Transcript
WEBVTT
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You know, I know, as a former player, you know there were times when I wondered okay, what do my coaches feel about me?
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What do they think about me?
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What do they, you know, do they think I'm any good, do they think I'm not?
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And all of those questions I think happen for every single player.
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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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On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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Hello and welcome.
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I'm your host, ken Carpenter, and today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, presented by Athlete One, national High School Baseball Coaches Association Coach of the Year, brad Burns, from Pleasure Ridge Parkway High School in Louisville, kentucky.
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In this episode, you will learn how nine seniors led their team to a state championship despite only three playing in the title game, how to communicate with your players who don't get much playing time, and how to maximize defensive reps in practice.
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This and so much more.
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Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged, presented by Athlete One.
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I'm your host, ken Carpenter and joining me today.
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I'm excited to get my first guest from Kentucky and it's Pleasure Ridge High School head baseball coach Brad Burns in Louisville, kentucky Coach.
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Thanks for joining me on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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Appreciate you having me Honored to be here.
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Well, I got to start off.
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When you try to do a podcast, you never know what's going to happen with people, and I really appreciate the fact that you're on your first day of vacation and you're taking the time to do this with me.
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Oh, good man, you know, anytime a coach reaches out, you know how it goes, you do what you can to connect or to serve or help or whatever, and I'm excited to do it.
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Actually, it probably gives me a little bit more time.
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At least I'm a little relaxed.
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I'm not teaching school today, and so a little relaxed anyway.
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But no, I'm glad to be here.
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Well, you finished the 2024 season with a Kentucky State Championship and you were named the National High School Baseball Coaches Association Coach of the Year.
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I believe it was for Region 4, if I'm correct, was that something that, going into the season, you thought was going to happen?
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You know who you have and I think, more than anything, I knew the types of kids that I had and you know, over the last two to three years we saw these young guys grow, many of them, you know.
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This year our team was made up primarily of juniors and seniors and in the past couple of years we were freshman, sophomore, junior and we played the guys that played this year, we played them in some roles over the last couple of years that we thought, okay, let's get them accustomed to what high school baseball is about, and so on.
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And so we came into this year knowing we had built a couple of years.
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We had some disappointments in the postseason, the last couple of years, and we thought, well, okay, we, we know the types of people.
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We have not sure exactly how we're going to perform in a big game because we've had so many disappointments the last few years.
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But, uh, but I, I guess I thought you know what, if we can get to our state tournament, we've got a shot because, because maybe at that point our guys will have understood we can do some things, we can win some games.
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And by that point, of course, if you make it and you keep advancing, as any coach knows, you had to win a few games along the way, and so that was something that I don't think I thought going into the year, okay, we're the favorite.
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We were an unranked team in Kentucky going into the year and you know when?
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I'm not even in the preseason.
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You know rankings.
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I mean we weren't, you know, and also ran.
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Our program is historically very good, so it's not as if nobody's ever heard of us.
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But at the same time, this year's team was not ranked going in.
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So I don't know that.
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We, you know we didn't play with a chip on our shoulder or anything like that.
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We just weren't exactly sure how it would happen, how it would come together in the end.
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But I knew the types of kids I had and that's what I go back to all the time.
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I knew the character and the leadership and the commitment and the hard work and that's just the type of group that we had and I felt good about them in any particular setting as a result of that.
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But now to answer your original question, there was nothing that we thought, okay, this is our year to win this thing or, to, you know, to show everybody.
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It was nothing like that.
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We just thought we've got great kids and let's see what happens.
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Well, you're one of those coaches that you've won a state title for Pleasure Ridge, as a player and as a coach.
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Is there one that you think might be a little more satisfying?
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There's been a lot of people ask me that you know I got to play for Bill Miller, who you know is my coaching hero and a legend in Kentucky and across the country, especially regionally in our area you know the few states around our area.
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So many people knew and loved and respected him and I got to play for him and I was a part of his very first so our program's very first state championship when I was a junior in 1994.
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And then we repeated and won back-to-back when I was a senior in 1995.
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And so there's something just unique and special about being a part of something for the very first time, and so I remember that fondly.
