.
One of them had a full academicopportunity at UMass, which is
where his home state was, inMassachusetts Mason, and he went
forth and took that academicopportunity because his goal and
dream was to go back home andI've got to tip my cap to that
(08:37):
and just respect that.
You know what I mean.
And the twin brothers samesituation, but again, you know,
one chose a better packageacademically at Florida Atlantic
.
And then our other twin brotheris going to be pursuing the
fire department and he's alreadydone his first two years within
the high school.
So he's going to stay local andhe's got all of that covered as
well.
So, in short, none of them aregoing on to play ball.
(09:00):
Three had a great opportunityto play at the next level, but
takes nothing away from whatthose young men are going to
accomplish in their lives.
Joy (09:07):
No, absolutely, and being able to play ball at the next
level is one path to get there,but it's not necessarily about
playing ball right.
You use baseball to get tocollege and to continue your
education and opportunity, andit sounds like you have some
really talented young men andyou know that kind of student
(09:27):
athlete.
It's got to be a coach's dreamit is.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (09:32):
I mean having such a young group of
guys and having such leadershipat the top.
Such strong leadership at thetop.
It sets the tone and ittrickles down to the rest of
those kids who who look up tothem.
They go, the eighth gradersgoing, moving into ninth grade,
say, wow, they're graduatingwith a 4.2.
If I'm a, if I'm a good ballplayer and I have good grades, I
have the best of both worlds.
(09:53):
I can put it all together.
You know what I mean.
So there's there's no doubtthat they were.
They were tremendous leadersfor us.
Joy (10:05):
I'm glad that you mentioned Louis Leo, because I watched
him play when he was a boy andhe was a hell of a ball player
and then keeping up with his twoboys and seeing the success
that they had at Marathon, Iknow that that had to be special
and he's still a big part ofMarathon athletics, right.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (10:20):
Absolutely yeah.
So I'm glad you brought himback up because Coach Leal is a
full circle moment for me.
He is the only baseball coachthat I've ever had in my life.
He was my middle school coach,he was my high school coach, he
was my mentor.
He was.
He was everything that a highschool student would look at,
(10:42):
look for in a coach high schoolstudent would look at, look for
in a coach.
It was Louis Liu, and when Iwent off to college, obviously
we stayed in contact because wewere, we're basically we're
family.
You know we're not blood butwe're family.
And he knew my goals and heknew my dream was to come back
home and teach and eventuallyget into the baseball, get my
foot into the baseball program.
So he, as soon as I returnedand got hired by the Monroe
(11:05):
County School District, hestarted mentoring me again on a
more adult professional leveland kind of took me under his
wing, brought me in as hisassistant, gave me the head
middle school coaching positionand gave me a few years to get
my feet wet with the middleschool program.
And then, when his kids hit ourmiddle school, he was ready to
take a step back and become aparent and that was in our plans
(11:28):
.
And he told me.
He said listen, it's your timeto shine.
I've groomed you up from thetime you were 12 years old.
Now my kids are 12 years oldand I'm ready for you to lead
them to their graduation and totheir next step in their careers
.
And it gives me the chillstalking about it, because now
those kids are like my own andstep in their careers.
And it gives me the chillstalking about it, because now
those kids are like my own.
And, wouldn't you know it, theyboth just graduated, and Louis
Liu was in the stands watchingme coach them.
Joy (11:50):
That's beautiful.
I've got.
I had chills and now I get, Iget tears in my eyes.
It's you know, my podcast isall about the joys of baseball
and how much joy it brings.
That story you just told is aclassic and that's what it's all
about.
And that's the other thingright Beyond the game, when the
more you stay in baseball andtalk to baseball people, you
(12:11):
realize how many threads thereare that connect us and I think
that's really special.
Thank you for sharing that.
Hopefully he's watching thisepisode.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (12:22):
And if he's not, we'll make sure.
We'll make sure to get him thelink for sure.
I know he tunes in.
Joy (12:26):
Yeah, that's, that's, that's good stuff.
So you talked about you knowstudent athletes.
You mentioned already that thatyou're a teacher.
Talk about that, you.
You are a teacher and aninstructor.
What do you?
