BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
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BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
How to Cultivate a Competitive Edge in Baseball
Dive into the mind of Head Coach John Dowling, who recently guided McLean High School (VA) to its first state baseball championship. In this episode, Coach Dowling reflects on the thrilling journey of winning, delving into the mental adjustments necessary to maintain focus and manage increased expectations as reigning champions. He highlights the pivotal role assistant coaches play in the development of players, sharing insights on fostering a competitive spirit while nurturing young talent.
Throughout our discussion, Dowling emphasizes the art of creating competitive environments during practice, ensuring players not only develop technical skills but also the performance mindset crucial for success. He candidly shares advice on structuring a challenging schedule, acknowledging that tough match-ups are vital for genuine growth on the field.
Listeners will also gain invaluable insights into forming meaningful connections within the baseball community, a key ingredient in crafting a vibrant program that is fueled by enthusiasm and ongoing support. As the episode unfolds, Dowling’s vision for nurturing a culture of resilience and adaptability shines through, providing takeaways that apply to coaches, players, and sports enthusiasts alike. Don’t miss this deep dive into winning strategies and pivotal lessons learned in the game. Tune in, subscribe, and let us know your thoughts!
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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On today's podcast defending Virginia 6A state champion, head baseball coach John Dowling shares what his team does that led to a state title, how he creates competitive game speed environments in practice and trusting your assistant coaches. Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter, presented by Athlete One. 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 dive into the tactics and techniques that make the difference on and off the field. 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. 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 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter, and thanks for joining. If you enjoyed today's show, please be sure to hit the subscribe button and share it with a friend. It helps us to grow the show. Before we get to our episode with Head Coach John Dowling, I've got to give a shout out to our partners, will Miner and his team at the Netting Professionals. They're improving programs one facility at a time.
Speaker 1:The Netting Pros 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 and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turfed protectors, dugout benches and cubbies. The Netting Pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse and golf courses. You can contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. Or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. Check out Netting Pros on X, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Now let's get to Head Coach John Dowling at McLean High School in Virginia. Coach, thanks for taking the time to join me on Baseball Football.
Speaker 3:Club. Yeah, thanks for having me on, I appreciate it Well first off congratulations.
Speaker 1:Anytime a coach wins a state title, that's great. But you know, when you win that state title are you like a lot of coaches? When you hear them talk, they say that their thoughts quickly move on to the next season yeah, I mean, I think that we we certainly took some time to uh to enjoy it.
Speaker 3:Um, and you know, I had always heard coaches speak and they say you know, when you, when you win that big thing the conference championship, the state championship you think you can wake up the next day and feel different, and you really don't. It's a great achievement. I'm so proud of our kids and the way we battled last season and all that stuff, but at the end of the day, I'm the same guy. I still show up to work and it didn't have that like life changing moment. I don't think it was awesome, but at the end of the day, you know, we start up on Monday. So now we got to target on our back and we got to get back to work.
Speaker 1:That kind of leads right into my next question is from what I what I've read it, you've, you've got a pretty strong team coming back. So you know, you've got the state title under your belt and the expectations have got to be pretty high. Two-part question what steps do you take to keep your guys focused and humbled? And your thoughts on having that bullseye on your team's back?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think you know, from from day one, we're going to have to be very clear that and I think they already kind of know that we're going to get served some humble pie at some point. Like I've, I've put together what is undoubtedly the hardest schedule we've had since I've been a head coach, and so, you know, we're going to try to challenge them and I think, having conversations up front just to say, like guys, just because that ring says 2024, it doesn't say 2025. And now you know, we've got the burden of the target on the back and success has a tax, and that tax is that everyone's going to want to beat us and inevitably we are going to lose a game, and to them, you know, to the opponent, that might be their biggest win of the season and they're probably going to act accordingly, and so it does. You know, that idea that success has a tax and we're going to have to pay that tax is something that we want to communicate really early on and make sure everyone's on the same page.
Speaker 1:We want to communicate really early on and make sure everyone's on the same page. Well, you mentioned that. You know you really loaded up your schedule. Sometimes teams are focused on. Well, they have no choice. They have the league schedule that they have because of the league they're in. So how many league games do you get? And then how many non-league games do you end up having to pick up?
