6 Reasons Why Troy Is In The College World Series

Fast Expectations In College Baseball

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So I need to see things happen really quick. And if, you know, the day and age of letting a kid have three years to figure it out, those are done. I there's too much investment in baseball. Uh, you can't have immature guys just sitting around, just toiling in your program, right? They don't need to survive in your program. They need to thrive in your program.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, part three of a four-part series where I sit down with Troy University, head baseball coach Skylar Meade, where he discusses the realities of college baseball, the intense pressure. And now he's one day away from playing West Virginia University in the College World Series. Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Baseball coaches unplugged. That's a podcast for high school travel and college. Baseball coaches, better players, and water program.

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SPEAKER_02 1:30

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Staff Dinner Picks And Orders

SPEAKER_02 2:26

And now to my sit-down with head baseball coach at Troy University, Skyler or Mead.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Oh, absolutely. No, I appreciate you having me on.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Well, I'm going to start off with one that's uh probably a little different than what I typically ask, but you're taking your coaching staff out to eat. Are you going to the barbecue house or hooks barbecue? And what are you ordering?

SPEAKER_01 2:50

If I went to hooks, we we do a lot of hooks here, which is pretty good. Um I'm gonna tell you what, I'm gonna I'm gonna actually give you a different answer because I'm not the biggest of barbecue guy. Now I like hooks during the season, but I'm taking them to a new spot in town, Baumhours. Uh the Baumhowers, which there's Baumhours all over the state of Alabama, but we got our new one here in September, and uh that's become a constant hotspot for for us. So if the coaches are going out and it's on my tab, that's where we're going.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

There you go. I love it.

Injury That Redirected His Career

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Well, you played for the University of Louisville and made it to the college world series. When did you decide you wanted to become a coach? And could you explain the steps you took to uh make it happen?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

So I I mean, like anyone, I wanted to, you know, play as long as I could, play professionally. And um, you know, I was certainly a uh a really good player in high school, like most you know, people, so didn't make me really indifferent. I went to University of Louisville and uh, you know, did well my first couple years. And um unfortunately, it was uh, you know, I was a weekend starter in my junior year, and and I kind of knew something was really going on my shoulder. And uh, anyways, ended up having it totally reconstructed, had four things fixed in it. I missed two years. And uh I'd always, you know, liked coaching and and my nickname in high school was Coach Meade, which was probably because I stated my opinion on a lot of things, and I'm sure the coaches from time to time appreciated sometimes, maybe they didn't. But uh I think during that time, you know, you you just know that there's some frailty to your own career. And uh I was fortunate enough to come back. And you know, you mentioned that the team that that I was on uh unfortunately got to be a big part of, you know, playing to what you know, went to Omaha and we did what we did. But I really knew that with the way my shoulder was and and and different things, if I got a chance in professional baseball, it was gonna be very short-lived. And and the reality is is um, you know, I wanted to kind of be intelligent with what my next move was when I was, you know, 22 years old. And uh fortunately enough, uh Dan McDonnell, our head coach, was really connected. And, you know, by happenstance, he got a call from from Jimmy Schmitz in Eastern Illinois just asking about our pitching staff. And he he had the wherewithal to give my number to him just to say, hey, there's a player on the team that he's a good communicator. You should talk to him, he'll tell you what was different this year compared to the past. And that one conversation, uh, 20-minute conversation led to an interview and then led to me becoming uh the second assistant and pitching coach at 22 at Eastern Illinois. And uh from then on out, obviously I've made many other stops, but that was what kind of got me in the door was was, you know, a guy really taking a chance. And and I've always said this, and I'll reiterate it till the end of time. Jimmy Schmidt's taking a chance on a 22-year-old to coach his pitchers, uh, you know, as he'd been very successful at Eastern Illinois, but uh didn't want to do pitchers anymore, wanted someone else to take that round, and uh fortunately went there. Uh, we won two championships our first two years, and uh I've parlayed that to the last 17 years of my career.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Well, that's uh that's an amazing uh chance for a coach to take at that at that level, but you know, that's big risk, big reward sometimes. And uh it turned out that uh he found the right guy. And what were some of the stops you had along with

Coaching Stops That Shaped His Style

SPEAKER_02 6:20

the way that uh that led to you becoming the head coach at Troy?

