Episode #68: Brent Porche

🎧 “Building Men, Not Just Champions” 

In this episode of the Significant Coaching Podcast, host Matt Rogers sits down with Brent Porche, the head baseball coach at the University of Texas at Tyler — and one of the most impactful leaders in college baseball today.

Coach Porche reflects on his journey from winning a Division III National Championship to leading UT Tyler through a remarkable transition into a Top 5-ranked NCAA Division II powerhouse with a 41-9 record.

 🔸 How UT Tyler built a national contender in just a few years at the D2 level
 🔸 Why championship culture starts with humility, trust, and daily standards
 🔸 The behind-the-scenes of winning it all — and what truly matters beyond the dogpile
 🔸 A heartbreaking story early in his career that reveals his heart for his players and their families

If you’re a coach, parent, or athlete who believes the best leaders coach for life — not just for wins — this episode will stay with you long after it ends.

🎓 Learn more, read the blog, and get Significant Recruiting at coachmattrogers.com

Transcript

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Welcome back to Significant Coaching with Matt Rogers, the podcast where we highlight the coaches who are doing far more than winning games. They're building lives, mentoring leaders, and leaving a lasting legacy. Before we dive into today's episode, make sure that you visit coach matt rogers.com to explore free recruiting resources. Blog, articles and tools to help student athletes, families and coaches navigate the college journey with significance. And don't forget, you can find every episode of this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and all the other major platforms where you get your podcasts. Now today's guest is someone whose coaching journey is a blueprint for building excellence at every level of college baseball. Coach Brent Porsche has spent the past eight seasons turning the University of Texas at Tyler into one of the most respected programs in the country. First at the Division three level, and now remarkably as a powerhouse in Division two baseball. Under his leadership UT Tyler captured a D three National Championship in 2018, completed a full transition into division two postseason eligibility. and just last season reached the NCAA D two Regional Championship game, making the most successful season in the program's division two era. And this season, the Patriots are ranked in the top five in the country with a 41 and nine record as we record this episode, and they're playing their best baseball of the year heading into the postseason. Coach Porsche recently became the winningest coach in UT Tyler history and what he's built in Tyler, Texas. Is more than a winning program. It's a culture grounded in passion, perseverance, and deep care of his people. We'll talk about that. Championship run, the grind of elevating a program from one level to another, and most powerfully a moment of tragedy that shaped him as a coach and a man. I encourage every listener to stay with us through the end of this episode because the story coach PO shares later on is one of the most powerful moments we've had on this show. It speaks to the kind of leader he is and why his players and families would follow him. Anywhere. And let me say this, I'm incredibly grateful that Coach Porsche took the time to sit down with me during the heart of his season. His willingness to share so openly in the middle of such a critical stretch says everything about the kind of coach and human being he is. Alright, let's dive in. Here's my conversation with Coach Brent Porsche. Coach Porsche, so great to have you on and I appreciate you coming on right at the start of playoffs, after you guys have had an unbelievable regular season. I wanna talk about this transition you've made with UT Tyler from division three to division two.'cause I took Maryville University through that transition. Gosh, it's been 15, 16 years ago, so I know how hard that was to recruit during that stretch because how do you get a kid to come play for you when you can't play in the national tournament, or you can't give scholarship yet? All that stuff the NCAA throws at you. You were coming off a national championship, you had record setting seasons to make that jump. Has your leadership style evolved to meet some of those challenges? Do you feel like you've become a different coach through some of that? I hope I've become a different coach, each and every year in a lot of ways. Every year we try to evaluate what we're doing and how we're doing it, and. make sure that we're doing the right things, the right way, for our kids and for the program and for the alumni and all the people that are invested. we're lucky here to have, a big group that's invested in this program, in so many ways. We're a young program. 2004, is when the first baseball team played here at UT Tyler. And we have such strong support from our alumni. that starts with, coach James Val, who was the first coach to start the program here. Did some athletic director work. ended up getting into the private sector, back into coaching and bounce back and forth. But, I'm still in contact with him, to this day. As well as Coach Bertrand, who was the coach before me and being connected with those coaches and with the people that played under them, has been a big part of us continuing our support and success. Those people are invested in this place and they wanna see us succeed. But yeah, to get back to your question a little bit, I think during the transition process, like you said, recruiting can be difficult. I think there's a perfect storm of things that helped us and aided us. To have a pretty smooth transition, at least from the outside looking in That's right. And winning a national