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I've got great friends who were my teammates and we still keep in touch and it's just a family-oriented program so that is promoted there.
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But to win it for him for the first time was something that only that team got to be a part of, and so I think there's something extremely special about that.
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To be able to repeat was was was obviously a great accomplishment and achievement because I was privileged as a senior in high school to win my last game in high school, which most people of course don't have that opportunity to do.
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And then you fast forward 30 years and you know, when I was a junior and senior in high school, I didn't anticipate 30 years later being the head coach and having the opportunity to make a run into the state tournament and so on.
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And so this year, to win the first state championship in our program's history without Coach Bill Miller was also unique.
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I wouldn't call it special, I would call it unique.
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The one thing that was so incomplete about it is that he wasn't there and so he passed away in 2018.
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And so, but it was.
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It was special because we honored his memory throughout and as we made the run and as we played the types of games and strategies and so on that he was, I guess, pioneering in our program years ago.
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We honored him along the way which that made it, in one sense, special.
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We honored him along the way which that made it, in one sense, special.
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So, as a player, to win a state championship, I felt as if I contributed a whole lot more, and that was unique.
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To win this as a coach.
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I think it makes me maybe a little more satisfied to win it, because you know how much can go wrong at every single turn and how little you can do about everything that can go wrong.
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And so I was so proud of our guys and our coaches, obviously, to be able to see them be resilient and we trailed in every single game, except from what we call our regional, which is when, I guess, when the elimination games start.
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We trailed in every game until the state final.
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Our guys came back every single time.
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Those were some things that I look back and that's very pleasing and makes me very proud of our guys.
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I'm not sure I could compare the two.
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I would say they're very, very different.
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I wouldn't want to give either of those away, but they were two very unique experiences to win one as a player for Coach Bill Miller in his very first state championship and then, 30 years later, to be able to win one in his memory to honor him as we did that.
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I think they're both standalone experiences, very unique and very special.
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But I think as a player, you know you have more to contribute.
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As a coach, you just have to stand and watch and sometimes that's really hard to do.
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No doubt.
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Well, when I think of PRP, I think of you know, the big power programs that different states have, and I'm just curious how many seniors did you have on that team?
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We had nine seniors this year.
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Okay, so if you had nine seniors, how many of those were starters?
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Well, I'll just go.
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In the postseason, in the state championship game, we had a senior behind the plate, we had a senior in first base and we had a senior DH, and so those were the only three in the lineup that day.
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The rest were juniors and we had a freshman playing second base who we DH'd for in that, and so we had juniors around the field except for those three guys.
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We had other seniors who contributed this year.
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One was injured about half the year and so when he was playing he was either in the lineup or on the mound for us and made major contributions.
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We had another senior pitcher who contributed through about 25 innings, I guess it was.
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He was a PO, but on that championship day we had three guys that were seniors that were in the lineup.
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But what I'm so proud of.
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You look at the guys and you say, well, we had nine seniors, only three of them played.
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You've got so many guys coming back, but we at the same time we do, and I'm sure we'll address that but we lost a lot in those guys who, even if they didn't play, they were tremendous teammates and that was the one thing about this particular senior group that I was so extremely pleased with that.
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Many of them didn't see the field very often.
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They just didn't.
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It was just the way that it went and you hate it for them in one sense, and yet you're very proud of them for the way that they handled themselves from you know that support role and they did a tremendous job.
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I mean, that was you know.
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I could go down the line and just picture their faces and see them cheering on our teammates and being excited when we won and so on.
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So we had three in the lineup, but we had six that day who were in support roles that particular day, and without them of course we don't do what we did.
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Well, my reasoning for asking the question that way was to me it says a lot about not only the players but you and your coaching staff to have guys that are seniors on a great team and they're maybe not getting that playing time they want, but they're bought in.
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And can you talk a little bit about what it takes to get players to buy in in that way?
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Because there's a lot of teams where and across the whole country where if there's seniors that aren't playing, there's some upset parents.
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And it sounds like you do a really nice job of getting the players to buy in.
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You hope you do.
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You know it's.
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I think it's a year to year thing.
