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Send a text Ever wonder how a Hall of Fame coach keeps his team sharp when the forecast says 30 degrees and snow? We sit down with Jeff Mielcarek, head coach at Toledo Central Catholic, to unpack the hard choices, smart practice design, and durable culture that thrive in northern Ohio. From heated locker rooms to twenty-minute outdoor segments, Jeff shows how to get more live reps outside while staying safe and intentional. His approach turns weather into a competitive filter: build the found...
Ever wonder how a Hall of Fame coach keeps his team sharp when the forecast says 30 degrees and snow? We sit down with Jeff Mielcarek, head coach at Toledo Central Catholic, to unpack the hard choices, smart practice design, and durable culture that thrive in northern Ohio. From heated locker rooms to twenty-minute outdoor segments, Jeff shows how to get more live reps outside while staying safe and intentional. His approach turns weather into a competitive filter: build the foundation first, then push pace and urgency until practice feels like the fifth inning of a tight game.
We go inside his staple drills—the three-fungo outfield pregame and the chaos drill that fuses pitchers and infielders into a single, fast-moving unit. Jeff explains why defensive reps during BP must be full tilt, even if that invites criticism, because timid training produces timid play. Roster realities shape development too: shrinking enrollment means every strike-thrower gets on the mound and every athlete learns multiple positions. He shares how clear role meetings, frequent communication, and early buy-in help players—and their “agents” at home—embrace change without drama.
Strategy meets instinct when the game is on the line. Jeff describes pulling a dominant starter at 100 pitches in the opener, taking a loss to protect May. That blend of gut and plan, informed by daily contact with players’ health and mindset, guides his late-inning calls, including first-and-third decisions with a one-run lead. Beyond tactics, culture is the engine: daily messages 365 days a year, the handshake rule before anyone leaves, and teaching the national anthem with intention. He credits mentors, clinics, and board service for shaping a growth mindset that borrows, adapts, and evolves.
If you coach in cold weather, lead a small roster, or crave practice plans that hold up under pressure, you’ll find concrete ideas and honest stories you can use tomorrow. Subscribe, share this with a coaching friend, and leave a review with your best first-and-third defense—we’ll feature our favorite breakdowns next week.
- Follow: Twitter | Instagram @Athlete1Podcast
- Website - https://www.athlete1.net
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Chapters
00:00 - Cold-Weather Mindset & Season Outlook
06:00 - Programs We Study And Borrow From
10:45 - Designing Outdoor Practices In Harsh Weather
18:30 - Balancing Starters, Development, And Roles
25:30 - Staple Drills And Training At Game Speed
31:30 - Gut Calls Versus Plans On Game Day
36:30 - Role Conversations With Players And Parents
Transcript
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Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, you learned how a Hall of Fame coach with 40 years of experience does whatever it takes to practice outdoors despite the cold temperatures in northern Ohio.
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Also, trust in your gut when the game is on the line and one thing he does as a program builder that has been key to his success.
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With Jeff Milkarrick, head coach at Toledo Central Catholic, next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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This is the Ultimate High School Baseball Coaching Podcast, Baseball Coaches Unplugged, your go-to podcast for baseball coaching tips, drills, and player development strategies.
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From travel to high school and college.
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Unlock expert coaching advice grounded in real success stories, data-backed training methods, and mental performance tools to elevate your team.
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Tune in for bite-sized coaching wisdom, situational drills, team culture building, great stories and proven strategies that turn good players into great athletes.
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The only podcast that showcases the best coaches from across the country with your host, Coach Ken Carpenter.
00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:16.560
Baseball Coaches Unplugged is proud to be partnered with the netting professionals in pruning programs, one facility at a time.
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Hello and welcome to season five of the Baseball Coaches Unplugged Podcast.
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I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter.
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Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and tune in every Wednesday for a new show with some of the best baseball coaches from across the country.
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If you're looking for practice plans, culture building, ways to improve your team, and great stories, we have over 180 episodes to choose from.
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Leading off season five is Hall of Fame head coach from Toledo Central Catholic, Jeff Milkarick.
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Coach, thanks for getting time to be on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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Coach, it's a great honor to be here.