championship in our last post-season, eligible season in division three obviously helps recruiting. Yep. and then, a big piece was we had a lot of juniors on that national championship team, that chose to stay and finish their careers here knowing that postseason wasn't gonna be, in the cards for us in that next year. And so that was probably the most difficult year, was 2019 post national championship. but we're able to have a lot of success in that season, even though, there was plenty of challenges as well. and that's a credit to those guys that hung around, during that transition that chose to stay. another big piece of that, is. my assistant at the time, coach Grafton, who was such a big part of that Division three national Championship, was fortunate enough to get a head coaching job. Off of that 2018 season. and so we had to go out and find somebody that was gonna do a great job in recruiting, going into division two. and we were just really blessed to have that person right across the street at TJC, Coach White, Taylor White, who's been with me now. Through the entire transition. He came in 2019 when we started that transition process he's done a, he does a tremendous job, is a incredible connector of people. He's incredible with the student athletes. the talent evaluation piece. we had a strategy going in and identified, what we were gonna go after to try to help us through this transition. and but it was difficult and it had, its challenges. I can remember the first time we got to recruit a player and finished their recruiting visit and didn't have to say. But we won't be able to play in the postseason. that was a pretty exciting moment for Coach White and I as coaches, whenever we were able to do that. But yeah, just so many people that went into making that a pretty smooth transition. at this point we're rocking and rolling and, trying to get to the top of division two. You've done a bang up job coach. I'm so impressed. I went through it and I know I didn't handle it as well as you did, and as well as you're doing it. We transitioned like you, we didn't win a national championship, but we had a number of national tournament appearances going into that transition That year we transitioned the first year of D two. I think we won three games. I took a bunch of great division three kids into at that point, which the toughest division two conference in the country. And we were going into a gunfight with a bunch of knives. Yeah. But it was so rewarding for me as a coach.'cause those kids never stopped battling. And by that end of the year, we were beating the D two kid, yeah. A couple of our big wins were against really good D two teams. What did that transition and that tho those obstacles that you had to face with those kids, what did that do for your confidence moving into this higher division? I think that if you look from our institution, from the outside looking in, it looks like a division two institution in a lot of ways. Yeah, it does. And so when I came here, this was my first experience with non-scholarship college athletics division three. I'd been at NAIA level, I've been at Divid, division one level. and so division three was new for me. The things I knew was this was a special place. We had, exceptional facilities, the school and the town were growing. and so those are the things that I knew coming in. That I thought we could leverage and use to our vantage in building, continuing to build the program. And I was hopeful that one day maybe division two would be in the cards. didn't know it would come as soon as it did and, I'm just, I'm thankful to, like I said, coach Bertran, left me a great team, in 2017 in my first year. And a lot of those guys were still on our club in 18 when we won a national championship, I didn't walk into a situation where we had to rebuild. I walked into a situation that was set up for success. those guys buying into the way that we wanted to do things quickly was a big piece. And then, we chose to go a different route. we had a lot of kids, at any level, coach, you gotta have kids that are talented. Above maybe what people would say is the level that you're playing at. for sure in order to be successful and at the top. and so we had a lot of kids on our roster when we were division three that, were talented enough to compete at the division two level. And then that's what we went into it with in 2019 with that first team. because there was no scholarships on that team. That was the first year of the transition and we were truly a division three team competing at the division two level. And those kids though, they had something to prove and had a chip on their shoulder. We're stepping up and w. I had a lot of confidence going into that year as well.'cause we just came off a national championship. and so I, we were talented enough to win a lot of games that year even though it wasn't our best season. and then I think really the key transition piece came with our first recruiting class. and Coach White, as I said before, does a tremendous job in that area. And our strategy going in was to find a level of talent that will be able to compete. Right away and not necessarily go into it with a bunch of freshmen. So we recruited a lot of junior college kids in that first class. the challenge there is obviously you're trying to convince those kids to come with no postseason. And so I think what we try to do from a coaching perspective is identify kids who had some financial need where we could make a competitive scholarship offer that they weren't maybe gonna get somewhere else. but we had to roll the dice on some kids. that, we're gonna be the right fit for us. And, not necessarily spread that scholarship money super thin, but really invest heavily in what we felt was a small number of the right guys. And I