The Boro Buzz Episode 15: The Softball STANDARD!

In this episode, we sit down and chat with two-time state championship-winning coach Toby Strider. He talks about team culture, success beyond the scoreboard, and much more. It's the kind of conversation you'll only find right here on THE BORO BUZZ! 🎙️🏆

Special SHOUT OUT to @justkeepswingingllc !! We couldn’t do it without you! Check them out! They do more than just baseball and softball! They have ALL your apparel needs along with baseball and softball equipment for both individuals & facilities. Give them a call at (704) 516-2587!

Also, another great sponsor is Mark Vuncannon with Howard Hanna Allen Tate Realtors- your go to for real estate, backed by market knowledge and real world experience! Just Remember TheMarkV.com!!

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the Borough Bulls. And today's episode is. I don't know what you want to call it. It's uh it's another home run like we had last time. Um, so stay tuned.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to the Bull of Bus. All access to everything sports in and around the border. We're talking inside the lines and behind the scenes. And the stories you don't hear on the game. It's happening in the gym, on the field, or in the locker room. You'll hear it here. This is the Bull of Bus.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

This episode is sponsored by Just Keep Swinging. From top quality equipment to custom apparel like hats, shirts, and more. They're more than just sporting goods store. They are here to support our athletes and community every step of the way. Whether you're gearing up for game day or looking to rep your team with fresh merch, just keep swinging has you covered. Give them a follow today. Another sponsor of this episode is Mark Bon Kenneth with Hall and Allen Tate Realtors. Your go-to for real estate. Backed by market knowledge and real world experience. Just remember, themarkv.com. All right, we're here at the Borough Buzz with Coach Toby Strider Southwestern. Randolph, how you doing, coach?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Good.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

Man, I appreciate it, man. Uh, everybody's been talking about that uh drone shot, man. Everybody's like, did you run over? Did Coach try to touch the drone? I'm like, I swear he didn't. I say Yeah, that was pretty neat. Yeah, um, talk a little bit about uh who Toby Strider is. I mean, we know you you know from the commercials, so you can talk a little bit about that. I think that's kind of cool. Uh, me growing up, I've seen those commercials, and then uh about your love for baseball and softball.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Well, you know, I was born right here in Randolph County, grew up, uh, my mom and dad's house was across the road from Southwest before the school was there. I think they built their house in '67 and the school opened in 70. So, you know, I've been there all my life. The school's always been our closest neighbor and uh been our best neighbor. And I hope Striders have been the best neighbor to the school as well. But, you know, our family's been in the car business for 50-some years. Uh I was fortunate uh we had the Buick GMC Subaru dealership for 30 years. And um, you know, just uh the Lord lines things up. We were able to um sell that. We wasn't necessarily planning on it, but it worked out. I wasn't planning on being a high school softball coach. Um lo and behold, that worked out, and one thing led to another, and here I am in year three uh coaching um high school softball. And uh speaking of those dealerships, didn't you have one in Randleman? Yeah, at one time we had um I mean we had the Buick store.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Then we had a we've we still we've always had the lot that I still have, home plate motors. Yeah, right behind Ashboro High School, right? Right behind Ashburg High School across from Nautilus Infidelity.

SPEAKER_04 2:42

There's a shout-out right there, make sure you go buy a car.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Yeah, come on down, slide on in and drive one home today.

unknown 2:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Um but we we've always had home plate. Um my dad actually started at the lot right beside that um in 1970. So we've been on February Street for 50-something years.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

But um I know your salesman from Randman, Dan Jordan. His best his son uh Tristan was my best friend in high school and middle school.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

So we had it we had a lot in Randleman and we had a lot in Denton at one time. So, you know, and that was um internet was around, but it wasn't what it is today, you know, and you sort of had to disperse to create and grab different markets, and uh as that you know, everything changes today. Everything's all your shopping's done on your phone.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

It's funny you said that because he actually learned Spanish by working at your dealership. He would have people come in and he would learn how to speak, so he became bilingual working for you.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah, I wish I would have took uh Spanish a lot more serious in school. Um, you know, communication is the key to anything, and speaking multiple languages is only gonna help you, but I wasn't real good at that skill. Yo no hablo español.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

