Why Playing Fast Is a Competitive Advantage Most Baseball Programs Overlook

What does it really mean to build a “fundamentally sound” baseball program?

In this episode, we sit down with Eddie Hull, Head Baseball Coach at Charlotte Catholic High School in North Carolina, whose teams have earned a reputation for consistency, toughness, and attention to detail. That reputation doesn’t happen by accident. Coach Hull breaks down the everyday standards that drive his program, starting with two clear non‑negotiables: play fast and compete every pitch.

We dive into what “playing fast” actually looks like inside a high school program—how tempo, urgency, and preparation keep players mentally locked in and how pace of play can quietly become a competitive advantage.

Coach Hull also walks us through the player development model at Charlotte Catholic, including the strength and conditioning culture he builds from the moment freshmen enter the program. He explains why year‑round lifting matters, how strength translates directly to speed and durability, and how a stronger, more physical roster expands what you can demand from players on the field.

The conversation also covers youth development and why successful camps aren’t just about drills—they’re about creating an environment where young players stay engaged, have fun, and build real baseball habits that last.

Beyond the high school season, Coach Hull shares insights from managing the Queen City Corn Dogs, a summer collegiate team in the Old North State League. He discusses the challenges of balancing development and competition with college athletes, as well as what he’s learned about travel baseball, year‑round training, and how coaches and parents can help players avoid burnout through smarter scheduling and intentional recovery.

We also get into the details of in‑game decision making, including:
• How hitters can adjust when facing elite velocity
• Using pitching machines to simulate high‑level pitching when your staff can’t replicate 95 mph
• What a coach should actually say during a mound visit when the game is on the line

Whether you’re a coach, player, or parent trying to build a better development plan, this conversation offers practical insights you can apply immediately.

Subscribe to the show, share this episode with a coaching buddy, and leave a quick review.

One question to think about: What standard in your program do you refuse to compromise on?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today

What Fundamentally Sound Really Means

SPEAKER_01 0:01

on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, you'll discover how to keep your teams fundamentally sound and competitive every season. In-game adjustments for hitters who are struggling at the plate, and communication on the mound visits when the game is on the line with Charlotte Catholic head baseball coach Eddie Hall. Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Baseball Coaches Unplugged is a podcast for high school travel and college baseball coaches who want to build better players and stronger programs. Each episode features real conversations about high school baseball coaching, travel baseball development, college recruiting player development.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Today's episode of Baseball Coaches on the Plug as Power 5, the Netting Professionals, improving programs one facile at a time. Will Minor and his team at 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 designed and installed digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, and cubbies. Netting Pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse, golf courses, and even pickleball. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. And you can visit them online at www.nettingpros.com. Check out Netting Pros on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm Coach Ken Carpenter. If you enjoyed today's show, please be sure to share it with someone who wants to hear unfiltered, honest baseball coaching advice from some of the best baseball coaches from across the country. Now let's hear from Eddie Hall, head coach at Charlotte Catholic High School in North Carolina. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter, joining me today from Charlotte, North Carolina, head baseball coach at Charlotte Catholic. It's Eddie Hall, and he's also the owner of Queen City Corn Dogs. Coach, thanks for taking time to be on Baseball Coach Unplugged.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Ken, thanks so much for having me. I'm I'm honored to be a guest this morning and uh looking forward to our discussion. Always enjoy talking baseball with some quality baseball folks, so I appreciate it.

Two Non Negotiables For Consistency

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Well, your teams have always had the reputation for being fundamentally sound and competitive every season. What are the non-negotiables that make consistency possible?

