HAVING AN IMPACT: Coach and Podcaster Chris Carrara Talks Softball and More

Chris Carrara never imagined himself coaching softball, but at this early stage in his career he is sure glad he found his way to the field. 

An assistant coach at Fairfield Ludlowe High School, and head coach of a CT Impact 14U team, Carrara is growing in leaps and bounds, and has some lofty goals laid out before him.

As he finishes up his degree at Sacred Heart University, he's also become a podcaster as the host of The Everyday Athlete on Youtube.

Hear Chris tell his story of how became a coach and podcast and where he hopes to head in the future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

We welcome you to the Inside Corner, Connecticut's softball bl uh podcast or blog. Well, it's a blog and a podcast. And with the guy who created the whole blog, John Nash, I'm Rob Adams. I'm stumbling through the whole thing, but what the heck, John? How's everything?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

We're at the end of a long day, that's for sure. So it's true. Things are going well. I I literally just uh walked in myself. I was at the uh the Massick uh Norway Tree Academy game because I wanted to go up and see which uh uh pitcher was going to be replacing Julia Baculus up at Massick and got thrown a little bit of a curveball because their sophomore starter was not at the game, so I got to watch uh uh Grace Ely uh pitch the uh Panthers to their first win as they try to win their eighth state title. So uh interesting, but uh Massick has nothing to do with this podcast because what we have today is uh Chris Carrera. And Chris is a travel coach. Uh he's with the CT Impact, he's the head coach of their 14U team, he's an assistant coach at Fairfield Ludlow High School uh with our good friend Adam Leliberty, and he is also a podcaster, so we're gonna just cover all things softball and all things podcasting on this podcast. And Chris, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:26

I'm doing well. How are you guys doing? Thank you so much for having me on. Yeah, it's it's our pleasure, and hopefully uh we'll we'll sound better than the the opening stumblings as we move through this. But uh yeah, let let let's dive in. Uh I'll start with this. What what made you want to dive into podcasting?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Oh man, so uh I'm a current senior at Seagheart University. I oh geez, uh this this scares me even saying it, but I've just about a month left of my undergrad going. Um I'm a sports communication media major. And uh for my senior capstone, essentially, my senior project, I decided to create a podcast series. Um, it's called the Everyday Athlete Podcast, and it's really revolved around the stories of the athletes on the field that you may not know about. Um, I have four episodes out so far. I have two softball episodes, or sorry, three softball episodes, and then there's one baseball episode in there. Obviously, myself as a softball coach, I went a little more softball focused. Um, but it's been an absolute joy to do, and it's it's honestly probably something I'm going to continue doing uh even after I get my final grade for the project. Uh, but it it's I really, really been enjoying doing it. It's something that's it's meant a lot to me to do.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

I guess my first question to you would be you played baseball at Notre Dame Fairfield. How did you find your way to a softball field? How did that sport become part of your life?

