BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
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BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
Building Stronger Relationships Between Youth and High School Baseball Coaches
Discover the secrets to thriving youth baseball development with our special guest, Scott Anderson, the head baseball coach at Carmel Catholic High School in Illinois. Fresh from the ABCA Clinic in Washington, DC, Scott shares vital insights on prioritizing practice over tournaments and nurturing young pitchers. We explore the need for collaboration between high school and youth coaches to create a unified approach that ensures the growth and success of future players. If you've ever wondered about the real impact of early athlete rankings and the alarming trend of burnout by age 13, this episode offers a refreshing perspective focused on development over competition.
Transitioning into high school coaching, I share my journey of stepping into the shoes of a Hall of Fame coach and the challenges it presented. We discuss the importance of building a strong team culture through enhanced facilities, setting high expectations, and employing mental training techniques to compete with confidence against nationally ranked teams. Scott and I reflect on the significance of resilience and a positive mindset, and I recount a personal story about how my father taught me the value of hard work through regular snow shoveling. These experiences not only shaped my approach to coaching but also highlight the importance of maintaining a constructive attitude in the face of challenges.
As we shift our focus to college baseball, we unveil the unconventional paths players can take and the importance of trusting a coach or program over the competitive level. Scott introduces "Locker Room Central," an innovative app transforming how coaches and athletes communicate, track workloads, and ensure well-being. This tool is set to revolutionize how schools and facilities engage with athletes, promoting health and optimal performance. Join us as we wrap up with insights into effective coaching strategies and team dynamics, drawing parallels with other sports and emphasizing the qualities that make a great coach.
Join the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast where an experienced baseball coach delves into the world of high school and travel baseball, offering insights on high school baseball coaching, leadership skills, hitting skills, pitching strategy, defensive skills, and overall baseball strategy, while also covering high school and college baseball, recruiting tips, youth and travel baseball, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.
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Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter, presented by AthleteOne. 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. We're covering it all. Whether you're a high school coach, college coach or just a baseball enthusiast, we'll be right back insights on recruiting, coaching, leadership and crafting a team culture that champions productivity and success. Join Coach every week as he breaks down the game and shares incredible behind-the-scenes stories. Your competitive edge starts here, so check out the show weekly and hear from the best coaches in the game. On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to episode 131 of Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, ken Carpenter, and today's show takes us to Illinois, specifically Carmel Catholic High School head coach, scott Anderson. He spent the majority of his time at youth sessions at the ABCA Clinic in Washington DC recently and he'll share his takeaways on how to improve practice over tournaments, developing pitchers, and stay till the end to hear a story from his playing days in the Northwoods League and an upset bus driver Before we get to the interview. Baseball season is right around the corner and if you're preparing your field and facilities, you need to check out the Netting Pros improving programs one facility at a time. The netting professionals specialize in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, bp turtles, screens, ball carts and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches and cubbies. The Detti Pros also work with football soccer lacrosse courses. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. Or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. You can also check out Netting Pros on X, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects.
Speaker 2:If you enjoyed today's show, be sure and share it with a friend. Also, leave us a review. It helps us to grow the show. Now let's get to my sit down with Carmel Catholic High School head coach, scott Anderson. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter. Joining me today is Scott Anderson, head baseball coach at Carmel Catholic High School in Illinois. Coach, thanks for taking time to be on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3:Definitely I'm excited to be here. It's my first podcast, so I'm a podcast rookie.
Speaker 2:Okay, good, Well, we'll have some fun here then. Well, prior to recording, we were talking a little bit and you flew back in and got away from all the snow there in DC, but you didn't get hit with very much there in the Chicago area, I guess.
Speaker 3:No, the band is just south of us. We just got a dusting of snow right now. I feel like this winter we we just got a dusting of snow right now. I feel like this winter we haven't got a whole bunch.
Speaker 2:I think in December. I think we could have practiced. Well, you know it's Monday and the ABCA is finished up down there in DC, and you had a chance both to be there as a coach and also as an exhibitor. What was your biggest takeaway?