SPEAKER_01 6:24

So I was at Eastern Illinois for five years uh with with Coach Schmitz, and um you know, my last year there, um, we had a guy come on as a volunteer named Ben Wolgemont, which I'll get to him in a little bit, but he was uh he was with me there my last year in Eastern Illinois. And then after there, and in the fall of 2012, I went to middle Tennessee State to work for Jim McGuire, uh, which was a great move. Murfreesboro was an awesome town, you know, 25 minutes outside of Nashville, uh, a place I really liked baseball. So I was there in the 13 to 14 seasons, and then uh the summer of 14 ended up going to Michigan State. So uh, you know, getting into the Big Ten, uh going to work for Jake Boss, who's one of the best guys on the planet. Um I was there for 15, 16, 17 seasons. We, you know, we pitched really well during my time, uh, you know, had some really good teams. And then where, you know, just crazy breaks happened in November of 17, I got a call from South Carolina, uh, Jerry Myers, legendary pitching coach there, uh, was having some health issues and had decided to step away for the you know for a little bit. So the job was open, and I knew Mark Kingston and Mike Kern on the staff, and uh went through a process and eventually it led to uh you know me and my wife and I flying down there. And and next thing you know, I'm the pitching coach of South Carolina in late November of 17 and then was there for four years. So, you know, got the SEC experience for for 18, 19, 20, obviously was shortened with COVID, but uh 2021. And then luckily in the summer of 21, um, you know, I got a call from Brent Jones, athletic director here at Troy, and we went on about a 13-day uh talk, text, communication deal, which led to uh an interview here on campus at Troy. And fortunately, uh he and and many other powers that be thought I'd be the right guy for the job here. And we're sitting here almost three years later, that was July 15th of 2021, and we've experienced some pretty pretty great success, a lot of notoriety and popularity for our program as we envisioned. And uh there's been a lot of investment in our program. So uh yeah, it's funny, you know, you think of like the little moments that lead to where you get to. And now on my staff, my my top assistant, recruiting coordinator, infield coach, and and hitting coach, uh Ben Wilgamont was my first hire uh on my staff. So so we're together here at Eastern Illinois, and then um, you know, I have another assistant named Adam Godwin who played here uh back in the day, very successful player, played professional baseball for a while. And then a kid that I coached at Michigan State for three years, named Ethan Landon, uh, is one of our assistants as well. So kind of, you know, the people you meet, the people you connect with, the people you trust, I've attempted to surround myself with. And I think that's a big part of our culture that certainly players feel and and you know, families feel, just as we have kids coming in on campus today. Like that's something that you can't fake. And uh it's allowed us to get good players. Because in the end, all this stuff, I yeah, I certainly think I do a really good job as a coach and I know you know how to push buttons and all that. But in the end, you gotta have players. Uh you got to have talented kids, you gotta have strong kids, explosive kids. And uh you do that by recruiting them, but you do it by them coming there and seeing your place and feeling a connection to not only you, the staff, but how you're gonna go about uh taking care of them during their time.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Makes sense.

Recruiting Outliers With Real Maturity

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Well, your season has come to an end, and high school players and their parents are hoping to get on college coaches' radars. What are your priorities when you're assembling your roster for the upcoming season?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

