
BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
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BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
How 43% Legion Players From One Program Advance To Play College Baseball
What happens when American Legion baseball meets small-town Montana culture? Paul Mrazek, Director of the Montana Baseball Coaches Association and Head Coach for Cranbrook Post 24 Legion, takes us into a world where baseball thrives despite vast distances between communities and limited resources.
Montana's baseball landscape is evolving rapidly. After being one of just five states without high school baseball, Montana now boasts 35 high school programs in just three years. Rather than seeing this as competition, Legion baseball has adapted, creating a seamless transition from high school to Legion seasons that gives players more opportunities to develop and compete for championships.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Paul shares the remarkable story of Allie Schroeder, a female pitcher who joined his Legion team and dominated male competition. Hitting 82 mph on the radar gun and striking out 13 batters in six innings, Allie went on to become the first female in the Canadian College Baseball League before playing professionally in Australia and representing Team Canada. When not playing baseball, she fights forest fires, sometimes throwing baseballs against school fences in remote towns during her downtime.
Paul's development philosophy stands in stark contrast to today's velocity-obsessed culture. "I would rather they play for a long time than a short time," he explains, criticizing the push for young pitchers to throw harder before their bodies are ready. His approach has produced remarkable results – 43.75% of his players advance to college baseball, compared to the national average of just 7%.
The magic of Canada/Montana baseball lies in its community connections and multi-sport athletes. In towns where populations barely reach 5,000, Friday night games fill wooden grandstands reminiscent of "Bull Durham," and athletes must play multiple sports for teams to exist at all. This natural cross-training seems to benefit players' development and reduce injuries compared to year-round specialization.
Subscribe now to hear more stories of baseball innovation from unexpected places. How is your program developing players for long-term success rather than short-term velocity gains?
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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Over 130 episodes of talking to some of the best high school, college and professional coaches around the country. And I was asked the other day have you ever had someone on from Canada? Simple answer is no, but that comes to an end. Today he runs the Montana Baseball Coaches Association head coach for Cranbrook Post 24 Legion and you'll want to hear the incredible story of a pitcher he coached, who fought wildfires and is one of the best in the world Paul Mrazik next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter, presented by AthleteOne. Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter, presented by Athlete One. Baseball Coaches Unplugged is a podcast for baseball coaches, with 27 years of high school baseball coaching under his belt. Here to bring you the inside scoop on all things baseball, from game-winning strategies and pitching secrets to hitting drills and defensive drills. We're covering it all. Whether you're a high school coach, college coach or just a baseball enthusiast, we'll dive into the tactics and techniques that make the difference on and off the field. Discover how to build a winning mentality, inspire your players and get them truly bought into your game philosophy Plus. Get the latest insights on recruiting, coaching, leadership and crafting a team culture that champions productivity and success. Join Coach every week as he breaks down the game and shares incredible behind-the-scenes stories. Your competitive edge starts here, so check out the show weekly and hear from the best coaches in the game. On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter. Baseball Coaches Unplugged is proud to be partnered with the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. The netting pros specialize in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, bp turtles, screens, ball carts and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches and cubbies. They're not limited to just baseball and softball. They also work with football, soccer, lacrosse and golf courses. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707. Or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. You can check out Netting Pros on X, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. If you enjoyed today's show, don't forget to hit the subscribe button, rate the show and leave us a review. It helps us to grow Baseball Coaches Unplugged and look for a new episode every Wednesday. Now to my sit-down with Paul Mrazik, director of Montana Baseball Coaches Association, legion Baseball, which Coach? One thanks for being on the show, and you're my first Legion guy, so I'm excited for that.
Speaker 3:Okay, no, I appreciate you having me on. Yeah, the. Uh, it's the the Montana baseball coaches conference, myself and um the head coach in Libby, montana. We started the Montana baseball coaches conference, um, open to all coaches from all associations and um that, and we just finished our 10th year of that.
Speaker 1:Well, there are currently, from my latest research, 35 high school baseball programs in the state of Montana. How excited are you about the growth of high school baseball in Montana?
