BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
The Ultimate Baseball Coaching Podcast. Step inside the dugout with Baseball Coaches Unplugged, the must-listen podcast for players, coaches, and parents who want to unlock the secrets of baseball greatness. Hosted by Ken Carpenter, a 27-year coaching veteran, this show delivers exclusive insights from top athletes and coaches, revealing what separates champions from the rest.
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BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
How Top High School Baseball Programs Build Winning Cultures (and How You Can Too!)
Ever wonder how top high school baseball programs consistently develop winning cultures? Coach Blake Iles of Olathe East High School in Kansas pulls back the curtain on his coaching philosophy that's produced multiple 20+ win seasons and championships.
What makes Iles' approach unique is his genuine commitment to empowering those around him. His assistant coaches don't just stand around during games – they have "full control" over their areas of expertise. This delegation creates a coaching environment where everyone feels valued and players receive specialized instruction from coaches dedicated to their development. As Iles explains, dividing responsibilities allows him to focus on game management while ensuring players get the attention they deserve.
The conversation dives deep into player buy-in, with Iles sharing the remarkable story of transforming his second-best shortstop into a two-time All-State center fielder despite the player never having played outfield before. "That had nothing to do with me," Iles humbly reflects, "it had everything to do with him buying into saying, 'Hey, coach, you see this in me, I want to work hard at it.'" These moments of transformation happen when coaches communicate honestly and players embrace new challenges.
Transparency emerges as a cornerstone of Iles' coaching philosophy. Following advice from his mentor, he practices "brutal honesty" with players and parents alike. When dealing with playing time questions, he cuts through confusion with direct conversations about where players stand. While this approach might seem harsh initially, it creates clarity and trust. Players and parents might not always like what they hear, but they never have to wonder where they stand.
Perhaps most refreshing is Iles' emphasis on making baseball fun again. From blaring music during practices to giving players autonomy in game situations, he creates an environment where hard work and enjoyment coexist. "There's a reason baseball is called a game," he reminds us. "It's a game, it's meant to be fun."
Whether you're coaching high school baseball or leading a youth team, this episode offers practical wisdom for developing a program where players and coaches thrive. Subscribe now and learn how transparent communication, empowered assistants, and fun-focused practices might transform your coaching approach this season.
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Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged why you should give your assistants decision-making power during games, developing a winning culture beyond just wins and losses and player buy-in.
Speaker 2:Three years ago that had never played a lick of outfield in his entire life. But the kid could absolutely fly. He was the second best shortstop in my organization but the best was the same age as him and he played shortstop and so he was never going to play shortstop. I moved out to center field and he was a two-time all-state center fielder and again, that had nothing to do with me, had everything to do with him buying into saying, hey, coach, you see this in me, I want to work hard at it. And he took it and ran and he was awesome with it. So you know, there's stories on both sides where you get the kids that are willing to adapt and do what is best for the team to help them win, and there's other ones saying, no, I'm, I'm a left fielder, I'm a third baseman and I'm not moving off the third base.
Speaker 1:So today the show takes us to Kansas, specifically Olathe East High School head baseball coach, blake Isles. Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3: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.
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Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter, and I need to start off the show with a huge thank you to you, the listener, and to every guest of Baseball Coaches Unplugged. To you, the listener, and to every guest of Baseball Coaches Unplugged. We've hit 25,000 downloads and we're excited to keep it rolling. If you get a chance, hit that subscribe button. Leave us a review. It helps us to grow the show. Now to my guest out of Kansas, blake Iles. Thanks for taking time to be on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you having me. I'm excited. Well, we talked earlier and you said you just wrapped up your season and for my research you put together another strong season. The question I always, like I'm interested in here is what's your approach to addressing the team after that last out is made?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's never a conversation that you want to have and every year going into it I've tried to prepare something, to have something to say. And I'll be honest with you this year I didn't prepare anything. I was not prepared to lose that game. I told the boys all going into it we had kind of had an up-and-down season, not necessarily from the wins and losses, but we gave away too many free bags and we had talked about free 90s and we talk about pressure 90s. We want to steal as many pressure 90s as we can from the other team and we were giving too many of those away. And that's something that we track during the game and after each one of our games win or loss we would really talk about guys. We gave away too many and it's going to come down to at the very end, it's going to come down to the minute details.