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You've done a great job with this, and I've heard a number of years, and just to be on it with you is uh is like I said a great honor.
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So thank you.
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Well, practice officially starts here in a few weeks here in Ohio.
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And uh what do you look most forward to?
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And should this be another great season for you there at Toledo Central Catholic?
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Well, I look forward to warmer weather, and that's not going to be happening here anytime soon, I'm afraid.
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Um but I got long johns out and everything else and and ready to go.
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Um I always look forward to the start of the season.
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It's uh it's amazing, just a new lease.
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Um we have struggled the last couple years, um doing some part to our own um misdoing and and also to the schedule and the league that we're in.
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It's been uh it's been a tall order for us the last two years.
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But love our guys, love the way we compete.
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Um just need to figure out a way to get back over the hump and start winning some games and and uh again looking great, looking forward to a great season.
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Ohio is a a great state for baseball.
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When you look at the program when you look at at a program out there that you respect the most, what's the one thing that you studied that you try to implement with your team there Central Catholic?
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Well, I mean, for the longest time and still today, um we moved to Division II and now division three, I would say probably 15 years ago, and um developed quite a relationship with Coach Held at Defiance High School and Coach Weaver.
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Um they were always in our district.
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We had a really difficult district um and played some unbelievable games with them, both regular season and the tournament.
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In fact, one year they won the state championship and they beat us in the district semifinals that year, and we actually threw a no-hitter against them and uh had one air, and they beat us one to nothing.
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So I I look at, I mean, Coach Hell does a lot of things um amazing, and he does some things that are a little unorthodox, but the way they are organized and and do things, I've always looked up to and and tried to emulate some of the things.
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I heard a coach long time ago from Toledo de Vilbus, uh Coach George Philby said you beg, borrow, and steal in this game, and then you put your name on it, um, and it becomes yours.
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And I've never forgotten that.
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And I've gotten a lot from Coach Howeld.
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He's going into the National High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame um next December, and it's so well deserved and very close friendship because of baseball with them, which but he he would be the one he and co in Defiance High School for sure.
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Well, let's talk practice design and development.
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Take me inside of what you're gonna start working on, and even though you're in Toledo, Ohio, you ri you just said earlier that uh before we started that uh you you don't do indoor practices.
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How are you allocating time between fundamentals, situations, and live reps?
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Um an evolving and ongoing process.
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I don't think unfortunately, I I think when you say we don't do indoor practice, that's true.
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Um 14 years ago, we were very fortunate to build um a brand new baseball facility stadium about 20 minutes off our campus, and it's an all-terf facility.
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We have a locker room that's heated um with a team room, a study room, and um because of the construction, and we share it with Lords University.
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Um, after construction began, they didn't want a locker room because of the cost.
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So we took the what was going to be their locker room and converted it into a small hitting room.
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So we have one cage and some uh soft toss and T stations.
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We can throw a live bullpen in there if we need to.
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So that's really our indoor.
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We do everything at our stadium, and I'm a firm believer that even if we have to take a day or two off once practice begins, um, we're still getting more done being outside.
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And we do it in small segments.
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We'll do 20-minute segments and then come back in and and do something inside, whether it's um you know, lifting or um a team meeting or pitcher's meeting, we're always using our hitting lab inside.
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Um, so when I say it's evolving, it really is evolving based on the weather.
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As soon as we can get live reps on the diamond, ground balls, fly balls, cutoffs, we're doing that.
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Um and, you know, try and do everything that we're doing at game speed.
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The one thing I have learned in the 14 years that I've tried to emphasize with our coaches is sometimes, you know, this is going to be an exception to the rule.
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We're not gonna have, you know, 50-degree weather on February 23rd when we start.
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At least I don't think we are.
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Um, sometimes when we have that, uh, we get a little ahead of ourselves and we have to pump the brakes and and start going back to walking before we run, especially with fundamentals.
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Our the hope or the goal of us as coaches uh once we begin the first month or so is I talk about it often, is make certain that we are building the foundation.
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No matter what we're doing, we're building the foundation that we can add to as the season goes on.