Speaker 3:Correct. Yeah, there was. So Montana has typically been very strong American Legion baseball right, and I'm very proud of it and we still are. So this is year three of high school, high school baseball in Montana. There was five states that didn't have high school baseball and Montana was one of them. And now Montana has it and they're going into year three. Not every school but it's growing and I think it's fine. You know Ohio, where you are, has had it for years.
Speaker 3:Tim Saunders has spoke at the Montana Coaches Conference twice and the first year when high school was coming, he talked about it and you know, legion just starts a little bit later. So now the high school starts kind of similar time as normal and then it finishes and then Legion will take off. So you can play your high school and I think it's good that the players get to play for a high school championship. You know they have an opportunity to go for like their other sports, because in baseball they never had an opportunity to win a high school state championship and now they do and I think that's good and then just roll into your Legion and once again play for a district championship and then move on to state and then regionals. So I think it's just both organizations working together and making it work and try and get more kids playing baseball.
Speaker 1:When does Legion season start and does it kind of coincide with the Montana high school baseball?
Speaker 3:It's Cranbrook. Montana has five or six Canadian border cities, border towns that play American Legion baseball. So we were just in Kalispell yesterday for a doubleheader. A team from Calgary was there, so we've got a three-way Calgary, kalispell and us. So typically we would get outside before high school started, we would get outside in early April and then, you know, we'd get our first Legion games early May. So now we're starting our games a little bit earlier. We're starting in April, um, but down, uh, depending where you are in Montana, they are looking at their first practices um beginning of March, getting outside. So if there's, if the snow's not on the ground and it's, you know, warm enough that they can get outside. Every year is different, but they're looking to get outside early March.
Speaker 1:Now with Montana. I mean, I personally have never been there and you know it's a good-sized state and not only having 35 teams that are playing high school baseball. I imagine the challenges are pretty daunting when it comes to high schools wanting to start it up because the field probably trying to find umpires and things like that. Is that the case?
Speaker 3:Montana has lots of little towns, lots of populations of 4,000, 5,000, 8,000. Uh, missoula is the second biggest city after Billings and it's got a population of uh roughly 70,000, 69,000, 70,000 people. That's the second second biggest city. I think Billings is up around 130, 140,000. So there's lots of travel. Um, you know they, and yes, there's only so many people and so probably the same umpires are doing multiple schools and a little bit of driving multiple cities.
Speaker 1:Definitely. Well, I grew up playing Legion baseball so I didn't have the travel baseball experience and you know, with you coaching with Post 24, in that part of the country, what makes Legion baseball so special.
Speaker 3:One is it's good baseball. Okay, you don't need to go anywhere else. Now I know that travel baseball is growing and in some states it's very big and I go to the Colorado Clinic every year and a lot of those coaches that I talk to they're like you play Legion in Montana and I'm like, yeah, and they're like I loved playing Legion, I loved coaching Legion. However, it's, it's gone the other way in some States. You know, you're playing in a league, your games mean something. Sure, we go into some tournaments, but we have our conferenceals, um, and if, uh, there's, there's a handful um of cities that have double a legion which goes to the world series, our single a division that we play in that stops at after regionals, um, so it's, yeah, it's good baseball.
Speaker 3:The towns come out and support it. You go to a friday night, saturday game in Libby and the grandstand's packed. They've done. You know it's a great old school grandstand wood frame. It's like Bull Durham right when we go there. And, yeah, it's the small towns good baseball. I think the players are coached well. We've got a lot of great coaches in Montana and, yeah, it's competitive and we're moving our players along. A lot of our players are moving along to college if they want to. And there's still because these towns are small, there's still a lot of two and three sport athletes, and that's me.
Speaker 1:I think that makes baseball players better when they're playing multiple sports, and I'm sure that's probably the case when you're in a state like Montana.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree, and so you know that player might be playing baseball, might be his sport, but he's playing basketball because that town of 3,000, 4,000 people, if he doesn't play basketball, his friends don't have basketball that year and there's no basketball at the school. So you know they're spending their time on their primary sport that they love, but they're also playing other sports there. I think you know they're becoming more better athletes and overall athletes and it's the injury rate on multi sport athletes is less than single sport athletes. They're not doing the same thing for 12 months of the year, right? So if you, if you take, take a look at other sports too.
