BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
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BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
Revolutionary Approach To Managing Pitchers and Arm Care
Johnny DeRing, head baseball coach at Buckeye Valley High School(OH), offers a masterclass in building successful high school baseball programs that goes far beyond traditional coaching wisdom.
The power of community stands at the heart of Buckeye Valley's baseball success. In this tight-knit, blue-collar community, parents and former players eagerly volunteer their expertise to transform facilities and support the program. When DeRing needed a bullpen built, community members stepped up with labor and materials, demonstrating how small-town commitment creates championship environments without massive budgets.
DeRing's philosophical approach to player development reveals why multi-sport athletes thrive in baseball. He shares compelling examples of how wrestlers bring unmatched mental toughness, football players develop critical agility, and golfers master the emotional control needed in pressure situations. At Buckeye Valley, where roughly 750 students attend, this cross-training approach strengthens all athletic programs while producing more complete baseball players.
Perhaps most revolutionary is DeRing's approach to pitching management and arm care. Beyond following OHSAA guidelines, his program implements a stricter "one hour of rest per pitch thrown" rule and comprehensive 45-minute pregame routines designed to have pitchers "third-inning ready" from the first pitch. This philosophy preserves arms for when games matter most—May tournament play.
Communication emerges as the common thread among all successful programs. From assistant coaches challenging his thinking to players constantly communicating on field and in dugouts, DeRing fosters an environment where baseball IQ flourishes through open dialogue. His veteran coaching staff—most with deep community ties—creates a perfect blend of experience and fresh thinking.
Tune in for candid discussions about the coaching lifestyle, balancing family commitments, and why loving winning beats hating losing every time. Whether you're a coach looking to build a stronger program or a baseball enthusiast seeking deeper insights, DeRing's wisdom offers a blueprint for success both on and off the diamond.
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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Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, I sit down with Johnny DeRing, head baseball coach at Buckeye Valley High School, and we discuss what all successful high school teams do consistently the benefits of multi-sport athletes and a totally different approach to pitchers and the pitch count rule. This and so much more next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged and so much more next on Baseball.
Speaker 2:Coaches Unplugged. Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter, presented by AthleteOne. Baseball Coaches Unplugged is a podcast for baseball coaches, with 27 years of high school baseball coaching under his belt, here to bring you the inside scoop on all things baseball, from game-winning strategies and pitching secrets to hitting drills and defensive drills. We're covering it all. Whether you're a high school coach, college coach or just a baseball enthusiast, we'll 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:The netting professionals continue to provide quality products and services to recreational, high school, college and professional fields and facilities throughout the country. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. Or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. Or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. You can also check them out on X, instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. If you enjoyed today's show, please be sure and share it with a friend. Let them know to check us out on all podcast platforms for a new episode every Wednesday. Now to my interview with head baseball coach at Buckeye Valley High School, johnny DeRing. And joining me today is Johnny DeRing, head baseball coach at Buckeye Valley High School in Delaware, ohio. Coach, thanks for taking the time to be on Baseball Coaches.
Speaker 3:Unplugged Absolutely. I'm honored to be asked so very happy to be here.
Speaker 1:For the people out there that know me, I coached at Buckeye Valley for almost 15 years and I have a lot of great memories of BV baseball. But one of the first things that I think of is the community's passion for baseball, and now that you're settled in up there and you've continued the winning ways, explain your experience and why the community is so important to your program.
Speaker 3:First of all, it's a pretty small community, which I think makes a huge difference, and a lot of the people who are around have been there for years and years and years. You know I'm coaching a lot of kids whose dads have come through, had graduated from Buckeye Valley and now they're kids. You know I've got a freshman right now whose dad played for you and you know he graduated back in the early 2000s and you know he graduated back in back in the early 2000s. But you know it's small and it's a. It's a great blue collar neighborhood or a blue collar community.