Speaker 3:You know, I I I didn't get to go as many sessions as I want, so I had to be really strategic and I'm a pitching guy, so I went to a lot of the pitching stuff and then I went to a lot of the youth. The youth hot stove was probably the biggest takeaway, from the tech side to the facility side and just a lot of the discussion about how we need to change youth baseball and that's kind of been something central to my belief system as a high school coach. Those young kids in your community, they're the ones that are going to come play for you and they want to play for you. We run a youth camp in the summer. Play for you, and you know, and they want to play for you. We run a youth camp in the summer and, um, there was a lot of things that resonated with me and and how we need to change the game and I think our development system in the united states is a little broken. So that's what I really walked away with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I I picked up on that um on x where you had put out a post and kind of talked a little bit about that and you know how you spent a great deal of your time with the youth sessions. I got a two-part question to start off with ABCA how do we get travel parents to not focus on playing in so many tournaments and develop more with, you know, getting more practice time in with them? And the second part of that is how do we find more time for high school coaches to find time to educate these youth coaches when you as a high school coach know this, you're spread thin as it is and you're definitely not getting paid that much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of a love affair for me because I do coach a 13-year-old team. I'm lucky enough to have a former divisional player that when I'm coaching high school in a season a nice start in the end of April he kind of takes over until I can come back. And I'm also a facility pitching coach and so I do that and then I coach high school. So the time is tough. I always encourage high school coaches if you get a chance to get in a facility and because I know there's kind of this disconnect right, there's high school coaches that blame facilities and facilities blame high school coaches. And I was talking to a facility owner about a month ago and he was saying man, you know, we got this disconnect with this certain coach. And I was like you've got to just sit down and have an honest conversation and everybody's got to get on the same page. And I think to me that was one of the reasons why I went into the facility and wanted to get more involved was, first of all, there's always potential Cardinal players there, but also my kids were there and I came in and I was hired as an instructor for pitching but also as a head coach of a 13-year team and I think that was the biggest learning experience for me.
Speaker 3:I had been involved in high school baseball right out of college and I kind of got away from baseball, became a high school administrator and then decided that I want to go back in the classroom and now I'm working for a tech company with baseball software.
Speaker 3:But I just wanted to be back involved in the game and I coached but guess what?
Speaker 3:That was probably harder than coaching high school and the demands of the parents and I think the culture. It spent a lot of time educating parents on what was appropriate and not because I think we almost professionalize youth sports, which I think is really unfortunate because and there's a lot of money involved and parents just don't understand what's really appropriate health-wise for your player too. I think workload management has been a big issue with pitching and so I was lucky enough to eventually take over my kids' team and that's how I kind of had it in and I've had an amazing group of parents and I think the buy-in I hate to say buy-in because not everybody's bought in, but can I create a coalition of the willing and I have a really great coalition of parents and that group has been there together for three years We've been really developmentally focused and we really have to have honest conversations with parents and lean into having difficult conversations, and I think that's hard as an adult is to lean in and have difficult conversations.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree and you know it's. I think you hit. The key to travel baseball is if you can put a team together and have them stick together not jump from team to team to team and have a good parent group. That's more than half the battle, I think.
Speaker 3:Well, I also feel like I've always kind of worked against the traditional um, I'm very tech heavy, I'm kind of like I it's funny because one of my parents said you know, you're very old school but you're also very new school, you're kind of this combo of both. But, um, I came into that facility and I was like, listen, we got all these coaches and I got most of our parents, which is great. We need parent coaches. You know, I sat down with the facility owner and I said, listen, we just don't have any training for the coaches and we need mentorship. There's a lot of parents that are really well-intentioned and they're working another job. They have a hard time with practice planning. They even have a hard time figuring out what do I do for schedule, what level should I play, what's kind of the plan for my team down the road, right, and I've tried to mentor a lot of coaches. And you know it's funny because this morning I get back from ABC and the 14 new coaches call me right away and I always want to be open to everybody. I have the 10 new coach calls me constantly, constantly and what do you want to do? And I let them use all our stuff and I set up plans for their practices and help them do that.
Speaker 3:And I think that's the piece as a high school coach is being that mentor to those parent coaches. You, when you I would think about it like if I had to coach basketball. I have no clue what I'd be doing. You know, and I I was lucky enough to play division one baseball and play the jayhawk league in the northwoods league. I got a lot of experience. I got to learn from a lot of great coaches and a lot of those parent coaches. Maybe they played in high school, maybe a little bit in high school, and I was about it and it's it's. It's a lot to chew on. I remember getting back into coach. I coached, uh, my kids t-ball team and I was like I don't know how to coach t-ball. So I think it could be daunting and it is making sure parents are on board. But also I feel like there's facilities and travel organizations. You need to mentor the coaches, provide those type of structures for everybody.