But you're so what's interesting about you is you said you never thought you'd coach softball, but you were doing baseball for a while.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Oh no, I mean I didn't say I didn't think I would ever coach softball. I didn't know that I was gonna be a high school coach. So yeah, I mean, you know, I was I played um football and baseball in high school, um, went to Wingot, pitched at Wingot, got hurt, came home, graduated from UNCG. Um, you know, just helped around. I had a nephew that um their coach got promoted or something when he was right at Christmas break in eighth grade, and I coached at Southwest Middle, and then uh Ronnie Pugh and I, Ronnie was my quarterback coach in high school, has mentored me all my life, sports, business, whatever. I talked to Ronnie this morning, thanked the world of him, and um helped him in 2009 and 10 with Legion Ball. And um during that time, uh Liz got pregnant with her third child, Maley, and um, you know, Molly was playing Molly was five, yeah, she was five playing uh or six playing coach pitch, and I'll never forget this. The first game of the year she hit it as well as any boy on the team hit it, but she wouldn't run to first base, and uh she was real shy, still is shy today. But by the end of the year, she struck out every at bat. And uh, you know, I'm she's six years old. I wasn't too hard, but after the game, I was like, why aren't you hitting the ball? She said, Well, because you're always at town helping them boys, you're never at home to help me anymore. And boy, you're talking about pulling on a heartstring. So, you know, a few days later I told Ronnie, I was like, hey, when we get done with this summer, I'm gonna be done. I've I've got to coach them. But went from coaching Legion ball to a bunch of eight-year-old girls coach pitched softball, and I thought this is going to be terrible. And lo and behold, I fell in love with the game, it's such a fast game, and you know, I've progressed along, coached for I don't know, 17, 18 years now, but I was I wasn't selling my business thinking I'm gonna become a high school softball coach. Yeah. But the Lord's lined all that up, and I think there's a lot of stuff from business that's helped me um in coaching, and I've been blessed with a lot of talent, and therefore we've had success in the way you measure success today.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

And uh two questions off of that. One, you still got your what made you want to keep the home plate motors instead of just riding off into the sunset after selling dealership.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Well, we've always, you know, I don't I mean, we've just always been in it. It's been in our family forever, so I don't know how to not sell or not be in business to an extent. I had um a few employees that have been with us a long time. Um Andy Perdue's like a brother to me. And you know, when we when we sold, we had uh probably 10 employees that were very key. Um six of them. Yeah, six were on social security or or getting ready to be on social security, three were under 40. And then I had Andy that was in his early 50s. And um that's a tough spot to to make a career change. So um, you know, I had a conversation with him about you can stay with the group that's buying us, you can go somewhere else. If you want to stay with me, I'll make you a partner at home plate. And um, but you're gonna run it, you're gonna be there. I I don't intend on being there, you know, 40 hours a week. And um he didn't hesitate, he said absolutely, and I've got a great staff there that allows me to do other stuff like this.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

And the other question I had was you know, you talk about making the transition from boys to girls, men to women. As a coach myself, what do you see the difference in?

SPEAKER_02 6:53

If you tell a boy that he sucks, he gets mad and wants to prove you wrong. If you tell a girl she sucks, she believes you and quits. Girls want to please you. They've just got to like you and respect you, and you can push the snot out of them. Yeah. But they've got to like you and respect you, and they will do everything they can to please you.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

And that's true, and I feel like even uh parents they try to live through both both men and women.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Oh yeah. I mean that's natural, you know. I mean there's pressure today on parents too, because we've got all this pressure through social media.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Um so you know, I think parents feel pressure to do something good so they can post. But you know, at the end of the day, and I try to talk to the girls about this constantly, that softball people don't go tonight to the softball contest. People don't go tonight to the to the softball whatever, they go to the softball game. And the word we forget in our society today is game. Games are meant to be fun. Somebody's gonna win, somebody's gonna lose. I don't like to lose. Not gonna say that I do, but I think we can get so caught up in that. And then our identity, you know, talking about parents, um, they feel pressure for their kid to succeed. The kid feels pressure, and they be get they get identified by how successful of a player they are, or how unsuccessful of a player they are, what their stats are. You know, and in the society we're in today, you know, as adulthood, we tend to measure success by your bank account. Athletically, we tend to measure success by statistics. And honestly, at the end of the day, that should not identify anybody. You know, I have been blessed, um, but I don't want to remember be remembered as the best overall dealer. I don't want to be remembered as a great coach. I don't want to be remembered as um The man overalls. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I want to be remembered as he was a good man that poured into his community that if somebody needed help, you could ask him and he would be there for you. Um that's what I want to be remembered for. I don't want my identity to be stuck with a sport or uh a business or anything like that. I want it to be who I am and how I represent myself. And I talked to our girls about that every day. Your identity cannot be from this sport.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

