April 10, 2026 • 50 mins
🎙️Building a Program That Lasts | Larry Yoder | Significant Coaching Ep. 166
In this episode of the Significant Coaching Podcast, Matt Rogers sits down with Larry Yoder, Head Softball Coach at Mount Mercy University, to break down what it takes to build—and sustain—a successful college program over time.
This is a real, honest conversation about how programs are actually built, what coaches go through in the early years, and how discipline, accountability, and consistency shape long-term success.
From starting with limited resources and learning on the fly, to creating a program that players and parents trust, Coach Yoder shares what it really looks like behind the scenes—and why staying committed to the process matters.
Yoder is in his 17th season at Mount Mercy, where he has compiled over 400 wins while leading the Mustangs to multiple conference championships, NAIA National Tournament appearances, and a fifth-place finish at the NAIA World Series. His program has rewritten the record books offensively, while continuing to excel in pitching and defense, and he played a key role in the development of Busse Field—one of the premier softball facilities in the NAIA.
🔗 Learn more about Coach Yoder: https://mountmercy.edu/athletics/soft...
CHAPTERS
00:40 “What Are You Doing?” – First-Year Reflection
02:00 Taking Over a Struggling Program
03:30 Rebuilding a Roster from Scratch
05:30 Early Wins & Finding Momentum
08:15 Lessons from the Early Years
12:00 Building the Culture Over Time
16:30 Sustaining Success for 17 Seasons
21:00 Leadership Growth as a Coach
26:00 Raising the Standard Every Year
30:00 Advice for Coaches Building Programs
35:00 Closing Thoughts
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
On the latest edition of TheSignificant Coaching Podcast, a
presentation of the coach MattRogers YouTube channel available
audio only everywhere you getyour favorite podcast.
I'm your host Matt Rogers.
This week's guest surprised me.
He's a big teddy bear and hisplayers would agree, but don't
let that fool you.
You don't have the kind ofsuccess Larry Yoder has had over
(00:30):
the past 17 years as the headsoftball coach at Mount Mercy
University in Iowa withoutknowing how to coach with
discipline and accountability.
But what stood out to me is hesimply loves coaching.
He loves developing greatstudent athletes, and he
completely embraces the joy andthe significance of what we get
to do every day as coaches.
(00:51):
You spend five minutes with himand you understand why parents
trust him with their daughtersand why players want to be a
part of his program.
This is a conversation aboutbuilding something, staying with
it, and doing it the right way.
Over time, and as always, youcan find more resources for your
coaching and recruitingjourney@coachmattrogers.com
(01:13):
books, journals, blogs forparents, athletes and coaches,
and the significant recruitinglaunchpad classes.
So if you're that family thatwants a little bit of help and
doesn't wanna spend a ton ofmoney, you can have me
throughout your entire journeyby going to coach matt
rogers.com.
Alright, let's get into part onewith Coach Larry Yoder.
(01:40):
Coach Yo Yoder, so great to seeyou.
Thanks for being on the show.
Thanks for having me, Matt.
All right, coach.
What a history you have, 17seasons, 400 plus wins.
If I walked into your office andfound a note from your first
year self, okay, the guy thatstarted coaching the long, long
(02:01):
time ago, what would that notesay to you now?
What are you doing?
Scared to death 17 yearsbasically as the head coach.
But I came here 20 years ago.
Me and a couple of other guysGlenn Johnson and John lvi came
(02:21):
in with me and we, this issomething we wanted to try and
do, and Mount Mercy had not hada lot of success.
The two teams prior to us were,I think they won five games.
Two years prior and one fourgames the year prior, and three
seasons prior to that, theycanceled the season.
So the program was not in goodshape at all.
(02:44):
And when we got here, there was,I think there was nine people on
the roster in the fall, and wehad to go recruit the volleyball
team and the basketball teamjust to kinda get, I think we've
got a roster up to 12 or 13 and.
So we were just flying by theseat of our pants there, and it
was quite an adventure and butwe won nine games that year, so
(03:09):
we almost doubled the previousyears, so That's awesome.
And then the next year, after ayear under the belt, we got 20
and then built from there.
And then Glen had decided to hehad other things going on, so
that's when I.
Became the we became co-headcoaches for a year or two, and
(03:30):
then I got the full-timeposition here.
But yeah, a lot of things havechanged since then.
Yeah, there has, your facilitiesare great.
I love your facilities.
It's a great place to watchgames and it was fun getting to
meet your girls.
They're so much fun and theywere excited to do whatever to
to have some fun to celebratetheir program.
(03:51):
I'm excited to, to get to knowthem better too as we go.
Building a program from reallyfrom scratch is so hard, and I
don't know if anybodyunderstands it it's not just
recruiting.
It's not just coaching.
It's figuring out zero budget,figuring out how to travel the
right way, figuring out how toget the right staff, getting
(04:12):
them taught, and train the wayyou need'em to.
When you do look back, are theresome foundational things that
you're really proud that you didright in the beginning?
Yeah I surrounded myself withgood people.
Yeah.
And when we're recruiting orbringing in kids, it was finding
the right girls that wanted tobe here and have the right
(04:35):
attitude and knew that it wasn'tgonna happen right away.
And willing to work and getthings.
I'm just proud of the processthat we stuck to.
We didn't get too bent outtashape about things, and we just
kept knowing that we had to moveforward and things would get
better, and it did.
(04:56):
You've got a long history ofbeing a part of the NAI even in
your time at Iowa Wesley.
That was NAI back then.
Yeah, it was, yeah.
That was the really the heydayof NAI back in the eighties and
early nineties.
I, I coached at St.
Ambrose Yep.
In the nineties.
And that was still a big big, abig rival back then.
(05:21):
Yep.
You were a power hitter.
You had records and home runs,were you, did you come into
coaching with that mindset thatmore of that offensive mindset?
Or was it different when youstarted coaching?
No, I think it was a lotdifferent.
There was a big break in therefor me and then I had kids of my
own and started coaching them.
(05:43):
And no, for me it was more aboutfundamentals and just learning
to do the game the right wayand.
Softball always intrigued me.
I love the base running and thespeed of the game, and so we've
we've had a lot of good powerhitting teams here, but we've
also had teams that.
Don't hit for a lot of power,and so you have to adjust to
(06:05):
what you have and make it workfor you.
But no, I've never been aboutthe long ball and that's what
it's gonna be or anything likethat.
Just trying to teach him littlebit of everything and develop'em
the right way and just get'em tolove the game, I think.
That's kinda what I'm seeing.
As I look through your programand your stats and your history
(06:28):
you've been a guy that's evolvedwith what the roster you had and
evolved with the times.
And it's so hard for me I'm sucha baseball fan and such a
softball fan and the majorleague baseball level, the
college level for baseball, thehome run has become kind of
everything.
Everybody's puts all their moneyand time into the long ball.
When you're looking at yourseason and you're thinking about
(06:51):
what kind of team you have, howdo you start thinking about
strategy and getting the,getting your young women
prepared to do what you wantthem to do?
Yeah.
I, for me, it always, it'salways in the circle.
You gotta find out what kind ofpitching are you gonna have, and
then you gotta have, even withgreat pitchers, you just have to
(07:13):
have solid defense.
And that's you gotta really makesure that you've got everything
covered.
No weak areas and they're justwell coached.
Know what to do with the ball.
And then if you can get thepitching and defense going, then
we'll worry about the offense.
How many runs are we gonna haveto score?
Are we gonna have to score threeor four runs?
Are we gonna have to score sixor seven?
(07:34):
And decide how what we're gonnado there?
But for me it's all aboutdefense and pitching and.
Keeping the game low scoring,and then we'll figure out a way.
You and I have talked about you.
There's some studs you're gonnaface this weekend, some.
Some women that can really whipit when you are thinking about
(07:57):
the pitching that's coming upthis weekend we'll be specific
for a second.
Are you.
Are you thinking about howyou're gonna talk to the girls
going into that game in termsof, are you gonna bump more, are
you gonna look for walks more?
Are you looking to make contactmore hit behind runners more?
Are you thinking about that nowas you go into these games this
(08:20):
weekend?
Yeah, for sure.
We're gonna, like I, we talkedabout, we are facing each team
that we're facing this weekendas an All-American pitcher.
And we're not gonna, we're notgonna be putting eight, 10 runs
up on the board, so everything'simportant.
And we just go with the flow ofthe game.
(08:40):
You want to get some big hitsand if you get a couple run
lead, maybe you're gonna.
Play for a big inning, but ifit's gonna be tight right?
Every run's gonna count andyou're gonna willing to give up
some outs to move some runnersand try and hope we get that one
big hit or a couple big hits andtry and win that game that way.
I'm always intrigued by softballand baseball.
(09:02):
I was a baseball coach a longtime ago.
I coached baseball for the firstseven or eight years of my
career before I got intobasketball.
But it seems like basketballcoaches, our egos are so big.
There's a pre-game speech.
There's a speech in the huddle,there's a speech in halftime,
there's a post-game speech.
And then I watch these baseballand softball coaches and I feel
(09:23):
they say, all right, let's justgo do our thing today.
We know what we're doing, go outand play and I feel like.
Baseball and softball coaches dosuch a better job of just
staying out of the head space totheir players.
Am I misreading that?
For me it's like we have to dowhat we do best and that I can't
change that.
And so you gotta be yourself andwe prepare our hitters, we go
(09:48):
through all the adjustments ofevery type of pitcher they know
if it's a rise ball, what arethe adjustments we can make if
it's outside, inside, whateverit is they know.
We try to get'em as muchinformation because even if a
pitcher a good pitcher willchange what they're doing,
right?
If you're starting to get onher, she's gonna start pitching
a different way.
(10:09):
And so when you start guessing,sometimes you're in trouble.
You just have to see the ball,hit the ball.
But they have to know how tomake adjustments.
They have to know how to adjustto the speed of a faster
pitcher.
And they also have to know thesituation, we need to get the
ball put in play somehow find away to put it in play.
We don't need a home run here orwhatever.
(10:32):
At the end of the day scouting'simportant.
You gotta know what's going on,but it's about us and we have to
do what we do best.
And you try and teach the kidsadjustments so they can do that.
Because that has to be done inthe batter's box.
They can't strike out and thengo back to the bench and then
we'll talk about it.
Yeah.
You've just swung and missedwhat happened to you?
(10:55):
You're getting back in the box.
Deep breath.
Yeah.
What are you gonna do?
And lot of things or taught inpractice and worked on in
practice, and hopefully itcarries over into the game for
'em.