Speaker 2:Well, you, you know you're, you talked about the parents and you know I I saw something today where I read it, where they, a team, was playing in a tournament in December and I don't know, I mean, I sit there and just go. Oh, my, my God, but what are your thoughts when you hear someone's taking a 10U team and playing in December?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I look at it from the youth side, even the high school side, like what are we doing, you know, and where do kids get to learn the game and get to practice without? I think the game has got enough pressure as it is. So what are we doing? Only playing games.
Speaker 3:And always, like, everything is pressure filled in a game and kids feel that that's the test, right, we never provide the lessons and teach them to play the game and practice and train, right, and you're taking 10 new kids and and I, like I said, you're traveling around the country and playing all these games, what do you get out of it? Because what I think I see is those kids, when they get to high school, they're burnt out. Right, we burn kids out and I think we there's a statistic out there that most kids quit sports. It's like 70% by the 13, 13, 13,. You, we see kids just falling, and so you're starting on these young teams and kids should just be like figuring out how to throw and just learning how to move, and you're just everything is high pressure and I just I don't agree with it. I think we, we got to let kids be kids too, and families.
Speaker 2:Yeah, more, that's even more important, think. But you know, I I was speaking with a, a guy I know that coaches a young kid and he started telling me about players that were ranked and they're like fifth or sixth grade. I'm like, first off, who's ranking these people, and you know. And then I went down the rabbit hole and I thought I'm going to look at basketball and they were listing the top third graders in the state, this one site, and I'm just like, well, seriously, you know what I mean. I mean, I guess if you can make money off of it, go ahead, I guess. But I just was stunned that there are player rankings for such young age.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there's team rankings, right. And so I took this team. That was really not very good. And now they ranked us third in the state. I don't know how they did it, you know, and I didn't recruit any kids. But when the rankings come back and some parents are like, you know, you're ranked third in the state, I'm like, well, how do we do that? And then we just add a layer of pressure to everything. Right, it's just.
Speaker 3:I told the kids cause I know the kids are going to see it and I said you know rankings. I don't know how they do it, we don't mean to worry about it, but I said it does tell us that we're doing what's right. And I sat down. And I sat, I even talked to my parents. I'm like, look at this, we only play 50 games and all these teams are listed. Let's go look at how many games they play. And we're doing it right playing last games and developing.
Speaker 3:We had kids that we ended up. We created a system when I went in and it was just individual coaches in the facility. When I took over, I teamed up with the other team at our age group and said let's do everything together, let's train the same. Let's do everything the same. Let's just create a 11U group and those kids don't look at A and B.
Speaker 3:I had some kids that went down to the other team last year and the parents stayed in the program because they understand the development is important, right, and we had some kids struggle at the level we played in and we had a really honest conversation like, hey, physically you might just not be ready for this, I think you will be down the road, but I want to keep you in because I trust that you're going to just get better anyway. You're just physically as mature as some of the other kids and our parents didn't leave and they always said like I'm going to stick with you, coach, because you know what you're doing and I'm seeing the improvement out of my kid and I know you struggled this year but I trust the process and I think that's the greatest thing If you're not having a bunch of parents leave. You know you're doing, you know you're doing a good job and you're not also sucking in a bunch of kids and cutting kids and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, let's move a little bit towards the high school and the things Now. What is your approach to you know, maintaining the standards that you set and developing your team culture.
Speaker 3:So that's tough. Last year was my first year I actually took over. I think it's always hard to follow. I followed a Hall of Fame coach, coach Gandolfi, who was a great mentor. I text Coach after every game. He's on our game changer and I still ask for him advice. He came back as kind of a bridge to Carmel and I've taken over.
Speaker 3:We didn't have a whole lot in terms of facilities and stuff. I've raised a bunch of money, new scoreboard, we did the field. I mean bought so much different equipment and it was great. My parents were really excited to support the program and now it's trying to raise the expectation. You know, the biggest thing was kids just didn't go to the weight room. And we go to the weight room now and it's an expectation and they come to open gyms and they hold each other accountable and we talk about that right, we play in the toughest conference in the state of Illinois.