think that paid big time dividends for us because we were able to compete right away with some guys that we really poured some confidence into. And who bought into our vision for what this program was gonna be taking it into, division two. they bought into us as people, into what we were trying to do here and what we were gonna be able to do to develop them, not just as baseball players, but as humans. I think that was the biggest piece. That allowed us to have success in our first couple years, in division two. And obviously if you can have success, it makes recruiting easier. so it's a lot easier to recruit kids to this is what we're gonna do, but look at what we're doing than it is to recruit kids to, this is where we're at now, but this is where we're going to go. Yeah. and so being able to have some success and also have vision. I think, helped us get through that transition successfully and set us up for success. In our first few years of full membership. Did you guys roll into that 11.7 that first year, or was it a graduate? So nine. We're at nine in division two. Okay. And no, we didn't, oh, that's right. Nine division two, 11.7 is Division one. Division one, yeah. Were you automatic? You weren't there automatically? No. We phased it in. And so we started, I believe. Year two we went to, to eight, and then in year three we went to full, fully funded at nine. so that was a big piece of the puzzle as well. Yeah, we had the resources to go and get the kids, because at the end of the day, you know how it is in the recruiting piece. it's all about. People in the right fit, but you gotta be able to be competitive with what other places are offering to get, better players. luckily for us, our institution wanted success in this transition. successful athletics has been a part of UT Tyler as long as it's been around. it was important to them that we continue to have success and they gave us the resources that we needed to do that. That's amazing that's such a compliment to your administration. my administration 15 years ago, they were brand new and they, they really didn't understand what that division two level was like, and they thought a four year transition, starting with one or two scholarships was gonna be okay, and we were gonna be right. Bring kids in. It was just such a challenge, and they really had to backtrack their thought process and learn from it. Year two, three to say, all right we gotta change this. We, or we're never gonna bring in the kids to grow the program. So that's a great compliment to your administration and taking that approach. When you start with six, it's not nine. But that's a good place to start from. That's 12, 15, sometimes 18 players you can bring in on with some scholarship dollars at the baseball level. Yeah. That's fantastic. you've had such a great run of, developing all Americans. Coach, I'm really interested to hear kinda what your approach is. Bringing in really great players, but developing them and how you take that kid that just has that special skillset, they really have that eye for the ball. they have that eye for the strike zone. they've got a big arm, but man, they understand how to pitch. What is your approach to developing that top end of your roster? I think the biggest thing is that we've gotta be able to teach these kids. How to know who they are as players and, hold them accountable to a level of discipline that's gonna allow them to, reach their full potential. And, but they have to be able to be their own best coach. These kids, they come in, especially now man, they have so much knowledge, that we didn't have coming in, and, it's a lot of times it's just a matter of asking the right questions to pull the right answers out of them, and then just putting the guardrails on so that they keep moving forward. It's kinda like you, you gotta keep pushing from behind. With the level of discipline that it takes to be successful in anything in life. And then you gotta give'em the right questions, which are the guardrails to keep'em moving in the right direction, to develop as players and as men. And so I think that's probably the biggest piece to our approach Obviously it gets much more detailed and complicated than that, but that's probably the 30,000 foot view of our approach is we want them to be able to play the game free and without constraint. And we want them to be their own best coach. and we spend a lot of time, and have spent a lot of resources, spend a lot of money on resources in our program to help our players develop at that level. And a credit to all the coaches that I've had, that I've been able to work with, our strength and conditioning staff since I've been here and since we've transitioned. has evolved and there is top notch as it gets. we actually just lost our head strength coach that kind of helped us through that transition to another job, and so we're going out to hire somebody this summer. But he was such a crucial piece of that puzzle and development. That's where typically the lowest hanging fruit for development is nutrition. Recovery, what you can do to your body in the weight room and how you can transform it. And just the discipline to put in the work that it takes daily to be successful. And so that's the pieces, I would say the cornerstones of us, in developing our guys trying to create an environment where they want to be here. They want to be here, they wanna work, they wanna show up to the ballpark every day and get after it. that's gonna hopefully keep them excited about, developing and wanting to get better. I guess, like I said, the 30,000 foot view of what we try to do in development. The phrase is it takes a village to raise a child and it really, it takes a village to win a championship And grow a program. So I really appreciate your humility and how you