Murphy Su’a Breaks Down The Importance Of Patience As A Coach In Developing Athletes

In this conversation, Rob Pene interviews Murphy Su'a, a renowned coach with extensive experience in youth baseball. They discuss Murphy's background, his coaching methodologies, the importance of communication, decision-making in sports, and cultural insights gained from coaching around the world. Murphy emphasizes the need for patience and understanding in coaching, as well as the significance of teaching the rules of the game. 

The conversation highlights the impact of coaching on personal development and the importance of creating a positive culture within teams. In this conversation, Murphy Su'a shares his experiences and insights on coaching youth and high school baseball. He emphasizes the importance of making practices enjoyable for young athletes, the challenges of parental involvement, and the need for patience and understanding in coaching. 

Murphy discusses his current role as a head coach at Lawndale High School, his aspirations for developing a strong baseball program, and the significance of mentorship in helping athletes succeed. He encourages those feeling stuck in their pursuits to reevaluate their direction and seek guidance.

Takeaways

✅ Murphy Su'a has impacted thousands of youth in baseball.

✅ Coaching is not just about skills; it's about personal development.

✅ Communication is key in coaching and must be taught effectively.

✅ Decision-making in sports mirrors decision-making in life.

✅ Cultural differences influence coaching styles and practices.

✅ Patience is essential for coaches to help players learn.

✅ Teaching the rules of the game is often overlooked.

✅ Creating a positive team culture is crucial for success.

✅ Fun and engagement are important in youth sports coaching.

✅ Coaches should adapt their methods based on the age and skill level of players. Make practices enjoyable to keep kids engaged.

✅ Coaching is about developing the athlete's experience.

✅ Patience is crucial when working with young athletes.

✅ Understand your audience and adjust your coaching style accordingly.

✅ Parental involvement is essential in youth sports.

✅ Reevaluate your goals if you feel stuck in your journey.

✅ Find a mentor to guide you in your pursuits.

✅ Building a strong program takes time and commitment.

✅ Encourage athletes to develop a passion for the sport.

✅ Create a supportive environment for both players and parents.

Sound Bites

"It's a game of numbers."

"Make it enjoyable for the kids."

"You have to know your audience."

"The parents are crucial to your club."

"If you build it, they will come."

"I'm really excited about that."

"Find the right mentor or coach."

"If you're stuck, reevaluate your direction."

"Turn that rut into a groove."

Connect with Murphy Su’a:

sua.murphy@gmail.com

Episode Sponsor:

https://thedigitalwritingfirm.com

Transcript

Murphy Su’a | Transcript

Rob Pene (00:01.272)

All right, so before we get started, one thing to note is there should be, this is Riverside, it's a tool that does the recording. And then there's gonna be a number that says uploading, a percentage uploading somewhere.

Murphy Su'a (00:16.755)

Okay, and if I look around I'm sure I'll see it. Okay. Okay, 65, 75, 80. good. It's bouncing up between 60 and 80. Okay.

Rob Pene (00:17.966)

Yeah, and then, yeah, once I press stop,

Rob Pene (00:29.932)

Yeah. So you have a number and I have a number. And once I stop recording, then we'll have to wait until both of our numbers hit a hundred and then we can both leave. Cause if we leave before it hits a hundred, then it's only going to get 65 or whatever the percentages of the file. Yeah. Just the logistic logistic stuff, but we are recording and man, man, man, I appreciate you.

Murphy Su'a (00:52.148)

good.

Man, this is awesome. I appreciate you. Good job, Rob.

Rob Pene (00:58.166)

Yeah, so everyone listening, this is the man, the myth, the legend, Murphy Sua. For those of you in Southern California, in the baseball world, you mentioned his name, you know exactly who he is, you probably from all the thousands of players that you've impacted throughout the decades of years you've been in the sport and in Southern California, they'll know. Yeah, they'll know who you are. So this is exciting. And this is going to be one of many.

Because as many of you know, who know Murph, he needs to be out more and helping more people outside of the California area because everything about him is life transforming for us, the recipients. And we want to use the resources that we have, the tools and all that to get this message out, to get your teachings, your methodologies out to the world beyond Southern California too. So this is great. Yeah.

The first of many. The first of many.

Murphy Su'a (01:56.834)

Rob, I appreciate this. I appreciate this so much. And thank you for your kind words. When you do things for a long time, you get involved with a lot of people and you impact lives and they impact your life just as much. And it's been absolutely special. as you'd mentioned, I've worked with hundreds and thousands of youth on many different continents.

And it's been an absolute blast and I really really enjoy what I do and I think that's why I just have just a great passion for the things that I do and it's baseball is baseball. My spiritual, my faith is something different as well too. For the business is different. I'm so sorry. From the business perspective, it's different as well too. I do a lot of things in that space. But I just love what I do and I'm grateful you're a big part of that. You know, I heard your

The podcast with David Kesey. I love that guy. David Kesey, of course, is he's like a son to me, just like your son to me. Right. So he calls me mom, dad and calls me and mom. Right. So and absolutely special. And to hear him and he's one of the I use him as example a lot. And same with you. And I'll get to that part later. But I use David Casey as an example when he went into minor league ball. Right. He he put up enough numbers in college ball to get drafted. And he was a draftable. He was a prospect. He's draftable guy. And but just as the draft goes, you just never know.

Rob Pene (03:13.944)

technical difficulty, it should come back. It should come back.