Speaker 3:We had a nationally ranked team that had, I think everybody in their starting lineup was a Division I commit. I mean this year they have a kid that's a second-ranked catcher in the nation. Kid's going to LSU, their second baseman's going to Tennessee and we have that kind of grind in our nation, kids going to LSU, the second baseman's going to Tennessee and we have that kind of grind in our schedule we had last year. We faced the kids that were 94 from Tennessee and I had we finished middle of the pack and it was funny because they said when I took the job what would be good? And I said if we can be 500 in this conference, we're going to be a really good baseball program. And we were almost. We had one game and with one game we would have been 500 and the athletic director said we couldn't do it. I don't think he really thought we would. We would go in and do it right away.
Speaker 3:I only had two small school commits but we have a side throwing strikes, being aggressive, um, and just having a little bit of confidence in ourselves. You know I use a lot of Alan Jaeger's mental. We even use Tread. I reached out to Tread and I had their mental game stuff and I said can I use it with my team? I have the login and they said just get the login out and let the guys do it and we would work through it and talk about that mental game.
Speaker 3:And I thought that was the biggest block, that a lot of our guys had was just confidence and just going out and playing and not overthinking it. And I'm a little bit different as a coach and it took a while for them to get used to that. I said you know what? I don't give a steel sign. If you got it, you take it, and we do vaulted leads and we try to set up pitchers, and it was just a different system. But all of a sudden they took more ownership and I'm a catcher, I don't call pitches that much and my pitchers can shake off and my catcher can take control of the game and I'm so proud of that kid. He's one of the smartest catchers I've ever worked with, including playing in college. And my kids started to take ownership of the team and it wasn't me and I say that like, we have a pick system that sometimes comes from me, but they can run picks themselves. Infielders can call them, the catchers can call them and we have our own system.
Speaker 2:But the kids take ownership and I think when they started to take ownership on the field too, they take ownership off the field yeah, that's the key, and I I really like when you can get a team to just hold everybody accountable and then you know that you're doing things the right way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it takes time. Yeah, it just does. And you know we had some kids that were happy about playing time and stuff. And the one thing that we did when I came in is we had grade rep meetings and so I had representatives from the freshman team and the JV team and the varsity and every Friday we got together, had pizza and we talked about what was going good in the program and what they wanted to see that changed and that was kind of our culture meetings and we made sure all our coaches are there and I said this is the time to have difficult conversations and if you don't like what's going on, we can have those conversations and try to change it, because this is your program in the end. You know my name's attached to it, but it is. We need to be player centric and we need to be kid-centric of everything we do.
Speaker 2:Well, if you, you know you talked about how you, you know you were a pitcher and you like working with the pitchers If you had full control of your pitchers for an entire year, with no other pitching coaches on the side, the parents weren't going to step in. Take me through how much you think they should throw throughout the four seasons.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not a big, huge like total shutdown guy. But I'm also not saying that we should rip and run all year. I'm big on like on-ramping guys. But I just tell guys, the longer you take off, the longer it takes to really get your arm in shape. And we see even in the major league studies right, that they label fatigue as a big issue. And also I was lucky enough to to take a course last year with uh casey mahala with kinetic pro, and they had forgot um the guy's name, but he was one of the lead scientists of the cubs and he said we, what we see with players in the major leagues and why we see injuries happen in spring training is most guys aren't ready. But then also we're too concerned at the minor league level of overthrowing guys. So there's, I'm not throwing enough or I'm throwing too much. But we have to kind of meet like where are we going to get guys ready?
Speaker 3:I always advise my pitchers this If you don't, I don't like fall ball. I hate fall ball. I think it's stupid. I always say that you've played summer and spring. Stupid, I always say that you've played summer and spring. If you're going to lift heavy and hard, go from August, september, even half of October, and just lift and do some light throwing in between to keep your arm in shape a couple times a week. But that's a time to get stronger. And I always tell guys, like, listen, if you want to gain velocity, there's no secret sauce. You can throwows, you can rip and run, you can do all these things that you see, but that's not what's going to get you most likely to throw harder. It's to get stronger, and so I I would really want to like, set up a really hot like.