use your staff and how you use the support team around you and how important those are, how important that family is to really grow and. your kids and helping them reach their potential. I wanna stick with the idea of that special kid.'cause that was probably my hardest thing it probably took me eight or nine years as a head coach before I got somewhat decent at coaching the great player. I'm a huge Cubs fan, don't hold that against me. We brought in Kyle Tucker this year and you watch that guy at the plate. we've got some nice players. We've got Ian Hap, we've got Suzuki, we've got some really nice players. But you see that young man at the plate and it's different. there's a confidence. Yeah. you can see everything slows down. when you're evaluating kids, and I know we're gonna talk a lot about recruiting here at the end today, but I want to get into how you look at your roster. Do you coach everybody the same? Are you an equal guy? I just don't think you can win that way. I see you shaking your head in agreement with me. How do you approach that really special kid compared to those kids that are grinders and, showing up every day doing the work, but there's that kid that just has that talent. Yeah. How do you approach that? I think the best thing that you can do for those kids, no, I don't think you coach every kid the same. And that's not favoritism. That's, you gotta know your people. And I think that's the biggest piece of the puzzle is you have to know your people. And we spend a lot of time getting to know our guys. And sometimes that can be difficult as a coach because you have so many. Hats to wear and you can be pulled in so many directions. Administratively, budgetary, just all the things that we have to do at this level to make the program run on a day-to-day basis. Sometimes it'd be easier to just walk in my office and shut the door and work, but I don't think that we get the best results. as a program if we do it that way. And so sometimes that means, if I want to get work done quietly, then I better be here early before anybody's here or stay late. when everybody's gone, because people are in and out all day, but that piece of our kids being in and out all day long, and just the one-on-one conversations to get to know them and who they are and what makes'em tick. Watch'em work outside of practice and see, the things that they're doing and the way that they're handling things. I think that's how you figure out how to coach each of these kids.'cause they're all different. to get more specific back to your question about that uber talented kid. I think the best thing you can do for those kids in my experience is. To hold them accountable, for their discipline. Yeah. sometimes it's easy for coaches to kinda let those kids, do their own thing because of their level of talent. And I think the more that you can get that kid to buy into the team culture and the team concept and what we're trying to do. I think you give that kid value, when that kid, doesn't run hard outta the box in an inner squad in the fall, it's something that you pull that kid aside and you have a conversation about, You've gotta understand the position that you're in and whether you want to be a leader or not, your talent level makes you someone that everyone's looking at. And if you are here for the reasons that we recruited you, and that's, we want to develop you as a player and hopefully professional baseball's in your future. But if it's not in the meantime, man, you came here to win.'cause that's what we do is we try to be successful as a team and as a program. And a big piece of that is that hard 90 outta the box. on a Tuesday inter squad in, August when it's 110. Yeah. And so getting those kids to buy into that, I think there's some, there's a level of ownership that, a kid can take that's in that position. You put him in a position that you know, Hey you're a leader for us, whether you wanna be or not. It doesn't matter what you say, but what you do. and we've had some of those conversations, I think. Being able to be close enough as a team and spend enough time outside of just baseball and practice and training that when that happens, you can call that kid out in front of the team. And I think that speaks volumes to the rest of the guys in the roster Man, it doesn't matter who you are, there's an expectation and a standard of the way that things are gonna be done. And whether I'm the red shirt at the bottom of the roster or whether I'm the most talented player on the field, I'm gonna be held to that standard. And I think those guys that you talked about, those grinders that show up every day and do it because that's how they were raised and that's just, you gotta have those guys as well. Those guys are more bought into what you're trying to do. When you hold everyone else accountable,'cause they know they're gonna do it. You don't have to hold those guys accountable in that way. They're gonna show up and do it every day because that's who they are. But man, their appreciation, I. And I've made that mistake as a coach plenty. I've been doing this since I was 26. I was a head coach at 26 years old. I had no clue I was doing Me too. 26. Yeah. And I made so many, I've made a lot of mistakes, and I think through those mistakes, I've learned a lot of things. this is probably a biggest piece of the puzzle. I feel like in the development of me as a coach. And developing a group that's really close knit and, is gonna overachieve their talent level, is being able to be, love a guy, be honest with a guy, and I'm honest with you because I love you. Yeah. this is how things need to be. And but yeah, just not sugarcoating being, matter of fact, holding everybody to a standard, it brings everybody together. And if there are pieces that aren't gonna get on board with