Speaker 3:So we play 12 district games that we don't you know same six opponents twice each, and then we're allowed to play in a tournament over spring break. So that's kind of luck of the draw who you get. That's four games and then the last five we get 20. We used to get 20, this year they upped it to 21. So the last five I can schedule basically whoever I want, um, and so I kind of kind of looked around and said you know who did we play last year? That was really good and and we're right outside of dc. So there's a ton of private schools that are really really good because they're fortunate to get a bunch of them on the on schedule yes, I I seem to agree with most coaches when they load their schedule up like that.
Speaker 1:It's, you know, may not get as many wins as you'd like, but come tournament time, your, your team's, gonna be better prepared, without a doubt yeah, that's, I stole that from my college coach.
Speaker 3:We I went to ifycoc college in state new york and we would go to Los Angeles every year for spring break and just get our bus kicked by teams that were already 12-2. We hadn't seen green grass since previous November, and one time I asked them and they said you're going to figure out real quick who can do it and who can't.
Speaker 1:And so I've just kind of always taken that approach and I've joked a couple of times already with staff and a couple of other kids that I hope I didn't bite off more than we can chew this year, but I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:Well, talk about your assistant coaches and how important they are to your team's success. No-transcript, they're going to start to tune it out, and so I'm so lucky to have Ryan, who's been with me for 13 years now. My pitching coach is the sharpest baseball mind I know. Like he 100%. His work situation kind of precludes him from being a head coach, but if he was in the opposing dugout I would be concerned. And this past season we're able to bring on a younger guy that played at a really high level, was drafted out of high school, started four years at JMU, really good in the technical side of hitting, really good communicator, and so that was huge as well. And so I'm just lucky this year we've got one of our alums coming on, and so now that I've been here a while and kind of building that community, I'm hopeful we can get more and more alumni joining us too.
Speaker 1:Well, you mentioned community there. How did the community react? Because, if my research is correct, that was the first state championship for your school, correct? In baseball?
Speaker 3:Yes, it was. Yeah, I mean, between that day and the next morning I still had like 200 text messages on my phone that I hadn't gotten to yet. And so you know, this will be our 12th season, and so I'm a teacher at the school, so I've really gotten to know a lot of the families and a lot of the folks that even you know. After they graduated they come back and watch games, and there was a very overwhelming and humbling response, for sure.
Speaker 1:That's probably the one time you don't mind having to deal with ticks on your phone. Yes, well, definitely. Well, like you said, in Virginia you're now up to 21 games seasons. Up here in Ohio we played 28. And if you look at some of these schools around the country, I see them playing 40 games and I always found it challenging to get 28 in with the weather up here. I'm looking out right now and there's snow all over the ground, so you know, yeah, so how do you prepare your pitching staff to you know when you go throughout the season? You guys, if I am I correct, do you guys have like a one one and done, or is a best two out of three in Virginia?
Speaker 3:For the postseason. Yeah, yeah. So it's like our district has seven teams and four will qualify for the region, the next level, um, and then out of the regionals, the top two advance to states, and then it's one and done. There's three, there's a quarter semi-final state tournament. So, okay, um, out of the 13 teams in our region, two will advance to the state tournament makes sense.
Speaker 1:well, in ohio it, in Ohio it's like Hoosiers. I mean not like Hoosiers in that sense, but everybody gets in and on occasion you'll have a team that just things go their way and they didn't have a great season but all of a sudden they make a deep, deep run. But as far as once you get into the tournament play, you know you can kind of you know most teams probably can get by with, you know, a three-man rotation as far as starting pitchers. But when you get into that tournament play it's a little different. Do you do anything differently to have your guys ready for tournament play?
Speaker 3:you do anything differently to have your guys ready for for tournament play? No, it's funny. Actually, in virginia, most of our weeks, like your district, games are always tuesday, friday and then the district in the regional tournament. You only play twice a week. Um, so, like in 2014, we went to the state tournament and we we've literally used two. We had two studs one went to tech, one ended up getting drafted by the Nats a couple years later and, like, we rode these two dudes to the state tournament.
