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Big Stu-ey: New England Regional Champs (w/ Ernie Greywacz) · Stugotz and Company

0:21
Speaker 1: It is odd on a day that we're going to
0:22
Speaker 1: speak to Ryan Day. The coach I am most excited
0:25
Speaker 1: to speak to you today is Ernie Gray Watts. He
0:29
Speaker 1: is the coach of mikey A's son little league team,
0:32
Speaker 1: his son's little league team that won the New England
0:35
Speaker 1: state champion what'd you win, Ernie?
0:36
Speaker 2: You have a banner behind you. What did you guys win?
0:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, we took home the New England regional championship, so
0:44
Speaker 3: we were able to compete at the district level. I
0:47
Speaker 3: took that sectional level, state level best in Connecticut, and
0:51
Speaker 3: then we went up to Cranston, Rhode Island for a
0:54
Speaker 3: phenomenal tournament. Thanks thank you to Kranston for hosting, and
0:59
Speaker 3: took home beating the regional championship, beating Vermont.
1:03
Speaker 4: It was it was a great run at the boys
1:04
Speaker 4: should be real proud of.
1:05
Speaker 1: Had you become manager of this team of this Juggernauts.
1:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, Juggernauts. Well, I've been part of the program for
1:13
Speaker 3: a while. You know, my kids played young and growing up,
1:15
Speaker 3: and you know, my wife and I have been coaches
1:18
Speaker 3: together for a long time, and we coached together through
1:22
Speaker 3: you know, eights nines and then went through an in
1:25
Speaker 3: depth meeting process and they selected me, thankfully to be
1:29
Speaker 3: the manager of Trumbull eight to ten.
1:31
Speaker 2: You wow, coach.
1:33
Speaker 5: When I was talking to mikeya before, he was saying,
1:36
Speaker 5: I was telling him to win at this little league level,
1:38
Speaker 5: you need some horses on the mound, and Mike, he said,
1:41
Speaker 5: don't worry, we got plenty, and obviously you do to
1:44
Speaker 5: win this title. If what was the scouting report on
1:47
Speaker 5: this team to be this dumb it?
1:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, we had some kids.
1:53
Speaker 3: I don't want to name individual names because it was
1:55
Speaker 3: a collective effort, right, So, yes, that's something that's important
1:58
Speaker 3: to the model. But we had some horses on the
2:00
Speaker 3: mound that threw hard, came in real tough situations. I'll
2:05
Speaker 3: mention the Simsbury game. The entire town of Simsbury was there.
2:09
Speaker 3: It was absolutely nuts.
2:11
Speaker 4: It was loud.
2:11
Speaker 3: It's something the boys have never experienced before, especially in
2:14
Speaker 3: the game of baseball when it's typically not as rowdy.
2:18
Speaker 4: But they pulled through.
2:19
Speaker 3: You know, one of our pitchers came off the mound
2:21
Speaker 3: flexing at the fans that were there cheering against us.
2:25
Speaker 2: I love it.
2:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, they competed at high level.
2:28
Speaker 6: Many coach, I want to go back to you coaching
2:32
Speaker 6: with super fan Lauren, your wife. Now, I obviously have
2:37
Speaker 6: been around and I've tried to explain to these guys
2:41
Speaker 6: what Lauren is like, and I can't really do it justice,
2:46
Speaker 6: but I want to know how you guys started coaching together.
2:48
Speaker 6: Was that you guys just rolled over one day. We're like, hey,
2:51
Speaker 6: you want to go coach a team together?
2:52
Speaker 2: The Danger Game? Nie? I mean, geez, yeah, you know
2:56
Speaker 2: there are better date nights.
2:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, nights.
2:59
Speaker 3: Are talking about sports. And she is way more competitive
3:02
Speaker 3: than I will ever be. So when I met her,
3:07
Speaker 3: she played softball growing up and came from the Midwest,
3:10
Speaker 3: which I was like, ooh, Midwest ball is a lot
3:12
Speaker 3: different than East Coast ball. But she ended up starting
3:15
Speaker 3: to coach at Richfield High School and she asked me
3:19
Speaker 3: if I wanted to be her assistant. Did that, and
3:22
Speaker 3: it was off to the races and we clicked. You know,
3:24
Speaker 3: she has her realm outfield. I took the infield. We
3:28
Speaker 3: both worked on hitting together, and we helped build that program.