And I love that you said that because you mentioned something to me off camera uh when we were filming the other week that I liked and I thought it was it hit home was you don't tell your team we gotta win this game, is we gotta win every every I say possession in basketball.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think so um obviously one of the biggest reasons to play sports is to learn life lessons. Let's go back to car sales. You don't wake up, I don't wake up this morning and say, man, I want to sell something today and sell it. You don't wake up and say, I want to win today and win. You know, there's networking, there's having inventory, there's prospecting, all that stuff that goes into selling something. Same thing goes into winning a ballgame. Am I mentally prepared? Have I been taking my extra T work? Am I prepared for every situation that can happen on the field? Am I taking them extra ground balls? How's my drop step on the ball in the hole? Am I taking good angles? If we're teaching all that stuff, then we're probably gonna have more success than failures, and that's gonna result in more wins. Same goes in life. If you want to retire, you better start saving money early. Yeah, you know, you can't just one day wake up, wish, boy, I hope I wish I had a million dollars and you've done nothing to get a million dollars, you're not gonna have it. You can't want to win and not put the work in. So I think that's where sports and life can come in. So I just think it's a great tool to teach kids.

SPEAKER_04 10:18

It is, and I feel like sometimes, and I'm and I'm going on a tangent here as a coach, but I some people some parents don't want to hide from it. They just go, all right, well, I don't want them to hit adversity, so let me take my kid and go run somewhere else. Right. And I and I'm sure you've seen it, I've seen it. I I feel like, you know, it's like you said something about how the parents living through the kid, they need to just accept, hey, they might not have four runs. Celebrate them having, like you said, uh an out or a double play that helps save the game in the second inning.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Well, I think where that pressure comes from today is um take a kid that goes 0 for 2 and a kid that goes one for three with a home run, but you win the game by two runs. Um the kid that hit the home run don't have a ball hit to him the whole game. The kid that was 0 for 2 was playing um left field. There was an overthrow at third, they backed the throw up, did not allow the run to score. So there's negative one run toward the other team. That kid also put down a sacrifice bunt that that allowed a run to score, so there's plus one run for our team. Then they had a runner on third and they hit a ground ball backside. There's plus two runs for our team. That kid contributed to three runs, a negative and two positives, to spread the score out, and we only we won by one or two. They made more of an impact than the kid that hit the home run. But the parent cannot go in there and say, Well, little Sally, she did a great job backing up. The only place she had a day was a backup, she got a sack down. It's just too much. There's nothing to highlight there. And I think we get caught up in that. Where at the end of the day, it takes everybody. When we won the state championship game, I talk about this all the time. When we won the state, there were three kids that was instrumental. None of them were starters. Chloe Udy, who has really had a good year for us on the mound this year, she never batted at all during the playoffs. Never played any of the defense. Okay. She pinched ran one time because I was out of pinch runners. Chloe would not be my first chance, first pick to run because she's not fast. But it just that situation she ran had nothing to do with winning. Chloe threw to our batters live a couple days a week for us to practice bunting on. I was short pitching, she was there doing it. We won games because of our bunning. Chloe made an impact on that. Um Riley Heinlein ran for Macy Crutchfield. Riley scored the first run of the state championship game, pinch running for Macy. Macy would have not scored. Riley did. Sarah Cape Marion ran for uh Haley Thompson in the seventh inning, scored from second. There's no way Haley would have beat this, you know, would have even made it close. Yeah. Sarah Cape scores as a pinch runner, ball gets away, Madeline Smith comes around, scores, we win the game. That's three kids that were huge in that state championship that they're not going to get credit for, like the kid that pitched or the kid that went three for three or whatever. And it takes it all. And I just think we we miss that in society every day. Every day. It's not just in sports, it's every day. There's people in different roles that are making your and our lives easier that we don't think about.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

I agree with that a hundred percent. That was uh that was my Caden cheek, dude. Uh we had a kid who was averaging 27 a game, but Caden was putting up, you know, what, 10 stick backs and 12 rebounds? Just as impactful.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

And uh as we go off of that, what what drew you to taking that softball gig? I mean, you you know, three years ago you could have just you know kept I was I was helping.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Um Chad Whitson was coaching and I was helping Chad. Um I started out just doing game changer when my oldest daughter was there, like and that wasn't until maybe her junior year. And um then he asked me to help him, and uh him and Coach Chapman were doing it.