What makes you happy when you'rewatching freshmen come in.
You got an idea of what you'regonna get out of a freshman,
(11:15):
typically it's gonna take sometime and get their confidence
there.
When you are evaluating thatyear to year growth of your
girls, what are the things thatmake you happy about what after
year one and into year two?
Yeah hopefully their confidencelevel and just the way they
carry themselves and how theyfeel about themselves.
(11:38):
But you just want'em to beobviously stronger, faster, more
explosive as they stay with youlonger, that they're in the
weight room and they're doingall of those things but they're
just doing all the little thingsdefensively and swinging the
bats.
They're become more consistent.
Start to develop maybe a littlemore power, but.
(11:59):
I love when they start to, whenthey come in and maybe they're
all pull and now they'restarting to use the field and
they're hitting the balleverywhere and just all the
things that we work on, and youstart to see it help'em, that,
that makes me feel pretty goodand I think it makes'em a better
player.
What do you see a difference intho that first 12 to 18 months
(12:20):
in terms of routine and thingsthat they're doing to prepare?
For that.
'cause it's, you can't just allof a sudden get into play and
say, you know what?
I'm gonna start hitting allfields.
There's a lot of prep that goesinto that and learning how to
see those outside pitches andthose breaking pitches and learn
to keep your hands back.
(12:41):
What are some of those thingsyou see where you know that
growth is happening?
When they come in as a freshman,they're just like, they're just
trying to survive.
There's, it's their first timeaway from home, right?
There's so many things going onin the fall when we first get'em
in, and they're, we don't.
(13:02):
It's more about getting themcomfortable as it is starting to
teach and stuff.
So their first freshman year isjust getting them used to being
on the team, used to being incollege, used to living on their
own.
All of those things that aregoing on in their life.
And then after that firstsemester in the fall season, we
really start working a littlemore individually and working on
(13:23):
things inside and getting readyfor the season.
So you want'em to, in that firstyear, adjust just to be in, in
college?
Just to be an athlete andknowing what's going on and then
you wanna see them start toimplement all the things that
you're working on.
And obviously when you make achange, the first thing that's
(13:45):
gonna happen is you're gonnafail.
And and.
Most kids will, once they fail,they'll quit.
They'll go back to where theywere, and that's basically where
they're gonna stay.
But if the girls are willing tofail and to keep trying and
build it back up, then that'swhen they can grow more than
where they were at.
And I wanna see'em have enoughconfidence and know that we
(14:08):
trust them enough that it's okayto fail and then to keep
sticking with the process.
We talk a lot about process.
It's not gonna happen overnight.
And for some kids it may nothappen in a year or two years.
I've had girls come in and notdo a lot, and then all of a
sudden that junior, senior year,they, it starts to click for'em
and it happens.
(14:29):
But they just have to stick withthe progress or process and not
get too overwhelmed witheverything and hopefully believe
in what we're doing right?
And keep getting better thatway.
I don't think kids understandthat you need the repetition.
You just need to Oh, yeah.
Play a lot.
You need to hit a lot, you needto throw a lot, you need to see
(14:49):
so many balls ground balls andfly balls.
And after, after there's acertain point we talk about
those 10,000 hours all the timewhere everything just kinda
starts slowing down.
You're like, oh yeah.
I could see it out of her hand.
I knew what spin was coming.
I could see the way thatpitcher, the pitcher dropped her
shoulders.
(15:09):
I knew what was coming and Ididn't, maybe I didn't see that
a day ago.
I didn't see that a month ago.
Is that fun for you to teachthose things?
Oh yeah.
Those light bulb moments, right?
Yeah.
When it comes on, especiallylike from a defensive end, I
think it's real satisfying.
Kids come, they take a lot ofhitting lessons and yeah.
Pitching lessons and things, butnot a lot of people come in with
(15:32):
defensive things.
And so when we start doing thoseeveryday drills and they're just
monotonous over and over againand then you start to see it pay
off in their game, it reallymakes a difference.
But the big thing is.
Like you say, when you get torep 5,000, they start to go
through the motions a littlebit.
(15:53):
So now we're talking about howdo you practice with intent and
that every time you do thoselittle things, you have to do it
like you're doing it in a game.
And they, you can't just gothrough the motions or it's not
gonna translate for you.
We talk a lot about practicingwith intent and just trying to
do all these little things soit'll carry over and then you do
(16:16):
start to see it in the games.
You start to see it in theirpractices and their things.
They're not flipping the ballout of their glove and making a
stupid mistake on a exchange,like we always talk about
exchanges and things like that,and just those little things
that become a habit then.
(16:37):
Absolutely.
I hate to keep using baseball asa reference and all the women in
your program, and they'll haveto I'll apologize to them in
advance, but I found it reallycool that the San Francisco
Giants have hired Tony Vitello acollege baseball coach, never
coached Major League baseball,and you're starting to get,
(16:57):
you're starting to hear somefeedback from these major league
players at the Giants on howhe's bringing some of his
college drills.
Things that they had never seenbefore that they're doing
differently in practices are, isthere a driller too, especially
on the defensive side thatyou're doing where your freshmen
come in and the, their eyes area little opened and they're a
(17:19):
little bit wowed by it, or theare those little drills that you
do that the freshmen are gonna,it's gonna make an impact.
Oh yeah, I think one, one of ourstaples is what we call Aussies
or Ozzy Smith.
The great shortstop for theYeah.
The cardinals and but teaching'em back, is it backflips coach?
Is that what we're teaching?
No.
Can't do that one yet.
(17:40):
But they get on their knees andafter they play catch they get
down on their knees and they'rejust short hopping each other
and how to handle short hops andhow to handle the glove.
We're handling the glove and wealso make'em do, a lot of times
in basketball where they passthe ball between their legs and
stuff.
Yeah.
We have exchanges and so theyhave to take the ball in around
(18:02):
the world and love that andtheir waist and things like,
just so they're getting used tohandling the ball and taking it
out of their glove and puttingit in their hand and things like
that.
And so all of those thingscombined and just learning to
handle short tops and thingslike that constantly.
It's a lot of fun.
But the other day there was aviral video went out on a NCA
(18:25):
game and the third baseman cameacross and she was off balance
and she took the ball and shetook it behind her back and
brought it back to her glovebefore she threw it to get it.
Organized.
And that's one of the drills wedo.
And they all were like, oh myGod, I saw that.
Oh, that's awesome.
You must do these drills too.
That's always a feel goodmoment.
(18:46):
Yeah.
Have'em see it pay off where itwas specifically something like
that.
You see so many, you see so manyyoung kids that, that ground
ball, it's almost like I'mprotecting myself, yeah.
The shoulders go back and theystraighten up and back on their
heels.
There's, they're so afraid tohit their face, and I just
remember teaching young womenand young women to just bury
(19:10):
that glove on that short hop andall of a sudden.
Oh, wow.
I've never thought about it thatway.
And all of a sudden that fearstarts to go away of taking that
ground ball and everything'smore aggressive.
So are you finding that and Idon't wanna denounce high school
and club coaches, are youfinding there's things that
(19:30):
you're pretty consistentlyteaching freshmen that they're
not getting?
Before they get to you?
Yeah.
And again they do get a lot ofhitting and pitching lessons, so
I think and they're not allexactly the same, but they've
got most of the basics.
But the thing I see lacking issome defense some game iq and
(19:54):
then base running is.
Not good.
Yeah.
And in the state of Iowa I don'tknow other states, but like you
have courtesy runners andreentries and more courtesy
runners, pitchers and catchersnever run the bases.
And and then they get here andsometimes your pitchers are
really good athletes or ifthey're hitting or your
(20:16):
catchers.
Yeah, they've gotta run thebases now.
And yeah, they haven't beendoing it.
They don't know how to do it.
And so we're very aggressive onthe bases.
We wanna push, we wanna putpressure on people, make'em
react.
And that's it's, there's not alot of instinct out there that,
as much as I would like to see.
(20:38):
Yeah.
We we work on base running and,but it's hard.
They're scared to make a mistakesometimes, and we always, you
can't you don't wanna be stupid,obviously, but if we're not
getting thrown out once ortwice, we're not being
aggressive enough, in myopinion.
And don't be afraid to make anaggressive mistake.
So keep pushing.
That one or two outs that youmight run into.
(21:00):
Might lead to one or two errorslater in the game.
'cause they're trying to get theglove they think you're gonna be
aggressive.
They know you're gonna beaggressive.
So they over rush a ground ball,overrun a fly ball, and all of a
sudden you've got that momentumback that maybe you lost it
because you were aggressive.
So I, I love that.
(21:21):
Let's talk about club.
Let's talk about travel.
Travel, softball.
These kids are playing so manygames and you talked about it.
The IQ isn't coming with it'cause they're working so much
one-on-one.
They're not.
They're not practicing with thatshortstop, second baseman.
They're not practicing withrunning the bases and where the
(21:41):
cutoff needs to be and thingslike that.
Is there something that needs tohappen at the travel level?
That could fix some of this.
Are we playing too many games?
Do we need to get back to threedays of practice and maybe two,
two games on the weekend?
Is, are we hurting kids?
And I don't there's a lot oftravel teams that do a good job
(22:05):
and things like that, but Ithink they're playing too much
not practicing enough.
And a lot of'em are from they'vegot kids coming 60 miles, so you
can't practice.
If you do, you get together andhit and whatever.
And, but I think that what I'mseeing is by the time the girls
get to college, they're almostburned out from playing and.
(22:29):
We practice a lot.
And they're not used topracticing a lot.
And so everything, the wholewhat is softball starts to
change a little bit and theyit's, we're developing and
learning and we're not playingas much.
And if you go travel ball andyou go one in four for the
weekend, and hey, we'll see younext weekend.
(22:51):
And it's one and four is ladies,we got yeah.
We got some things to work onhere and.
It's also the competition.
Like they're not verycompetitive sometimes.
And I think that gets lost insome of that because the games
don't mean very much.
(23:12):
And with our games, right?
I say it's gonna be a seveninning game.
Every pitch of every inning isgonna count.
And you have to be locked inboth physically and mentally,
and you're gonna be exhaustedwhen the game's over.
We couldn't begin to play twogames more than two games in a
day.
I wouldn't even want to do that.
(23:32):
And some of those travel kidsare playing three and four I
know.
And the heat and a hundreddegree weather.
Yeah.
And then they're also hanging aclock on the their amount of
time out there maybe isn't likeours would be, but.