Murphy Su'a (03:22.146)

Right. And there's Hall of Famers that didn't get drafted as Hall of Famers like Piazza. They got drafted in the 60th round as a favorite to his godfather, Tom Lasorda. Right. So there's all these stories in the background that how people got there and what they did. And with David Casey, when he pursued professional baseball, he went after it with every passion. There was nothing else on this earth that was more important to him than baseball. Right. So he played minor league ball and professional baseball for, I don't know, maybe half a dozen years. But

It's a game of numbers. You'll see that big leagues is a game of numbers. They'll release players regardless of how good they are because they've got so many people in so many spots. And so David played many for many teams. And then there's times where he got caught up with that. He got caught up in a numbers game. And so they release him and he gets in his car and he drives eight different states where he drives over eight borders to get to the next state. The next team goes tries out for them, makes the team and there he is. Right. And then something happened again. And he goes and he's sleeping in his car. He's absolutely.

incredible story, incredible story. That's a story talking about writing a story, right? That guy and what he's doing now and the charisma that he has and the way that he speaks and the way that he coaches is neat. Similar to what you do, Rob, and that's the importance. That's why something like this is huge because we get it out to the people who may not know or people that don't think it can happen to them or people that says, you know, I'm not good enough. I'm not big enough, strong enough, tough enough, smart enough. These are the kinds of podcasts that are really special for that. And to see what you did from the audit of Sambua.

Right from Tafunga, from the island of Samoa to where you've gotten and got to the university and won the championship. You run a pro title. People don't know that you won a professional baseball title in professional baseball. People don't know that. Right. So it's just how good you were at such a young age and your leadership, I think, trumps all of that. But your leadership is as great or better than all your accomplishments because that's that's who you are and what you do. And so I appreciate this. I appreciate your kind words.

And listening to KC's, well too, I watched some of his, what would it be, I just lost the word, where they're talking on stage and they're teaching people. Yeah, some of the seminars, right, where he's teaching. And it's just amazing. I'm looking at him and saying, KC in the house. Boy, he can teach. He's good, he's good, as are you. So thank you so much for that.

Rob Pene (05:43.564)

Yeah, so it's always been my heart and a project that I wanted to work on was to write your book, help you write your book. The problem is there's so many different books. There's so many different, from the business side to the family, to the faith, and then to the actual coaching, and then coaching youth, and then coaching coaches, and then all that stuff. But I think we're gonna do it. Yeah, we're gonna definitely do it.

But if we were to choose one topic to kind of launch from, would it be in coaching or would it be in the like personal development, like mindset, where are you leaning towards?

Murphy Su'a (06:20.908)

It would be in coaching. Okay, I think we just froze. Did we get that? Is it my signal or your signal? Okay. I don't know if you can hear me, but I don't know if it could be my connection. you're there. Okay, good. Okay. It would be coaching. I think that's where I probably would have most of my comfort in speaking openly. I mean, I'll be comfortable in the others as well too, but I think that's what I'm doing now. And that's really, really fresh. It's similar to when I was young.

Rob Pene (06:28.246)

or the thing paused a little bit. for the listeners.

Rob Pene (06:38.435)

Thanks.

Murphy Su'a (06:49.898)

When I was young, I was gifted. I was a musician at a young age and I played in orchestras and bands and marching bands and I played at Dorothy Pavilion and I played the Shrine Out of Torium and I did musicals and operas and all those other things. And I sang as well too. And with my family band, we had a little family band. My dad was a trumpet player, my brothers were saxophone drummers and I played the trombone and we just had a blast with that as well too. And we sang of course in our culture.

We sing, we grew up singing and we did that. And I toured professionally as a fire dancer. So that's something that I did also besides that I was an entertainer. We fought martial arts. I boxed in junior golden gloves when I was young. I fought in martial arts. My brother Ray just older me as number nine in the world. My brother Sandy was probably the craziest, the toughest guy I've ever known in the world. And it's in all my younger brothers. They're from Benny, Vic, Clark, David.

It was really exciting to do those kinds of things as well too, then getting to the business and serving in our church. There's just so many things that I think that I was, I love football. Football is my favorite sport, but I was a drum major for a marching band, so I couldn't do the football thing. I love basketball, but that's when I went out to go do my boxing training. There was so many different things that I didn't know which direction to go. So same thing with writing a book.

Rob Pene (07:55.511)

Mmm.

Murphy Su'a (08:11.108)

It's like, okay, which way do I go so I don't go anywhere? Right? So yeah, I need your help. I need your help to get me going on that. That'd be great.

Rob Pene (08:14.062)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (08:18.316)

Yeah, the coaching is a good idea because there's so many people that you've impacted. But even throughout the years, you've created so many systems and frameworks and routines and terminology that you mentioned one thing and everybody throughout the years from 10 years, 15 years ago will remember that because of what you did and how you kind of impacted them. I think that's a start. Do we write it from the perspective of speaking to the parents on how to frame

like and how to think through coaching or blanketing general parents, even the coaches and the students like reading.

Murphy Su'a (08:57.22)

Yeah, well, the parents is the book in itself. As a matter of fact, the parent is volumes of books, right? There's a lot to know and tell and teach and train as far as from that perspective of parenting. It depends on work. Is everyone's son or daughter as an eight-year-old is a first-round draft choice, right? They're former major league first-round picks. And so that's, but what I'd like to do is talk it from a coach's perspective and how to...

Rob Pene (09:04.046)

you

Murphy Su'a (09:27.628)

develop a program and how to work things. Well, now you have a system, right? It's not just throw the balls out there and do this system, having a practice plan every single day, getting a practice plan up there, understand what your practice plan is and how to navigate through that and how to change things or add things as you go. But the players is the big thing and I'd love teaching that. And I have a few quirks that maybe other people don't do.

Rob Pene (09:35.98)

Yep, system is huge, keeps things organized. Yep. We'll get this back. There's a little lag here.

Murphy Su'a (09:54.916)

real quick on the communication, I was teaching communication to my players and I was sending out an email and I wasn't pleased with the urgency and getting back, right, in the time management and getting back to me. And so I sent out the email to remind them that they need to respond ASAP. So I wasn't happy with that. So the next practice, we had like, don't know, 37, 38 players and I got 20 emails, right, and I printed up one email but I printed up about 20 copies.

