January 29, 2024 • 65 mins
When longtime friendships intertwine with the love of baseball and the guiding principles of faith, there emerges a story rich with passion and life lessons. This rings true as I reunite with Chris Salvey, a friend whose dedication to the sport has taken him from the playing fields of Philadelphia to the coaching mounts of Monsignor Bonner High School. Our conversation is a tapestry of personal anecdotes, where Chris reflects on life's pivotal moments and the sustaining power of supportive relationships, while I share my own intertwining journey where faith and a sense of community have been my lighthouses in the storm.
Our exchange ventures beyond mere nostalgia, tackling the intricacies of coaching and the profound responsibility it entails. Examining the culture of team sports, we dissect a particular practice that resonated deeply with a young player named Jackson, showcasing the magnitude of impact a coach can have. Together, we dissect the dynamics of guiding a player-led team, embedding life skills alongside baseball techniques, and the delicate art of mentoring athletes to flourish in both their personal and professional spheres.
Concluding the episode, we dive into our individual strides through adversity, the solace found in faith during times of loss, and the profound role of gratitude throughout life's journey. I recount my path back to church and the humility in accepting that we need not face challenges alone, while emphasizing the act of surrendering to a higher power. It's a heartfelt dialogue that celebrates growth, faith, and the incredible influence one can have by simply being a positive force within their community. Join us for an enriching session that may just inspire you to reflect on your own path and the people who have illuminated it along the way.
Proudly sponsored by Midstream Lighting Inc: Cutting-edge, energy-efficient LED solutions!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to catching up with Christians.
I'm your host, coach McDonoughMcCarty.
I'm alongside a dear friend ofmine today, chris Salvi.
How you doing today, chris.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
What's up, brother, how you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Oh, doing great man.
I appreciate you taking thetime to hop on.
I know it's a little shortnotice, but we're super thankful
to have you.
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm excited.
Like I said, it's been a littlewhile coming.
We've been talking about it fora while.
Finally got some time.
We're both available, so I'mexcited.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Awesome, man, sweet.
So, like I like to do withevery guest, I want to hear your
all perspective of who you are,what you do and how you've
gotten to where you are.
So who's Chris Salvi?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Right.
So I grew up right outside ofPhiladelphia, you know, went to
Catholic school, kindergartenthrough 12th grade.
So all elementary through highschool played baseball, played
all the sports In high school,played mainly baseball.
(01:13):
Then I got the opportunity toplay in college a little bit
down in Jersey and Tennessee.
After that did well.
Then I got the opportunity toplay some pro ball for a few
years after that, which is, youknow, awesome to do.
You get to travel and meet newpeople and just the experience
(01:36):
of it all is awesome.
Being able to go all around thecountry is pretty cool.
And then, you know, officiallyhung it up and now I'm coaching,
you know, doing high school and, you know, a tournament team
for younger guys too.
Just fun.
So that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That's awesome man.
The love for the game, man, itnever leaves right, that's great
.
And so you know I've known youfor about a year, met through a
mutual friend, joe Singly.
You know Joe is like, hey, youknow, I got a buddy in mind.
You guys should, you know,connect.
(02:18):
We were playing Fortnite, meand Joe were.
I want to stay close to.
About a year ago.
If you guys don't know, joeSingly loves to play his
Fortnite on in the offseason andyou know he's like, hey, man,
you got to hop on, let's playsome games.
And I'm like, sure, why not?
He said I got this friend ofmine named Chris, he's gonna
(02:40):
come play with us.
And I'm like, all right, cool,sure.
And you know I didn't reallyknow what to expect.
You know you meet the guyvirtually.
You're like no, I knew he'sgonna be a good dude because you
knew Joe.
But at the end of day it's like,okay, how much are you really
gonna connect on?
You know, real level, virtuallyright.
(03:01):
And I got to know you a littlebit and realize that you had a
passion, obviously, for Jesusand also a passion for baseball
and just helping people, right,we'll get into some of those
things here in a little bit, butthat's what really instantly
clicked with me was to see thatright away and I could just tell
(03:24):
like this guy's gonna be inyour life for a while.
You know, as as you go up andgrow up and get older, you
realize sometimes people are inyour life for just a season of
your life and just a chapter ofyour life and sometimes that can
be hard to deal with, but theones that you know are gonna be
there for a while or forever.
You really cherish thoserelationships and realize, oh
(03:45):
wow, you know God really blessedyou with this one.
So that's personally how I feelabout you man, and and so I
kind of want to hear yourperspective on kind of how you
know we met each other and youknow your thoughts initially and
things like that yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So you know, I've known Joe since we were young
probably almost 15 years,probably more than that now and
you know we do the fortnightthing.
He's thinks he's the man atfortnight.
(04:24):
We all know it's not really thecase, but he hit me up, we play
and it's like we're gonna playwith my buddy Dan.
You know, not knowing anythingabout you know your situation,
you know, and then mean you gotto talk in just like normal
(04:47):
people would, you know, get toknow each other.
And you know I don't rememberif you brought it up or Joe did
about.
You know you're in thewheelchair, you're yeah, whatnot
, and I commend you for how yougo about that.
Like you don't let you knowpeople saying things about you
(05:10):
being in a wheelchair likeaffect you, like you it's
situation and you embrace it.
Yeah, which I love about you,dude.
And so then I think I'm prettysure the first night we played,
I got your Instagram and I waslooking at it and I was like man
(05:33):
, this dude, he has all the oddsstacked against them and he's
still going out and doing allthis stuff with baseball.
You're going to the wintermeetings, like that's how you
met Joe, right, like yeah, thewinter meetings, but you know,
yeah, yeah, whatever it was, yepyep, yeah, so I'm like he's
(05:55):
traveling, he's doing all thisstuff, still playing fortnight,
right, like you know, it's sincethen.
You know I'm like we've talkedabout it before, but it's like,
dude, you're an inspiration,like not just for me, and I
(06:15):
truly mean that, but for so manypeople that you don't even
realize, right, I bring you tothis place, where I brought you
to one of my workouts, practices, and you clicked with the guys
right away, right, so it's, Ilove you, dude, and I truly mean
that, and you're an inspirationto a lot of people.
(06:36):
And you know, I don't even knowhow to say no, I appreciate
that, man.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I mean it's definitely mutual.
You know you, you talk aboutbeing an inch.
You know me being aninspiration man.
You, you've been there forseasons of my life to, just in a
short period of time shortstory we'll kind of dive into
that.
You know it's not a short storybut I'll make it one.
But I had surgery about a littleover four months ago now.
(07:08):
That was to fix my left arm Ihad broken a few years ago.
And you know my doctors,specialists, are in Delaware and
about what is that?
35, 40 minutes from where youlive, like this part of Delaware
, yeah, 30, yeah, okay, cool,yeah, so about 30 minutes you
(07:34):
know from, for one, chris is atand you know, at this time, you
know we really only knew eachother from the video game and we
knew each other, we had eachother's number, we talked and we
game when we're available andtalk baseball and really just
have conversations.
But I was going into the seasonof my life where I was about to
(07:55):
have a really serious surgeryand it had been about six years
since I've had a surgery, allglory to God.
But I said, hey, man, you knowI'm gonna be in town, let's,
let's connect.
Before my surgery.
You know I'd love to dosomething.
You know, just kind of keepyour mind off it and be
(08:16):
surrounded by someone that youknow you enjoy spending time
with.
So and you know I was like, hey, man, let's connect.
You said absolutely, you know,I got a.
I got together practice goingon.
You know, this day, if you'reavailable, like pull up kind of
thing.
And you know I was like, youknow, absolutely I love coaching
(08:38):
high school and you use guys,it's so much fun to me and I'll
never forget.
I was like going to myappointments and I just like a
lot of surgery.
You got to go to like yourpre-op appointments, right, you
got to go to like differentspecialists, you know, to make
sure you're clear to go tosurgery.
And I pull up to one of myfirst appointments and I'm like,
(09:01):
yeah, you know I might be alittle late to tomorrow just
because, like, I got a practicein the morning.
You know they're like what I'mlike.
Yeah, you know they're like,but I thought your teams in Ohio
, I was like it is, but you knowus coaches, you know we stick
together and my boys got apractice in the morning and and
I'm gonna be there and and andgive my best to these guys, and
(09:21):
if I'm a little late to mypulmonology appointment, I'm
sorry, you know.
I mean like, well, we gotbaseball to work out so and so
they came out and you know heprobably didn't realize you
probably didn't realize how muchthat meant to me to really just
like clear my mind.
You know, I mean I knew God hada plan for the surgery and I
(09:44):
knew he was gonna guide thedoctors and I knew I had an
amazing team.
But you still have that, youknow, sometimes overwhelming,
kind of like, you know,discomfort feeling and that type
of stuff and and baseball istruly one of my happy places and
being around people thatunderstand the game and have a
passion for the game and onteaching the players the right
(10:05):
thing, like I thrive in thoseenvironments and they give me so
much peace and allowed me to,you know, just kind of escape in
a sense.
But I just want to thank youfor that as well, because that
was a really big, impactfulmoment for me and, like I said,
I even from that moment to knewthat man, this guy, really means
(10:29):
business, considering, you knowwe only met, you know, on
fortnight and playstation andwhatever, and but going from
that to being like hey, come onout to so-and-so for practice,
you know, when you barely knewme, in a way we knew each other,
but you know you really don'tknow so until you meet him in
person.
So I really appreciate you forthat.
(10:51):
It means a lot.
And so what was that practicelike to you?
I'm trying to think thatpractice, you know, I tried to.
I think I tried to likeimplement some things with the
guys.
I do you recall that practiceat all?
I don't, I don't reallynecessarily remember too much
yeah, you came twice yep if youdon't remember no, I do right,
(11:15):
you came in the one time in thesummer yep yeah, the first one
you came up for, just your.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Was it just your doctor's appointment?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
yeah, it was like the pre-surgery was a fur Allen no,
that was for me.
That was the pre-surgeryappointment.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, okay, so I came up so that that was, um, that
was our summer workouts when Iwanted you to come, you know,
kind of speak to the guys, youknow, give them a little bit of
your story, what you've beenthrough, what you're going
through, just kind of like aperspective thing, you know.
(11:58):
I mean.
So we went through that, thatone day I actually had my little
brother there, yeah, and thenyou had came again in the fall
and that was a that was prettyinteresting.
You kind of took some of theguys by shock.
(12:20):
They're like, wow, this littledude, he's in the wheelchair but
he's, he's giving us thebusiness a little bit.
But they were super receptiveto what you were saying and that
was really cool to see.
They even, you know, hadquestions for you.
(12:42):
He had answers.
It was really cool to just seethe interaction with you.
You don't know any of thesekids right, you know a few of
them from when you came in thesummer, like like Jackson, who
still follows all your stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I love that dude.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah yeah.
So, yeah, jackson's a he's agood kid, so you know especially
him already, knowing you andyour relationship with him.
Already you know he kind ofstepped up and was like this
dude knows what he's talkingabout.
We all need to listen, right.
(13:19):
So that's also a testament tohim, but also you to where you
made that kind of impact rightaway with the kid who's going to
play D1 baseball and he'slistening to you, who just kind
of came in.
You know what I mean.
Like they trust me to bringpeople in and know what they're
talking about, right.
So if I didn't trust you youwouldn't be there.
(13:39):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
For sure, absolutely, absolutely no.
So that's cool.
So I want to take it back andwe'll further.
We'll dive in a little bit moreabout Jackson and whatnot here
in a second Great kid, heck of aball player Can't wait to see,
you know, what he does atRadford.
He's going to be a really greatplayer.
(14:01):
But you know, we go back to thefirst time I was there was like
the end of the fall-ish.
It was maybe it wasn't the endof the fall.
I knew it was August, end ofAugust, and we, you know I was
there.