Speaker 3:That's the time to gain a lot of strength and then mid-october start to just on-ramp guys we don't get on the mound do a lot of indoor long toss because or outdoor long toss. Start to do some good straight lead training and getting them and that's what I do at our facility is like I take video, we do a physical assessment on kids and we kind of set up the program for them and we spend all the way to the end of December just on ramping them and throwing and we monitor. I've used pulse sensors but we use armcarecom now test the range of motion Every time they come in. We're testing the range of motion strength, making sure they're also healthy, so that they progress in the program. Or we got to, we got to tailor them back and then by January we start to introduce you to the mound and gradually just like start doing pitch design and getting in.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of facilities just really concentrate on velocity and then the kids don't have that time to to to apply like applicate it to the mound, like I do velocity training, but it's a short phase, we're done with it, and then we gotta start applying to the mound and I think that's where we lose out of. Some of those facilities is like, yeah, you throw hard but you get a strike. So I'm not a huge shutdown, but at least like spend some time throwing in the fall a little bit, get stronger, and then we kind of on-ramp you, because in Illinois we start first week in March is tryouts, so be ready, and then we can gradually build your bullpens up to about 60 pitches and go on 60 pitches and go on in this season.
Speaker 2:Well, with college baseball recruiting becoming extremely tough for high school players, what is your plan as far as telling your players and parents what to expect? Because right now it almost seems like if you're not a legit D1 guy, you probably should be looking at D3 or Juco, something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's insane how the landscape keeps changing.
Speaker 3:Just even what a couple weeks ago? The junior college. I think that's all up in the air, right, kids now get an extra year. I also think it would be insane for coaches, um, to take a high school kid unless you're really, really, really good and you know they're going to be able to walk in because you they've already caught the rosters too to 34. So I think junior college baseball is going to take off. You're going to see. I think it's already good.
Speaker 3:I played junior college baseball because my path to baseball was really unconventional. I grew up in western North Dakota. I didn't have a high school team. In high school I was being recruited as a track athlete. I was a 6'8 high jumper. I was a long jumper, all-state long jump, triple jump, and I went to a baseball camp because I could play at American Legion with the University of Minnesota and they were like you don't know what you're doing, but you've got a good arm, you've got a lot of talent and I got kind of funneled into junior college and had the chance to go to Minnesota.
Speaker 3:But the head coach the pitching coach became the head coach at University of Illinois, chicago. I followed him and I tell kids, like you're going to develop your own time, but pick the school that you know, you trust the coach, you know the program and it's not about the level. We're seeing kids that aren't highly recruited and by the time they're junior especially if I'm talking about pitching they're throwing 92, 93, and they just got bigger and stronger and I was like somebody's going to notice you there. And it doesn't always have to be a division one school. I think college baseball is that good. If you can play college baseball, you're good. That's why I keep telling and I tell the parents that like you're good if you can play college baseball right now well, you've mentioned that you were also an exhibitor at the abca, and make sure I'm saying this right.
Speaker 2:You, you set up a thing called locker room central. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:So yeah, so I was teaching, I was yep, so I kind of helped. We have a, we have a guy that is a heavy investor.
Speaker 3:He's also in in like equity. He, his kid, plays baseball and I think all year last year I would talk about man we have this huge disconnect between high school and travel right and what's going on. I don't know when my kids are lifting or what, and I tell my guys like I need some accountability, but I also need to like know if my pitchers are ready. And we kind of just brainstormed and he created this app and I kind of gave a lot of input and then I would test it out and I was teaching a special education teacher in a special education school and I've always worked with kids with emotional disabilities. I actually taught in the cook County jail for 11 years and that was always kind of my field. And he said listen, I want to start this company, let's get it going. I'm going to hire you. And the first time I was like I don't want to stay in teaching. I love teaching. But then sometimes I got too good of an offer and it's worked really well.
Speaker 3:And when we went to ABC a lot of coaches were like why don't we have this? And I was surprised because I didn't think college coaches would be that interested in it. And some college coaches were like I don't know what my guy does over break or when they go in the summer and I can assign workouts to my players through the app and then my players can also put their workouts in that they're doing at their facility so I can know if they're doing something. I can give some input in it and I think it gives some accountability for kids. But also it's a great way to have conversations. We have health checks in it and I know some coaches are like man, I ain't got no kid that's going to always say he's sore and I'm like, yeah, but having that open conversation with a young act, young athlete like hey, you're sore, you know, or you know? It's funny because we ask like how many hours of sleep you get and I get flagged if my guy's not sleeping.