Speaker 3:So where I am in Cranbrook, it's a, it's a big hockey town, um, small town, canada. We're 20,000 people and we have a lot of players that um, um, have gone on to the NHL. For a town this size, right, um, in Canada, per capita, um, and yeah, the, you, the, you know um, and I've coached and trained some of the higher end um hockey players here, uh, male and female that have that have gone on um, because I also do strength and conditioning and um, but just if you take a look at basketball, if you take a look at hockey, these high ankle injuries that are very common now. They weren't happening 20, 30 years ago, right when we had multi-sport players. So I think doing the same sport, the same repetitive motion, is hard on the body and you definitely have to control the volume and the intensity.
Speaker 3:And in Montana in small towns they don't have a choice. They hate to play all three sports, otherwise they don't have a team. But with my kids in Cranbrook we've got some basketball, volleyball, hockey and when it's hockey season they play hockey. And you know my center fielder, vinny Ferdino. He comes out and he hits on Friday nights when he doesn't have hockey.
Speaker 1:Right, maybe he's got a whole game, I would guess the coaches, in all those different sports. They have to get along because they need each. Each team needs those players to because, like you have in some of the big schools that you run across, maybe here in Ohio you have coaches who are like, hey, you're lifting weights when you're not playing football or whatever it may be. So imagine that up there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you play baseball, you're not playing basketball next year, right, because you need to be training all year for that. Yeah, there's less of it, for sure In Montana and and where I am there's, you know, there's still a little bit because some of these sports are starting to go year round. But in the small, small towns in Montana it's. It's hard to do because otherwise that school won't have a team.
Speaker 1:I think on the western part of Montana travel baseball is starting to pick up a little bit. Is it having any effect on Legion baseball?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a few travel programs out there. Now, when I started, we started in the Montana Legion, we used to be in idaho. We moved into montana um, in about 2013 it was and there wasn't any, and now now there is, um, yeah, it's, uh, I guess, yeah, there's, there's an effect there, you know, looking for players and to be a part of their program, and so that means that player isn't playing with the local Legion program. So, you know, definitely, and yeah, we think that and we play them, you know they'll be in some of the tournaments that we play and stuff, and it's not like they're be in some of the tournaments that we play and stuff and, um, it's not like they're all better than all the Legion teams and, uh, the the Legion players, the travel ball players, they're going to the same colleges, they're going to the same universities. Um, you know, we are moving just as many players along. Um, it's not like the opportunities. I don't think. I don't think.
Speaker 3:I don't think the opportunities are better if you look at my program, because in in British Columbia, here, you know, some of my guys get noticed and we've got some academies here in Alberta, which is close by, there's quite a few now and there's some really good, well-run academies for sure, and you know they're interested in some of my guys, but my senior team. We have two Legion teams, a and B. So B goes to 17, a goes to 19. So if when you play with 11 players and that travel team or that academy wants you know my player, that gets me down to 10. I lose two players when I got 11.
Speaker 3:We may not have senior boys competitive baseball in this region of the province and we want to give our athletes that opportunity to keep playing baseball at a higher level and move them along. So since 2013 to today, well and the last year, the players that have stuck with my program and aged out 43.75% have moved on to play college baseball. So in America, 7% of high school players move on to play college baseball is the numbers that they were saying at the ABCA this year, and so we're pretty happy with that and we think we're developing our players and giving them the opportunity to move on. And so are all the other Montana Legion teams, in my opinion, are all the other Montana.
Speaker 1:Legion teams. In my opinion, you've developed a lot of good pitchers, and talk about what you do with your off-season program to get baseball players to reach their potential.
Speaker 3:Sure, basically, our calendar year, basically our calendar year, we are running like a college program or like an academy, basically. But our kids don't have to leave home and they don't have to spend whatever. It is $17,000, $20,000, $25,000 and they get to lay at home and they're playing with their high school friends and we want to develop them and give them the opportunity to move on to play college baseball if they wish. If they don't, they finish their years with our program and they're hardworking individuals, they know how to work hard, they listen and they're respectful. But for those that want to move on, we want to make sure we develop everyone so that they've got an opportunity to go somewhere.