Speaker 2:And the previous year regional championship again, it came down to a very minute thing. We uh had a guy that grounded back to the pitcher and the pitcher fielded it perfectly and started running to the mat or first base and then the ball just simply fell out of his glove. So, uh, we talked about little things and in in the regional championship game. We didn't walk a single player, we didn't make a single error and my pitcher went a complete game. If you would have told me at the beginning of the game, I would have said we would have won the game. I had nothing prepared To make a short answer, real long, for you. I just looked at the guys and said, guys, I got nothing for you. I said I love you. I don't know what to say. I said you guys did everything I asked and we still didn't come out on top. But that's the game of baseball, and I don't know what lesson we just learned, and someday we're going to figure out what lesson we learned, but it was a hard one, right then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's tough when you play a great game and you know, like you said, that's baseball. It's sometimes the most frustrating world when you do everything right and it still doesn't work out for you. But going into the season this year you talked a little bit about your pitching was probably going to be a little bit of a concern and you know you produced a 20-plus win season. Talk about how you got your pitchers to step up when going in you thought maybe that was going to be one of our areas that's going to struggle a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, that was a huge testament to them. And you know, two, three years ago we had had a little bit issue where our pitching staff wasn't as strong, and so I went out and found what I thought to be a real pitching coach and Patrick Adkins, one of my assistants, and I kind of just told him I said, hey, you got full autonomy to do whatever you want and he, he puts together a plan for the guys and has a workout for them, a mentality plan for them, and he kind of just took it and ran and that would. That was a huge part of it. And ultimately the boys, the boys stepped up and went. I told him early on in the season several guys are going to get opportunities to show what they can do.
Speaker 2:And we had a kid that freshman year start on the freshman team, sophomore year was on our C team, junior year was on JV and then this year was his only opportunity to play varsity and he stepped up in a huge way for us.
Speaker 2:And so again, you're right, it all just kind of fell into place for us and we had several other talented arms that didn't get very many innings and I had to keep going up to them and saying guys, I know you want to pitch and I know you want innings, but trust me, like when we get into the state tournament and we get into crunch time, we're going to need you to come through. And you know, obviously it didn't work out that way that we were able to meet him in the state tournament. But you know, yeah, I wish I had a better answer for you to how it, but again, it's just how hard the boys worked in the off season and and coach Adkins, you know having that daily routine with the guys, Well, you know it's a, it's gotta be a testament to the, to the young guy that waited his turn.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, you always talk about guys who you know they get frustrated and sometimes say, ah, you know I'm never going to get my shot and either become a you know a player that's a problem, or a player that ends up quitting and he sticks around and he, he ends up getting his opportunity and makes the most of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and good for him too. He's, he's got an opportunity. He's going to play next year at Quincy university, so he's going to get the opportunity to play at the next level. And again, just a great story of a kid that continually improved every year and continued to work hard. And you know, another reason our pitching was as good as what it was is because one our defense. We pride ourselves on playing good, solid defense. It goes to kind of how we prepare at practice and some of the routines that we do. But we told our pitchers if we don't give free bases, you know, let your defense work. We got a pretty solid, you know, seven guys standing behind you and then, same thing, our offense was pretty solid and when you can put up numbers in the first couple innings and jump out to a lead, it takes a lot of pressure off of those guys and they know they can just go out there and pitch free and loose and pitch with a lead.
Speaker 1:Well, you know you just mentioned there that you know some of the routines you do with your defense. Could you kind of share a little bit about as far as what you guys do defensively, because I've always been a believer that in high school baseball if you just make the routine plays you got a pretty good chance to win a game.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's kind of a unique situation. We play on all turf on every one of our fields that we play on our turf, but our practice field is grass and it's not a good grass infield at all. Anyway, it's got lips galore. We really can't even use it for defensive purposes.
Speaker 2:So two years ago, um, I was fortunate enough to have one of the booster dads that kind of cleared a space out there for us and it's about a 60 by 40 area, and we took the old football turf when they replaced the football field and just kind of threw it down over the grass and it's got lumps, it's got bumps, and and we tell our boys if you can be good fielders on this, you're going to be good fielders on the real turf. And so, um, we go up to that little turf area every day and and and get our work in and and we always end it with the perfect something, whether it's perfect 30, perfect 25, um, whatever it is and and we have to be perfect fielding and throwing, and the boys do a really nice job of holding them to that standard. And that took a while to get to when we first started. You know we'd get to 17, 18 and they'd make an error and they'd get pretty frustrated. But you know, uh, the guys that have been part of the program for long enough know the reason.