Speaker 3:And I got a really high academic school and I tell my guys like listen, you gotta like you have a lot of expectations on the academic side at Carmel and if you're not getting enough sleep, I had a kid that was really good baseball player last year and wanted to go to a really good school. He had an almost perfect ACT, wasn't getting any sleep and I asked him and I was like he's like I'm just stressed out, I'm not doing well in my English class and I said you know what, why don't you take today off from practice so you can get your stuff done? I knew he was a really responsible kid but it was great. I have those conversations with my athletes when I'm making my lineup. I know who's healthy and who's available and I think we were looking at what there was a gap between travel and high school and how do we kind of narrow that gap and narrow like high school coaches, really knowing what's going on when these kids are away from you?
Speaker 2:Well, let me ask you this I love that idea. That's. That's phenomenal. And if there's coaches out here listening to this, how could they get more information? Is there a website or?
Speaker 3:Yeah, locker room centralcom. Um, we also are on twitter. Um, I'm about to start an instagram page, so we we've just started six months in. We have a couple schools that use it, abca, we it was funny because everybody's on our, on our aisle was like man, you had so many people stopping by your booth and I think we're really starting to take off. I remember he got back and I was answering emails and we're actually working with blast right now to hopefully integrate with blast and work with some companies to integrate. And you know, go to the website. Our information is on there. So, locker room centralcom, and we'll definitely get back to you. It's, it's awesome.
Speaker 3:I've had a lot of coaches that were on free trials right now that love it, some facilities that use it right now on free trial. My facility actually started to use it and I think it's just something when we talk about workload management and health, because we've got kids also playing other sports, working with different trainers. We just don't know and we can also assume that a kid's not doing anything, but he might be working his butt off at his facility or the different coach and I tell my kid are you doing your work? I just want to know right. I want to know you're ready.
Speaker 2:Hate losing or love winning.
Speaker 3:I hate losing. I'm pretty competitive, I'll admit it. I could you know? What's funny is everybody's like you're pretty calm and everything. But I get in the game, I gotta, I gotta catch myself from barking back at the umpire. Sometimes I think that's that competitive picture in me. But I always I've gotten better and as I've gotten older I always tell like the part of losing is there's always a lesson in it and it's okay to lose and it's okay to fail. But how do we come back on it? And I think with young people, that's the, that's the lesson that we always have to have. I think I, after a game, before I get in the huddle after we lose, I got to take a breath myself.
Speaker 1:I take a second.
Speaker 3:I always say I got to take a second and think about what I'm going to say and I always try to make a positive spin on it. And I think kids I don't think of kids out there trying to trying to lose or trying to do bad and I think it's easy as a coach to get angry about a performance. I think we had a horrible performance against one of the top-rated teams in the state last year and I mean it was bad and I remember walking after we go to the line and taking a second and going you know what I'm going to say, what am I going to say? You know, I'm just. Everything happened that was bad and I just walked in and I said you said you know what, guys, that's baseball. I don't think you didn't. I don't think anybody here wanted to mess up. That's baseball.
Speaker 3:sometimes you're gonna walk on this field and everything goes wrong oh yeah, everybody's and I said, all I'm gonna ask you is how, yeah, how are we gonna walk away, file it away and say you know, we're done that game's over and how are we going to get ready for next day? And I, what, what, what are we going to? What are we going to improve? You know, how do I need to improve, how I prep before the game.
Speaker 3:You know, and I'm big on catch play and it's, it's funny as the high school kids drive me nuts with catch play, right, and I was like the little things matter. So you're throwing, you make it throwing errors, but you just go and toss the ball and don't really care about your catch play and then you wonder why you make throwing errors. Well, that's, that's, uh, that's a problem. So I try to really be intentional. We do the dirt brother program and I do it with everybody. My outfielders do it, like pitchers do it, but I was talking about with intent. Everything you do is with intent, and so when you, when you lose, I think it's thinking about being intentional. Be intentional or changes.