What do you teach and yourealize what an opportunity you
have to impact so many youngpeople.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (12:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know I take joy in teachingat the high school and having
the opportunity to interact notonly with my students but with
my athletes on a different leveldaily.
So, to touch on what I do, I amthe going into my 10th year of
teaching.
I'm the 12th grade ESOL teacherand the ESOL contact for our
entire school, 6 through 12.
(13:07):
I initially started as the ESOLteacher for our entire high
school, 9th through 12th grade,which, for those of you who
don't know what ESOL is, it'sbasically our immigrant
population, all of ournon-native English speakers.
So kids from Cuba, puerto Rico,all over the globe, not United
States.
I work with them to get tograduation and to teach them
(13:28):
English and recently, as we hada larger influx of immigrants,
they brought on a couple moreESOL teachers to help ease the
load for myself, I'm able to nowfocus specifically on our 11th
and 12th graders, our older kids, and help them get to that
finish line and pursue eithercollege or the workforce, but
get them to that high schooldiploma and just see them
(13:49):
successful in life beyond highschool.
So that's what I do.
Joy (13:53):
That's doing a lot for your community and for those young
lives.
So I saw something on socialmedia recently where you were
congratulating one of yourformer students who I believe
he's in the track, running trackand having a lot of success at
the college level, and I justthought it was so cool how proud
(14:16):
you were of him, not as hisformer coach, but as as his
former teacher.
It's really special.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (14:22):
Yeah, no, that was that was.
That's one of my, I would say,top three coaching slash
teaching moments I've ever hadin my 10 years at Marathon.
That was an unbelievableexperience.
So I'll just touch on thatbriefly.
His name is Pedro and hearrived to us as a super shy
(14:44):
immigrant student his 10th gradeyear.
He barely knew how to say helloin English, came over from
Venezuela with his mother.
His dad was already here forsome time, so he was able to get
them over legally through theprocess and he came to me and of
course I was the first one togreet him at the high school,
because I'm the one who intakesour immigrant students and I
test them and I give them theirevaluation and see where they're
(15:06):
going to be placed.
And of course he didn't knowany English.
So he landed with me and heimmediately said Mr Gonzalez,
I'm a soccer player, I'm excitedto be able to join the soccer
team.
And, mind you, it was earlySeptember, two months out from
soccer.
I'm like, all right, well, I'mthe assistant cross country
coach at the time.
So there's no better way to getyou in shape for soccer than to
(15:27):
throw you on the cross countryteam and see what you're made of
soccer than to throw you on thecross country team and see what
you're made of.
So we did that and one thingled to the next.
He became this unbelievablerunner distance for cross
country.
Made it to states with the teamhis first year, participated in
soccer, enjoyed his time insoccer but absolutely fell in
love with the running.
Then he did track in during thespring season, became a
(15:50):
three-time.
Now we'll fast forward to 12thgrade, became a three-time state
participant for cross countryExcellent.
My wife and I took him on arecruiting trip up to Alabama.
We flew him out.
He got an invite to thenational running tournament and
his goal was to run under a17-minute 5K.
(16:11):
We had been in contact withDaytona State, which is the most
elite junior college forrunning in the state of Florida,
pretty much in the wholesoutheastern region, and the
head coach, joy Wilson, is hername.
She told me.
She said if we could get himunder a 16.45 at the national
(16:32):
tournament, he's got ascholarship.
So we did that.
We got him at a 1641, and hewent on to Daytona and fast
forward a couple years.
He's running at FIU on anathletic scholarship to finish
up his career.
Joy (16:46):
That's big time.
That's big time.
Thank you for sharing that.
I saw something online and Ihad no idea how much influence
you had on him.
So again, your opportunity toimpact in the community and from
the classroom to the ball fieldreally makes a difference.
Speaking of coaching, do I seethat you coach T-ball and Little
(17:09):
League I do.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (17:10):
This year was my first year I did.
I was the spearhead for mydaughter coach T-ball in Little
League I do.
This year was my first year Idid.
I was the spearhead for mydaughter's T-ball team my
daughter's six years old, goinginto the first grade.
And of course, how can I say noto that?
How can I say no to that whenI'm around all of these kids all
day long who aren't blood tomyself?
But then I tell my daughter no,I'm not going to coach your
(17:36):
t-ball team.