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Hitting, throwing, um, whatever we're doing, build the foundation and make sure that we don't cheat the foundation or we're gonna have problems as we get into the season.
00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:53.200
Totally agree with you on that.
00:08:53.440 --> 00:09:05.519
You know, the the listener out there that that checks out the podcast, they if they're from the north, a northern state, they kind of get what you're talking about when it says getting outside.
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But for the the the coach that might be listening in Florida or Arizona or Texas, what is it like in Toledo when you get outside and you know, temperature-wise and things like that, that you contend with?
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It's brutal.
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I hate it.
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I mean, it's uh I've told people in no uncertain terms, um, if we didn't build the baseball stadium that we did with a heated locker room that attaches to our dugout, I don't know that I'd still be coaching because I just can't deal with the cold weather that we deal with.
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I mean, we've been outside um just three years ago, we were outside and it was about 30 degrees.
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And I tell our guys all the time, there's no snow on the turf, it's 30 degrees, stretch inside in the heat, make certain you're ready to go, and then let's go out and start, you know, playing catch, go through our progression of playing catch.
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And we were doing that, and uh it became somewhat comical because the snow started, and um we had people taking videos of us playing catch, and at some point um we just had to stop because it was coming down so hard.
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So it's it's not baseball conditions, but it's something we have to deal with.
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And we are now in a league where we play in the Detroit Catholic League, so we're playing schools an hour north of us, and it's these are schools that are much, much larger than us with amazing indoor facilities, like a number of people now have in um in Ohio.
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So we just have to take care of ourselves and deal with the elements.
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And heck, we've played some games in brutal conditions that we probably shouldn't have played, but did.
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So it's just something we get used to.
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I don't think I've talked to my friends that we play in Florida and and they get it.
00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:05.279
There's no chance they would ever come up, or their guys would want to come up and deal with what we deal with here, but it's just part of the part of the whole process that we signed up to do.
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We don't have to, we choose to.
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Yes, and and every coach out there that's coached a baseball game in the north in the cold weather, I'm sure they have great stories that they can share about fighting the snow or the wind and the the temperatures.
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Let me ask you how do you balance between the players you see as starters and developing the younger players?
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Um our program has changed and evolved.
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We are a private Catholic school.
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Um our enrollment has shrunk.
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I this will be my 40th season at Central Catholic.
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And I mean when I started, our enrollment was much, much bigger.
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Um, and we were getting around 60 freshmen trying out for for the program.
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Now we are averaging about eight freshmen a year coming out because of our size and because of the evolution of youth baseball.
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Everything is is travel or or base or pay-to-play type things.
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Um, and so we we lose a lot of the kids at an early age because there's no school teams.
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So we don't have a lot of kids, so we're focused.
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Our biggest thing is everybody that can throw a strike needs to be a pitcher and they need to get time with our pitching guys in the bullpen.
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Everybody needs to play multiple positions, um, and everybody needs to just figure out a role.
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And so we do a lot of our training sessions as a full program, JV and Varsity, just because of sheer numbers.
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It's too many at times, but it it works for us because we have all of our coaches on the diamond or in the hitting lab with our kids.
00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:59.600
And when everybody's together, it's probably still only about 35 kids.
00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:08.080
And I'm not complaining because I know there's people that are a lot worse situation number wise than us, but um, you know, that's what we're doing.
00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:16.000
We're balancing how we're you get utilizing reps at different positions throughout a training session for us.
00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:21.440
Well, talk about what you just said, Terry, uh being able to play multiple positions.
00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:52.000
And when it comes to that travel player that, you know, maybe he's played for his dad up until the point he gets to become a freshman at Toledo Central Catholic, and he's uh probably pitching and maybe playing shortstop, how do you get them to understand that hey, you're a you're a freshman and you're a shortstop, but you know, we might need a a a right fielder and get them to buy into that uh type of coaching.
00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:59.919
I mean, obviously it depends on the kid, and they're I call the parents agents, call them that to their face.
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I mean, and and I do that in a respectful and loving way, but they are truly agents of their kids.
00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:14.960
They want nothing but the best for their kid, and many times they have blinders on um and can't see the whole the whole thing.