So I actually just spoke about this Monday night to this uh to a large group of high school uh kids that are playing on our field uh throughout that that big glare in the back throughout that window on our field. There's a bunch of kids playing. And I told them, look, as a high school kid in this day and age, you have to exhibit outlier uh outlier tendencies. What could that be? Obviously, you got to run really fast, you need to be an elite defender at a premier position, uh, have a good arm, you know, be able to maybe spin a breaking ball, have great size. Uh you have to be an outlier, outlier, and then you have to have supreme work ethic. In the day and age we're in with the portal, with us being a school that's been successful historically recruiting junior college players. As a high school kid, you better be very mature, you better be very disciplined, and you better be very good. Uh, you know, this is a top 25 level program. We were ranked uh with a week to go in the season 21st in the country. Like we are we have incredibly high expectations uh in the in terms of the recruiting process. So the high school kids that we get, they have to be guys that we think can be can be superstars down the road. Uh and that probably is what I'm saying is very similar to you know, most of the schools that really are in you know top five to top seven conferences in college baseball, the Sun Belt to top five league in the country. Four teams make four to five teams can make the NCA tournament every single year. And uh, you know, I think that the formula has changed a little bit with the you know open market that's kind of out there. So if I'm a high school kid, I I better I better really have great work ethic, great grades, uh, and and I better be, you know, somebody that can get on the field or at least exhibit those sort of characteristics to be on those coaches' radars.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Makes sense.

Transfer Portal Changes The Timeline

SPEAKER_02 12:02

And and are are maybe not necessarily you, but are do you find that division one coaches are going into the portal and and picking up players there versus the the process of going out and recruiting high school guys?

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah, that's a reality. I mean, you know, I heard Jay Johnson talk about it a little bit yesterday uh in his post-year interview at LSU. I mean, look, it's no different. Um and I mean I will say this, I I would say I say this to our team often, and fair or foul, I'm a crazy, uh, I'm a crazy impatient person. So I need to see things happen really quick. And if, you know, the day and age of letting a kid have three years to figure it out, those are done. I don't there's too much investment in baseball. Uh you can't have immature guys just sitting around just toiling in your program, right? They don't need to survive in your program, they need to thrive in your program. Uh and I think that has changed the game a little bit. Um, I'm not saying that's right or wrong. It's just the reality of it. This is the we don't think of it this way. I have a blast. I have a great day every single day. I love what I do, I love the recruiting, I love the chaos, I love our players. But what I will tell you is it is big business. It has changed. I'm sitting in a $13 million stadium at Troy University. You think it isn't big business? So if a guy's not gonna, you know, if he's gonna have bad grades, if he's gonna be kind of sloppy in his work and he's not gonna perform, sometimes it does change the game a little bit. And uh while people may not want to hear that, it is the truth. And, you know, just look at what's going on with the portal. I'm not saying it's right, but there's 4,000 kids in there. It's pandemonium. Uh, but you know what? That mobility can be helpful to guys sometimes in finding the right fit as they go through their through their career. Um, but I think it also ups the ante in terms of what you need to do to be successful when you enter a program. I think I think the handbook is there. I I think the information's there. It's just, are you really willing to do it or you just want to talk about it? I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna do. No, you have a one GPA, you aren't gaining weight, you're not stronger, your lunges aren't better, you know, your breaking ball is slower. If those things are happening, it's gonna be hard to survive in this day and age in college baseball, at least at the highest levels.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Yeah, I totally agree with what you're saying. And like you said, the number you put out there for in the transfer portal, you said 4,000 as of right now, I guess. What what happens to a player that

The Three Portal Outcomes

SPEAKER_02 14:44

jumps into that portal? I mean, all those guys don't find spots, do they?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

No, no. What happens is sometimes they find a home. Sometimes they aren't as popular as they thought. And unfortunately, sometimes things come to an end.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Um, that's really the three realities that that you go through. And um, you know, one thing that we uh we have felt uh in in our process, and look, my first three years, we've only had eight guys from the portal. We have not been, you know, crazy in there. We'll be more this year, but we also had 18 seniors, and we'll have probably two drafts uh so or two junior drafts, that is. So we were always gonna need some guys, so our numbers will be a little higher this year, but that was also by design. Um, but we felt like you just have to be very intelligent with finding guys with the right fit, you know. Um, I'll give you an example that applies to

Fit Matters More Than Hype

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Troy. If you're a kid that you're from a you know, a huge city with, you know, three to seven million people, and you want to have 250 restaurants at your disposal, and you want a professional team to go watch uh, you know, in your free time, we're not the fit for you. If you enjoy small town, you like hunting, you love that people know who you are when you go to publics, uh, you enjoy winning, you enjoy, you know, that small college feel, then we're a home for you and you're gonna be awesome in our program. But we have to make sure that we navigate through that in the process and make sure that when a guy gets here, it's gonna be, you know, a joint venture uh that's gonna allow for optimized success.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Well,

Joyful Energy With Clear Boundaries

SPEAKER_02 16:32

you know, just watching your team play and and you know, seeing the highlights from from games this past season, your players play with a ton of enthusiasm. And how important is that if you want to be a player for Troy University?

