Transcript
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Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, presented by AthleteOne, I reveal the creator of High School Baseball Fields of America on X and why he came up with the idea to feature great high school fields across the country and the coaches who put in the work to keep them looking their best.
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Also, we discuss going from player to coaching at your alma mater and why head coaches should value the opinion of their assistant coaches.
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This and also a first-time appearance from a co-host.
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Next, on baseball coaches unplugged welcome to baseball coaches unplugged with coach Ken Carpenter, presented by AthleteOne.
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Baseball Coaches Unplugged is a podcast for baseball coaches With 27 years of high school baseball coaching under his belt, here to bring you the inside scoop on all things baseball, from game-winning strategies and pitching secrets to hitting drills and defensive drills.
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We're covering it all.
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Whether you're a high school coach, college coach or just a baseball enthusiast, we'll dive into the tactics and techniques that make the difference on and off the field.
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Discover how to build a winning mentality, inspire your players and get them truly bought into your game philosophy Plus, get the latest insights on recruiting, coaching, leadership and crafting a team culture that champions productivity and success.
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Join Coach every week as he breaks down the game and shares incredible behind-the-scenes stories.
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Your competitive edge starts here, so check out the show weekly and hear from the best coaches in the game.
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On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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I'm your host, ken Carpenter, and today's episode is number 117.
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And before I forget, make sure and hit that subscribe button so you can get a reminder when each and every show comes out on Wednesdays at 5 am Eastern Standard Time.
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Excited to bring today's show to you and on our show, we're going to reveal who the creator of Baseball Fields of America is on X and why he likes to promote high school baseball coaches, and I'm also going to do an all-time.
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First, I'm going to ask a previous guest to be a co-host, going to do this periodically and I'd like to hear what your thoughts are.
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So if you could leave us a review or just shoot us a comment on X at Athlete One Podcast.
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Baseball Coaches Unplugged is proud to be partnered with the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time.
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Will Miner and his team at the Netting Pros specialize in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball.
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This includes backstops, batting cages, bp turtles screens, ball carts and more.
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This includes backstops, batting cages, bp turtles screens, ball carts and more.
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They also design and install digital graph wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches and coveys.
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The netting pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse and golf courses.
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Contact them today at 844-620-2707.
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That's 844-620-2707.
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That's 844-620-2707.
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Or you can visit them online at wwwnettingproscom.
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Or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, instagramley and co-host from my first ever episode back in 2020, chris Huseman.
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Thanks for taking the time to be on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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Thanks for having me, kenny.
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Thanks for having me.
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Kenny'd love to co-host well, I know it's early in the school year, colin, but uh, you decided to to make a change and you changed jobs and you went to a new school.
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How's that been for you?
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Good, I think.
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Um, you know, I growing up in dublin and you know, I think, playing there and having family go through there.
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I, you know, growing up in Dublin and you know playing there and having family go through there.
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I think you know if you would have asked me two years ago, I thought I would have finished my career there, but, as you both know, things happen.
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Sometimes change is needed.
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I think I landed in an awesome spot and it's been a great start to the school year so far.
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Well, I feel like we need to put a name with a very popular X site, which is also known as Twitter for baseball coaches.
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Did you expect it to take off the way it did?
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I didn't.
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So it's funny you say that.
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So the site on X High School Baseball Fields of America started about three years ago.
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We were on the tail end of COVID.
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I was coaching at Dublin, Jerome at the time, with Coach Huseman, yourself, Kenny, and we were just kind of in the beginning stages of thinking about maybe turf in the field out there at Jerome.
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And one day Coach Huseman had the idea.
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He came in and says what if we just turf the dirt?
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And being my young assistant coach, I said yeah, that's a great idea.
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Little did I know.
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I thought that was a terrible idea.
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I had never seen a high school field that just had the dirt turfed, you know.
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So that was kind of the plug for starting this site.
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High School Baseball is America, you know.
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I started reaching out to some coaches trying to get pictures of their field, and a thousand fields later now I still haven't found a high school field in the whole country that just has the dirt turfed, you know.
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So any coach out there listening today, if you have a high school field that just has the dirt turfed, you know so any coach out there listening today, if you, if you have a high school field that just has the dirt portion of your field turf.
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Please reach out to me.
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I'd be love to spotlight it on the site and I hope there's hundreds of coaches that reach out to you to do that you've.
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You've got a huge following and you've had a lot of fields being featured on your your x site.
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Is there one that jumps out as maybe the best field that you came across?
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yeah, no question, barb high school, lake charles, louisiana.
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Um, I think, as I've, as I've seen photos across the country, I think they just stick out.