Speaker 2:We're doing it and we'll get to. You know, if we're going to 25 and we get to 22 and make an error, they love it, they, they jump right back in, they say let's go, let's start back over at one. There's times where Coach and I are hitting the fungos and we probably would have given it to them because they maybe bobbled it just a little bit and still made the throw and they're like nope, we've got to start over guys. So it's the standard that they hold each other to that we feel kind of bring us to that level defensively.
Speaker 1:Well, was there a time during the season where you thought these guys are starting to figure it out and I, I believe at one point you had a 14 game winning streak?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and we had started last year too, I think 12 and 0 is what we started last year. And so you know, we were ranked number one, two, something like that last year as well, and and the boys kind of got caught up in that a little bit in the rankings and kind of started feeling a little bit too good about themselves and then we went on, I think, a four game losing streak last year. So going into this year, you know, they said rankings don't matter, we don't care about rankings, and it was all about what are we going to do, and we talk about it all year long. The only team that can beat us is us, and as long as we go out and play our game. We felt pretty confident, you know we were going to be in a position.
Speaker 2:And so this year the boys never did. They never focused on, you know, what that number was or what the winning streak was. And even when we lost, they that it didn't care, because they knew that wasn't the game that mattered. They wanted to keep building towards something bigger than that and you know they even brought it up a couple of times Even after wins. They're like guys the only ones that can beat us is us, and we didn't play very well today, and if we do this late in the season, it's going to cost us. So they were just a different group in terms of how focused they were on what their goals were.
Speaker 1:Well, what does it mean? To have a winning culture, which that's something that you've has clearly established, but beyond just wins and losses, and how do you continue to develop that?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think it kind of goes back to when I played in high school. I mean, some of my best friends to this day are my high school buddies, and it's just. I don't remember all the wins and losses, as I'm sure you're similar to it too. You remember the times that you're with your buddies, and it's a little different time. Where we traveled we had to go. At least an hour was our closest, you know road game, and so we spent tons of time on the bus playing cards and goofing with each other. And so I try to just make sure that when we're at practice, that I not necessarily trick them, but trick them into making sure that they have fun. We have we have music blaring all the time at practice, um, and it's a good time. Like we, we make sure that we're having fun down there and and laughing and goofing around. But they understand that when it gets a little bit too much and it's time to work, it's time to work. But it's again a testament to them of that over and over and of the same routine. They kind of know what to expect when we go down to practice and when practice is over, they hang out, they stay down there in the dugout they goof, I mean. They truly enjoyed being around each other and again, that's just a testament of them wanting to continue to work and get better.
Speaker 2:I'm fortunate enough to have really good players as part of our program that play club level at the high level and have aspirations of going on and playing at the next level, so they kind of know what it takes and we run our practices a little bit differently than a lot of teams around here.
Speaker 2:We practice all four of our teams. We have four. We have a varsity, junior varsity, a seed team and a freshman team and anywhere from 55 to 65 guys are a part of our program in a given year and we practice all of them together down at the same field and what we call it is Hawk Diamond. We're the Olathe East Hawks and we named our field Hawk Diamond and we practice, all you know, 55, 65 of us down there together and at times it's kind of chaotic. But I think it's huge that the freshmen are practicing right next to our seniors and the seniors get an opportunity to lead the freshmen and show them what it's like, and then the freshmen get an opportunity to see hey, this is what it's going to take for me to play at the next level.
Speaker 1:And this is the standard that I got to get to, so it's been a lot of fun to just watch them interact with each other. I spoke to a coach today on the phone and you know he said that you know he's an assistant coach and you know we were just talking about baseball in general and he said that once the game starts, he has zero input, and I so I thought you know, why not ask you how important are your assistant coaches to what you do?
Speaker 2:And do they have any input during the game? Yeah, so when I was an assistant kind of same thing, like I felt like when I was the C team coach and I would come up to the varsity games, you know, I didn't have that connection with those kids, and so I'd see something and I'd be like, hey, maybe we should be doing this. And they're like who's this guy? Because we didn't have that day-to-day interaction. And so I always said I wanted to make sure that my assistants felt valued as we went through it. And so I've been, fortunate enough, eric Harrington and Murray Drescher, two of my assistants that have been with me since the beginning.