Speaker 3:So we've got our regular spring summer season. Then we take August off. Some will go to some baseball camps but we rest the arms and then we start up in the fall. So we start after Labor Day and we'll uh, we get into games pretty fast there and we will play about 18 to 20 games in the fall, um, and that takes us through to about October 20th. Then it starts getting a little bit too cold, um, then we take a couple of weeks off, then we start indoor and we are indoor fall season is. We hit on Friday nights and we do speed, agility and quickness. So we're working a lot of cone work ladders. We're working on running form, um, our bounding, um, we're sprinting hurdles, so we're just we're working on that and they start lifting there too. So that's our bigger, stronger, faster phase, um, but we, we do make sure that they get their rest and then their active recovery before we start moving weights. Then after that, um mid January, we'll start throwing. Um, that's a traditional program. There's programs they're throwing throughout the whole year now and then they're just controlling the volume and the intensity, making sure it's light. But this also gives our other kids playing other sports right. You know the hockey, basketball, volleyball. So we started throwing in January. Volleyball, so we started throwing in January and, uh, we, we slowly start ramping it up. Penn started in February, um, and they have a pre-season, uh, lifting program. So we go from an off season to pre-season so that we're getting more functional sports, specific lifts going. And, um, really, you making sure that we're doing the right things for the shoulders and the back and the throwing motion Because we want to keep them healthy.
Speaker 3:And I tell my players, because they're all interested in chasing velo and that, and I would rather they play for a long time than a short time. So these players that you know, they'll show me a video or something. And here's this kid he's 15, he's throwing 92. Generally speaking, most of the players that I've seen 15, and you know, throwing that kind of velo. I don't see them when they're 21 or 22. So where have they gone? And I don't think the body can keep up to it. So I like to try and develop them slow and steady, good mechanics and then get them to college. And then I turn it over to the college guy.
Speaker 3:You know, I've had an opportunity, depending where they've gone, and work with some of my pitchers a little bit longer, working with one right now, and but the coach has always said you can continue to work with with your coach. But I don't like that. You know, I don't want another hitting coach, I don't want another pitching coach. My kid going another guy, um, while we're in season and we're, we know what we're doing, we've moved enough players along, but um, yeah, just, uh, um, it's, it's very sports specific.
Speaker 3:And then in season is the kids are going to school. You know, maybe when they get out of school, june 20th-ish they can start lifting a little bit. But we're on the field. They're on the field six days a week. I'm there seven, because Mondays is just footwork and ground balls and we call it Motown Monday. We play the music and it's relaxed, relaxed and it's glove work and footwork, no throwing um. But uh, they really don't lift much when we get in season because, you know, some of them have jobs, their work, they've got that, they've got school, they've got baseball and I don't know. It's it's tough for them to fit in. So we do some body weight strength, you know, do some pushups at home, we'll do some bounding and plyometrics on field. We work that into the week and our and our sprints of practice.
Speaker 1:What do you, what do you say to? You know the parent that's listening right now, who you know, they want, you know they want their kid to play at the next level, college level, and they need their kid to be hitting 90 and above or they're not going to be recruited by college coaches. And what, what? What do you say to those, those parents?
Speaker 3:Um, I'm lucky where I am, cause most of my my parents know more about hockey, right when I am. But no, we talk about the and we'll play video. One is let us coach your kid, let us develop your kid. We will move your kid along. Okay, your kid might not hit 90 until his second year of college. It might be his third year of college, right, billy Wagner started D3. He's had a great career.
Speaker 3:Everyone's going to develop at a different time as an athlete. So the athlete development at the early ages and as you move through and then also depending on their birth date and their size and their strength, everyone's different. So if we push this kid and try to get that velo and his body can't handle it, then I'm saying to the parent you know, we can try that, but your kid might not be throwing baseballs when he's 20 years old. So you need to decide, um, but our model and what we do. We have healthy arms and and our players generally play for a long time. Um, so just kind of saying this is what we do, this is how we get them there, and you know a lot of these players, um, that they're watching, are continuing to play because the body breaks down. Or there's a lot of stuff on social media and you see a lot of 92, 93 and radar guns and a lot of them aren't strikes. Or you saw two pitches, okay, and if it's really that good, then how come they're not in the SEC? How come we're not watching them in the SEC and we're seeing three pitches with a pocket radar, right. Or you know, I don't see guys run and throw on the mound Okay, 95 running and throwing into a net 15 feet away, right, you know what I'm talking about. So there's, and now we, we, we run and gun we've done that in the past and turn and burn and all this stuff and get into it and loading up and I think a lot of it too.