You asked me to come and speakto the team and I take my
speaking engagements quiteseriously, like I want to, you
(14:24):
know, let these people knowwhoever I'm speaking to.
That, you know, depending onwhat I'm still there to talk
about, I just wanted to resonateat some capacity.
I wanted to, you know, connectwith people.
I want them to feel like theycan get something out of it,
right.
And so, with that being said, Ithink you know, when I came in
(14:47):
the first time, it was really toset the tone, because I knew
there'd be another time I wouldsee them and when I'd be there
again I'd want to coach them upand you know kind of use some of
the things that I know to helpthese guys develop.
And sometimes, as you know,it's just kind of like parents.
You know, like how many timeshas your parents told you
(15:09):
something that like is the rightthing to do?
But it doesn't take untilsomeone that's not your parent
to tell you and then, like youmake that switch.
It's like the same thing, right, like I'm sure there's a lot of
things that I said that youguys talked about in your
practice plans and those typesof things, but when I said it
it's like a light bulb went off,right.
So that I think that's why Itry to really use those moments
(15:33):
when I'm coaching other people'steams or speaking to other
people's teams seriously,because I know this could be a
really positive and pivotalmoment for the team's success or
possibly a team's decline in away.
So but I want to get into afterthat practice.
The first time, you know, I hadmy surgery.
(15:53):
My surgery was like eight hourslong.
They had to break it in acouple of places and put a rod
through and all that.
It was a really, you know,grueling recovery.
But I remember waking up in acouple of days later you reach
out to me, you go, hey, like,are you in a good enough spirits
for me to stop by?
I'm like, sure, you know.
Whatever, you know I'm all upon the medications, feeling
(16:16):
great.
You know I'm like, yeah, whynot?
And you know you stop by andlike, our second time I've ever
meeting each other in person.
Or third, we even went to abaseball game earlier in that
week too.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
We saw the- that was about to bring me over.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, wait, that was the first time, right, not the
second time.
We were there, we went to-.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It was the first time , right?
Yeah, the very first time wemet was at dinner.
Yep went to dinner and then wewent to and then we came to the
workout next morning.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yep, Then we went to that game that night.
It was a.
What are they?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
called.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
The Delaware or something.
I forgot the name.
What was the team name?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Wilmington Blue Rocks .
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Wilmington Blue Rocks .
That's yeah, yeah, yeah, that'sright.
Went to a game that was sick,it was beautiful stadium, it was
a great weather, and so went tothat game and then, you know,
fast forward, had surgery,whatever, and you know, next
couple of days later, you know,chris was like, hey, can I pop
in?
I said, absolutely, come on, hecomes in.
(17:16):
It was him, our buddy's, joe'smom Shout out to mama Singly.
She's amazing, I love youdearly.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Praying for you every day.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
She actually just she actually just said yeah, she
did yeah, shout out to her.
Yeah, they came in with loads ofcupcakes and Jackson was there
too and talking a little bitabout Jackson's character man,
that really connected with me,that I was able to connect with
(17:46):
a player just on a few littleyou know interactions that he
felt like man, I wanna go seethis guy make sure he's okay.
So that was really powerful,jackson.
If you're listening to this man, I really appreciate you.
Buddy, if you ever needanything, you know I gotcha Keep
grinding.
Big things are ahead of for you.
(18:06):
But I think that's a testamentto the culture that you created
with the other coaches at yourschool that, like you said, if
you're bringing someone in, thatperson knows something.
They're a good person.
They, you know, are therebecause they care about you.
It's not transactional, right.
It's like a genuinerelationship, a genuine
(18:30):
interaction, and I think that'sjust a testament to what you
have built there with thecamaraderie culture at that
school with the rest of thecoaching staff.
So hats off to you all.
That was a really amazingexperience, so fast forward.
You know, I came back for thefollow-up appointments, right,
(18:55):
and that's when I went to thepractice and I started coaching
up the guys and that's when youwant to talk a little bit about
how you did say they're a littleshook, right, cause I was like
man, when I'm there, like I'mreally going to be taking this
serious.
I remember like yelling at someshort stops a couple times like
, hey, you got to this, yourhome field.
If you know there's rocks there, you got to come get the
baseball, you know so thingslike that.
(19:16):
So maybe talk about.
You know the reactions of someof the players, or you know your
thought process and me kind ofsitting in the dugout barking at
them.
You know what was that?
Your opinion?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, it was.
It was kind of from myperspective it was kind of
comical, right.
You know, I see we get on them,you know, at practice.
You know I had to get on themlast night to practice a little
bit.
But we get on them and it'sthey're they kind of expected.
(19:54):
They already know what's comingright, they know they mess up,
we're going to get on a littlebit, right.
But then we hear this voiceprojecting from this little guy
in the wheelchair and it's like,especially the younger guys
they got shook, oh yeah, and butat the end of the day they
(20:14):
listened and they made theadjustments.
This is what you were saying,right, yeah, and we're big.
We're big on especially mesaying you know, we're only
doing this like we're notgetting paid, like a lot of
money, we're very, very little,right, so we're taking our own
(20:34):
time to do this, right.
So what we care and that's whatwe try and emphasize is, like
we're not here to just like havefun like BS all day.
Right, we're here to get ourwork in.
And my biggest thing that I tryto emphasize with high school
(20:56):
and my younger guys, so mytravel team, is you don't
understand how much baseball andlife correlate together, right,
they go hand in hand andeverything.
Right, the adversity you facein baseball, you're gonna face
even more in life, right, yeah,so, like, our biggest thing is
(21:20):
you know, yes, we wanna makethem the best baseball players
they can be, right, not just forlike, not just for our team,
but like for themselves as well.
We wanna get the most out ofwhat they can do, right, but
it's also translating into thembecoming men and good people in
society and, you know, beingable to live in this world.
(21:46):
That's kinda crazy right now,right, so we wanna make the best
people that we can make youknow what I mean, like guide
them to being the best menChristians, fathers, husbands
that they can be right.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah, and I love that .
I think that's a.
I love that perspective becauseyou know you mentioned it's one
of the biggest reasons why Ilove baseball too is because of
the adversity that it preparesyou for For all the non-baseball
(22:25):
people out there.
You're in the hall of fame ifyou fail seven out of 10 times.
You know what I'm saying.
In baseball, like you will bein the professional hall of fame
if you fail seven out of 10times, that means three out of
10 that you're successful.
And I feel like it's just agreat way to put perspective on
(22:46):
life and kinda look at thelittle things and be like man,
like that was a success or thatwasn't backbore.
That you know I'm reallygrateful for this or whatever
that looks like.
And that, you know, isdefinitely one of my biggest,
biggest, you know loves that Ihave for the game and one of the
reasons why I love it.
(23:08):
But going back to that practice,man, that was, that was a great
time.
I was really, you know, excitedto be there.
You know, going through that,you know rough time of recovery.
But throughout that wholeprocess, man, you guys were
there supportive.
Jackson would text me all thetime, you would text me and Joe
and call me and those type ofthings and I can't thank you
(23:29):
guys enough for that.
It was, you know, a difficulttime, just like any kind of
surgery recovery for a lot ofpeople, but this was a little
more intense than I had expectedor that I've had in the past.
So really having support systemwas made the world of
difference to be able to getthrough it and you know I can't
(23:53):
thank you enough for that.
So let's dive in a little bitinto the baseball world and more
specifically here.
So kind of let us know whereyou coach at.
You don't mind what your maybethe little bit of the school's
history.
I know you guys had a couplebig what a big draft pick last
year.
The year before Sounds likethere's a big.
(24:16):
You know history there at theschool, not too familiar with
the area, and just talk aboutthe culture, why you love
coaching there and maybe some ofthe goals that you guys have
this year goals were not evenwinning, necessarily just goals
for each.
You know the culture, theprogram and that type of stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Right.
So I coach at Monsignor BonnerHigh School, which ironically is
my rival high school, from whenI was in high school, when I
went to Cardinal O'Hara, and itwas always like a real, real big
rivalry around here and no lovelaws between those two schools.
For sure.
(25:00):
Things are a little differentnow.
I don't know.
There's O'Hara kids and Bonnerkids hang out.
It's weird, I don't like it.
I don't like it at all.
But it's different.
The culture, the vibe justbeing around that program is
(25:21):
there's an expectation everysingle year right To be the best
, and that's a culture that youknow we won.
So we're in the PhiladelphiaCatholic League, so we won two
years ago.
They won a few times beforethat.
(25:42):
Like I said, I went to O'Hara,so I don't know the whole Bonner
history, but you know we'vegotten bounced in state semis
the past three years.
We had a very upsetting letdown playoff game last year in
(26:06):
the first round of the CatholicLeague playoffs.
So you know, I think as a wholeour team should be better this
year because we have a lot ofstarters coming back which are
also a lot of seniors.
So obviously a big loss is,like you mentioned, our
(26:30):
shortstop from last year.
Kevin McGonigal got drafted inthe first round by the Tigers.
Obviously, losing him is big.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
But it's also a part of.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
he left an impact here.
He left an impact here for theculture of where we're heading.
So he set an example Him.
A couple other guys from theyear before that are in college
now.
Right, they set a culture and astandard for the program that
is carrying over.
(27:04):
Now, right, with some of ourleaders now, like Jackson, we've
got to got our shortstop HarryCarr, austin Cannon right.
These guys have the culturehard-nosed.
They're not going to let itslip away.
And my belief is I even hadthis talk with them last night
(27:27):
of practice at the end is thisis your guys' team.
We're going to go as far as youguys want to go.
We're here just to guide youand put you in the right
positions.
It's up to you guys, right.
So that's something I believein wholeheartedly.
(27:47):
I didn't really think of thatuntil college when one of my
coaches said it it's our team.
They're just there to put us inpositions to save Absolutely
Right.
So the expectations this yearis when the Catholic League,
when the city championship andwhen states there you go.
If that's not the goal, then Idon't know what we're doing, you
(28:12):
know.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
For sure, for sure.
That's great.
I know that.
You know you mentioned a fewthings that really resonated
with me there.
But you hit the nail on thehead as coaches, we're just
there to guide them.
We're kind of like the jockeyright, like we're not
necessarily the horse.
You know, we're not the horse,the players are the horse.
We're just the jockey rightGuiding the horse.
(28:36):
Um which is still a pivotal role.
At the end of the day, if youdon't got a good horse and it's
not you know training, or it'snot doing what you need to do,
then you're not going to be ableto win the race.
And so I think that's, you know, the great example of the way
that you're going to be able towin the race, the great example
to really tell.
I see a lot of youth coachesunfortunately want it more than
(28:58):
the players and, like you know,one of the things that drive me
nuts sometimes is they'll callall the plays and they'll call
all the pitches but not explainto the kids why they're doing it
.
And so then the kid gets inhigh school and they're like
well, I don't know why he'scalling the curveball or I don't
know why we're bumping in thissituation.
I just know that's what coachtold me to do in the past.
And it's like, if you're notunderstanding it and you're not
(29:21):
doing it because you know, youknow what to do in that
situation, then you're notsetting your team up to be
successful, you're not settingup the players to be successful,
but from meeting the guys andmeeting the leaders that you
have, I know it's in good handsand I know the culture there is
good and you know I'm hoping allthe best in that way, which is
(29:45):
amazing, and my boy Jackson isgoing to outsteer the ship,
hopefully, and be a good leaderon that end, which is great.
Now two things I want to diveinto.
One.
In the first episode I talkedwith my boy, landon Hutchinson,
(30:05):
and one of the things we talkedabout is outside of the diamond.
What are ways maybe in yourprogram that you connect with
your players or maybe measuresuccess other than wins and
losses?
At the end of the day there'sonly one champion in the state.
Now you're still a good program.
You still make sure the guysare prepared for life.
(30:28):
But are there maybeconversations?
You take time out of your weekto contact each player.