00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:21.039
Um we've been very fortunate to communicate, try to we try to over-communicate.
00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:26.639
I do with kids about roles, and um I I always tell the story.
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We had a a freshman that came in, I believe 2015, and I never had a freshman playing on the varsity for us.
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And I always said I'd never have a freshman or a sophomore unless they can start in no uncertain terms.
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And we had one who is still in professional baseball, Jace Bowen, and he came in and he was not only our best shortstop, but he was our best player as a freshman and had to have a tough conversation, I thought, with one of our seniors who was all set to be our shortstop.
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Started as a junior, and during the conversation, it lasted about 30 seconds because he knew full well that he was going to be our second baseman.
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He knew that Jace was better.
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Um, and the kids get it.
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I truly believe the kids see it, the kids get it.
00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:20.799
The hard part is selling that with their agent at home at the dinner table.
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I couldn't agree with you more on that one, that's for sure.
00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:32.080
What's one drill or practice concept that's become a staple in your program?
00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:38.080
You know, um I don't know if there's one.
00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:42.639
We do a we do our pregame and we do it pre-season.
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Um can't do it every day.
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Um but we do a three-fungo outfield pregame where three coaches are hit and there's balls flying all over the place, um, then come come into the infield.
00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:03.039
So we do that um during the preseason uh at least three, four days a week.
00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:09.120
We do a um a drill with our pitchers and our infielders um that we picked up.
00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:38.879
I think I picked it up on Twitter a few years ago, uh chaos drill, and we have a coach at home plate, and he's hitting fungo after fungo, and there's lots of movement and activity, and we're turning double plays and we're covering first, and and it we need our whole program to do that, and we do that a couple days a week in preseason, and then make certain that we have that once a week um during the season.
00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:41.840
And the other thing is just our BP.
00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:50.240
We try so hard to make certain that our reps, defensive reps for sure during BP are game speed reps.
00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:52.240
It's it's cost us a little bit.
00:16:52.320 --> 00:17:02.879
We've had some injuries because of it, but um we insist that kids are diving non-stop, insist that they're diving in the outfield, diving on the infield.
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We had a kid that was out for a week um because he did that and screwed up a shoulder.
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Um, of course, people criticize that's not how you do it, and I disagree.
00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:16.799
If you're gonna play at game speed, we train at game speed.
00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:29.920
So I had a coach, a college coach that was coming to the stadium to play a Division II game, and we were finishing up training, they were there for about a half hour, and he paid our program to me the ultimate compliment.
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He said, Coach, that's one of the best high school um practices I've seen.
00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:54.799
And I shared that with our kids, and it's not about me, it's about them because I can put anything on paper that this is what we're doing, and I can try I can do the everything I can to hold them accountable, but at the end of the day, they have to buy in, they have to believe that this is the best way for us to succeed, and and knock on wood, they've done that.
00:17:54.960 --> 00:18:02.319
So again, I love our kids um who we get to wear our uniform, and um hopefully that never changes.
00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:16.079
Well, when it comes to being in-game, how do you decide between trusting your gut versus maybe you've you've played this team and you kind of know what they're gonna do?
00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:25.519
And uh you know, that's how you know it's a pregame plan where you're like, all right, we're gonna go this amount of time with our pitcher or whatever it may be.
00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:31.519
How do you how do you balance that trusting your gut versus trying to stick to the plan?
00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:42.000
Um, I I don't know if in high school baseball that I would say many times there's much of a plan.
00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:53.200
There's a plan, certainly, who's starting, who's pitching, you know, what maybe a pitch count might be for that day based on what we've done or what we've got coming up.
00:18:53.440 --> 00:19:00.079
Um, but I I I rely on on gut and instinct more than I think anything else.
00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:03.839
Now there's times when certainly guys are upset with me.
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I remember in Florida, we had a kid that went and pitched at Ohio University, and it was our opening game, and he was our best, and he was pitching really well and quite honestly dominating a team from Florida, and we had a two-run lead, and we got to the fifth inning.
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He got through us in the fifth inning, and he came in and he had just hit a hundred pitches.