SPEAKER_04 13:51

And um OG Chapman.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yep, yep, and so I started helping them, and Chad um he decided he was gonna be done when uh Carly graduated and Chad had done a great job there. And uh Chris Chapman called and said, Hey, why don't you um would you be interested in taking over softball? And um I said, Well, surely you can find somebody better. And so then Mr. Hodgin called and said, Hey, we'd really like for you to take it over. And you know, everything just lined up and so there that's the that was history.

SPEAKER_04 14:17

And that journey to uh was it your first year state? You won state your first year?

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Blind squirrel find a nut every now and then.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

And you said something to me though, that when you win a state title, first let's uh I want to talk about that journey, and then I want to talk about the question that everyone asks you. I get the question are uh before we won a the the conference was hey, you are y'all gonna win tonight? You get the question, you're gonna win state this year. Every year.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Yeah, I mean that you know, I'm fortunate to coach where I coach, and and there's a sign out there that says the winning tradition, and I don't want to think that I'm the one responsible for that. I mean, you know, I can go back and look and guys in our community, Ricky Martinez had the knockouts, Alvin Hogan had the rage, Steve Taylor was the first uh fast pitch coach. There, there's a lot of people that came before me that set our culture up and our tradition of winning and just that expectation up. Um, but when you come into a program that's already won four state championships, it'd been um the 14 years difference between the third one and the fourth one. What was the last one? It was 10, and then we won in 24. So um, but yeah, I didn't realize the pressure of state championship. You know, it's you think you can win the state this year, you think you can win the state. Nobody ever asks, do you think we can win the conference? It's always do you think we can win the state? And you know, obviously, there's nothing wrong with talking about that and having them goals. That don't mean you're going to win it. But talking about that journey, we lost three games the last week of the regular season that year. And um, from a talent standpoint, that team was not super talented, but that team was super committed to their role, and everybody understood their role, and everybody did the little things. And the hardest thing in my mind to win in a state championship is winning the four games to get to the regional finals. Because we lost the year before I took over. Um we lost West Wilkes two to one in nine innings. Uh ball didn't bounce our way. Then we beat West Wilkes in the fourth round the year we won it. They had seven base runners. We had one, Madeline Smith hit a triple in the top of the seventh. Uh Alyssa Harris hit a fly ball to center, she tagged up and score. We won that game one to nothing, had one base runner. We shouldn't have won that game. Uh West Wilkes was better than we were. But we did. And you know, for for a state championship to happen, you've got to be good. You've got to play at the top level, but you've got to catch some breaks. I don't care who you are.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

And we caught them that year. And you mentioned one game that you said that you knew the confidence that you could win this thing if you beat this team.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

That was West Wilkes. That was West Wilkes. Okay. I'm 100% new. If I I sh I was 100% confident we were going to probably play North Stanley, and we'd played North Stanley already earlier in the year and they beat us. But I felt that they were definitely beatable. And uh they beat us the first round of the original finals. We won the second game, uh, the 13 in the game. Wow. And then we beat them pretty handily the the third game, and then you know, when we got to the championship, we run rolled the first game, and then uh Cammy Dunn with two outs hit a line drive between short and third, and Sarah Kate scored and speedy Madeline Smith came around and ball got away, scored game over, we're champion.

SPEAKER_04 17:19

So and I'm sure that moment's probably sunk in with all the yourself, all the work, you know.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Yeah, you know, I mean you take Cammy, Chloe, Maddie. I've coached all them since they were five years old playing C Ball. Okay. And then Alyssa and Kenlin uh started coaching them in in uh in sixth grade at middle school, and then Riley since she was a freshman.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

So yeah, been a long time with them. And and their loyalty coach, I mean we had them on the podcast, you know, they told us about the cartwheel. Um that was Nautica and Cammy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You you have to kind of that one I had to filter.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