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yeah, so um for that point, I have to take it back a little bit far to about the end of the end of my sophomore year of high school. Um, this is literally right, right at COVID times, right when everything's happening. Um, and I was um just about May or so. I started having these like these crazy like stomach pains and just kind of shook it off, whatever, kept playing in my summer season, and a couple months go by and it's become just unbearable. Um and I I went to the doctor and they um found that I have um severe ulcerative colitis. And for someone that was 16 years old at the time, it was it was very, very rare for someone that young to have that. And at that point, um, more likely than not, I wasn't necessarily going to be cleared um by the NCAA to be able to kind of go through my recruiting process. So it kind of kind of halted me right there. And when that happened, um my life definitely changed. Um I played baseball from when I was quite literally two and a half years old up until um my senior year of college. And baseball is my entire life. It was everything I ever worked for. Um I was a catcher for travel and then for um my high school team in Notre Dame Fairfield. My freshman year, I played second base, and then um my junior and senior, I played um shortstop. But it really threw a curveball at me in the sense of I was losing my purpose in that sense. Um so I I kind of still have to drag my three through the recruiting process through my junior year and the beginning part of my senior year, but I I knew it probably wasn't in the cards for me. Um by by May of my senior year and June of my senior year, I actually I got cleared um just because my colitis got um that much better in the time, thankfully. Um so but but at that point I was already um I already did an early decision just to be a student at Sacred Heart. Um it's it's right next door for me, about five minutes from my house across the street from where I went to high school. So it seemed like just a perfect fit for me. I I went to walk on um at Sega Heart University. Obviously, I was not, and I'm the first one to say I was not a division one caliber player, probably more of a division three caliber player, but I just wanted to test my luck. I worked very hard for it over the summer, and unfortunately it was those, it was one of those things where they just didn't have enough room. But um Coach Pac Ke Coach Pat Egan and um TK Kieranen at Sigar Heart, they straight up told me, like, hey, whatever we could do to help you out, if you want to transfer and go somewhere else, we will absolutely help you. So they were awesome through that process for me, but it just wasn't the cards for me anymore. And I kind of saw the silver lining there. Um, so maybe about a couple weeks or so, it was it was a pretty it was a pretty dark space for me where I knew it was over. I I didn't really know my path. Um luckily enough, where I played um, where I played my travel baseball for from when I was 15 until the end of my senior year um for run and gun baseball up in Seymour. Um, there was a softball team coming into that facility that um that we were that we that we trained out of that was essentially our home facility. And one of the baseball coaches there at the time, Phil Willoughmy, who is the current um head coach in Nordame Prep, he he we had a really, really good relationship. He approached me like, hey, like I need some help with softball. Like, you want to help me? Like, I know you're not doing much baseball. I'm like, yeah, fine. I like personally, I was very, very envious of baseball at that time. I would have nothing to do with baseball, but I still wanted to do with sports. Like, in my head, I was like, all right, I'll make a little bit of money here, cool, whatever. I could give you something to do. But man, from that first practice, with it was a probably like a lower-ish level 16U team, but man, it would just changed everything for me. And it was so, so, so much fun. Um, on that team, um just to name a couple kids. Um, Sammy Denahan, who's the current starting pitcher at Shell and High School, phenomenal kid. Um, Megan O'Hare, who was who was a um who's a junior at Seymour High School. Just kids like that really got me out of that funk and showed me that wow, there there's actually a lot more um to to sports and not just baseball. And from there, that's kind of how softball just took off for me.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

It's almost fair to say that this sport changed your life.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

100%. There's there's so many opportunities that I've gotten and that I'm going to get um hopefully in the very near future because of softball. And just so many experiences that I've got to share with so many people. Um, I I've got I've had the privilege of coaching um at uh PGF tournaments down in Florida two separate times with um the Run Good Lady Nightmares and with Connecticut Impact this past winter. I've gone to go to the NFCA Coach Convention with Connecticut Impact this past December and met so many incredible people that I've now made awesome connections with. And I've I've been coaching high school throughout college for the past four seasons, the past two with Fairfield Ludlow and Coach Adam, who's been an absolute, absolutely great role model for me on the field and off the field. And um, I just met so many really great people through this sport. It's it's truly a blessing to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

And and you never imagined yourself while you were playing? You never said maybe someday I'll coach. I mean, was it the major league dreams or something that every young player has?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Or I I knew I I knew I would coach, but I always thought it would be baseball. I really, really did. My in my brain it was okay, I'm gonna go somewhere for college, play four years there, I'll get into coaching a little bit, do all that stuff, but net never think I always joke around my parents. I'm like, you guys ever think I'd be coaching softball? They're like, no, like you for my first two years of coaching, I had a 12-year team. So it's me, a 20, 21-year-old kid, with a bunch of 11, 12-year-olds just coaching them up, and it's some of the most fun times ever. I just never thought I'd be coaching softball, but definitely thought I'd be coaching baseball. Um, I I played football in high school as well, so um maybe even football, I thought, but never softball.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

I'm wondering, and I I always have issues with baseball players, baseball coaches, coaching softball because it is a little bit of a different game. It's got a lot of different nuances. Uh when I hear a coach yell, launch angle, it just drives me bad. Don't even say those two words.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Oh my goodness. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