Speaker 2:And Coach Drescher, he has the infield and, like I said when I, when I tell him, hey, infield, you guys got the next 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:Sometimes he's up there 40 minutes and I don't, I don't mess with him, so he has full control of all of the infield. And then Harrington, he has our outfield and, same thing, he has full control over the outfield. And so, yeah, in games I will give a suggestion and I'll say, hey, is our left fielder too far down the line? And he's like, no, we've talked about it, we want them here and here and here. So they have full communication and they come in and they immediately go to him and they talk to him when they go through it, and same thing with our infielders. So we've kind of divided that up so that way. You know it's hard I mean you've, you've been at, you've done it as a coach when you're trying to watch every single position and call pitches and and you know, make sure guys are positioned correctly and then still understand the situations of the game. I try to delegate as much of that as possible and I've been fortunate enough to have an awesome assistant staff to help me out with that.
Speaker 1:This time of the year when seasons come to an end, in every state, you know, ultimately in each division there's only going to be one head coach. That's really happy. That's just the nature of the game. But I wanted to ask you you know I kind of wrote this out just a scenario here when it comes to the state tournament and you know you've got 55, 65 guys in your program and for the sake of all right, you're in the state tournament. You know maybe you're getting beat. State tournament. You know maybe you're getting beat. And this is the last time. These for a lot of your players in high school that's the last time they're going to put on a uniform.
Speaker 1:And I guess you know high school coaches have to handle all kinds of stuff. It's crazy, and you know. And parents can get emotional and in the back of your mind. You know I don't know how it is in Kansas, but here in Ohio you get a one-year contract that's renewed every year. So coaches have to sometimes balance. You know, all right, if the wrong parent is upset, you know I might not be here next year, you know. So, um, what do you do when you're in that situation, do you? I always kind of treat it as if, hey, it's the tournament. This is varsity baseball. Best nine are out there, regardless of grade level.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, um, it's, it's hard and and even, same thing, you have that senior that's been a part of your program for four years, who's a phenomenal kid and you and you wish you could find more time, more innings, more at bats for it and you just can't be good based on the talent level that you have. And, um, I've been really fortunate. Same thing, to have a really supportive uh administration, uh, my head principal. She has never once said I need you to win x number of games. Uh, you know she hires me to to build young men because, like you said, very few of them are going to get to go on and play the next level and we all know the percentages of who gets to play division one, who gets to play professional ball, and it's, it's very minute, and so you know, there's the saying that you, all of them, are going to become husbands and fathers and young men in our society. So anything that we can teach of those values and and and baseball is that sport that teaches those values more than any sport. I think that you can, um, but, yeah, it's, it's tough and you know, like I said, I've never felt that I was, I was on the chopping block or anything like that.
Speaker 2:But one of my coaching mentors, dale Reed, he's kind of well-known here in the KC Metro area. He's run a club team for a long time called the KC Bullets. I was fortunate to coach a 16U team underneath him for about six or seven years and you know, he told me one time he said tell parents exactly the truth, just be truthful with them. And it seems really obvious. But he said too many times coaches kind of sugarcoat things and they want to tell them what parents want to hear, even what the kid wants to hear about man, you're a great player and you're a great hitter and you know that's great to hear and it might, you know, put a Band-Aid on it for there. But eventually a bandaid has got to get ripped off. And so he, he gave me that advice and I've kind of been brutally honest with kids right on the bat.
Speaker 2:I tell some of these seniors, you might not play a single inning, are you okay if you don't play a single inning this year? And you know they all come in saying, oh, absolutely, I'm fine and I'm going to. They stop and ask again. I said, are you really okay with that? And so I've tried to be as brutally honest with with parents and with with players, and and honestly, I feel that's helped because it's eliminated some of those conversations at the end. And it's come up every now and then hey coach, why am I not getting more? And it's a simple question of, well, who are you better than? Are you better than so-and well, no, are you better than so? And so no, that's why you're not playing and it. It sounds rude, but it it's. It's what the kid needs to hear, not what the kid wants to hear sometimes, and it's it's.
