600 Wins, Championships and Winning Culture with George Powell

Transcript

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Today on the Athlete One podcast 600 game winner Otterbein University baseball head coach, george Powell.

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And then you'll have a kid that's an elite player that might not skill set but plays the game pretty fundamentally and plays it right and will kind of associate his success on the field with somebody else that has a higher skill set.

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So they think that they can play at a higher level where they'll have everything they can handle at the Division III level on it.

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And those are the things that I think that kind of affects the recruit.

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That hurt us sometimes in the recruiting.

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As you said, turning the nose up is, I think, a good way to put it and they just don't understand how competitive it is.

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Here that's the first thing.

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We'll get an all-Ohio kid that just kind of slipped through the cracks and you know we'll meet with them.

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The first thing they say is I never realized it would be this competitive.

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Because you're still dealing with 22-year-old men.

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Welcome to the Athlete One podcast.

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Veteran high school baseball coach Ken Carpenter takes you into life's classroom as experienced through sports.

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Go behind the scenes with athletes and coaches as they share great stories, life lessons and ways to impact others and and.

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Before you settle in, I'd like to ask a huge favor.

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Now to my interview with 600-game winner Otterbein University baseball head coach, george Powell.

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Hello and welcome to the Athlete One podcast.

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I'm your host, ken Carpenter.

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Joining me today is Otterbein University head coach, george Powell.

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Coach, thanks for taking time to be on the show.

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Thanks, thanks, ken, for having me.

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I appreciate it.

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Well, it's April, it's foreign degrees and, I guess, typical baseball weather in Ohio.

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Yeah, I mean, I was just saying I'm just dealing with this weather this whole week, just trying to figure out practice schedules and all that stuff and trying to get on with you is kind of a challenge.

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But we're here.

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But yeah, it is.

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You always go through this in April, especially in Ohio.

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Well, you have a week to let us sink in your thoughts on getting win number 600, and you joined an elite group of coaches Don Chowdhury, brian Bruner, bob Fisher, herb Strayer and another Auburn coach, dick Fitchfall.

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Yeah, yeah, really, to reflect on it, you don't coach for the milestones, it's just something.

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I think that happens via a lot of reasons.

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I got a lot of well wishes on Twitter and just messages.

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Know, uh, twitter and um, you know, just messages, texts is that this was just unbelievable, um, and so you don't really realize what you do until you hit these things you hope you do and impact people the right way.

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Um, but just the well wishes was, was was really good, but just reflecting on it, it's, it's kind of surreal.

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I was, I was a coach, fish balls assistant.

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When he hit he had his 600th Um, and I don't, it was somebody purple, I don't know if it was Capitol or uh, mount Union, but um, you know, I just it's just surreal to me, like it's, like it's, you know, I can't believe it's.

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I still, you know, as you know, when you coach you and just doesn't feel like 25 years, yeah, and 600 wins, it's kind of unbelievable.

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And to be mentioned in those guys' status, I mean, those are, you know, I mean Don Challey's all-time winningest coach, I think maybe in baseball it's just incredible what he did.

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But just Bob Fisher was always good to me, having an opportunity to coach against all of them was something I thought when I was reflecting.

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I thought was pretty neat, you know, wow.

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But just Bob Fisher, herb Strayer, those are the shoulders that you know, us coaches now in the OAC, which is a great conference, those are the shoulders we're standing on and they're the ones that made this conference the best in Division III, you know, out of 385 or 86 teams, it's just the most competitive league and it's just an honor being named with those guys.

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It's nothing that you sign up for, it's something that you think you're going to get to or it's just something that happens via luck and being around a lot of really good people, having a lot of really good coaches, good players.

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Like I said, I can't emphasize enough good people.

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So it's been pretty, pretty cool just reflecting and getting messages and catching up and with people I haven't talked to.

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So that's the other good thing about milestones it reconnects you with people that you have good feelings for and that they have for you, and you kind of let those feelings go for years and then, when these things happen, you, you get to reconnect.

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So that's been the real nice thing for me well, I've known you for quite some time now and you know, I thought when I was doing my research I'm going to try to go a different route here.

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So I reached out to a current player that I had a chance to to coach and, uh, he's a pitcher for you, luke waller.

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Well, yeah, he said.

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I said because you know when I go.

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Well, yeah, he said I said because you know when I go to look at things I like.

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But I'm going to ask about this, ask about this.

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I thought what would a player like to hear?

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And he said to ask you about the team culture.

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And he says it's amazing that the great mindset you set with all the players yeah, I go ahead.

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So how did him go about calling that?

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Monique.

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I just think, being around a game, ken, like you have, I hope this thing doesn't keep people like this.

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I don't know how to turn it on, but, as you know, I mean I think the longer you go, you know what's good.

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You know, I've been very fortunate to coach a lot of really really good teams that really show you what good culture is all about, um, and it's really the leadership within the players, um, but you try to point them to the right direction.

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That's the one thing I would say.

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I coach more than ever now is just the mentality of the game and not letting it overwhelm you and being a good teammate and understanding how lucky you know these guys are to have an opportunity to play at this level With all the other crazy stuff that's going on in the world.

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It's, you know they have it pretty good and having them understand that I talk a lot about.

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You know what it is to, what you have to be to have success at this game Because, as you know, it's unforgiving, it's guaranteed failure, and it's how you handle those things that I think individually that allow you to collectively.

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If you can handle those things the right way, you can pick people up that are going through the same issues that happen in the game, whether it's a slump or you know you did everything right but you lined out and you have nothing to show for it.