I don't know, each coach has adifferent style, but what are
ways maybe you connect with yourplayers outside of baseball as
measure success outside ofbaseball?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Right.
So, like I've talked about, youknow, I've become very close
with with Jackson.
You know there's some otherplayers that I've become very
close to and it's it's kind ofcool because I am, you know, one
of the younger coaches, so it'skind of easier to connect with
(31:08):
them in that way.
It's almost like, you know, I'mjust like a big brother, right,
and it's been something I'vehad to get used to, to where I'm
able to have that relationshipbut also know, like I'm also
your coach and I like have aresponsibility to get the best
(31:30):
out of you, right.
So that's been, that'ssomething I had to kind of learn
last year, like right away,right away, my first year with
them, and it honestly wasn'tthat hard to do because they
(31:51):
know that I'm there, they knowthat I care.
So it's like, yeah, we can haveour fun, we joke around, we talk
about whatever, right, but atthe end of the day, like when I
get, when I get like stern orhave like a talking with them
about like what's going on orlike something we need to fix,
like they shut up and theylisten, right, and they apply to
(32:12):
the best of their ability,right, and if they can't do it,
we fix it, but it's like I'veearned their respect in that way
, to where they know like I'monly here to help.
Right, we can have our fun, butthere's also time to get to
work.
Yeah, but ironically enough,like there's some of the, some
(32:33):
of the things we connect likeoff the field is like Fortnite
and stuff like go hit me like yo, let's play, like sure man
let's get after.
But you know also like in theirthere's nine, though some of
them will hit me up to like goget extra hitting work in, right
, go to a facility late at nightor whatever, and get some extra
(32:58):
work in.
Yeah, man, it's, it's.
It's been really fun.
I'm really enjoying the wholehigh school coaching experience
for sure.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
So let's talk a little bit about your faith here
and maybe let's just firststart off.
How does maybe your faithinfluence your coaching style
and maybe influence your out ofCatholic school and right, and
you know how is that implementedin the culture there, but how
is it also affected yourcoaching style and your coaching
(33:35):
philosophy?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, that's a good question.
You know I went to a, not areligious school, but I did go
to Catholic school fromkindergarten to 12th grade and
I'm not going to lie.
After that I kind of lost it alittle bit, where it's kind of
(34:07):
like shove down your throat somuch for all those years like
being in Catholic school it'skind of like okay, I'm out of it
, like you, kind of like like Ineed enough for a minute, right.
So like, if I'm being honest, Ilost it for a little bit.
I get to my school in Tennessee.
(34:29):
Actually, let me backtrack, allright, my one of my best friends
.
He was a senior when I was afreshman in high school.
I didn't really like get closeuntil my junior, junior, senior
(34:50):
year, high school, right.
So he was in college and heactually went to the junior
college that I ended up goingthrough.
After him he went to a fouryear school in Mississippi
getting ready for his seniorseason and something that I like
discovered after I discoveredwas he was getting very much
(35:16):
back into his faith and readingthe Bible and doing all these
things and unfortunately got ina car accident and passed away,
which actually the anniversaryfor that is, tomorrow will be
eight years.
But after that I kind ofstarted getting back to my faith
(35:43):
.
It took a little bit right,because something like that
happens, you're kind of likequestioning everything, but
after that I kind of startedgetting back into it, not like
full flats, but you know,praying before games, praying
after games, you know praying tomy friend Devin, asking him to
(36:07):
just like look over me, likehelp me out in this game, one
one, not right.
So I actually got his number.
He was number 27.
I got number 27 at come onagain in college and then you
know that kind of um, I wore itthroughout my college career
except my junior year when Itransferred.
(36:28):
Someone already had it, but Iwore it again my senior year.
But at Lincoln Memorial inTennessee our coach was very
religious and big into faith andyou know, didn't curse, you
know all that.
So they were very big intofaith praying.
So we would do stuff like thatevery day, like pray Before
(36:52):
every game.
We'd get in a big circle,everybody's touching each other,
we have a prayer.
So that's kind of when Istarted to get really back into
it, when I was down there mysenior year.
Just you know, kind of likereading over things being a part
of that culture.
(37:13):
And once I left there, I stillwould like pray and like do my
prayer before every game.
You know, during the nationalanthem I'm down.
After it's over, I look up, youknow, do a little sign the
cross, touch my heart, point up,and then I'm ready to go right.
But really my faith, like nowat Bonner, we pray before every
(37:42):
game, right.
As for prayers, and like, likeall that, all that good stuff,
right, that we love to do insports, um, but after that, like
personally, you know, I haven'treally gotten back into it
until recently, where I've beenlike looking for Signs and a
(38:04):
direction, right, start goingback to church, started praying
every day, which I'm loving, it,I love, I'm loving going back
to church.
Being a part of that, doing allthat stuff.
And you know, part of myprayers is for my guys right, to
Allow them to find theirdirection and To see them
(38:29):
succeed and whatever right,become good, good people.
Like I said, obviously we wantthem to do good baseball, but
that's not gonna be foreverybody, like baseball doesn't
last forever, so I want them tojust like Be happy and good, be
good people, right.
So that's part of that andthat's part of also like my
(38:51):
coaching style now is just likebeing there for them right, and
giving them some kind of guidingdirection and Showing, trying
to show them like the way youknow.
I mean that's kind of how I'veincorporated it into like I
guess my coaching style was justmaking sure they know like I'm
(39:12):
here like whatever you need.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
That's awesome.
I think it's a blessing to hearthat you have, you know, came
back around you know, severaltimes in your life and you know,
I think it's.
It can be easy to be tough onOurselves and I just try to
remind everybody it's a journeyand that it's it's a
relationship with Jesus, not areligion, and I think that you
(39:40):
know you just continue to askGod for guidance and seek him.
He will reveal himself andthat's, you know.
I think it's advice as youcontinue to grow and I'm growing
too.
But you know it's inspiring tosee that.
You know you're you're stilltrying every day, like us all,
(40:02):
to learn more about Jesus andhow you can be a good role model
for your team and just anybodythat you come across.
You know and I'm sorry to hearabout your friend, but you know,
as sometimes tragedy can alsobe a way for us to Kind of get a
(40:24):
hold of ourselves and be likeyou know what let's be grateful
for today and let's see thegoodness that God has done for
us now and he will do again.
And I know my own life.
When I've experienced somethingyou know, tragic, I always just
try to use it as a moment ofreflection and growth and be
like, okay, I Want to use thismoment and see how God could use
(40:49):
this, you know, for forwhatever way he wants in our
lives.
So that's, that's powerful man.
Thanks for sharing that and Ikind of want to continue down
this path.
A little bit here, just talkinga little bit about you know a
(41:10):
Little bit more about you Forthe viewers that don't know this
you have a brother and you knowyou mentioned early on in the
the podcast that when I went toone of those practices, your
brother was there.
And this moment in particularlike you kind of talk a little
(41:33):
bit about your brother, but itseeing him at your practice and
seeing the way you interact withthem really warm my heart and
show me your true character,because Just being a good
sibling and being a good rolemodel is so important.
(41:54):
But with Everything that'sgoing on these days, we need to
have a support system.
We need to have people thatlove us, regardless of where
we're at, what our capabilitiesare or our capabilities are.
So Would you mind diving alittle bit about your brother
and what it's like to be anolder brother and and maybe some
(42:17):
of that?
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, so my brother.
He's 12, 12 years old now.
He just turned 12 last monthand he's autistic.
So I'm, I'm 27, so there's a 15year difference.
Right, his birthday is threedays before mine.
He's born three days before my15th birthday, and so it's
(42:47):
almost like, yeah, he's mybrother, but I've also like been
a very big part in raising him.
So it's To me it's like, yes,my brother, but he also sees me
as like a what do you call likea, like a figure to listen to,
like yeah.
(43:08):
Yeah type deal.
So, like, to be honest, likeI'm, I like listening to my mom,
but like, really, if, like weneed him to like do something,
I'm the one that comes in andlike tells him what to do.
But also, like I'm the onethat's also there to like calm
him down if he's having like athing.
(43:29):
But I, regardless of like mybrother, just like how I grew up
, I've always like tried to bethe person that stood up for
people who can't stand up forthemselves.
Right, I'm the kind of personwho's always putting you know
other people before me to makesure that they are okay and and
(43:51):
it's it's not always easy,because you know you do have to
take care of yourself every oncein a while, make sure that
you're good.
But like it's just kind ofingrained in who I am to like
make sure everybody else is goodaround me.
So like, just like back to likehelping people who can't help
themselves is like I, it woulddrive me nuts, like in high
(44:15):
school or whatever.
Like Seeing bullies and seeingthese kids is like get picked on
or saying I don't want to tableby themselves, like it truly
would like break my heart.
And I Actually found a bookwhen I was cleaning out my room
a couple weeks ago, we went on aretreat in high school.
It's called Cairo, so it's likea like a retreat to get like
(44:39):
closer with God and like just soa bunch of stuff.
And you get put in a groups andmy group was with some people
that you know I was friends withlike every group there was.
Like I wasn't like Best friendswith one and then we'll like
not talk to another, right, likeyeah, I would be friends with
(45:01):
all, like the athletes, thepopular kid, and Then I would be
friends with people who didn'tplay sports and like we're super
, just like in this school orlike didn't talk to a lot of
people.
So, like I found this book withsome of the kids who were like
very shy, like kept tothemselves and Only talked to
like a certain few people, right, and they would like thank me
(45:27):
for being like the person thatthey can look forward to like
seeing every day.
Right, there's one kid inparticular.
I remember he was in like theAP, one of the AP math classes,
and I would walk around I offperiod where I worked for the
office, where I would go aroundcollect the tenants and I walk
(45:47):
in the room every day and givelike a fist bump to him, right,
and he absolutely loved it.
He's like in this book.
He's like that's something Ilook forward to every day is
being in that class and waitingfor you to come get attendance
and give me that fist bump.
It's something so small that Ididn't even realize like it's
Such like a big impact onpeople's lives, right, little
(46:08):
things.
So I carry that all the wayinto now, like with my brother.
He's autistic.
He doesn't understand, like,what's going on in the world,
right, someone picks on him.
He doesn't really understandthat's what's going on.
But like my thing is I just needto make sure like he's
(46:30):
protected.
I want him to Live as normal ofa life as he can, right be
included in whatever we're doing, which is very important.
I just want him to Be treatednormal, right, like I don't want
him to be treated like, oh, hehas Special needs, so like he
(46:51):
needs to be Treated likedifferent and you know we see
some horror stories these dayswith people are just being very
neglectful to their specialneeds kids or brothers, sisters,
whatever it may be, and youknow my brother's blessed To
(47:16):
have the mom that he has that Ihave.
She does whatever he needs,make sure he's always taken care
of and, at the same time, likeI'm blessed that I've been my
life because, honestly, like inhigh school and things like I
would Stay home to spend timewith him instead of like going
out and doing something stupid,right, so like he's probably
(47:39):
saved me, to save me sometrouble also, but it's, it's
very like just like he's like mylittle best friend, right, like
I love him yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
That's.
That's awesome, man, and youtouch up on a lot of great
things you talked about.
You know horror stories thatyou know unfortunately go on.
But you know from what I found,being someone who's in a
wheelchair and Doing a lot ofspeaking engagements and talking
to other families with peoplewith disabilities it's a lot of
(48:12):
people are just thinking they'redoing what they think is best.
It's not necessarily thatthey're trying to harm the
individual.
And Unfortunately, you know, Ior I should say, fortunately,
actually, fortunately I grew upin a household that my dad was a
(48:32):
Marine retired Marine now andWas very tough, you know, and
I'm so thankful for it.
I loved us.
You know, it was hard love, butit was tough and it prepared me
for the real world and it also,you know, let me know that I
(48:54):
was capable of achievinganything that I put my mind to.