I went to a game once and it wasthe the team was down by two
(23:52):
runs and the bases were loadedand there were two outs, and the
clock went out on the buzzer andthe calls time game over and the
it ends like, here comes thebiggest pitch of right entire
game, and they just walk it off.
That's, I don't know any othersport that does that.
(24:13):
Yeah.
Do you?
No.
You can't imagine that in abasketball game or a Yeah.
You run out of time in abasketball or football game.
Yeah.
It's coming and in softball andbaseball, you have to get the
outs right.
The game doesn't end until youget the out.
So it's never, you're gonna notgonna run out of time.
You're gonna run out ofopportunities.
(24:35):
But I don't know it.
I think the, some of those thebasics get lost and some of the
learning to be competitive andto make adjustments, right?
A lot of times you don't get apitchers don't face a hit or two
and three times in a game, andhow do you, they're adjusting to
you and this and that game thatgoes on, and they, you don't see
that a lot.
(24:58):
It's such a loss of theprinciples of the game.
I remember being nine, 10 yearsold and we would, if there were
three of us, we'd play pickle,or four of us.
We'd play pickle we'd hit flyballs to each other we'd do all
the counting games.
I can't even remember what theywere called.
500 and stuff like that.
Yeah.
Do you see young women doingthat?
(25:18):
Do you see them?
Button and practicing on theside and playing together and
playing catch and throwing highballs to each other and learning
how to catch behind their back.
Do you, are you seeing any ofthat we used to?
No, not really.
Not really?
No.
If I'm like you, I, we went outfirst thing in the morning and
we played all day and we cameback home.
(25:39):
And yeah, I had my glove on mybike, wherever we were, we
played back when I was, the onlytime you stopped is when the
ball went in the gutter.
Exactly.
Go find a new ball like sandlot,you gotta go on fence there and
get it right.
Yeah.
But yeah I don't see a lot ofjust free play and things like
that and everything's organizedand Yeah.
(26:02):
Everything's done for them.
Yep.
That's pretty much it.
How do we get that back?
How do we find the joy?
Because I, I feel like that wassome of the greatest memories of
my childhood.
Playing a pickup baseball game,playing pickup basketball,
playing pickup football throwingthe ball around and just i, I
don't remember my arm everhurting until I got I started
(26:24):
coaching and I was throwing 200batting practice throws every
day.
'cause I I was just alwaysthrowing the ball.
Is there a way to get back tothat?
Is there is it is.
It takes sometimes one kid tosay, Hey, I'm gonna make some
phone calls today.
Let's go.
Let's go hit let's go play.
Yeah.
Does that happen?
Can we make that happen?
(26:44):
I don't know.
I don't know.
We try to do we do a lot of teambonding things.
We have an annual kickball gameand stuff like that, and they
get into that.
Totally right.
They, when you get'em to do it,they have a ton of fun with it.
You had some little game that'sdifferent and.
Practice and all of a suddenthese kids that you don't think
are that competitive or beingsuper competitive, right?
(27:06):
And then they get into that andthen we get back to the game and
they lose some of that edge.
They don't play with thatfreedom or that joy.
I guess they're, yeah.
More worried about making amistake or whatever it is.
I don't know.
It's a great question.
How do you get into how do we dothat?
Because they're missing, I thinkthey're just missing out.
(27:28):
And it's, the phones have takenover and technology has taken
over and it's too easy to sit inyour room and not get outside.
And that's, there's a lot forhim to do.
So there's always somethingelse, I'm just the old guy on my
porch yelling at people goingtoo fast.
But yeah.
I'm with you there.
(27:49):
You've reached the NAI WorldSeries and finished in the top
five.
Let's talk about what separatesteams that get there and don't
get there.
What does that look like?
Coach?
And I'm not gonna let you justsay recruiting.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
I'm not gonna let you just saytalent.
Because then you're too good ofa coach.
(28:11):
Again, with softball, all ofthose teams, they've got good
pitching, right?
Yeah.
And so you do need to find.
Somebody in the circle.
But those teams are all playingat the right time of the season.
They've gotten better as theyear went along.
They're, and some of them didn'tstart out that well, and, but
(28:33):
they kept stuck to the processand they keep getting better and
they start to gel and theirconfidence just starts to build.
And at the time that you get tothe conference tournament or the
end of the regular season.
They're really together as aunit, they're very confident and
they're doing all the littlethings right.
And they believe in themselves.
(28:55):
Yeah.
And that's the that's thedifference.
And I can, it, its really, it'sjust attitude.
It's, how they think aboutthemselves.
Yeah.
Like my team right now isstruggling a little bit as far
as wins and losses go and thingslike that.
But we're trying not to talkabout the wins and losses so
(29:16):
much, but sticking to theprocess and good things will
happen if we just keep getting alittle bit better every day.
But it's, we're just trying toget a stronger mindset and
believe in ourselves, and it'sslowly coming and I think we're
gonna get there, but it's,that's the difference, like the
team I have that's maybe notachieving as much as we want
(29:38):
right now.
Could by the end of the teamyear be doing that.
And it's gonna be a mindsetthing.
It's not gonna be a skillsetchange or a, anything like that.
It's gonna be a mindset changeand believing in each other.
And then it just starts to rolland build from there.
And I think all of those teamsthat make it to the World Series
have strong mindsets.
(29:58):
They believe in themselves andtheir skills, and they're
playing well together as a team.
The years that I, my teams wonconference championships or we
made it to the nationaltournament, it seemed like my
leaders took over.
They took ownership.
Of the program kinda said we gotthis coach.
Not that I stopped coaching, butit was like there were drills
(30:20):
where we weren't working hard ordrills that we weren't getting
stuff done, and my seniors wouldstep up and say, we gotta do
better.
Yep.
I didn't have to be the onesaying it.
Do you feel, have you felt thatover the last 17 years when
you've had, you've been reallyconsistent, but when you've had
really great teams, do you see adifference in your leadership?
Oh, I think so.
I think that the leaders canonly do so much and they can
(30:45):
hold each other accountable,right?
And things like that.
And that's certainly superimportant.
But everybody all the waythrough has to buy into that.
And it only takes one or twothat.
Can throw that off a little bit,but Absolutely.
The senior leadership and theway things are done and how
you're able to practice is soimportant, right?
And so when you have a lot ofseniors, you're able to get so
(31:08):
much more in and practicebecause they're helping all the
right, everyone else, andeverybody knows what's going on.
And it just moves along a lotfaster and more smooth and, the
leadership is huge and we havewe, we try to teach leadership
and it doesn't have to come froma senior certainly it can come
(31:30):
from anybody.
And there's a lot of differentkinds of leadership too, whether
it's leading by example or beingverbal or whatever.
But super important to havepeople on the team that are
holding others accountable.
Leading them on.
How do the younger players reactto that?
(31:52):
Maybe they haven't been inprograms before where the
seniors and juniors, seniors arealmost like assistant coaches.
They're barking their in line.
How do the youngsters handlethat?
I think they love it.
They wanna, especially early intheir career, they wanna know
what to do, right?
Yeah.
They want some help, they wantsome guidance and they look up
(32:12):
to those players, right?
Yeah.
And and then they can become.
One of those leaders and helpeach other.
So I think it's a great thing.
And it's not everybody is thesame kind of leader.
Yeah.
But everybody's capable of beinga leader in some way.
So I've coached women and men.
(32:34):
There's a definite difference.
And accepting leadership, don'tyou think?
I've never coached men, so I'veplayed obviously you you played
a long time, right?
Yeah.
Many years ago, right?
Yeah, just yesterday.
Yeah.
I think that I think the ladiesare a little more accepting of
(32:55):
the, like my, the seniors andthe older experienced players.
They.
They don't look at it ascriticism.
They look at it as they'retrying to help me.
Is where I think sometimes guystake it as a criticism or Right.
Somebody trying to, that the Con their shirt means coach
instead of captain.
(33:16):
Like they're trying to bossaround and Right.
I don't see that in the women'sgame so much, or with my teams.
Yeah.
They want that they wanna shareand they're open to the sharing.
They know getting better meansI've gotta, I've gotta see those
that have come before me and seewhat they're doing and learning.
That's great.
Yep.
Are you've used the word intenta lot in our conversation today.
(33:41):
What are some of the thingsyou're doing with intent when it
comes to leadership?
And yeah we always obviouslyhave meetings and we talk to
each player about are they aleader and how do they lead and
how would they handle certainthings and try to give them
maybe.
Tips on how they could handle itif they didn't feel comfortable
(34:04):
and things like that.
But we always especially in thefield during the game, if things
aren't going right, I expect myleaders to call the team in to,
to reset them.
It shouldn't always be me goingout there.
And so we talk about that inpractice and you'll see my
players in practice if thingsaren't going right.
They'll call a timeout andthey'll all go out there and
(34:27):
they'll, before I, when they seeme starting to get a little bit
testy, they can prevent that.
But that a lot and then thatbuilds on on that.
Yeah.
And we also, every day beforeprac or.
We start practice with a jog andwe do our dynamics or whatever
it is to get loose.
(34:47):
Yeah.
Then they always have a teammeeting.
I walk away, all coaches walkaway.
They're there for a minute ortwo or whatever it takes, and
they're gonna talk about whatare we doing today?
And hopeful.
I'm not sure who's talking inthat because we're not involved.
But that's their chance to, to.
(35:07):
Encourage each other and let'sbe better today and let's do
this good today.
Or maybe somebody's not quitefeeling it, they can share like,
Hey something's going on with meif I don't do this.
Yeah.
This is why.
Or they just have their time andso every day there's a
leadership piece in there forthem to do it.
And then once practice starts,obviously you want them to
(35:31):
continue to encourage eachother.
Talk, communicate, right?
Yeah.
Talk.
Yep.
All the time.
It's it's so interesting when itcomes to leadership it's not
rocket science.
It sounds like you guys do areally in intentional job of
saying, we have to create thatspace for leaders.
(35:51):
To be able to practice beingleaders, right?
It's simple as you walking awayand giving them a chance to talk
about what they wanna accomplishthat day.
Leadership has to step up.
Somebody has to decide they'regonna talk.
Yeah.
Somebody has to.
I'm not just silent out there.
Yeah.
So I love that.
(36:11):
I think for all the youngcoaches and high school coaches
that are listening to this, andwe have a lot of'em that do, and
a lot of parents listen to this.
I think as a parent, I don'talways do a good enough job of
just shutting up, it's hard,right?
It's and it, and sometimes I, Ijust have to remember, Hey,
(36:32):
great game.