Speaker 3:You know, when I first took the job, looking around the field, I kind of came up with a list of things that we had to have done and I had two dads, one of which was a Buckeye Valley grad. He actually played football there and his son was a junior at the time. And there was another dad that I met after my first meeting and they said you know, hey, what do you need? What do we need to do? What do we need as far as facilities? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And of course, you know you have your wish list, you have your wish list and, and some of those things aren't necessarily feasible, but the, the ones that that were were feasible, uh, we, I think we started working on them the next week, um, and you know the, the first thing we, we had to address was, you know, having a having a good bullpen, uh, for our catchers to, or for our pitchers to prepare on, and, um, you know, we, we did that, we did that, we did, we got some estimates to have it done, um, somewhat professionally, um, and those estimates came in the price-wise pretty high. And you know, we, we kind of sat down back at the drawing board and said, you know, how can we do this, uh, within a, within a reasonable budget? And they were, they were much handy, much more handy than I am. So we came up with some ideas and they led the way and I was the grunt work and, you know, we built a magnificent bullpen for our kids to use. So it's just stuff like that.
Speaker 3:The smaller community if we need something with my coaching staff I think I'm the only one on my coaching staff without ties to the community Um, you know, uh, my, my, my assistants, um, all grew up in the community. So if there's something we need done, you know it's very easy. Hey, well, I know this guy, he can, he can help us out with this. And I know this guy, maybe he can get us a donation of this and, um, so, just the, the community aspect of of being able to, to, to get things done is is incredible. So, and then also, you know, living in the community, um, it's great, like I, my favorite part of it, and this is kind of a product of how I grew up Um, my parents were both teachers. My dad was a coach. You know, I love going out. When I go out to dinner with my family, I love going out to dinner and seeing not just my players but I like seeing my students. So, you know, being a small community, it's great. I love every aspect of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you talk about the volunteering part of it. You know the team used to play down in Radnor.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of great memories that people have in the community of Radnor Field and Dickmeyer Field, but we needed to get something on the campus there and I literally sat down and drew a baseball diamond in dimensions and some ideas and they made it come to life. And you know, it's amazing the work ethic of the people in that community.
Speaker 3:It is. And you know another thing about the community we started doing a youth night my first year, my first year I take that back, I think it was my second year. We did a youth night my first year, my first year I take that back, I think it was my second year. We did a youth night and it was awesome, it was great. And there the the number of people that came back there and they were like, wow, you know, this is, this is beautiful. Back here, you know it's that field secluded and yeah, and, and if you're not a baseball person you may not know it's back there and.
Speaker 3:And um, uh, you know, just that initial youth night that we did it was my second year Um, just that initial youth night we did, man it is, it is exploded where, uh, last year we were able to get, um, I think every kid got a hot dog, I think every kid got a, got a cone of ice and, and it was paid for by people in the community. Um, so it was, it was great and we're looking forward to another, another huge youth night. You know we do it there towards the end of the year when the weather's nice and people want to be outside.
Speaker 3:I don't this coming week it wouldn't be good to do youth night, because it's going to be a little chilly, but you know it's a testament to the community and how much of a baseball community is too, because there are people I've already had people reach out, you know, hey, when is it that are already looking forward to it? So, and again, that's that was run by. That was run by by my, by my parents. They set it up, you know. They said, hey, can we do a youth night? And I said yeah, let's do it. They said, give us a date. I gave them a date and they said we'll take care of the rest.
Speaker 1:So well, your high school coaching career started off in Effingham, georgia, and you know I I've always wanted to ask this question what are some of the differences in high school baseball between coaching down South and coaching here in the uh, in the Midwest, slash North, I guess you can say.
Speaker 3:Uh well, number number one. I think. I think every baseball coach will appreciate it. And first thing comes to my mind is weather. Um, you know, we, we, we, we have some, we had a few cold games down there, um, but you know, the biggest thing is, it's just, it's year round, like it, it's a hundred percent year-round. You know, there are times when, when we're we're stuck inside in a, in in the gym, or, you know, in a, in a, in a indoor facility somewhere, whereas down there, I mean, we wanted to take bp on christmas day. We were saying we could take bp on christmas day.
Speaker 3:Um, you, you know, it was, uh, it was like and and and the other thing is is is sports are very, very, very much at the forefront of every school down there. Um, it is, it is a major um, it's, it's the most important thing, which, which has its, has its benefits and it has its drawbacks. You know we're what's the percentage of kids that go to the big leagues? You know it's less than less than one percent. Um, so it, you know there's some trade-off there, but, um, I would say you know just, the biggest thing is the weather and and the.