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Yeah, there's really two things that when you know when my players come into our program and really we try to instill in our guys in the fall during our fall practices. Number one, just playing fast and moving around the field fast. So that includes getting on and off the field hard, practicing fast, practicing hard, uh, running balls out, anything that involves pace of play and just moving around quicker. Um, that's something that our players have to do on a daily basis. And then number two, especially when we get into like our gameplay, um, we talk about just competing from first pitch to last pitch. So I think when you can do those two things, play fast and compete every pitch, you know, good things will happen. So those are our two non-negotiables right now.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Well, as someone who was a former umpire, I can tell you that umpires definitely are in favor of that type of style of play. Well, yeah, I uh I've had plenty of conversations with umpires about it.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

And I I'd be a fan of having a pitch clock at the high school level if we could. I love uh, you know, I love the 20 seconds in between pitches at the big league level. So uh I don't know if it'll trickle down to us, but we try to we try to push that as much as we can.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

You know, the other thing I would push too is getting in and out of the dugout because some teams just take forever. And I think, you know, if if like you said, if everybody plays fast, it's a much better game and guys stay uh more focused and they're and it's it's better all the way around.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

No doubt. Keeps them more engaged, you know, just keeps everybody more energetic. Uh but yeah, nothing worse than a game where guys are just getting on and off the field slowly and you just lose focus from that standpoint. So we love to push push the envelope with that.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Well,

Building Players Through The Weight Room

SPEAKER_01 4:44

when a freshman walks into your program, what's the development path look like by the time they're a senior?

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Man, I think every player is different, but the one consistent message or the one consistent thing we do with all of our guys is just crush the weight room. I tell every freshman coming in the weight room needs to become your best friend. And uh, you know, whether you're a 14-year-old freshman or a 19-year-old, you know, we got some older seniors now, you know, you need to be in the weight room all the time. So we're we're always in the weight room, you know, three days a week throughout the school year. Every now and then we'll have a fourth lift um in a week. But uh, I think that's the biggest piece for it. We we want to have the most physical guys, the fastest guys in the in the city. And our guys have taken taken pride in that. You know, I give them some cool cutoff shirts they can wear in the weight room and um you know, get let them have some fun with it. But I mean, we're lifting all the time, year round, you know, even in season. We lift on game days, and I th I think our guys, when they learn that as freshmen, you know, their their path continues from there. And obviously the baseball kind of takes care of itself after that. But the weight room is really the number one thing that that we push to our freshmen right now coming in uh here really in the next month or so.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Well, prior

Youth Camps That Keep Baseball Fun

SPEAKER_01 5:55

to starting the uh the recording here for the podcast, you you mentioned that uh you're you just finished up camp this week. Talk about your approach to running camp for youth players.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Yeah, so uh I've had the last two weeks, we've had our youth camps going on down here, um, which has been awesome. We had 65 kids last week, and then this past week that we just finished yesterday, I had 105 kids over four days. So um takes a lot of planning on my end. But what what's really cool now, I you know, I don't feel like I'm getting old, but you know, this is year three as a head coach, and I've been running my camps for probably six or seven years now. A lot of our a lot of our camp counselors this year, so like my players at the high school now were guys that we've had in camp. So they went from camp over a few years to now they're working camp and getting service hours or getting paid to work with me. But so really the really with camp, like we're trying to keep it fun. You know, four hours on the baseball field can be monotonous at times, but if you keep it fun and keep those kids engaged and let them compete, we do a ton of competitions throughout the week, you know, give away hats, baseball cards, uh, all that good stuff. But I think whenever um a lot of a lot of parent feedback from my end that I get on our camps is that we do such a phenomenal job of keeping it fun. And um, you have a lot of little league type programs where where sometimes baseball can be a drag sometimes, or you have a bad coach experience and kids kind of fall out of love with the game. And you know, that's really my goal with camp, is just just let it keep it fun, let them continue to love baseball and build a foundation too from a skill set standpoint. So when they do get to me, they kind of know what what we're talking about. But when you keep it fun, man, good things can happen from there.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Well, I want to I want to bounce around a lot.