SPEAKER_01 16:50

It's incredibly important. I don't know if we have enough time to to showcase that. But what I will say one thing, and and I'm not saying that all programs are are this way, I don't mean this as a negative, but our enthusiasm is with our guys, our enthusiasm is with our fans, our enthusiasm is pure joy. If ours ever navigates towards another team, the first person that's gonna be after them is me. Uh, because we don't, we're not doing that. This is not about you know disrespecting the game. It's not about messing with fate, it's about having a great time. We're playing a game, right? Yeah, I when our season ended and and we were you know sitting there watching the selection show being left out this year, I've I've had no enjoyment since then. None in terms of we have to, we have to, you know, retool our roster and do all these things, and we have incredibly high expectations. Um, but when we're playing, you have to have that, you have to have that excitement, that joy, that pure passion to be the best version of yourself. Now, some people are more outward than others, but uh we want that. We we make sure that that's part of our DNA and our identity. If you were to walk into the front corridor of our building, uh, you know, the beautiful new entryway into Riddle Pace Field here, there's a huge mirage of history. And um, and there's a lot of history here at Troy. Great history, great coaches, uh, great teams. But you'd see a lot of pictures of our team from 2023. And that was not me being selfish hoping to get pictures of our, you know, our second season in there and a team that was on the precipice of going to a super regional. I didn't choose that. But people who, you know, were making this mural people higher up than me at Troy said those guys were the most fun group to watch I I've ever seen. The passion, the way that they cared, what they did to represent Troy, those pictures spoke volumes. We have to show that. And so um I'm proud of the way that we play. I I I love the the way our guys get after it. And I think that that it like jumps off the screen. If you watch a video, if you watch us on TV, if you're in person, uh, we really resonate in college baseball. And that's why I think we've become, in a sense, a national brand. We got to keep winning more and we got to do, you know, way more things. But people know what's going on in Troy because of that excitement that we play with.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Yes, without a doubt. And I I as a coach myself, I I loved when my teams were enthusiastic and cheering for the guy that that's maybe in their spot, and you know, you got the bench guys that are into it, because that makes a world of difference, in my opinion.

A Midweek Game Day Routine

SPEAKER_02 19:37

And you know I I wanted to give uh the listeners an idea about you know what a college athlete's day is like, and it's most much different than just your average college student. If you have a midweek game, walk us through what a player's day looks like.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

So, you know, for our guys, uh, you know, on a game day, we usually play in a midweek game. It's let's say it's a home game, so we play at six o'clock at night. You know, they'll get up in the morning, uh, depending upon um, you know, how their body is, they may have like optional lifts going on before class. So they may be in the weight room at you know, 7 45, 8 o'clock, get a you know, 35, 40 minute lift, go to their two classes that they have on that day, maybe at 9 and 10 or 9 and 11. Then they'll get to the field and um, you know, maybe do some stuff in the training room uh just to move around, get active, maybe go in the cages, take some swings, do their routine as that's going on, probably from 1 to 130. Food gets to the field at 130, so then they eat 130 to 145. They probably hang out a little bit, maybe play some cards, do some things with their teammates. Then they probably start to gear up 230, 245. We'll have a team meeting at 325 to end after team meeting. We stretch, BP, pregame, et cetera. After that ends at 440, they go in the locker room, have a snack, uh, maybe do some more stuff in the training room, maybe take some extra swings, uh, do some sort of mobility work, and then they're back in the cages at 5:30, preparing for the starter uh that they're gonna see. We meet at 545, and then at 6.05, it's first pitch. And then you finish the game at 9.30, you have eat food after, you shower, I hope. And uh you get back to your apartment or whatever at 10:30 at night, and then you're ready for the next day. Um, so it's it's a lot, it's long, and that's why you have to love it. That's why you have to love it, right? Just like anything that that we do, if you don't have a passion for it, you're it's gonna feel like a lot. What I described to you, if you look at it on a piece of paper, it looks like an insane day. For our for us in the world of baseball, right? Or people in sports, that's nothing. That's exciting. We we get juiced up for all. those little things that go into the into that moment when you start the game.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Let me ask you