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And that's what this game is trying to do is trying to overwhelm you mentally.

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And when you can get it together mentally from an individual standpoint, I think collectively, guys start feeding off of each other with it and picking each other up, and you know, when you get a bad strikeout, somebody comes up and picks you up, the next guy picks you up, and I think that's kind of.

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You know, what I probably preach, more than anything, is about who you are and I don't know.

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I talk a lot about the mentality that you have to have to have success in this game.

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I think part of that is being a good teammate.

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We don't, we, I don't have, we don't vote for captains and stuff, and I think that was something I did early in my earlier days, because I always thought to myself it's a tough sport to lead in when you're in an 0 for 13 slump and the game already put overwhelms with, you know, with with those type of negative things, outcomes that happen regularly in the in the game.

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So, um, and I don't want to restrict leadership, so in the years past I think that's part of it too.

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I think everybody feels invested, whether they play a lot or pitch a lot.

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I think a couple of our really good leaders in our pitching staff are two twin, the Conrad twins, that are seniors that really haven't had a lot of opportunities, and when I say many opportunities I'm saying maybe an inning here, an inning there in their whole career and they're seniors but they hold guys accountable and I think that's the thing that's special within our program is um, you know there's definitely a standard that that's been set long before.

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As you mentioned, coach, fish ball and and um, you know that's a standard of Otterbein baseball and you have to kind of get to try to get to that regular.

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But you need the right people, the right guys to do that.

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You can't do it with um.

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You know kids that are selfish, or you know it's or they.

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That's baseball is the blame game.

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You can blame anybody anytime it's the umpire's fault.

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The coach took the pitcher out, put another guy in they shouldn't put in shortstop, made three errors.

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Um, you know all that stuff.

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So when you get people away from those type of easy way outs, then I think you know you get them to focus on the right things and that's hopefully individually to grind for that individual success, so collectively for as a team, you know it benefits everybody.

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Well, you know.

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Welcome back to your career.

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You mentioned coach Fischball.

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How big a role did he have?

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And you know did your dad play a role in your approach to playing the game and now coaching baseball.

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You know, I think obviously I'll start with my dad.

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It makes it easier that way.

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But my dad just little things in the game.

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He was a guy that taught me how to handle things and when I didn't handle things he didn't let me off the hook.

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And I think that's the problem today sometimes with parenting when parents get involved, I think the negative side of it.

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I think parents' involvement is fine as long as they let the kids experience their experiences and not try to force the experience and within those experiences there's going to be negative outcomes, um, which is growth.

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So you want that, you want that, but sometimes parents don't.

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But my dad was just so influential in sports he thought athletics was a mechanism that will teach you about life.

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So, whether and I played growing up football, basketball, baseball, and I did it in high school at westville north a long time ago but uh, his attitude was just he, he, he that the athletics teaches you about life.

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So and he made a big point in that, and especially when we had, you know, tough losses as little kids and when I would cry when we'd lose, cause I hated losing, uh, as a little kid and um, you know, he would say that's, that's part of this.

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This is things that happen and little things in baseball that I still, you know, teach here and talk about all the time.

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And I'm happy now because we've been real successful this year is our two-strike approach.

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My dad, baseball-wise, was just a big guy choking up, moving to baseball and that was always something that stuck with me, even though I would be, you know, growing up in my high school and college career.

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I'd be a middle lineup guy, but it was always important for me to move to baseball.

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Now, from a coaching standpoint, um, dick Fishball meant, you know, I think they're they're both the most two influential men in my life, uh, mentors, you know, obviously my dad meant everything to me.

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He was a great, great father.

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I miss him dearly every day.

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Meant everything to me.

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He was a great great father.

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I miss him dearly every day, um, but Dick Fishball was just, uh, uh, who's, you know, he was just a technician, uh, on coaching and hitting, um, and how he laid things out and how he was so direct when he, when he coached he was, uh, you know, taught me a lot and that was.

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And then he taught me a good mentality as a coach, kind of be even keeled and see things for what they are and to understand that there's going to be some bad days in baseball and not to go too high or too low.

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So his consistent approach on how he did things, um, and very direct on how he coached, um, he, he was, and he was a technician, he was a, you know, back in, you know, you go into the eighties and nineties and if you want to go into the seventies, he was a guy that all the you know baseball people wanted to have come talk about hitting uh to their team or whether it was, and he was a great man for me.

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He was always supportive of me.

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So, um, it's two, two huge influences on me.

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Mike Florac I coach with just for one year.

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He taught me a lot up when I was up at Youngstown state after my experience with coach fishball.

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Um, he taught me just in one year just about how, again, to be direct and be precise and decisive on making decisions, and I know I can go back on Roger Engel's plan for him at Ohio Wesleyan.

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He was the same way.

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He taught me a little bit about culture.

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If I look back at it now, he would galvanize the team, especially when things would go sideways.

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How he would galvanize the team, especially when things would go sideways.

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But Dick Fishball and Ed Powell were.

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You know, ed Powell was as good a father as anybody could have and Dick Fishball is as good a mentor, and even more than that, to me, you know he was just like a second father to me, but just hugely important to me.

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When you look back at Jake Ferrer, what are some of the absolutes a player must have to?

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play at Irvine.

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Success.

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The absolutes is, I think, to have the passion to play.

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I think that's the thing that everybody likes, the idea of going and playing, and I think that's what happens because it's.