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You know, um, I think a lot of it feeds from their alumni base, but again, you also have they also have tremendous district support and booster support down there.
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I mean just the facilities, it's just top notch.
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I don't have photos on me but again, just they're providing experience for those athletes down there is truly unmatched.
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So again, I would say Barb High School, lake Charles, louisiana, has really stood out to me of the thousands of fields that I've seen and highlighted and featured.
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Colin, you said you know that support that you get from the administration and from you know the district in order to have facilities like that, as we all know here, that's huge and as a baseball coach or a high school baseball coach, you know you're kind of hamstrung, so to speak, that if you can't raise the funds or if you don't have that district support, then it kind of hinders you to have facilities like that.
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And I'm interested to hear your comments on you know what do you think about?
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um, you know basically, uh, outside influences basically influencing uh what facilities you do have yeah, I think, as I've kind of gone through this, I've seen again thousands of fields, I've kind of really broken down to three different groups.
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I, I think you have programs that one, the school district supports them 100%.
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Baseball is a priority in that district and you can see it in the facility.
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I think you have another tier where the district might not support them but they have a really great booster group.
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They can fundraise the coach can fundraise the program.
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They all get behind knowing that they're not going to get that support from the school district with those, those funds.
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And third, I think you have a tier down there where, one, the school district doesn't support it and two, they just don't have any funds, the boosters aren't there.
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So again, to answer your question, I think, like you know, I kind of tier these into three different groups and I think it shows you know the programs that have that district support and that pretty much that unlimited treasure chest of cash versus the ones that don't.
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So Well, at the end of my coaching career I I was I was fortunate to get a coaching offer from Coach Huseman here, get a coaching offer from Coach Huseman here, and I don't know if I've ever really thanked you for the opportunity enough, but you know I really appreciate it and I found that you know, the camaraderie and the coaching staff was a huge part of that and we just had so much fun with it.
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And, colin, I wanted to get your take on it being that you grew up in Dublin You're a former player at Dublin, jerome, and then you jump on the staff with coach Huseman and talk about going from a player to becoming a coach and and how that transition was for you.
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Yeah.
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And to kind of circle back to the Twitter site Kenny part of it too.
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When I created the site I wanted to be able to feature and kind of like highlight some of these fields.
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And to your point, like, yeah, I did join Coach Huseman on his staff but I can guarantee and I'm sure Chris will say this thing, like I've spent more time with Chris working on the field than we did coaching at all.
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You know what I'm saying.
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So again, I understand coaches across the country, the amount of time, the amount of work that they're putting into their facility, and so the Twitter site was to kind of highlight and kind of celebrate some of those.
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I don't think that gets recognized enough across the country.
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But just to circle back to your point about Coach Huseman, I think it was really a no-brainer for me.
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I think at my banquet our senior year he stood up and said you know, coach, this kid's going to come coach for me.
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You know I had the opportunity to do that for five years, I think.
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Along the time I think we did have a good time.
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I think for me personally, since I was so close with Chris off the field you know we're really good friends, I think at times on the field I think that was tough, you know.
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I think you know having to turn that off right.
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We got a coach, we got a good job to do, knowing that we were so good friends off the field.
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I think we kind of ran into some situations where, you know, we might have butt heads or we didn't agree on some things just because we were so close off the field and kind of maybe a difference of philosophies on things.
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But again, I wouldn't change anything for the world.
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It was a great five years that I had the opportunity to coach in Dublin and just knowing that I have Chris and yourself kind of in the back back of my pocket as I move forward, continue on my coaching career, it's going to be huge for me moving forward so, colin, well, that's what I wanted to ask him too as well, and you know he's.
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He's coached for not only yourself, kenny, but he's a lot to offer, that has a lot of background, that knows that A it's dealing with the parents and dealing with the players, and how you coach and those relationships with your players was the field work is endless.
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And then, you know, last and certainly not least, is, you know, a booster group.
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I mean you have to coach your booster group and I think you know he certainly has the qualities to do all those things with his people skills.
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But I wanted to get his take on.
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You know coaching all those aspects.
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You know how does a high school coach jumble all that?
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Well, I think the big thing that comes to my mind and I think Chris, you know this firsthand, and Ken you as well, I think all the time, especially in high school athletes it's not about what you know, uh, it's about who you know.
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So, like you said, um, having the contacts, like yourself and Coach Carpenter, coach Saunders again, I'm trying to build those contacts up and try to meet as many of my people, as many people as I can.
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I've been able to do the same thing through the Twitter site.
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You know I'm talking to coaches daily on there.
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You know, trying to create connections, trying to create relationships.