Learning To Handle Success

SPEAKER_02 22:06

this one. What has been your biggest failure as a player or coach, and what did you learn from that experience?

SPEAKER_01 22:15

You know, um it's funny. I I I will say this and and I'm trying to figure out the solution to this. Um you know I have a lot of confidence in in what I do and how I present things uh as the head coach I'm not I'm not changing how I was as an assistant or and to be quite frank I'm not changing how I've been for 39 years as a person. Like I've I've stayed the same I stay consistent. But you know we we've gotten every time that our program here at Troy we've gotten a ton of notoriety a ton of you know press a ton of social media all these years. And the one thing that over this three year span when we've gotten like crazy amounts of love I feel like sometimes we've taken a we haven't handled that maybe as well as we should both individually and team uh I could give some instances of individuals who have gotten love and they've sort of struggled team wise maybe we go through just a brief alull is it is it a real thing? I don't know but I feel like I need to find a way to continue to teach our guys how to handle success. You know a lot of guys in our program and I use this example in 2023 when we went to NC tournament we hadn't had a single player ever play at the NC tournament there was no experience there was no handbook for them. We had to kind of tell them what it's going to be like I think now that we're we're in this phase where we're winning and and there's notoriety and to be quite frank there's expectations not put on here by by myself or our staff but it's just felt and we have to get past that we have to be better at that and that starts for me and I'm certainly going to find a way to be better at that. And to me that's the most pressing thing certainly there's things that we all have like I don't even want to say regrets but we just wish went a little different. But sometimes those are fate we can't control but to me I feel like my job is to have control of everything as the head coach even though that's not a reality you you feel that way. So I want to make sure that in our program we get better about handling that love that comes from being a Troy Trojan. But you got to handle that and parlay that to more wins and more success. And that's something that as we move into August and our new team gets here, we have to be better at um and whether they know that or not they're going to learn it real quick. Yep.

Freshman Impact Starts In Weight Room

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Well what would be the best advice that you would give a high school player before they arrive on your Division I campus if they want to make an impact as a freshman number one I would I would say to any baseball kid I'd play other sports that's not that's number one that's gonna that's gonna toughen you up it's gonna give you different things different perspective to to maybe go back to as you become baseball only guy. But the other thing man you better learn how important the weight room is we lift four or five days a week uh our guys are absolute animals they're strong they're explosive they're powerful this is a man's game this is a man's league the sunbelt is a man's league just like when I was in the SEC and you saw the physiques and the strength and the explosion and the velocity it doesn't happen by accident little little kids don't survive in that league just like they don't survive in our program just like they don't survive in the Sunbelt. And so if you don't have a passion for getting better and you don't have to have a passion for lifting you have to have a passion for getting better. And the way you do that is you get powerful and you eat and you and you have discipline it does not mean that everybody has a six pack six percent body fat on our team and they don't eat carbs like yeah I there's a there's a nuance but I got no time for guys that are not in the greatest shape of their entire life during their experience here. And if they're not they're not going to be good. And to me that I I used this example a long time ago. Okay I played at the University of Louisville the basketball and baseball players or I'm sorry the basketball players there especially the football players they were incredibly popular. Until the end of my collegian career people didn't know about baseball at Louisville because we weren't good enough. Now they are now they're now they're big men on campus. But at the time we were not and I I said to my teammates one time I go why do we act any different or why would we think we're any different than the football guy that's paying the price, the basketball guy paying the price I know that at the time they have more fanfare more people in the stands but why would we not sacrifice the same way and how we lift and how we do things and so uh to me I want our guys to feel that way. I want them to have that sense of responsibility because if they don't they're not giving themselves a chance to be great and all of them want to play professionally that's what it takes to play professionally and our job is to help assist them in those goals.