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You know, it's still a step up and you hear a lot of times, like I said, come and watch an OAC baseball game, come and watch Baldwin, wallace or us or Heidelberg or these teams.

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I mean it's good baseball in this conference, it's as good as it gets.

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All the teams in the country when we go down south want to play us because we're the, we're the conference.

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Better having two and three, you know, world Series teams.

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But the absolutes for players is that that passion.

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Obviously talent matters, but you know I would, you know, I've been, I've had really good luck with guys that were under recruited or not recruited at all and everybody in Division three is a walk on.

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But you know we've had some guys that we didn't recruit, that just showed up, that were all you know, all region players, academic, all Americans and just great contributors to our program.

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But I would say, going back to the absolutes, the passion, the work ethic, I think being who you are is hugely important.

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Like you were talking about culture earlier.

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I think the type of person you are, the selfless, you know person, and you know I used the line, the guy that used to be at University of Louisiana I think he's not there anymore, but one of the things he used to say is work while you wait and you know we talk a little bit about that, but just, I would say the absolutes is just having the really true joy to playing and if it's not baseball, the next thing is baseball.

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You know.

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So if it's studying, the next thing you're doing is probably going to be hitting or, you know, lifting, something that's going to help you become a better baseball player.

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You know, I would say that probably for me is just the passion and really, you know, have that love to play, discipline.

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I think you think within that that it's important to you.

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When you had a chance to experience being the assistant coach, talk about how important your certain coaches are, not only on this staff, but your staff as well.

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I've had a who's who.

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I mean it's just absolutely incredible.

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I mean, in my first recruiting class I had Brian Meyer who played and was on the 2003 OAC championship team.

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I'm the first one that I was able to coach.

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He came on as a graduate assistant to me after he was done and then his transformation in the coaching world has been pretty dynamic, where he went to Wright State, he went to Tulane for a while, went up to Butler and then got an opportunity to get into pro ball.

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We saw him down in Fort Myers.

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He was the manager of the year in the single A in the Florida League last summer and he's a single A coach now for the Fort Myers Muscles.

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But he's part of that lineage for me that I, you know I was able to coach um at Brink.

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Ambler came into my life.

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I don't know if you know Brink, but Brink came in um because his wife was, you know, doing a, getting a master's degree at Ohio state.

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He went to university, alabama.

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He did a lot of really good things from a hitting standpoint, um and and some of these guys did it for literally next to nothing.

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And now he's the I just talked to him about.

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He's another guy I just reconnected with.

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He was a AAA coach for the Tidewater Tides, the hitting coach, and now he's kind of going through all the organizations now but he's part of you know.

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He was in there for about three or four years for me in a couple championship years.

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Jordan Cairo, who everybody knows.

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Jordan has Christian played for me, jordan helped a couple years and did a lot of good things, brought a lot of things that Wright State did over.

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I'd be remiss with not saying John McCourt from a pitching standpoint, but probably the biggest influence that was a crossover with me and Coach Fishwell was debuting, who was with me and Coach Fish for a long time.

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That's kind of set up.

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We've always pitched it real well, set up our pitching at the end.

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But there's so many other guys now the current staff, colton Honston a really good job.

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I'm finally resourced and staffed the way we should be.

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Thank goodness from the support from our current AD, craig Glott, our current AD and Bill Fox, our VP of affairs, made that happen.

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So we were one of the last teams in OAC not to have a full-time assistant and you know, with carrying as many guys and not many now because of COVID's done, but like being in the mid-40s of guys and having two teams, I think that's you need that support with it.

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We've got two graduate assistants now.

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We're just staffed the right way to where we can develop guys.

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In the past it was just kind of touch and go, just because guys were doing it for nothing.

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He helps out Tom Ryan with our pitchers.

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Now His grandfather is Jack Ryan, one of the all-time greats in Central Ohio.

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So there's plenty of other guys that I'm proud of.

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I know I'm leaving out, like Aaron Hutchinson, bobby Wright I mean there's so many guys that have made this program what it is and have allowed me to have the success that I've had as a coach with it.

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But just, I could go on and on.

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But there's, you know, the Dave Ewing's, john LaCourte's, the Joe Wilkins I forgot the list of him.

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He's been huge.

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Joe Wilkins from Norwalk, not from Columbus, not from Scioto.

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The guy we got another Joe Wilkins who's done has a huge influence on our program and pitching development and just a lot of things we have in place there program and pitching development and just a lot of things we have in place.

00:20:15.092 --> 00:20:21.865
There's just been so many hands involved and it had to be, because you know there was nothing really here holding them, so you had to take the help.

00:20:22.942 --> 00:20:34.673
As you know, as a coach there's nothing better than good assistant coaches that you can rely on, that you know stuff's getting done when it needs to get done, that you can't always be there for Especially now, and you know my role a lot of times I find myself doing.

00:20:34.673 --> 00:20:43.240
Mike Florek told me this young sound state when I would come into work I'm sorry I'm carrying on, but I would come into work and I'd go through my recruiting pile and I'd buy pitching.

00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:48.107
You know what we're going to do for and everything was just, you know, it was just pretty class discipline issues and whatever that's going on.

00:20:48.107 --> 00:20:54.553
That's coming down from.

00:20:54.553 --> 00:21:00.576
Ironically, at that same time, jim Trestle was the uh, um, athletic director at Youngstown state when I was here.