3:32
Speaker 3: I had to obviously make money and work, and coaching
3:35
Speaker 3: high school just didn't do it.
3:37
Speaker 4: So I ended up.
3:38
Speaker 3: Having to leave that after coach with her six years,
3:40
Speaker 3: and then we just got into it with Little League
3:42
Speaker 3: and said, let's go get it.
3:43
Speaker 4: Let's create a.
3:44
Speaker 3: Team that can you know, accomplish anything whatever is in
3:48
Speaker 3: front of them. Let's teach them the fundamentals. And that's
3:52
Speaker 3: really what it went off to. But I promise you
3:55
Speaker 3: there have been countless arguments in our kitchen going to
4:00
Speaker 3: bed about who should be playing where and so forth.
4:03
Speaker 2: And who wins those arguments? Yes, every one of them.
4:06
Speaker 1: Right.
4:06
Speaker 2: Yes she's undefeated.
4:07
Speaker 4: Yes she's very fat based personality, so I know if
4:10
Speaker 4: she's arguing.
4:10
Speaker 2: Eyeball coach.
4:12
Speaker 5: I'm a I'm a massive Yankee fan. I live and
4:15
Speaker 5: die with every pitch that the Yankees play. I've actually
4:17
Speaker 5: got you on my short list of guys to replace
4:20
Speaker 5: Aaron Boone after after this title, What would you do
4:23
Speaker 5: differently if you were the Yankee manager? Maybe try to
4:25
Speaker 5: get this offense going the Yankees. I mean, he's offensive.
4:29
Speaker 1: Guy, right, I know I want to talk about I
4:30
Speaker 1: want to talk about his wife.
4:33
Speaker 3: I'm a defensive guy. You'd have to talk to my
4:35
Speaker 3: assistant coach, Kevin Paskins. He has all the analytics and
4:39
Speaker 3: he calls pitches. He was phenomenal also Mike Mooney too.
4:45
Speaker 3: You know, Mike Mooney probably threw thousands and thousands of
4:49
Speaker 3: pitches to these boys. He probably has no arm left,
4:52
Speaker 3: so he is gonna ice up for next season.
4:55
Speaker 2: I mean, jesus, how many people do you have on
4:57
Speaker 2: the staff? I mean it's a little league team.
5:00
Speaker 3: Hey, A great program starts with great staff. That's what
5:03
Speaker 3: it comes down to. Yea, So there's four of us.
5:05
Speaker 3: You know, there's three main coaches. Unfortunately I can only
5:08
Speaker 3: have three, Otherwise I'd have coach Laurena on.
5:10
Speaker 4: But she's our X factor. Man. She's at every practice
5:12
Speaker 4: grinding these kids.
5:14
Speaker 3: Not only does she have that motherly instinct, but she
5:17
Speaker 3: also lays the law when they're not doing something right
5:19
Speaker 3: and is not afraid to say things to help them
5:22
Speaker 3: grow as athletes and individuals.
5:23
Speaker 2: So, Ernie, every managers.
5:25
Speaker 1: You know, every coach is a different way of dealing
5:27
Speaker 1: with egos within the team, and so I'm wondering, how
5:30
Speaker 1: do you deal with egos specifically mikey A's.
5:36
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something about Mikeya. When Nicholas was
5:41
Speaker 3: selected for the team, I knew we had a big voice.
5:44
Speaker 3: I didn't know how loud Mike could actually be.
5:48
Speaker 4: All right. And in our first game, I hear out of.
5:50
Speaker 3: Nowhere, let's go Nicholas, and it just echoes throughout Unity
5:54
Speaker 3: Park and the boys adopted that, which was really cool.