that. it shows those pretty quickly too, which I think, is a piece of it as well, is figuring out who needs to be on the bus. And so yeah, there's a lot of elements to that, but I think the biggest thing is just, holding them, holding'em all accountable so we don't coach'em all the same, but we hold'em all to the same standard. I appreciate that so much, and I think you've explained it in a way that I think is so clear and is so articulate and I'm gonna use that word too because I think when you're, you tell me if I'm wrong, that great player, it's almost like you want them to be able to learn how to articulate why they're special. I can sit there and watch Tony Gwen talk, hitting Ted Williams talk, hitting Greg Maddox, Nolan Ryan talk, pitching all day long, and they've been outta the game for years. if we can get that great kid to understand, if you can articulate it, can you teach it? Can you help rise up those kids that maybe aren't able to slow the game down like you are or don't have that bat speed or don't have that, that just automatic. Ability to do what you do, if you can help rise them up, think about what we can do, think about what our roster looks like for sure. When we get everybody to your level, right? Yeah. And you're the leader of that, of how we work and what that work ethic looks like. So I love that coach. that's a really special way to look at it. All right. So you talk about your staff. I want to, talk about mentoring and what that influence does. When the kids are gone for the summer, you've won the D two national championship, you're looking for next year. What are you doing with your staff in the off season in developing them and helping them become, because you've had staff that have gone on to be great head coaches. What are you doing to help your mentors become better mentors? I don't know that we have anything, that I would say is like a programming for that. But I would say, I think that's a daily communication piece. one of the big things about me and just who I am, the way I was raised is I. Man, if I'm gonna be around you every day, all day, like we're gonna be family whether you like it or not. and I know that can be a different approach, than some where work is work and family is family. but to me, if you can't blend work and family in this profession. It doesn't work. I've got a wife who's a principal and I've got two young kids and they're not just, it's not that it that I have my baseball and my program, and then I have my family. They're interchangeable. They all have to be, a part of the family. And so I think that's a big piece for us is, our assistant coaches, our players, then they're in our home eating dinner. They know my kids think that they own this ballpark. They run around this place like it's their home. and so I think that is a big piece to, sometimes the best thing that you can do. For your players in their mentorship, is just have them watch you, how you operate as an adult, as a father, as a husband. and then from the assistant coaching side of things, just like I said, we do everything together. Coach White and I are best friends, that's super. We're close enough that when we need to have a disagreement, we can have it, and then we move on, like families do, and so I think that's a big piece and just, trying to put. My assistants and positions to lead and have some autonomy in pieces and parts of the program where I see their talent level can help us. There's things that Coach White does much better than I do, and what I've tried to do is put him in position. To lead our program in those areas where he's better than me. and I think that, if you can do that and not micromanage and give them some autonomy at the same time, it's kinda like the development of the player that we talked about, pushing them to standard. Asking the right questions and giving them the guardrails and allowing them to just keep moving forward and encouraging them when they do things well, and I think that's probably the biggest piece of staff development is just, man, just same thing. It's, the old adage of, people don't care what you know unless they know that you care about'em. I think that comes first. And then I think beyond that. It's just about trying to recognize talent and put people in positions to be successful based on, the gifts that the Lord has given them. That's great. That's great. I love that too. Coach. I want to get into in-game decision making,'cause you don't win 41 games, you don't win a national championship without having to make some hard calls at the end of games and make tough decisions. When you think about. End games. How much are you preparing as a coach, as a staff? Okay. It's four. Four. Bottom of the seventh. We already know who we want to use in the situation. Righty, lefty, whatever that may be. How are you balancing data intuition? Assistant coach, input, player input. Yeah. How do you guys make decisions and how do you go about that late in games? Yeah, I think it's a, That's something that has been developed over time. One the game and the resources that we have as far as scouting. and, analytics have changed just in the last five years tremendously, right? And so I would say that. it's so nice to have that information but I spent a long time as a coach without any of that information. And it was 100% based on the things that I saw every day in these guys and my gut intuition. but I made a lot of wrong decisions in that gut intuition. And it's nice to have the analytics piece to I think if anything, it helps you to know going into situations where you're gonna lean. And you gotta trust your people as well. when we're making decisions, I rarely do, I just make a call and go. I've got, coach Pope, one of my assistants, coach White. even our graduate assistant, whoever I think can