Speaker 3:The facilities are absolutely incredible. Um, every, every school has lights. Every school has a, has a hitting facility. Every most schools I would say better part of 95, 90, 95 percent of schools have just an outstanding playing surface to play on. So you know it, it has its, it has its, it has its. Obviously, just like everything else, it has its pros and its cons, but the biggest thing is just, you know the weather. You can do anything you want all year round. You know we can't even get out to work on our field in December and January, so any work we're going to do on our field has to be done excuse me, over the summer in preparation for the next season, you know. So we're always kind of working ahead, you know, looking ahead to the next season. There, you know you have weather to work on your field, to improve your facilities and, like I said, it truly is, it's year-round.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing I like about Buckeye Valley and I'm a big proponent of this is I wanted to ask you, on average, how many of the baseball players at Buckeye Valley are multi-sport athletes, and talk about the benefits of your players competing in more than just baseball.
Speaker 3:So we have a lot of multi-sport athletes. You know Buckeye Valley, we've got somewhere between 700 and 800 kids in our school. And so back to the small community. For our programs, for our athletic programs and our athletic department to be successful, we need our athletes playing across the board. You know we need our best athletes playing football. We need our best athletes playing basketball. We need our best athletes playing football. We need our best athletes playing basketball. We need our best athletes playing baseball, and you know we have some soccer players that play.
Speaker 3:We have some wrestlers and you know there aren't too many kids who are tougher than wrestlers. So you know, when you get a wrestler that brings a wrestling mentality to baseball, you know the big thing in baseball now is you talk about mental toughness. You're not going to find anybody more mentally tough than a wrestler. You know those kids are a different breed. So you know, as far as just the importance of playing multiple sports, it helps. Obviously it helps with athleticism and fostering athleticism. But the mental side of it. We have a couple golfers and our golf coach is fantastic. He actually got his team a mental training coach. You can see those kids bring what he's taught them with the mental stuff into their baseball. They have a few bad at-bats they're able to. You know, just like in golf, you can't let one bad shot ruin your hole. So you've got to flush it, you've got to move on, and you know how often do we say that to a pitcher. You know, forget about the last pitch, make the next one, forget about the last at-bat, be successful in the next one. So those those multi-sport athletes are just are fantastic.
Speaker 3:You know, I've had over the years, I've had some. I've had football players that have played for me, and one kid actually, in particular comes to mind. He. He was going into his senior year and you know we weren't really sure if he was going to be able to be our starting catcher. He was a football player and going into his senior year a football coach moved him to nose tackle. That work that he got at nose tackle made him the starting catcher that year for his senior year. Because his, his agility improved, his footwork improved, he just his overall quickness and every facet of being a catcher was improved. And we talk about it all the time because the other two guys I was coaching with at the time they were also football coaches as well as myself. You know those that work that he got got him to the next step, to be to be our starting catcher.
Speaker 1:So well, you know I can't have you on the podcast and not talk about your assistant coaches. Three were my assistants when I was there 10 years ago and one of them played for me. You know, I'm thinking of Doug Houcher, greg Georgick, rod Baster, and then the player was when I first showed up in Buckeye Valley, josh Hall. He's there, and how important has that group of guys been to your team's success.
Speaker 3:Oh man, they're the backbone. I mean, they're the reason I'm able to be so successful. You know, doug Houchard, I'd like to find somebody that could outwork him. Number one I tell him all the time he's terrible at being retired. I wake up every morning to a text from him at 7 o'clock in the morning. And well, I'm already awake, but I get a text from him at 7 o'clock in the morning every morning. Here's the outline of the day, here's what my plan is today. And you know he's already texting me today. He's going to swing by the field and check it after all the rain we've had, and see what we can do to to prep it for tomorrow, because, because we're supposed to have games all week, um, and you know, greg, excuse me, greg, back to back to the community part.
Speaker 3:A man's been entrenched in this community for years upon years, upon years, um, and, and you know, greg, and, and doug and rod, uh, rod, they volunteer. They don't want to dime, they just want to be around and they make me better, and they're not afraid to tell me what they think, and they're not afraid to tell me when they think I'm doing wrong. And it's something I truly value, because I think we had a discussion about some of our, some of our players behavior and and they and they weren't saying the kids were doing anything wrong, but they were saying this needs to be addressed. We need to change this part of it. And and it was something that you know there's there's what? A 30 year age gap between myself and the three of them. You know there's something that I didn a 30 year age gap between myself and the three of them. Um, you know something that I didn't really pick up on, but as soon as they brought it up, I was like, yeah, you know, they're right, we, we do need to change that. Um, and so we did. And then, of course, um, you know Rod, rod's a former, former school board member. Um, you know, just having him around, they are able.
