Transcript
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Hey on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, you'll discover what it's like to get your first shot at being the head coach after 11 years of being an assistant.
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Do you change everything and put your stamp on it?
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Or try to keep the success train rolling at Hilliard Darby High School in Ohio with Andrew Osbold.
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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.
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With your host, Coach Ken Carpenter.
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Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter.
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And as always, thanks again for tuning in for another show.
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I'm excited to have today's guest on, Andrew Osbolt, who is the new head coach at Hilliard Darby High School.
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But I got one quick ask for you.
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If you get a chance, take the time to uh hit that subscribe button, maybe tell a friend about us to check out the show.
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Leave us a review if you get an opportunity.
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But I have to let you know, next week I'm working on a guest that if I can get him, he's gonna be incredible.
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It's this time of the year when it's the dead of winter and everybody's kind of hoping to uh just get away from the weather and just sit back and listen to uh baseball stories.
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If I can get the guest that I'm working on right now, he's going to be able to share some of the best baseball stories from professional major league baseball that you'll ever hear.
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I don't want to release the name yet because it's not a done deal, but I'm really excited.
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So uh please stick with me.
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Before we do that, let's get into today's guest.
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And I'm really excited to have you hear from this uh young coach because the whole point of my podcast is to try to get the best possible guests I can get for the show, and they don't have to be just head coaches, they can be assistant coaches, first-year head coaches like today's head coach, but they always have something great to share.
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And before I go any further, let's just jump right into it.
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Andrew Osbold, head baseball coach at Hilliard Derby High School.
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Coach, thanks for taking the time to be on baseball coaches unplugged.
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Uh thanks for having me.
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I'm looking forward to it.
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I gotta start off with we talked prior to the show that you know you did it for 11 years.
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And after 11 years as an assistant, a JV coach at Hilliard Derby, bam, you finally get your shot.
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How excited were your players and what was that message in that first team meeting like?
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Uh players were excited.
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Um just um, you know, Chris Chris didn't tell until he told the varsity players only after uh players only meeting after we lost in the tournament.
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Um we were in a situation where not only Coach Fugit was stepping down, but unfortunately we lost a lot of other coaches for a variety of reasons.
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Uh Matt Gilkerson was with the with us for like eight years.
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Exciting stuff that both his kids are playing at Wright State.
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Uh Cooper graduated last year to go to Wright State.
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So the writing on the wall that he was done.
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Uh other coaches had some job changes or some kids.
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So a lot of a lot of coaches were leaving.
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So as sad as we were that Coach Fugit was stepping down.
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Um he let the players know that I'd be running running the program until things were solidified as the next coach.
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Um, but just to have some familiarity, uh, things we do with Derby baseball is great.
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I don't need to reinvent the wheel.
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Like if it if Coach Fugit would come back to a practice, he'd be I think he could take over because a lot, a lot's gonna be the same.
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So based on the success we've had, the historic we've had a really good past decade um trying to just to maintain what he built.
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So I think the players are excited in that sense.
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Yes, and and what Coach Fuga did there is uh been incredible.
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He's done a phenomenal job as a coach, and you know, I'm sure he's uh I got a chance to sit down and watch an Ohio Wesleyan University baseball game with him, and uh, I'm sure he's gonna enjoy that retirement.
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Yeah, he but he doesn't know what he's gonna do yet, so he's he's got some options, and uh I hope he can find something that keeps him sane.
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Yeah, there you go.
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Well, you know, I gotta ask, what's the biggest difference you've noticed between being an assistant for all this time and now you're in the head coach, and I know we're in the early stages, it's it's December, but head coach, it's a totally different animal.
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Yeah, I'd say um Chris Fuga did a great job of giving autonomy over some stuff.
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So running portions of practice or leading leading the players, like it wasn't he didn't do everything.
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He was very good at delegating.
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So I feel comfortable in that role.
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Um, I'd see that the biggest change is just all the behind the scenes stuff.
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Um just just like we're we're in the middle of planning the spring trip where I've been fortunate enough where Coach Figan tells me what time we're getting on the bus and then what time we're getting back, and then what happens in between is just baseball stuff.
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So to plan out all the Medusa stuff of like what are what are we gonna eat, where are we staying, stuff like that.
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That that's just the stuff that I didn't have to do in years past.
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Yes, definitely.
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And and I'm sure all the paperwork that comes with being a coach, you you almost feel like an uh administrative assistant in a lot of ways because the paperwork and the training and the ex patient expectations from the state of Ohio on what it takes to just be a head coach can be very challenging.
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Yeah.
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Um yeah, kind of what I was mentioned before.