6:00
Speaker 3: In the dugout, they would when Nick comes up, you say,
6:03
Speaker 3: let's go Nicholas, and then he would repeat it back
6:06
Speaker 3: in the outfield. It was a really cool thing to see.
6:08
Speaker 3: But my favorite experience was when we were in the
6:11
Speaker 3: regional tournament. All of a sudden, I hear this stomping
6:14
Speaker 3: in the stands and I look over and it's big Mic.
6:17
Speaker 3: You got to pump it up. You got to a
6:19
Speaker 3: pump And I was like, I didn't know you could.
6:21
Speaker 2: Move like he was a party starter.
6:22
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, or or I feel like dancing there countless countless,
6:35
Speaker 3: And I'm like, this is the energy that we needed.
6:37
Speaker 1: Wait, when you guys won, was there a single kid
6:40
Speaker 1: on the team happier than mikey Yan when you won
6:42
Speaker 1: this thing?
6:44
Speaker 3: Not a single person, big old jolly cheeks, red sheets.
6:49
Speaker 3: He was pumped just like he is right now.
6:50
Speaker 4: Look at him.
6:52
Speaker 2: So Stu.
6:53
Speaker 6: We had we had a banquet at the regional tournament
6:56
Speaker 6: and there was a DJ and I I started doing
6:59
Speaker 6: my thing. I started dancing, and the boys thought it
7:01
Speaker 6: was the coolest thing ever, because you don't expect all
7:05
Speaker 6: this to move the way it does. And I told
7:07
Speaker 6: all of them that if they hit a double or better,
7:10
Speaker 6: if they were on second base, I would dance in
7:13
Speaker 6: the stands. So every time a big situation came up,
7:15
Speaker 6: I would yell at the boys, I feel like dancing.
7:18
Speaker 2: I feel like dancing.
7:21
Speaker 1: So wait, how many kids, how many doubles in the game,
7:24
Speaker 1: how many kids got to second base?
7:26
Speaker 2: How many times did you dance? I regretted.
7:35
Speaker 4: He was moving, definitely moving, burning those calories.
7:38
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, listen, I gotta be honest with you
7:41
Speaker 1: doing this thing with your wife, having her as an assistant.
7:44
Speaker 2: I'm certain she thinks she's in charge, and she is.
7:47
Speaker 1: I coached at one point, I did it to get
7:49
Speaker 1: away from my wife, like.
7:51
Speaker 2: I'm not certain what you're thinking to here, man, what
7:53
Speaker 2: are you doing?
7:55
Speaker 3: You know, we have a connection that's extremely strong. You know,
7:58
Speaker 3: people ask like, ever separate, and we're like, no, we
8:01
Speaker 3: love the same things.
8:02
Speaker 4: We're in this. We have the same mindset, which helps us.
8:05
Speaker 3: Now that again, we have our tantrums, right, we get
8:08
Speaker 3: back and forth, we go at each other, she again
8:10
Speaker 3: always wins, but it's you got to see her doing
8:14
Speaker 3: the book because she's not allowed in the dug out.
8:16
Speaker 3: So if she's doing the book, her hand is literally shaking, like, oh,
8:20
Speaker 3: we need to do this. I'm like, you can't talk
8:22
Speaker 3: to me. I'm coaching. And at the end she will
8:26
Speaker 3: definitely bring up every single.
8:28
Speaker 4: Thing I mess. You should have sent them there, you
8:29
Speaker 4: shouldn't have stolen home here, you ended the ending early.
8:32
Speaker 4: So I use that as as experience as well and learnings.
8:36
Speaker 3: But she's a phenomenal coach, so I'd be dumb for
8:39
Speaker 3: me not to listen.
8:51
Speaker 6: All right, coach, Now I've got you sort of on
8:54
Speaker 6: this hot seat, so I have to ask about some
8:56
Speaker 6: of your sayings. You have some of the most original
9:00
Speaker 6: and unoriginal sayings, but I don't know how they came
9:04
Speaker 6: to be, because all of a sudden, I find myself
9:07
Speaker 6: writing all these go team posts on Facebook or Twitter
9:10
Speaker 6: or whatever, and I don't even know what I'm writing.