There was no way of doing that.
So right smack dab in themiddle of our varsity baseball
season, I found some time andwent out and coached t-ball for
my daughter.
It was an absolute blast.
Joy (17:41):
That's fantastic.
What's one of the fundamentalskills that you teach in Little
League that the player can takewith them to the high school
field?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (17:53):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I think the mainfocus for our young ones because
it was it was a very youngT-ball team.
We had fourth, fifth orfour-year-olds, five-year-olds
and some right on the cusp ofsix, so a lot of them just for
the first time put in a club ontheir hands.
Yeah, so so I mean we were.
We were just teaching thefundamentals of of what foot to
(18:13):
step with, how to throw, how tobreak down for ground balls and
some of them even further back,what base to run to after you
put a bat, put the bat on theball.
So it was.
It was a lot of fun justteaching them the basics and and
I think they learned a ton.
You know, we went from fromkids chasing balls after they
hit it off the tee to kidsrunning all the way around and
(18:33):
our pitcher fielding it andstepping and throwing to first.
So it was a.
It was a good time, goodexperience.
Joy (18:38):
That's awesome.
What's?
What's your daughter's name?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (18:41):
My daughter her name is Gabriela and I have
a little, a little boy who he'sgoing into pre-K.
He's four years old, his nameis Adrian, and my wife's my
wife's.
We're expecting number three inSeptember.
Congratulations, thank you.
Thank you.
We'll be a family of five realsoon.
Joy (18:58):
Yeah, you're working on your own team.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (19:01):
Yeah, working on my little, my own
little squad.
But that's it Five.
Five of us total and we're goodto go.
Joy (19:07):
That's plenty.
So is it harder to coach?
Coach Joey Gonza (19:12):
five-year-olds or 15-year-olds.
I think it's a healthy balance,you know, I think they both
come with their challenges.
The 15-year-olds you got todeal with Sometimes you got to
put some egos in check and yougot to balance the academics
with that as well and it's moreof a task where with the
five-year-olds it's more of likean attention thing.
Hey, stop playing with thegrass, get out of the dirt, stop
(19:33):
picking your nose.
We got a game to play.
Joy (19:37):
That's good stuff.
I love it Speaking of yourdaughter and women's sport is
blowing up.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (19:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
Joy (19:48):
I'm starting to pay more attention to softball.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (19:51):
Really cool that there's opportunity for
girls to keep playing beyondhigh school high school as well
absolutely yeah no, my daughter,my daughter's taking a little
liking to, uh, to running aswell, so that's, we'll see where
that leads her.
You know me with a that, thatsmall window of cross country in
my background, it'd be.
It'd be fun to see if she shetakes that up.
(20:15):
We were actually up at Disneylast week for a little family
trip and I was doing my morningjogs around the lake by the
hotel and she's like daddy, Iwant to get up early with you
and do a lap around the lake.
So she got up, mom, mom wassleeping in with my son and we
took a little, took a littlemild jog at six years old.
So I think we might have alittle runner in our future.
Joy (20:30):
Yeah, it sounds like you have a good athlete.
So you mentioned you were anathlete at Marathon.
What position did you play andhow good were you?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (20:39):
Yeah, you know, I was a left-handed
pitcher and I was a firstbaseman primarily first base my
entire career.
And then we had a need myjunior year, for somebody to
come in and eat up some innings.
So I started developing alittle bit more as a pitcher.
I didn't throw too too hard,you know.
I was an upper 78 to 81 guywith a couple of decent pitches.
(20:59):
I just threw a lot of strikes.
I didn't fall behind too much.
I was just one of those guyswho would give you seven innings
on 75 pitches and sometimeswe'd win, sometimes we'd lose,
but I was sure to get you 80%strike.
So I like to tell my guys youknow, it's not about how hard
you throw the ball, it's abouthow confident you are and how
(21:21):
accurate you throw.
And luckily the shift haschanged from when I used to play
.
Now we've got a few guys whoare living in that culture of
getting that velo and learninghow to do it healthy in the
right way.
So we're finally getting tothat point where we have a bunch
of hard throwers and now we'rejust working on getting that
command that I emphasized tothem so much.
So you know I was a decentballplayer.
(21:43):
I think I was a 340 guyoffensively my senior year and
it was different.