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And I'm not a big guy, and I know we have pitch counts and everything, but every kid's a little different with what their pitch count should be.
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And I just said to him, You're big strong kid.
00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:39.039
I said, Jake, you're done.
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He said, Coach, I'm good.
00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:41.680
It feels great out here.
00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:42.400
I'm sweating.
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I said, I know, and that's why you're done.
00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:48.480
We're gonna make certain it's game one.
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I want you to be ready when we get to May and not be hurting because we ranched the farm.
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We ended up getting beat that game.
00:19:56.559 --> 00:19:59.920
Um, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.
00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:08.720
It was the gut, it was the head, a combination of two that said that was the right thing to do for us as a team and for Jake as a player.
00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:15.839
And just so I don't know if there's a if that's a good answer or the right answer, but that's the answer that I use.
00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:43.119
Yes, and it's tough to get a player or you know, like you said, agents mom slash dad to understand that your your goal as a coach is to be at your best when you it comes tournament time, and you know, stats that stat of getting one more inning or you know, six more outs, whatever it may be, isn't as important as it should be.
00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:48.400
Yeah, it's uh again, the gut comes into play.
00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:56.319
We get to see the kid every single day that we're on the diamond, we get to to know about bumps and bruises and aches and pains.
00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:11.200
And um, and certainly sometime the adrenaline takes over and things are going well for a kid and they want to keep going, and the gut says, no, this isn't a smart thing to do, we gotta shut it down or make a change or whatever it might be.
00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:16.640
And you know, and again, sometimes I don't do a very good job at times, you know.
00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:21.599
Maybe I should have pulled a guy um and I didn't.
00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:26.319
So keep learning, keep evolving each and every day.
00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:27.680
Yes.
00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:39.440
Well, how do you navigate conversations with your players about their role when they think they should be starting, but you and your coaching staff have different ideas.
00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:56.640
I mean, we do like most others, we do the meetings be before the season, we do the meetings uh during tryouts, and tryouts for us a little misleading because we're not doing a lot of roster reductions with our number these days.
00:21:56.799 --> 00:21:59.599
Um, but we still meet with kids and say, as of today.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.319
This is what we feel your role is.
00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:04.799
It's an open conversation.
00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:23.519
You know, we've told, we tell them at our preseason program meeting with all the kids and all the parents, if there's an issue, certainly talk to us and we'll have a meeting as long as the meeting's about your son and only your son.
00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:28.000
We don't talk about anybody else, and we'll give you an honest answer of what's going on.
00:22:28.079 --> 00:22:31.119
And again, we've been fortunate.
00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:36.559
We certainly have had our meetings here and there, but it's not like that they're lining up at the door.
00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:38.960
And again, I think most of them get it.
00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:41.359
I did hear an interesting one two years ago.
00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:58.079
I haven't implemented it, but one of the best things I've ever heard from a coach at the high school national baseball convention, and he said he tells his parents that you should email me about your kids' playing time if you have a problem.
00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:06.319
And then you should also understand that I take that email and I post it in our clubhouse so that every other player and everybody that comes in our clubhouse can see it.
00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:11.440
And he goes, You'd be amazed at how few emails that I get about playing time.
00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:17.680
And I thought, well, that's a unique and different way to do it, but um a lot of different ways to do it.
00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:22.160
But uh just have open and honest conversation as much as we can.
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:29.200
And um doesn't mean everybody's happy, but um most of the time, if you're good enough, you'll take care of yourself.
00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:34.240
You don't need a coach to take care of you, you'll take care of yourself in your own situation.
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:35.519
Yes.
00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:48.480
Well, what's one behind the scenes thing that you do as a program builder that doesn't show up in the wind column but is critical to your success over the past 40 years?
00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:55.440
Um, you know, coach, I again I try to over-communicate with our guys.
00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:59.839
One of our mission is to teach life lessons through baseball.
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:03.599
Um, I know I've heard that from others as well.
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:18.880
Um every day, no matter if we're working out or whether it's preseason or a game, uh, none of our kids can leave our stadium or or road game without shaking hands with every coach that's there.
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:20.960
And we feel that for a number of reasons.
