@SmithsStationBB Head coach Mike Ferry joins @ONTHEDMARK1 dicuss @cenpc_baseball

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We are going to Smith's Station,Alabama, gonna bring in the head baseball
coach whose Panthers have won five ina row and about to play the Red
Devils in the semifinals of the sevenA Playoffs. Good morning, coach Ferry,
Good morning, how are you allthis morning? Weird? Weird?
Good coach, And I know you'reall good in the neighborhood too, I
would imagine. Yeah, I appreciatethat forecast, especially after this last weekend

(00:22):
when we had nothing bout but rainyweather for our series down and Bakers.
So it's nice that that's not inthe forecast a whole lot for this one.
Amen, you appreciate that for sure. Yeah, we're going to think
the man upstairs coach. And Idon't know if you if you paid attention
or not. Saint Paul's and umtheir game they have they got to play
another day. Isn't that interesting?Did you see that? I did that?

(00:46):
You know? They were they weredown there with us, you know,
playing series, and they tried tothey tried to play it at a
different site and still got caught bythe rain. Um Ours was an interesting
series, to say the least.I've never been involved in anything like getting
all the years that I've been coaching. We had one five hour rain delay
the first night, so I andthey probably put over a thousand dollars worth

(01:07):
of field conditioner on the field totry to make it ready to play.
At about ten eleven o'clock at night. Finished that first game last weekend.
Wow, go back. How longdid you wait? Coaching about it was
about it ended up being about afive hour rain delay. We got into
the into the sixth inning and we'releading, and if the rain would have

(01:29):
canceled the game, that would havebeen an official game. Since they were
behind, they wanted to do everythingthey get ready to finish it, and
so we sat there for about fivehours before we resumed and actually finished the
game. Coach, Now, Igot to ask this, I mean,
when is it it's time to gohome? Oh? I thought it was

(01:49):
time to go home about an hourafterwards. Amen control. So so the
home team has that kind of theyhave that leverage they do in the in
the state rule is that you canyou can go all the way to midnight,
you just can't start after midnight.So we we, like I said,
we waited around for five hours andthey did everything they could, and
hats off to them. They dideverything they needed to do to get it

(02:12):
ready to play, and we wereable to finish it and come back the
next day for our second game,which you know they were. Thank god
we didn't try to start that onethat late at night and then have to
suspend it as well. But yougot two ws, didn't you, coach.
We did. We're fortunate to dothat, so you know, we're
happy to be where we are rightnow and have an opportunity and that's all
you can ask for. You're exactlyright. Mike Ferry, the head coach

(02:35):
of the Smith Station Panthers, onthe Hambleton's outline this morning. We're talking
about a series this weekend down inMobile against Baker Smiths gets the sweet Let's
see, it was two to oneand six one. That's coming off a
sweep from Fair Hope nine to sevenand two zero, coach, And that's
coming off a ten nothing victory overCentral. You've won five in a row.
You're sitting here in the semifinals.Tell us a little about your baseball

(02:58):
team. They're playing good, giveus us summary and you, guys,
coach, Yeah, we're we're playingwell right now and to be honest with
you, that's all that really mattersin the playoffs. Uh. You know,
we're not We're not ranked in thetop ten. Uh. We're just
a blue collar group of guys thatyou know, we work hard. We've
got some some good players. We'vegot some solid players, but we don't

(03:21):
we don't have any like the bigd one prospects like some of these other
folks have right now, and ourguys have have found a way to get
hot at the right time and capitalizeon the breaks that they get. You
know, we've we these kids haven'tbeen through it before, but but I've
seen it several times and and reallyand truly, it's not always the best
team that wins in the playoffs isthe team that's playing the best and gets

(03:43):
the breaks. And right now we'replaying our best baseball, and especially on
the mound I've got I've got acouple of guys and Jake Middleton and Christian
Hill who have have thrown their bestwhen it mattered the most. And uh,
that's what's been giving us a chance. Sounds like it, Coach,
It sounds like you've had a goodrun, You've had a long season.