You know, it was a lotdifferent when we played.
We played because we enjoyedour time out there and it was
tough to play for championships.
We had westminster, christian,florida, christian all of those
at the time those recruitingpowerhouses year in and year out
.
So it was.
It was really tough to swallowthat every year, knowing that
(22:06):
you'd have to see that at theend of the season and we didn't
have the talent that we have now.
Joy (22:09):
So we enjoyed our time out there, for sure, but what we've
got now is just a completelydifferent breed, for sure so
let's talk about that a littlebit, because I see that
following the key west conks, weget to a certain point and
you're going to run up on theseprivate schools that are
recruiting all these players andit makes it real hard to
(22:31):
compete and it can befrustrating.
Marathon's a smaller school.
I know you guys are in a classthey call the rural class.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (22:39):
The rural class.
Joy (22:40):
Rural class.
And so how do you find thecompetition?
Is it an even playing field?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (22:48):
You know.
So this is obviously.
This past season was the firstyear that the rural
classification was formed andit's very interesting.
I'm glad you brought that upbecause, like I said for so long
, marathon Baseball we would hita brick wall at the end of the
regular season First round ofdistricts.
We would hit a brick wall andwe knew with this rural
(23:09):
classification we had theopportunity to get through that
first round.
Now there are some unbelievablytalented teams in the rural
classification when you getbeyond that first round.
In the past that first round waswhere we were done.
Now I think for a very longtime we're going to be able to
get our way through that firstround and compete for district
(23:29):
titles.
But as soon as we get throughthat first round you're going to
have to bring your A gamebecause you've got Fort Meade on
the other end, and that's theteam who we saw four different
times this year.
We beat them in the title.
Fort Meade was a top 100 acrossthe entire state, all seven
divisions all year long.
They were top five in our ruralclassification all year long.
(23:50):
So once you get beyond thatfirst round, the competition is
just like any other big nameprivate school opponent that
you'd play.
So, in short, getting to thatpoint.
Although it may be a little biteasier getting through that
point, you're still going tohave to have one hell of a squad
to get through that point.
Joy (24:09):
Yeah, it's challenging as a fan, because I followed the
Lady Conks softball team andthey ran into the same thing.
You get so far and then you runinto that school who has
recruits from not only all overSouth Florida but some pull from
other countries and everything.
So not to have sour grapes,right, it is what it is.
(24:30):
You've got to put your bestteam on the field and compete.
But uh, it is what you thinkabout the three game series.
How did that work out for youas a coach?
What's your thoughts on that?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (24:43):
yeah, you know, for us we were on the
short end of the three gameseries, but in my opinion a
three-game series proves yourbest team.
There's been so many times wherea mediocre middle-of-the-road
team has had one horse on themound and has been able to ride
that horse all the way down tothe end, and that wasn't the
(25:04):
case this year.
We had a couple guys that couldreally throw strikes, but we ran
into a Fort fort meet who hadthree guys who were 80 88, one
guy who ran it up to 90 and theywere the better team.
This year we got the best ofthem in the district title game.
It was a small scrappy gamewhere we were able to squeak out
a 2-1 win and we won a districttitle and we we're not going to
(25:25):
take that away at all, but in athree, in a three game series,
you tip cap.
They had three upper 80s guysand they deserved to win that
series because they outpitchedand outperformed us.
So I think this year, andhopefully moving forward, not
only does it give our boys anopportunity to play more games,
but it gives the team theopportunity to show who's the
(25:47):
deepest come postseason, whichis ultimately what you want to
see.
You want to see what team hasthe most to offer at the end of
the season.
Joy (25:55):
Right, right, it was tough traveling as a fan following
your team, right, even as a fan,it's hard to get up and go and
keep going.
You know you're marathons 50miles north of Key West, so you
have those same travelchallenges.
Talk about that a little bit.
How does that add to thepressure of your program from a
(26:16):
funding standpoint, from a fanstandpoint?
Talk about that 100%.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (26:22):
You know this is a really good point you
bring up because not manyprograms other than Key West and
Marathon High School understandwhat it takes to pull off a
season full of travel.
Key West is fortunate enoughthat they are able to host a ton
of games.
You know they have anunbelievable facility and just
their history of Key Westbaseball.