Speaker 1:It's a learning lesson that we try to go through and, like you said, you know when they walk away from high school, whether they go off to college or or just go straight into the working world, the, the boss, ain't going to be sugarcoating things. You know you get the job done or the next guy. You know it's how it is and that's part of life, I guess, and you know. But but then then you know I feel bad for because there's a lot of really a lot of really really good coaches who lose their job just because mom or dad aren't happy. And you know I you almost feel like, well, the AD, you know, remove the coach, or do I want to continue to deal with this? And then it becomes a bigger issue for me. So it's a tough situation to be in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think part of that is that transparency. I mean the more transparent that you can be in your program. And I tell parents all the time I welcome them down to my practice. If you want to come watch practice, come watch practice. And you know very few do. Sometimes they do, but you know I feel I have a pretty good relationship with a lot of the parents in the program and you know we go to booster events and we have a booster golf tournament and you know, uh, I feel having those conversations with those parents over there kind of hopefully eliminated. But yeah, ultimately there's, there's always going to be, you know, one or two. It's that rule of 33, 30% of the people that are going to love you, 33% going to hate you, and then there's that 33 in the middle that you don't know where they're at.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, well, you know, you mentioned earlier there that, uh, here in ohio they talk travel baseball. You called it club. I don't know if it's travel club, whatever it may be, but uh, what are? What's your advice on telling your players all right, hey, you're going to go play for this team. You know, as a high school coach, it's almost like wow, you know, don't get caught up where they're pitching you too much, or you're on that team and you're going to play outfield. But the high school level, you're going to be my third baseman or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:The high school level you're going to you're going to be my, my third basement or whatever it may be. Yeah, um, so in Kansas and I don't know when you're allowed to have contact with them we don't get to do anything baseball related with our kids until the first week of March. So we can do off season workouts but there can't be a ball, a bat, a glove, nothing we can. You know, we can weight lift and that's about it. So we have to put a lot of trust into the clubs and the travel ball that are around for the boys to get to work in, and I've tried to build that relationship. I have a really good relationship with most of the clubs kind of here in Kansas City, most of the travel ball organizations, because, again, they get to work with them nine months out of the year and I get three months out of the year. So you know if we're trying to compete against each other it's going to be real difficult. And so you know there's quite a few of the club owners that they'll talk him and I will talk quite often, and you know one of them in particular. He always kind of gives me a rundown of his players. I hear the players that are coming in here are the strengths that I think they have. Here's where I think they can play and he's never pushy about it. You know, he's just kind of given it to me for my information to do it as I please. But yeah, I think just having that open communication is huge, and I do.
Speaker 2:At my first parent meeting you brought up, you know, I got you playing third base but you play left field for your travel ball team. You know I put up a graphic at the beginning of the year. I asked the kids you know what travel ball organization they play for? And then I put it all on one screen on a PowerPoint, and I show parents like guys, I got 42 clubs or 42 travel ball organizations here and I got 26 shortstops. I need four. Like so you know kind organizations here and I got 26 shortstops, I need four. So kind of letting parents know the goal is to get on the field and if you want to get on the field, then maybe having that ability to do so because you never know what you're going to be in college as well it works for some, it doesn't for others.
Speaker 2:There's been some kids I've tried to move to the outfield because of their athleticism and they haven't really bought into it and it didn't really work out for them. And on the flip side, I had a kid three years ago that had never played a lick of outfield in his entire life, but the kid could absolutely fly. He was the second best shortstop in my organization but the best was the same age as him and he played shortstop and so he was never going to play shortstop. I moved him down to center field and he was a two-time All-State center fielder and again, that had nothing to do with me. It had everything to do with him buying into, saying, hey, coach, you see this in me, I want to work hard at it. And he took it and ran and he was awesome with it. So you know, there's stories on both sides where you get the kids that are willing to adapt and do what is best for the team to help them win.
Speaker 1:And there's other ones saying, no, I'm, I'm a left fielder, I'm a third baseman and I'm not moving off the third base. So, yeah, yeah, it's a tough to juggle with, for sure. Well, you talked uh earlier about before we we started recording about your experience with the kansas city royals. If you could just uh for the audience, talk a little bit what what you did with them and and uh how that impacted you as a coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when Dayton Moore was the manager here for Kansas city, um, his, his son was a really nice player he's actually playing in the minor league organization now but, um, he kind of created what they called the Royal scout team and they would create, um 17, 16, 15 year old kind of travel ball teams and they would go down to Atlanta 15-year-old kind of travel ball teams and they would go down to Atlanta and to some of these bigger tournaments and try to get what we think was kind of the best of the best in the KC Metro and KC area to kind of go compete with these teams. And the Royals kind of used it as an opportunity to see what other high school players are out there and we have an opportunity to go to these, you know, tournaments and see and things like that. And plus, we got to see what kind of players or the Royals got to see what kind of players we had here in the KC Metro. And it was crazy.