Speaker 3:And now the state tournament is the only. It's Tuesday, friday, saturday for the quarter semis finals, and that's the only week of the year where you're going to play three meeting-tall games in one week. And so pitching depth is, I mean. I think pitching depth is the biggest reason why we were able to win it, because we had starters who could go deep in the games and we had guys coming out of the pen that we trusted, and it's just funny that you know, rain messes that up. But your district schedule district tournament, region tournament it's always just two games a week. And then you get to States and it's like, oh crap, we need a third starter. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I I watched you on a podcast talking about how you. You were a pitcher in college and you decided to drop down as a pitcher in college and and it it worked out for you and my son. I did that with him when he was a sophomore in high school and because I thought he'd have a better opportunity of getting more outs that way. Talk about how that changed and accepting that mindset, and is that something you try to do with anybody on your pitching staffs?
Speaker 3:yeah, um. So I was pretty mediocre and you know I was kind of a diamond doesn't writey with a mediocre fastball and it. It was enough like to be a pretty good high school pitcher, but it was not enough at the next level. So so we were in a fall scrimmage, we were at Rowan and they had a. They had a guy come out of the pen. It was like submarine, like way down.
Speaker 3:My coach was like what do you think of that? I was like dude, he's effective, he's getting a bunch of meat contacts. He's like cool, go to the bullpen and do it. And so so I went in and I got through the inning and you know I kind of settled.
Speaker 3:I was more of like a really low three quarters sidearm movement and you know that extended my career. I was going to get caught that spring and then I ended up being the closer the next two years. So that taught me like the importance of adaptability and being willing to try new things and not do what's comfortable, even if you kind of know the writing's on the wall there. In terms of our team, we have had a couple guys that have dropped down, not super successful, I can't've. We've churned out these sidearm relievers, but it's always kind of in the back pocket as a, as an option, and, and you know I can literally say to him, like I've been in your shoes, I've been told like, hey, your stuff's not good enough from this more traditional slot. Let's get weird and see what happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I, you know, I look back on my coaching career and I wish I could have done that with a couple guys, just because I think when a batter comes up to see that you just don't see it very often in high school and when you do, it's, you know, hey, give me three outs. Yeah, you know, and sometimes it's all you need out of a relief game, yeah, well, you know, I'm looking here. You've played the game, you've coached the game. Tell me about a time when you failed and what you took from that and how that turned you into becoming a better coach.
Speaker 3:I mean I think, like most coaches early in my career I was too much piss and vinegar and not enough, like the old show. You know you got to show them you care first. I am competitive and I let that drive me towards too transactional and just like we need to get better so we can win, and it was always weak. But I think my motivations stemmed too much from that on us to win and not I want us to win, comma. In an environment where everybody walks away and says you know that being a part of the McLean baseball team was my favorite part of my high school experience. Um, and so I've kind of you know you don't want to say like lightened up, like we still have standards and we still demand the best of our guys, but I've just learned to do it in a more beneficial way to the, to the athlete as a whole, as a person, um, and and not that more transactional like what can we do for each other? Um, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Makes total sense. I can totally relate with the with what you're saying there. I can totally relate with what you're saying there because I, you know, I'm ultra competitive and everything you know. It was either win or loss for me. You know, and I, now that I look back on it, I wish I could change things early on. But you learn as a coach and that's one of those things that you do. Yep, well, I noticed you spoke at the ABCA convention and I was looking at your form that you put out there and it talked about how you create a competitive game speed environment in practice. Can you talk a little bit about that and maybe throw out a couple examples of what you might do, whether it's inside in a gym or when you?
Speaker 3:finally get outside on the field. Yeah, um. So you know there's, there's a bunch of science in like the skill acquisition world. Now that basically says that like when we do things that are easy, we don't get better like full stop, and I call it 40, 40, 40 bp. You got a 40 year old guy throwing 40 miles an hour from 40 feet away. Um, and that's a great environment to work on your swing, but we don't play baseball swing, we play baseball. And so kind of drawing that line between, like when are we trying to work on technique, mechanics, whatever you want to call it, and doing that in the low stakes environment where it's easier, but then figuring out like how do we blend that to the game? Because if it's not going to transfer, it's pointless anyway. So we've all had the guy that's got the ugly swing, but man, he's always on time and he always finds barrels and it's like that's the guy that I need come 630 on Friday night and we've all seen the guy with the perfect, beautiful swing. It's textbook, it's beautiful. And then game day comes and it's another rofer.