(04:04):
We say that everybody has. I'lllook at your schedule. You've played a
just a vast array of opponents NorthSouth, out of state over in Columbus.
I mean, what made you thinkto do all this? Coach,
So prepare for this moment where you'reat right now. Yeah, you know,
we do that. We try todo that every year. We try

(04:24):
to play the very best competition wecan play throughout the season because you know,
we know, and I'm sure everybodyin our area knows that the area
that we play in with Opalaika andwith Auburn, with Central is as good
as it gets in the state.I believe that the team that's come out
of our area has represented the Southand the state championship in seven eight probably

(04:47):
all but one of the years thatthere's been a seven eight. So you
know, we've got to prepare ourselvesfor those series because in my eyes,
we've probably been in the playoffs forthe last five weeks, not the last
two weeks. You know, we'vegot four teams down here that are as
well coached as any in the state. You've got to be prepared every week
you go into those series, andevery game in those series matters, So

(05:11):
you know, We've got to prepareourselves by playing the best competition we can
before we get there. Our recorddoesn't always look the best because of that,
but but you know, mentally andphysically, it's got our kids where
they need to be to perform atthe right time. And you know,
we've been fortunate that that's worth outthat way. It doesn't always, but
it has this year. There yougo, well, it has, it's
done extremely well. And you're right, um, Coach Simo has done this

(05:33):
a long time. You've done it, You've been here before, You've won
a state championship, you played forothers. You put your team. You
got six games, right, coach, you could lose everyone, but if
you get in, that's what counts. Those six area games. And you
mentioned that earlier about the playoffs andthose that learned that Quicker seem to be
the best coach, you know whatI mean? Sometimes and I hate that,

(05:56):
you know, I hate that it'sthat way. Uh. You know,
I was excited last year when whenthe state decided that, you know,
we're going to try to do regionplay again because that really benefits all
four of the teams in our area. Correct, But you know they backed
out on that at the last minuteand went back to area play. And
I mean, for two teams tocome out of our area is is tough.

(06:17):
I mean, it's as hard asit gets in our area. And
you know, last year, Auburnand Central were playing in the Semis.
This year it's US in Central playingin the Semis. And it's just a
shame that, you know, ateam like Auburn and a team like Appalika
that's a quality team that's as goodas most teams in the playoffs, that
they don't have an opportunity to dothat because of how tough our area is.

(06:39):
You make a good point. Ibelieve that region would have had was
Enterprise. Would that have been inthe Region two? Coach? Because they
played Central this past weekend? Theywere They were in that region right right,
Enterprise and press for the representatives onthe other side, Yeah, there
you go there, And uh,you know, we played we played all
those teams during the regular season andwe were fortunate enough to beat them and

(07:00):
and you know, Auburn did thesame thing and Central did the same thing.
I'm sure like well so, Imean, if you play an area
and four teams get in, there'sa good chance that all four of our
teams would have had an opportunity toget into playoffs. Very good point.
Mike Ferry with his head coach atSmith Station ten years, he's been the
headman, been there longer than that, but the head coach at the Panthers
twenty five, fourteen and one,getting ready to play the Red Devils,

(07:21):
talk about playing Central. Aj Kogoing over to Darnielle Nelson, field coach,
talking about playing the Red Deals.Yeah, that's a that's a that's
a tough opponent, and that's gonnabe everything we want more. Uh,
you know, that's our big rival. It's kind of like an Auburn Open,
like a series. Uh, that'sour big rivals. So we play
him during the season. It's ait's a big deal during the season.

(07:43):
And I can I can only imaginethat it's going to be chaotic there.
You know, Thursday and Friday nightwhen we play, there's gonna be a
lot of folks out there. Andyou know, aj does a great job
with Central and hasn't prepared all thetime, and you know they're they're gonna
be tough. You know, wewe split with them in the games of
mat this this year, so youknow, we know we can beat them.