Speaker 2:I got an email from the Royals saying we'd like you to come coach for us. And it was surreal I've been a Royals fan my entire life and to get that email saying that they wanted me to come help them. I had to pinch myself. And so for four years I got the opportunity to kind of go around with the 17U scout team and just kind of manage my own or not my own manage the travel ball scene and go down to Atlanta and go to some of these bigger tournaments and play against some of the best of the best. And you know, it was surreal, it was really really cool to see some of those athletes.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely you know based on your experience as a head coach. You know both as a club-level coach and you know for your high school experience. Someone is going to be taking over a program. Tell me one thing a coach must do and one thing you would say whatever you do, do not do this.
Speaker 2:I mean I think the must is you got to meet the kids where they're at. You got to make it fun. I mean there's a reason baseball is called a game. It's a game, it's meant to be fun. If you let it beat you up, it'll tear you apart. I mean I'm still not over our loss from two weeks ago of the regionals. But it's funny. You had mentioned earlier that you know only one coach gets to be crowned champion or be happy at the end of the season and our state tournament's going on right now and so I'm kind of following it through Game Changer and things like that. This afternoon and my assistant sends me a text and said only one coach doesn't have to feel what we're feeling right now. So you know we're down because we lost in the regionals, but them losing at state, they're just as bummed.
Speaker 2:And so you know, kind of keeping it in perspective, right, tried to be everywhere. I tried to be at every JV game, be at every C team, be at every freshman game and really, you know, be involved with every kid. And I wasn't doing my own varsity, as you know. I was doing them a disservice and luckily I had a good enough relationship with a couple of kids and actually my center fielder Parker Esparza was the kid's name he came up to me and he's like, coach, you're not giving us enough time, like, I understand what you're doing, you're trying to run a program, but we need you, we need you to be part of us.
Speaker 2:And you know, I think the fact that he had that relationship with me and he felt comfortable to tell me that, you know it was a huge eye opener for me. And so you know, be where you are, be at the team that you are, don't always look for that next step, and you know that's the importance of having that, that coaching staff around you. I, I am fortunate enough I I'm sure a lot of coaches say it, but I think I have the best assistant coaching staff there is. I, I can be gone and I trust that things are going to be ran smooth. And you know, part of that is because they have that freedom to do what they want to at a normal practice. So when I'm gone, really nothing's that much different.
Speaker 1:I hate losing or love winning, and why.
Speaker 2:Oh, I hate losing more. I am, I am, and I tell my kids this all the time. I am such a poor sport. If we play paper rock scissors, I'm going to try to beat you at it. If we're going to shake hands, I'm going to try to shake hands harder than you. I absolutely cannot stand losing and my own kids know that. My son's a seventh grader now and he just beat me in pig, I think about two months ago, and he got so excited because it was the first time he'd ever beat me and he knew he actually beat me, because I don't even let my own kid win. But don't get me wrong, I love winning, but man, I hate losing and I'll stay within the parameters of the game, but man, I will do almost anything to win.
Speaker 1:Runner on first base. One out tie game bottom of the seventh. What signal are you giving the batter?
Speaker 2:Well, I kind of went away with giving signals two or three years ago and we have different cues that we want to use. And I'm not a guy that stands over in the third base box and does a bunch of stuff, because you know kids will miss that stuff. And you tell a kid to steal and he gets a bad jump, and then you know kids will miss that stuff and and and you tell a kid to steal and he gets a bad jump and then he gets thrown out and then I'm mad. So, uh, I've kind of went away from all that and we go from different reads and things like that. So, um, the sign that I'm given is have fun and breathe. Uh, I tell my kids that a lot.
Speaker 2:We do a lot of visual training. We talk about the mental aspect of it. We do what we call sunny days. It's not a new thing, I didn't come up with it, but you know we start every practice, every game with sunny days where we visualize positives happening. We visualize negatives happen and and and hopefully, what they're visualized is that right there. And you know cool story about it.
Speaker 2:I had a kid last year in the regional semifinal game. He's playing left field and fly ball goes out to him, a kid tags up and goes home and he guns him at the plate Not the best arm that we have on the team, but just makes a really nice play and throws the kid out. And he comes in after the game and he said, coach, this is what I visualized before the game. He's like during, during sunny days, I visualized throwing a dude out, so it was really cool to see you know how proud he was of, like man, this, this really does work. This I you know. I saw this coming into fruition. So again, a really short answer that you asked me. That I made really long. I'd probably just tell the kids swing, have fun and stay simple well, I, I guess, I.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess I got to ask. I mean, how would you do a squeeze play then?