Speaker 3:Velo depends on the athlete. Not everyone is going to be able to throw 95. There's no way. So we just want them healthy and move them on and then let the college person take a look at that and if they think they got to throw 90, to play college baseball, to pitch at the college level, maybe in the SEC, but there's a lot of other places that most of the players are going, because not all of the players are going to the SEC right are going to the SEC right.
Speaker 3:So and we're trying to move our players to where they will play and be picky right. You know we'd go to different prospect camps at colleges and stuff, and Desi's story at Central Washington. He does a good talk with the players and it's like you need to first make sure that you have the classes right that you want to take and what you want to do, and then take a look at the roster and you know, do they have seven catchers right? And you know how many are moving along? And you know they have no seniors. That might not be a good place for you because no one's moving on. So take a look at that. And you know, are you going to play? So take a look at that. And are you going to play? So you could go to some university and put the sticker on your car and never play and pay $40,000 if that makes you happy. But I think we've got to get the kids to the right place and the right fit and if they don't get innings, they're not going to develop.
Speaker 1:Well, I've been doing this podcast since 2020. I've got, I believe, over 130 episodes out and I came across this Ali Schroeder. Yes, Tell me about Ali Schroeder.
Speaker 3:Okay, ali Schroeder. Ali Schroeder played for us in 2019. Um, allie Schroeder never played softball, played baseball. She was from, uh, trail, british Columbia, where Jason Bay was from. Okay, so, very strong hockey baseball community. Um, very competitive, very competitive. And that year there was no team in her age for her to play. They were, I guess, rebuilding a little bit and stuff at that age and so they reached out and said, can I play with you guys? So she came out and met us in Libby. So Trail signed the release because they were playing American Legion 2.
Speaker 3:So all the coaches in Montana, right, and all the areas that had to sign a release, right in the closest towns, oh yeah, we'll release. You want this girl? Yeah, no problem, right? Well, they didn't know how good she was. Yeah, no problem, right. Well, they didn't know how good she was.
Speaker 3:So she's been pitching for Team Canada since she was 15 for women's baseball, okay, and I took her down to Central Washington for the prospects camp in December of 2019, and she hit 82 on the gun. So there's some ladies throwing out faster now, but at that point in time she was probably second, second or third in women's baseball and velo. There was a lady in Japan that was throwing harder and knows the game very well, very competitive. She played outfield for us. She played some third base. She played shortstop. She pitched field for us. She played some third base. She played shortstop. She pitched. Yeah, she struck out 13 in six innings in Libby in May 2019 there.
Speaker 3:And, yeah, she was the first female to play in the Canadian College Baseball League, so she and she held her own. She played two years there. So she held her own. She played two years there and then some teams noticed her. So Australia picked her up, flew her over for women's baseball in the Australian League and she played in the playoffs for them.
Speaker 3:I think for the team she played was the Bandits also, I think it might have been the Brisbane Bandits and so she hit some few home runs and now they're starting that league of her own again and so she goes down to Florida and plays in that and they're doing a documentary on women's baseball around the world. So she is the Canadian female player that they're profiling and she's had dinner with Ferguson Jenkins and he's watched her pitch and, yeah, she's an extremely hard worker, very talented, very competitive, and when she's not baseball season, when there's time off, she's fighting forest fires. She works for the Forest Service in the riot fighting fires. So she will take a dozen baseballs or 10 baseballs and when she has time off she'll be in the middle of nowhere and she will find like the little elementary school in the small town and go to go to the field area and throw baseballs against the feds on her own.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I mean, that's, that's that just. I love stories like that and and the fact that you had a chance, an opportunity to to work with her and be open to having her on your team, that says a lot about you?