And sometimes I think that, youknow, we tend to put
limitations on people and I, I,I think we all have things that
we can't do, because that's theway God made us, but everybody
has things we can do.
And I remember going Topractice, you know, at that day,
(49:14):
and your brother was there andat the end he was like tossing
you balls, that the fun go right, you're hitting them and he's
like grabbing the balls out ofthe bucket and like throwing
them at you and stuff.
I'm like he could just seethat's what everybody else is
doing.
He was getting after it and butit really warmed my heart
because it's it's something thatI I Really love to see, but
(49:35):
with someone, just becauseyou're doing the best that you
can for your brother and you'rebeing the best role model and
you're also trying to get thebest out of them, you want him,
like he said, to live as much ofa normal life as he can, and I
think that's all of us.
We should be doing that foreverybody and so, personally, I
love that.
That's something I, you know,think is amazing, and Because I
(49:58):
know of situations where peopleare sheltered, when you know
told that they have too manylimitations, to where they're
not capable of women, you know acertain way, but you, my friend
, really do inspire me on thataspect, just because it's
something that's reallyimportant to me and I Really
wanted to share that story andthis topic, specifically because
(50:20):
I know it'll impact a lot ofpeople out there to understand
that.
Look Like, take the time out ofyour day to spend time with the
ones who maybe not have.
You know the Support system.
Even and I've been talkingabout in your family at this
point, right, you talk aboutthose kids at school.
You never know what people aregoing through, you don't know
who's in their lives and just afist bump and saying what's up
(50:42):
or how's the day going couldcompletely change someone's life
, so that everybody listeningdude this today, my, my goal is
to go.
I've.
My challenge for you all is togo out next time you're
somewhere and just say hi tofive random people, just be like
, hey, how you're doing.
Or you know I'm praying, youknow praying for you, or
whatever that looks like.
(51:03):
So that's really impactful, man, and and I love you and your
brother man, and you know yougot a little bit in your faith
journey and that we, you know,are praying for, for you and
Continue to grow just like this.
All you know this this life canbe difficult, but we know that.
(51:25):
You know God has a plan and hewill make a way for whatever
we're supposed to Do in ourlives where I will, and God's
will for our lives.
So so, last thing I'd like towrap up with.
I mean, if there's maybe somelast you know words that you'd
want to mention to the listeners, maybe there's a topic that
you'd want to talk about quickhere Before we dive into prayers
(51:48):
, or anything you'd like totouch up on before we hop off
here today.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Yeah, man, I think the only thing that I like have
become passionate about and wetouched on a little bit is, you
know, just the faith.
And you know I've gone througha Good, you know, good fair
share of my dark times in life,early in, like not the greatest
(52:20):
spot, you know, trying to figurefigure life out and you know,
make make these changes in myown life.
And Something you know thatI've really learned through
going back to church is, youknow, you can't do it on your
own and there's a stubbornnessto the human race.
(52:42):
Well, yeah, we think like weneed no help, we can do
everything ourselves.
You know, I know a lot of peoplethat think that way and I
Definitely have thought that waymyself.
But now I'm trying to to getinto that space where, okay,
I've tried to do it myself a lotright, and I make some progress
(53:05):
and it just doesn't worksometimes, right.
So I've learned that we have toput our trust into God, not
just have faith, but to have thetrust in him that he will put
us in the right place.
He has, he has the plan he had,he knows right, and we get so
(53:31):
caught up in ourselves and it's,it's hard sometimes right life
happens, right we get distracted, there's all these things.
But at the end of the day, youknow, especially like just
talking from my situation rightnow, I have a lot going on, a
(53:52):
lot of things.
I'm trying to figure out my ownlife, but now I've kind of hit
that switch.
I don't know if it's me growingup a little bit, getting a
little older or just simply justgoing back to church and
getting this faith back.
Right, that I need help, right,I can't do it myself and I'm
(54:14):
kind of Put my hands up to to anextent where it's just like I
surrender to you.
Right, I put my faith in you toput me in these positions to Be
where I'm supposed to be right.
Obviously, there's a pointwhere, like, you have faith, you
(54:35):
pray, but you can't just alsojust sit there and wait.
You still have to do thingsright.
Situations to where you stillhave to Work for it.
Right, he's gonna put you inthese situations to where you
can succeed and put you in theplaces You're supposed to be,
but you still have to do thework.
Absolutely.
(54:56):
So that's also like just beingyounger.
I was just like, okay, god,like what's?
What's going on?
Like, yeah, I've been praying,why isn't it working for.
Well, I'm just sitting therenot really trying to make these
changes for myself.
Hmm, right Now I'm getting to apoint where it's like Okay, I'm
(55:17):
praying and I've also switchedmy prayers up from like this is
what I need to Like.
What do you have for me, right?
Like what's what is your planfor me?
And so Just give me peace and,like, put me in the place I'm
supposed to be, right.
So that that's kind of whereI've been at, and I'm just want
(55:44):
to say, like, if you're in adark place or even Things are
going good, right, be, givepraise and be thankful.
Be grateful Because no matterwhat the stage of your life
you're in, what you're goingthrough, you're still here and
that's a blessing in itself,just to be able to hear, um, so,
(56:06):
yeah, man, like I've also likenot to like keep going on this,
but no, you're good man.
I've also started to pray.
Pray to God about beinggrateful just to be alive today,
to be healthy, and For myfamily that they're healthy, and
just being great that we areeverybody's okay, right,
(56:29):
nobody's like I'm likeThreatening again, but like I'm
just being grateful that I'mhealthy and I'm here, instead of
asking for things all the time,just being grateful, have right
now.
So I mean, yeah, my advice islike, pray and Pray for peace,
(56:55):
pray for for God to put you inthe situation that you're
supposed to be in, to be in theplaces that you're supposed to
be in, and then do the work Toyou know, keep gaining on that,
you know be grateful yeah, Ilove that man and, and you know,
I think there's so much wecould talk about.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
But with this specific topic and and I love
this and, and you know I've beenin the seasons of my life where
I'm I wasn't too far from this.
I'm a lot more peace now thatI'm in, that I'm in God's will
for my life, pursuing theministry and still being able to
(57:39):
coach and starting this podcastand social media and things
that I've been doing.
But you know, when you're inthat season, you know what what
God always told me is is likejust start to pursue me, meaning
pursue God and praying that youwant his will for your life,
(58:02):
not yours.
And if you, just, like you said, you don't want to be content
but you don't want to becomplacent, right, I think those
are two big differences.
Right, like you can be thankfuland practice gratitude and be
grateful and all these things,but you also have to put in
yourself in a position where Godwill use you and by asking God
(58:24):
to present to you what your willis and what he wants for you is
a really important piece.
And I'm not saying I still haveit all figured out, I don't but
I also know, when you start tobegin to be in God's will for
your life, things just startfalling into place, like I've
(58:45):
seen that in my own life in thelast month and a half moving
back to Las Vegas, and some ofthe things that are just
happening are just like it'sjust happening.
Things I prayed about, thingsthat I not necessarily even huge
things, just things I prayedabout.
But I just originally had tosubmit and be like, okay, god,
(59:06):
I'm doing this for you.
Nothing told me back.
Now I'm all game, like let's go.
And sometimes it takes somepeople longer to get there and
it's okay.
We all have that differenttimestamp for that.
But I was talking to one of mylocal pastors at church and she
was telling me.
(59:26):
I asked her.
I said I wanna be in ministry.
I know that's what God's callme to do.
I don't know where, but I don'tknow what part of ministry.
I don't necessarily knowexactly what, but I just know
that's where I need to be.
And she said just get involved.
Get involved and try differentthings and go to the classes and
(59:49):
do these things, and then Godwill just open the doors, like
it won't be you having to bargeyour way in the door, you just
start by where he's telling youto start and when they open, you
know that's God opening thedoors Right, like I think you
know that's the biggest thingand really being attentive of
(01:00:10):
when doors are closing Right.
Because, like you think aboutthe doors God's opens, but also
the door God's closes, and I'vehad some doors closing my life
recently where I'm like, okay, Isee why you closed that door
now, but then it can be tough.
I mean, I've had to remove Iwouldn't even say me God has
(01:00:30):
removed people from my life ordistance me from people from my
life.
Have, you know, got me into?
You know different things, butit's all for what he wants and
I'm all game for that.
So my biggest advice to one you, but to other people that are
just going through this journeyand I'm not saying I'm perfect
or I got it all figured out, I'mwrestling my own stuff too, but
(01:00:52):
from where I'm experiencing,because I've been similar it's
just like you pray God, I wantyour will for my life, I want
peace, that I trust your willfor my life and I want to seek
you every day.
And when you seek God every day, it'll become so apparent that
you, just you have no otheranswer but to just submit.
(01:01:12):
So I think that's you know, toanybody listening if you're at
this point in your life whereyou just don't know your will
for your life, you just pray Godand you seek Him first.
He will show you your will foryour life.
But I think the biggest thing islike you seek Him first and I
(01:01:32):
know that's really hard to doand that's something I challenge
myself day in and day out nowwith, because I am doing this
ministry thing and I'm loving itand I love my church, I love
everything about it.
But what I've realized is Ihave to seek Him first, cause I
can't be a good minister if I'mnot prayed up myself or if I'm
not, like, in connection enoughwith God or I'll be drained too
(01:01:55):
early.
You know I've had shifts whereI had things that people were
telling me that weighed me down.
It's because I wasn't prayed up, I wasn't connected enough with
God.
But when I was prayed up andconnected, like those big things
, I was able to carry those forthose people and pray for them
and lift it off their shoulder alittle bit but throw it right
(01:02:15):
up to God and say God, you gotthis.
You know this is for you, andso I'm really thankful that you
opened up and shared that Cause.
I think that's some reallypivotal things for people to
hear, because you know life's ajourney, faith is a journey.
Some people it comes easier tothem, some people it comes
(01:02:38):
harder, you know, and but Godwants us all.
God will not give up on us andhe will find a way to get us
with him at the end of the day,and so I really appreciate you
hopping on, chris, and hopefullywe got to talk about some
things that you wanted to talkabout.
If not, we'll have to get youon again and we can talk.
(01:03:01):
You know, just specificallyfaith you want, but I really
just wanted to give guys, I wantto give everybody, the
listeners, the you know wholeperspective of who you are, a
little bit of your journey, andyou know, from my perspective of
why you inspire me and why I'mthankful to have you in my life,
(01:03:22):
and I think some of the thingswe shared could really make an
impact on people listening,because these are things that
you do that we need more of inthis world and even though you
know it's just so impactful, man, and so I appreciate you
hopping on.
If you wouldn't mind, I'm goingto close this with a prayer and
(01:03:45):
we'll sign off here.
Sound good?
Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
Sounds good, buddy.
Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Sounds good, man, so I'm going to close my eyes here
and bow my head a little bit.
Dear heavenly Father, I want tothank you for bringing us
together to here today.
Lord, we're just here toglorify you and tell people your
story, god, and we just wantyou to know that we're here to
just, you know, help people onthis journey of life, but, most
(01:04:14):
importantly, on this journey tofind out who you are and what
you can do in people's lives.
God, I pray for my buddy, chrisLord, that you continue to
reveal you know his, you knowpurpose in his life that you
have for him.
God, and I pray for anylistener that's in that same
season of life that you justmake it apparent to them where
they're meant to be, whenthey're meant to be there, and
(01:04:35):
everything of those types ofsorts.
God, we just thank you.
We come to you with thisamazing sense of gratitude and
thankfulness because you are aGod that makes a way when
there's no way.
You are a God that makes theimpossible happen.
You are a God of possible, andyou know a couple of things that
I've been saying on my lastcouple you know posts on social
(01:04:58):
media is that you know ourcurrent season is a past prayer.
We know that you're activelymoving and I know that you hold
tomorrow, so there's no reasonto worry about tomorrow.