And then I, and that's it.
I want her to, I want mydaughter to fill in the blanks.
I want her to tell me what she'sgoing through.
You are such a, a.
The impression I get from you,the time I got to see you on
campus and talking to you now,you seems like a genuinely
joyful person.
(36:52):
Is there another side to you,coach?
I love what I do, right?
Yeah.
I can tell I love the team.
Like they're a great bunch ofkids and their skillset has
nothing to do with how I feelabout'em or anything.
And I want them to all have agood experience and and just
(37:13):
have fun with it, but yeah theyknow, they've seen another side
of me occasionally, but, whenthat side comes out too much, it
loses its effect.
Yes.
In my opinion.
So it's kinda like with, asparents, right?
You holler at your kids all thetime, and then after a while
they're just not listening.
So I'm pretty intentional aboutwhen I get upset and how often I
(37:38):
get upset, but they know what myexpectations are and we'll
holler a lot during practice andYeah.
But we if we're not having fun,then what are we doing?
Exactly that, that's my wholething.
And this, if you're gonna liveand die on wins and losses
(37:59):
alone, it's gonna be a, it'stough, right?
And you're gonna have a lot ofdisappointing days.
And at the end of the day, we'reout here trying to have a good
experience, trying to have funand the other day I was setting
up for the game and one of thegirls they graduated a few years
back and was walking her dog byand she saw me and came running
(38:22):
over and talked to me about hercareer and all the things, how
it, the game translated into hercareer.
And that's, that really made me,that's great.
That makes you step back and go,this is why.
Wins and losses don't Yeah.
Matter.
Yeah.
That, that, that's, it's thebest part of coaching.
The longer you do it, the moreyou just look forward those
things.
I got a call I've got a formerplayer who's, what is Brandon
(38:46):
now?
He's gotta be 45.
Yeah.
Years old.
He is married, he's a partner inhis accounting firm and.
It was just like yesterday hecalled me and, or sent me a text
saying, Hey coach, I need someadvice.
He is, he's a 45-year-old man.
But it just, it made me feel sogood that he thought I'm gonna
call Coach and get his opinionon this.
(39:07):
So I'm with you.
I love that stuff.
When you look at your career,are there things that you're
most proud of?
And when forget the World Seriesappearance.
Forget the national tournaments.
Are there things that you lookback and go, gosh, I'm just
really proud of that.
(39:29):
The program in general, I'msuper proud of.
Because it it wasn't a programwhen we started.
And I'm super blessed to havethe facility that we have, but
it wasn't always that way.
And prior to getting our field,I think I played home games on
10 or 11 different fields.
I had the equipment in the backof my car.
(39:51):
We went from.
12 players on the roster up towhere we're supporting a junior
varsity team and a a varsityteam.
And we've now have a beautifulfield that was voted the NFCA
National NAI Field of the Yeartwo years ago.
And no doubt that's great.
Super with this.
And yeah, we're hosting theconference tournament most years
(40:16):
and people love to come here andwe do a good job hosting it.
And it's just the.
We've been in three nationaltournaments, three or four
national tournaments, and justfrom where the program started
to where it's at now yeah I'mproud of that.
Yeah.
Coach, I'll tell you this, I,I've seen so many teams and now
(40:37):
that I'm at 30,000 feet and I'mnot coaching my own team I visit
a lot of programs and I go watcha lot of practices and it always
makes me feel so good when Iwalk into a practice like I did
the other day in yours and.
There was no fear there wasthere, the girls were already
having fun.
They had a relationship withyou.
(40:58):
They had a relationship witheach other.
I said, let's take a picture.
And they jumped in and so I wantyou to know from an outsider.
How exciting that is for me.
I know it's a great program andfor those that are listening
that are thinking about theirdaughter going to play college
softball, go visit Mount Mercy.
Go visit coach and the team.
(41:18):
'cause the more you visit a lotof schools, the more you start
understanding what you want tobe a part of.
And I was upset that I couldn'tstay longer.
'cause I want, I wanted to seemore.
So I want you to know, I, Iappreciate you for that.
I appreciate you saying that.
Says a lot about you and it wasfun.
It was fun to see.
Coach, I could talk to you allday.
(41:39):
Let's do a little rapid fire.
Let's get to know you a littlebit.
Let's let you share a littlebit.
Do you have a favorite band orartist of all time?
Oh my gosh.
This is a I'm, I really like allkinds of music.
That's good.
Lot of genres, but I like CarrieUnderwood a lot.
I think I'm a country guy, soAre you?
(42:00):
Yeah.
She's great.
Yeah.
You, any others that you likebesides Carrie?
Nobody specific.
I'm just all over the board allthe time.
So yeah I like to listen to whatthe girl like they have a lot
different tastes than I do, butI enjoy their music.
Yeah.
(42:20):
And when they're singing andstuff, I think that's awesome.
Yeah, I just, I love it all,nice.
That's great.
I know every time my wife hasbeen in the car'cause.
Before me, I'd turn on the carand the country channel's on.
So I, we list a lot of countrytoo.
(42:41):
Are you a concert guy?
What's the best concert you'veever been to?
It's been years and years, soI'm really aging myself.
But I think that's, pat Benatarwas probably the last one that
I, or maybe ac.
CDC.
Yeah.
Those are great concerts.
Yeah.
All right.
Got some fun music for yourposts, for your social media
(43:02):
posts I'm gonna put out too.
I love those.
Those are good choices.
Do you have a go-to pre-gamemeal?
Not pre-game, no.
We're, I'm usually too busygetting everything ready and.
But don't like to eat too muchbefore the before.
What's your typical post gamelook like after the field's
done, game's over, the girlshave left.
(43:25):
What's your post game look like?
Yeah I'm usually prettyexhausted and so it's something,
I'm gonna grab something,whether it's a Subway or a
Wendy's, or.
Yeah, maybe launch somethinglike that.
So something easy.
Something easy.
Something you don't have tothink about.
Yep.
Just go home.
Yep.
Yeah.
Are you a stat guy after thegame?
Do you review the stats?
(43:46):
Do you watch any film or do you,can you let it go till the next
day?
No, I'll usually be in the boxscore for sure, yeah.
That day.
But I won't watch any film oranything like that until later.
But always wanna recap and whatI was thinking was that what was
happening and while it's stillfresh in your mind, otherwise I
(44:06):
don't think I could fall asleep.
So I'm with you everything.
You need a little break from thegame too.
At some point.
You need to be able to let yourbrain forget about it a little
bit.
And that was always hard for me.
Is there a favorite softballmovie or sports movie that you
love?
(44:26):
League of Their Own is prettygood.
Yeah.
Tom Hanks and that, so yeah.
Great movie.
That's an older movie, but Iused to, Robert Redford was in
the Natural.
That yeah.
Is one of my favorite movies.
I too, so if that's on tv, man,I can't turn it off.
I'm watching till the both ofthose movies.
(44:48):
Yep.
Great choices.
What's one word your playerswould use to describe you?
They call me a teddy bear a lot,but I don't like that too much.
But I think they would say thatI'm probably fun most of the
time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You definitely got some teddybear in you, but I bet when the
(45:11):
heat's on you, you can get'emmoving a little bit too.
Oh yeah.
They know that.
Where's your favorite place torecruit when you tra, if you
guys travel and you're on theroad where do you like to go for
recruiting?
Yeah.
For me it's, and I was a littlebit different with our high
(45:31):
school being in the summertimewhere I think we're the only
state that does that, and we'redoing a lot and the majority of
my team's gonna come fromEastern Iowa.
And so just being around andbeing able to, once our season
ends, still watch a lot of highschool games and travel ball
games and things like that.
So we don't venture too far fromhome.
(45:52):
I do the quad cities.
I have a lot of girls from fromthat area.
As well.
But when it gets to furtheraway, that's more of a we're on
the phone doing those thingswe're it's not so much a
in-person visit or getting towatch'em play and things like
that, so I don't think I'vereally put enough thought into
(46:15):
what an advantage it is.
To have high school softball inthe summer and what that can do
for you, because during yourseason it's you're practicing
the same time the girls are.
Yeah.
You're playing games same timethe girls are, so what an
advantage it is.
Why wouldn't you recruit heavilyin eastern Iowa when you can see
so much softball from the ofJuly.
(46:36):
And it's they're close.
They're playing quite a bit.
And so it's easier to develop alittle bit more of a
relationship, put yourself infront and see it and just see a
lot of different girls.
And we we like to host somegames at our place too.
That's always nice if they'llcome play there a little bit.
And so sometimes when it rainsI'll get that phone call'cause
of our turf and they can't playand they need a place.
(46:59):
So always happy to that you do,to host them and things like
that.
But it's, it's Iowa softball,high school softball, still
pretty serious.
They, the majority of'em play a40 game schedule.
The state tournament's still abig thing, and I know some
states it's not as important andtravel ball's definitely more of
(47:20):
the king, but it's hard justfor, hard for us to see those
games.
Like you said we're in seasonand it's really tough.
Are you seeing value in going topractices or is there more value
in you to go to games?
It's probably games and thenjust getting them on campus.
(47:42):
And we like to do a workout withthem here if we can.
Sometimes go to a game orwhatever and they don't get a
lot of action or they getblocked a couple times or maybe
they have a bad game and it'shard to judge a lot of things.
But if we can get'em on campusand actually work out with them
ourselves, I, that's what Iprefer.
(48:02):
Yeah, especially over videovideos are, especially the
majority of'em that I see arethe things hung on the fence.
The, yeah.
And it's just not very good.
So again it's a misunderstandingof what you're looking for and
really the IQ things that youneed to see and the competitive
things that you need to see.
(48:23):
Often go miss.
So we'll get into that insegment too, a little bit more.
Yep.
Coach, such a joy to get to knowyou.
I'm always so thankful thatthere's coaches like you in the
world'cause I think you're agreat role model for coaches
like me and just how you goabout your business, how you
care about the kids your programwins, but it's not your
(48:47):
priority.
It's making sure the experienceis great.
And so I appreciate you verymuch.
Appreciate you having me on, andthank you for what you do.
It's awesome.
My pleasure for you listening,come back on Monday.
Coach and I are gonna break downrecruiting.
We're gonna get into his brainand how he builds his roster.
So thanks again for doing this,coach.
(49:08):
Yep.
Thank you.
You just heard part one of ourtwo-part conversation with Coach
Larry Yoder.
If you're a coach or a parent orsomeone trying to build
something that lasts, there's alot to take from this one.