Speaker 3:The three of them are, you know, with the freshman team and they really get those freshmen in gear for going to JV. And then, once they come to me with varsity you know it takes a lot off of my plate where I don't have to teach them about the culture, I don't have to teach them about what the coaches expect, because those three guys are, are on top of it. Um, they do. They do that part for me. And, um, and you know that that age, that age difference makes it makes a huge difference. Um, you know they're they're viewed as that. They older, wiser, and our kids see that too. You know when they, when they look at those kids, they're looking at a true adult figure that has been around the block quite a few times. And then, of course, josh. I can't say enough about Josh, not only with his knowledge of the game, just the way he is able to communicate with our kids and break things down with our kids. You know, those guys are just absolutely invaluable.
Speaker 1:Yes, without a doubt. And you know I can't go any further without also talking about your pitching coach, because you guys your approach to pitch counts and and keeping them, keeping them fresh. So when you get to the end of the season and you're going into postseason play, talk about what you guys do exactly to maximize that.
Speaker 3:So well, number one you know games matter, winning matters, winning really matters. Like I'm not diminishing winning by any stretch of the imagination, because you know, as coaches, we want to win more than the players a lot of the time. But you know, in Ohio everybody makes the playoffs. So we don't want to be playing our best in March and April, we want to be playing our best in May, and so we really just try to build our guys up because we want to win in May, we want to win in June, we want to prepare ourselves for a long playoff run, and so we try to not overwork our kids early in the season especially. You know we're going to be playing a game this week when it's going to be 40 degrees and there's a 15-mile-an-hour wind. It's going to be chilly. You know, just from an arm care standpoint, it doesn't matter how many times you run down to the foul pole in between innings, you're, you're not going to be warm, you're not going to, you're not going to stay hot, and and so we, we try to take all those things into consideration.
Speaker 3:The other thing that that we've really incorporated excuse me, since I took over is is is our preparing to pitch. Our pitchers have a minimum 45-minute routine prior to the game that they are expected to go through so that they can get ready to step on the mound. And we don't want we call it being third inning ready. We want them to be as loose and as warm and as hot at the first pitch of the game that some pitchers would be at the third inning. We've all seen pitchers go out there and they might struggle for inning one and two and then they get on cruise control third inning.
Speaker 3:I want cruise control in the first inning. We're looking at hitters, we're trying to figure out hitters that first time through the lineup. So we want to take one of the elements out of it. We want them to be prepared and then let the coaches do their job to evaluate that first time through the lineup to see where we can get. We can get them um, later on in the game and you know that that the idea was always there. But that phrasing I got from um la court. Uh, he was a, he was at otterbein and then um, I think he does some stuff down at the bow dome still um he's a white horse la court is.
Speaker 1:I didn't, I didn't realize that oh, oh yeah, we faced him when I was there, okay.
Speaker 3:So he came and did a mini clinic for the central district coaches and he was talking about their preparation and what they do and he said third inning ready. And there was something about it. That just registered with me. But then you know, we also follow. Obviously we follow the pitch count guidelines put forth by OHSAA, but ours is actually a little bit more in depth than that. We do an hour per pitch of rest. So if they throw 50 pitches they have to have 50 hours of rest. So I think off the top of my head. One thing on the OHSAA guidelines is at 75 pitches they require three days rest. Then there's 125 pitch maximum. Well, by letter of the law, if my kid goes out there and throws 85 pitches on Monday, he could turn around and pitch again on Friday. We're not doing that. That's too much for what we're trying to do. So we, you know, we try to balance that out as well.
Speaker 1:Well, coaching's a calling and parents sometimes forget how much time is spent away from family. Yeah, and obviously for very little pay. Any coach will tell you that. But this morning I I saw a post on x where the coach was looking at his phone prior to the game. The head coach and, uh, but for like the average person walking up to the game, they're probably thinking you know what is this coach doing? He's playing on Twitter.