00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:29.200
It's a life lesson, learning how to shake a hand, look somebody in the eye, and at the same time, um, the kid might be upset.
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:35.680
It gives us an opportunity to leave with a positive uh a message to them or something.
00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:36.799
We do that.
00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:40.240
Um we practice the national anthem.
00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:42.720
Sounds funny, but we do it.
00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:45.119
We teach our JVs, we teach our campers.
00:24:45.200 --> 00:25:00.400
We have third graders that know how to do the national anthem, the Central Catholic baseball way, how we stand, uh, that we pause at the end of the national anthem for two seconds out of respect for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.
00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:03.920
Again, a life lesson um that we try and teach.
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:13.599
And the other thing, I guess, that that I take a lot of pride in is started it in I think 2018, and then COVID really ramped it up.
00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:28.720
But every morning, and I I wish I could say every single morning by eight o'clock, but every morning without fail, since that time, um, I sent a daily message to our players, our coaches, and our support staff.
00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:34.880
And it's just it's something about life, it's a a life lesson.
00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:50.880
Um, it might be time management, it might be about um, you know, pushing yourself 1% better, whatever it might be, but 365 days a week, a year, they get a message from me.
00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:57.519
And my thought is, um, and I know they don't always read it, um, but hold them accountable.
00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:02.079
Last week I was asking guys, hey, what'd the group me message say today?
00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:07.119
And it's amazing how quickly then you know that they went home and read it quickly.
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:16.400
Um, but it gives me an opportunity to share with them every day, and it gives them a chance to think about Central Catholic baseball every single day.
00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:17.839
There's no day off.
00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:20.160
And and I take great pride in that.
00:26:20.319 --> 00:26:24.960
It's something that I hope we can continue doing um as long as I'm around.
00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:41.519
Well, I you know, I when you said 40 years of coaching, I w when I look at you I I I've known you for quite some time, but I would have never guessed you've been doing it for 40 years.
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:48.000
You st you still look really young, and you know, I I gotta ask, do you hate losing or love winning?
00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:50.480
You've you've been around a lot of baseball games.
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:58.559
Um I've used the line many times, hate losing uh more than I enjoy winning.
00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:05.519
And um, you know, I was just fortunate, I was very young, and Central Catholic had an opening.
00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:13.680
I was fortunate to be helping out with um my mentor, my high school coach, Don Cober at Toledo St.
00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:26.000
Francis, and um just finished being the head JV coach my first year, and this job opening came, and I had a couple close people in the community that asked me if I'd be interested and huge rival.
00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:28.000
I never thought I'd leave Toledo St.
00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:33.279
Francis, but when the opportunity came and I got to interview, I did it.
00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:35.680
Um they were very reluctant.
00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:41.359
In fact, they gave me a our athletic director at the time, Coach Bill Axe, who's a dear friend.
00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:50.160
He told me as he was starting his new role as AD, he said, Coach, we're hiring you, but just so you know, we're giving you a babysitter.
00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:57.599
And the babysitter is an assistant football coach, and he has no idea about anything with baseball.
00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:00.799
But the administration wants somebody there with you.
00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:15.680
And I said, Great, and it was Tom Deplinsky, um, great friends with uh the late Dave Starling, and Coach Dupe and I formed a great relationship, and um it's just something that I've loved.
00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:21.119
I've been I've loved Central Catholic, and I I couldn't see myself wearing any other uniform.
00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:41.839
You also serve on the state board for here in Ohio, and Ohio is known around the country as one of the best uh state associations and the biggest top top three probably attended uh events when it comes to state clinics.
00:28:43.119 --> 00:29:06.559
Talk about your role doing that throughout the years and how that is uh making you uh uh want a better coach, but you know, you get a chance to to go out there and you even do a you know, you've even uh done podcasts for the OHSBCA and uh talk about that a little bit.
00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:28.960
You know, I um I give credit to Coach Cober again for pushing me to go to my first clinic back in uh 86 by myself, didn't know a soul, and then Mike O'Reilly, formerly of Sylvania South, you got me involved like you were in Team Ohio with the Sun Bell Classic.
00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:34.079
And um, and one thing led to another, and I think it was 1999.
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