00:21:00.576 --> 00:21:20.260
But he's dealing with all this stuff and I remember him saying you know he watched me one day do all my things and get everything in order and stuff and he hadn't even really got started on the things he wanted to and he said my chair that might as about one fifth about coaching baseball and, um, he goes.

00:21:20.280 --> 00:21:23.791
Just realize, as an assistant coach, you get to do the fun stuff, you get to do the coaching and all that.

00:21:23.791 --> 00:21:28.603
So, um, but you need, you need, you absolutely need, uh, um, and I from that he's, he's totally right.

00:21:28.603 --> 00:21:37.736
So there's just a lot of things now that I'm coming in after I get done here I'm reconciling bills and you know where we fed the guys and just little things that you know go under.

00:21:37.736 --> 00:21:40.359
You know that you have to do now that are different.

00:21:40.359 --> 00:22:01.209
There's just a lot of things to manage to now that you know in the earlier days you didn't have, but regardless you need to have great assistant coaches and I've been really fortunate to have them, I think I hope I didn't miss any of them because they've all been, you know, they've all been hugely important to to what we've done and what we do well over the past 25 years.

00:22:01.549 --> 00:22:03.296
How much do you think the game has changed?

00:22:03.296 --> 00:22:04.539
Is it is the recruiting?

00:22:04.539 --> 00:22:08.028
Definitely there's a plug yeah, I mean obviously.

00:22:08.087 --> 00:22:09.411
I mean I go back to the point.

00:22:09.411 --> 00:22:19.519
I was like kind of pre I would come in and call from the office phone from like seven to 10, from like Sunday night to Thursday, and send out mass mail, or saw the colleges and stuff with social media.

00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:25.259
Now it's there's times where I mean I, I, I text with guys and it's kind of crazy it's.

00:22:25.259 --> 00:22:35.875
You know, sometimes you don't know, you don't know what somebody's voice sounds like until you get them on campus for a visit voice sounds like until you get them on campus for a visit.

00:22:35.875 --> 00:22:40.760
So, um, uh, but uh, no, it's, that's.

00:22:40.760 --> 00:22:41.484
The recruiting for sure has changed.

00:22:41.484 --> 00:22:42.470
The game's changed because of how everything is.

00:22:42.470 --> 00:22:54.450
Obviously it comes down from major league baseball trickles from division one to us and we got the times stuff now for pitches and um, you know just everything else launch angles and the hitting and uh and just the other stuff.

00:22:54.450 --> 00:23:02.433
You know, with driveline, and I think we were doing that stuff before before, that stuff, but drivelines kind of came in and branded stuff from a pitching hitting.

00:23:02.433 --> 00:23:06.624
Oh, you know, and what the body was really doing when we thought it was.

00:23:06.624 --> 00:23:13.432
You know, when we had the VHS, when we were taping hitters at the most important point, at contact or when they were throwing the ball.

00:23:13.432 --> 00:23:15.836
It was nothing but a big blur so you couldn't really see.

00:23:15.836 --> 00:23:22.285
But when super slow-mo came in, that kind of changed the game and we kind of understood what the great players were doing and that's what we tried to do.

00:23:22.285 --> 00:23:38.131
I know, with Dave Ewing and with the pitchers and John LaCourte and Joe Wilkins here, what we did with the hitters and Jordan, cairo and Brank and the guys that I mentioned, I think Brian Meyer in the earlier days, you know you were able to kind of see.

00:23:38.131 --> 00:23:40.729
So it kind of changed what you taught.

00:23:40.729 --> 00:23:44.951
I think we would teach a little bit different than what Coach Fishball taught in hitting.

00:23:45.580 --> 00:24:05.201
I would love for him to be around this now just to hear him talk about it, because he had a strong opinion on how you swing a bat and I'd love to hear his thoughts on it, on that same question, with the launch angles and all that stuff, and I think there's so much stuff out there, it gets it gets kind of tangled up and, um, confusing for guys.

00:24:05.201 --> 00:24:07.988
So I think the game is is sometimes over complicated.

00:24:07.988 --> 00:24:10.722
We over complicate it now than we might have before.

00:24:10.722 --> 00:24:20.505
Um, you know in terms of doing things, but you still have to do the things to win that the game requires you to do, and that's you know limiting free bases, throwing strikes uh.

00:24:20.505 --> 00:24:23.531
Making routine plays defensively, um.

00:24:23.531 --> 00:24:24.232
You know.

00:24:24.232 --> 00:24:25.942
Limiting strikeouts.

00:24:25.942 --> 00:24:29.711
Getting on base the other way, um and uh.

00:24:29.711 --> 00:24:32.505
Getting in plus counts offensively, and um.

00:24:32.505 --> 00:24:34.330
You know the bunt game and doing the little things.

00:24:34.330 --> 00:24:41.250
The game dictates a lot of times what you have to do, and being consistent at it is probably the main thing.

00:24:41.250 --> 00:24:52.268
But I would say that you know the bat flipping and all that other garbage that goes on now, which you know again stems from the big leagues and stuff you know.

00:24:52.268 --> 00:24:54.003
That I don't think has any part of it.

00:24:54.003 --> 00:24:59.742
It just it eventually hits us and hits our players, and it goes down to high school for that matter.

00:25:00.825 --> 00:25:07.288
But the recruiting for sure, just because of the social media stuff, it's just easy to instant message guys, text, guys, get on it.

00:25:07.288 --> 00:25:11.387
You know, if you hear a name, somebody's looking to you know, I don't know.

00:25:11.387 --> 00:25:19.684
Somebody says somebody's interested, you can get on in five minutes, get on a computer and get video on them.