And so I rolled them up into a smaller, like a baton, right? They're going to pass the baton. And, um, so I give it to the first 20 guys and there's another almost 20 guys after that. They got to pass it all the way back, but we're running from foul pole to foul pole all the way around the entire field. And, uh, if they drop the communication, we sprint to the furthest foul pole and start all over again. If we hold the baton too long and we take too long in passing the communication, right? We delay the communication.

Rob Pene (10:50.272)

No

Murphy Su'a (10:51.906)

then we go back to where it's at. If you crunch up the paper where now we can't read it, we don't understand the communication. So some people might have thought it was a punishment, but it wasn't a punishment. was just a teaching tool, right? I use that as teaching. They will never forget about communication again ever, right? So when I sent out an email or a text message, boom, before I even hit, just as I hit send, I'm getting responses back right away. So it wasn't a punishment thing. It's how can I implant this and get this into the brain where they understand the importance of.

of communication and all the different parts of the communication, right? Don't hold on to the information too long. Pass the information on. Make sure that it's timely. Make sure that it's understandable. So those are the kind of things that my coaching is a little bit different sometimes than other people's coaching, but I love doing things like that because it's much more impactful and they can remember that.

Rob Pene (11:43.598)

Yeah. And a lot of times the players are so used to doing drills, fielding drills, hitting drills, and they spend less time on the intangibles, on the thinking and the decision making. And I think that's part of your approach is it's the total person versus just the skill set. And you're trying to help them develop as a young man, as a young girl to be responsible, but also just on the loop.

communication on the little things, you know, that they don't get taught anywhere else. Yeah.

Murphy Su'a (12:18.244)

You're so because when you focus on those things, when there's certain things that you focus on, those are the things now that becomes emphasized. In the culture, when we talk about culture, ask, last players, what does culture mean to you? And the answer that we come to as a team is the way we do things. And that's just the way we do things. So the culture in Japan versus the culture in Argentina or in Australia or New Zealand or Samoa or the US.

If you go to a Polynesian home or to an Asian home, you can tell that people are home, right? Because you get to the house and there's tons of shoes all over the porch, right? Everybody takes their shoes off. That's the culture. That's how they do things. so having the culture of the team is the same way as well, too. This is a certain way that we do things, which is different. And you mentioned decision making. Probably the most crucial, crucial, crucial lessons in life is how to make decisions, proper decisions.

And what are your options? And even when, when, when I hit a ground ball to somebody and we're talking about ground balls and a roll ground balls in different way, different speeds and different hops. And, their decision as they're approaching the ball is how am I going to field it and how am I going to deliver it? And what angle is my arm slot going to be at and what kind of throw am I making? How fast is that runner? How slow is the runner? What's the situation? How many ounces at what any number we end? all those.

is part of the decision that you make. you throw or not throw? Do you fake the third first and try to get the guy a third base? There's so many decisions. And that one little brown ball, right? So in life, we have the same thing, right? There's decisions in everything we do. When you talk about communication, I shared this with a team, with my high school team just recently. You pull up to a stop sign, right? I mean, you go to an intersection and there's so much communication going on, right? There's a light that tells you what to do.

Rob Pene (13:49.4)

Hey, yeah.

Murphy Su'a (14:06.328)

go stop or what have you, right? And if it's red, then there's a line that tells you the limit line where you can't go past that limit line. Then it shows a crosswalk. Now the communication, another communication is there's somebody on a bicycle on the right-hand side that if the light turns green right away, they may take off or it's becoming red and they may not stop, right? So everybody's communicated that the lady with the walker that's walking across.

She's communicating to you, hey, I can't walk real fast, okay? And I know you're in the left-hand turn lane, I gotta get around here, right? So everything that just, those are what we base our decisions on it. And when you get life and business and family and children and spouse and decision making becomes a little bit more major in how it affects the way things go. So I love this stuff.

Rob Pene (14:38.338)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (14:56.866)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when did you start thinking this way? thinking like about the deeper things?

Murphy Su'a (15:05.124)

You know, that's a great question.

Murphy Su'a (15:09.412)

Of course, I'm getting most of them. Simple question.

Murphy Su'a (15:17.956)

That is in the home.

Murphy Su'a (15:23.766)

I grew up in your, well aware of that. I got nine siblings, right? 10 brothers and sisters. I mean, there's 10 of us, brothers and sisters. In a Samoan home, right, you have an aunt and uncle, you have a couple of cousins. And so the two bedroom home and the one bathroom, to me as a kid was a huge mansion, right? It was absolutely a huge mansion growing up. But you learn decision making in the home. That's when you grow up. And what I tell people a lot as well too, is that there's two ways to understand.

and to develop. One is to be taught and the other is to learn. When you're looking to learn, you absorb so much more. You understand so much more. You're looking for the small things when you go to learn. My signal keeps going in and out, so I don't know if I lost any of that. So I'm going to share that again. There's two things I tell my players when they go into a classroom. Don't go to be taught.

Do not go in the classroom to be taught. Go in the classroom to learn. That's a different mindset. If you go in there and you're learning and you go to learn and your goal is to learn, you pick up so many things. And my mom and my dad were such great teachers, but the ability to learn and understand, know, okay, good, I've learned that, right? I don't have to be taught that twice. I don't have to be taught that three times. I understand that. I know what it is. So that's where the decision-making comes in is because you've been taught right from wrong.

Rob Pene (16:28.141)

Mm-hmm.