Speaker 3:she's, she's great um had dinner with her a few weeks ago before I was doing a coach's clinic, so I I was driving through where she's living and so we saw her and she's uh is still playing for team Canada and um, yeah, we're trying to get her into uh play softball um in the States and um, yeah, so she's reaching out to a few schools, but, uh, very, very, very competitive, great athlete, great person and it sounds like she holds around with guys because she's out there fighting forest fires too.
Speaker 3:We're playing in Kalispell and she gets up there and there's a guy dealing about 85, 86. And she hits a double right, center and right to the fence. And, yeah, the Kalispell players were standing up and giving it to their pitcher. It was pretty funny she could hold her own, that's for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, let me ask you this Do you hate losing or love winning?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I might hate losing more. Yeah, yesterday wasn't a good day. The players would probably say that, yeah, we're very competitive and just trying to. You know, kids are different today than when I played and from a coaching standpoint, standpoint, to get them competitive to, you know, love winning to get on the field expecting to win, but knowing that they got to work hard and they got to play it right, and not accepting the losing and not liking it Right and keep striving. Yeah, that's a tough question, for sure. And not liking it right and keep striving. Yeah, that's a tough question for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, I ask it of every guest, and every guest has a different approach, and I love hearing their opinions on it. The next thing I wanted to ask you, I want to test your knowledge. A little bit Simple true, true or false, babe?
Speaker 3:Ruth hit more home runs than any other team in a season. Twice Than any other team in a season twice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably did. Yes, that's true.
Speaker 3:I read that and I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1:I was like yeah, all right, the next question. Hank aaron yeah true or false? He had 21 appearances in all-star games. Most players don't even get to 20 years as a career.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 21 is a lot, but I wouldn't doubt that that's a lot. But I wouldn't doubt it. I'd say true, You're right.
Speaker 1:He didn't do it. He didn't make it his first year and, I think, his last year he didn't make it. Well, you've been around baseball for such a long time. What is your best story?
Speaker 3:I outside of alley, in your years of coaching just our small town and playing with these small numbers and playing american legion. We just love, love, love playing legion. Um, and yeah, that we've got this. Uh, you know you got I don't know how many kids playing hockey 1100 kids playing hockey, right, and you know we've got our team of 11. So with youth, you know there's maybe 150 kids playing baseball in the minor youth system here, which they do a very good job. And yeah, you know, the last few years, some of our players being All-State, more and more players becoming All-District and more players a couple players becoming All-State the last two years, two right-handed pitchers yeah, I think, just seeing the players develop, being able to develop them to a high, having kids and hard workers, good careers, great people in the community, I think it's just great seeing, you know, seeing them when, even when they finish playing, seeing them develop and how they move on and the people that they are.
Speaker 1:Well, it's Paul Mrazek. He's coaching Legion Baseball up in Canada. Coach, I can't thank you enough for for one being on the podcast. But the effort that you're doing to get baseball going in Montana, the way you're doing and bringing in great coaches to talk at your clinics, your clinics, and the fact that you've been all over doing what you do best and that's sharing your, your baseball knowledge, I truly appreciate you taking the time to be on baseball coaches unplugged?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, thank you. And I want to thank Tim Saunders and you know I've just been really lucky to to meet good people, meet the right people like Tim Saunders, who then passed my name along to you, and Bill Percy in Colorado Springs, another ABCA Hall of Fame member, and he's the one that introduced me to Tim, and all of these people have been saying do you know this person? Do you know Darren Fenster? Do you know Jerry Weinstein?
Speaker 3:Okay, I'll get you in touch with them and Kai Correa and the people that have spoken at our clinic that we've been able to bring on Donagall Fergus and Aaron Sutton he was with the Twins and just so many the guys in Wisconsin Mark Fuller, marty Paulson, john Vonlich and you know Eric Kibler, another Ohio guy. I'm sure you know Coach Kibler, who's now in Arizona and we've been down and he's worked with my teams twice over the years taking teams down to tournaments with my teams twice over the years taking teams down to tournaments and I've just been, yeah, really lucky to meet the right people. And other people keep introducing me to other people and giving me opportunities and we just try and right, turn it over to the kids, develop them the best we can.
Speaker 1:This episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is powered by the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707, or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. Be sure to tune in every Wednesday for a new episode and, as always, I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter. Thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.