You know, because again, a baseball player is throwing from 16 inches above overhand down, so I get the launch angle thing, but in softball, it's coming from below the hips. So, anyway, how did you find the difference? You know, all those little nuances. Were you learning from guys like Adam and and you know, uh the guys at Run and Gun, you know, you mentioned Phil, guys that head coached it. Were you picking up all the all these little differences in the game?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

And yeah, so I I absolutely I give I give a lot, a lot of the credit to um the people I did start with over at Run Gun Lady Nightmares. Um the program director, Coach Sal Raci, who's um an assistant coach at University of Bridgeport now, Coach Phil Willamy, who's um the head coach of Nordium Fairfield, Coach Jay Risick, um, and Coach Charlie Revere. Um, four awesome coaches that um really provide me with so much information and and truly, truly elevated how I think. And and like you said, like there's so many differences. Um me being a catcher and an infielder in baseball, in softball it changes a lot. It's a very faster pace of the game. Um when the ball to the shorts up, you don't have time to pat your glove three times and make a little make a little whatever, throw over the first base. You have to get out quick and you have to fire that thing to first base. Um so it took a little bit, but I think the I think the best part and kind of to where it got me by now is that I was able to kind of pick up on it a little bit, a little bit quicker than most, than most 18-year-old olds would at the time. And I was able to kind of pick up on it and kind of start to figure out um figure out my way through it. But I mentioned um Coach Salrachi, um, phenomenal coach, absolutely phenomenal. Um, provided me with so much information that I still use um today, and and I will I will continue to further that. But that was really the baseline. And and now I have so many outlets with Connecticut Impact with Coach Craig Sears, um, Coach Mike Santiago, Coach Nate, Coach Kanya, Coach Gabby, coach. I could go on and on and on with all these great coaches. Um and obviously coach Adam at um Ludlow, but I'm very fortunate enough to have so many people in my life that that want to see me succeed and and truly want me to be a better coach than them when I'm their age. And I've had them straight up tell me that. So it's it's a very, very big blessing in my life to have these people.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

What made you want to have an impact with the CT impact? See what I did there, Rob? Um well done. Well thank you. Uh, but but why switch programs? What what led you to to the impact?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, so um take it back to last summer um a little bit. I I decided that it was it was just uh the correct decision for me at the time and where where I wanted to take my coaching um career, hopefully, um, to move to the Connecticut Impact. And it was it's never anything, nothing ever bad happened, nothing at all in that sense. But um my assistant coach and one of my really, really good friends, Izzy Ingersoll, who actually had on my first episode of my podcast, who's a current shortstop at Southern Connecticut University, phenomenal player, phenomenal kid. Um, she was always there helping me assist with um with the lane nightmares, and she was also helping with Connecticut Impact at the time. Um, but she was always kind of saying, like, hey, like, I think this would be a good idea. Like I she played for Impact, she kind of she kind of knew I would gel really well there, and and and she knew it was it was gonna be a good um a good step in the right direction. So I trust the vision of someone who knows me probably better than anyone else. And it was it was a very big leap of faith for me. Um, someone where I was very, very comfortable in the run gun lady nightmares, and again, phenomenal organization. Run and gun lady nightmares, absolutely phenomenal. Um, by the way they treat the players, the kids, the families, top to bottom, top-notch organization, and um really provided myself and and a lot of kids with um with a lot of knowledge about this game. But just at the time, it was just it was just time for a change for me. And and that was about it. Um obviously coaching at Lovelo with Coach Adam helped, who at the time was with Connecticut Impact. Now he's um he's stepped off the field for us impact, more of in a recruiting coordinator type role. But um obviously he was a little bit of a driving pattern there too. And then I always had a very good long-standing relationship with Coach Craig and Coach Mike as well. Um, so it was it was just the time for me to just make a change and like you said, just make make an impact.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

As a young coach, the the adjustment from travel to high school, you know, travel you may practice two days a week, you you're all your weekends are lost in the summer because you're at a field somewhere. How have you found the high school, the five days a week, you know, with three games a week and and things like that? How how have you found that to be? Is it more to you liking? Do you prefer the travel game more? Or are they both different enough that it keeps both seasons fresh?