add value to the decision making process, they're gonna have something, I'm gonna ask'em a question that I want an answer to, and then we're gonna have to make a decision and go. But I think having input, from all those people is helpful for me in making a decision. and so the analytics piece, the trusting your people, just for an example, this weekend we were in a situation and I've got a senior catcher that's been with us for a few years, who, him and I have a tremendous relationship. He's got a tremendous relationship with all of our pitching staff. Knows those guys as well as I do, if not better. I'll ask him, we're going to make a decision. Am I taking a starter out? Am I going to the closer? What do you see? tell me what you're seeing back there. Where's he at, mentality wise? Where's his stuff? And then he's. He knows that he's, if I ask him that question, he's entitled to that opinion and he's gonna gimme a real answer. And I think that's the other piece too, is you gotta give those people that you're asking those questions to you, they need to know that their answer is, I. Plays a part. And I'm not just asking to ask. And I think that goes to just the relationship piece. You've gotta, they've gotta know your heart and Right. Know that, when you're asking that question, you value their opinion. May not mean you make their decision, the one they wanted every time, but that their opinions valued. and and then for me that their. They're gonna see things that I'm not, and I'm always a, it's the best idea, is the best idea. It doesn't matter if it's mine, if it's a player's, if it's our trainers, if it's an assistant coach, if it's the best idea, I. It sounds like the best idea to me, that's what we're gonna do, right? I think that's how you get down to making those tough decisions in games and then sometimes there is no right one, you gotta know that as a coach. Sometimes there's no right decision. you just work with the information that you have. And what you truly believe based on the knowledge that you have of each one of these guys and their skillset, their mental ability, the situations obviously they've been in previously in their success and or failure. Watching'em in practice every day and how they're progressing. there's so many factors and I think it's like a puzzle. You're trying to put all those pieces together in your head. and then, you go with your, ultimately, sometimes you gotta go with that intuition. Yeah.'cause there's no right decision. And I guess that's a long-winded answer to say. I think you factor in everything and never make any rash decision, and you plan a lot so that you're prepared when those decision points come up in games, right? I was a college basketball coach, so some of my best memories, I remember the wins were games tied. There's three seconds to go my 15th player comes up to me in a timeout behind me and goes, coach. We should run play number six. Yeah. and I stop and go, that's exactly what we should run right now, and that kid, he became my assistant coach and he's become a really good high school coach. And he just had the brain and we won that game because he made that decision that I was struggling with. He made it easy'cause he was seeing the game differently than I was at that point. So I love your answer because. you never know where that motivation, where that intuition, where that gut is gonna come from. And, you've been doing this long enough that, if you're not listed to your gut, something's wrong because your intuition is gonna be probably right. 80, 90% of the time after all the years you've been through. coach I. I just love talking to you. I can talk to you all day and I'm so excited. can I do a little rapid fire with you? And it doesn't have to be the a, a real quick answer, but I have some things I like to do with coaches. Yeah. Just get your thoughts on some things. Let's do it. favorite memory from your national championship? Gosh, there's so many. probably, walking off, in the regional, final to get to the World Series. man, we had an improbable run. We were, if you go back and look at it, And I was new to division three, so there's a lot of things I didn't understand about the postseason process. I figured'em out in 2018 and we actually sent the team home. the whole team, we had exit meetings we lost in the first round of our conference tournament. we knew we had a good season, but I didn't know enough about the process. To know that we had a really good chance to get in, I thought, there's no way we're getting in. And so we sent'em all home. and I had four of'em in New York City. The night that we found out that we were in we're the last team to make it in. Oh, that's crazy. And so we bring them, we bring'em back, practice for a day, bus to Dallas and go to the airport. and then we go on this crazy ride. and we're down to the last game. We had come back outta the losers bracket, five games in three days. We had a double dip Rhodes College to get to the World Series. We beat'em in the first game. We're down four to one going into the ninth in game two. And I'm, I can't remember vividly standing on the steps of the dugout thinking. Man, what a run this was, if this is it, just what a run it was. And then next thing you know, it's, single hit by pitch walk. Double here. We got bases loaded and a chance to win a game and we hit a hard ground ball through the, in the sixth hole it goes tough. Backhand play off of the shortstop. Our third base coach Grafton, sending the guy at second play at the plate. We slide in and we win. And it was just nuts. I've got chills just telling that story. When you write your memoir, you need to start it with that story. That is fantastic. and yeah, I would say that moment specifically just probably stands out more than any other, in that run in 