Coach Yoder is a great reminderthat success doesn't happen
overnight.
It's built over time throughconsistency, discipline.
(49:28):
And a genuine love for what youdo and the players you get to
coach.
Make sure you come back for parttwo where we're gonna shift the
conversation to recruiting whathe looks for, how athletes can
stand out, and what reallymatters when it comes to finding
the right fit at the NAIA level.
Don't forget to check out coachmatt rogers.com as well where
you can find more resources foryour recruiting journey,
(49:51):
including my book, significantRecruiting and the Companion
Workbooks, the Sports RecruitsJournals.
You can subscribe to this weekin significant coaching and
recruiting newsletter, so younever miss our free weekly Tips
of the week.
Until next time, stay focused onwhat you can control.
Stay humble and keep chasingsignificance.
(50:12):
Okay.
On the latest edition of TheSignificant Coaching Podcast, a
presentation of the coach MattRogers YouTube channel available
audio only everywhere you getyour favorite podcast.
I'm your host Matt Rogers.
This week's guest surprised me.
He's a big teddy bear and hisplayers would agree, but don't
let that fool you.
You don't have the kind ofsuccess Larry Yoder has had over
(00:30):
the past 17 years as the headsoftball coach at Mount Mercy
University in Iowa withoutknowing how to coach with
discipline and accountability.
But what stood out to me is hesimply loves coaching.
He loves developing greatstudent athletes, and he
completely embraces the joy andthe significance of what we get
to do every day as coaches.
(00:51):
You spend five minutes with himand you understand why parents
trust him with their daughtersand why players want to be a
part of his program.
This is a conversation aboutbuilding something, staying with
it, and doing it the right way.
Over time, and as always, youcan find more resources for your
coaching and recruitingjourney@coachmattrogers.com
(01:13):
books, journals, blogs forparents, athletes and coaches,
and the significant recruitinglaunchpad classes.
So if you're that family thatwants a little bit of help and
doesn't wanna spend a ton ofmoney, you can have me
throughout your entire journeyby going to coach matt
rogers.com.
Alright, let's get into part onewith Coach Larry Yoder.
(01:40):
Coach Yo Yoder, so great to seeyou.
Thanks for being on the show.
Thanks for having me, Matt.
All right, coach.
What a history you have, 17seasons, 400 plus wins.
If I walked into your office andfound a note from your first
year self, okay, the guy thatstarted coaching the long, long
(02:01):
time ago, what would that notesay to you now?
What are you doing?
Scared to death 17 yearsbasically as the head coach.
But I came here 20 years ago.
Me and a couple of other guysGlenn Johnson and John lvi came
(02:21):
in with me and we, this issomething we wanted to try and
do, and Mount Mercy had not hada lot of success.
The two teams prior to us were,I think they won five games.
Two years prior and one fourgames the year prior, and three
seasons prior to that, theycanceled the season.
So the program was not in goodshape at all.
(02:44):
And when we got here, there was,I think there was nine people on
the roster in the fall, and wehad to go recruit the volleyball
team and the basketball teamjust to kinda get, I think we've
got a roster up to 12 or 13 and.
So we were just flying by theseat of our pants there, and it
was quite an adventure and butwe won nine games that year, so
(03:09):
we almost doubled the previousyears, so That's awesome.
And then the next year, after ayear under the belt, we got 20
and then built from there.
And then Glen had decided to hehad other things going on, so
that's when I.
Became the we became co-headcoaches for a year or two, and
(03:30):
then I got the full-timeposition here.
But yeah, a lot of things havechanged since then.
Yeah, there has, your facilitiesare great.
I love your facilities.
It's a great place to watchgames and it was fun getting to
meet your girls.
They're so much fun and theywere excited to do whatever to
to have some fun to celebratetheir program.
(03:51):
I'm excited to, to get to knowthem better too as we go.
Building a program from reallyfrom scratch is so hard, and I
don't know if anybodyunderstands it it's not just
recruiting.
It's not just coaching.
It's figuring out zero budget,figuring out how to travel the
right way, figuring out how toget the right staff, getting
(04:12):
them taught, and train the wayyou need'em to.
When you do look back, are theresome foundational things that
you're really proud that you didright in the beginning?
Yeah I surrounded myself withgood people.
Yeah.
And when we're recruiting orbringing in kids, it was finding
the right girls that wanted tobe here and have the right
(04:35):
attitude and knew that it wasn'tgonna happen right away.
And willing to work and getthings.
I'm just proud of the processthat we stuck to.
We didn't get too bent outtashape about things, and we just
kept knowing that we had to moveforward and things would get
better, and it did.
(04:56):
You've got a long history ofbeing a part of the NAI even in
your time at Iowa Wesley.
That was NAI back then.
Yeah, it was, yeah.
That was the really the heydayof NAI back in the eighties and
early nineties.
I, I coached at St.
Ambrose Yep.
In the nineties.
And that was still a big big, abig rival back then.
(05:21):
Yep.
You were a power hitter.
You had records and home runs,were you, did you come into
coaching with that mindset thatmore of that offensive mindset?
Or was it different when youstarted coaching?
No, I think it was a lotdifferent.
There was a big break in therefor me and then I had kids of my
own and started coaching them.
(05:43):
And no, for me it was more aboutfundamentals and just learning
to do the game the right wayand.
Softball always intrigued me.
I love the base running and thespeed of the game, and so we've
we've had a lot of good powerhitting teams here, but we've
also had teams that.
Don't hit for a lot of power,and so you have to adjust to
(06:05):
what you have and make it workfor you.
But no, I've never been aboutthe long ball and that's what
it's gonna be or anything likethat.
Just trying to teach him littlebit of everything and develop'em
the right way and just get'em tolove the game, I think.
That's kinda what I'm seeing.
As I look through your programand your stats and your history
(06:28):
you've been a guy that's evolvedwith what the roster you had and
evolved with the times.
And it's so hard for me I'm sucha baseball fan and such a
softball fan and the majorleague baseball level, the
college level for baseball, thehome run has become kind of
everything.
Everybody's puts all their moneyand time into the long ball.
When you're looking at yourseason and you're thinking about
(06:51):
what kind of team you have, howdo you start thinking about
strategy and getting the,getting your young women
prepared to do what you wantthem to do?
Yeah.
I, for me, it always, it'salways in the circle.
You gotta find out what kind ofpitching are you gonna have, and
then you gotta have, even withgreat pitchers, you just have to
(07:13):
have solid defense.
And that's you gotta really makesure that you've got everything
covered.
No weak areas and they're justwell coached.
Know what to do with the ball.
And then if you can get thepitching and defense going, then
we'll worry about the offense.
How many runs are we gonna haveto score?
Are we gonna have to score threeor four runs?
Are we gonna have to score sixor seven?
(07:34):
And decide how what we're gonnado there?
But for me it's all aboutdefense and pitching and.
Keeping the game low scoring,and then we'll figure out a way.
You and I have talked about you.
There's some studs you're gonnaface this weekend, some.
Some women that can really whipit when you are thinking about
(07:57):
the pitching that's coming upthis weekend we'll be specific
for a second.
Are you.
Are you thinking about howyou're gonna talk to the girls
going into that game in termsof, are you gonna bump more, are
you gonna look for walks more?
Are you looking to make contactmore hit behind runners more?
Are you thinking about that nowas you go into these games this
(08:20):
weekend?
Yeah, for sure.
We're gonna, like I, we talkedabout, we are facing each team
that we're facing this weekendas an All-American pitcher.
And we're not gonna, we're notgonna be putting eight, 10 runs
up on the board, so everything'simportant.
And we just go with the flow ofthe game.
(08:40):
You want to get some big hitsand if you get a couple run
lead, maybe you're gonna.
Play for a big inning, but ifit's gonna be tight right?
Every run's gonna count andyou're gonna willing to give up
some outs to move some runnersand try and hope we get that one
big hit or a couple big hits andtry and win that game that way.
I'm always intrigued by softballand baseball.
(09:02):
I was a baseball coach a longtime ago.
I coached baseball for the firstseven or eight years of my
career before I got intobasketball.
But it seems like basketballcoaches, our egos are so big.
There's a pre-game speech.
There's a speech in the huddle,there's a speech in halftime,
there's a post-game speech.
And then I watch these baseballand softball coaches and I feel
(09:23):
they say, all right, let's justgo do our thing today.
We know what we're doing, go outand play and I feel like.
Baseball and softball coaches dosuch a better job of just
staying out of the head space totheir players.
Am I misreading that?
For me it's like we have to dowhat we do best and that I can't
change that.
And so you gotta be yourself andwe prepare our hitters, we go
(09:48):
through all the adjustments ofevery type of pitcher they know
if it's a rise ball, what arethe adjustments we can make if
it's outside, inside, whateverit is they know.
We try to get'em as muchinformation because even if a
pitcher a good pitcher willchange what they're doing,
right?
If you're starting to get onher, she's gonna start pitching
a different way.
(10:09):
And so when you start guessing,sometimes you're in trouble.
You just have to see the ball,hit the ball.
But they have to know how tomake adjustments.
They have to know how to adjustto the speed of a faster
pitcher.
And they also have to know thesituation, we need to get the
ball put in play somehow find away to put it in play.
We don't need a home run here orwhatever.
(10:32):
At the end of the day scouting'simportant.
You gotta know what's going on,but it's about us and we have to
do what we do best.
And you try and teach the kidsadjustments so they can do that.
Because that has to be done inthe batter's box.
They can't strike out and thengo back to the bench and then
we'll talk about it.
Yeah.
You've just swung and missedwhat happened to you?
(10:55):
You're getting back in the box.
Deep breath.
Yeah.
What are you gonna do?
And lot of things or taught inpractice and worked on in
practice, and hopefully itcarries over into the game for
'em.
What makes you happy when you'rewatching freshmen come in.
You got an idea of what you'regonna get out of a freshman,
(11:15):
typically it's gonna take sometime and get their confidence
there.
When you are evaluating thatyear to year growth of your
girls, what are the things thatmake you happy about what after
year one and into year two?
Yeah hopefully their confidencelevel and just the way they
carry themselves and how theyfeel about themselves.
(11:38):
But you just want'em to beobviously stronger, faster, more
explosive as they stay with youlonger, that they're in the
weight room and they're doingall of those things but they're
just doing all the little thingsdefensively and swinging the
bats.
They're become more consistent.
Start to develop maybe a littlemore power, but.