We just need to live into today, lord, and we just thank you
for all the wonderful thingsyou're doing in our lives, but,
most importantly, for yourkingdom, god.
We just wanna thank you andgive all the glory to Jesus'
(01:05:21):
holy name, amen.
Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Amen brother.
Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
Amen, man.
Well, dude, we appreciate youhopping on.
This has been an incredibleconversation.
I think we really got to talkabout some amazing things and
I'm really looking forward toseeing how your program does
this year.
And you know, we're family man.
If you need anything, you cantalk about anything.
You just give me a ring.
I always got you and lookforward to talking to you soon,
(01:05:50):
man.
Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
Yes, sir, I appreciate you having me on.
It was awesome.
Thank you, yes sir.
Welcome to catching up with Christians.
I'm your host, coach McDonoughMcCarty.
I'm alongside a dear friend ofmine today, chris Salvi.
How you doing today, chris.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
What's up, brother, how you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Oh, doing great man.
I appreciate you taking thetime to hop on.
I know it's a little shortnotice, but we're super thankful
to have you.
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm excited.
Like I said, it's been a littlewhile coming.
We've been talking about it fora while.
Finally got some time.
We're both available, so I'mexcited.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Awesome, man, sweet.
So, like I like to do withevery guest, I want to hear your
all perspective of who you are,what you do and how you've
gotten to where you are.
So who's Chris Salvi?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Right.
So I grew up right outside ofPhiladelphia, you know, went to
Catholic school, kindergartenthrough 12th grade.
So all elementary through highschool played baseball, played
all the sports In high school,played mainly baseball.
(01:13):
Then I got the opportunity toplay in college a little bit
down in Jersey and Tennessee.
After that did well.
Then I got the opportunity toplay some pro ball for a few
years after that, which is, youknow, awesome to do.
You get to travel and meet newpeople and just the experience
(01:36):
of it all is awesome.
Being able to go all around thecountry is pretty cool.
And then, you know, officiallyhung it up and now I'm coaching,
you know, doing high school and, you know, a tournament team
for younger guys too.
Just fun.
So that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That's awesome man.
The love for the game, man, itnever leaves right, that's great
.
And so you know I've known youfor about a year, met through a
mutual friend, joe Singly.
You know Joe is like, hey, youknow, I got a buddy in mind.
You guys should, you know,connect.
(02:18):
We were playing Fortnite, meand Joe were.
I want to stay close to.
About a year ago.
If you guys don't know, joeSingly loves to play his
Fortnite on in the offseason andyou know he's like, hey, man,
you got to hop on, let's playsome games.
And I'm like, sure, why not?
He said I got this friend ofmine named Chris, he's gonna
(02:40):
come play with us.
And I'm like, all right, cool,sure.
And you know I didn't reallyknow what to expect.
You know you meet the guyvirtually.
You're like no, I knew he'sgonna be a good dude because you
knew Joe.
But at the end of day it's like,okay, how much are you really
gonna connect on?
You know, real level, virtuallyright.
(03:01):
And I got to know you a littlebit and realize that you had a
passion, obviously, for Jesusand also a passion for baseball
and just helping people, right,we'll get into some of those
things here in a little bit, butthat's what really instantly
clicked with me was to see thatright away and I could just tell
(03:24):
like this guy's gonna be inyour life for a while.
You know, as as you go up andgrow up and get older, you
realize sometimes people are inyour life for just a season of
your life and just a chapter ofyour life and sometimes that can
be hard to deal with, but theones that you know are gonna be
there for a while or forever.
You really cherish thoserelationships and realize, oh
(03:45):
wow, you know God really blessedyou with this one.
So that's personally how I feelabout you man, and and so I
kind of want to hear yourperspective on kind of how you
know we met each other and youknow your thoughts initially and
things like that yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So you know, I've known Joe since we were young
probably almost 15 years,probably more than that now and
you know we do the fortnightthing.
He's thinks he's the man atfortnight.
(04:24):
We all know it's not really thecase, but he hit me up, we play
and it's like we're gonna playwith my buddy Dan.
You know, not knowing anythingabout you know your situation,
you know, and then mean you gotto talk in just like normal
(04:47):
people would, you know, get toknow each other.
And you know I don't rememberif you brought it up or Joe did
about.
You know you're in thewheelchair, you're yeah, whatnot
, and I commend you for how yougo about that.
Like you don't let you knowpeople saying things about you
(05:10):
being in a wheelchair likeaffect you, like you it's
situation and you embrace it.
Yeah, which I love about you,dude.
And so then I think I'm prettysure the first night we played,
I got your Instagram and I waslooking at it and I was like man
(05:33):
, this dude, he has all the oddsstacked against them and he's
still going out and doing allthis stuff with baseball.
You're going to the wintermeetings, like that's how you
met Joe, right, like yeah, thewinter meetings, but you know,
yeah, yeah, whatever it was, yepyep, yeah, so I'm like he's
(05:55):
traveling, he's doing all thisstuff, still playing fortnight,
right, like you know, it's sincethen.
You know I'm like we've talkedabout it before, but it's like,
dude, you're an inspiration,like not just for me, and I
(06:15):
truly mean that, but for so manypeople that you don't even
realize, right, I bring you tothis place, where I brought you
to one of my workouts, practices, and you clicked with the guys
right away, right, so it's, Ilove you, dude, and I truly mean
that, and you're an inspirationto a lot of people.
(06:36):
And you know, I don't even knowhow to say no, I appreciate
that, man.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I mean it's definitely mutual.
You know you, you talk aboutbeing an inch.
You know me being aninspiration man.
You, you've been there forseasons of my life to, just in a
short period of time shortstory we'll kind of dive into
that.
You know it's not a short storybut I'll make it one.
But I had surgery about a littleover four months ago now.
(07:08):
That was to fix my left arm Ihad broken a few years ago.
And you know my doctors,specialists, are in Delaware and
about what is that?
35, 40 minutes from where youlive, like this part of Delaware
, yeah, 30, yeah, okay, cool,yeah, so about 30 minutes you
(07:34):
know from, for one, chris is atand you know, at this time, you
know we really only knew eachother from the video game and we
knew each other, we had eachother's number, we talked and we
game when we're available andtalk baseball and really just
have conversations.
But I was going into the seasonof my life where I was about to
(07:55):
have a really serious surgeryand it had been about six years
since I've had a surgery, allglory to God.
But I said, hey, man, you knowI'm gonna be in town, let's,
let's connect.
Before my surgery.
You know I'd love to dosomething.
You know, just kind of keepyour mind off it and be
(08:16):
surrounded by someone that youknow you enjoy spending time
with.
So and you know I was like, hey, man, let's connect.
You said absolutely, you know,I got a.
I got together practice goingon.
You know, this day, if you'reavailable, like pull up kind of
thing.
And you know I was like, youknow, absolutely I love coaching
(08:38):
high school and you use guys,it's so much fun to me and I'll
never forget.
I was like going to myappointments and I just like a
lot of surgery.
You got to go to like yourpre-op appointments, right, you
got to go to like differentspecialists, you know, to make
sure you're clear to go tosurgery.
And I pull up to one of myfirst appointments and I'm like,
(09:01):
yeah, you know I might be alittle late to tomorrow just
because, like, I got a practicein the morning.
You know they're like what I'mlike.
Yeah, you know they're like,but I thought your teams in Ohio
, I was like it is, but you knowus coaches, you know we stick
together and my boys got apractice in the morning and and
I'm gonna be there and and andgive my best to these guys, and
(09:21):
if I'm a little late to mypulmonology appointment, I'm
sorry, you know.
I mean like, well, we gotbaseball to work out so and so
they came out and you know heprobably didn't realize you
probably didn't realize how muchthat meant to me to really just
like clear my mind.
You know, I mean I knew God hada plan for the surgery and I
(09:44):
knew he was gonna guide thedoctors and I knew I had an
amazing team.
But you still have that, youknow, sometimes overwhelming,
kind of like, you know,discomfort feeling and that type
of stuff and and baseball istruly one of my happy places and
being around people thatunderstand the game and have a
passion for the game and onteaching the players the right
(10:05):
thing, like I thrive in thoseenvironments and they give me so
much peace and allowed me to,you know, just kind of escape in
a sense.
But I just want to thank youfor that as well, because that
was a really big, impactfulmoment for me and, like I said,
I even from that moment to knewthat man, this guy, really means
(10:29):
business, considering, you knowwe only met, you know, on
fortnight and playstation andwhatever, and but going from
that to being like hey, come onout to so-and-so for practice,
you know, when you barely knewme, in a way we knew each other,
but you know you really don'tknow so until you meet him in
person.
So I really appreciate you forthat.
(10:51):
It means a lot.
And so what was that practicelike to you?
I'm trying to think thatpractice, you know, I tried to.
I think I tried to likeimplement some things with the
guys.
I do you recall that practiceat all?
I don't, I don't reallynecessarily remember too much
yeah, you came twice yep if youdon't remember no, I do right,
(11:15):
you came in the one time in thesummer yep yeah, the first one
you came up for, just your.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Was it just your doctor's appointment?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
yeah, it was like the pre-surgery was a fur Allen no,
that was for me.
That was the pre-surgeryappointment.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, okay, so I came up so that that was, um, that
was our summer workouts when Iwanted you to come, you know,
kind of speak to the guys, youknow, give them a little bit of
your story, what you've beenthrough, what you're going
through, just kind of like aperspective thing, you know.
(11:58):
I mean.
So we went through that, thatone day I actually had my little
brother there, yeah, and thenyou had came again in the fall
and that was a that was prettyinteresting.
You kind of took some of theguys by shock.
(12:20):
They're like, wow, this littledude, he's in the wheelchair but
he's, he's giving us thebusiness a little bit.
But they were super receptiveto what you were saying and that
was really cool to see.
They even, you know, hadquestions for you.
(12:42):
He had answers.
It was really cool to just seethe interaction with you.
You don't know any of thesekids right, you know a few of
them from when you came in thesummer, like like Jackson, who
still follows all your stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I love that dude.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah yeah.
So, yeah, jackson's a he's agood kid, so you know especially
him already, knowing you andyour relationship with him.
Already you know he kind ofstepped up and was like this
dude knows what he's talkingabout.
We all need to listen, right.
(13:19):
So that's also a testament tohim, but also you to where you
made that kind of impact rightaway with the kid who's going to
play D1 baseball and he'slistening to you, who just kind
of came in.
You know what I mean.
Like they trust me to bringpeople in and know what they're
talking about, right.
So if I didn't trust you youwouldn't be there.
(13:39):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
For sure, absolutely, absolutely no.
So that's cool.
So I want to take it back andwe'll further.
We'll dive in a little bit moreabout Jackson and whatnot here
in a second Great kid, heck of aball player Can't wait to see,
you know, what he does atRadford.
He's going to be a really greatplayer.
(14:01):
But you know, we go back to thefirst time I was there was like
the end of the fall-ish.
It was maybe it wasn't the endof the fall.
I knew it was August, end ofAugust, and we, you know I was
there.
You asked me to come and speakto the team and I take my
speaking engagements quiteseriously, like I want to, you
(14:24):
know, let these people knowwhoever I'm speaking to.
That, you know, depending onwhat I'm still there to talk
about, I just wanted to resonateat some capacity.
I wanted to, you know, connectwith people.
I want them to feel like theycan get something out of it,
right.
And so, with that being said, Ithink you know, when I came in
(14:47):
the first time, it was really toset the tone, because I knew
there'd be another time I wouldsee them and when I'd be there
again I'd want to coach them upand you know kind of use some of
the things that I know to helpthese guys develop.
And sometimes, as you know,it's just kind of like parents.
You know, like how many timeshas your parents told you
(15:09):
something that like is the rightthing to do?