I had to send it off to you next time for a no, uh we won that game against Wes Wilts. I just that they celebrated uh I'm usually not one to celebrate like that. Yeah, yeah. And I try to be very professional at all times, but I I I had a little uh I don't know, something maybe stuck in my crawl from the way they celebrated the year before at our place, so I did a cartwheel one.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

The surf one and threw all the girls off. Well, I love they got so excited about it. They and as a coach watching this, you mentioned you have a saying, and you told it to me on Randolph Sports Central, um, the they will run through a wall for you, and then they all everyone, not just your daughter Maddie, when she was on the podcast with Emory, which is oh my gosh, those two together at your house, this and they do handstands and all the things but Cammy and Nautica, they tear up when they think of the last day they get it, they have to step off the field. You're not their coach anymore.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Yeah, boy, I'm gonna jump up and down. I'm just no, you know, you give them a hard time. Um but you create this special relationship with them, and I think the scene you're telling me is people don't care how much you know till they know how much you care. And um I'm not the greatest coach in the world. I mean, I've oftentimes felt like the worst hitting coach in the world because we just we just don't score a lot of runs. Um we've hit it the best this year we've ever hit it. But um, you know, I think there's so much I try to coach 90% of what I'm coaching is psychology. And I think, you know, going back to the car business, um, man, selling cars is hard. You wait on a lot more people that say no than you do, yes. So you've got to learn to get over fear of failure real quick, and you've got to learn to think quick on your feet and do things the right way. And softball is exactly a game of failure, and we talk about fear of failure constantly. And you asked the difference between um boys and girls. I live, I I think I can say this because I have a great wife and three daughters. Okay, so that's four women I'm I live with. Got a mother and a sister. Most of the time, I think a male is more confident and more eager to take on something than a female is. That's not always the case, but I think if you were generalizing, that would be the case, and you're probably not supposed to generalize today.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Hey, I got two girls at the house, three girls at the house, too.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

So I think that's a fair statement to make. And as I said, you know, the the female players they want to please you. So I think one of the things that we we constantly have to talk about is your mindset and where is that fear of failure at? Is it creeping in? Why is doubt creeping in? Pressure comes to the unprepared. You've done everything, you're prepared. So what you struck out. That girl did her job, that's over with. What can you learn from that at bat to accomplish, to not let that happen the next at bat? But more importantly, we can't take that at bat to the field and then not have her mind in the game, and we've got a runner on third, ground ball hit to us, and we forget to look her back because we're thinking about how we just struck out. Well, now you've hurt the whole team. So, you know, we talk about that mindset stuff every single day, multiple times a day. I send text out on a regular basis, and you know, um, most of them text has something to do with where's your brain at, you know, and that's just um I think that's where a lot of that relationship comes from.

SPEAKER_04 20:53

Love and you the only as we get close to wrapping up, the only thing I you don't just make an impact in, you know, school ball, you do knockouts. And uh you got a pretty cool assistant coach too, old good friend of mine, Benji Cole. But talk about how like you mentioned coaching all these kids, but the importance of giving back through the knockouts organized organization, because let's be honest, we don't do coaching for this money.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Oh no. I mean, you know, I so in the summer today, times have changed, uh, which I mean this has been around a long time, they call it showcase. And you know, you're just you're simply at that point, there's not a lot of pressure for winning. You usually have a predetermined pitching rotation, and it's usually just a couple innings at a time. But you know, at that time, I'm talking to them kids a lot about life because they're they're excuse me, number one, they're trying to get recruited. Number two is you want to make sure they're they're going to the right fit for them.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

And so we talk about that a lot. And uh, you know, then have relationships with different coaches, and and again, you're just you're selling, I mean, you you want to make sure you're selling a good product to the coach. And you know, I I'm telling you, I don't care what level it is, I don't care where you're at in life, what you're doing. It it don't matter if it's ball or your job or what What? If you don't have the right mindset, you're not going to be successful at whatever you want to do. If you don't another saying, I think Henry Ford came up with it. Haley Thompson actually made me a thing, a little thing in pottery class. You either can or you can't, whatever you believe you're right. And you know, you've got to have the right mindset of where you're going. Are you are you going to school at a place you can succeed? Is your is your number one thing to be on a a a D1 team and maybe not play? Can you take sitting the bench for three years? Or can't you? If you can't, you shouldn't be looking there. Can are you fine being five hours away from home? Can you live that far away from home or can't you? You know, there's all them kinds of decisions that we make or help them girls, you know, guide them in the right direction. And that's a that's a different, totally different process than coaching school ball, but it it is giving back to the kids and trying to lead them in the right direction.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

I love it. That's impactful. And uh as we wrap up, um one or two more questions. Um one that you know, we go back to that. How important is it to have a good staff in a coaching world?