(26:43):
Who doesn't want to go downthere and play at Rec Switch?
You know?
But for us we still split.
We play 12 home, 12 awaytypically and people don't
realize it's a 12-monthfundraising commitment.
As a coach and as a program youhave to have tens of thousands
of dollars to be able to pulloff these travel days.
(27:04):
Even the one day where you goup to Miami play at 5 o'clock,
you're back home at midnight.
It's still a four or fivethousand dollar event If you're
taking a charter bus.
People don't realize the amountof money it takes to pull these
things off, let alone now inour rural classification where
we want to see our districtopponents and we have to go four
(27:25):
hours, five hours, six hours toplay these district opponents.
You're staying in a hotel one,two, three nights, three times a
year.
You need $40,000 or $50,000 infundraising to pull those
efforts off, and it's a very,very tough task.
But I think that's what makesour programs both of our
programs so unique is that weunderstand the commitment it
(27:45):
takes to be able to pull thatoff.
Joy (27:48):
And you really have to tip your caps to the community and
your business partners and helpsupport, because when you're
talking about that kind of money, that's a big investment and
we're fortunate, go ahead.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (28:02):
Coming from such a small community, it
feels like sometimes you'reasking the same generous
business donors over and, overand over and they will never
tell you no, because they knowhow essential it is to the
growth of the program.
So it's like you said, joe, youhave to.
You have to just respect everycommunity member that puts their
hand in making this possible,because they're the ones who do
(28:24):
it year in and year out.
You're the banner fundraisers,this that, the plaque sales, the
dinners, car washes.
They're there every step of theway.
Joy (28:32):
And those are.
I was just going to add to thatwe're fortunate to come from
such tight-knit communities,right, where we show up and
support our kids, especiallysupport each other.
But when it comes to Keys, keyskids there's a lot of support
(28:53):
behind those program.
Talking about tip your cap, I'mlistening to you talk about the
, the amount of hours on theroad with your players and gotta
tip your cap again to your kidswho did so well in school.
You know being on the roadplaying the game and then
turning around and driving backhome and going to school the
next morning and for your kidsto have the success they did in
(29:17):
the classroom, that's somethingspecial.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (29:20):
Absolutely, you know, I think.
I think it makes it makes it alittle bit easier for our kids
to understand the importance ofacademics.
When their head coach and theirassistant coach, which is my
brother, were both schoolteachers at Marathon.
When their head coach and theirassistant coach, which is my
brother, were both schoolteachers at Marathon you know
it's me at the high school level, him at the middle school level
, spearheading our younger kids,which some of them travel with
our varsity as well.
They understand it doesn'tmatter if we're home at midnight
(29:42):
.
You've got to on our way backfrom our game.
I don't care if we won by 10 orwe lost by 10,.
Your Chromebook is open, You'reknocking out your homework and
when you get home you're goingto bed and at 7.15, when the
bell rings, we're going to seeyour faces in class, because
it's a reflection of us and ourprogram.
So they buy into knowing that,while my coaches are also
(30:02):
teachers and if they don't setthe standard for us, it's going
to make them look bad as well.
So we've got to respect thefact that they are mature enough
to see that, which is huge.
Joy (30:14):
Talk about you.
You mentioned your brother andyour coaching staff.
You all have roots, deep roots,in the Keys and Marathon, and
how does that add to the qualityof your program that you and
your staff are part of?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (30:31):
You know, I think we've put together what I
would call a power team interms of our coaching staff.
We've got Coach Leo.
You can't leave him out.
He's our athletic trainer andhe's got a hand in everything we
do.
We've got my dad at the verytop as the head of our booster
program, who, for those of youwho don't know my dad, is a Key
(30:54):
West Baseball state championfrom the class of 84 as well.
Joy (30:57):
I had that on my list, so I'm glad you brought it up.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (31:00):
Let's go.
There you go.
I've got my brother, who's myright-hand man.
He's my first base coach.
He's my analytical guy.
He's the guy up here whodoesn't talk much but he
dissects a lot of the thingsthat I don't necessarily catch
during the course of a game.
Who's also an alumni from theclass of 2010 at Marathon High
(31:20):
School.