Queen City Corn Dogs And Summer Ball

SPEAKER_01 7:36

So I'm gonna hit on a lot of different topics with you, if you don't mind. And uh, you know, like I mentioned early in the intro, owner of the Queen City Corn dogs. I'm assuming that's college summer baseball. And talk talk a little bit about that and how you got involved with that.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah, so yeah, I I guess a lot a lot of background on this, but about I guess in 2019, a buddy of mine here in town and I started a travel baseball organization, the Queen City Baseball Club. And we kind of just built that up over a couple years and then eventually rebranded and added the corndog's name to it, which really helped kind of get in some notoriety here in town. So we kind of ran some just some developmental teams for a couple years in town here, and then in 2022, I was approached by a team that I had played for in the Southern Collegiate Baseball League here in Charlotte. And they were closing up shop and basically they offered the team to me for a super low price. So I bought the team and bought into the Southern Collegiate Baseball League and rebranded from the Carolina Vipers, which is what their name was, to the Queen City Corn Dogs. And so we are on summer number four with our college team, and that's where I've kind of put most of my focus with our organization. We have our college team, we have three high school showcase teams and then four middle school developmental teams. Um I work mostly with our college team and bring in 40 plus players from all over the country. We got 10 or 12 host families housing some of those guys, and um, it's just a really cool experience to be able to give those guys a platform to play baseball. And um now I'm dealing with the transfer portal and you know, guys moving all over the place. So trying to navigate that. But I I just think with my connections inside of baseball, uh, you know, continuing to do the summer team has been really good and beneficial for for any of the players, whether they played for me in high school and they're coming back to play for the college team, or I'm bringing in guys, you know, through my connections in college baseball. Um, but it's been awesome. I I love college baseball and it it keeps me around the higher level of play and uh definitely uh lets me enjoy my summer with those guys.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

So

Travel Baseball Without Burning Kids Out

SPEAKER_01 9:38

well, you mentioned you also work with the the younger teams, you know, I guess you would call it travel. And um what is your take on travel baseball overall and the the year-round training that's taking place? And you know, how do you how do you keep players from burning out?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

You know, I don't know, I don't know if I have the right answer for that one, Ken. I think uh I think there's all different uh ways to look at it. From my standpoint, I honestly I try to control what I can control inside of inside of our organization, you know, which includes my high school, my middle school, and then and then my travel teams as well. You know, we really focus on the schedule first. I guess that would be a big piece of it. Uh, you know, I think from a travel standpoint, if you can mini, in my opinion, minimize travel to an extent and keep keep it as local as you can. Um, that's one thing that we do to try to not burn out kids and and cost our families a fortune with travel. But when we if we can keep it local, if we can practice twice a week, all of our teams still practice, uh practice twice a week with it, and then give them time off. So like the month of August is usually a time that we'll give them off. And then obviously on the travel side and the high school side, we're giving them those winter months off, November, December, um, to just to kind of let their bodies recover. You know, we we do have some multi-sport guys, but we are seeing a lot of kids transition to just baseball. And I think that, you know, I love multi-sport guys. I have 10 or 12 guys in my high school program uh, you know, that play football. But I think on the travel side, like if we if we know you're just a baseball guy, we can give you different plans and different throwing plans and different weight room plans that can really help benefit you, but also give you time off and let the body recover. So, you know, luckily I haven't seen a whole lot of burnout on our end of things. Uh, you know, I do see it, you know, throughout baseball and other areas, but uh I think just again, kind of kind of back when I was talking to with camps, keeping it fun, keeping players engaged and and giving them some time to recover and be kids too is very important.