Mindset, Accountability, And No Coddling

SPEAKER_02 27:08

Yes I I I look around and you know it seems like to me everything's an attitude if you have the right attitude and the mentality things can change and things can happen for good at in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

I don't know how do you feel about that I I think you're spot on Ken I mean I think you manifest what happens to you um now that doesn't mean we don't have moments uh nothing's perfect for anyone in any venture it doesn't matter sports business life like things happen but to me uh you know the the woe is me people they don't they don't thrive and uh you know call me a bad person I don't I don't handle those people well right I have two kids they're five and eight right I'm last night one of them's having problems that I think you can control maybe I'm a harsh parent but I'm telling them hey man that's not worthy of crying about there are things that are okay to cry about that one's not and you know I I think that we're in this coddle culture I think that we just tell everyone everything's okay sometimes you know what yeah that's a tough moment but you got to figure it out you got to figure it out and um you know there's not always an immediate solution to whatever is going on but in the end there is a solution and your attitude a lot of times can get you to that destination of what you

Rapid Fire And A Teammate Story

SPEAKER_01 28:34

want. All right I'm gonna hit you with a couple questions here that uh are uh maybe a little bit off the beaten path I guess and maybe you may not be ready for them but hate losing hate losing or love winning I actually I I think I've evolved I used to think I loved winning more even though it's incredibly motivating but man losing really really stinks I'm gonna I'm gonna turn to hate losing okay what would be the title of a book about you if your enemy or biggest rival wrote it if so okay I want to make sure I understand that's a great question so if my if if someone if I had an enemy and they were talking about me what would be the title um they would probably have a title something to the effect of uh seems too confident okay if you could sit down with three historical figures whether in sports or in general to make you a better leader who would those three people be if you're sitting down and having dinner at the restaurant you mentioned earlier. Okay uh Ali I would let's go JFK they seem to be pretty impressive and um I you know what I'm in the state of Alabama I can't be blind to it I'll go Saban is it okay if he's uh still alive which he is he's a historical figure that's for sure all right there we go I'm gonna go with those three yes I like that um what was one story as a player or coach that you'll always remember and if you think back on it it it it's it's hilarious for you you laugh about it um I like I like telling this one this is a good one I had a college teammate um uh named Colby who uh great talent supreme talent one of the better breaking balls I've ever seen but colby colby sometimes our our our coach would get on him a little bit about lacking you know some some energy and some juice we'll call it that and uh you know I had a great time like when I became a pitcher only I I would run around like a maniac just to you know try to get some of that juice out and uh anyways uh my teammates always enjoy the story where our head coach brought you know Colby upstairs to his office and made him watch me run around the outfield in pregame like an idiot diving around for five minutes and said you should have juice like that and I've never seen more disdain from a teammate when he got back to the field and said I hate you and I was like what and he goes and he tells me the story of what happened and he's like I'm just sick to my stomach and I was like dude I didn't even I didn't know but um I was just doing my thing you know I didn't think of it but he was it did not work he was not uh motivated to go run around like an idiot like me but uh one story my teammates we just always crack up at because my buddy he was mad at me for about three four weeks every time he'd see me just shake his head and was not a fan of what he was forced to watch.