00:25:19.684 --> 00:25:23.280
You know, um, where in the past you used to have to wait for them and I just think there's so much stuff out there it's harder to get the.

00:25:23.280 --> 00:25:25.871
You know there's times where you can still do it.

00:25:25.871 --> 00:25:27.478
You know where you can we're.

00:25:27.478 --> 00:25:28.560
You know small college guys.

00:25:28.560 --> 00:25:31.611
You can go out there and get somebody that can should be playing at higher level.

00:25:31.951 --> 00:25:34.819
But that's harder and harder to do than it was in my earlier days.

00:25:34.819 --> 00:25:52.631
Like Doug Stevens, a kid from Newark Catholic, and Dan Romanowski, the R1-2 punch in my earlier years made it real easy for me to coach, get on a bus and go play somebody, whether it be Marietta or whoever, to have those two guys go on 1-2, I always felt pretty good about what the outcome was going to be that day one too.

00:25:52.631 --> 00:25:56.178
I always felt pretty good about what the outcome was going to be that day Um and so.

00:25:56.178 --> 00:26:00.808
But getting those types of recruits now is a little bit more difficult cause there's too much stuff out there on guys and um.

00:26:00.808 --> 00:26:02.011
But that's probably the thing it's.

00:26:02.092 --> 00:26:06.632
That's changed is the, the, the interaction that the, the communication part of it is.

00:26:06.632 --> 00:26:12.368
It's it's done through texting more now than it is by talking, which it's that's which.

00:26:12.368 --> 00:26:13.392
I'm still an old school guy.

00:26:13.392 --> 00:26:18.297
I like the verbal stuff probably better than I do the texts because you can take a lot from whatever.

00:26:18.297 --> 00:26:20.306
What's that mean with texts and stuff?

00:26:20.306 --> 00:26:21.329
What's that supposed to mean?

00:26:21.329 --> 00:26:31.403
But it's all changed from that end of it and the game's changed just from the standpoint of what the great players are really actually doing.

00:26:31.403 --> 00:26:32.387
We really never knew.

00:26:32.387 --> 00:26:41.666
We didn't know why Sandy Koufax was able to throw, for you know, whatever he threw, the innings he did 10 years and stuff and eventually his body breaks down.

00:26:41.666 --> 00:26:56.970
But it's like he was very efficient with his body and that's why he struck a lot of guys out, threw a lot of no-hitters and you know back then, you know if we got, if we're coaching that in the 80s we'd probably be telling Sandy Kovacs to throw a different way when actually he was throwing the way he should have been throwing.

00:26:58.260 --> 00:27:05.510
Well, d3 baseball excuse me, D3 baseball in Ohio has to be the best in the country.

00:27:05.510 --> 00:27:15.406
Not about why high school players should consider the D3 route, because you hear a lot of you know kids talk.

00:27:15.406 --> 00:27:17.913
Lot of kids talk about D1 or both, right?

00:27:19.862 --> 00:27:21.248
I think now it's really going to change.

00:27:21.248 --> 00:27:24.547
Well, I mean, I think you've got so many colleges and people don't realize that in the country.

00:27:24.547 --> 00:27:29.700
I think we've got 12 or 13 Division I's and now there used to be NAIA's but now you've got all the Ashland.

00:27:29.700 --> 00:27:37.589
You've got a Division II conference in your state and within Ohio you have three Division III conferences.

00:27:37.589 --> 00:27:39.260
Basically With us.

00:27:39.260 --> 00:27:52.609
I think for me the OAC is the best, just because it's just competitively and ranked-wise and what we do against the best teams in the country at our level.

00:27:52.609 --> 00:27:53.913
There's pockets.

00:27:53.913 --> 00:28:03.691
You know Wisconsin has those big schools, the Whitewaters, the Lacrosses and the Oshkoshes, and those schools those are 20,000, 15,000 student universities.

00:28:03.691 --> 00:28:07.191
And then East Coast you have the same kind of thing.

00:28:07.191 --> 00:28:14.490
There's some big schools on the East Coast but in the New England area there's good T3s but there's really none down south and out west.

00:28:14.490 --> 00:28:24.125
You have one conference out in Southern California, a really elite school, so it's tough for kids to get in those schools and really there's nothing too much downtown.

00:28:24.125 --> 00:28:27.252
A few schools in Georgia but nothing pressing.

00:28:27.252 --> 00:28:34.369
So I think in Ohio it's just really good and now with the portal and all the things, with the rules and all that stuff is changing.

00:28:34.369 --> 00:28:39.965
I talked to a high school coach a couple of days ago, a really successful Ryan Alexander, a couple of days ago.

00:28:39.965 --> 00:28:44.041
You know Ryan, really great local coach, and we're talking about a little bit.

00:28:44.041 --> 00:28:53.192
It's like it might get to a point where, with the portal and what D1 coaches are doing, they're plucking guys out and they're going Some guys are going Juco routes.

00:28:53.192 --> 00:29:03.990
Now I think we might be a stepping stone for guys that maybe come and play at our level for two or three years and then go, try to move up to a higher level.

00:29:03.990 --> 00:29:07.329
I don't know if I'd be a fan of that, because I like the development process of it.

00:29:07.329 --> 00:29:12.942
It's just really good baseball, the OAC at this point, and I would really good baseball.

00:29:12.962 --> 00:29:14.086
I mean I, I mean the OAC at this at this point.