Speaker 1:But what he was actually doing was his young son was playing in his first game of baseball and it was his first at-bat and his wife was recording it for him live. Wife was recording it for him live and that was he. He was watching that and obviously missing it because he was with his team. Yeah, and I, I guess you know you've been around enough and and every coach out there that is, uh, that's been around long enough. You know what do you say to the parent that you know tunes into this podcast about the challenges of being a head coach, because you spend a lot more time with their kids than you do with your own family sometimes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I um, so we do um. I don't. I don't know if I can directly answer that, but I'll maybe circle around it and go around it. You know, as a side note, I missed my son's first T-ball game because we had a game. You know I'll never get it back. So you know, I try to make up for it and I talk about it with my coaches all the time. They have a little bit more leniency because I don't want them to make the same mistake that I did um, so um, one of the things I do is is in the off season, I try to do all my off-season stuff in the morning um, and and and one those things.
Speaker 3:Main reason is just our facilities. We don't have the space um in our program, and that I'm not. I'm not, not. Lots of people have to deal with lack of space. I'm not. This is not a woe is me, this is not a shot at anyone Um, but we do a lot of our stuff. We hit in the morning, we throw in the morning and we lift in the morning, all during preseason. So once, uh, usually once football's over and and we can start using um, using the locker room, and have access to the shower for the boys. We do do that stuff in the morning, you know. Reason number one is facilities. We can't get in the gym during basketball season and we shouldn't expect we shouldn't expect to get in the gym during basketball season either. But the hidden benefit of that is, you know, this time of year, starting whenever we started February 28th this year, our evenings are done, they're shot because now we are doing, we do have access to the gym, we do have practices, and so one of the hidden benefits of doing that stuff in the morning is it allows us to be with our families. You know, I was able to be with my son. I didn't miss a single. He played basketball this year. I didn't miss a single basketball game, you know, and kind of, it's kind of in preparation for baseball season. But but at the same time, you know, we have to, we have to take care of our families too. So I don't, I don't know what I would, I don't know what message I would, I would give to a parent. But you know, I and I my frustration just kind of leads into my frustration with, with college coaches that aren't calling the high school coaches as much as they should be anymore.
Speaker 3:We spend a lot of time with our players and especially I'm in the building at our school, so I get the opportunity. I see them when they're having a bad day. I see them first thing in the morning when they're rolling out of bed. I see them at the end of the day. I see them after a bad test. I see them.
Speaker 3:You know, I spend over 200 days a year with these boys. It's probably more than that. That's probably a bad, a low baseline, but I see these kids in a lot of different scenarios. I see them at lunch, uh, when they think no one's watching. Um, I see how they, how they talk to their. I see how they talk to their peers.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, we, we, we know our kids inside and out, and and and one of the things that that I've, that that that I love right now about being being at Buckeye Valley, where I'm at, is I've never been so close with a group of kids as I am with them and, um, you know I'm, I just I'm very fortunate, like we have.
Speaker 3:You know, they come into my room just to hang out sometimes, um, you know, hey, did you see this play last night? Hey, did you see what LeBron did last night. I had a couple kids come in one day and they were helping me fill out my NCAA bracket. So I guess, from a time away from our family, point message to the parents I mean, we're putting into your kid, we're we're, we're putting into your, we're putting into your kid. Most coaches, most coaches, are putting into your kid exactly what you want, what you would want a coach to put into your kid, and and and. A lot of times it's coming. It's coming at the sacrifice of of you know, being being with their family as well.
Speaker 1:So Well, baseball is a game of stats and a lot of times when a team that makes the fewest mistakes, they usually win. Um, we've talked about something earlier where you um not on the podcast, obviously, but you talked about five runs. Yeah, yeah, why not? To the listeners? And and your approach to that.
Speaker 3:So it came true after our conversation. I was thinking last night I went back through some statistics, so I had a pitching coach when I was down in Georgia and he played by the rule of five. He said if you score five runs, you have like an 80-plus percent chance of winning, and if you give up five runs, you have an an 80 plus percent chance of winning, and if you give up five runs, you have an 80 plus percent chance of losing. Um, so I, I, I, we, he brought it up to me and we looked at it and I was like, well, you know, for his career, it it it pretty well held held true. And and I went back through some stuff last night and it's pretty well held true for me.