Speaker 3:And I also feel like and I had to catch my assistant coaches once we lost a game and we didn't hit well, I had two consistent coaches like what are we going to do? We're going to change this and change this. And I said listen, I think we create chaos and sometimes a loss is a loss. But if we try to change everybody and change this with this kid and change that, we're going to start doming kids up and we don't have the time to do that. You know, it's such a mental game that sometimes you got to lift them up like man. We just didn't hit well today and let's think about our plan and stick to our plan and trust our plan and sometimes that day that plan won't work. But also trust and we're here to help you and give you input. But I think I always say that like, don't overreact to a loss, and I think coaches do that too often well, I I this next question I thought about.
Speaker 2:I was, uh, outside this morning it's like 7 am and I'm frustrated, and so I said I'm going to turn this into a question for the podcast. And I said would you rather shovel six inches of snow on your driveway or prep a natural grass field for a tournament all day?
Speaker 3:I'm going to go with the North Dakota answer. It was funny because I grew up with my dad. My dad worked at a taconite mine in minnesota and you know they had massive layoffs in the 80s and they all those guys went out to western north dakota a lot of them and he worked a ligonite taconite um power plant. So he's a. My dad was a roughneck in a way and he was funny because he just said to us I don't, we got, we had snow. That was. I had a Ford Bronco when I was in high school and it got buried in the storm Like that's how much snow we got and we never had a snowblower. He said I got. I had two other brothers with three boys and he said you are, you are the snowblower and so we'd have the big old steel steel shovels and he'd go every hour on the hour.
Speaker 3:You have to go out and start shoveling so it just doesn't pile up. And I think I'm used to that. Field maintenance. I love it, but when you have to put I feel like the spring, when you've got to really put in all that work, that is tough. I'd rather go shovel. I actually feel like it's easier with field maintenance, but I also feel like you have to as a high school coach.
Speaker 2:you've got to do field maintenance. Well, I kind of got frustrated because I did that where you're going along and then you catch a piece of the concrete that's a little bit higher and it jabs you in the stomach and I was like, oh, I'm like I I'll take the field any day.
Speaker 3:but right now I'm I'm really limited. Um, I just actually a month ago had a procedure on my back so I had a bulging disc and so they shaved her a little bit, the disc, to release the nerve, and so I'm kind of lucky I don't have to do anything. I go to the facility, everybody picks up everything for me. But I was like I got to be ready for the season Once I get to get out of the field. I got to be able to bed, twist and lift. That's what they told me.
Speaker 2:I can't do right now, but I got to be able to do that by the time the season starts. Well, what college or NFL coach would make a great baseball coach?
Speaker 3:in your opinion? Oh, that's a great question. You know I'm a Vikings fan and I know last night they got boat raced by the Lions. But I really respect Kevin O'Connell and I think he's very similar to Rocco Baldelli in a way. You know there's a calm presence. I read something about him, though the guys are like you listen to him at press conferences. He seems kind of calm and very articulate, but they're like he holds guys accountable, he's not afraid, but he's also a great communicator.
Speaker 3:And I think and I have said that it's hard to find an assistant coach, especially in a Catholic school, for what they pay.
Speaker 3:And I think and I have said that I took, it's hard to find an assistant coach, especially in a Catholic school, for what they pay.
Speaker 3:And I've had some really good coaches that aren't really baseball guys and mentoring them.
Speaker 3:And I have a coach that man he paid his way to ABCA, an assistant coach, my freshman coach, and he loves baseball that much but he didn't play in college, he didn't, you know, and he's an older guy but he loves to learn and he has such an amazing relationship with the players that I think he's better than some of the coaches that have a lot more experience and I think sometimes that connection with athletes and being an open communicator is is awesome and I I always say that like I I brought two coaches in and the other one guy I was like he said I want to be an educator.
Speaker 3:I think I'm going to quit my job and I and I watched him and I said you know what I can be? Great teacher, kids love you and you you have a have a way with them and I think I can teach you and I can provide you some of the structures to help you. Um, I just need you to want, like, be able to communicate with kids and be good with kids, and I think Kevin O'Connell is just another example of someone that's just a great communicator.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm, you know my crack research team, which consists of me. I think, if I'm right here, you're a Twins fan, minnesota Twins fan, correct?
Speaker 3:I'm a huge Twins fan.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, you get a chance to manage the Twins and you can have these three players on your team, and I'm going to choose from the 87 and the 91 World Series teams. Group A you get Frank Viola, gary Gaietti and Kirby Puckett, and group B you get Jack Morris, kent Herbeck and because he was so daggone good, kirby Puckett again. Which three guys would you rather have on your team.