We have my strength andconditioning coordinator, who is
the owner of our local gym herein Marathon, coach Chris Cook.
He spearheads all of ourstrength, our off-season
workouts, our in-season workouts, our keeping our kids healthy,
giving them the nutritions thatthey need, the way to eat, eat,
the way to go about theirlifting.
Also a former marathon highschool graduate, who from the
(31:43):
early 2000s, who played atJacksonville University after
high school.
And then we've got coach KylePierce, who's our pitching coach
, which is a very familiar namedown south as well.
He was a former marathon bornand raised, and then, of course,
we had the, had the few yearswhere marathon baseball was, you
know, on a down, and he wentdown south and got a couple
(32:03):
really successful seasons downat Key West before going on and
playing at the Division II levelas well.
And then Coach Chad O'Rourke,who his son was Mason, our
pitcher, who just graduated, andhe's been our tech guy.
He's just been our anythingwewe-need type guy.
He just oversees everythingkind of like my dad and
financially has been a hugebooster and supporter for the
(32:24):
program.
So we definitely can't leavehim out.
Joy (32:28):
And it comes to mind it takes a village right.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (32:32):
It does, it does.
It's not a one-man show.
It's not a two-man show.
You need a group of guys allpulling on the same side of the
rope, that are in it for theright reason.
Joy (32:40):
Well, it sounds like you have a great crew, and is
everybody coming back for the26th season?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (32:46):
Everybody's coming back.
So when I took over this willbe my seventh season as the
varsity head coach it was myself, my brother, my dad who's now
the head of the booster.
Coach Leo and Coach Chad camein my second year when Mason
moved into town and then, as westarted seeing slow successes,
coach Kyle finished college.
(33:07):
He jumped on board.
We brought him in, and my thirdyear we brought Coach Chris,
our strength coordinator, andall six of us have been pushing
in this direction together anddon't plan on slowing that
anytime soon.
Joy (33:18):
I love it and I see that your boys are out there working,
putting in work in the weightroom, working in the cages.
What is the summer program andwhat is the goal of the summer
program?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (33:30):
Yeah, absolutely, you know so.
So we're, we're like I alludedto a little while ago we're
young, we're going to be youngagain.
I have one, have one seniorreturning next year and my core
group of guys are going to beincoming juniors and they're
extremely, extremely, extremelytalented ballplayers.
But we knew losing three majorpower bats.
(33:50):
We had three guys that aregraduating, three out of our
five that together had 95 basehits and hit an average the
three of them of 365.
So that's a hard thing toreplace.
So we knew getting theseyounger guys in the weight room
was on the forefront and gettingsome muscle on these guys and
just getting back to the basics.
(34:11):
We have a couple of our realtalented kids off playing summer
ball Dylan Williams, who's upnear the upper 80s range right
now on the mound playing on theScorpion Scout team.
A couple of our young guys aredown south with you guys doing a
lot of travel, and Reefer Ella,he's playing on the Padres
Scout team.
So we've got different piecesmoving around, but we all come
(34:34):
together when we're in town andwe get a three-day-a-week
lifting session, which isbaseball specific lifts, led by
Coach Chris Cook, our strengthcoordinator.
We do that at 8 am.
We go for about an hour and ahalf and then we do about an
hour and a half on the field.
After that we get our long tosssession, we get our bullpen in,
we get our cage working for theguys who aren't throwing pens
and we go about three hours.
(34:55):
We go through it for about athree hour cycle, three to four
days a week and then the daysthat we're not grouped together.
All the kids have Coach Chris's24 hour gym code and they go in
and do team lifts together.
So I think we've got a nicesystem and we've got our core
group of 12 to 15 bought in allsummer, which we're super
excited about.
Joy (35:15):
It sounds like you've got all the right things happening
and you've got kids that arewilling to put in the work to
make it happen, not getting toofar.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (35:23):
That's the difference, you know.
That's the difference from whatmarathon baseball used to be
and what marathon baseball isbecoming is.
You nailed it.
We can preach it all we want,we can ask the kids all we want,
but they've got to show up.
And we've got 15 kids showingup every day, waking up at 6.30
in the morning on their summersoff to show up at 7.45 and get
(35:44):
their lift and get theirpractice.
And that's all you could askfor as a coach.