9:13
Speaker 6: I just know that it's the message that we're sending,
9:16
Speaker 6: whether it be can't do one without two twelve pillars.
9:19
Speaker 6: So can you go through some of these things you
9:21
Speaker 6: have and how they came to be?
9:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
9:25
Speaker 3: My favorite by far is you can't go number two
9:27
Speaker 3: without number one. The whole idea is that in order
9:30
Speaker 3: for you to throw the ball, you have to have
9:31
Speaker 3: the ball in your glove first, right, So it's something
9:33
Speaker 3: they're ten years old, So how do I correlate it
9:36
Speaker 3: to something that is funny in our realm? But they
9:39
Speaker 3: look at it as a serious thing and it's factually correct, right,
9:42
Speaker 3: So it's a little bit of having fun. And it's
9:45
Speaker 3: also like coming off the rift. You know, we were
9:49
Speaker 3: in the what game was it? I think it was, yeah,
9:52
Speaker 3: the state tournament. I think we're playing Simsbury as well,
9:54
Speaker 3: and someone had a tough play or tough warm up.
9:57
Speaker 3: I forget the situation. So I'm in there in a huddle.
9:59
Speaker 3: I'm like, you know what you guys are, You're like
10:01
Speaker 3: a bridge. A bridge is built with twelve pillars. I'm
10:05
Speaker 3: just rifting off the cuff cuff, right, I'm like, is
10:07
Speaker 3: it is it? I don't know, depending on the suspension bridge,
10:12
Speaker 3: but I just dove into it, just came up out
10:14
Speaker 3: of nowhere. And that's been the slogan since. You know,
10:18
Speaker 3: if one pillar goes down, right, pillars have to hold
10:20
Speaker 3: the rest of that bridge up so that you work together.
10:22
Speaker 4: As a team. And that's been the motto. That's been
10:25
Speaker 4: the motto through through all of it. Another one is
10:28
Speaker 4: click click click, that's our celebration.
10:30
Speaker 3: And again off the cuff, I was like a game's
10:33
Speaker 3: like a roller coaster, right, you got to click all
10:35
Speaker 3: the way to the top, and you have to do
10:36
Speaker 3: all these little things right.
10:38
Speaker 4: You have to work for that great ride at the end,
10:40
Speaker 4: which is a victory.
10:41
Speaker 3: So those things, you know, you try to instill in
10:44
Speaker 3: them and some of them look at you with cross
10:46
Speaker 3: eyed and don't understand it, and the others are like,
10:49
Speaker 3: oh it makes sense, but does it?
10:50
Speaker 2: I don't know, But what they're ten years old.
10:53
Speaker 4: I mean, it's all about buying.
10:56
Speaker 3: It's all about buying into something right, the culture and
10:58
Speaker 3: so forth.
10:59
Speaker 4: So you know, it's just making up as we go along.
11:01
Speaker 4: For the most part.
11:02
Speaker 1: You're a regular yogi bera, you know. I mean, you
11:07
Speaker 1: can't go what is it? You can't go one without two?
11:10
Speaker 1: Is that what it is?
11:11
Speaker 4: You can't go number two without one? We all know
11:13
Speaker 4: what we're talking.
11:14
Speaker 1: Everyone can go number one without two, yes, but you
11:16
Speaker 1: can't go too without one?
11:17
Speaker 2: That is correct? You are right, Ernie I'm sorry, he
11:21
Speaker 2: and poop.
11:22
Speaker 1: Yes, when you pie chart, because I'm certain you've done
11:27
Speaker 1: this kind of who deserves the most credit for you
11:31
Speaker 1: guys winning this thing?
11:32
Speaker 2: What percentage do you give yourself.
11:37
Speaker 4: Six pc?
11:38
Speaker 2: Really? And your wife gets the other ninety four? I mean,
11:41
Speaker 2: how does that now?
11:42
Speaker 4: The team gets Oh you're talking about coaching wise?
11:45
Speaker 1: Yeah?
11:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well listen, they're the players. You know. There's your wife,
11:48
Speaker 2: there's you, there's the.