SPEAKER_01 13:37

I think for myself, um the past two years, other than this year, um, I was switching a 12-year team. So 12-year high school, a little bit different there. Um, luckily enough, the the 12s that I had um when they were first year and second years, um they were, I don't want to say advanced, it's a kind of a silly word to use for a 12-year-old, but they were kind of dialed into softball a little bit and they really, really cared. So I was able to push them in a very good direction. And at a young age, they cared. But obviously, softball and high schools are very, very different than 12-year-olds. So I think it very much kept it fresh for me. Um, this year I have a 14U team, which are actually all eighth graders, so not necessarily in high school yet. But um, I think for myself, doing high school and then coaching younger age levels, it keeps everything a little bit fresh. Um, along with coaching with the 14U Impact, um myself um and um Izzy Ingersoll, as I mentioned, um, we actually, along with um Coach Halbert Um Paneto, we coach a first-year tenue team called the Bridgeport Bluefish. They're a long-standing baseball program in Connecticut, but is their first year softball. Um, I know a I knew a lot of their coaches. There's some playing against them in baseball throughout the years, and they asked me to help out. I'm not necessarily their head coach. Um, like I mentioned, Coach Halbert Um Paneto is their head coach. Um, I'm their player development coach, and that's that's that's actually where I just came from right now. But so coaching tens and a little bit of 14s in the spring um and throughout the whole year, and then coaching high school, it's it's a lot of variations, but I think the good thing is amongst all three of those groups that I coach, they all want to be there and they all really, really care about what they're doing. What I personally try to do is yes, we're gonna work hard. And this is kind of where my coaching philosophy is at as well. Yes, we're gonna work very, very hard. There's gonna be some times where maybe I don't say something in the nicest tone of voice, but you have to listen to the message I'm giving you, not the tone I'm saying it in. I sometimes say it in the tone because I know you can do it, and I really, really believe in you. And that's from 10 all the way up to up to our seniors in high school. It's it's the same message. Um, obviously, how you approach it a little bit differently, obviously, but but the message is always still there.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

I I'm gonna interject, Chris, uh, because you're doing both baseball and softball in what you just said, and and and a matter of speaking of, I know it's all softball, but there's still a baseball element to it. And the thing I want to interject with is we're in a time where we keep hearing baseball's dead, softball's dead, all these sports are dying. You're making it sound like we're bringing more players in, and that's a fantastic thing. Am I misreading that?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

I don't think you are. I absolutely think softball and baseball are alive and well. I think a very, very big thing is, and this is and this was a stat that came across um my desk in a sense, um, from a little league um commissioner literally whoever runs a little league um in a town in Connecticut. When they are, I think, seven or eight years old, by the time they get to their last year of um of little league or all-stars or whatever it may be, 85% of them don't finish. 85% is a very alarming number. You see a lot of kids at the youth levels they're playing, but I think the very big problem, and this is why people say, Oh, it's baseball softball or dead, I think the very big problem in both sports is that one kids may not enjoy it because it could be slow, it could be boring, especially in those those long little league games where nothing's happening, all that stuff. But also, I feel like there's there's not just a very good direction sometimes for these kids. Um, and it's it's not knocking anyone or anything. And I know there's a lot of parent and volunteer coach in the little league, which absolutely has to happen in order for these little leagues to run. But I I think in order for the kids to stay in the sport, they had to stay engaged. I think of myself as probably a very ADHD riddled seven-year-old. Um, if I was just standing in the outfield just bobbing my head around, being bored in the sense, I probably wouldn't have liked baseball either. I had the absolute privilege of playing for Technique Tigers baseball when I was younger, playing on a 10-year team when I was seven years old, as literally just because my brother was ten years old, they needed an extra player. So I had to be on my toes all the time. I then I was probably gonna get hit in the mouth or something crazy like that. So I I very much had to be alert at all times, and I think it's what helped me stay engaged in the game at such a young age. So when I did go and play, so I I played for I played for Bridgeport North End Little League. I'm a Bridgeport kid. Yep. Um to say Bridgeport Little League is a good product would be a lie. It's not. It was it was very, very rough. I really hope it gets to a better spot and there's people that do care in that um in that little league, but the talent's just not there like it is in Fairfield and Westport. It's just the truth. And I'm the first one to say it. Um, but I was fortunate enough to when I went back to Little League, I would take what I learned from travel and I would kind of try to apply it there. And I'd I'd almost mess around a little bit. If I learned how to do a learned how to do a first and third play at travel, I'd try to teach my little league teammates how to do it. Well, there would work out, probably not, but I would still try to almost like experiment with stuff during little league games just to just kind of keep it fresh for myself. So I think I think that's where a big part of younger kids, like me personally, when I had a 12U team, I did not care if they played Little League. I didn't I do not care if they play middle school. The only thing I really cared about is if you're gonna miss my travel practice, you gotta just let me know and try not to miss too many. That's really all I care about. I want them to be able to experience all of it. Because there's some kids that play travel that they might not be the best players on their team, and that's fine. But they might go to their little league and they might be the head honcho there, which I think every kid needs to learn how to play a role. Whether you're the best player, middle player, or absolute bottom player. I've been all of those. And I think it's something that really, really helps. I think it helps me um as a coach to kind of understand um how to play a role on the field.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