Speaker 3:So, um, uh, I guess you know talking about defense, um, you know, defense saves runs for sure. And, uh, we had a discussion, we had a. We had a hard, hard, hard fought battle with um, with one of your team that you've had some battles with too as well, which was, which was watterson, the other night and and there were some we won't call them they weren't errors because we played error free but we gave up some, some hidden runs where, if you know if, if we lay out for a ball and knock it down, that might save us a run and and you know that game ended, ended, uh got called because of darkness and it was uh ended in a four, four tie, um, but you know, if we, if we, if we take that extra step, we knock a ball down, we lay out for a ball, um, you know again, not errors, cause we didn't make errors. I can't say enough about our defense so far this year. Knock on wood, um, but you know just those hidden runs.
Speaker 3:You know we could have won that game. Couldn't want that game four to two. You know we could have won that game. Could have won that game 4-2. You know it could have been a different story there. You know, at 7.30, when they called the game because of darkness, or they wouldn't have to call the game, because of darkness, because the game would have been open, especially this time of the year.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Well, let me ask you this what is something you notice about every good high school baseball team outside of pitching? That is the key to them winning baseball games, because everybody's going to have good pitching if you want to win.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So communication, when I see kids communicating with each other when they're on the field playing defense and, you know, after an at bat One of the things I just got done, talking to my boys about this I have seen, I have seen a lot of things and you know we've only played four games this year, but I have seen so much communication with our kids this year and it's made a difference. It's already making a difference for us. There's just, hey, I saw he threw X, y, z, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. You know he might be tipping this, he might be tipping that. So it's communication. I mean there's just our coaches. Back to our coaching staff. You know our coaches, when that defensive ending is over, I mean we're out there, we talk with our kids. Hey, what'd you see? This is what it looked like from our coaching perspective. What did you tell us? What you saw? And one of the you know another thing my background is catching, that's I was a catcher. That's where I feel the most comfortable. You know our starting catcher.
Speaker 3:Yesterday we had kind of an off day for varsity. They were just going to come in and lift and, I'm sorry, on Friday they were going to just lift after school and then I was going to send them home and I was talking to my catcher, who, you know, we all need catchers to be an extension of the coaching staff, and he certainly is, and so he was. He was getting some stuff together for me because we were practicing with the younger guys. I said hey, I said we need let's, let's meet up, let's go through some catching stuff afterwards and he, you know, he said absolutely let's do it and something with him. And I've had this experience with with I've got two other players that are that are at Ohio Dominican right now, and another player that's playing at BMI right now.
Speaker 3:The thing that all four of those boys have in common is when we were working, when we were doing drills or whatever, there was so much conversation back and forth. It wasn't just you're doing the drill, you know, get your reps in, do the drill this way, make sure your footwork looks like this, make sure your swing looks like this. It there's a lot of, there's so much communication. Um, and you know that my starting catcher right now, he he came into the, into the gym where, where the young guys were working out, and we went off in the corner and I think he was there for about 45 minutes and I would say that only 15 minutes of it was him doing an actual drill and 30 minutes of it was he and I. Just all right, this is what I'm seeing. Yep, you're right, coach, that's how I feel. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Just a lot of dialogue back and forth and, like I said, those three other boys that have come through that are now off and playing. It was the same thing. There was a lot of communication and I think that's probably one way that I've grown as a coach and one way that our relationships developing my relationships with these kids, one way that our relationships developing my relationships with these kids it's fostered more baseball IQ growth, I guess, would be the best way to say it. So we try to.
Speaker 3:I think your original question was what do you see out of good teams? It's just that communication piece. You know being loud in the dugout, being behind your teammates. You know not being I'm not talking about being Bush League but you know being behind your teammates, being behind your pitchers. You know every team, every good team, is loud and not in a bad way. They're loud in a good way and it can be, it can be your.
Speaker 3:I was coaching in the district all-star game a few years ago and the third baseman was none of those kids play together, they were just playing together for an all-star team. The third baseman he was from and I know, you know Corey. He was from Lancaster and he played for Corey. He never stopped talking on third base. He never stopped talking. He was always saying something to the shortstop, he was saying something to the left fielder and you know that's a testament to what Corey does over there in Lancaster and it's just evident that that kid's a heck of a ball player. You know he just communicates, talking to his pitch the whole time.