Speaker 3:And so early on in my first head coaching job it was not a baseball school we had 12 kids on the varsity baseball team my last year there, um, and so I kind of realized like I can't just do things the way everybody else does. The previous three state champions my first year there um, one of the teams in our district won the state championship. In the previous two years it was won by a team from this district and we got 12 kids on the team. So it's like if I do everything the same way they do, if I roll out the balls, throw bp for half an hour, take I out of the home like we don't stand a chance, um, and so that just kind of forced me to kind of adapt and figure out you know what's the more optimal way for us to train. And realistically it comes down to like thinking about things like the spin of the ball and the angle of the ball and speed of the ball and speed of the runner and, whenever possible, putting ourselves in environments that replicate those game speeds.
Speaker 3:Using stopwatch when you're hitting ground balls to the infielders. One, we all suck at hitting topspin ground balls. It's really really hard to do, so we probably should be using a machine. And two, just putting them on a stopwatch so that they understand, like what's a 4-1 runner feel like? For me it's shortstop. When I got to go to my right on a ball. What does a 4-1 runner feel like? And do I have time to set my feet? Or do I have to pull off the cheater, jump, throw and exposing them to that as often as possible? And my kids are in youth baseball space and just from being around the game, I think I'm of the opinion that we spend and I did it too early on. I was the same way. I'm not casting stones here, but we spend too much time on the technique, mechanics, baseball swing and not enough time putting kids in environments where they have to play baseball at game speed. Um, and then the game comes and the game's really hard.
Speaker 1:So my goal is to make practice harder than the game now, when you, when you start making those changes, how will the players I'm assuming the players probably like that? I would think well.
Speaker 3:The competitive side. Yeah, everybody loves to play games. Making it competitive instantly drives up engagement, and the competitive piece gives kids an opportunity to learn to deal with failure in a lower stakes environment than the game and in terms of the challenging them. One of the biggest errors I did early on was like say hey, guys, we're going to really challenge you, period. End of sentence. They go into the cage. They don't. They barrel up one out of eight and they walk away saying I stink.
Speaker 3:And so when you create an environment like that, the biggest lesson I've learned is to be crystal clear with the expectations. And you know, we'll set up the machine and we call it Garrett Cole Fastballs. It's like super. We'll use the foam balls out of the machine at the top of the zone and it's like find a way to get the barrel on top of this thing. We'll tell them, though, say hey, man, if you could barrel up one or two out of these eight, that's a pretty darn good round. So now they walk out of their cage saying I'm the man.
Speaker 3:I barreled up three out of me. Um, as opposed to it's bp, I should have barreled eight out of me. I only barreled three. I stick, um and so the one. That's definitely a bit of a cautionary tale that I didn't fully realize early on the importance of um. You're going to put them in environments that are more game like being crystal clear about what is success and what is failure, because they're going to just think three for eight in a BP setting is failure. Meanwhile I'm like the ball is literally rising, guys. It's doing things that physics, a human, can't replicate.
Speaker 1:Do you spend much time on the mental side as far as positive talk and getting guys to understand that it's a game of failure, at least when you're swinging the bat and you've got to have a strong mindset.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that what we found to be the most successful is building in a routine and I shared this at my ABCA convention and you put them in these really challenging settings.
Speaker 3:You've got to remind them to use that routine, a physical reset and a big deep breath. And I'm like I think I was like every other coach in America 10 years ago when this kind of thing really started to take off. And there was this clip of Longoria and he stares at the ball pole. Every time he takes a big deep breath and we do this PowerPoint and we have the kids all write down their routine. And then I didn't talk about it again, we never brought it up, we didn't follow up on it, we didn't build chances in practice to practice it, so that it's second nature in the game. And so now you've got that double wing in practice. If you've built that routine in and you see them getting frustrated and engaged, all we have to do is say, hey, physical reset, work your routine, take deep breaths, step out, do your little, stare at your point. And now, all of a sudden, that becomes second nature in game.