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Unbelievable. You're no better than the worst person around you. It's no different than any other job, and I've got great people around me. I mean, you know, um Coach Chapman, I don't know what I would do without him. Uh not just you know, everybody thinks it's just field maintenance, but he's got so much wisdom with with how long he's been doing it. Um Kevin Hewland is a huge asset to me. Kevin's been coaching a long time. Just a we're sitting right there side by side, and you know it might be what you think. Change up your curveball, curveball. You know, just hearing that other um voice of of reason beside you, and then um Heaven Maynus has joined our staff this year. Heaven's, in my mind, one of the two best female athletes that's ever been at Southwest, and she was the other one, sack rookie of who's the other Holly Hill. Okay. Holly Hill and Heaven Maynus in my mind's two best female athletes that's ever been at Southwest. But Heaven was uh rookie of the year in the sack when she went to Wingett, and then she was female athlete of the year at Wingett, and she can throw full arm circle BP, and she just graduated two years ago. I mean, she Heaven can she's young, she's good to have a young huge asset. And then uh Haley Epps is helping, and she'll do whatever you need to ask. So, you know, I mean that's it's huge to have that around you. I mean, it's you're no better than the worst person you got helping you.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

I mean, they they do, and they actually it's funny. Your players told me a story about that you they needed to work on their bunting. And you had it, and you said you literally put the net close as you could to them. It was during it was it during playoffs, and you were just throwing it just like Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Yeah, I mean, you know, when we when we were going, I'm telling you, our team batting average was 216 going into the championship weekend. Yeah. When we won the state championship. 216. Um we had in seven games, I think we had five shutouts. The most runs we'd given up was two. Um so if I had I had speed, if I could get somebody on and steal second, we could bunt to third, we could squeeze home, or we could hit a ground ball backside. So, you know, you've got to put pressure on them at practice. So I would, I would get that screen just as close as I could get it, and I was throwing it as hard as I could, and they've got to get them bunts down. And you know, then all of a sudden when the game comes in, that bunt's just floating up there, and you just bam, there it is. I love it. I talked about it on the podcast. I mean, we did that a lot. I would have pitchers throw uh instead of throwing from 43 three forty-three feet, we might throw from thirty feet just to speed things up a little bit. We do that constantly defensively. If we're doing situations, our runners are always starting at least 50 feet, not 60. Sometimes we start at 40. The quicker you can do it there, the easier it becomes in the game.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

I love it. And uh my last question, uh when uh Coach Strider, Coach Toby, hangs up the whistle, puts up, you know, declets, and decides to ride off into the sunset. What do you want people to say about Coach Coach Strider?

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Uh that he made impact on kids and that you know, if you needed something, he was there for you. That's it. I don't I don't care about wins and losses. I don't care what my record is. Do I want to win? Yeah. I don't know how many games I've won as a coach. Um I just want to make an impact on these kids, make their lives better.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

I love it. And then uh as we wrap up, let's we're gonna give a shout, just keep swinging. I know you know those people really well, Curtis and Kelly.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Yep. Curtis, uh, you know, and and Curtis now pretty well runs the knockouts organization, and he does a ton for kids. The thing about Curtis, um, it don't matter if kids playing for the knockouts or or who they're playing for. If he can help that kid, he's gonna help that kid. And him and Kelly do a great job with the organization. They're doing a great job with just keep swinging and I'm tickled for them.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

I love it. They give me all this cool merch. I don't usually wear a camo, but I I rock it now.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

I can take you hunting, you can wear that camo.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

You told me you want me to bring the drone out for you. That's what you think. Um, and then one other person I gotta give a shout-out to as well is uh Mark von Cannes. Aaron, he saw that piece with you and he was like, Man, I want my name tied to anything with Southwest. He goes, uh he was telling me a story about his grandpa, was it, or is his dad with the softball world?