Smarter College Recruiting Expectations

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Absolutely. Well, you know, what advice do you have for a player that's in your program and they say, hey, coach, I want to play college baseball.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Well, it the conversation has changed a lot over the last five to ten years. I have this conversation a lot, though, with guys. I I I always the first piece of advice I always give young men in the recruiting process is just don't compare yourself to others. You look at my high school team at Catholic, you know, we have two outfielders, one's going to uh that they're rising seniors, one's committed to Clemson, one's committed to Auburn. I have a first baseman committed to Dayton. But then I also have three or four other really good players in the class that that timing-wise, there's the recruiting's, you know, landscape for them is going to look completely different than those three guys. So I always tell our players, don't compare it to other guys. Don't worry about what you're seeing on Twitter and Instagram. Um, there will be a place for you. So that's kind of the number one thing that I always give the guys. And then number two, I I tell players and families just to be open to every level of college baseball. You know, I I went to went to Lewisburg College and played a year of junior college baseball, and it was probably the best thing that I ever could have done for my career to give me to give me a stepping stone into Division I baseball. But, you know, I tell families all I when I'm sitting down and talking with them, and I'm like, hey, let's look at junior college, let's look at division two, division three, because most of us probably aren't going to play Division I baseball. Um and if we are, it's probably gonna have to be after a year or two of junior college or or at the Division II level at this point. So uh really just focusing on kind of education and and the just sharing the different levels of baseball. I told a family a few weeks a week ago, uh, if you have some time while we're traveling, you know, this summer with your tournaments, like just go see different campuses. Like, don't focus on if you're going to Atlanta to play in a tournament, don't just go see Georgia Tech and you know, you know, University of Georgia in Athens. Like, go see Emory, the Division III school in Atlanta. Go see, you know, Georgia Gwinnett in AIA school right up the road where sheets used to coach. Go look at Georgia Highlands, junior college, kind of towards the mountains up there. Like, there's so many different levels of play. And I think that once families start realizing that and realizing there's good education too at those areas, I I think that's very important. Um, it's something I always try to pass along.

Fixing Hitters With In Game Adjustments

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Let's let's talk in-game adjustment adjustments. What do you tell your team when they're they're struggling at the plate and you know you're in a big game and they're just getting dominated by the pitcher.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Man, it's it's funny you ask that because I think one reason we lost in the playoffs about a month ago was because I didn't didn't give the right coaching in game and we didn't didn't make those in-game adjustments. Um, but I'll I'll give you two examples kind of back to our playoff run here. The the second round of the playoffs, we faced one of the best pitchers in the state of North Carolina. He'll probably be a first-round draft pick next year, going to Mississippi State, left-hander 93 to 95, so pretty good arm. So, you know, when it came to end-game adjustments against him, you know, really focusing on second time through the lineup, it was just like, hey, we got to be on time for the fastball, and we can't miss our pitch. So once our guys were on time for it, um, which we had been training and practice all week for it, so we knew what we were gonna get. But when I said don't miss your pitch, it it really helps. We were able to hit hit him around seven for seven or eight hits and and score three runs on him. But I think that's one thing I I always am in the dugout. I don't coach third base during our games. Um, we have really good assistant coaches to do that. So I like to be right there in the on-deck circle, just kind of in their ear, like, hey, what's your approach here? What are we looking for? But really that game that we that we hit him around was just, hey, be on time for heater and and don't miss it when you get it. So that that was I felt like we did a really good job with that. And then three or four days later, we play another team um from the mountains up here in North Carolina. And uh, you know, we we actually knocked their starter out of the game. So we're we scored four runs early on a on a pretty good arm, and then they went to an arm out of the bullpen that just spun breaking balls the rest of the game. And I don't know if I was if I communicated well enough to our guys, but we just were not able to make those adjustments, you know. We were going from 93 mile an hour fastballs to 78 mile-an-hour breaking balls in a couple days, and I felt like I didn't do a good enough job communicating. But really, uh again, when it comes back to it, if I'm sitting there in the on-deck circle, it's really great to be able to talk to our guys uh about what they're looking for. And I felt like I did a really good job with it when we beat the left-hander. That'll be a first-round pick next year, and the game right after it, uh, I think I failed and caused us to to lose our playoff game. But uh that's baseball and and life in general. So uh, but whenever you can be in your players' ears like that, I I do think it's very