00:29:14.086 --> 00:29:17.228
I mean in the, and I would say in the last 10 years it's probably been like that.

00:29:17.228 --> 00:29:22.326
It hasn't always been, but there's always been, you know, really good teams in the conference but I think top to bottom what makes it.

00:29:22.326 --> 00:29:30.288
But you know, um, I, that's like I said earlier, I think come watch game.

00:29:30.288 --> 00:29:34.034
I mean we've heard this from scouts before and they thought the game was played better at our level.

00:29:34.034 --> 00:29:51.246
You know there might be an arm or two that were obviously better going to Ohio State and watching the Big Ten matchup, but the game and how things are played and how we do you know things I think are, you know, are very fundamental and I think that leads to you know good baseball.

00:29:51.246 --> 00:29:53.480
So it just, I don't know there's, you know, are very fundamental and I think that leads to you know good baseball.

00:29:53.480 --> 00:29:58.069
So, um, it just I don't know, I don't it's well, there's a lot of us, so it's.

00:29:58.310 --> 00:30:01.527
The other part of this too is I've changed kind of my recruiting part of it.

00:30:01.527 --> 00:30:12.017
We obviously still recruit Ohio and central aisle, but there's pockets in this country where you can go and get kids that don't have what we have right here, and you know it's crazy.

00:30:12.017 --> 00:30:14.422
There's not states like Arizona and Phoenix in those areas.

00:30:14.422 --> 00:30:15.785
There's it's a fourth biggest city.

00:30:15.785 --> 00:30:22.411
I went out there, uh, to recruit just a little bit and there's a huge Ohio contingent out there with connections and stuff.

00:30:22.411 --> 00:30:29.963
But, um, you know there's places now where, with with again, the internet, that you go out there, there's not a lot of opportunities for a really good student out there.

00:30:29.963 --> 00:30:37.457
That's a pretty good player to catch on with one or two division ones and a couple of D2s and JUCOs that are really good out there.

00:30:37.457 --> 00:30:40.403
There's that good student out there that you know.

00:30:40.545 --> 00:30:56.086
So you got to kind of be you know, kind of going back to the last question on what's changed is that's probably the thing that you kind of open your spread, you throw your net out on a wider base now in the recruiting efforts where you can go to different pockets in the country to, you know, try to get kids and attract them to to this.

00:30:56.086 --> 00:30:57.250
And we, we we've been able to.

00:30:57.250 --> 00:31:09.508
We've got a couple of kids from IMG, got a kid from Tokyo that's why I'm wearing a hat he got me that Yomare Giants hat Haruki Tata he's a senior and we got a kid from Seoul, south Korea, through a connection Simonson and IMG.

00:31:09.508 --> 00:31:11.170
That are two good players and that.

00:31:11.190 --> 00:31:18.923
Those are things that I don't think people, kids growing up in Ohio, understand that we're able to attract really good players here too, from not just Ohio.

00:31:18.923 --> 00:31:24.026
So but you know it's right, we're right in the a lot of people and these are great education.

00:31:24.026 --> 00:31:38.568
You know schools that have I mean, we're reversing a lot of Otterbein spent the growth that's one of the things changed just the immense opportunities here, just from an academic standpoint, with degrees it's really, you know it's changed.

00:31:38.568 --> 00:31:40.086
There's a lot of opportunities that way.

00:31:40.086 --> 00:31:51.740
So when you can have those opportunities in the recruiting part of it to balance the academic side to the baseball side, I think those are, you know, those are the things that I think can be attractive to any recruit.

00:31:52.744 --> 00:31:56.000
You know, those are the things that I think can be attractive to any recruit.

00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:09.317
Well, you know, when I was a head coach and I'd have a player that was considering, you know, or they were wanting to play college baseball, I would always tell their parents and the player All you gotta do is go right here to Central Island.

00:32:09.317 --> 00:32:20.877
You can see some really good B3 baseball and you know you shouldn't turn your nose off to that because it's it's very good and you know that's a thing a lot of players don't realize is d3.

00:32:20.877 --> 00:32:25.172
I can recall it's been quite a while, but I believe ohio western.

00:32:25.212 --> 00:32:37.067
You know I was saying it and it's white yeah, they did, and um roger angles did and and you know I you know not to talk about me, but we got our my 300th win halfway through against University of Cincinnati Really good team.

00:32:37.067 --> 00:32:38.791
It's just baseball.

00:32:38.791 --> 00:32:44.625
We were able to beat UC in a kid that was, I think, drafted in the seventh round.

00:32:44.625 --> 00:32:46.462
It's just baseball.

00:32:46.462 --> 00:32:49.625
Sometimes If you play the game right you can get good results.

00:32:49.625 --> 00:32:51.566
But 10th Petri, it was to beat Ohio State.

00:32:51.566 --> 00:32:54.913
Those are years whereester beat Ohio State and those are years where I think Ohio State won the Big Ten.

00:32:54.913 --> 00:32:57.669
So with Bob Todd it was back in those days.

00:32:57.669 --> 00:33:01.069
So yeah, I think you can.

00:33:01.140 --> 00:33:03.805
I think kind of what you alluded to, where kids turn their nose up.

00:33:03.805 --> 00:33:10.606
Part of the issue now is you know we run into it now is there's less kids because of lacrosse and other sports.

00:33:10.606 --> 00:33:14.228
There's less kids playing baseball but there's more teams in the summer.

00:33:14.228 --> 00:33:18.569
So it doesn't really add up, you know, in terms of that.