But it doesn't take untilsomeone that's not your parent
to tell you and then, like youmake that switch.
It's like the same thing, right, like I'm sure there's a lot of
things that I said that youguys talked about in your
practice plans and those typesof things, but when I said it
it's like a light bulb went off,right.
So that I think that's why Itry to really use those moments
(15:33):
when I'm coaching other people'steams or speaking to other
people's teams seriously,because I know this could be a
really positive and pivotalmoment for the team's success or
possibly a team's decline in away.
So but I want to get into afterthat practice.
The first time, you know, I hadmy surgery.
(15:53):
My surgery was like eight hourslong.
They had to break it in acouple of places and put a rod
through and all that.
It was a really, you know,grueling recovery.
But I remember waking up in acouple of days later you reach
out to me, you go, hey, like,are you in a good enough spirits
for me to stop by?
I'm like, sure, you know.
Whatever, you know I'm all upon the medications, feeling
(16:16):
great.
You know I'm like, yeah, whynot?
And you know you stop by andlike, our second time I've ever
meeting each other in person.
Or third, we even went to abaseball game earlier in that
week too.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
We saw the- that was about to bring me over.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, wait, that was the first time, right, not the
second time.
We were there, we went to-.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It was the first time , right?
Yeah, the very first time wemet was at dinner.
Yep went to dinner and then wewent to and then we came to the
workout next morning.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yep, Then we went to that game that night.
It was a.
What are they?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
called.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
The Delaware or something.
I forgot the name.
What was the team name?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Wilmington Blue Rocks .
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Wilmington Blue Rocks .
That's yeah, yeah, yeah, that'sright.
Went to a game that was sick,it was beautiful stadium, it was
a great weather, and so went tothat game and then, you know,
fast forward, had surgery,whatever, and you know, next
couple of days later, you know,chris was like, hey, can I pop
in?
I said, absolutely, come on, hecomes in.
(17:16):
It was him, our buddy's, joe'smom Shout out to mama Singly.
She's amazing, I love youdearly.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Praying for you every day.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
She actually just she actually just said yeah, she
did yeah, shout out to her.
Yeah, they came in with loads ofcupcakes and Jackson was there
too and talking a little bitabout Jackson's character man,
that really connected with me,that I was able to connect with
(17:46):
a player just on a few littleyou know interactions that he
felt like man, I wanna go seethis guy make sure he's okay.
So that was really powerful,jackson.
If you're listening to this man, I really appreciate you.
Buddy, if you ever needanything, you know I gotcha Keep
grinding.
Big things are ahead of for you.
(18:06):
But I think that's a testamentto the culture that you created
with the other coaches at yourschool that, like you said, if
you're bringing someone in, thatperson knows something.
They're a good person.
They, you know, are therebecause they care about you.
It's not transactional, right.
It's like a genuinerelationship, a genuine
(18:30):
interaction, and I think that'sjust a testament to what you
have built there with thecamaraderie culture at that
school with the rest of thecoaching staff.
So hats off to you all.
That was a really amazingexperience, so fast forward.
You know, I came back for thefollow-up appointments, right,
(18:55):
and that's when I went to thepractice and I started coaching
up the guys and that's when youwant to talk a little bit about
how you did say they're a littleshook, right, cause I was like
man, when I'm there, like I'mreally going to be taking this
serious.
I remember like yelling at someshort stops a couple times like
, hey, you got to this, yourhome field.
If you know there's rocks there, you got to come get the
baseball, you know so thingslike that.
(19:16):
So maybe talk about.
You know the reactions of someof the players, or you know your
thought process and me kind ofsitting in the dugout barking at
them.
You know what was that?
Your opinion?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, it was.
It was kind of from myperspective it was kind of
comical, right.
You know, I see we get on them,you know, at practice.
You know I had to get on themlast night to practice a little
bit.
But we get on them and it'sthey're they kind of expected.
(19:54):
They already know what's comingright, they know they mess up,
we're going to get on a littlebit, right.
But then we hear this voiceprojecting from this little guy
in the wheelchair and it's like,especially the younger guys
they got shook, oh yeah, and butat the end of the day they
(20:14):
listened and they made theadjustments.
This is what you were saying,right, yeah, and we're big.
We're big on especially mesaying you know, we're only
doing this like we're notgetting paid, like a lot of
money, we're very, very little,right, so we're taking our own
(20:34):
time to do this, right.
So what we care and that's whatwe try and emphasize is, like
we're not here to just like havefun like BS all day.
Right, we're here to get ourwork in.
And my biggest thing that I tryto emphasize with high school
(20:56):
and my younger guys, so mytravel team, is you don't
understand how much baseball andlife correlate together, right,
they go hand in hand andeverything.
Right, the adversity you facein baseball, you're gonna face
even more in life, right, yeah,so, like, our biggest thing is
(21:20):
you know, yes, we wanna makethem the best baseball players
they can be, right, not just forlike, not just for our team,
but like for themselves as well.
We wanna get the most out ofwhat they can do, right, but
it's also translating into thembecoming men and good people in
society and, you know, beingable to live in this world.
(21:46):
That's kinda crazy right now,right, so we wanna make the best
people that we can make youknow what I mean, like guide
them to being the best menChristians, fathers, husbands
that they can be right.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah, and I love that .
I think that's a.
I love that perspective becauseyou know you mentioned it's one
of the biggest reasons why Ilove baseball too is because of
the adversity that it preparesyou for For all the non-baseball
(22:25):
people out there.
You're in the hall of fame ifyou fail seven out of 10 times.
You know what I'm saying.
In baseball, like you will bein the professional hall of fame
if you fail seven out of 10times, that means three out of
10 that you're successful.
And I feel like it's just agreat way to put perspective on
(22:46):
life and kinda look at thelittle things and be like man,
like that was a success or thatwasn't backbore.
That you know I'm reallygrateful for this or whatever
that looks like.
And that, you know, isdefinitely one of my biggest,
biggest, you know loves that Ihave for the game and one of the
reasons why I love it.
(23:08):
But going back to that practice,man, that was, that was a great
time.
I was really, you know, excitedto be there.
You know, going through that,you know rough time of recovery.
But throughout that wholeprocess, man, you guys were
there supportive.
Jackson would text me all thetime, you would text me and Joe
and call me and those type ofthings and I can't thank you
(23:29):
guys enough for that.
It was, you know, a difficulttime, just like any kind of
surgery recovery for a lot ofpeople, but this was a little
more intense than I had expectedor that I've had in the past.
So really having support systemwas made the world of
difference to be able to getthrough it and you know I can't
(23:53):
thank you enough for that.
So let's dive in a little bitinto the baseball world and more
specifically here.
So kind of let us know whereyou coach at.
You don't mind what your maybethe little bit of the school's
history.
I know you guys had a couplebig what a big draft pick last
year.
The year before Sounds likethere's a big.
(24:16):
You know history there at theschool, not too familiar with
the area, and just talk aboutthe culture, why you love
coaching there and maybe some ofthe goals that you guys have
this year goals were not evenwinning, necessarily just goals
for each.
You know the culture, theprogram and that type of stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Right.
So I coach at Monsignor BonnerHigh School, which ironically is
my rival high school, from whenI was in high school, when I
went to Cardinal O'Hara, and itwas always like a real, real big
rivalry around here and no lovelaws between those two schools.
For sure.
(25:00):
Things are a little differentnow.
I don't know.
There's O'Hara kids and Bonnerkids hang out.
It's weird, I don't like it.
I don't like it at all.
But it's different.
The culture, the vibe justbeing around that program is
(25:21):
there's an expectation everysingle year right To be the best
, and that's a culture that youknow we won.
So we're in the PhiladelphiaCatholic League, so we won two
years ago.
They won a few times beforethat.
(25:42):
Like I said, I went to O'Hara,so I don't know the whole Bonner
history, but you know we'vegotten bounced in state semis
the past three years.
We had a very upsetting letdown playoff game last year in
(26:06):
the first round of the CatholicLeague playoffs.
So you know, I think as a wholeour team should be better this
year because we have a lot ofstarters coming back which are
also a lot of seniors.
So obviously a big loss is,like you mentioned, our
(26:30):
shortstop from last year.
Kevin McGonigal got drafted inthe first round by the Tigers.
Obviously, losing him is big.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
But it's also a part of.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
he left an impact here.
He left an impact here for theculture of where we're heading.
So he set an example Him.
A couple other guys from theyear before that are in college
now.
Right, they set a culture and astandard for the program that
is carrying over.
(27:04):
Now, right, with some of ourleaders now, like Jackson, we've
got to got our shortstop HarryCarr, austin Cannon right.
These guys have the culturehard-nosed.
They're not going to let itslip away.
And my belief is I even hadthis talk with them last night
(27:27):
of practice at the end is thisis your guys' team.
We're going to go as far as youguys want to go.
We're here just to guide youand put you in the right
positions.
It's up to you guys, right.
So that's something I believein wholeheartedly.
(27:47):
I didn't really think of thatuntil college when one of my
coaches said it it's our team.
They're just there to put us inpositions to save Absolutely
Right.
So the expectations this yearis when the Catholic League,
when the city championship andwhen states there you go.
If that's not the goal, then Idon't know what we're doing, you
(28:12):
know.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
For sure, for sure.
That's great.
I know that.
You know you mentioned a fewthings that really resonated
with me there.
But you hit the nail on thehead as coaches, we're just
there to guide them.
We're kind of like the jockeyright, like we're not
necessarily the horse.
You know, we're not the horse,the players are the horse.
We're just the jockey rightGuiding the horse.
(28:36):
Um which is still a pivotal role.
At the end of the day, if youdon't got a good horse and it's
not you know training, or it'snot doing what you need to do,
then you're not going to be ableto win the race.
And so I think that's, you know, the great example of the way
that you're going to be able towin the race, the great example
to really tell.
I see a lot of youth coachesunfortunately want it more than
(28:58):
the players and, like you know,one of the things that drive me
nuts sometimes is they'll callall the plays and they'll call
all the pitches but not explainto the kids why they're doing it
.
And so then the kid gets inhigh school and they're like
well, I don't know why he'scalling the curveball or I don't
know why we're bumping in thissituation.
I just know that's what coachtold me to do in the past.
And it's like, if you're notunderstanding it and you're not
(29:21):
doing it because you know, youknow what to do in that
situation, then you're notsetting your team up to be
successful, you're not settingup the players to be successful,
but from meeting the guys andmeeting the leaders that you
have, I know it's in good handsand I know the culture there is
good and you know I'm hoping allthe best in that way, which is
(29:45):
amazing, and my boy Jackson isgoing to outsteer the ship,
hopefully, and be a good leaderon that end, which is great.
Now two things I want to diveinto.
One.
In the first episode I talkedwith my boy, landon Hutchinson,
(30:05):
and one of the things we talkedabout is outside of the diamond.
What are ways maybe in yourprogram that you connect with
your players or maybe measuresuccess other than wins and
losses?
At the end of the day there'sonly one champion in the state.
Now you're still a good program.
You still make sure the guysare prepared for life.
(30:28):
But are there maybeconversations?
You take time out of your weekto contact each player.
I don't know, each coach has adifferent style, but what are
ways maybe you connect with yourplayers outside of baseball as
measure success outside ofbaseball?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Right.
So, like I've talked about, youknow, I've become very close
with with Jackson.
You know there's some otherplayers that I've become very
close to and it's it's kind ofcool because I am, you know, one
of the younger coaches, so it'skind of easier to connect with
(31:08):
them in that way.
It's almost like, you know, I'mjust like a big brother, right,
and it's been something I'vehad to get used to, to where I'm
able to have that relationshipbut also know, like I'm also
your coach and I like have aresponsibility to get the best
(31:30):
out of you, right.
So that's been, that'ssomething I had to kind of learn
last year, like right away,right away, my first year with
them, and it honestly wasn'tthat hard to do because they
(31:51):
know that I'm there, they knowthat I care.