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We have a lot of new coaches on staff, which I'm excited about, but it's a lot of the paperwork just to get rolling at Darby, is it is a lot.
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Yeah.
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Well, during your 11 years as an assistant coach, what were some of the key lessons or philosophies you absorbed that you're definitely going to bring into your program as the new head coach at Darby?
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Uh Coach Fuga just had a standard, and the standard was the standard.
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And um, in a positive way, his teams are always disciplined.
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Where when we were running a special type of defensive situation, the players knew where to be and how to execute it.
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Um, being disciplined, and yeah, we want to be able to drive the ball and go gap to gap, but we got to be able to execute small ball.
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Um, players arriving early on time, being there is important.
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So just a lot of foundational things where you got to meet this standard if you want to be a part of the program, where Coach Fugit never really flinched from that.
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And you can say, why did Darby baseball have all the success?
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Yes, we we've been blessed with tremendous players and and families that make their kids great, but Coach Fugit and his in his system was really able to elevate those players.
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So that's that's kind of the same some of the stuff that I still want to maintain and hopefully even grow where we can have continued success.
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Well, we've been talking about Chris Fugit, and he was a uh former guest here on the uh baseball coaches unplugged podcast.
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He's uh he's a friend and uh quite honestly funny as hell.
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And uh, you know, he um you know, he he's a hall of fame baseball coach here at the state of Ohio.
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And um talk about taking over for someone that of that stature and the unique challenges, and how are you approaching the transition while honoring the program's legacy?
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Uh yeah, if if if I try to walk in and be Chris Fugiting Pill of T, I I I would crumble.
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Um, I think that's true for any coach.
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Uh, if you feel if you feel the if you're filling shoes of a very successful coach that came before you, yeah, there's stuff you want to keep, but you still got to be yourself.
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So um we're not reinventing the wheel, but I gotta authentically be me.
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Um so there's little changes here and there.
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Um but it's nice because he he he is still in the building, so I can seek advice from him wherever I need to.
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Um, but just doing little things different here and there, that's kind of kind of the direction I'm taking it.
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Well, you're you're in a situation, you know, Hilliard Darby is one of the big suburban schools here in central Ohio.
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And um and it's also probably one of the rare schools, suburban schools, I should say, that doesn't have a turf infield or an entire turf field.
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And um you know Chris, I always remember from him, he his field was immaculate.
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He took care of that daggone place.
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And uh you know back, you know, I I never had the the the uh the benefit of having a turf field and um so you know that that just adds to more to your plate and um how how do you um are you a guy that would say, hey, wow, we would like to get a little bit of turf on the field just because one spring in Ohio is brutal, you just never know what you're gonna get day to day.
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And or are you kind of one of those old school guys, hey, dirt and grass, let's get going.
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Uh if if if we got unlimit unlimited time, uh yeah, you can't beat natural surface, you know.
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Um yeah, I I I feel comfortable maintaining it.
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Um, you know, you roll it, you edge it, you drag it, leaf rake it.
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Um, me and Fugs would argue about where do you stand when you leaf rake the dirt back into the dirt.
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He says you stand on the grass.
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I said I went to the Clippers game, and I know you stand on the dirt when you leaf rake the dirt back into the dirt, but um in terms of turf, um, I do think it's uh it's a competitive advantage for sure.
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Um playing on turf's great, but it's really just the opportunity to routinely practice outdoors in all kinds of conditions, you know.
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Uh I think that's where you gain the the biggest thing.
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Uh, you know, it it rains from it downpours from eight to twelve.
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You're probably not practicing outside if you have a natural surface.
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If you have turf, you're able to practice.
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And we me and Fuse could even talk if it's 30 degrees out, yeah.
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Technically, you're not playing games in that weather, but there's no you could easily go do 30 minutes of ground balls and fly balls outside if you have turf.
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The the ground's just frozen and too mushy too often in in in early March.
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Um and then I think it just helps development where if you have unlimited time, I have no problem uh taking care of a field, but then you want to you want to give younger levels an opportunity to play on a great surface where you just don't have the time to maintain the fields and unlock it and make sure everything's cleaned up all the time.
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So I think I think it just builds the community uh from top to bottom.
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When you have a turf, it's gonna be an epicenter where uh just not a varsity team is playing, but the whole community has access to.
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And um there's been other programs where we're playing there, and then I see a I see post-game you got you got the community out on the turf too, utilizing it and getting better.
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So I think there's competitive advantages just giving your players a place to play because practicing in small in small spaces like a field house or any facility is great, you can accomplish this stuff, but throwing across the diamond, you can't replicate that anywhere else except on a diamond.
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Right.
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Totally agree with you.