Speaker 1:Well, my most recent episode I talked about the pros and cons of cutting players. Now, you know I don't know much about your experience or if you've had to deal with having to cut a player, but what are your thoughts on that? Because there's so many variables, you know like it could be. The school only has so many uniforms. You know you might have 120 guys come out and you only got three teams. And have you ever experienced anything when it happened to make a decision like that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's the worst. It's the Wednesday. You know, our kids get a minimum three-day tryout, and that Wednesday, when we've got to send kids home, it's the absolute worst. We're really fortunate that it's a really strong baseball community. We've got a really good Little League and so we usually have around 60 kids try out every year. The last few years it's been 60 to 70.
Speaker 3:And we're only allowed to have two teams. We don't have a freshman team. We're not allowed to self-fund a freshman team, um, and so that process is um. But we just try to be really yeah, we just try to be really, like, honest with them and give them some feedback on, you know, the guys that we're not able to keep around, you know, give them some feedback on what they need to do and and and I say it every year and it happens every couple of years like we'll cut somebody as a freshman or as a junior, and then they come back the next year and they hit the weight room and all of a sudden you're like yeah, you're great, you did exactly what we said you needed to do and now you're more successful on the field.
Speaker 3:We'd love to have you, but we don't have a roster limit per se, but for me would that practice time be the most important time we have together. It's not practical to carry 22 hitters. I don't think it's fair to the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd hitter to be like you're probably never going to play. And I don't think it's fair to the 6th, 7th and 8th hitters to say you're going to get 30% less opportunities in practice because we've got these other guys. So it's finding that balance between giving kids an opportunity but at the same time providing the best experience we can for for the rest, so if I could ask, how many do you carry on your varsity and jv?
Speaker 3:uh, it depends. I mean, there's not. I think last year we had 16 hitters, uh, and a handful of pos. Um, we don't like to po guys. Sometimes they come to us and they're like nah, I'm done, I don't, I don't, I don't hit. And and the POs are a little easier to handle because they don't like, they don't take up as much practice time For me to throw 24 pitches to a to a hitter, we're, we're adding three, four minutes to practice for each one of them. That adds up pretty quickly. And we I've always had a firm we practice two hours on the nose. Now we don't, we don't go long, we don't. Hey, you got to finish this drill before we go home. And so it's finding that balance between you know providing as many kids as we can and opportunity, but at the same time you know saying we're not going to run three hour practice so we can't carry 22 hitters. What?
Speaker 1:is your approach to that 14, 15, 16 guy that you know he's he's gonna see limited playing time. How do you, uh, how do you handle that with him?
Speaker 3:as far as the communication part, yeah, I mean, when we bring, you know we bring everybody, it's a one-on-one, it's myself and my, my jv coach and sit down with them. We say, like you made a team, you didn't. Here's what we saw good, bad, otherwise. Um. And for the guys that are staying, like we try to be honest with them and you, hey, it's three days into the season, we hopefully have another 50 days of practice to go. So you have 50 opportunities to show us that you know the things that we see as a weakness right now. You could work.
Speaker 3:But sometimes we're, you know, we try to be pretty honest with them and say like, hey, man, like you're here because you're a stud defender and you run really well, but it's going to be really challenging for you to get at bats unless A, b and C happen, and it's it's. It's tough to tell that to kids to be, you know, it's kind of the brutal honesty, but I think it's the most fair for everybody involved. So we're all kind of starting with the same information and then, three or four weeks into the season, we sit down. I'll sit down with each kid, um, and kind of give them some feedback on where we see them right now.
Speaker 3:Hey, you know you're kind of the fourth outfielder right now. Hey, you're gonna have to start throwing strikes so you won't throw like we don't. If you don't throw strikes, you will not pitch for us. Period, full stop. We've got enough arms that do throw strikes. That, mike, you could throw 102. If it's not around the zone enough to get outs, you're not going to play. And we have those conversations and try to just be as honest as we can up front.
Speaker 1:Yes, I had a coach tell me that a parent got upset with him one time about his son was a senior and he got very little playing time and the dad actually told him he goes. You know, if you would have just cut him he would have been upset for the day, maybe a couple of days he goes, but now he's been upset the whole season and you know the coach was looking at it more like you know he's getting to be part of a team. You know the coach was looking at it more like you know he's getting to be part of a team, you know, and things could change. So it's a challenge. No matter what you do as a coach, you just do what you think is best for the team and for each individual player. I'm sure. Yeah, well, I gotta ask this because I ask it every. Every guest hate losing or love winning. Um, I bet after 2024 you'd really loved winning that.