(08:03):
They know they can beat us.Uh, you know, but I
as far as competition with AJ goes, I've been competing against him since the
late nineties when when I first startedat least got so I've known AJ for
a long time and had some somebattles with him, and this will be
no different. I don't no doubtabout it. It ought to be a
good one. And we're talking withSmith Station baseball coach Mike Ferry on our

(08:24):
Hamilton's outline his baseball team set toplay out the Red Devils win, are
going to the championship game. You'reso close, coach. You gotta win
two of three. Are you guysready? Yeah, we're as ready.
We're as we're going to be atthis point. At this point, it's
all about routine. We've tried toWe tried to do the same thing or
stay on the same schedule for thelast three weeks and so that they're comfortable.

(08:48):
You know, pressure is a pressureis a killer. It'll it'll make
men into midgets if if, ifthey don't handle it the right way.
So we try to stay on aroutine and make sure they're comfortable because we
know that the moment's going to bebig, and we want them to understand
that they've been there and done thatbefore and compete at the highest level when

(09:09):
it when it comes time to doit, there you go. I know
you gotta go and just say,coach, till me about practice. What
what do you go through yesterday?What are you doing this week? What
do you do on Monday's? Lastfew weeks, it's been pretty much.
You know, we've been like likeyou said, we've been fortunate to to
play the last two series and playedtwo games, so our third guy hasn't
really thrown in any of the series. So you know, on Mondays we

(09:31):
try to throw all the pictures,all the arms we've got live against our
hitters that didn't get the chance toget work in the last series, just
to keep them sharp, keep themfresh. So we did that yesterday and
then you know today and tomorrow willbe our typical you know practice schedule where
we get some defensive work and andget some live VP off of our coaches

(09:54):
and and try to get in andout of there as quickly as we can,
but still get our work done becauseat this point in the season,
they're pretty war down Yeah, it'sa long season, so we try to
keep them as fresh as possible.And you know, with the weather getting
warmer, it'll drade you in ahurry. So you know, being being
fresh is as important as anything else. And you know, we preach on

(10:16):
them to hydrate and to eat rightand make sure they're doing what they need
to do for their body so theycan recover. So that's basically what we
do leading into it. And Imean it's not like we don't know our
opponent. Yeah, really, wedon't have to do a lot of scouting
and all that kind of stuff.You know, it's these kids are our
friends with a lot of the kidswe're getting ready to play against because they

(10:37):
hang out with them, you know, all the rest of the year.
So it'll it'll be interesting there yougo, We'll all be a goodie.
First pitch, seven women, Isit set seven o'clock? As a coach?
What times the first pitch? Fivethirty Eastern Thursday. Yeah, we
moved our series to Thursday Friday becausethe seven eight Championship Series starts on Wednesday

(10:58):
next week and that you know,we moved it up at day so that
we can get our starting pitchers whoeverwins will have an opportunity to recover before
they have to play on that Wednesdayin Oxford. Okay, so four thirty
Thursday, first pitch Central, fivethirty eastern. Right, that's correct,
all right? Now the if gameon Friday is it at seven? Toby?

(11:20):
It's five third? Okay, allright, because I was gonna says
all right, coach Ferry, thankyou so much for calling this morning.
I appreciate that, buddy, andcongratulations on a great run and finish the
task. How about that? That'sright? Well, we appreciate you having
a song, and we're gonna we'regonna give it everything we got there.
You got the chips fall, butthat's all we can do, all right,
Coach. I got somebody broadcasting thegame for you. You got a

(11:41):
station car they can listen to there. I think there's somebody there, but
I'm not I'm not positive. Okay, Folks over at ninety three nine come
over sometimes and do some of ourgames. But I haven't heard from him,
so I don't know. I'm surethat. I'm sure it's a it's
a game that'll be broadcast by somebodythere. You go. Most of us,
most of our fans will watch ourgame Changer and from it that way.

(12:03):
But you know, I don't thinkthere'll be a whole lot of people
listening to it. I think there'llbe a whole lot of people there.
There. You go, Well,I was gonna get plugging if it was.
Coach. Take care, buddy.Thank you for your time coaching.
Okay, all right, I appreciateit, Yes, sir,