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And you know, being a guy here that that looks around at some of the things and some of the uh the money that's being put into some of these schools with turf, not just baseball fields, but you know, I I'm I'm seeing them put in uh turf hundred-yard practice football fields for football teams when they got a turf football field, plus they have grass in the event that they have to have a game where they play somebody on grass.
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And I you know, I I really think that baseball is the one sport.
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Baseball, you can throw softball in there, but those two could really you benefit, and it would be better for the student athlete to have turf as an option.
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Would you agree?
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Yeah, I would agree, but at the same time, like you the grass isn't greener on the other side always necessarily.
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Like, we got what we got in Hilliard.
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Uh, we've been able to make it work.
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Um, we've been blessed where we just got a new freestanding weight room.
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Um, we have a hitting facility.
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We do, yeah, it's not turf, but I think we do have the best natural surface in central Ohio, maybe the state of Ohio.
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Uh haven't messed up the field too much in a couple months that I've been in charge.
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But uh yeah, some teams have turf, but no hitting facilities.
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Some teams have turf, but they don't have field house access when it's when it's two degrees out.
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So I'm I'm happy with what we got.
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Um, yeah, we can explore ways to make things better in the future, but uh I I think I think we're blessed to be here in Hilliard.
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Yes.
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Well, let me ask you this.
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You you just mentioned having an indoor facility.
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Um how much of an advantage do you feel like that is for your team?
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And um do you really take take me kind of through a what it's like for you in the wintertime for your team as far as workouts?
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Yeah.
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Um again, Chris Fuga, and it was actually kind of convenient.
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It's right before I came to the program, they got the hitting facility erected, so I didn't have to do any work, and I kind of walked into that.
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Um it's just nice because I'm a big fan of other sports here at Darby, obviously, but the field house time is very limited during the winter.
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So to be able to have groups, hitting groups in the winter, cycle kids in and out over 40 minute spans, that's huge.
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Um it was fun money was fundraised and donated by the Darby Diamond Club.
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Um, we've been able to continually fundraise and we're always making ways to make that better.
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We have hack attacks, hit tracks, obviously teas and screens and the the expenses add up in there, uh net just nets and other items.
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You know, we're adding we've been slowly, it used to be purely a hitting facility, but with how things have evolved in just baseball, where there's more of these gadget and gizmos for pitching, where we've been able to add spaces for J-bands, plyos, other other pitching specific workouts.
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So um kind of in my full vision is that it just it's just used routinely by players.
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Um, even on the off days, there's always stuff for me to do in terms of baseball.
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So, you know, we might have hitting groups these days, but the other days I have it open for them just to get even more swings in.
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So it it's used a lot.
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And we we we can hit, we have we can make five small tunnels in there, we can go full full two tunnels.
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Um there's there's unlimited options on what we can do.
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We can we can do most baseball specific things other than team defense and outfield drills in there.
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Right, that makes sense, and that's to me, I think it's a huge advantage when you get a chance to do that and when coaches are creative, like what you're saying.
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Now, let me ask you with um uh I I was always a big observer of uh the opposing, uh not only the opposing team, but the opposing coaches.
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And you know, you've done it for 11 years.
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Were there things you observed as a coach that when you when you looked at it, you're like I'm gonna do that with my team when I get to be a head coach one day.
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And those are some things right there, hey, I'll never do with my team.
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Uh yeah, so people would always make fun of fugues.
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Uh fuguet was friends with basically every coach, and they knew he was gonna bunt and they knew he was gonna steal.
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Um as a as a varsity coach, I've been blessed to compete in district championships and regional matchups.
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And as an as a JV coach, I scouted and I've even scouted a state semifinal game.
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Uh the really good teams bunt and steal.
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So that's just something like you can say, well, why does Darby Bunt and steal well?
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I don't know who's gonna play in the state championship game this year, but I guarantee the team that wins is probably gonna bunt at least once.
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So that that kind of stuff.
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Um terms of negative things.
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You know, we I don't I'm I'm not necessarily sure if I witnessed too much of that.
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Um just because Darby's a good program and we primarily play other good programs where you know I think I think most most of our opponents have have know their stuff and do their stuff where yeah, the the the really good teams are gonna be good at executing, but nothing they do is gonna surprise us.
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Well, one of the most important jobs you have when taking over a new program like this is uh putting together your coaching staff.
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And um what what do you what do you look for?
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Because you you mentioned earlier a lot of coaches uh have moved on.
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What do you look for when you're you're putting together your coaching staff?
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Um so the just some big things is guys that are committed, guys that are baseball guys, guys you can rely on, guys that can make connections with play.
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Players.
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I think that's huge.