Training For Elite Velocity In Practice

SPEAKER_02 16:20

important.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Well, you know, you you talked about preparing for that that 93 mile an hour arm. A lot of teams when they get to the state tournament, they can kind of have an idea who they're probably gonna face. What do you do if you've got a couple days of practice to prepare for that arm, that elite arm? Because there's not too many coaching staffs that have an arm that can, you know, show you 93, 95 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Right, right. So, like with him, again, he was a left-hander that we, you know, we had a lot of reports on and we knew we knew what he looked like. So we use those junior hack attack machines. I have three of those and we use them all the time. So, really, for two or three days leading up to that game, we had it on, you know, slightly offset towards the left-handed side of the mound. So I guess the first base side of the rubber. Um, and we had the extended legs on it, so it's a little bit taller and gave us a little bit more of a, you know, uh good, good arm, arm action or good arm angle. And we cranked it up as as high as it can go and get in there and figure it out and and try to try to barrel some balls in the middle of the field. So it was nothing, you know, we we don't make it rocket science. I I try to challenge our guys in practice a little bit to where they do fail. Um, because we'd rather fail at three o'clock in a Monday practice, you know, than at seven o'clock on a Friday game against a first rounder. So I think that that really helped us get leading into that game of just, again, getting the machine cranked up as high as it can go, giving the fastball a little bit of ride, top of the zone, and and coming out of that left-handed slot. We do the same thing with the right hand or two and move it to the other side of the rubber. And, you know, I did not prepare our guys, like I said, for that game that we lost. We probably should have hit breaking balls more the day of or the day before that that last game we had. But um I think the pitching machines that that we have access to now are are the best source of uh training when it comes to getting ready for high-level arms.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

All

Mound Visit Communication Under Pressure

SPEAKER_01 18:10

right, I'm gonna put you in this uh in-game situation here. You're on defense, sixth or seventh inning, runners on first and second. Nobody out with a one-run lead. Take me through your mound visit. Do you just talk to the pitcher and the catcher, or do you bring that whole infield in?

SPEAKER_02 18:29

So I'm definitely bringing the whole infield in. And depending on, you know, you know, you've coached a lot longer than I have, Ken. When you get out there, you can kind of see, you can just see see the players and kind of what they look like. If they're dear headlights, if they look like they they're ramped up and they just need to slow down. So I probably say something along the lines of, hey guys, let's slow things down, take a deep breath right here. Um, and then once we do that, we probably we get on the same page, we talk through the situation, um, we talk through the batter at the plate. We said nobody out, we got a one-run lead. So, you know, we're gonna have we're gonna try to get a ground ball double play to get out of it. I mean, that's really the biggest thing. I I would tell my pitcher, I'm not gonna say we need swing and miss here. It's more of like, hey, let's let's get ahead in the count. Trust your catcher on what he calls for you. Um let's try to get a ground ball to get out of this thing. We trust our defense. We had really good infield play this year. So um, if we can get a ball on the ground, you know, especially if we can get it to our shortstop this year, who was uh, you know, is going to NC State, you know, all-state infielder, uh, we're gonna get out of this thing. So yeah, it starts with slow this thing down, take a deep breath, and let's get a ground ball, get out of this thing, and get us back in the dugout.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

There we go.

Helping A Talented Player Trust Defense

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Well, I had a a listener who's also a coach reach out to me and he goes, Can you ask whoever your next guest is about this situation? And I want to hear what his advice is because he's trying to uh work with his son who's a very good player, but he thought, you know, he wanted to hear somebody else's opinion. And he's like, I don't know who your next guest is, but let's give it a shot. And I said, All right, not a problem. All right. What actions do you take with a player who is confident and excels at hitting, pitching, and base running? But his defense is okay. He's not bad, but he's it's just okay. He just doesn't display that confidence that he shows in all the other areas.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

So really good, really good hitter, uh all around everywhere except for defense. How old? Any idea how old this this kid is, Ken?