Rob Pene (16:44.174)

Hmm

Murphy Su'a (16:52.068)

and how to do it. And you can either adhere to what you're being taught and what you're learning or not. And I think that was in everything I did, same thing with music. When I did music, I didn't go there to have a teacher teach me. I wanted to go learn. I wanted to learn. So I really, really just engrossed into what it is that I'm being taught. And I think it started in the home. It started in the home. And I, as an individual,

Because we're all different, right? And some people, have to be taught five or six or seven times, other people two or three times, other people just once, right? You teach it. Those are the people that came to learn. When I go to a seminar, I go to learn. It doesn't matter who's up there speaking, I go to learn a seminar. When I go watch a little league game and I watch a little league coach and I see something I really like, it's a little league, right? I'm an ex pro player, ex pro manager, ex pro coach, right? And I'm learning from a little league coach because

I go to the game and I watch the game to enjoy it, but I've learned. I'm learning. I'm always learning. yeah, I think that that was part of my growing up and decision-making was starting home. And I get emotional lot because mom and dad is what they did with 10 kids. Are you kidding me? And then relatives and brought us up the way they brought us up is absolutely incredible.

Rob Pene (17:52.59)

Mmm.

Rob Pene (18:12.896)

And you've been all over the world coaching. So you got to learn the different, you know, customs and all that stuff from the different countries that you've coached from the USA team with the MLB, right? To international with the Samoa team. What are some of the things that you took from those experiences from the different cultures that you can apply to coaching?

Murphy Su'a (18:39.128)

You know, starting with our culture and I'm really, really grateful for our culture. I'm grateful for the families that we have and for that team. You know, they have the guys like with you and Sal and Baty and Ronald and Ted and Duke. I mean, just I can go on and on and on. Just the respect, right? It's just amazing the respect of the different cultures and how you go places and see the way they work and see the way they practice, see the way they train, see the way they interact.

Those were probably some of my greatest memories of coaching was our Samoan team. You somebody as big and huge and fearless as Patti, right? Big fearless Patti, right? Big boy. Humble, respectful, amazing. they're always there to learn. You guys are always there to learn. And that's why we became better as a team and cohesive as a team and work well.

Rob Pene (19:17.549)

then

Murphy Su'a (19:34.084)

The same thing in Japan. When I went to Japan, I took the major league sanctioned the US All-Star team to Japan. I seen him on a Wednesday and we got on a plane on a Friday. I didn't know how these guys can play. As a matter of fact, my right fielder was our best hitter just from the few times that I've seen him. And halfway through the tour, one of the administrators says, you know, he's a pitcher. I said, not right now. He's our best hitter. And four years later, he's drafted as the number one pitcher in major league baseball.

Rob Pene (19:53.677)

Yes.

Murphy Su'a (20:01.636)

And if I can remember his name, tell you, my brain has gone south. plays for the Baltimore Orioles and just absolutely incredible. But in Japan, they go about it a whole different way. The way that they, took so much from Japanese baseball and tried to bring it here to the U S and try to use it. It's different people understand it relates differently. In Japan, you can practice for six hours and they'll take off their hat and they'll bow to you and say, okay, I want another hour. And over here, after an hour and a half, we're losing people.

So, but the way they approach Australia was wonderful as well too. I love Australia. Australia was great. New Zealand was super. Guam was great. Mexico is good. Canada was fun. I mean, there's just so many different places that we had a chance to experience and just learn from and grow from.

Rob Pene (20:48.408)

For the coaches, what would you say is the top two or three things that they should always have in mind when they're coaching? Not default tuning to the skills and all that stuff, but how to be a really good coach.

Murphy Su'a (21:02.98)

First of all is understanding that they're not at your level. That's probably the biggest thing for the coaches is thinking that that should be easy to do. Why can't you do that? It's really, really easy. I fell into that when I first started coaching, right? That's the way I was. How can you not do that? You feel like your mom, what's up with that? Yeah, well, mom didn't work with him either, right? So.

Rob Pene (21:18.569)

Murphy Su'a (21:28.036)

Just working, understanding that they're not going to be able to do the things that you do. They're not going to be able to understand the game the way you understand. You've been doing it for 10, 20, 40 years, however long. They're just learning the game. And even at the high school level, it's amazing how they haven't picked up a lot of the fundamentals and really don't understand the depth of the things that they need to know and do. So understanding that they're not you, they don't have the knowledge. Teach as if they've never played the game before. And that's when the patience comes in.

Rob Pene (21:56.302)

Hmm.

Murphy Su'a (21:57.924)

You got to be really, really patient and allow it to work. I had a young man that coached with me, a dad, and his son was really, really good. And so we were doing cutoffs from right field to home play. We trying to throw a guy out of the dish from second base. And so we had a center first base, but he was a shortstop. So from first base, the first baseman is the cutoff guy going home.

I don't know if I'm losing you right now, but I'm going to keep talking just in case because sometimes we lose you. So anyways, so the son was in a position to cut the ball off and the father just ripped him. And this kid was a stud and just absolutely ripped him. said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I said, he's not a first baseman. He's an empty. He's a shortstop. He's a middle infielder. He goes, but he knows better. I said, well, I didn't teach him. I said, did you teach him all the first base drills? He goes, yeah, but he knows better because he's seen the guy. I said, no, but did you teach him? And

Rob Pene (22:54.626)

Hmm.

Murphy Su'a (22:55.172)

He says, no, I said, well, I didn't teach him either. Until we can teach him, we can't hold him accountable for it. Okay, so we got to teach him. don't care how good he is. that's, you know, sometimes we'll, it's that halo effect, right? That, that term that's used in psychology, the halo effect. If they're a good shortstop, you assume that they know how to play first base. If they're a good shortstop, you assume they know how to play right field. If they're a good shortstop, you assume that they're a good catcher, but they're not. They're a good shortstop, right? And as coaches, sometimes we...

Rob Pene (23:00.476)

Hmm.

Murphy Su'a (23:20.612)

We would take that talent and say, OK, you're my best shortstop, so you've got to be my best first baseman. If you make a mistake, I'm going to hammer you. So just understanding that and having patience with it. And then the discipline of a coach to be able to do it over and over again and be repetitive. Be disciplined. You asked your players to be disciplined, but are you disciplined as a coach? Do you understand what it is that they're trying to go through and how to mimic what you're trying to teach them?

and then be able to apply it, right? Because some can't retain so well, and they have to go over and over and over again until now becomes muscle memory form. So that's important as well too. And teaching the rules of the game is something that I don't see a lot of. A lot of players don't know the different rules of the game and teaching the rules of the game, why you do things, why you can't do things. And then watching, just body language, right? Those are...