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Because, at the end of the day and I think I've experienced this firsthand you know, if you don't know the right people, you know their job comes along and you don't have a relationship with them, I mean you're screwed.
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You know it doesn't matter.
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I mean you could be, you could have the best relationship with kids, you could be what's best for kids, you could know you know the best about that community.
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But at the end of the day, it's just you don't know the right people at the right time, you don't have a chance.
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Well, I've loved coaching and the grind that comes with coaching.
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And what people don't realize is being a teacher for 27 years, and you guys know this.
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Out of all sports that there are in high school that are available out there, baseball is the one sport that is probably the most physically demanding because you have to do all the work on the field.
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You've got to throw batting practice, you've got to hit fungos, and there's not another sport out there that requires the coach to do so much to get the just to play a baseball game.
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And how has it been for you when you made that transition from player you go off, you get your college degree, you come back and now you're a coach.
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How was that for you?
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Going to where you're like all right, I got a lot of uh, I got a lot of roles now not just assistant, assistant coach.
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Yeah, I think, first and foremost, kenny.
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I think in today's world of high school sports, finding good help is so hard, I think you know not.
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A lot of young guys come out of college they don't want to coach anymore.
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So first thing first is finding good help is so hard, I think.
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Secondly, you know, as I started as an assistant coach, one thing my dad always told me is try to find one thing you can take off the head coach's plate every day.
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So if I can do one little thing, if I can get the field set, if I can throw a BP, if I can write the lineup up, if I can get the press box ready, what's one thing that I can take off the head coach's plate as an assistant coach, that's going to make things run smoother because, like you said, the list of things that a head coach has to do these days is endless, um.
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So again, try to find one thing every day, or a couple things every day that I can take off the head coach's plate.
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Um is going to make me a better assistant.
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Down the road, I feel like yeah, and I I had, I had a follow-up to that too, and it's just like, and I think kenny is um dead on when he says, you know, people don't realize what a high school baseball coach and their assistants do, uh, to get things ready just for an event that night or that evening.
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And um, you know, I just think it's, how is that in comparison to other sports, when you know you usually have a stadium event which is turfed, maybe all the soccer coach has to do is drag out some corner flags and, you know, tell the kids to bring the goals over?
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And you know, I think the same thing too for other sports too as well.
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Basketball, there's hardly any setup involved and I think you have an athletic director that basically, you know, does those things.
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My findings is that athletic directors during the spring, that's their time, that's their downtime, that's their time, that's their downtime, and basically all that onus falls on, you know, the coach, and then ultimately down to the assistants.
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And I mean how?
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would you deal with other coaches, maybe a hands off athletic director?
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You know, when you deal with all those things that come during the spring I mean, I think it goes back to the point we talked about earlier it's like, does your district prioritize your sport?
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You know, is baseball priority for them?
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You know, I think in Central Ohio, and I think the whole state, you know we're not bringing any money.
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Okay.
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So I think, like you said, you know, do I need to?
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If I'm an athletic director, do I need to put onus on a sport that's not going to help the budget?
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You know, I think that's huge.
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But again, I think you try to balance things the best you can.
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But I think the big thing that I always try to do is don't let all those things become distractions for the kids.
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I think you know they're well aware.
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You know, especially in their own schools and their own settings, you know what sports might take priority over others in some situations.
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At the end of the day, those things will take care of themselves.
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I got to find a way to get the job done on the field with my kids, my coaches and again, I'm always going to advocate for my program, always going to advocate for my kids.
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But again, you know some situations your hands are tied and you really can't.
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There's some of those things are just you're not going to be able to change.
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Well, I think that you know, something that stood out to me is one of the reasons I started the podcast was and having an opportunity to talk to the coaches on the show here.
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And, Colin, if you could, you know, talk about your interaction, you know, both with the players where you get to see them go through four years, grow and become college baseball players or just go on with their life and the stories that come from our experiences.
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And what has that been like for you as far as when you're interacting with all the different coaches you've had an opportunity to work with both on the staff and with opposing coaches um, it's been huge, I think.
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First for, like you mentioned, like the relationship with some of my coaches.
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I think it came full circle for me a couple weeks ago.
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Um, I got to play golf with a couple of kids that were on my first JV team at Dublin Jerome.
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So that would have been almost six years ago.
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So those kids had just graduated college and they called me up to go play golf.
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We had a great time.
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So, again, that was kind of a full circle moment for me, knowing those relationships were huge.
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But again, thinking more along the line of relationships with other coaches like you mentioned, I think I don't know, chris can kind of echo on this one as well.
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I think we're all there for the same reason.
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I think everyone wants to win, everyone wants to have good relationships with kids.