(11:59):
I love when they start to, whenthey come in and maybe they're
all pull and now they'restarting to use the field and
they're hitting the balleverywhere and just all the
things that we work on, and youstart to see it help'em, that,
that makes me feel pretty goodand I think it makes'em a better
player.
What do you see a difference intho that first 12 to 18 months
(12:20):
in terms of routine and thingsthat they're doing to prepare?
For that.
'cause it's, you can't just allof a sudden get into play and
say, you know what?
I'm gonna start hitting allfields.
There's a lot of prep that goesinto that and learning how to
see those outside pitches andthose breaking pitches and learn
to keep your hands back.
(12:41):
What are some of those thingsyou see where you know that
growth is happening?
When they come in as a freshman,they're just like, they're just
trying to survive.
There's, it's their first timeaway from home, right?
There's so many things going onin the fall when we first get'em
in, and they're, we don't.
(13:02):
It's more about getting themcomfortable as it is starting to
teach and stuff.
So their first freshman year isjust getting them used to being
on the team, used to being incollege, used to living on their
own.
All of those things that aregoing on in their life.
And then after that firstsemester in the fall season, we
really start working a littlemore individually and working on
(13:23):
things inside and getting readyfor the season.
So you want'em to, in that firstyear, adjust just to be in, in
college?
Just to be an athlete andknowing what's going on and then
you wanna see them start toimplement all the things that
you're working on.
And obviously when you make achange, the first thing that's
(13:45):
gonna happen is you're gonnafail.
And and.
Most kids will, once they fail,they'll quit.
They'll go back to where theywere, and that's basically where
they're gonna stay.
But if the girls are willing tofail and to keep trying and
build it back up, then that'swhen they can grow more than
where they were at.
And I wanna see'em have enoughconfidence and know that we
(14:08):
trust them enough that it's okayto fail and then to keep
sticking with the process.
We talk a lot about process.
It's not gonna happen overnight.
And for some kids it may nothappen in a year or two years.
I've had girls come in and notdo a lot, and then all of a
sudden that junior, senior year,they, it starts to click for'em
and it happens.
(14:29):
But they just have to stick withthe progress or process and not
get too overwhelmed witheverything and hopefully believe
in what we're doing right?
And keep getting better thatway.
I don't think kids understandthat you need the repetition.
You just need to Oh, yeah.
Play a lot.
You need to hit a lot, you needto throw a lot, you need to see
(14:49):
so many balls ground balls andfly balls.
And after, after there's acertain point we talk about
those 10,000 hours all the timewhere everything just kinda
starts slowing down.
You're like, oh yeah.
I could see it out of her hand.
I knew what spin was coming.
I could see the way thatpitcher, the pitcher dropped her
shoulders.
(15:09):
I knew what was coming and Ididn't, maybe I didn't see that
a day ago.
I didn't see that a month ago.
Is that fun for you to teachthose things?
Oh yeah.
Those light bulb moments, right?
Yeah.
When it comes on, especiallylike from a defensive end, I
think it's real satisfying.
Kids come, they take a lot ofhitting lessons and yeah.
Pitching lessons and things, butnot a lot of people come in with
(15:32):
defensive things.
And so when we start doing thoseeveryday drills and they're just
monotonous over and over againand then you start to see it pay
off in their game, it reallymakes a difference.
But the big thing is.
Like you say, when you get torep 5,000, they start to go
through the motions a littlebit.
(15:53):
So now we're talking about howdo you practice with intent and
that every time you do thoselittle things, you have to do it
like you're doing it in a game.
And they, you can't just gothrough the motions or it's not
gonna translate for you.
We talk a lot about practicingwith intent and just trying to
do all these little things soit'll carry over and then you do
(16:16):
start to see it in the games.
You start to see it in theirpractices and their things.
They're not flipping the ballout of their glove and making a
stupid mistake on a exchange,like we always talk about
exchanges and things like that,and just those little things
that become a habit then.
(16:37):
Absolutely.
I hate to keep using baseball asa reference and all the women in
your program, and they'll haveto I'll apologize to them in
advance, but I found it reallycool that the San Francisco
Giants have hired Tony Vitello acollege baseball coach, never
coached Major League baseball,and you're starting to get,
(16:57):
you're starting to hear somefeedback from these major league
players at the Giants on howhe's bringing some of his
college drills.
Things that they had never seenbefore that they're doing
differently in practices are, isthere a driller too, especially
on the defensive side thatyou're doing where your freshmen
come in and the, their eyes area little opened and they're a
(17:19):
little bit wowed by it, or theare those little drills that you
do that the freshmen are gonna,it's gonna make an impact.
Oh yeah, I think one, one of ourstaples is what we call Aussies
or Ozzy Smith.
The great shortstop for theYeah.
The cardinals and but teaching'em back, is it backflips coach?
Is that what we're teaching?
No.
Can't do that one yet.
(17:40):
But they get on their knees andafter they play catch they get
down on their knees and they'rejust short hopping each other
and how to handle short hops andhow to handle the glove.
We're handling the glove and wealso make'em do, a lot of times
in basketball where they passthe ball between their legs and
stuff.
Yeah.
We have exchanges and so theyhave to take the ball in around
(18:02):
the world and love that andtheir waist and things like,
just so they're getting used tohandling the ball and taking it
out of their glove and puttingit in their hand and things like
that.
And so all of those thingscombined and just learning to
handle short tops and thingslike that constantly.
It's a lot of fun.
But the other day there was aviral video went out on a NCA
(18:25):
game and the third baseman cameacross and she was off balance
and she took the ball and shetook it behind her back and
brought it back to her glovebefore she threw it to get it.
Organized.
And that's one of the drills wedo.
And they all were like, oh myGod, I saw that.
Oh, that's awesome.
You must do these drills too.
That's always a feel goodmoment.
(18:46):
Yeah.
Have'em see it pay off where itwas specifically something like
that.
You see so many, you see so manyyoung kids that, that ground
ball, it's almost like I'mprotecting myself, yeah.
The shoulders go back and theystraighten up and back on their
heels.
There's, they're so afraid tohit their face, and I just
remember teaching young womenand young women to just bury
(19:10):
that glove on that short hop andall of a sudden.
Oh, wow.
I've never thought about it thatway.
And all of a sudden that fearstarts to go away of taking that
ground ball and everything'smore aggressive.
So are you finding that and Idon't wanna denounce high school
and club coaches, are youfinding there's things that
(19:30):
you're pretty consistentlyteaching freshmen that they're
not getting?
Before they get to you?
Yeah.
And again they do get a lot ofhitting and pitching lessons, so
I think and they're not allexactly the same, but they've
got most of the basics.
But the thing I see lacking issome defense some game iq and
(19:54):
then base running is.
Not good.
Yeah.
And in the state of Iowa I don'tknow other states, but like you
have courtesy runners andreentries and more courtesy
runners, pitchers and catchersnever run the bases.
And and then they get here andsometimes your pitchers are
really good athletes or ifthey're hitting or your
(20:16):
catchers.
Yeah, they've gotta run thebases now.
And yeah, they haven't beendoing it.
They don't know how to do it.
And so we're very aggressive onthe bases.
We wanna push, we wanna putpressure on people, make'em
react.
And that's it's, there's not alot of instinct out there that,
as much as I would like to see.
(20:38):
Yeah.
We we work on base running and,but it's hard.
They're scared to make a mistakesometimes, and we always, you
can't you don't wanna be stupid,obviously, but if we're not
getting thrown out once ortwice, we're not being
aggressive enough, in myopinion.
And don't be afraid to make anaggressive mistake.
So keep pushing.
That one or two outs that youmight run into.
(21:00):
Might lead to one or two errorslater in the game.
'cause they're trying to get theglove they think you're gonna be
aggressive.
They know you're gonna beaggressive.
So they over rush a ground ball,overrun a fly ball, and all of a
sudden you've got that momentumback that maybe you lost it
because you were aggressive.
So I, I love that.
(21:21):
Let's talk about club.
Let's talk about travel.
Travel, softball.
These kids are playing so manygames and you talked about it.
The IQ isn't coming with it'cause they're working so much
one-on-one.
They're not.
They're not practicing with thatshortstop, second baseman.
They're not practicing withrunning the bases and where the
(21:41):
cutoff needs to be and thingslike that.
Is there something that needs tohappen at the travel level?
That could fix some of this.
Are we playing too many games?
Do we need to get back to threedays of practice and maybe two,
two games on the weekend?
Is, are we hurting kids?
And I don't there's a lot oftravel teams that do a good job
(22:05):
and things like that, but Ithink they're playing too much
not practicing enough.
And a lot of'em are from they'vegot kids coming 60 miles, so you
can't practice.
If you do, you get together andhit and whatever.
And, but I think that what I'mseeing is by the time the girls
get to college, they're almostburned out from playing and.
(22:29):
We practice a lot.
And they're not used topracticing a lot.
And so everything, the wholewhat is softball starts to
change a little bit and theyit's, we're developing and
learning and we're not playingas much.
And if you go travel ball andyou go one in four for the
weekend, and hey, we'll see younext weekend.
(22:51):
And it's one and four is ladies,we got yeah.
We got some things to work onhere and.
It's also the competition.
Like they're not verycompetitive sometimes.
And I think that gets lost insome of that because the games
don't mean very much.
(23:12):
And with our games, right?
I say it's gonna be a seveninning game.
Every pitch of every inning isgonna count.
And you have to be locked inboth physically and mentally,
and you're gonna be exhaustedwhen the game's over.
We couldn't begin to play twogames more than two games in a
day.
I wouldn't even want to do that.
(23:32):
And some of those travel kidsare playing three and four I
know.
And the heat and a hundreddegree weather.
Yeah.
And then they're also hanging aclock on the their amount of
time out there maybe isn't likeours would be, but.
I went to a game once and it wasthe the team was down by two
(23:52):
runs and the bases were loadedand there were two outs, and the
clock went out on the buzzer andthe calls time game over and the
it ends like, here comes thebiggest pitch of right entire
game, and they just walk it off.
That's, I don't know any othersport that does that.
(24:13):
Yeah.
Do you?
No.
You can't imagine that in abasketball game or a Yeah.
You run out of time in abasketball or football game.
Yeah.
It's coming and in softball andbaseball, you have to get the
outs right.
The game doesn't end until youget the out.
So it's never, you're gonna notgonna run out of time.
You're gonna run out ofopportunities.
(24:35):
But I don't know it.
I think the, some of those thebasics get lost and some of the
learning to be competitive andto make adjustments, right?