Rob Pene (24:06.061)

Mmm.

Murphy Su'a (24:17.988)

If things depend on what age group you're teaching if things get to go south then you change things you change the atmosphere of the practice right if I've got t-ball kids and One kids rolling around and doing doing things. It's a little bit boring. I have them all roll around Okay, everybody roll around. Yeah, let's all roll around and we pick up the ball We don't just pick it up and put in the bucket because the kids don't know how to do that when they're five six Right put the bucket out there see how far you can throw the ball in the bucket, right? Let's see if you can make it in the bucket. So our teaching is probably about about

Rob Pene (24:32.93)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (24:44.28)

No, no.

Murphy Su'a (24:47.268)

an hour and a half T ball practice. We teach about 20 minutes and we're having fun about another hour and 10 minutes. We're just having fun because it brings them back, right? It'll bring those kids back. I coached the team was the Travis's team. Were they 12? 12 years old, 12 years old and nobody had a coach for this team. So I took the team over and so we had all the different drafts and. Towards the end.

Rob Pene (24:59.393)

Hmm

Murphy Su'a (25:15.82)

I had to draft all the players where other teams only had a draft four or five plus. At the end, there was all these kids that weren't really good athletes and maybe overweight kids, maybe kids that were new to it. So I stopped and I said, hey, look, why don't each of us take one of these kids? Because they're 12 years old. We can't send them down to the minors because if they lose to these kids, they're going to get ridiculed in school. They're going to get bullied. And they're a 12-year-old and they get bullied by the nine and 10-year-olds. So I said, let's all take a kid.

So the coaches said thanks, but no thanks. You want them or if you take them. I said, okay, I'll take them. I took them all. So we practiced, we practiced really hard, right? So, well, and we had a lot of fun with it too. We didn't roll around like the T-ballers, but we had lot of fun. And so season opened up, our first five games were tough. We were 0-5 and we practiced. We were 0-10 and we practiced 0-12, 0-15, 0-16.

Rob Pene (25:53.624)

Thank

Murphy Su'a (26:14.328)

But they kept showing up to practice. The parents kept showing up to practice. The kids kept showing up to practice. Because our practices is what the development. That's what, that's their baseball experience. The game is a game. Their baseball experience was the coaching. And it brought them back. And we had some games, we have 12 guys and the other team only have nine. And nine of their best players. It's like, where's your other three players that don't play so well like my guys, right? They're not there. So.

So we go into playoffs and for some reason we're 19, I think we're 19 and 0 or 20 20 and 0, had to be an even game. So we're 20 and 0 going into the playoffs. And we beat the number three seed. Because the number one seed, number two seed had to buy. So we had to get the top seed. We played the top seed and we beat them because we practiced for two and a half months and practiced and practiced and got beat and practiced and got beat and practiced. But they showed up because practice was fun.

Rob Pene (26:57.75)

Mmm.

Murphy Su'a (27:07.232)

And that's where they enjoy it and that's where they learn. So that would be my big things with the coaches is make it enjoyable. When you get up to the higher level, of course, it's a little bit more tough and a little bit more firm and you got to get going and don't get lazy on me and bad body language and all this switch that up with the kids. You got to be a different one. So I love that stuff.

Rob Pene (27:07.405)

Mm.

Rob Pene (27:27.948)

Yeah, I know there's a ton of coaches that are parents, so they don't have a lot of the experience on coaching. So a lot of their parenting becomes their default. So, hey, I keep telling you, you know, like, didn't I, did you hear what I say? Why do you keep doing that? How do you help, you know, kind of encourage those parents to be a little more patient, you know, to not say those kinds of things that naturally comes out like.

What are you doing? You know those kind of things. It's tough, man.

Murphy Su'a (28:00.356)

Oh, it's really tough. And that's where as an individual, you have to know how to handle those situations based on a personality and relationship. Right. So if their personality is something you can't, you can't, you know, strike while the iron is hot, right. Because it'll go sideways. I was, I went to go take my oldest son, Justin to his, Justin to his foot, no, Travis to his, uh, pop born in football. It was Justin, pop born in football.

Rob Pene (28:16.365)

Mmm.

Murphy Su'a (28:27.308)

And so we're doing popcorn and football. I coached both popcorn and football. But this one coach, they had a coach that he thought was an NFL guy, right? And so this is a whole different sport. NFL guy and he just, know, and dropping off bombs on these kids. And we practice at a field where there's a lot of different levels. It could be the nines or the tens or the twelves. So they're all on the same large field practicing. And so we had one place. So I was working with a defensive, with an offensive group and he was the defensive guy, you know. And again, he thought he was in the NFL.

All those players are all pro guys and if they make a mistake, they yell at him. So we had a play and we ran a play and we beat his cornerback and his safety on this play. And he threw a ball at the cornerback. He was upset and he threw a ball at the cornerback. Wasn't even his son, right? But he threw a ball at the cornerback. so afterwards, I was not afterwards, but probably about five, 10 minutes.

after that effect, it wasn't after practice, but maybe about five or 10 minutes, we had a break, a water break. And one of them there and I asked him what he was doing, I put my arm around him, we just talked quietly. I said, see all these parents around here? I said, see all these different teams and parents? I said, that's a salt battery right there, what you just did with that young man, right? And that's a minor. I said, number one, and number two, if that was my son, I'd knock you out. Okay, so just know that, right? So that was different because I was able to share certain things and so he recognized that and things changed, right?

things changed a little bit and it was still rough around the edges, but it was different, But same with baseball, same with basketball as well too. It's that different coaching style and that's where, so I wasn't even planning on coaching football. I wanted to protect the kids, right? That's all I did. And so I stayed there the whole season just to protect the kids. But yeah, there's blessed our hearts for volunteering, but if you're gonna be like that, you're gonna do more damage than good.