Speaker 1:Tell me about a time where you failed as a coach and how that lesson has made you a better coach.
Speaker 3:That's a tough one, I would say, early on in my head coaching career, I think, uh, I think I think the the, the one place that I failed was was instead of, instead of having the difficult conversations and getting them over with, um is, is is just waiting until they kind of festered too long, um long. So now I try to have difficult conversations as soon as possible, just so we don't fester. You know we don't let frustration build. You know we just talk. And my kids I hope my kids know it. I know a few of them know it.
Speaker 3:You know my door is always open it. Um, you know my, my door is always open. Um, I kid I, I there there, there are kids that that I've told you know I, you can disagree with me. I have no problem with it, and I want you to tell me when you disagree with me. Um, you come into my office, you shut the door and you sit down and you tell me exactly what you think, because I'm going to do the same with you and and and and you know I, I respect, I respect and value my, my player's opinion.
Speaker 3:So, um, you know, when they have, when they have an issue, um, especially especially my leaders. You know we're not going to, we're not going to get. Nobody, not everybody's going to feel comfortable doing that, but my leaders, uh darn well should, and I hope they do, and but my leaders darn well should, and I hope they do, and it's happened and sometimes, sometimes they've changed my mind, sometimes they haven't, but that's why you know, that's why I'm the head coach. Sometimes I have to. You have to put your foot down and say how things are going to be. But then you know, part of part of being a great role model is recognizing when something needs to change too.
Speaker 1:So setting that example for them is huge. Well, switch it up a little bit now.
Speaker 3:Hate losing or love winning, and why I love winning. I love winning, I just love it. There's such a I get pretty nervous, get pretty worked up before a game and when that final pitch is thrown and that win goes in the right column, I don't think there's any better feeling and goes in the right column, I don't think there's any better feeling. Obviously, we all hate getting our teeth kicked in, but the good thing about losing is it makes you humble. You know, if we go out there if I go out there and go, you know 33-0 and win a state title or 35-0, whatever I have to do to win a state title and do it undefeated, you know I don't know how much I'd learn from that.
Speaker 3:So I look, I always. I always try to look at my losses as a as a where you know, as a learning, learning experience. You know we we took one, took one on the chin. We played Hartley really tough Friday. You were there, yeah, you know. We sat down for an hour up in the coach's office afterwards trying to figure out where we're going to improve. So I love winning, I love winning and I try to look at losing as a learning experience or a chance to learn.
Speaker 1:Well, everybody's got an opinion on this next question TurboBat in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3:Oh those, yeah, the torpedo bats or whatever.
Speaker 1:I've heard torpedo bat my bad.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I don't think there's enough data on it yet to tell you know. They say there's been a couple guys that have used it here the past couple years and it kind of came to the forefront because the Yankees went on that explosion last weekend. But if the Yankees are going to do something like that, for every Yankees fan you find two people who despise them, right?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:I feel like if the Arizona, the arizona diamondbacks had done it, you know it, it might be, uh, people might be on board and trying to have everyone do it. But I think, just because the yankees brought it to the forefront, you know, I don't know what's going to happen. I, I don't know, that's that's kind of an interesting, but you know, by letter of law, you know, there's nothing wrong with what they did.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, I I heard will clark talking about it, the old, uh, san francisco giant and he's like, basically, you know, they changed the sweet spot, uh, because they're getting jammed so they're not very good hitters. He had a real good take on it so I found that interesting. But, staying with the Major League Baseball, you're managing an MLB team and I'm going to give you three players, all right, and you've got to choose between Group A and Group B. Group A Shohei Otani, mookie Betts and Tariq Schoobel the Tigers pitcher who tore it up last year. Group B Aaron Judge, jose Ramirez and Paul Skeens.
Speaker 3:Well. So it's going to be a little bit biased but I'm probably going to take Group A because I'm a huge Tigers fan and I love Tariq Scoo fan and I love Terrence Kubel, I love Mookie Betts, Paul Skeens I mean, that's a hard one to pass up on, but no, I've got to take Group A. There's just there's some the jury's still out on. Paul Skeens, right? Isn't this only his second year? We you know, maybe he second year, Maybe he had that good first year and good first rookie year, and who knows what's going to happen here. But some of those other three you mentioned are pretty seasoned between Mookie and Shohei and Tarek. So between the biased and, I think, the experience, I'm going to take group A on that one.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, two more questions for you. Best or slash funny story from your experience of coaching high school baseball.