You know, my favorite part of this, Rob, so far is again, I got into coaching late because you know my career as a sports writer prevented me from becoming a coach. Sure. And once I was able to get out of the sports writing game and started working at GFA, uh that allowed me to get on the sidelines. And but I I hear the passion in your voice as you talk about all this, Chris. And it's it's like, my god, I'm ready to run that through that wall for you now, you know? Totally agree. Yeah, and I love that. And is is that something that that you do try to pass on, you know, to to the kids? Because you while you are somewhat close in age to them, you know the career comes to an end someday, and to keep giving back, you know, and to make it fun and make the kids better, uh, you know, is that is that something you do try to do is is pass on that passion for the sport or for all sports even.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Absolutely. Um something that myself and I I really started to hear it a lot from Coach Craig Sears at N-patch and Coach Mike Santiago, um, as well as Coach Nate Wilda and Coach Adam. Um softball ends. There's one day where softball ends, but lessons that you learned from the game and the stuff that you carry with you the rest of your life, that doesn't end. You can get out of sports almost what you put in in the sense. I know it's very cliche, but if you put in low effort, you don't really try at a young age, you probably won't get much out of it. Now, if you're the last player on the totem pole at 10 years old, can barely catch, barely throw, but you get to a point where you get a little better when you're 12, you show that hard work does pay off. I think that's just something that a lot of um young women, especially in our country right now, it's a very good lesson for them to learn that yeah, it's not always gonna be fair. It's just not. You're put into a position when you're an adult where you might not always you might not get an opportunity just because you are a woman, and that's just how it is sometimes. It's unfortunate. But if you work, you put your head down and you persevere through odds, um, you'll be able to succeed, um, no matter what it's in. And something that myself and Coach Izzy, we we kind of joke about a lot, and I refer to her as Coach Izzy, but Izzy Ingersoll. Um, but something we joke about a lot with are two teams that we've had at the 12U and then the 14U level. The one very similar thing about both of our teams is that they've both been very, very gritty, extremely gritty teams. I did not like really think it was something that we were teaching, but I think it's something we inadvertently teach. There's a lot of key words and key. Fruits we use. If we need a rally inning, um, we just tell them pass the bat along. It's not about you. It's a team at bat, pass the bat. If our three hitters up with a runner on second base, we're not saying, all right, go for the big fly, hit a ground ball to second base, move her over, pass the bat along. A big thing for us was never never never just never quit. You can never quit. There's an instance with one of my Lady Nymar travel teams. Um, it's probably one of my favorite games I ever coached in my life. We were down seven runs in the last inning with two outs, and we came back and won. Because I was in a third next to a third base dog out at third base coach saying, You're not losing this game. It's just not gonna happen. I joke around with a lot of them sometimes with my 14s, and like a running joke we have um is sometimes I tell them, like, you're not allowed to do this. Like if my center field runs with a glove, I'm like, no, you're not allowed to do that. And in your head, you're like, What do you mean I'm not allowed? Like, like I can do it, and like, no, you're just not allowed. So it's like, okay, I won't, I won't do it in the sense. So it's it's like kind of funny things like that, and it gets him to buy into stuff. Um, with my 14s, very similar experience. We were playing a extremely talented um Maryland Stars um fast pitch team. We were down eight runs going to last in. We came up and my um my my two-hitter Carly Taylor um hits a walk-off triple to win it for us in a huge PGIP event in Florida. So just never quitting, um, no matter what the age is. So that's that's my long ramble about it, but um, it's it's just something that I feel like all teams should have, and that fortunately enough for myself that um I'm able to kind of spread through all my teams of just being very, very gritty solo players and humans.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