Rob Pene (30:07.64)

Mm.

Rob Pene (30:20.288)

Yeah, yeah, it's hard because Keelani plays soccer. She's on a club team and coach is really good. He knows the game, but sometimes he'll start yelling and he's like, you know, almost like buddy buddy. But then the, the, his personality comes out where he starts yelling at them like, man, what are you doing? What are you not thinking? You I'm like, man, that's not the best.

Murphy Su'a (30:26.265)

huh.

Rob Pene (30:49.024)

use of words or something, you know? So just trying to figure out how to encourage him to be a little more mindful. Because it's hard when it's naturally how you react, you know? Yeah.

Murphy Su'a (31:00.1)

Yeah, and you have to know your audience, right? You have to your team, have to know your level, you have to know there's certain way that you would speak to them. From the varsity level of high school on up, it's the real deal, right? Because now your name's in a newspaper and everything, you know, and it's the real deal. And a lot of these high school players, they're going to be drafted into Pro Ball, right? So it's at a level now where, hey, we got to get this stuff done, right? We got to work. If you're going to play at the varsity level, it's a commitment.

Rob Pene (31:03.79)

Mm.

Murphy Su'a (31:29.22)

Right? If you're, if you're saying, I'm a freshman, I'm going to try it out and play the JV. That's a freshman team. That's the freshman team. Right? That's a JV team. That's a JV team. But when you have nine and 10 year old kids, right? That you're working with, with Kalani, you know, 12 and 14, those, those kids, there's just, they're still learning. They need to, there's a different stages, right? There's a romance stage when they're first learning the game where you can really get, they got to romance the game. Let them have fun with them. Let the little tee ballers do cartwheels. I don't care.

That's good stuff. know, whatever you need to do is really get them to to romance a sport and and to love what they're doing because that brings them back to practice. Right. When they romance a sport, they're done. I had a kid that was, I don't know, nine years old, eight years old that had his mother pull over in a parking lot of the store before they got to the field so he could put his cup on. And right. And the mom goes, no, we're almost at the field. Shoot the field. No, no. Coach Suha wants us on the field fully dressed. No, it's a good the cup on.

So the mom told me that story and I got a kick out of it. I said, yeah, he's right. No, no, no, but those are just the things is when you teach certain things and they understand, but you got to teach it correctly. You're not going to yell at somebody at a nine-year-old, a 10-year-old that don't understand or a 12-year-old, 14, 15-year-old is like, man, what's the big deal? OK, good. I made a mistake. Let's go over it again. Let's go over it again. Let's go over again. Let's do it. That's where the patients come in. That's where the discipline comes in.

If you don't have the patience for that, get out of the game. I've heard, I've heard a lot of coaches says, man, and I hate dealing with the parents. said, uh, you know, you're a coach of an eight year old team, right? I said, the parents are crucial. The parents are a big part of your club. If you exclude the parents from, from the youth, then, then you're, then you're not going to be, it's not going to be good for the team. Not going to be good for the players and for the families. Embrace them, bring them in, let them know that they know.

Rob Pene (32:57.336)

Yeah.

Murphy Su'a (33:24.162)

These are our rules. These are our team rules. This is what we do. But the parents have to be a part of the structure, even with high school. They've got to be a part of that to be successful.

Rob Pene (33:35.916)

Yep. So you're, you're coaching high school now.

Murphy Su'a (33:39.544)

Yes, yes, and I love it. Yeah.

Rob Pene (33:41.516)

Yeah, yeah, how's that going?

Murphy Su'a (33:43.972)

Well, no, it's going to get, this is my second year of coaching varsity baseball as a head coach. I coached for seven, eight years under Harry Jenkins who had West Torrance, absolutely incredible, incredible. He's a legend, absolutely incredible. I cut my teeth there at the high school and so that was a lot of fun. And then I was in Australia and I got a call from Palos Verdes High School. They had just lost a coach. This was in January.

So, and I'm coaching Australia. don't know how they got my phone number from some of the kids at the school at Palos Verdes, because I was their private instructor. And so the AD calls me and the principal calls me and says, hey, Murph, look, we just lost our coach in January. The season starts in like six weeks. And would you coach for us? And I said, you know, I'm in Australia. And he goes, yeah, we do. But we also know from the players that you're going to be back in a couple of weeks.

And I said, so as I said, you know, I'm interested, but I mean, I'm not interested at this time, but maybe another time, sorry. And so I got a call from all the players, right? And they were almost crying on the phone, say, coach, you know, they're going to give us a teacher that maybe doesn't know the game. And there's 18 seniors, this is our senior year. you know, will you coach for us? So I softened my heart, I called the ADS, says, OK, I'll coach for you. But you got six months. You got six months. And that's all I can do for you, six months. So I get here.

We've got a few weeks to practice. We get ready for the season and we go. So after the season ended, we had a good season. We ended up going to CIF and the AD says, and I asked him, I said, did you find a coach? And the AD says, you know, we were hoping that you would stay and coach with us. And I said, you know, I'd love to, but, but I have a need elsewhere, right? I didn't have another coaching job at the time, but I know Palace Verde's high school, if they were to put out a coaching,

a contract for coaching, They, you know, again, I'd lose my thought with all these easy, simple words. So they put a job out, right? And they're hiring a head coach. They'll get 40, 50 applicants. If you're in Compton, you're in Carson, you're in Inglewood, those places, you don't get that many. The high school that I was at, that I'm at now, I think they got four applicants. you know, and I love coaching.

Rob Pene (36:00.398)

Mmm.