Omaha Teams Built To Win

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Yeah well the the college world series is about to happen and it's basically a Southeast United States World Series in my opinion so what who do you got uh playing in the final and and who do you think is going to win it all well I will tell you I don't have the bracket memorized because uh I I my only time that I will go back to Omaha unfortunately I was fortunate enough to experience Omaha but I will I will not a hundred percent invest in Omaha until a team that I'm coaching is in it. But I here's what I will tell you um you know I there's something about the Tennessee team that I think is incredibly unique. You know I know Tony well uh I think Frank Anderson has been one of the most magical pitching coaches in college baseball the last 25 30 years uh just what he does. So I think there's just an element of toughness and uh find a way that that team has if you if you ask me um but man Texas AM is really really good too I know they've experienced two brutal injuries with Brady Montgomery and Shane Sandow getting hurt in the last really back to back days. But I look at those two teams and and and I just think they're very unique and and obviously experienced and talented everyone that gets to Omaha is is great. You don't get to Omaha by accident. It just doesn't happen. It's too difficult. But you know two teams to me that really stick out but you know a lot of these other teams you can't count out an LE and event team with NC State and certainly Virginia is one of the most consistent programs in the history of the sport what they're doing and they're back um man it's gonna be uh it's gonna be incredibly tough and you know it's hard for me to say as a Louisville guy so I'm jaded I will admit but man what Coach Mengeon has done to to reinvent Kentucky and get them back after a long hiatus they're probably as built to win an Omaha especially if the wind's blowing in and things are weird they know how to win they know how to run they bunt they're just unique. So it's gonna be a very competitive Omaha. It always is but I just think there's so many stylistic differences that are going to make it uh really really good and I think in the end that's what a program like ours that we strive to get there and we will

Consistency As The Leadership Edge

SPEAKER_01 34:26

uh get there you got to be able to be a chameleon and win a lot of ways and and I think that's what Omaha and the grouping of eight teams this year shows you if is there any question that when you went on with this because you you had no idea who I was until Johnny Johnson who was uh coach there in Alabama uh you know approached you about being on the podcast is there any question you kind of wish I would have asked that you have an answer to or something that you would like to say here toward the end um you know I don't know if there's a question I wish I mean man you've been I I I've been I've enjoyed it's a couple of really good questions I I think the biggest thing that I would say is and I think we kind of sort of touched on it but to me like in this world of of baseball or business or or whatever like I just think that you know the people that can stay true to themselves and we all alter and tinker who we are by age by time by experiences but I think that you know the more that you can really you know stay true to how you are and be consistent on a day in day out basis people respond to that and uh it doesn't mean that any of us are perfect it certainly means I'm not perfect but I will say every day you know our our our players and our program I think we're consistent. I think you look at the great teams and you know I would imagine if I were to sit down with those three leaders in their own way they would probably articulate the same things but I think you can't force that right you either you either have that or not I feel like our program has that I think there's a lot of other programs that do um but I think that would make you successful whether we're in sports if we were in business if we were on Wall Street if we were running a Chick-fil-A like we would find a way if you're consistent to your values and your belief system. So um maybe that'd be the you know the only thing that I think of that maybe is a different perspective or a different way to look at it that I would want to you know articulate but but no I I love the quite that was a great question on the book. It made that made me think a little I'm I I can be quick on an answer but you almost got me stumped there. That was great.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

Okay I'll finish with one last question for you Troy baseball in 2025 how will they be awesome there you go love it I coach uh it's it's Coach Schuyler Mead head coach at uh Troy University coach I I know this time of year is a very busy time for you trying to get things going in the summer and recruiting and everything that goes on thank you so much for taking the time to be on the Athlete One podcast with me.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Absolutely can all it's great and I I I thank you this these type of things whether you know I they get your brain or mine like so selfishly I appreciate how great your questions are and man it gets my brain rolling it gets me excited it makes me want to get our players in a room right now and talk to them about what we want to do. So you've you've got me juiced up and heck when these recruits come in today they're gonna get the best version of uh of myself and I attribute that today on what is it June June 12th if we land some of these recruits you're gonna get full credit for well hey thank you very much coach and and uh you got a fan up here in Ohio so good luck with everything moving forward and uh take care of yourself.

Sponsor Reminder And Sign Off

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Absolutely thank you today's episode of the Athlete One podcast is powered by the netting professionals improving programs one facility at a time contact them today at 844 6202707 or check them out online at www dot nettingpros.com as always I'm your host coach Ken Carpenter thanks for listening to baseball coaches unplugged