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Or just in the he is a he was a starter as a freshman on a high school team. And he'll be a sophomore this next season.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Man, I would I would just prioritize defense with everything that you do. You know, what when I think back to how we schedule practices, right? Like normally a practice plan for me is always stretch, throw, or or stretch, and then base running and then throw and then go right into defense. Um, hitting is always at the back end. I think if as a dad or as a as a coach of this young man, I think if you could just prioritize defense on the front end of every workout, and then obviously once you get through defense, hopefully successfully, then then transition into hitting. And then I would also, I would also just watch have him watch games and talk through um if you watch big league games or watch college baseball games, just really focus instead of on the hitting side of things, which most most of us tend to focus on. Hey, what watch the infielders here, watch their prep steps, watch, watch how the catchers handle this pitching staff. Um, and I think really just start talking more about defense and taking pride in that. And sure, obviously the training piece, there needs to be some training behind the defensive side. And I think there's a lot of resources out there now to help with all different position groups. But I think the more you can talk about defense and less about hitting home runs and and all that good stuff, I I think good things can happen. So that that would be my recommendation for for them. And you know, I I think as they as you get older and mature more too, I think you see defense become more. Of a premium. So just continue to have those conversations will be important.

Keeping Committed Players Fully Bought In

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Well, you mentioned you've got uh some D1 commits on your team and they're going to some some really good programs. How do you get that type of player to not be like, okay, I I'm already committed, you know. I, you know, I I may not have to work as hard. And, you know, and it can have an effect on those guys, like you said, that aren't at that level.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Yeah. I, you know, I I don't want to say I struggle with that, but I I do have to deal with that and and really take it head on each each season these last few years. And I think being a young coach, it's even harder um because I'm still trying to establish kind of like our standards for our program and and what we're trying to look like. But um when it comes down to those high-level guys, number one, I do have a lot of conversations with them, you know, off the field or before or after practice. Um, because they are ahead of they are ahead of the other ones when it comes to you know maturity on the baseball side and they know what high-level good baseball looks like. So I always try to have conversations and say, hey man, here's what we're trying to do with you. Here's your here's your plan, whether it's pitching or position player, like here's kind of what we're what we're looking for, you like how you're doing with it, having some dialogue there. But then when it comes to team practice, once we once we crank it up, man, like you got to coach those guys just as hard as the other ones. And then, you know, I think if you can do that and hold the first round draft pick accountable just like you would the, you know, the kid that's going to Chapel Hill on a full academic scholarship and kind of even those guys out and treat them the same. I I I think I think eventually the players kind of see that and start buying into it. So it's hard. It's it's really hard. And I've I've had some challenges with it these last few years, but you know, really just trying to treat all those guys the same while also having conversation and and talking through things with guys is really important. So do you hate losing or love winning? I'd say I hate losing. You know, winning winning is awesome. And you know, I think we've our standard here at Catholic is is we've kind of grown accustomed to winning a little bit, but I don't I don't remember all the wins. I remember all the losses. So I I think that uh that gives you the answer there. So just you know, there's nothing worse than than a loss that that sticks with you for a couple days. And I'm still thinking about that playoff game from a month ago that we got beat.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

So well, here's one since at the time of this recording we are going to be starting up the college world series for Division I level.

College World Series Picks And Mindset

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Two-part question here. Who do you hope wins? And who do you think will win it all?

SPEAKER_02 24:50

Man, you know, I originally thought Georgia Tech was gonna win it. I had I saw them play here in Charlotte when the ACC tournament was here, saw them play a couple times. I really like that group, and I was blown away that they got beat. But I would say, you know, I I'm always pulling for an underdog, so I really like Troy, but unfortunately they're matched up with West Virginia here in the first game today. Uh I I think West Virginia, if I had to, yeah, my my pick right now, I'm going with West Virginia just because I love the the mojo they have singing country roads after games. And I think Sabins is doing a good, really, really good job up there. So I'm pulling for West Virginia. I mean, Troy would be a great underdog story as well. I am not a Carolina fan, even though I live in North Carolina, so uh I'm not pulling for the Tar Heels, even though I love watching them play. They're really good. And it's hard to it's hard to go against those SEC teams that are playing tomorrow. But I think right now my my pick right now, pick to win would be West Virginia, and uh we'll we'll see if that comes to fruition.