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But I do think it's true that some guys are in it for different reasons.
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A lot of guys have different end goals and I think that shows.
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I think that shows of how they publicize their program, how they, you know, put themselves out there, maybe what the social media, whether it be other things across the district.
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But again, I think for the most part everyone's in it for the same reason, but again there's different nuances in there that each program, each coach has their own.
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Chris, what do you think I mean Colin's in a situation where he's been a great assistant coach and he should be a head coach by now.
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It's that simple, and what do you think he needs to do and what are some things that you would recommend, since you spent 30-plus years as both an assistant and a head coach, to make him more of someone that school districts need to look at and consider?
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Yeah, and that's a great question and to me it just comes back to one thing, and that's the athletic directors.
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Going back to what I said, it's a hands-off time in the spring and what they want is somebody that they don't have to worry about, that has experience, that has been through all these things, that can take care a the fields, the umpires, the buses, um, the parents, the booster groups, uh, the maintenance staff that cuts your fields, um, just a plethora of things out there that people don't realize that head coaches do.
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That you know.
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If you're not, if I'm an athletic director, the thing that I want is I want somebody that can handle all that for me and I don't have to worry about it.
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I mean hello.
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And I think when an athletic director sees somebody that doesn't have that head coaching experience but checks all the other boxes like Colin does, like Colin does, you know, I think it's one of those things that you know, it's kind of a leap of faith for an athletic director or a high school principal who's more hands-off, that might just say let's go with a guy that has experience, or you know, whatever.
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That might not be the best for the program, but you know it's, it's less work administratively and I honestly, after 30 some years of doing this, I mean I totally believe that you know in all my heart.
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But I think what he's doing to answer your second part of the question, and what assistants have to do is, I think, is doing exactly what he's doing.
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I've seen people that you know have stuck around in any sport basketball, soccer, baseball, football.
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They've been assistants for so long and they finally get their break and they've become great, great young coaches and you know, I think he's doing the right thing.
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I think he transitioned from you know I think he's doing the right thing.
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I think he transitioned from one popular Dublin suburb to another and they have just as good of the athletes down there.
00:22:38.778 --> 00:22:41.606
I think he's on the right track and it's just a matter of getting his break.
00:22:43.477 --> 00:23:15.759
Well, huey, the one thing I noticed, though, is from getting a chance to volunteer, was you gave a lot of responsibility to Colin, and I think, uh, colin, for you that that had to mean a lot, because you're you know it, there's a lot that goes into coaching, and you took on a lot of responsibility, and that's probably the one thing that you know you don't see on a resume, or when you go out and put in for, and you go into an interview, they don't see that.
00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:20.502
And what was your take when you, you know, jumped in on all those responsibilities?
00:23:21.696 --> 00:23:22.539
I think the big thing is.
00:23:22.539 --> 00:23:24.385
I think, especially as a young guy.
00:23:24.385 --> 00:23:27.905
I think the one thing is I always wanted my opinion to be valued.
00:23:27.905 --> 00:23:28.615
You know I always.
00:23:28.615 --> 00:23:32.545
You know Chris always asked you know, what do I think about this, what do I think about this?
00:23:32.545 --> 00:23:33.386
Did he always go with it?
00:23:33.386 --> 00:23:35.803
No, you know he was the head coach and that's how things, good.
00:23:35.803 --> 00:23:40.635
But you know, I think, the one thing, chris always did, you know whether it be anything from.
00:23:40.635 --> 00:23:45.359
You know, field work, what are we doing to you know, day of the game, lineup questions.
00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:52.724
He always asked my opinion, which I valued, and that was something I was thankful for.
00:23:52.724 --> 00:23:54.287
But again, did he always go with it?
00:23:54.287 --> 00:23:59.951
No, but he saw the value in me, he knew the relationships, he knew what I've seen.
00:23:59.951 --> 00:24:01.791
He always wanted my opinion.
00:24:01.791 --> 00:24:06.406
That's something I was thankful for.
00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:12.570
So, yeah, that's kind of where I was at with that.
00:24:12.570 --> 00:24:18.840
Well, you know you, you had a lot of opportunities to coach first base.
00:24:18.840 --> 00:24:34.602
And for the assistant coaches that might be listening out there and maybe they're a middle school coach or a freshman coach and they make that jump up to varsity, what advice would you give to those coaches that maybe the head coach says, all right, you're going to jumping up to varsity, you're going to be my first base coach.
00:24:34.602 --> 00:24:46.881
And what advice would you give to, when it comes to your interactions with both the, the base umpire, and the, the, the base runners that come down to first base?