A lot of times you don't get apitchers don't face a hit or two
and three times in a game, andhow do you, they're adjusting to
you and this and that game thatgoes on, and they, you don't see
that a lot.
(24:58):
It's such a loss of theprinciples of the game.
I remember being nine, 10 yearsold and we would, if there were
three of us, we'd play pickle,or four of us.
We'd play pickle we'd hit flyballs to each other we'd do all
the counting games.
I can't even remember what theywere called.
500 and stuff like that.
Yeah.
Do you see young women doingthat?
(25:18):
Do you see them?
Button and practicing on theside and playing together and
playing catch and throwing highballs to each other and learning
how to catch behind their back.
Do you, are you seeing any ofthat we used to?
No, not really.
Not really?
No.
If I'm like you, I, we went outfirst thing in the morning and
we played all day and we cameback home.
(25:39):
And yeah, I had my glove on mybike, wherever we were, we
played back when I was, the onlytime you stopped is when the
ball went in the gutter.
Exactly.
Go find a new ball like sandlot,you gotta go on fence there and
get it right.
Yeah.
But yeah I don't see a lot ofjust free play and things like
that and everything's organizedand Yeah.
(26:02):
Everything's done for them.
Yep.
That's pretty much it.
How do we get that back?
How do we find the joy?
Because I, I feel like that wassome of the greatest memories of
my childhood.
Playing a pickup baseball game,playing pickup basketball,
playing pickup football throwingthe ball around and just i, I
don't remember my arm everhurting until I got I started
(26:24):
coaching and I was throwing 200batting practice throws every
day.
'cause I I was just alwaysthrowing the ball.
Is there a way to get back tothat?
Is there is it is.
It takes sometimes one kid tosay, Hey, I'm gonna make some
phone calls today.
Let's go.
Let's go hit let's go play.
Yeah.
Does that happen?
Can we make that happen?
(26:44):
I don't know.
I don't know.
We try to do we do a lot of teambonding things.
We have an annual kickball gameand stuff like that, and they
get into that.
Totally right.
They, when you get'em to do it,they have a ton of fun with it.
You had some little game that'sdifferent and.
Practice and all of a suddenthese kids that you don't think
are that competitive or beingsuper competitive, right?
(27:06):
And then they get into that andthen we get back to the game and
they lose some of that edge.
They don't play with thatfreedom or that joy.
I guess they're, yeah.
More worried about making amistake or whatever it is.
I don't know.
It's a great question.
How do you get into how do we dothat?
Because they're missing, I thinkthey're just missing out.
(27:28):
And it's, the phones have takenover and technology has taken
over and it's too easy to sit inyour room and not get outside.
And that's, there's a lot forhim to do.
So there's always somethingelse, I'm just the old guy on my
porch yelling at people goingtoo fast.
But yeah.
I'm with you there.
(27:49):
You've reached the NAI WorldSeries and finished in the top
five.
Let's talk about what separatesteams that get there and don't
get there.
What does that look like?
Coach?
And I'm not gonna let you justsay recruiting.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
I'm not gonna let you just saytalent.
Because then you're too good ofa coach.
(28:11):
Again, with softball, all ofthose teams, they've got good
pitching, right?
Yeah.
And so you do need to find.
Somebody in the circle.
But those teams are all playingat the right time of the season.
They've gotten better as theyear went along.
They're, and some of them didn'tstart out that well, and, but
(28:33):
they kept stuck to the processand they keep getting better and
they start to gel and theirconfidence just starts to build.
And at the time that you get tothe conference tournament or the
end of the regular season.
They're really together as aunit, they're very confident and
they're doing all the littlethings right.
And they believe in themselves.
(28:55):
Yeah.
And that's the that's thedifference.
And I can, it, its really, it'sjust attitude.
It's, how they think aboutthemselves.
Yeah.
Like my team right now isstruggling a little bit as far
as wins and losses go and thingslike that.
But we're trying not to talkabout the wins and losses so
(29:16):
much, but sticking to theprocess and good things will
happen if we just keep getting alittle bit better every day.
But it's, we're just trying toget a stronger mindset and
believe in ourselves, and it'sslowly coming and I think we're
gonna get there, but it's,that's the difference, like the
team I have that's maybe notachieving as much as we want
(29:38):
right now.
Could by the end of the teamyear be doing that.
And it's gonna be a mindsetthing.
It's not gonna be a skillsetchange or a, anything like that.
It's gonna be a mindset changeand believing in each other.
And then it just starts to rolland build from there.
And I think all of those teamsthat make it to the World Series
have strong mindsets.
(29:58):
They believe in themselves andtheir skills, and they're
playing well together as a team.
The years that I, my teams wonconference championships or we
made it to the nationaltournament, it seemed like my
leaders took over.
They took ownership.
Of the program kinda said we gotthis coach.
Not that I stopped coaching, butit was like there were drills
(30:20):
where we weren't working hard ordrills that we weren't getting
stuff done, and my seniors wouldstep up and say, we gotta do
better.
Yep.
I didn't have to be the onesaying it.
Do you feel, have you felt thatover the last 17 years when
you've had, you've been reallyconsistent, but when you've had
really great teams, do you see adifference in your leadership?
Oh, I think so.
I think that the leaders canonly do so much and they can
(30:45):
hold each other accountable,right?
And things like that.
And that's certainly superimportant.
But everybody all the waythrough has to buy into that.
And it only takes one or twothat.
Can throw that off a little bit,but Absolutely.
The senior leadership and theway things are done and how
you're able to practice is soimportant, right?
And so when you have a lot ofseniors, you're able to get so
(31:08):
much more in and practicebecause they're helping all the
right, everyone else, andeverybody knows what's going on.
And it just moves along a lotfaster and more smooth and, the
leadership is huge and we havewe, we try to teach leadership
and it doesn't have to come froma senior certainly it can come
(31:30):
from anybody.
And there's a lot of differentkinds of leadership too, whether
it's leading by example or beingverbal or whatever.
But super important to havepeople on the team that are
holding others accountable.
Leading them on.
How do the younger players reactto that?
(31:52):
Maybe they haven't been inprograms before where the
seniors and juniors, seniors arealmost like assistant coaches.
They're barking their in line.
How do the youngsters handlethat?
I think they love it.
They wanna, especially early intheir career, they wanna know
what to do, right?
Yeah.
They want some help, they wantsome guidance and they look up
(32:12):
to those players, right?
Yeah.
And and then they can become.
One of those leaders and helpeach other.
So I think it's a great thing.
And it's not everybody is thesame kind of leader.
Yeah.
But everybody's capable of beinga leader in some way.
So I've coached women and men.
(32:34):
There's a definite difference.
And accepting leadership, don'tyou think?
I've never coached men, so I'veplayed obviously you you played
a long time, right?
Yeah.
Many years ago, right?
Yeah, just yesterday.
Yeah.
I think that I think the ladiesare a little more accepting of
(32:55):
the, like my, the seniors andthe older experienced players.
They.
They don't look at it ascriticism.
They look at it as they'retrying to help me.
Is where I think sometimes guystake it as a criticism or Right.
Somebody trying to, that the Con their shirt means coach
instead of captain.
(33:16):
Like they're trying to bossaround and Right.
I don't see that in the women'sgame so much, or with my teams.
Yeah.
They want that they wanna shareand they're open to the sharing.
They know getting better meansI've gotta, I've gotta see those
that have come before me and seewhat they're doing and learning.
That's great.
Yep.
Are you've used the word intenta lot in our conversation today.
(33:41):
What are some of the thingsyou're doing with intent when it
comes to leadership?
And yeah we always obviouslyhave meetings and we talk to
each player about are they aleader and how do they lead and
how would they handle certainthings and try to give them
maybe.
Tips on how they could handle itif they didn't feel comfortable
(34:04):
and things like that.
But we always especially in thefield during the game, if things
aren't going right, I expect myleaders to call the team in to,
to reset them.
It shouldn't always be me goingout there.
And so we talk about that inpractice and you'll see my
players in practice if thingsaren't going right.
They'll call a timeout andthey'll all go out there and
(34:27):
they'll, before I, when they seeme starting to get a little bit
testy, they can prevent that.
But that a lot and then thatbuilds on on that.
Yeah.
And we also, every day beforeprac or.
We start practice with a jog andwe do our dynamics or whatever
it is to get loose.
(34:47):
Yeah.
Then they always have a teammeeting.
I walk away, all coaches walkaway.
They're there for a minute ortwo or whatever it takes, and
they're gonna talk about whatare we doing today?
And hopeful.
I'm not sure who's talking inthat because we're not involved.
But that's their chance to, to.
(35:07):
Encourage each other and let'sbe better today and let's do
this good today.
Or maybe somebody's not quitefeeling it, they can share like,
Hey something's going on with meif I don't do this.
Yeah.
This is why.
Or they just have their time andso every day there's a
leadership piece in there forthem to do it.
And then once practice starts,obviously you want them to
(35:31):
continue to encourage eachother.
Talk, communicate, right?
Yeah.
Talk.
Yep.
All the time.
It's it's so interesting when itcomes to leadership it's not
rocket science.
It sounds like you guys do areally in intentional job of
saying, we have to create thatspace for leaders.
(35:51):
To be able to practice beingleaders, right?
It's simple as you walking awayand giving them a chance to talk
about what they wanna accomplishthat day.
Leadership has to step up.
Somebody has to decide they'regonna talk.
Yeah.
Somebody has to.
I'm not just silent out there.
Yeah.
So I love that.
(36:11):
I think for all the youngcoaches and high school coaches
that are listening to this, andwe have a lot of'em that do, and
a lot of parents listen to this.
I think as a parent, I don'talways do a good enough job of
just shutting up, it's hard,right?
It's and it, and sometimes I, Ijust have to remember, Hey,
(36:32):
great game.
And then I, and that's it.
I want her to, I want mydaughter to fill in the blanks.
I want her to tell me what she'sgoing through.
You are such a, a.
The impression I get from you,the time I got to see you on
campus and talking to you now,you seems like a genuinely
joyful person.
(36:52):
Is there another side to you,coach?
I love what I do, right?
Yeah.
I can tell I love the team.
Like they're a great bunch ofkids and their skillset has
nothing to do with how I feelabout'em or anything.
And I want them to all have agood experience and and just
(37:13):
have fun with it, but yeah theyknow, they've seen another side
of me occasionally, but, whenthat side comes out too much, it
loses its effect.
Yes.
In my opinion.
So it's kinda like with, asparents, right?
You holler at your kids all thetime, and then after a while
they're just not listening.