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I think you know we've had, we've had seniors who were not happy before and whose parents were completely unhappy and I'm sure, are still unhappy to this day.
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I think every coach deals with that.
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So I don't think there's any particular science to it.
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That if you do these things and there's the guarantee, obviously, I think it's an individual thing.
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I think one of the things that we try to do is to be sure that each player, regardless of who they are and what their role is on the team, that they receive in one sense this will sound, I guess, a little bit like I'm joking, but an equal treatment.
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That you know.
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In one sense, we make fun of all of them.
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You know we rag all of them.
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We have a good time with all the guys, if that makes sense, and so we try to make sure that they, whatever their role is, they feel like they're on the team first of all, that they're a part of things.
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They're not excluded.
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We don't reduce their amount of reps.
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You know that they get, or something like that.
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You know, okay, only the starters are hitting this time or something.
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We don't do those things.
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I don't think that's the right thing to do for us.
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I'm sure, you know, depending upon your numbers, you may maybe you have to do some of that, but we just we try to make sure that all those guys receive, you know, the same amount of reps that they're involved in practice.
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We coach them all the same.
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You know, we have the same expectation of of each of them, in one sense that you know they'll perform or they'll give the effort to the best of their ability.
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And I think one of the things that our coaching staff tries to do is to be honest with those guys and just clearly say this is what your role is.
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And it doesn't mean that's fun, it doesn't mean those are pleasant conversations.
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But I've had players who've come to me, and one in particular.
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I remember this year, a conversation.
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That kid came to me and said coach, I don't feel like you know that I've had the look, you know the opportunity that I've wanted and whatever.
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And I said, well, you know, okay, here's some of the reasons, and so on.
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And you know, we just we were trying to be honest.
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I think those are some things that we saw with these particular guys, you know, trying to be honest with them, trying to have fun with them, guys trying to be honest with them, trying to have fun with them, trying to make sure they're not excluded in any way from what's going on with the team, the reps and so on.
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And again, I don't think there's any particular science.
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I think you have to get a feel each day Where's this guy at?
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How's he doing?
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Go talk to him, go engage with that guy.
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Don't let him go off on his own and ruminate over everything that he doesn't like and whatever I mean, and that way it opens the door for an honest conversation.
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I you know, I know as a former player, you know there were times when I wondered okay, what do my coaches feel about me?
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What do they think about me?
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What do they, you know, do they think I'm any good?
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Do they think I'm not?
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And all of those questions I think happen for every single player, and I think you have to be again, honest with those guys as best you can and then just continue to include them, continue to make sure they're a part of things.
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Talk about how important it is to be bought in.
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I know some coaches are probably different.
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We don't do a ton of win-loser stuff at practice.
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We do some, but we certainly don't try to stack the deck against the guys who are not going to play just to prove it to them.
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I think there's probably some importance in some of that, letting them see that, okay, here's where you stand and you see it.
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But if we're honest with them and challenge them to be honest with themselves, I think for the most part, the players understand.
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I don't ever expect parents to understand.
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I don't mean that in a bad way.
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That's their kid.
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I get it.
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I have four children, so I understand you're always going to be for your kid.
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I wouldn't expect anything different, but I do want the player to understand, and so I think we have a lot of conversations, we talk a lot about those things and we try to be sensitive to that because we know it's an important thing, not only for that player, obviously, but also for the team as a whole, as we do want them to be bought in to what's going on.
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We want them to value winning and to value their teammates and to support and so on.
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So I guess those would be a few of the things that I feel like our coaching staff did a good job with, of trying to help with our players this year the guys that weren't playing.
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Well, you know, you mentioned that.
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You know the players.
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They know as far as the starting lineup who should be in, who should not.
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They know, as far as the starting lineup, who should be in, who should not.
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And I always did a thing where I handed out a chart with the field on it and I said and gave one to each player and said, hey, give me your starting lineup.
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And it was amazing how accurate the players were.
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And there were players that were, that wouldn't put themselves in the lineup.
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And you know, I only had it happen one time and I had a parent to come in and wasn't happy and I explained to him you know the reasons.
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But then I said you're, even your son doesn't believe you doesn't believe he should be in the lineup.