00:24:47.522 --> 00:24:58.516
I think the biggest, one of the biggest things that coach Huseman kind of entrenched on me both as a player and as a coach, is we're going to create a great positive relationship with that umpire.
00:24:58.516 --> 00:25:00.800
I think you look at the Central District.
00:25:00.800 --> 00:25:07.344
I don't think you can find an umpire in the Central District that has something to say bad about Coach Huseman.
00:25:07.344 --> 00:25:07.845
I really don't.
00:25:07.845 --> 00:25:12.803
I think there's plenty of other coaches in the Central District that umpires can find bad things to say about.
00:25:12.803 --> 00:25:15.308
But again, I always tried to.
00:25:15.308 --> 00:25:28.588
Whoever that umpire was, I was always trying to strike up a conversation, make sure it's positive, make sure they left that game having a good outlook on our staff and our kids and our program.
00:25:28.588 --> 00:25:35.386
As far as the player is concerned, I think I would say I struggle with that at times.
00:25:35.386 --> 00:25:39.382
Again, I think each kid's different as far as you know what their mood is when they come down to first base.
00:25:39.382 --> 00:25:43.480
I try to keep them upbeat, you know, try to keep them happy but again, try to keep them locked in as well.
00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:53.942
You know I had a job to do, they had a job to do, you know, and at the end of the day, you know coach hughes was looking for me to do that job at first base with those kids.
00:25:53.942 --> 00:25:56.048
So, uh, but again, just to harness on your point, the umpires, that's huge.
00:25:56.476 --> 00:25:59.582
Um, even not as a first base go to head coach.
00:25:59.582 --> 00:26:05.601
Just making sure you have a positive um rapport and outlook with the umpires is huge.
00:26:05.601 --> 00:26:12.019
They can change the game, like this, um, and as you both know, umpires talk, umpires talk.
00:26:12.019 --> 00:26:13.920
It's like a little fraternity, you know.
00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:26.855
So if one thing happens at one game, um, it could be during the game, it could be during a rain delay, something could happen, you know, uh could be on the field, it could be off the field, uh, but they talk, and they talk a lot um, and you don't want that to come back and hurt you down the road.
00:26:26.855 --> 00:26:28.239
A different game, um.
00:26:28.239 --> 00:26:36.643
So again, making sure those umpires are taken care of at all times is definitely something I'll take with me when that opportunity comes from being head coach.
00:26:39.276 --> 00:26:44.825
Yeah, that's one thing, kenny, I wanted to bring up too, and it was a big part for me to put him at first base.
00:26:44.825 --> 00:26:52.621
Not only does he have a rapport with the first base umpire, who we might have the next game, but he's got to walk down the line.
00:26:52.621 --> 00:26:55.423
That's one of the reasons we put the dugout on the third base side.
00:26:55.423 --> 00:27:14.154
We want to make sure that he has to cross by the home plate umpire on the way around and have some comments or strike up a little conversation with the home plate umpire too as well In our game rapport is huge, it's huge.
00:27:14.154 --> 00:27:22.801
And you know, I think with colin, what you see is somebody that has a great rapport with not only uh other coaches, but with umpires, with parents and with the kids.
00:27:22.801 --> 00:27:32.769
And you know, to me, you know, putting it, putting all that um, all that uh onus onto him as a young guy, uh was just a no-brainer for me.
00:27:34.055 --> 00:27:37.705
Well, Colin, I wanted to talk just a little bit about this.
00:27:37.705 --> 00:27:53.183
You know you've been an assistant coach, but you've also been a head travel baseball coach, and what is your take on travel baseball, both the good and the bad side of it?
00:27:54.896 --> 00:27:55.599
I'll start with the good.
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:58.163
I think it's good reps for the kids.
00:27:58.163 --> 00:28:01.805
I think being able to play a lot in the summer, I think is huge.
00:28:01.805 --> 00:28:11.863
Again, I think being able to get out there and just compete a lot, playing five, six games a weekend, I think that's huge.
00:28:11.863 --> 00:28:13.366
You know those reps are good.
00:28:13.474 --> 00:28:18.224
I think the bad side of it where do I begin?
00:28:18.224 --> 00:28:22.921
I think there's been a.
00:28:22.921 --> 00:28:24.625
There's a big talent gap.
00:28:24.625 --> 00:28:29.766
Now I think you have, you know, a lot of lower level teams versus a lot of higher level player teams.
00:28:29.766 --> 00:28:32.565
I think that's the talent gap continues to widen.
00:28:32.565 --> 00:28:33.675
I think.
00:28:36.541 --> 00:28:39.067
I think again, I think that's evident in tournaments out there too.
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