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Yeah, his dad, uh this was before Fast Pitch. His dad was coaching travel softball a long time ago. Mark was uh three years ahead of me in school, graduated from Southwest. He's at about all of our home softball games at a lot of basketball games. So I give Mark a hard time. He's better off as a spectator than a referee. I love it. And as we sign off, you got anything you want to say, Coach? Anything you think of? I appreciate you having me. And um, you know, I just uh want to give back to the community, give back to the kids, and you know, if I could say one thing to to any parent, it would be uh, and I've had to learn this, if I could say anything to any young parent, give your kids some grace. It's a game of failure. Um I don't know anybody that bats a thousand at their job every day. You know, it's sort of like I say about umpires, guy behind the plate, seven-minute game, probably two hundred and fifty pitches thrown. Well, if he misses five pitches, he was about ninety-eight percent right today. Uh do you do your job ninety-eight percent right every day? So let's give them some grace and let's uh let's just if you can help enough people get what they want, you'll get what you want. Can they are they gonna retire the gator slash golf cart with you?

SPEAKER_04 27:48

Yeah, we can't we haven't more it out yet, but we're trying. Pause. Let's talk about you know the press box, man. You decide to build that, and that's one thing, you know, and I keep saying we're gonna be signed off. We're gonna be signed off, but you're doing so much that community is you developed a media press box. Talk about that and the vision there before we sign off.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Well, so when we won the state championship, um a couple people brought to my attention how successful our program had been. I didn't even realize that we were like in the top five all times of fast pitch history in the state, and we were tied for first or second state championships. And I was looking around and I was like, you know, our dirt's pretty good, our grass is really nice, but you know, our facilities look the same as they did 25 years ago. So last year we took down the backstop, the left field fence, put in the the brick foundation and the netting. Um, this year we were going to do the netting down the right field side, and and you know, we could have between our announcer and um, you know, Sports Tone, Randolph Sports Central, different things, we could have a whole the whole first base side of the backstop taken up. And that was eliminating a lot of seats, and we have some great crowds. I mean, it's it's pretty phenomenal the amount of people that come to our game. So I said, where can I put them at? And that idea hit me to put them over the top of the first base dugout. So now the media's up there, we've opened up a lot more seats, and I think the media has been just tickled to death with it. Um so it it it's great, and our community has just got behind us in helping us raise money. You got a sign that says media only. Yeah, raise money, donate uh materials, donate time and labor, and I couldn't, I mean, you know, that I couldn't have done it without the community, but they have been great for that. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

And you told me the funny story of you had to put up media only sign.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Yeah, my dad, uh, you know, him and Randall Myers and Mike Thompson and Sarah Villa Love Mike Broward, they're at every game and sitting back there and daddy's like, we're gonna come sit up here. I said, No, you're not. This media only. If I get all y'all up here, it's gonna defeat the purpose. So I put that media only sign up there and I give them a hard time about that. I love it. And uh any any insight on any any other renovations coming that we can be. Not not right off the top of my head. Uh I mean I've got some stuff that obviously I'm thinking about doing and whatnot, but I don't know in what order we'll do it. But you know, just constantly trying to improve what we've got. Randolph County is loaded with softball talent. You know, it's not just Southwest Randolph, it's the whole county. I mean, Randleman's phenomenal. Um, Eastern Randolph has been really good in years past, UCA's good. Um the county is just really good. And softball's a big thing here, so I think it's easy to get people behind it. And if you start working and you know, start talking about your vision, people will buy in and you can make stuff happen like this.

SPEAKER_04 30:15

Coach, thank you for coming on. And uh, I want to thank all our viewers. Make sure you like, subscribe, share, share, share, and uh pass along, hit that message button and send it to a friend. See you next time. Another sponsor of this episode is Mark Bon Cannon with Hal and Allen Tate Realtors. Your go-to for real estate, backed by market knowledge and real world experience. Just remember, the MarkV.com. Next time. Ready to dominate social media? Meet Core AI Media, your expert team of videographers and digital strategists powering data-driven campaigns of cutting-edge AI. We analyze, target, engage, monitor in real time, and deliver results that surprise industry standards. From skyrocketing engagement to crushing your goals, we are measured by results. Contact CoreAI Media today at info at coreaimedia.com. Let's grow your brand fast. This episode is sponsored by Just Keep Swinging. From top quality equipment to custom apparel like hats, shirts, and more. They're more than just sporting goods store. They are here to support our athletes and community every step of the way. Whether you're gearing up for game day or looking to wrap your team with fresh merch, just keep swinging has you covered. Give them a follow today.