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You know, what are their personal accolades as a player?
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I don't yeah, that's cool to say you did X, Y, and Z, but can you can you get the players to buy in what you're coaching?
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Can you get them excited to be at practice?
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Can you help develop their skills?
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Um, and then we we we have breaks and time off, but a lot of this we have stuff in the summer, we have stuff in the fall, we have stuff in the winter.
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Like it's a year-round gig.
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So can you be committed and make it to it?
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So um if push came to shove, I could I could like be a pitching coach.
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I've never been in that role before.
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Uh that was my biggest, that was my biggest target is can I find a pitching coach to replace Coach Fugit?
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He pitched at bowling green.
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Um, he's developed countless number ones over the year.
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He sees that pitchers with 10 and 0 records with sub one ERAs and go pitch at Purdue, go do this, go do that, Miami.
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Um, so I was able to find Travis Cross with uh pitching one he did pitch in college.
00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:07.279
He has really good personal accolades as a player, but then he also has varsity experience.
00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:11.839
So to find a pitching coach that knows his stuff with experience, that's huge.
00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:16.720
Um other things is just Colin Seeley was high on my radar.
00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:23.039
Um he came to he's had varsity experience, and then he's recently started teaching in the district.
00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:26.400
So by the time that was on our radar last year, I think it was a little bit too late.
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:32.079
I think we had a staff full and he was already at Marysville, but um getting to come coach with us that was huge.
00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:33.359
He's a big baseball guy.
00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:41.759
Had a couple returning coaches that I was excited about to uh elevate their roles, but then just just just finding baseball guys.
00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:50.480
Uh one of my other coaches, uh nurse out of Ohio State, just looking to get in the game, but really solid dude, really excited about what he has to offer.
00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:56.319
And then I'm excited that I found a student teacher uh that's willing to coach too.
00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:03.599
So somebody that wants to also teach math, and then you know, he's a young guy that hopefully years to come, he can be in the program.
00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:07.039
So just I'm just trying to find as much high-quality dudes.
00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:17.599
I guess one thing I going back to your previous questions is just like I've noticed that good teams have an army of coaches that all seem like great dudes and just willing to work.
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:19.519
Yes, definitely.
00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:29.279
And I think, and if you can have those guys all get along and have fun together, man, that's even better because that that that's critical, I think, in in my opinion.
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:43.039
But I wanted to ask you here looking ahead to your first season here, what does success look like for the overall program at Hilliard Derby in 2026?
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:50.480
Um there's not a game on the schedule that I think we're gonna show up and can't win.
00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:57.680
I think we can win all 27 games, but out of those 27 games, there's not a game we're gonna show up and we're gonna win just because we're better.
00:22:57.839 --> 00:22:59.680
So, what does the record look like?
00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:01.119
I'm not necessarily sure.
00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:02.880
That's not high on my radar.
00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:09.680
I really I really like the talent we have and the pieces we have and and the different combinations of lineups we can put out there.
00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:14.880
Um, if there's a high stakes championship game today, I wouldn't be excited about it.
00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:21.279
But then what success is gonna look like for me is it can I get my guys to show up and get better every single day?
00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:27.279
Um it's exciting in the sense that Olin Tanji won the state championship and we get to play them three times.
00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:29.359
Berlin, Berlin's gonna be right there.
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:31.039
They were in the final four a couple years ago.
00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:32.400
We get to play them three times.
00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:33.599
We got Liberty.
00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:36.079
Uh Thomas won a district title.
00:23:36.160 --> 00:23:36.880
We got them three times.
00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:41.839
Marysville's our league stacked, Jerome's gonna be better, they're bringing them back a lot of players.
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:46.720
Um, our non-conference is just filled with pretty good, pretty solid teams as well.
00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:52.000
So, my main what a success looks like to me is baseball is a humbling sport.
00:23:52.160 --> 00:24:01.599
Uh, I hope I'm wrong, but there's gonna be times where we probably feel pretty humbled this year, where can we just show up the next day even more enthusiastic and ready to go and ready for another battle?
00:24:01.759 --> 00:24:09.759
And then if we can buy into getting better every day, uh not taking the lows too lows and be ready to accept any challenge.
00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:13.200
I really like our chances come late May and early June.
00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.079
Hate losing or love winning?
00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:17.440
Both.
00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:19.680
Uh, can't stand I can't stand to lose.
00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:20.480
I hate it.
00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:32.000
Um I always like, don't get me wrong, I I can identify who good teams are with filled with good players, but I truly I truly believe we can beat anybody.
00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:38.880
Um and then I'm I guess I would say I'm wise enough to always enjoy little little victories.