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And he wasn't sure.
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And then I brought the paper, I kept that paper and I showed it to him and he, just, he was like it really opened his eyes up.
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He, you know, because every parent loves their kid and wants to see them out there.
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Absolutely and I would like I said I wouldn't expect anything different.
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I don't begrudge parents for wanting their kid to play you, you know that's well if.
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If you don't, then I'm, you know I'm I'm not sure you're doing as right by your kid as you could.
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So I think those are you have.
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It's not that you take any of that with a grain of salt, because you have to understand it's a huge factor for that kid.
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But I think that's the reason all the more to to communicate with those kids, uh, to to let them know and to give them open opportunity because at least if somebody can feel heard and seen and, you know, respected as a person, I think that's, you know, there's a, there's a level of of respect there for that player as a person, to be honest with that guy and say, look, here's the deal.
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And we had a couple of kids this year who played big roles for us, they were starters for us, uh, who I've told at the very beginning of the year look, this is the role that you're going to play for us, this is where we want you to be and here's what we want you to do.
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And it was.
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We based that on their strengths as players.
00:19:46.621 --> 00:20:07.066
Here's what you do really well, so this is what we're going to try to do put you in these situations where that strength can be utilized a little bit more, and instead you know, and it's not always that those particular players that you talk to, whether they're going to be in the role and the position and the place in the lineup and so on that they love and exactly they want to be I mean, everybody wants to lead off and play shortstop.
00:20:07.066 --> 00:20:26.770
But at the same time, if, hopefully, you can be honest with those guys, respect them enough, love them enough, care about them enough to treat them the way that you would like to be treated if you were that guy, then at least, if you disagree on things, at least there was an effort made to show that love and that concern and that respect for that player.
00:20:28.487 --> 00:20:38.471
Well, talk a little bit about the pride in PRP baseball and how that prepared you as a player to go on and have the great career you had at Murray State.
00:20:40.256 --> 00:20:40.978
It's interesting.
00:20:42.487 --> 00:21:05.257
When I was in the eighth grade I wasn't sure if I was good enough to play at PRP, and for some people who are watching or listening, obviously Pleasure Ridge Park baseball may or may not mean anything to you, but in our part of Louisville it was a pretty big deal long before I went to high school, way back in the 60s and through the 70s and had some great players and great teams.
00:21:07.188 --> 00:21:13.488
And then, through the 80s, Coach Miller took over in 1980, finished state runner-up in 82, in 1985, and so I knew of all those things.
00:21:13.488 --> 00:21:16.195
And my dad grew up in the south end of Louisville, where we live and where PRP is, and so I'd heard all the stories.
00:21:16.195 --> 00:21:21.713
And you know, I, my dad, grew up in the South end of Louisville, where we live and where PRP is, and so I had heard all the stories.
00:21:21.713 --> 00:21:54.607
I wasn't sure and so made the decision to go there and certainly it was a life changer for me to be able to be in that program, not only to have the success that we had on the field but to learn the discipline and the work ethic and the expectations and to play against great competition and to play against great competition in practice and played with some great, great players and tremendous teammates back then, and so I felt physically and mentally prepared to move on to college baseball at that point.
00:21:55.490 --> 00:22:00.419
And you know, and then you know, getting to play at Murray State was.
00:22:00.419 --> 00:22:06.589
You know there's two baseball programs that I love and care about most and that's Pleasure Ridge Park High School and Murray State University.
00:22:06.589 --> 00:22:11.647
So still have strong ties to both, obviously, and but it was.
00:22:11.647 --> 00:22:13.372
It prepared me in a lot of ways.
00:22:13.372 --> 00:22:15.766
I think there were high expectations in high school.
00:22:15.766 --> 00:22:17.030
There was a lot of hard work.
00:22:17.030 --> 00:22:17.815
There was a lot of.
00:22:17.815 --> 00:22:23.275
We spent a lot of time being bored and having to be self-disciplined, if that makes sense.
00:22:23.275 --> 00:22:33.756
We had a lot of field work and different things that we had to do, but you were expected to do it right then and be and stay disciplined when you fast forward to college baseball.