Speaker 2:So we do have a couple signs. I do have signs, so I do have steel signs that I will put on. We do go through signs and I have some. But kids know they got the green light all the time and we talk about different numbers of when they have green light, yellow light or red light. Um, but yeah, we will have probably talked about that prior to the inning. If it's in that seventh inning saying, hey, if this happens, then we're going to do this and then we're going to do this. But, um, yeah, I, uh, we have a few signs. We didn't do a lot of squeeze plays. We had probably 12 bunt singles this year and I don't know if I called a single one of those, other than the kid looked at me and I gave him a little wink because we saw the third baseman back Again. It's cool because it puts the ownership on them and they think, hey, I'm going to bunt rather than coaches making me bunt.
Speaker 1:I like that. That makes sense because a lot of times you can give a bunt saying no and the kid is like, oh man, I don't want to bunt, and then they give you a half-hearted attempt and you're like I got to let him swing now because he doesn't want to do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, and earlier this year I mean, I had a kid. We had runners at first and second and it was a close game. I don't know if it was tied or we were down one or something. But one of my faster kids was up and he's a really good bunter, and I went up to him and I said, hey, what do you think about bunting right here? And he's like, ah, this guy, and he was kind of a little funky three-quarter sidearm pitcher and he putting that ownership back on him. And I asked him I said, do you want a bun? He's like I'd rather hit here. And so I said, go for it. And he battled and battled and fouled three or four off and then ended up slapping one over the short stop heads. That scored the run. And again, just just a really cool moment that he felt comfortable enough to say, coach, I don't want a bun, or I don't feel comfortable bunting with this arm slot that I got here. And so really cool opportunity for that kid.
Speaker 1:Well, if you could take over one college baseball program, which one would you take over? Vanderbilt, Tennessee or Texas, Texas?
Speaker 2:Oh I don't know I think going to a Tennessee or what's that. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Or you could insert your your team that you would want to coach.
Speaker 2:Um, with the, with the landscape of college baseball right now and the whole portal and everything like that, I don't know if I'd want to coach college. Um, man, I, I love where I'm at, you know I I know that's a cop-out answer Um, I don't think I'd want to be a college coach. I love the high school game. I love being able to still kind of, you know, make that impact on the kids and seeing them in the hallway every day. I'm a high school math teacher and you know. So getting to see the kids in the hallway every day and then get to see them out in the playing field, I just think there's a huge benefit of that. So I'm going to take the cop-out easy answer and say I'm going to stay at the high school ranks, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, obviously I would think you follow college baseball. Who do you think is going to win the College World Series?
Speaker 2:Oh, man, I don't know. It's been fun to watch the, the acc, the sec tournament and heck even flipping over to big 10 tournament and watching some of those guys. Um, I'm a, I'm a kansas fan. Kansas is playing pretty well right now. Um, you know, it's still cool. Some of the kids that I had from from when I coached with the royal scout. They're kind of scattered all over the SEC and so there's a couple down at Arkansas, one down in Tennessee. So you know, again I'm pulling for KU. But man, I don't know. Vanderbilt's pretty tough. They look really good in their championship series. I'm probably going to have to go with Vanderbilt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if I were to pick a surprise team to win it all, I would say west virginia. I mean they, they had a real nice season and well, and you could say that. But but kansas ended the season with a 3-0 sweep of west virginia and only didn't win the big 12 because of a one-game series that got rained out. So little plug for my jayhawks there that they should have won the big 12, but um jay ox playing pretty well right now too yeah, well, I guess I'm west virginia fan.
Speaker 1:I had coach randy maizey on and uh and uh, my wife graduated from wvu, so I gotta kind of play it safe all right, I'll give you fair enough. Yeah, well, let me ask you this the can you share an unbelievable or funny story from all your years of coaching?
Speaker 2:An unbelievable is I lost a game. So this was before you could intentionally walk people just by saying put them on. But we lost the regional championship my junior year of high school because we tried to put a guy on and we weren't able to throw four balls to the catcher and just play catch. So that was a pretty heartbreaking one. That's not real funny, but that one still kind of hurts on that aspect of it. But no, I mean I can't think of any one particular story.