00:33:18.569 --> 00:33:48.107
But what happens is in the summer leagues you got, you know, 10 to State or Ohio University or D1 might like, and you'll have another kid on the team that doesn't have that skill set but plays the game pretty fundamentally and plays it right and we'll kind of associate his success on the field with somebody else that has a higher skill set.

00:33:48.107 --> 00:33:55.865
So they think that they're, they can play at a higher level where they'll have everything they can handle at the Division III level on it.

00:33:55.865 --> 00:34:00.840
And those are the things that I think that kind of affect the recruit.

00:34:00.840 --> 00:34:02.766
That hurt us sometimes in the recruiting.

00:34:02.826 --> 00:34:09.271
As you said, turning the nose up is, I think, a good way to put it, and they just don't understand how competitive it is.

00:34:09.271 --> 00:34:09.652
Here.

00:34:09.652 --> 00:34:10.342
That's the first thing.

00:34:10.342 --> 00:34:15.972
We'll get an all-Ohio kid that just kind of slipped through the cracks and we'll meet with them.

00:34:15.972 --> 00:34:21.329
The first thing you say is I'd never realized it would be this competitive, because you're still dealing with 22-year-old men when you're 18.

00:34:21.329 --> 00:34:24.244
So it's a whole different ball of wax.

00:34:24.264 --> 00:34:28.873
But I think it gets confused because of what other you know.

00:34:28.873 --> 00:34:33.532
Billy's going to get the Division I scholarship but Tommy's just as good or having a better summer.

00:34:33.532 --> 00:34:38.909
The parents can say, well, he's better than him, he should go to Division I and he doesn't have the skill set.

00:34:38.909 --> 00:34:44.992
He'd be eating alive if he saw 92 every day at the plate.

00:34:44.992 --> 00:34:51.152
But he can hit 84, 85, which is probably the sweet spot for us.

00:34:51.152 --> 00:34:58.847
But I think we get pitchers that throw 84, 85, that have better pitch ability than some Division I, guys that have that throw 92 or 94.

00:34:58.847 --> 00:35:04.585
You know, but I think to kind of your point.

00:35:05.262 --> 00:35:07.501
That's kind of jumping back to your last question.

00:35:07.501 --> 00:35:10.168
I think that's something that has effect.

00:35:10.168 --> 00:35:19.070
I think summer baseball has changed and kids are used to playing so they're not used to starting over at the college process and understanding that the development process is still going.

00:35:19.070 --> 00:35:28.686
And a lot of times guys nowadays I've been pretty fortunate here but a lot of guys are impatient with it and they want that instant gratification.

00:35:28.686 --> 00:35:32.547
They don't understand why they're not playing because they've always used to been playing.

00:35:32.547 --> 00:35:46.273
As you know, as I coach in high school way back when you used to have a freshman team, a JV team and a varsity team and on good high school programs you didn't get a sniff until your junior year even, no matter how good you were then.

00:35:46.273 --> 00:35:47.445
And now that's not the case.

00:35:47.445 --> 00:35:52.186
Kids are used to playing varsity as a freshman or sophomore, so they're used to playing at that level.

00:35:52.186 --> 00:35:58.016
So sometimes that's a thing that when they get to us they feel like they're almost entitled to play.

00:35:58.016 --> 00:35:59.606
But you've still got to earn it here too.

00:36:00.188 --> 00:36:06.840
Yep, well, you mentioned high school and you were a pretty darn good player coming out of high school.

00:36:06.840 --> 00:36:10.411
You played for Hall of Fame coach Bob Haley at Westerville North.

00:36:10.411 --> 00:36:21.291
Then you went to Roger Ingalls up at Ohio Wesleyan and you were a four-time all-hunter selection at three different positions first base, third base and DH.

00:36:21.291 --> 00:36:26.530
Did they have any influence on how you do things nowadays?

00:36:27.800 --> 00:36:29.226
Oh, I think all of them do.

00:36:29.226 --> 00:36:58.251
I'm glad you mentioned Bob Haley because he was another guy that you know taught that, Like I said, in high school I played football, basketball and baseball Back in the day when you could do that and now Coach, is in a really good spot and sharing, as you know, trying.

00:36:58.251 --> 00:37:09.963
Hagley was, uh, just a fundamentally sound coach and he brought a mentality of, like you know, uh, expect to win and um, just that, that, that just we're here to, we're here to beat you mentality, um, and expect to win, uh, every time, you know, and um, but a very fundamental coach.

00:37:09.963 --> 00:37:11.427
But I think, yeah, those guys helped me.

00:37:11.427 --> 00:37:17.329
And I think, going back to what I said about my dad, the two-strike hitting, obviously the positions you're talking about, what I played, I don't know.

00:37:17.329 --> 00:37:20.208
I mean I probably was better at first base in any position.

00:37:20.208 --> 00:37:21.284
I played it most of my life.

00:37:21.284 --> 00:37:32.244
But I played third base one year and was probably, you know, I'd make some really good plays and have some really routine errors too on routine plays in DH.

00:37:32.264 --> 00:37:44.311
So hitting obviously was the thing that I did well, but I think, yeah, I think all of them, you know, as I learned, you know, when I was playing at Wesleyan, I would give lessons at Grand Slam.

00:37:44.311 --> 00:37:49.690
That's kind of got me hooked up with Coach Fish and Coach Fish taught me a lot while I was, you know, playing it.

00:37:49.690 --> 00:37:52.007
I understand that Kenny Schultz is another guy.