Joy (35:49):
Speaking of coach and what a coach asks for.
What makes a good baseballplayer?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (35:55):
What makes a good baseball player?
Discipline Very simple.
Joy (36:00):
What are we?
A good baseball playerDiscipline.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (36:01):
Very simple Discipline.
You know you have to have goalsand you have to have goals.
You have to have goals that arerealistic and you have to have
goals that might be tough toreach.
But you've got to lay a path toget to both of those realistic
goals and you've got to lay apath to get to both of those
realistic goals and you've gotto lay a path to get to those
goals that are hard to attain.
And if you are not disciplinedand you don't take every single
(36:25):
step in that path to get tothose goals, it's not going to
happen.
It's not going to happen.
I have a young man who's cominginto the 11th grade who embodies
the word discipline.
He's a kid who didn't see muchaction his 10th grade year.
He's got a great arm, he's gota developing fastball.
He threw about 15 innings forus and did a really good job.
(36:46):
But he came up to me at the endof the year and he said, coach,
I want to be a top of therotation guy.
And I told him I said listen,we're getting to the point in
our program where we've got todevelop and we've got to be
disciplined and it can't just bea January to May commitment.
It has to be a 12-monthcommitment and he asked me.
He said what do I do?
I said you take it uponyourself to become disciplined.
(37:08):
I laid it out there.
I said you can hang up thecleats right now and pick them
up again in December, january,or you can lace them up in a
week after we get over ourelimination loss in the Sweet 16
and put your nose down and getto work.
And he's evolving unbelievably.
He's in the weight room fivedays a week.
He's driving up to West Palmand he's doing Cressy pitching
(37:32):
clinics twice a week up at theCressy facility.
I saw videos of Jacob Burnhamthere and a couple other Key
West alum up there.
He's doing all of the thingsthat we told him to do that take
discipline.
He's sacrificing time on thewater, sacrificing time on the
sandbar, because he knows whathe wants and he knows what it's
going to take to get there.
(37:52):
So I think that one worddiscipline is what makes a good
ballplayer for sure.
Joy (37:57):
Nicely done, coach.
So I that one word, discipline,is what makes a good ball
player for sure.
Nicely done, coach.
So I have this new new thing Iwant to try out to to wrap up an
episode, to end on a segmentcalled for the cycle.
All right, so I'm going to askyou four questions yeah all
right, they get harder as we goall right all right, so let me
see, let me find them here, youready.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (38:19):
I think so you can't make me look crazy now
.
Joy (38:23):
No, no, no, no, no.
We're good.
I have confidence You're goingto be good at this.
What's your favorite besidesMarathon Dolphin?
What's your favorite baseballteam?
Coach Joey Gonzal (38:31):
Unfortunately , the Miami Marlins
Unfortunately.
Joy (38:35):
Hey, they broke my heart so many times.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (38:38):
I don't know how I keep going back to
them.
I really don't.
Joy (38:41):
Listen, Bubba, it's.
The worst relationship I everhad in my life is with the
Marlins.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (38:45):
It is awful , absolutely awful.
You know it's our hometown teamand we got to show up when
we're only one of 4,000 peoplein the stands.
Joy (38:54):
No, you know, when I was a kid, like your dad, florida
didn't have a team, and so atleast you grew up in a time
where Florida and now the MiamiMartins exist.
But yeah, you got to be toughto be a Martin fan.
So tip my hat to you on thatone.
And no shame, because thatshows you got a plenty heart.
(39:15):
All right, best baseball movieever.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (39:19):
I love the Sandlot.
Joy (39:21):
That's mine too, coach.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (39:22):
I am a Sandlot guy through and through.
I'm not a movie guy, but when Ikick back and I watch a movie,
I find myself watching theSandlot.
Joy (39:31):
That's number one.
I love it.
All right, you've talked alittle bit about this earlier.
Mm-hmm.
All right, you've talked alittle bit about this earlier.
How important is analytics tobaseball and to matching the
needs of our current athletesthat are inundated with data?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (39:57):
up on the analytics, we're going to fall
behind and that's the bottomline, because everybody around
you is using analytics to movetheir game to a different level.
And I found it challenging thisyear this was our first year
taking that step to the moreanalytical side.