Speaker 3:That's a tough one because I'll give you a little side note I collect only Minnesota sports memorabilia and I have a game-used bat. Besides the pitchers I do have some pitchers, but I have a game-used bat from every twin positional player that hadn't a bat in the 87 or 91 World Series. So I have a massive collection of game-used bats in my basement and the 87, 91 twins. Both of them hold a really, really special place in my heart and I actually say that 87 team is what got me to love baseball and want to play baseball. Um, in the middle of north dakota there's not much to watch and and I really that was something special and in minnesota there's no whole lot of championships. I think those are really the last championships. I'd have to go with the 91.
Speaker 3:Jack Morris that guy is a competitor, St Paul native really competitive. I mean, Kirby Puckett was. If you grew up in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, every kid wanted to be Kirby Puckett. I mean, he was just a heck of a baseball player. I think when I was playing with my friends I always wanted to be Kirby Puckett hitting the ball, Was it? Herbeck Was the third one.
Speaker 2:Jack Waters, herbeck and Puckett.
Speaker 3:Herbeck. He's another guy. There's so many great stories of Kent Herbeck. He's kind of a character but I love him and you know in Minnesota he has an outdoor store show now where he goes around and hunts and fishes. He definitely epitomizes like a true Minnesotan, kent Herbeck, and I've met him before and he's he's a. He's an awesome guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, my last question for you before I let you go your best story as either from your playing days or as a coach it can be. Usually I try to get some of the guests to talk, so I'll let you have at it.
Speaker 3:Man, I played a year in the Northwoods League and the stories out of the Northwoods League was just unbelievable, because you're playing 80 games in a full summer and you're riding on a bus. I remember we're driving and the Northwoods League is really spread out now and there's way more teams. I think it might have been 10 teams. When I played and and I played the only year that my not north dakota had a team they ended up folding and then madison became the madison mallards. But so western north dakota, north of western north dakota's, got a team but we got to go to like waterloo and brainer. You'd play like a night game and you get done playing. You gotta get on a bus. You got to get on a bus and you're sleeping on the bus going all the way to Wausau or Waterloo or Brainerd. There were nobody any close to us. The travel was just atrocious. We get on a bus and we had after a game and we had to Brainerd. We stop in Fargo and we have a guy that was just. He was such a good hitter, he played for UCLA and he played, I think, up to double A with the Twins. And we had these old ladies that just bake us cookies and treats and put them on a bus. He was like he didn't know that there was nuts in the cookies. So he stands up in the middle and he's like there's nuts in these cookies. So we got to. And the cookies? So he stands up in the middle, he's like there's nuts in these cookies, I'm going to. So we got to pull them off the bus. So we're stuck in Fargo till the till we take them to the ambulance. And we got a game in Brainerd and we got to get there. So we only have a couple of coaches, so one coach has got to stay with him and we got to work out all this stuff. And now we're late for the game and we get all the way to brannard and we're late and I think we got stuck.
Speaker 3:There's like an accident on the road and we're on this bus and police show up and it's like they put on the sirens and we're buses flying behind the police to get around the accident and to get us. We walked in like as the game was supposed to start. There's thousands of people in the stands and there's no other team and hurry up and play. We had one time in Fargo.
Speaker 3:Grand Forks had a team in North Dakota, that's just on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota. Our bus driver quit and took all our equipment, all our our suitcases with them. So we had to be put up in a hotel and all we had was what we had our baseball bag and our uniforms. And we got picked up by a school bus and had to wait till the bus company break, take somebody else and take our equipment, take our suitcases back. But I think that's the grind and the fun of playing in those leagues and I always tell guys you get the opportunity to play in a collegiate league, go do it, because those are memories that last a lifetime.
Speaker 2:Yes, definitely. My son had some great stories from his summer experience playing, but you know it's Scott Anderson, carmel High School Catholic head coach Coach. Wow, really great for you to take some time out of your day to join me here, and you know. Thanks again, I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 3:No, I appreciate it, and it's always fun to just talk shop with another coach.
Speaker 2:There you have it, episode 132 in the books and looking forward to next week. Every Wednesday, look for a new episode here on Baseball Coaches Unplugged. And a special thanks to our partnership with the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707, or you can visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. As always, I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter, and thanks for checking out Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