Murphy Su'a (36:03.768)

The low income, the at risk kids, the kids that are underserved, those areas, single parents, low income, those are the ones that really, really, really need coaches that have the experience. They can't afford travel ball, they can't afford private lessons, they can't afford these things. So I love doing that. I mean, I love doing the other schools as well too. Palos Verdes, Peninsula, the Miracosta, any of those schools. I would love to coach at them as well.

my niche and I'm more sensitive to the at-risk kids and not so much at risk but at the underserved areas. So yeah, so I'm at Londale, it's a blast. We only have a varsity team, no freshmen, no junior varsity. So I've got kids that can't play at this level, but I'm keeping them because they work hard. So they're working hard. I see them and they're struggling, right? They're struggling trying to catch up, but I love those kids.

Rob Pene (36:56.663)

Yeah.

Murphy Su'a (37:02.284)

And those are future varsity guys, right? So, but right now they can't, they wouldn't even be the top kids on a freshman team, right? But I've got them there. So, we've got a lot of work to do and it's amazing because we rarely hit. We scored 13 runs the other day on six hits. Actually, I lied, five hits. The other team got six hits. The other team got six hits and scored three runs. We got four hits, only four hits and we scored 13 runs. Of course, they walked a few guys, but.

But we're teaching defense, Pitching and defense. If we give up our offenses, our defense, if we give up less runs, we have to score less runs. And so that's our goal. So when we play against the big teams, we got, who is it? Miracosta this year, we got Redondo, and it's a really tough school. So it's going to be fun. I love it.

Rob Pene (37:51.338)

Yeah, do these kids know your background and the influence that you have in the sport and what they're learning because they they I don't know if they know all the the knowledge and then also the resources and relationships that are going to be there just because you're there.

Murphy Su'a (38:11.938)

You know, they don't. They know to a degree, but they don't. And it's interesting that you mentioned that as well too, because currently while I'm working with them, I'm teaching some really young kids and I'm working with another young man that I'm trying to get into professional baseball. So I'm working with my high school guys, I'm teaching some younger kids, and I'm working with the pro guys, and I'm getting guys into colleges, I'm making phone calls.

I picked up the telephone and I called a guy at Post University in Connecticut. And he took my player's sight unseen. Never saw him, didn't know what he can do. He gets over there, that player becomes the player of the week. And he hits a walk off to send the team into the championship game. And they won their first school history championship. And so just pick up the phone call and make a call.

Rob Pene (38:53.784)

Hmm.

Murphy Su'a (39:04.514)

Right? And so those are the things that I love to do as well too, because I've got some connections in places and I don't send people that I don't think they can play because they'll never come to me again and ask me for players, but they're not aware of it, but I'm on them right now. I'm getting with their NCAA, getting to the clearing house. That's why I've got a shortstop. I've tried to work to get in four year school. I can make many calls. It's not a matter of sending emails. Let me just call. I know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody.

Rob Pene (39:23.502)

Nice.

Murphy Su'a (39:33.154)

Right? So let's get you on the field. Let's get you working, but they don't know. And maybe that's good that they don't know. hopefully they work really hard and the harder they work, the harder I work for them. And I'm really excited about that.

Rob Pene (39:48.726)

Yeah. Where do you see the program in the next three to five years?

Murphy Su'a (39:55.012)

Well, know, Lawndale is a small town and the best players of Lawndale in the past historically have gone to the better schools in the area. My goal is to keep Lawndale residents in Lawndale and the better players in Lawndale. And if people want to transfer in, they transfer in, know, people that many, many schools and administrators and maybe even parents look at that and say that's a bad thing. Right. But nobody complains about somebody that moves into a school that has a great music program.

Rob Pene (40:07.918)

Mmm.

Murphy Su'a (40:23.788)

Nobody complains about the players going to a school that has a good debate team. Nobody has, as you know, those are the kinds of things as like, well, they came in there for the debate, right? Because the school has a good debating team, so we lost them to that school. Well, if you got a good baseball program and you build it, they will come, right? Just like that movie, right? They will come and they should be allowed to come. And so our goal in three years from now is to have one of the best, one of the better programs in the area. And five years after that,

or five years from now, we should have one of the top schools in Southern California. That's the goal. We have the facilities, we have the administration, there's just so many neat things that we have that's to our advantage, but that's the goal. That is the goal.

Rob Pene (41:08.928)

Yeah, because the school they they redid the school not too long ago. So all the facilities are nice. Yeah, they did a great job there.

Murphy Su'a (41:17.316)

Oh, it's amazing. When I get a call from someone, if I would be willing to apply for that job, I said, you know, I can't do it anymore. was in a wheelchair not too long ago. get wheelchairs everywhere I go. When I go to the airport, I can't walk to the gates, so get wheelchairs. And then I was in a walker for many times. I'm on a cane now. so field work at Cal State University when I was the head coach there, it's 30 hours a week. 30, 35, 40 hours a week on doing just field work alone.

planting grass and putting in material and leveling it out and spiking it and watering it and growing our own grass and mowing it. It's 30-40 hours a week. So when I went to go look at that field and there's no maintenance, know, the mounds are all astroturf, the plates astroturf. We just roll the balls out there. We practice and we go to work. So yeah, so it's absolutely gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

Rob Pene (42:05.014)

Yeah. Are you going to run a summer program there too?

Murphy Su'a (42:07.914)

That's the goal. That's the goal. The goal is to run a summer program and also a fall program. And what I like to do with those programs also is include everybody in the area. We played against a team, small little charter school teams, and they've got kids, they've got some pretty good talent. As matter of a couple of teams that we played have equal talent to us or greater talent, but we beat them on discipline. And we were disciplined in many things that we do. Our decision making was better. Our discipline was better. Our baseball IQ was better. And so

Rob Pene (42:30.092)

Yeah.