So it's like, yeah, we can haveour fun, we joke around, we talk
about whatever, right, but atthe end of the day, like when I
get, when I get like stern orhave like a talking with them
about like what's going on orlike something we need to fix,
like they shut up and theylisten, right, and they apply to
(32:12):
the best of their ability,right, and if they can't do it,
we fix it, but it's like I'veearned their respect in that way
, to where they know like I'monly here to help.
Right, we can have our fun, butthere's also time to get to
work.
Yeah, but ironically enough,like there's some of the, some
(32:33):
of the things we connect likeoff the field is like Fortnite
and stuff like go hit me like yo, let's play, like sure man
let's get after.
But you know also like in theirthere's nine, though some of
them will hit me up to like goget extra hitting work in, right
, go to a facility late at nightor whatever, and get some extra
(32:58):
work in.
Yeah, man, it's, it's.
It's been really fun.
I'm really enjoying the wholehigh school coaching experience
for sure.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
So let's talk a little bit about your faith here
and maybe let's just firststart off.
How does maybe your faithinfluence your coaching style
and maybe influence your out ofCatholic school and right, and
you know how is that implementedin the culture there, but how
is it also affected yourcoaching style and your coaching
(33:35):
philosophy?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, that's a good question.
You know I went to a, not areligious school, but I did go
to Catholic school fromkindergarten to 12th grade and
I'm not going to lie.
After that I kind of lost it alittle bit, where it's kind of
(34:07):
like shove down your throat somuch for all those years like
being in Catholic school it'skind of like okay, I'm out of it
, like you, kind of like like Ineed enough for a minute, right.
So like, if I'm being honest, Ilost it for a little bit.
I get to my school in Tennessee.
(34:29):
Actually, let me backtrack, allright, my one of my best friends
.
He was a senior when I was afreshman in high school.
I didn't really like get closeuntil my junior, junior, senior
(34:50):
year, high school, right.
So he was in college and heactually went to the junior
college that I ended up goingthrough.
After him he went to a fouryear school in Mississippi
getting ready for his seniorseason and something that I like
discovered after I discoveredwas he was getting very much
(35:16):
back into his faith and readingthe Bible and doing all these
things and unfortunately got ina car accident and passed away,
which actually the anniversaryfor that is, tomorrow will be
eight years.
But after that I kind ofstarted getting back to my faith
(35:43):
.
It took a little bit right,because something like that
happens, you're kind of likequestioning everything, but
after that I kind of startedgetting back into it, not like
full flats, but you know,praying before games, praying
after games, you know praying tomy friend Devin, asking him to
(36:07):
just like look over me, likehelp me out in this game, one
one, not right.
So I actually got his number.
He was number 27.
I got number 27 at come onagain in college and then you
know that kind of um, I wore itthroughout my college career
except my junior year when Itransferred.
(36:28):
Someone already had it, but Iwore it again my senior year.
But at Lincoln Memorial inTennessee our coach was very
religious and big into faith andyou know, didn't curse, you
know all that.
So they were very big intofaith praying.
So we would do stuff like thatevery day, like pray Before
(36:52):
every game.
We'd get in a big circle,everybody's touching each other,
we have a prayer.
So that's kind of when Istarted to get really back into
it, when I was down there mysenior year.
Just you know, kind of likereading over things being a part
of that culture.
(37:13):
And once I left there, I stillwould like pray and like do my
prayer before every game.
You know, during the nationalanthem I'm down.
After it's over, I look up, youknow, do a little sign the
cross, touch my heart, point up,and then I'm ready to go right.
But really my faith, like nowat Bonner, we pray before every
(37:42):
game, right.
As for prayers, and like, likeall that, all that good stuff,
right, that we love to do insports, um, but after that, like
personally, you know, I haven'treally gotten back into it
until recently, where I've beenlike looking for Signs and a
(38:04):
direction, right, start goingback to church, started praying
every day, which I'm loving, it,I love, I'm loving going back
to church.
Being a part of that, doing allthat stuff.
And you know, part of myprayers is for my guys right, to
Allow them to find theirdirection and To see them
(38:29):
succeed and whatever right,become good, good people.
Like I said, obviously we wantthem to do good baseball, but
that's not gonna be foreverybody, like baseball doesn't
last forever, so I want them tojust like Be happy and good, be
good people, right.
So that's part of that andthat's part of also like my
(38:51):
coaching style now is just likebeing there for them right, and
giving them some kind of guidingdirection and Showing, trying
to show them like the way youknow.
I mean that's kind of how I'veincorporated it into like I
guess my coaching style was justmaking sure they know like I'm
(39:12):
here like whatever you need.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
That's awesome.
I think it's a blessing to hearthat you have, you know, came
back around you know, severaltimes in your life and you know,
I think it's.
It can be easy to be tough onOurselves and I just try to
remind everybody it's a journeyand that it's it's a
relationship with Jesus, not areligion, and I think that you
(39:40):
know you just continue to askGod for guidance and seek him.
He will reveal himself andthat's, you know.
I think it's advice as youcontinue to grow and I'm growing
too.
But you know it's inspiring tosee that.
You know you're you're stilltrying every day, like us all,
(40:02):
to learn more about Jesus andhow you can be a good role model
for your team and just anybodythat you come across.
You know and I'm sorry to hearabout your friend, but you know,
as sometimes tragedy can alsobe a way for us to Kind of get a
(40:24):
hold of ourselves and be likeyou know what let's be grateful
for today and let's see thegoodness that God has done for
us now and he will do again.
And I know my own life.
When I've experienced somethingyou know, tragic, I always just
try to use it as a moment ofreflection and growth and be
like, okay, I Want to use thismoment and see how God could use
(40:49):
this, you know, for forwhatever way he wants in our
lives.
So that's, that's powerful man.
Thanks for sharing that and Ikind of want to continue down
this path.
A little bit here, just talkinga little bit about you know a
(41:10):
Little bit more about you Forthe viewers that don't know this
you have a brother and you knowyou mentioned early on in the
the podcast that when I went toone of those practices, your
brother was there.
And this moment in particularlike you kind of talk a little
(41:33):
bit about your brother, but itseeing him at your practice and
seeing the way you interact withthem really warm my heart and
show me your true character,because Just being a good
sibling and being a good rolemodel is so important.
(41:54):
But with Everything that'sgoing on these days, we need to
have a support system.
We need to have people thatlove us, regardless of where
we're at, what our capabilitiesare or our capabilities are.
So Would you mind diving alittle bit about your brother
and what it's like to be anolder brother and and maybe some
(42:17):
of that?
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, so my brother.
He's 12, 12 years old now.
He just turned 12 last monthand he's autistic.
So I'm, I'm 27, so there's a 15year difference.
Right, his birthday is threedays before mine.
He's born three days before my15th birthday, and so it's
(42:47):
almost like, yeah, he's mybrother, but I've also like been
a very big part in raising him.
So it's To me it's like, yes,my brother, but he also sees me
as like a what do you call likea, like a figure to listen to,
like yeah.
(43:08):
Yeah type deal.
So, like, to be honest, likeI'm, I like listening to my mom,
but like, really, if, like weneed him to like do something,
I'm the one that comes in andlike tells him what to do.
But also, like I'm the onethat's also there to like calm
him down if he's having like athing.
(43:29):
But I, regardless of like mybrother, just like how I grew up
, I've always like tried to bethe person that stood up for
people who can't stand up forthemselves.
Right, I'm the kind of personwho's always putting you know
other people before me to makesure that they are okay and and
(43:51):
it's it's not always easy,because you know you do have to
take care of yourself every oncein a while, make sure that
you're good.
But like it's just kind ofingrained in who I am to like
make sure everybody else is goodaround me.
So like, just like back to likehelping people who can't help
themselves is like I, it woulddrive me nuts, like in high
(44:15):
school or whatever.
Like Seeing bullies and seeingthese kids is like get picked on
or saying I don't want to tableby themselves, like it truly
would like break my heart.
And I Actually found a bookwhen I was cleaning out my room
a couple weeks ago, we went on aretreat in high school.
It's called Cairo, so it's likea like a retreat to get like
(44:39):
closer with God and like just soa bunch of stuff.
And you get put in a groups andmy group was with some people
that you know I was friends withlike every group there was.
Like I wasn't like Best friendswith one and then we'll like
not talk to another, right, likeyeah, I would be friends with
(45:01):
all, like the athletes, thepopular kid, and Then I would be
friends with people who didn'tplay sports and like we're super
, just like in this school orlike didn't talk to a lot of
people.
So, like I found this book withsome of the kids who were like
very shy, like kept tothemselves and Only talked to
like a certain few people, right, and they would like thank me
(45:27):
for being like the person thatthey can look forward to like
seeing every day.
Right, there's one kid inparticular.
I remember he was in like theAP, one of the AP math classes,
and I would walk around I offperiod where I worked for the
office, where I would go aroundcollect the tenants and I walk
(45:47):
in the room every day and givelike a fist bump to him, right,
and he absolutely loved it.
He's like in this book.
He's like that's something Ilook forward to every day is
being in that class and waitingfor you to come get attendance
and give me that fist bump.
It's something so small that Ididn't even realize like it's
Such like a big impact onpeople's lives, right, little
(46:08):
things.
So I carry that all the wayinto now, like with my brother.
He's autistic.
He doesn't understand, like,what's going on in the world,
right, someone picks on him.
He doesn't really understandthat's what's going on.
But like my thing is I just needto make sure like he's
(46:30):
protected.
I want him to Live as normal ofa life as he can, right be
included in whatever we're doing, which is very important.
I just want him to Be treatednormal, right, like I don't want
him to be treated like, oh, hehas Special needs, so like he
(46:51):
needs to be Treated likedifferent and you know we see
some horror stories these dayswith people are just being very
neglectful to their specialneeds kids or brothers, sisters,
whatever it may be, and youknow my brother's blessed To
(47:16):
have the mom that he has that Ihave.
She does whatever he needs,make sure he's always taken care
of and, at the same time, likeI'm blessed that I've been my
life because, honestly, like inhigh school and things like I
would Stay home to spend timewith him instead of like going
out and doing something stupid,right, so like he's probably
(47:39):
saved me, to save me sometrouble also, but it's, it's
very like just like he's like mylittle best friend, right, like
I love him yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
That's.
That's awesome, man, and youtouch up on a lot of great
things you talked about.
You know horror stories thatyou know unfortunately go on.
But you know from what I found,being someone who's in a
wheelchair and Doing a lot ofspeaking engagements and talking
to other families with peoplewith disabilities it's a lot of
(48:12):
people are just thinking they'redoing what they think is best.
It's not necessarily thatthey're trying to harm the
individual.
And Unfortunately, you know, Ior I should say, fortunately,
actually, fortunately I grew upin a household that my dad was a
(48:32):
Marine retired Marine now andWas very tough, you know, and
I'm so thankful for it.
I loved us.
You know, it was hard love, butit was tough and it prepared me
for the real world and it also,you know, let me know that I
(48:54):
was capable of achievinganything that I put my mind to.
And sometimes I think that, youknow, we tend to put
limitations on people and I, I,I think we all have things that
we can't do, because that's theway God made us, but everybody
has things we can do.
And I remember going Topractice, you know, at that day,
(49:14):
and your brother was there andat the end he was like tossing
you balls, that the fun go right, you're hitting them and he's
like grabbing the balls out ofthe bucket and like throwing
them at you and stuff.
I'm like he could just seethat's what everybody else is
doing.
He was getting after it and butit really warmed my heart
because it's it's something thatI I Really love to see, but
(49:35):
with someone, just becauseyou're doing the best that you
can for your brother and you'rebeing the best role model and
you're also trying to get thebest out of them, you want him,
like he said, to live as much ofa normal life as he can, and I
think that's all of us.