So I'm pretty intentional aboutwhen I get upset and how often I
(37:38):
get upset, but they know what myexpectations are and we'll
holler a lot during practice andYeah.
But we if we're not having fun,then what are we doing?
Exactly that, that's my wholething.
And this, if you're gonna liveand die on wins and losses
(37:59):
alone, it's gonna be a, it'stough, right?
And you're gonna have a lot ofdisappointing days.
And at the end of the day, we'reout here trying to have a good
experience, trying to have funand the other day I was setting
up for the game and one of thegirls they graduated a few years
back and was walking her dog byand she saw me and came running
(38:22):
over and talked to me about hercareer and all the things, how
it, the game translated into hercareer.
And that's, that really made me,that's great.
That makes you step back and go,this is why.
Wins and losses don't Yeah.
Matter.
Yeah.
That, that, that's, it's thebest part of coaching.
The longer you do it, the moreyou just look forward those
things.
I got a call I've got a formerplayer who's, what is Brandon
(38:46):
now?
He's gotta be 45.
Yeah.
Years old.
He is married, he's a partner inhis accounting firm and.
It was just like yesterday hecalled me and, or sent me a text
saying, Hey coach, I need someadvice.
He is, he's a 45-year-old man.
But it just, it made me feel sogood that he thought I'm gonna
call Coach and get his opinionon this.
(39:07):
So I'm with you.
I love that stuff.
When you look at your career,are there things that you're
most proud of?
And when forget the World Seriesappearance.
Forget the national tournaments.
Are there things that you lookback and go, gosh, I'm just
really proud of that.
(39:29):
The program in general, I'msuper proud of.
Because it it wasn't a programwhen we started.
And I'm super blessed to havethe facility that we have, but
it wasn't always that way.
And prior to getting our field,I think I played home games on
10 or 11 different fields.
I had the equipment in the backof my car.
(39:51):
We went from.
12 players on the roster up towhere we're supporting a junior
varsity team and a a varsityteam.
And we've now have a beautifulfield that was voted the NFCA
National NAI Field of the Yeartwo years ago.
And no doubt that's great.
Super with this.
And yeah, we're hosting theconference tournament most years
(40:16):
and people love to come here andwe do a good job hosting it.
And it's just the.
We've been in three nationaltournaments, three or four
national tournaments, and justfrom where the program started
to where it's at now yeah I'mproud of that.
Yeah.
Coach, I'll tell you this, I,I've seen so many teams and now
(40:37):
that I'm at 30,000 feet and I'mnot coaching my own team I visit
a lot of programs and I go watcha lot of practices and it always
makes me feel so good when Iwalk into a practice like I did
the other day in yours and.
There was no fear there wasthere, the girls were already
having fun.
They had a relationship withyou.
(40:58):
They had a relationship witheach other.
I said, let's take a picture.
And they jumped in and so I wantyou to know from an outsider.
How exciting that is for me.
I know it's a great program andfor those that are listening
that are thinking about theirdaughter going to play college
softball, go visit Mount Mercy.
Go visit coach and the team.
(41:18):
'cause the more you visit a lotof schools, the more you start
understanding what you want tobe a part of.
And I was upset that I couldn'tstay longer.
'cause I want, I wanted to seemore.
So I want you to know, I, Iappreciate you for that.
I appreciate you saying that.
Says a lot about you and it wasfun.
It was fun to see.
Coach, I could talk to you allday.
(41:39):
Let's do a little rapid fire.
Let's get to know you a littlebit.
Let's let you share a littlebit.
Do you have a favorite band orartist of all time?
Oh my gosh.
This is a I'm, I really like allkinds of music.
That's good.
Lot of genres, but I like CarrieUnderwood a lot.
I think I'm a country guy, soAre you?
(42:00):
Yeah.
She's great.
Yeah.
You, any others that you likebesides Carrie?
Nobody specific.
I'm just all over the board allthe time.
So yeah I like to listen to whatthe girl like they have a lot
different tastes than I do, butI enjoy their music.
Yeah.
(42:20):
And when they're singing andstuff, I think that's awesome.
Yeah, I just, I love it all,nice.
That's great.
I know every time my wife hasbeen in the car'cause.
Before me, I'd turn on the carand the country channel's on.
So I, we list a lot of countrytoo.
(42:41):
Are you a concert guy?
What's the best concert you'veever been to?
It's been years and years, soI'm really aging myself.
But I think that's, pat Benatarwas probably the last one that
I, or maybe ac.
CDC.
Yeah.
Those are great concerts.
Yeah.
All right.
Got some fun music for yourposts, for your social media
(43:02):
posts I'm gonna put out too.
I love those.
Those are good choices.
Do you have a go-to pre-gamemeal?
Not pre-game, no.
We're, I'm usually too busygetting everything ready and.
But don't like to eat too muchbefore the before.
What's your typical post gamelook like after the field's
done, game's over, the girlshave left.
(43:25):
What's your post game look like?
Yeah I'm usually prettyexhausted and so it's something,
I'm gonna grab something,whether it's a Subway or a
Wendy's, or.
Yeah, maybe launch somethinglike that.
So something easy.
Something easy.
Something you don't have tothink about.
Yep.
Just go home.
Yep.
Yeah.
Are you a stat guy after thegame?
Do you review the stats?
(43:46):
Do you watch any film or do you,can you let it go till the next
day?
No, I'll usually be in the boxscore for sure, yeah.
That day.
But I won't watch any film oranything like that until later.
But always wanna recap and whatI was thinking was that what was
happening and while it's stillfresh in your mind, otherwise I
(44:06):
don't think I could fall asleep.
So I'm with you everything.
You need a little break from thegame too.
At some point.
You need to be able to let yourbrain forget about it a little
bit.
And that was always hard for me.
Is there a favorite softballmovie or sports movie that you
love?
(44:26):
League of Their Own is prettygood.
Yeah.
Tom Hanks and that, so yeah.
Great movie.
That's an older movie, but Iused to, Robert Redford was in
the Natural.
That yeah.
Is one of my favorite movies.
I too, so if that's on tv, man,I can't turn it off.
I'm watching till the both ofthose movies.
(44:48):
Yep.
Great choices.
What's one word your playerswould use to describe you?
They call me a teddy bear a lot,but I don't like that too much.
But I think they would say thatI'm probably fun most of the
time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You definitely got some teddybear in you, but I bet when the
(45:11):
heat's on you, you can get'emmoving a little bit too.
Oh yeah.
They know that.
Where's your favorite place torecruit when you tra, if you
guys travel and you're on theroad where do you like to go for
recruiting?
Yeah.
For me it's, and I was a littlebit different with our high
(45:31):
school being in the summertimewhere I think we're the only
state that does that, and we'redoing a lot and the majority of
my team's gonna come fromEastern Iowa.
And so just being around andbeing able to, once our season
ends, still watch a lot of highschool games and travel ball
games and things like that.
So we don't venture too far fromhome.
(45:52):
I do the quad cities.
I have a lot of girls from fromthat area.
As well.
But when it gets to furtheraway, that's more of a we're on
the phone doing those thingswe're it's not so much a
in-person visit or getting towatch'em play and things like
that, so I don't think I'vereally put enough thought into
(46:15):
what an advantage it is.
To have high school softball inthe summer and what that can do
for you, because during yourseason it's you're practicing
the same time the girls are.
Yeah.
You're playing games same timethe girls are, so what an
advantage it is.
Why wouldn't you recruit heavilyin eastern Iowa when you can see
so much softball from the ofJuly.
(46:36):
And it's they're close.
They're playing quite a bit.
And so it's easier to develop alittle bit more of a
relationship, put yourself infront and see it and just see a
lot of different girls.
And we we like to host somegames at our place too.
That's always nice if they'llcome play there a little bit.
And so sometimes when it rainsI'll get that phone call'cause
of our turf and they can't playand they need a place.
(46:59):
So always happy to that you do,to host them and things like
that.
But it's, it's Iowa softball,high school softball, still
pretty serious.
They, the majority of'em play a40 game schedule.
The state tournament's still abig thing, and I know some
states it's not as important andtravel ball's definitely more of
(47:20):
the king, but it's hard justfor, hard for us to see those
games.
Like you said we're in seasonand it's really tough.
Are you seeing value in going topractices or is there more value
in you to go to games?
It's probably games and thenjust getting them on campus.
(47:42):
And we like to do a workout withthem here if we can.
Sometimes go to a game orwhatever and they don't get a
lot of action or they getblocked a couple times or maybe
they have a bad game and it'shard to judge a lot of things.
But if we can get'em on campusand actually work out with them
ourselves, I, that's what Iprefer.
(48:02):
Yeah, especially over videovideos are, especially the
majority of'em that I see arethe things hung on the fence.
The, yeah.
And it's just not very good.
So again it's a misunderstandingof what you're looking for and
really the IQ things that youneed to see and the competitive
things that you need to see.
(48:23):
Often go miss.
So we'll get into that insegment too, a little bit more.
Yep.
Coach, such a joy to get to knowyou.
I'm always so thankful thatthere's coaches like you in the
world'cause I think you're agreat role model for coaches
like me and just how you goabout your business, how you
care about the kids your programwins, but it's not your
(48:47):
priority.
It's making sure the experienceis great.
And so I appreciate you verymuch.
Appreciate you having me on, andthank you for what you do.
It's awesome.
My pleasure for you listening,come back on Monday.
Coach and I are gonna break downrecruiting.
We're gonna get into his brainand how he builds his roster.
So thanks again for doing this,coach.
(49:08):
Yep.
Thank you.
You just heard part one of ourtwo-part conversation with Coach
Larry Yoder.
If you're a coach or a parent orsomeone trying to build
something that lasts, there's alot to take from this one.
Coach Yoder is a great reminderthat success doesn't happen
overnight.
It's built over time throughconsistency, discipline.
(49:28):
And a genuine love for what youdo and the players you get to
coach.
Make sure you come back for parttwo where we're gonna shift the
conversation to recruiting whathe looks for, how athletes can
stand out, and what reallymatters when it comes to finding
the right fit at the NAIA level.
Don't forget to check out coachmatt rogers.com as well where
you can find more resources foryour recruiting journey,
(49:51):
including my book, significantRecruiting and the Companion
Workbooks, the Sports RecruitsJournals.
You can subscribe to this weekin significant coaching and
recruiting newsletter, so younever miss our free weekly Tips
of the week.
Until next time, stay focused onwhat you can control.
Stay humble and keep chasingsignificance.
(50:12):
Okay.
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