Speaker 3:I wasn't prepared. I was not prepared for that. But the first thing that comes to mind, and, and and, if I hope, I hope that, uh, I hope that my old pitching coach will, uh, will watch, will, will watch this because he will. He'll lose his mind because he tells the story better. But we're, uh, we were in a tough, we were in a tough game. We're playing one of our rivals and, uh, you know, he, he, he did a good job of, he was my pitching coach, he did a good job of keeping me grounded at times.
Speaker 3:But sometimes you know, the stress, just you know, gets to you and you don't see the forest for the trees. And we were playing one of our rivals and we made a pitching change. And you know, as a head coach, you're looking at a lot of things. You're looking at the adjustments you made in the lineup, you're making sure you reported your subs, and so you're not watching that kid throw his eight warm-up pitches, and you're thinking about when you come up to bat. So we make a pitching change and he brings in his next pitcher and the first pitch he throws, he threw it in the dirt. And the first pitch he throws, he threw it in the dirt and in my mind I was thinking that was like the 10th ball he's thrown in the dirt.
Speaker 3:I was thinking he walked, the first guy that he faced, and I said Stephen. I said who do you have up? Who's ready to go in? He said John. He said that was his first pitch. I said he's only thrown one pitch. He said yeah, that was his first pitch. I said all right, and I just kind of looked around and realized that, you know, it was time for me to settle down and I'm not doing the story justice by any stretch of the imagination, but man, it was funny, it was a good, it was a good humbling moment for me as well. You know, sit back, take a deep breath, watch the game, enjoy the game, enjoy coaching. Try not to try to try to settle down a little bit. But you know, as I as, as I said earlier, you know we, we've grown, or I've grown um throughout my head coaching career especially so all right, to finish it up here.
Speaker 1:If you can make one change to high school baseball, what would it be?
Speaker 3:One change to high school baseball. That's a tough one, coach. Um, I'm trying to think of you know, I'm not a big fan of the pitch clock, I'm not a big fan of the pickoff rule One change, yeah, I know. Yeah, I know, I'm just trying to think of things that could be done at high school baseball. You know it's hard to mess with the most perfect game on the face of the earth, right, you know? So, um, wow, I would say, I, I guess, I guess, really, if we could, if we could make the season longer, I mean like, yeah, play more games and and as far as I'm concerned, we could run all the way up to we could have the state title on July 4th weekend.
Speaker 3:I mean, how much more American could that get? You know, we talk about this, I talk about this with our athletic director all the time that our spring season is so short, I mean so short. We're two weeks into the last quarter and we've only played four games, but we're going to be playing another 20 before graduation. To me, if we could make baseball season longer and the OHSAA actually even did make it they gave us an extra week this year, they shifted everything back, which is fantastic. But as far as I'm concerned, man, let's play all the way up. Let's have the state title on July 4th, you know, I think that would be great.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm sure the travel listeners listening right now probably wouldn't be too thrilled about that.
Speaker 3:Iowa has a. They have a summer baseball season. Their season is in the summer. No, let's just make it longer. High school baseball is awesome. I mean it really is. It's hard to beat, you know, with all the college baseball games that are on right now and all the battles that are going on, you know that's great and everything, and again I'm biased. But man, let's make, let's make the high school baseball season longer. Let's just let's play. Let's play through june. We'll have better weather, you know, let's do that. Let's make it as long. Let's play 40 games and then have the playoffs. That's, that's my take on it well, it's uh, it's johnny dering.
Speaker 1:he's's the head baseball coach at Buckeye Valley High School in Delaware County here at Ohio. Coach, you're doing great things up there and just keep doing what you're doing because you're doing it the right way, and thanks so much for taking time to be on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me, coach. I really appreciate it. I hope to see you here soon too, at a few more games. There we go.
Speaker 1:That'll do it for today's show. Baseball Coaches 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 for a new episode. As always, I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Thanks for joining me for Baseball Coaches Unplugged. Thank you.