00:22:33.756 --> 00:22:44.924
My oldest son is in college and playing ball and he told me we talked the other day and he said you're just kind of on your own and that's the way it is in college baseball.
00:22:44.924 --> 00:22:49.446
You don't have so many coaches breathing down your neck and people always looking over your shoulder.
00:22:49.446 --> 00:23:05.280
You're expected to be a man and be disciplined and make sure that you're doing the things for yourself inside and outside the classroom that you have to, and so that was ingrained in me, of course, by my parents, you know, from an early age and then reinforced through high school.
00:23:05.280 --> 00:23:06.366
And so I did.
00:23:06.647 --> 00:23:18.827
I was so blessed to be a part of PRP's program, you know, during a time when it really reached its pinnacle, you know, in the mid-90s, winning three state championships, and of course that kind of launched everything forward from there.
00:23:18.827 --> 00:23:22.090
But I was blessed, I really did.
00:23:22.090 --> 00:23:30.280
I felt that our program prepared me well for college for that being on your own experience and you know.
00:23:30.280 --> 00:23:35.115
And then, of course, I got to play for some great, great men at Murray State who are still good friends of mine.
00:23:35.115 --> 00:23:44.236
One, in fact, dave Jarvis, who's the head coach at Belmont, is going into the ABCA Hall of Fame this year, and so congratulations to Coach Jarvis.
00:23:44.236 --> 00:23:48.040
He was a guy who recruited me and then a couple years later he left for Belmont.
00:23:48.040 --> 00:23:58.175
He's been there for nearly 30 years now himself so tremendous just again tremendous men that I got to be around and play for both in high school and in college.
00:23:59.705 --> 00:24:05.412
Well, taking us inside your practices, do you set them up and make them competitive?
00:24:05.412 --> 00:24:06.795
So the guys are.
00:24:06.795 --> 00:24:11.349
A lot of times your coaches say they want to make practice harder than the game's going to be.
00:24:13.807 --> 00:24:26.146
We try to make it to where, in practice, we are a combination of nitpicking and encouraging Okay, and our practices if somebody were to come to one, they're not that exciting.
00:24:26.146 --> 00:24:30.145
It's not as if there's anything unique or novel that we do.
00:24:30.145 --> 00:24:39.528
We, typically our offense, is predicated on doing a lot of little things that put pressure on the other team's defense.
00:24:39.528 --> 00:24:42.021
It's no secret, this is no trade secret that I'm giving away.
00:24:42.021 --> 00:24:50.728
That's what we do and that's what we've always done, and largely because that's just the kind of thing we have to do to try to compete and be successful.
00:24:50.728 --> 00:24:55.326
So you know we don't get all the five star guys.
00:24:55.326 --> 00:24:56.877
You know we just don't.
00:24:56.877 --> 00:25:16.233
We've had great players throughout our history as a program, no doubt, and we had great players this year, but we don't get guys that you can just run out there and say, okay, hit four bombs and throw a no hitter and we're good, and so we have to do some little things that you know would be more of the old West Coast style offense, and you know scrambling around and running, and so we try at.
00:25:16.233 --> 00:25:20.976
You know, the beginning of our practice every day in the spring, we call it bunt and base running school.
00:25:20.976 --> 00:25:33.664
You know we have four bunt stations and two base running stations that are going at the same time and we rotate between them, we split the players up and there's a different coach at each station and you know that particular station has a purpose.
00:25:33.664 --> 00:25:44.595
Here's what we're trying to accomplish and there's a combination, again, of nitpicking and teaching, but also encouragement, and there is the expectation and, I guess, the subtle competition.
00:25:44.595 --> 00:25:46.722
You don't want to be the worst bunter in that group.
00:25:46.722 --> 00:25:52.923
You don't want to be the guy who in the base running group, is either the slowest or the dumbest.
00:25:52.923 --> 00:25:55.320
You just don't want to be that guy.
00:25:55.320 --> 00:26:04.186
Then again, from there we'll move into our positional defense and there's a lot of repetition and a lot of instruction that takes place.
00:26:04.186 --> 00:26:07.805
We'll go to some team defense periods and we try to build those.
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