When you were talking about that uh the the first comeback, the first thought that popped into my head was that you know, there's no clock in softball or baseball, but of course in travel ball, there is. You know, you you get one hour and fifteen minutes, an hour and a half, you know, finish anything, don't finish anything. So it's uh use that. It's fake software. I agree, I agree wholeheartedly. Fake softball. Where is Chris Carrera in 10 years?

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Man, I um I can never really say what's going to happen, but I in ten years I would absolutely be one love to be coaching college softball. Um, and I am big on the phrase you just shoot for the stars. Um I would love to coach um a power four team, whether that's I'd had to coach an assistant role. Um, but I always thought I was meant to be on this earth um to play a sport and to prove myself through a sport. But I really learned that my purpose on this earth is not even necessarily to coach, um, it's to give back. It's it's really to give back from stuff that um I was so fortunate to get when I was younger. Um my parents gave me every opportunity that I ever could ask for in this life. And for that I can never rethank them, but I I could rethank them by passing all of that along to the next generation. Um and for me, I I would love to absolutely love to be coaching um in college. It's it's a very, very big dream of mine.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

I I love that giving back thing because that that's kind of how the blog started, you know, two years ago was you know, I I stepped away from the field, I retired as a coach, I got sent to a game and realized, man, I really, really miss it. How can I give back? Well, you know, I got the writing experience, I got the photography experience, I talk a lot, as Rob knows. He's got the podcast experience, so let's just give back. And I just love all of those answers. And and you talked about your major, so you knew you wanted the sports to be a part of your life, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Oh, absolutely. Um, coming out of high school, my my main goal, and this is this is a huge shout out to S um SCMA, Sigarheart Communications, Media Arts, um, the whole production. Um, I've been fortunate enough through my major to do a lot of I'll and I call them major production because they are um a lot of playoff hockey games um in the AHA, um, a lot of um Mac playoff games and and be a part of the production. I'm I'm normally on graphics. Um, our awesome producer and um coordinator, um Aaron Such gave me so many opportunities through my major to um and and just be flexible knowing that I am a softball coach and that is is my main passion, but also give me the opportunity in media as well because out of high school it's it's what I wanted to do. Um I I love I love sports media. Um I love Dan Patrick's show, I love Pat McAfee, I love all the normal guys. Um I I just love sports and I love being able to share stories through sports. So um I think my media um and being able to um pursue that as my major was something really, really cool and interesting for me.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