We should be doing that foreverybody and so, personally, I
love that.
That's something I, you know,think is amazing, and Because I
(49:58):
know of situations where peopleare sheltered, when you know
told that they have too manylimitations, to where they're
not capable of women, you know acertain way, but you, my friend
, really do inspire me on thataspect, just because it's
something that's reallyimportant to me and I Really
wanted to share that story andthis topic, specifically because
(50:20):
I know it'll impact a lot ofpeople out there to understand
that.
Look Like, take the time out ofyour day to spend time with the
ones who maybe not have.
You know the Support system.
Even and I've been talkingabout in your family at this
point, right, you talk aboutthose kids at school.
You never know what people aregoing through, you don't know
who's in their lives and just afist bump and saying what's up
(50:42):
or how's the day going couldcompletely change someone's life
, so that everybody listeningdude this today, my, my goal is
to go.
I've.
My challenge for you all is togo out next time you're
somewhere and just say hi tofive random people, just be like
, hey, how you're doing.
Or you know I'm praying, youknow praying for you, or
whatever that looks like.
(51:03):
So that's really impactful, man, and and I love you and your
brother man, and you know yougot a little bit in your faith
journey and that we, you know,are praying for, for you and
Continue to grow just like this.
All you know this this life canbe difficult, but we know that.
(51:25):
You know God has a plan and hewill make a way for whatever
we're supposed to Do in ourlives where I will, and God's
will for our lives.
So so, last thing I'd like towrap up with.
I mean, if there's maybe somelast you know words that you'd
want to mention to the listeners, maybe there's a topic that
you'd want to talk about quickhere Before we dive into prayers
(51:48):
, or anything you'd like totouch up on before we hop off
here today.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Yeah, man, I think the only thing that I like have
become passionate about and wetouched on a little bit is, you
know, just the faith.
And you know I've gone througha Good, you know, good fair
share of my dark times in life,early in, like not the greatest
(52:20):
spot, you know, trying to figurefigure life out and you know,
make make these changes in myown life.
And Something you know thatI've really learned through
going back to church is, youknow, you can't do it on your
own and there's a stubbornnessto the human race.
(52:42):
Well, yeah, we think like weneed no help, we can do
everything ourselves.
You know, I know a lot of peoplethat think that way and I
Definitely have thought that waymyself.
But now I'm trying to to getinto that space where, okay,
I've tried to do it myself a lotright, and I make some progress
(53:05):
and it just doesn't worksometimes, right.
So I've learned that we have toput our trust into God, not
just have faith, but to have thetrust in him that he will put
us in the right place.
He has, he has the plan he had,he knows right, and we get so
(53:31):
caught up in ourselves and it's,it's hard sometimes right life
happens, right we get distracted, there's all these things.
But at the end of the day, youknow, especially like just
talking from my situation rightnow, I have a lot going on, a
(53:52):
lot of things.
I'm trying to figure out my ownlife, but now I've kind of hit
that switch.
I don't know if it's me growingup a little bit, getting a
little older or just simply justgoing back to church and
getting this faith back.
Right, that I need help, right,I can't do it myself and I'm
(54:14):
kind of Put my hands up to to anextent where it's just like I
surrender to you.
Right, I put my faith in you toput me in these positions to Be
where I'm supposed to be right.
Obviously, there's a pointwhere, like, you have faith, you
(54:35):
pray, but you can't just alsojust sit there and wait.
You still have to do thingsright.
Situations to where you stillhave to Work for it.
Right, he's gonna put you inthese situations to where you
can succeed and put you in theplaces You're supposed to be,
but you still have to do thework.
Absolutely.
(54:56):
So that's also like just beingyounger.
I was just like, okay, god,like what's?
What's going on?
Like, yeah, I've been praying,why isn't it working for.
Well, I'm just sitting therenot really trying to make these
changes for myself.
Hmm, right Now I'm getting to apoint where it's like Okay, I'm
(55:17):
praying and I've also switchedmy prayers up from like this is
what I need to Like.
What do you have for me, right?
Like what's what is your planfor me?
And so Just give me peace and,like, put me in the place I'm
supposed to be, right.
So that that's kind of whereI've been at, and I'm just want
(55:44):
to say, like, if you're in adark place or even Things are
going good, right, be, givepraise and be thankful.
Be grateful Because no matterwhat the stage of your life
you're in, what you're goingthrough, you're still here and
that's a blessing in itself,just to be able to hear, um, so,
(56:06):
yeah, man, like I've also likenot to like keep going on this,
but no, you're good man.
I've also started to pray.
Pray to God about beinggrateful just to be alive today,
to be healthy, and For myfamily that they're healthy, and
just being great that we areeverybody's okay, right,
(56:29):
nobody's like I'm likeThreatening again, but like I'm
just being grateful that I'mhealthy and I'm here, instead of
asking for things all the time,just being grateful, have right
now.
So I mean, yeah, my advice islike, pray and Pray for peace,
(56:55):
pray for for God to put you inthe situation that you're
supposed to be in, to be in theplaces that you're supposed to
be in, and then do the work Toyou know, keep gaining on that,
you know be grateful yeah, Ilove that man and, and you know,
I think there's so much wecould talk about.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
But with this specific topic and and I love
this and, and you know I've beenin the seasons of my life where
I'm I wasn't too far from this.
I'm a lot more peace now thatI'm in, that I'm in God's will
for my life, pursuing theministry and still being able to
(57:39):
coach and starting this podcastand social media and things
that I've been doing.
But you know, when you're inthat season, you know what what
God always told me is is likejust start to pursue me, meaning
pursue God and praying that youwant his will for your life,
(58:02):
not yours.
And if you, just, like you said, you don't want to be content
but you don't want to becomplacent, right, I think those
are two big differences.
Right, like you can be thankfuland practice gratitude and be
grateful and all these things,but you also have to put in
yourself in a position where Godwill use you and by asking God
(58:24):
to present to you what your willis and what he wants for you is
a really important piece.
And I'm not saying I still haveit all figured out, I don't but
I also know, when you start tobegin to be in God's will for
your life, things just startfalling into place, like I've
(58:45):
seen that in my own life in thelast month and a half moving
back to Las Vegas, and some ofthe things that are just
happening are just like it'sjust happening.
Things I prayed about, thingsthat I not necessarily even huge
things, just things I prayedabout.
But I just originally had tosubmit and be like, okay, god,
(59:06):
I'm doing this for you.
Nothing told me back.
Now I'm all game, like let's go.
And sometimes it takes somepeople longer to get there and
it's okay.
We all have that differenttimestamp for that.
But I was talking to one of mylocal pastors at church and she
was telling me.
(59:26):
I asked her.
I said I wanna be in ministry.
I know that's what God's callme to do.
I don't know where, but I don'tknow what part of ministry.
I don't necessarily knowexactly what, but I just know
that's where I need to be.
And she said just get involved.
Get involved and try differentthings and go to the classes and
(59:49):
do these things, and then Godwill just open the doors, like
it won't be you having to bargeyour way in the door, you just
start by where he's telling youto start and when they open, you
know that's God opening thedoors Right, like I think you
know that's the biggest thingand really being attentive of
(01:00:10):
when doors are closing Right.
Because, like you think aboutthe doors God's opens, but also
the door God's closes, and I'vehad some doors closing my life
recently where I'm like, okay, Isee why you closed that door
now, but then it can be tough.
I mean, I've had to remove Iwouldn't even say me God has
(01:00:30):
removed people from my life ordistance me from people from my
life.
Have, you know, got me into?
You know different things, butit's all for what he wants and
I'm all game for that.
So my biggest advice to one you, but to other people that are
just going through this journeyand I'm not saying I'm perfect
or I got it all figured out, I'mwrestling my own stuff too, but
(01:00:52):
from where I'm experiencing,because I've been similar it's
just like you pray God, I wantyour will for my life, I want
peace, that I trust your willfor my life and I want to seek
you every day.
And when you seek God every day, it'll become so apparent that
you, just you have no otheranswer but to just submit.
(01:01:12):
So I think that's you know, toanybody listening if you're at
this point in your life whereyou just don't know your will
for your life, you just pray Godand you seek Him first.
He will show you your will foryour life.
But I think the biggest thing islike you seek Him first and I
(01:01:32):
know that's really hard to doand that's something I challenge
myself day in and day out nowwith, because I am doing this
ministry thing and I'm loving itand I love my church, I love
everything about it.
But what I've realized is Ihave to seek Him first, cause I
can't be a good minister if I'mnot prayed up myself or if I'm
not, like, in connection enoughwith God or I'll be drained too
(01:01:55):
early.
You know I've had shifts whereI had things that people were
telling me that weighed me down.
It's because I wasn't prayed up, I wasn't connected enough with
God.
But when I was prayed up andconnected, like those big things
, I was able to carry those forthose people and pray for them
and lift it off their shoulder alittle bit but throw it right
(01:02:15):
up to God and say God, you gotthis.
You know this is for you, andso I'm really thankful that you
opened up and shared that Cause.
I think that's some reallypivotal things for people to
hear, because you know life's ajourney, faith is a journey.
Some people it comes easier tothem, some people it comes
(01:02:38):
harder, you know, and but Godwants us all.
God will not give up on us andhe will find a way to get us
with him at the end of the day,and so I really appreciate you
hopping on, chris, and hopefullywe got to talk about some
things that you wanted to talkabout.
If not, we'll have to get youon again and we can talk.
(01:03:01):
You know, just specificallyfaith you want, but I really
just wanted to give guys, I wantto give everybody, the
listeners, the you know wholeperspective of who you are, a
little bit of your journey, andyou know, from my perspective of
why you inspire me and why I'mthankful to have you in my life,
(01:03:22):
and I think some of the thingswe shared could really make an
impact on people listening,because these are things that
you do that we need more of inthis world and even though you
know it's just so impactful, man, and so I appreciate you
hopping on.
If you wouldn't mind, I'm goingto close this with a prayer and
(01:03:45):
we'll sign off here.
Sound good?
Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
Sounds good, buddy.
Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Sounds good, man, so I'm going to close my eyes here
and bow my head a little bit.
Dear heavenly Father, I want tothank you for bringing us
together to here today.
Lord, we're just here toglorify you and tell people your
story, god, and we just wantyou to know that we're here to
just, you know, help people onthis journey of life, but, most
(01:04:14):
importantly, on this journey tofind out who you are and what
you can do in people's lives.
God, I pray for my buddy, chrisLord, that you continue to
reveal you know his, you knowpurpose in his life that you
have for him.
God, and I pray for anylistener that's in that same
season of life that you justmake it apparent to them where
they're meant to be, whenthey're meant to be there, and
(01:04:35):
everything of those types ofsorts.
God, we just thank you.
We come to you with thisamazing sense of gratitude and
thankfulness because you are aGod that makes a way when
there's no way.
You are a God that makes theimpossible happen.
You are a God of possible, andyou know a couple of things that
I've been saying on my lastcouple you know posts on social
(01:04:58):
media is that you know ourcurrent season is a past prayer.
We know that you're activelymoving and I know that you hold
tomorrow, so there's no reasonto worry about tomorrow.
We just need to live into today, lord, and we just thank you
for all the wonderful thingsyou're doing in our lives, but,
most importantly, for yourkingdom, god.
We just wanna thank you andgive all the glory to Jesus'
(01:05:21):
holy name, amen.
Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Amen brother.
Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
Amen, man.
Well, dude, we appreciate youhopping on.
This has been an incredibleconversation.
I think we really got to talkabout some amazing things and
I'm really looking forward toseeing how your program does
this year.
And you know, we're family man.
If you need anything, you cantalk about anything.
You just give me a ring.
I always got you and lookforward to talking to you soon,
(01:05:50):
man.
Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
Yes, sir, I appreciate you having me on.
It was awesome.
Thank you, yes sir.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com