Bat Flips Dugout Energy And Respect

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Well, what is your take on, you know, you you watch it in college baseball, and you know, it happens at the high school level and travel and everything else, but dugout chirping, bat flips, uh, you know, the the dancing when you get a base hit, which is your job, and uh, you know, pitchers yelling at the batters and that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Oh man, I think uh there there's a fine line, right? Like I I understand. I I'm a I'm a younger coach. I I I I probably give it a little more leeway than you would have, coach. But I I will say you have to respect the game, right? So that's one thing I take pride in with us. Like I want to at Charlotte Catholic, we gotta have a very energetic dugout. So that's that means we're encouraging our teammates and focusing all of our energy towards our dugout. Occasionally does it slip up and does our guy do something silly when he gets to second base? Sure, right? But like I think when you're having fun and playing with energy and with enthusiasm, I'm okay with it as long as it's directed straight at our dugout and to our team and our coaches. Um it gets misinterpreted a lot when it's you know, when you hit a home run and you backflip towards the opposing team or a pitcher is jawing at a hitter. Like, you know, I think that stuff is too much. I I wish we could kind of cut out some of that nonsense, but ultimately a lot of that stuff is is what is shown on social media and and you know on highlight reels on YouTube. So, you know, I think you gotta have it fun and you want to play with energy, but there's a fine line. And I think as coaches, that's our job is to navigate that and don't let it don't let it cross cross the line to where it's disrespectful. But some of it's okay. You just you gotta gotta keep it in check for sure.

Cedric Mullins Story And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Final question for you. I always try to ask this of every guest funniest story from all your years of playing baseball or as a coach.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Funniest story. I haven't been around as long as you can. I don't I don't have as many good stories, probably. Trying to think from like from a coaching standpoint I wasn't ready for this question.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Man, I'm gonna go. You have a story from when you you play as as a player in college?

SPEAKER_02 28:13

I will say, uh and maybe it's not a great story, but uh one of my best experiences from my playing career, um, that that people at when people ask about my playing career, I got to play with Cedric Mullins. So we both played on the same junior college team at Lewisburg. Um, and I I actually get this question a lot at like youth camps with kids. So best player I ever played with would be Cedric Mullins. And and I learned so much from him just on how to go about your business the right way, how to show up to the field and get your work done, how to how to take your bats seriously, how to talk through and kind of self-evaluate your A-Bs. But really, really what was awesome about Cedric is you know, I would hit second, Cedric would hit third, and he would always come talk to me. You know, he'd be like, man, hey, just get on base for me, get in scoring position, and uh let me drive you in. So um I got a lot of fastballs to hit, so I you know, I was able to get on base a little bit for him, and he was able to drive me in. But that that would be maybe my best story or claim to fame, I guess, just being around a you know, Major League Baseball All-Star when he was 20 years old. That was that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

So fantastic. Well, it's Eddie Hall, head baseball coach at Charlotte Catholic High School in North Carolina. Coach, thanks again for taking time to join me here on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Ken, thanks so much for having me. Thank you guys for the support out there. And um, you can look up Charlotte Catholic Baseball online and on social media at DiamondCougs. And we'd love to see you if you're in the North Carolina area for a game or coaches, feel free to reach out to me if uh anybody's looking to schedule games in the future. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Baseball Coaches Unplugged Podcast is proud to be partnered with the Netting Professionals Improvement Programs, one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at www.neticprose.com. Make sure and look for a new episode every Wednesday where I sit down with some of the best baseball coaches from across the country. As always, I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.