And and Dan Patrick, of course, of course, tapes his show right out of Milford. So having that right here in Connecticut, that must have, for a kid like you, must have been like, wow, I can do this.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Oh, it was so awesome just to see some like wow, like this this guy is this almighty sports media human, like wow, like, and it's right here in Connecticut. And then you think you have you have ESPN right up north in Bristol, like it's everything's right here. And I I always say it, but Connecticut is and even the Northeast, it is very underrated for everything sports, whether it's media, whether it's actual talent coming out. Like you even look in um look in the MLB right now, like you have a lot of Connecticut guys. You look at college basketball, you have a lot of Connecticut guys. Um, like you have you have Donovan Klingon, who I had like the privilege to watch after a state championship game for Notre Dame, just plan playing on a court the number eight or nine, whatever draft pick going to the crabblazer. Like that that's crazy. Like it's just a Connecticut kid. Like there, there is a lot of a lot of sports talent in Connecticut, um, especially in lacrosse. Oh my god, in lacrosse. I like it's just it's unbelievable. So even past even past softball and baseball, but just sports all around, sports in Connecticut is very it's it's in a really, really good direction. It's very exciting.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Here's a college basketball trivia question for you, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Donovan's mom, of course, went to the University of Maine, was a great women's basketball player up there. You'll never guess who was the beat writer for the U Maine women's team when she was there for the Bangor Daily News. I have a guess. This guy. Yeah, I have a guess too. Where you go? So I knew Donovan's mom back when she was his age now. Uh and of course she passed away, and uh but boy, boy, she passed on some some jeans to him, that's for sure. Absolutely. Let's go full circle back to the podcast. How did you come up with this idea? What was it about you know what you're doing that you you you know focused in on this?

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah, so a big thing for me has always been the person within the athlete. Um, I I think it really does trill back to my story in the sense of I was never one I was very private in that instance of my life. I never really shared much with anyone. Even at times my coaches really didn't know what was kind of going on with me. I kept it very quiet, I'd just kind of show up and play. There'll be days that maybe I had a bad game, and maybe it was because I just didn't have a good game, but sometimes it also felt like my stomach was ripping in the two, which wasn't always the most fun, especially having to catch. And I always had this idea of being able to share stories of um kids and athletes in similar situations, maybe not health-wise, but whether it's a living situation, whether it's how you were raised, anything like that. Um, the four people I had on the podcast, they all have four four very, very different stories. My first person was Izzy Ingristol that I've been mentioning the whole time. Um had a very interesting um upbringing in her life. Um, my second guest was Richie Kersetter, a Fairfield kid, one of my best friends in this whole world. Um, actually went um played for Canterbury after he transferred from Notre Dame at Central Connecticut right now. He entered the transfer portal and he had two different Tommy John surgeries. So really, really, really hard times through the sport. Um, third episode just came out, Kenna Tanzie, who is an 18U player in Connecticut Impact. Um, not to spoil the episode, but went through a very difficult situation with health with her mother and had to kind of overcome that to get to where she's at now. And the fourth episode that I just recorded to give a little sneak preview now is with one of my very, very good friends that I'm so fortunate I have become friends with her, um, Grace Jenkins, who is the current right fielder for um Arizona softball, who was um the biggest player of the year at UConn catching. Um, myself being a catcher and Grace being catcher at UConn, we made the connection. We had, I think we did either three or four um softball catching clinics, which average somewhere about 40 to 50 kids each time. And to be able to interview her and talk about her transfer experience and even coming from the West Coast all the way to the East Coast and then back to the West Coast again for senior year, um, make a really, really awesome episode with something not necessarily in her life, but how um moving moving away from home really affected her as a human and um moving back closer to home also affected um also affected her as a human through softball. And where can people find your podcast? You can find my podcast on YouTube um at the everyday um athlete pod or strip an at everyday athlete. Um and there will be an Instagram page um starting very, very soon, the everyday athlete. Um so that is where you can find me on socials.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

It's it's great stuff, Chris. Uh you've got the personality to be in the media and you should stay with it. Um by all means. I've been really impressed just chatting with you tonight. So um, you know, congratulations and continued success. Thank you very much. John, we're gonna wrap it on that note. We'll do it again next week.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Sounds good. I'll find somebody to talk to, and if not, we'll just invite Chris Man, because uh I'm sure he's gonna get me more stories.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

And as we talk, softball is off and running all throughout Connecticut. I was checking out scores and stories and everything else, so it's great. We are muffin running with a special season of softball, but that'll do it for this edition of the Inside Corner. We thank Chris Greer for joining us for jumping the mesh. I'm Roman's will talk to you next time.