Speaker 2:Just I guess my first year of being a head coach. You know everyone says enjoy it, enjoy it, enjoy it. And it's real hard when you kind of get wrapped up in it. And we were playing a really good Shawnee Mission East team and actually Dayton Moore's son, robert Moore, was playing on that team and they were a really talented group and they probably should have won the game. It was about the fifth inning and we were in the first base dugout and so I'm having to run over the third base dugout every time. Again, I'm just so wrapped up in the game.
Speaker 2:About in the fifth inning I kind of stopped and we were up, I think, 4-1 at that point, kind of to the point where I was like, you know, we might actually win this game and get to go to the state tournament. And I just kind of stopped and looked up in the stands and just saw how many people were there and really enjoyed, you know, kind of took all in that moment. And so you know, I guess to any young coach or veteran coach just it's hard but to stop and really enjoy the environment that you're in because you know we're we're lucky to get what to do, what we get to do every day. And, um, you know, I I tell people all the time I don't do much, I just have a front row seat in the third base box. You know it's, it's just a blast to be around the kids, just to try to enjoy as much of it as you can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I was speaking to somebody the other day and they we were talking about things that you just never thought you would see in baseball. And I end up realizing that my first year as a head coach. We played the team. I believe they went on to win the state that year but we lost to them on a pitch that we threw, that hit home plate and bounced over the backstop and the plate was. You know, I swear the plate was way above where it should have been.
Speaker 1:And then my final year as a head coach, we're playing one of the good teams here in Central Ohio and it ends up they got the two-time player of the year for Division I and bases loaded bottom of the seventh 3-2 count and he hits a moonshot foul ball at Ohio Dominican University and first base comes over. Catcher comes over. Pitcher comes running over. We're all in the dugout. I look over and one coach. He's trying to get out of the way. He falls over. Everybody's getting back. We've got a first base and he's about 6'3". He reaches over the dugout, fencing there in front. I'm like we're going to win this game. I'm like, wow, he reaches over and a player on our bench had his glove on, reaches up and knocks it out of his hand.
Speaker 1:You know, and then I'm like we still have to get out there and throw another pitch and get everybody you know settled down. He goes back out. Next pitch base hit, we lose. That's how my career ends, right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think every year something happens. And again now I'm coaching my son's 12-year-old team and you know, you see some crazy stuff there too. But you know, know, this game is an awesome game but it's a terrible game. Every year there is something that you see that you're like man, I've never seen that happen in this game and, um, that's the the joy of it, that's the the excitement of it, but uh, it's the frustrating part about it as well.
Speaker 1:Well, I actually had a game where I helped out a friend of mine when my son was playing college and I was just a volunteer, so I would help him out. And we had Dave Malecki who pitched 10 years in the big leagues. We had Mike Lockwood who won his highest AAA. I mean, our coaching staff was just incredible, you know, and there were times during the season where we would look at each other. Here's Dave Malicki, who's seen everything in Major League Baseball and he's like I've never seen that happen before. That's what makes baseball great, I guess, you know, and the stories and the coaches that get together. And to me that's the best part about baseball, I think, is what players and coaches remember from the games and, like you said earlier, not so much the score but something that may have happened on the bus or in a practice in the middle of the winter, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh for sure. All my high school buddies. We would hang out at my one buddy's house in the basement all the time. This was back when Nintendo was still a thing, but we'd sit there and play RBI baseball on the Nintendo and play Euchre. I mean, I never knew how to play Euchre until I was around all my baseball buddies and we would just sit there and play cards nonstop with them. You know, those are the memories that you hope we can instill in the kids that we coach and you know, hopefully they can, you know, when they're large, talk about memories that we were able to have with them as well.
Speaker 1:Well, it's Blake Howells and I want to make sure I'm saying it right Olathe high school in Kansas, coach, great stuff. And uh, you know really glad you took the time out of your day to to jump on the podcast with me here and uh, you know, enjoy your summer and uh and I'm sure good things are going to happen again for you next year.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you having me on Ken. It was a lot of fun and, yeah, I appreciate it, and hopefully our paths cross again for sure.
Speaker 1:Special thanks to Blake Giles. Baseball Coach is Unplugged. Is proud to be partnered with the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707, or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. Be sure to tune in every Wednesday where we sit down with some of the best coaches at the high school, college and professional level from across the country. As always, I'm your host Coach, Ken Carpenter. Thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. Thank you.