Speaker 3:yeah yeah, I it. Unfortunately, I think it still is. Hate losing, like winning's the expectation, um, and yeah, it does feel good and to win our last game feels really good, but at the same time, like I think like we were more talented in 2022. And we just had like the no good, very bad day, and that's a series of one game, playoffs and that was it. And so you know that, thinking back to those days, the, the games like that, where you're like I can't believe we lost um kind of burns more than the joy of winning winning a game.
Speaker 1:All right. So what? What MLT MLB team do you like?
Speaker 3:I'm a Mets fan.
Speaker 1:You're a Mets fan, so you got sodas.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm a Mets fan concession stand to enjoy yourself. I mean, if I could sit anywhere, I'd love to sit behind home plate at an MLB game. I've never had, you know, maybe 25 or 30 rows up once. So yeah, give me that front row seat right behind the dish. It's a really good feel for the MLB pitchers, their stuff and I would definitely I would get. I would get some nachos and a hot dog.
Speaker 1:There you go. Well, if, if the Mets could have two players and one manager? I'm going to give you two groups. Who would you take? The first group that you could have on the Mets would be Bobby Witt Jr from the Royals, ronald Acuna Jr from the Braves and Terry Francona as your manager. Or Group B, jose Ramirez from the I want to say Indians, but it's the Guardians Mookie Betts from the Dodgers and Dave Roberts, the Dodgers manager.
Speaker 3:That's tough. I think I'm going to take group A. They're younger. Frank Cona has been there, done it a number of times with a number of teams. Now I mean Witt man. He is a star and as much as a Mets fan, as much as I hate Acuna, that dude can play. I think those two at the top of the order would be a pretty big problem.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely. If you could sit down with two famous people athletes or whatever from history and have dinner and just pick their mind on leadership, who would you pick?
Speaker 3:I'm a history teacher, so I'm going to go. Abraham Lincoln who else Leadership? Uh, who else Leadership?
Speaker 1:I'm going to go Lincoln and Eisenhower Really Okay, I love it. All right, finish up. I kind of shot to that in a text your best or funniest story, and it can be from being a player or a coach.
Speaker 3:Um, I thought about this and I I you know, having grown up in upstate new york and and um and dealing with that weather, I've had games. I had my buddy pitched a no-hitter in the snow. Um, we had a game fogged out at ithaca. We started the game clear day. Two hours later you couldn't see the lights on the scoreboard. Um, and there's a lot of just kind of funny ones like that.
Speaker 3:I think one of my, one of my favorites, was um, in my first year here we had a kid that was a stud player, stud catcher, and we had a big arm and he was just having like a hard day behind the plate, like struggling to receive, like not blocking balls he normally does. And there's this fan of the opposing team that is just wearing him out, like to the point where I'm like I said to the official, I'm like can you say something? He's like, you know, it's not like obvious, he could be saying it about anybody whatever. Sixth, seventh, sixth, seventh inning comes up. This guy comes up big spot, hits a ball. It's 430 feet over the right. I mean, this field is like a cavern out to right center, it's like 400 feet. He hits this ball. It's never more than nine feet off the ground. The entire way, absolute missile Circles the bases, steps on home plate, takes off his helmet and tips it to a guy that was heckling him in the crowd.
Speaker 1:Love it. You know you talked about games getting canceled. My son had a game in college and you hear of all kinds of stories rain outs, but the game had to be canceled because a tree fell on the opposing team's dugout. That was one I didn't have on the bingo card. I guess you could say Well, I got one more question, if you don't mind. 2025 season comes to an end and your high school team is fill in the blank proud of the work they've put in good stuff. Well, coach, um I you know I can't thank you enough for taking the time. I know how important it is to um take advantage of planning time as a teacher and, uh, you know you're um taking the time to do this for me is, uh, I really do appreciate it and um, best of luck and love to love to see you make another run and get you back to back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's, that's the plan. A lot of work to do.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely All right. Well, Coach, thanks and take care.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me on Appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1:Special thanks to McLean High School head baseball coach in Virginia, john Dowling. Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is powered by the netting professionals improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. Or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. As always, I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter. Tune in every Wednesday for a new episode and thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