We got our Rapsodo, we got ourpitch calling through Pitch Calm
and, excuse me, making thatadjustment, making that move
from that more old school lookto that new school, breaking
(40:18):
down data and through a machine,more so than just out of a hand
, it does, it does evolve yourprogram in ways that you
wouldn't really think about whenyou look at it from a, from a,
from a further distance away.
So I do think analytics it hasto have a healthy balance.
So I think I think there'sstill important, important
components of getting to thebasics of what old school
(40:39):
baseball is, but you still haveto mesh both of them together
because if not, you're going toget left behind.
Joy (40:45):
Very good, good answer on that one.
All right, this is the last one.
This is the hard one for thecycles.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (40:53):
All right.
Joy (40:54):
What's a life lesson that baseball has taught you?
Coach Joey Gonzalez (40:58):
A life lesson that baseball has taught
me.
A life lesson that baseball hastaught me don't get too high
and don't get too low.
Don't get too high and don'tget too low for me as a player,
I enjoyed my baseball career.
I knew that beyond high schoolI had other goals and I was
honest with myself and I knewthat baseball probably wasn't
(41:19):
going to be in the equation posthigh school other than what I
did with my club team at FGCUand things of that nature.
A lot of these kids that wecoach on a daily basis are in
the same situation.
You have a small group of kidswho are elite, who are going to
move on and who are just diehardand extremely passionate and
take everything that they do toa different level.
(41:42):
But I think that theoverarching message for all of
our young athletes, especiallyour baseball players, is just to
not get too high when the goodis good and not get too low when
the bad is bad, because if yougo out and you're throwing a gem
but you strike out three timesoffensively, you can't let that
(42:03):
those three strikeouts get toyou, because you still got to
put your team on your back onthe other side of the ball.
So you've got to find a balancewhere you stay level-headed and
you know the task at hand isgreater than the few errors or
the few kick balls or the fewstrikeouts that you had.
So don't get too high, don'tget too low, for sure.
Joy (42:21):
Good one, coach.
I loved it.
All your answers Well done.
That was my first time to trythat.
I think I'm going to.
I like that.
I like that.
You set the bar high.
I really enjoyed ourconversation, coach.
I've been paying attention fromafar.
I promise you this I'm gonnahave you back on the show when
(42:42):
it comes closer to the 2026season.
I want to hear all about it,but also bigger than that.
I'm gonna get in the stands anduh, watch you and your boys go
at it.
I'm a big fan, coach.
Thank you love it.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (42:54):
Thank you so much and I'm here anytime you
want to.
You want to grab me?
Just shoot me a text, give meme a call.
I think we're unique down herein the Keys.
For too long people have lookedat us as two separate entities,
two separate programs.
They look at us as Marathonversus Key West and, let's be
honest, we're two differentprograms but we're all pushing
in the same direction.
(43:14):
I told my boys we need to gosupport Key West in their
regional game.
We need to go do these thingsbecause we are one group and I
have a lot of my young guys whowork their way up as young kids
with you guys before they get tome.
So I think it's only right thatwe respect each other and that
we push each other and wesupport each other the best way
possible.
(43:34):
And you coming up and being inthe stands next year will be
absolutely huge for me and somany of my boys know you through
social media and they wouldabsolutely love to see that.
So I appreciate that.
Joy (43:46):
I'll make it happen, and I love being able to meet some of
your players at the playoffs, atthe recs.
It was really cool to see them.
They probably thought I wascrazy because I wanted to take
their picture and get theirautographs and all that, but
that's what I do.
I'm a fan, right?
I can't help myself.
Coach Joey Gonzalez (44:03):
They came up to me right away.
They knew exactly who you were,don't worry, they knew exactly
who you were.
Joy (44:08):
Well, that's good stuff and I know who they are and I want
to watch them play.
So thank you so much.
Bye-bye, go baseball, gobaseball.
I'm joy newlish and Iappreciate you tuning into my
podcast.
My purpose is to bring joy intomy life and the lives of others
(44:28):
.
If you enjoyed this episode,drop a review, share and
subscribe, because there's a lotof good stuff on tap.
You can also follow bring joyon youtube and instagram, or
check my website atjoynoodlescom.
Now go, bring joy to the peoplein your world.
Until next time, much love.
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