00:37:52.007 --> 00:37:52.728
God rest his soul.

00:37:52.728 --> 00:38:01.510
That was a summer coach I loved playing for when I played for Gar-Trusty in the Westville A's way back in the day when I was in college and stuff.

00:38:01.510 --> 00:38:05.264
But I learned a lot from all those guys in terms of hitting.

00:38:05.264 --> 00:38:08.871
It's a constant as you play.

00:38:08.871 --> 00:38:13.695
If you're learning and you're cerebral about it, you don't overthink it, but you're trying to understand what you're trying to get your body to do.

00:38:13.715 --> 00:38:27.784
I think you know being around a lot of good minds and Bob Hagley was a guy to preach moving the baseball, being able to slash the bunt game and all that stuff and I was always able to do some of that stuff, even though I didn't run great Um, but uh, I don't know.

00:38:27.784 --> 00:38:34.626
I think um and Roger Ingles, I just always was around people.

00:38:34.626 --> 00:38:39.409
That was about moving to baseball and that was something that I always focused on.

00:38:39.409 --> 00:38:51.695
So I think I always gave myself a better chance to hit by limiting strikeouts and those've had, let's say, 30 at-bats and you've struck out 10 of them, what happens if you strike out five and you get two hits in there?

00:38:51.695 --> 00:38:58.286
That makes that whatever.

00:38:58.286 --> 00:39:10.373
If you're looking at, as I call them, stat rats the guys that are always looking at those things, Because sometimes results don't say what you're doing, because you can be having good at-bats and not having positive results.

00:39:10.373 --> 00:39:13.710
But I think all those guys had a big influence on me offensively.

00:39:15.940 --> 00:39:24.811
Like I said, I would say Bob Hagley, or my dad, Bob Hagley, Bill Harver, that coached me, that really got me to love the game.

00:39:24.811 --> 00:39:28.748
He just recently passed coached the Warcats, the original ones when I was 13, 14.

00:39:28.748 --> 00:39:32.786
A lot of really good players played at a high level, the original summer ball teams.

00:39:32.786 --> 00:39:47.349
He had a big influence on me just starting to love the game and kind of separated me from I wasn't sure if I was going to go football, basketball or baseball, um, but he bill harbour was the guy that, uh, at a young age it got me to love the game.

00:39:47.349 --> 00:39:56.704
And, like I said, my dad, with two strike, hitting early and just a consummate, like with fish and and uh, roger angles, those guys were, you know they're just good coaches.

00:39:56.704 --> 00:40:01.503
Roger was really good about how you make adjustments and you know approaches and stuff.

00:40:01.503 --> 00:40:02.266
I you know the things.

00:40:02.266 --> 00:40:08.788
I remember this, the how he helped me from a hitting standpoint or you know it's funny that you met.

00:40:08.869 --> 00:40:24.909
You know, when we talk about Al Habley, when I moved to Central Ohio back in the early 90s I started off as an umpire and I got assigned to a Westerville-Worth game and in the middle of the game it just starts pouring.

00:40:24.909 --> 00:40:27.168
So we pull everybody off the field.

00:40:27.168 --> 00:40:33.786
But you could look up to the I want to say the right and you could see the track.

00:40:33.786 --> 00:40:35.545
Kids were running on the track.

00:40:35.545 --> 00:40:47.704
It was a track meet and I did not know Bob Haley until I met him during ground rules and I remember him looking up there and he says look at, that's a.

00:40:47.704 --> 00:40:54.413
That kid's 100 yards behind everybody else he's gonna finish court and he should get a medal for that.

00:40:54.413 --> 00:41:00.411
And I was just like, oh boy, you just tell he was like he.

00:41:00.411 --> 00:41:01.132
Well, I'm winning.

00:41:01.291 --> 00:41:03.099
You know, yeah, he was okay.

00:41:03.099 --> 00:41:09.726
I mean and that's a really good point, I think he would teach you about what can be in competitive really was like what it is.

00:41:09.726 --> 00:41:16.170
You think you know what it is like, cause you want to, you want that self gratification, but he, he, that was definitely him.

00:41:16.170 --> 00:41:16.510
It was.

00:41:16.510 --> 00:41:18.532
That was definitely that end result.

00:41:18.532 --> 00:41:50.985
You showed up, no matter who it was, and we were really unfortunate my junior year not to win a state championship and, uh know, lost it to toughy roads and cincinnati western hills, where pete rose went to school and in a two-day deal where you know, we had to come back because it was that trout and field and we lost light and, uh, it was just, you know it was a great team, but he, just, you know where, he just like I'd say, there's times where just would will us to win games, like when the game didn't treat us good or we had you know, you know, cause that's what the game does sometimes.

00:41:50.985 --> 00:41:54.449
Um, I go back and talk sharing about the university of Cincinnati.

00:41:54.449 --> 00:42:02.797
I mean I think we took our third baseman out of the game that day because they hit a ball so hard that we, our third baseman, thought he broke his hand catching it and we had to take him out.

00:42:02.797 --> 00:42:07.400
Take him out.

00:42:07.400 --> 00:42:13.342
But they get a lot of balls like that and, and you know, it wasn't that Otterbein was, we were at the right place, right time and scored, but and that's what the game does, but, um, I don't know.

00:42:13.384 --> 00:42:16.010
I think, going back to coach Hagley, he was, he was just.

00:42:16.010 --> 00:42:17.581
You know the my.

00:42:17.581 --> 00:42:23.047