18. When you think about helping young coaches, is there a book, something on leadership or a podcast, is there something that you're into or has really helped you that you would share with a young coach? I don't know that it's anything specific. One book, one podcast. I think that there's something to be pulled from everyone that's, putting your path on this earth. and I try to put those things in my life where they're in front of me, Coaches podcast, every coaches or winning mentality or Twitter account or Instagram. If I'm gonna be on those things, I want'em to have value, right? and I love to watch little short videos, that are out there of great coaches and what they believe and the things that, and watching them talking to their team. I love to watch. Postgame interviews with coaches I love it. you find somebody that you really believe in and it's I wanna watch that. how is he looking at his team? what is he saying, about the game. and I think, following those coaches that you start to just have a feel for, man, that's what I wanna be like. And that's. The kind of coach that I see myself as in following those things and watching those things. I think having a growth mindset, wanting to get better, and soaking up everything you can possibly soak up, so that when it comes time for you to make decisions on how you're gonna do things, you've got all this information and then now you've just gotta discern it and piece it together how it's gonna work for you. Perfect. You already answered my next question about advice you'd give to a young coach, and I think that's such a big deal, is you soak everything up, listen to all the great coaches, listen to everything, and decide who am I? You don't have to copy anybody to go to, but listening and understanding what your tone and what your balance and how you want your emotions to come through. So I, I love that. If I said you had to define yourself with one word, what one word defines Coach Brent Porsche. One word. it'd be hard for me to say any other word than love. I think that everything else starts with that. And just a quick story, but. When I was in my first year of coaching when I was 26, I was at LSU Alexandria, N-A-N-A-I-A school. And we had a sophomore on our team, named Brandon Goen. And we were, it was January 18th, first day of practice. they're doing outfield drills. I'm with the infielders and he passes out on the field. We call 9 1 1, we ambulance comes out there. We, I did CPR. long story short, Brandon passed away that day. That kid touched so many people's lives and that experience and having to try to figure out how to lead his best friends through that experience where I had no idea what I was doing as a 26-year-old has shaped so much of who I am today, not just as a coach, but as a father. I can't imagine the hurt and the pain that his parents, even to this day still go through. I'm still in contact with them. They're unbelievable people. but that experience, probably shaped who I am and me using that word love. And meaning it, more than anything. A lot of programs I've been involved with talk about the program being a family. you talk about figuring out family, whenever you get into a situation like that. And I've tried to bring the importance of that, the importance of relationships and, I don't know that I would've. Had that situation not happened, I don't know that as a 26-year-old, I wear Brandon's number to this day. He was number 31. I wear number 31. and that's just a reminder for me, that this game is so much bigger and what we're doing is so much bigger than just the baseball. and I think that probably defines who I am as a coach in a lot of ways. Who I am as a person. Coach, thank you so much for your soul and your spirit and your faith and for sharing stories like that. Brandon, I know it's hard to hear this, but Brandon was lucky to have you at that point in your life and to be there in the end and to love him and care for him and those kids around. and the family around that had to go through that to have you there, and be the backbone that they all needed at that point. So as much as my heart is heavy for you, even after all these years, and, I'm just real thankful that you're in this world of coaching that we, you and I both love. So thanks for your time today. It means a lot to me. Matt. Thank you man. I appreciate it. Love what you're doing. Thank you for giving us a platform to talk about what we do, and thank you for giving us a platform to talk about these great kids that we're fortunate enough to coach every day. It's my pleasure, coach. It's a real joy. good luck the rest of the season. We're gonna be cheering for you all the way through. Thank you. That was Coach Brent Porsche, and if you listened all the way through, you know exactly why this man has built one of the most admired programs in college baseball. From winning the Division three National Championship to turning UT Tyler into a true division two powerhouse, to leading with compassion through moments of deep loss. Coach Poor shows us what significant coaching really looks like. Right now. His team is ranked in the top five nationally with a 41 to nine record, and they're playing their best baseball this season heading into the postseason and still in the middle of all that. He took the time to join us and share his story that says it all. All right. If you want more conversations like this one, head over to coach matt rogers.com where you can find past podcast episodes. Read my blog, download free recruiting resources, and learn about my new book, significant Recruiting, the Playbook for Perspective College Athletes. And remember, winning is good, impact is better, but significance, that's the goal. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time on Significant Coaching with Matt Rogers.