Murphy Su'a (42:38.164)

What my plan is, is to bring all those schools into a summer program and a fall program at Lawndale and train those schools, even though there are competitors, train the coaches how to coach, train the players how to play, and make them better. And then have some kind of an agreement in place where you can't transfer to our school, right? You can't transfer here. If you come and work with us, you can't transfer here. Unless there's agreement between you and the coach that the coach doesn't know.

Rob Pene (42:59.886)

Nice.

Murphy Su'a (43:06.724)

I'm going to fight against that transfer. can't because just out of its integrity. And then we're going to open a program. We're going have a training program for the youth. I'm going to go work with the Lawndale Little League. I'm going to work with all the youth programs because that's the feeder system. When these kids get into the 12, 13, 14, 15-year-olds, they should have a good idea of the game and play it the higher level. So that's the goal. I'm really excited about that. Really, really excited.

Rob Pene (43:35.862)

Yeah, yeah, especially with nice facilities, man, you can do a ton. Yep.

Murphy Su'a (43:38.286)

Yeah. Correct. Correct. Yeah.

Rob Pene (43:42.254)

Before we leave, what's one encouragement you could give people that have a desire but might feel stuck?

Murphy Su'a (43:52.428)

You know, that's a great question because that crosses every line, right? That crosses every line in life. When you get stuck, maybe that's not the place that you want to be, right? If you want to do something and you're stuck, maybe that's not what you really should be doing. If you don't have a passion, because sometimes I'll have a passion for something I don't know nothing about, right?

Rob Pene (44:00.108)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (44:10.883)

Thank

Murphy Su'a (44:21.57)

I got into trucking business, had no knowledge about that, about the trucking business, but I passion for it. thought, I want to look into it. So I start that trucking company with one van. Five years later, it's a $7 million corporation. And so it was a matter of, I didn't know much about it, but I had a passion for, wow, this is something that I want to do. So if you're doing something and you get stuck at it, number one, go find the correct coaching for that. Go find the right mentor or someone.

That you want to be able to learn that business or industry or sports or whatever is from go find yourself a mentor go find somebody that's gonna help you do that, but if you're stuck At a place if you're stuck emotionally or mentally Maybe that's not a place you want to go because if you really want to go someplace It doesn't matter it doesn't matter how much you know or what you know or who you know is is you're go out and do it and you're gonna you're gonna

do it, right? That's where your passion is at. if somebody is stuck someplace, reevaluate what direction you're going. Reevaluate what your true goals are, what kind of outcomes you want from those things if you're stuck. Because if you're at a place where you're stuck and you really want to get out of that place or you really want to climb in that place, your passion is going to take over. So if you're stuck, find the right mentor, find the right coach, get into the right place.

Rob Pene (45:33.422)

Hmm.

Murphy Su'a (45:39.62)

But if you don't have the drive yourself, you can get the best of the best. You can get the best coaches, the best mentors. But if you don't have it, if you're not there to learn or want to grow, then find something different. And it's okay to do that. It's okay to do that. So if you're stuck in whatever it is, as a parent, as a player, as a business person, may reevaluate where you're at, okay? Because you're in a rut, okay? Turn that rut into a groove, right? Get that bad boy, just get into the groove. Right now you're in a rut. You're not going anyplace, right? So you gotta angle something, you gotta change something.

And now that rep becomes a groove and you just get and you just roll right now you're rolling, but now you're going. But that's a great question because if you're stuck someplace, maybe you're going in the wrong direction or maybe that's not the place that you should be going. Right. So yeah, I love that question. I mean, we can talk on that for quite some time.

Rob Pene (46:26.882)

Yeah. If people wanted to reach out to you or follow you, is there like an email or an Instagram or somewhere where we can...

Murphy Su'a (46:35.426)

Yes, my personal email and I'm okay going out online right here. My personal emails, but it's simply my last name dot first name at Gmail. Last name dot first name without the apostrophe. So it's sua.merphy at gmail.com. And then I have an Instagram. I think I got four or five posts on there. I'm still trying to learn how to post, right? I have other people. I ask people, okay, how do I share this and make it a post? And they're telling me I got to do this. And then I just, I'm not really good with that.

But yeah, and I'm open to talk, free to talk. Yeah, absolutely. I would love to do that.

Rob Pene (47:12.91)

Okay, sua.merphy at gmail.com. Yeah, perfect. Okay, guys, if you've gotten this far, you've got the email, so reach out to Murph. Obviously, you'll gain a lot as you listen through this episode, but we appreciate that you guys stick around to listen, and definitely appreciate you, Murph.

Murphy Su'a (47:17.315)

That's correct.

Murphy Su'a (47:33.356)

Hey, I appreciate it. quick shout out, if I can, Shout out to my wife, Nina. And of course, she's my rock, right? The rock of our families. They're a matriarch. And to my son, Justin, and Melissa, and the family, and and Jerem, their oldest son is living with us now, right? And so we're excited about that. He's in Torrance with us and he's into music and doing a great job. And Eliana and Maya, hello there. And to Natasha, who's in Las Vegas.

Rob Pene (47:36.333)

Yes.

Yeah.

Murphy Su'a (48:01.56)

with her kids and she's got six kids there and absolutely amazing Tassie, Marley, Benina, Vita, Ephraim, Carmen, and the two stepdaughters, Todd and I got it. know know it. Sunny. And then Travis and Felicia in Utah. They're spread all over the place. Hey, bring the grandkids closer, would you? Okay, I got one. Okay, bring the grandkids closer. And Felicia,

Rob Pene (48:26.551)

Ha ha ha.

Murphy Su'a (48:31.298)

Travis and Felicia and Murphy was named after me, so I got my Murphy and Kiki and a little Dukester. But shout out to them, tell them how much I love them and grateful for them. And Rob, grateful for you. Thank you for what you do. This is powerful. And this is good that we can share this information on this platform and that we can all move forward. All right. Love you, brother. OK, take care. OK, bye-bye.

Rob Pene (48:51.102)

Amen. All right. Cool. Thank you.