11:50
Speaker 1: Guy who Mikey who threw his arm out because he
11:52
Speaker 1: threw thousands of pitches to the kids. I mean, there's
11:55
Speaker 1: Mikey a dancing in the stands. When you pie chart
11:58
Speaker 1: In terms of who deserves the most amount of credit
12:01
Speaker 1: for you guys winning this thing?
12:03
Speaker 2: How you give yourself six percent? That's it? I'd give
12:05
Speaker 2: myself one hundred percent if I were you.
12:08
Speaker 3: No, I give it to the kids. Many they're the
12:11
Speaker 3: ones that bought in. They grinded every single day and
12:14
Speaker 3: we held them to a standard. You know, we're not
12:16
Speaker 3: here to be average. You're here to be the best
12:19
Speaker 3: that you possibly can be, and we're going to coach
12:20
Speaker 3: you that way. And they bought into that. You know,
12:23
Speaker 3: it's I would say twenty five percent coaching twenty five
12:27
Speaker 3: percent fans are we had some of the best fans,
12:29
Speaker 3: loudest fans in the region. And then the rest goes
12:32
Speaker 3: to the kids and what they have done. So they
12:35
Speaker 3: should be extremely proud of themselves as they've done something
12:37
Speaker 3: that hasn't been done very often.
12:39
Speaker 6: If you were going to pie chart that twenty five
12:41
Speaker 6: percent of fans, how much of that pie chart comes
12:44
Speaker 6: comes this way?
12:45
Speaker 2: All twenty you.
12:46
Speaker 4: Probably get I don't know, sixteen percent.
12:50
Speaker 2: I mean the other fans are gonna feel you just
12:52
Speaker 2: what are you doing there? Man? How do you deal
12:54
Speaker 2: with parents? How do you deal with parents?
12:56
Speaker 4: They're stroking my ego?
12:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, he is. How do you deal with parents
12:59
Speaker 2: who camp about playing ton? What do you do? They
13:02
Speaker 2: don't They don't really, they did not really.
13:05
Speaker 4: We set up when we created this team.
13:07
Speaker 3: Every person had a role on the team, and that
13:09
Speaker 3: was fair clearly designed and planned out prior to the
13:14
Speaker 3: even the season even starting. You know, some things changes,
13:17
Speaker 3: roles and hitting schemes change, but I don't think there
13:22
Speaker 3: was not one complaint from any single parent to say, hey,
13:26
Speaker 3: my kid needs to play more.
13:28
Speaker 4: Every person had a role. Everyone knew explicitly what their
13:31
Speaker 4: role was.
13:32
Speaker 3: And what I think everyone learned is that when you
13:35
Speaker 3: execute that role, great things can happen.
13:37
Speaker 1: Plus you're winning, you could just say, look at the results.
13:40
Speaker 3: You know, it's always easier when you're winning. That's true,
13:44
Speaker 3: very true. You know, it could be a completely different
13:47
Speaker 3: story if we were losing. But we did lose a
13:49
Speaker 3: couple of times. Those are great lessons to learn. You
13:51
Speaker 3: learn more from losing than you do winning.
13:53
Speaker 6: Coach if I'm sure you remember, but you've had a
13:56
Speaker 6: lot of drinks since then. But we were we we
14:00
Speaker 6: had just won the state title and we were sitting
14:02
Speaker 6: around discussing how we were going to go to Cranston
14:07
Speaker 6: and you guys were talking about pitching matchups and it
14:12
Speaker 6: was you. I was sitting with you and the other coaches,
14:14
Speaker 6: and you turned and you said, what do you think?
14:16
Speaker 6: And I said, I said, I think you have won
14:19
Speaker 6: state champions in my opinion, mean absolutely nothing. And you
14:21
Speaker 6: kind of gave me a that's right, that's the right answer.
14:24
Speaker 2: Thank you.
14:27
Speaker 4: It was.
14:29
Speaker 3: It was a perfect answer. You know, I may have
14:31
Speaker 3: heard too many hotails at the time, but.
14:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
14:37
Speaker 3: Again, our coaches are on top of it. Coach Kevin
14:40
Speaker 3: had a spreadsheet that had breakdowns of who bat it, where,
14:44
Speaker 3: what they hit, what they don't hit, what we should expect,
14:49
Speaker 3: who would be the best matchups, pitch counts, and adjustments
14:52
Speaker 3: to pitch counts if we got into a sticky situation.
14:54
Speaker 3: So we had data upon data upon data about how
14:59
Speaker 3: we're going to hacket and we made the decision at
15:04
Speaker 3: the end and we rolled with it. So I have
15:08
Speaker 3: to give them a lot of credit for that.
15:09
Speaker 2: What was the celebration like?
15:11
Speaker 4: It was awesome? Yeah, it was awesome.
15:14
Speaker 2: I mean I was.
15:15
Speaker 4: I was crying like a little baby, you know. I
15:17
Speaker 4: was so proud of kids.
15:18
Speaker 3: You know, It's it's been a lot of days in
15:20
Speaker 3: a lot of baseball that they put in, and we
15:22
Speaker 3: wish we could still keep playing.
15:24
Speaker 4: When it was all over, everyone's going home.
15:27
Speaker 3: Almost sad because not because we didn't lose anything, right, but.
15:32
Speaker 2: It was what do we do now?
15:34
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean now you're stuck at home with your wife.
15:38
Speaker 4: We're planning already for next year.
15:41
Speaker 3: It's about they wanted to be with their buddies and
15:43
Speaker 3: they want to continue that journey, which was that was
15:48
Speaker 3: exciting and sad for me, but I'm really proud of
15:51
Speaker 3: what they've done and again.
15:52
Speaker 4: Like I said, I cried like a baby.
15:53
Speaker 3: I had to be consoled and hugged and said great
15:56
Speaker 3: job and keep your head up. And I was like,
15:58
Speaker 3: I know what we won and I'm still years and joy.
16:00
Speaker 3: So it was really cool. It's really fun.
16:02
Speaker 1: You're emotional, man, real quick earning on the way out here.
16:04
Speaker 1: Have you ever been thrown out of a game?
16:09
Speaker 4: No? Oh?
16:10
Speaker 3: Actually yes, when I was assistant coach. It wasn't my doing.
16:15
Speaker 3: We had a player go up with earrings and then
16:16
Speaker 3: I got tossed.
16:18
Speaker 2: Well why what what happened there? Oh? Because it's it's illegal, right.
16:22
Speaker 4: Players were not properly equipped.
16:25
Speaker 2: Were you furious with the kid? What happened?
16:27
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, because I know you tell the kids,
16:30
Speaker 1: no earrings, take the earrings off, no jewelry, you can't
16:32
Speaker 1: wear it on the diamond.
16:32
Speaker 4: You can't do it, not once but twice throughout the game.
16:36
Speaker 3: Actually we got a warner the first time, so it
16:38
Speaker 3: and these were high school kids, so it's a lot
16:41
Speaker 3: easier to work with the younger kids that listen to
16:44
Speaker 3: what you're saying. But no, I stay calm, cool and collected.
16:47
Speaker 3: You know, you prepare before. That's where I'm not come
16:50
Speaker 3: cool and collected, but during the game and just go
16:52
Speaker 3: out and do what we do, all right?
16:53
Speaker 1: Where would this rank for you in time in terms
16:55
Speaker 1: of all time achievements, like in terms of all time
16:58
Speaker 1: moments in your life?
16:59
Speaker 2: Where does it rank for you?
17:02
Speaker 3: Probably in the top Well, I have two kids, I
17:05
Speaker 3: got married, so in the top five.
17:08
Speaker 1: I like how you went through that to make sure
17:10
Speaker 1: you weren't offending anyone. That is an excellent job. He's
17:15
Speaker 1: gonna be the next manager of the Yankees. Ernie Gray Watts.
17:18
Speaker 1: We appreciate, We appreciate the time.
17:21
Speaker 4: Man.
17:21
Speaker 1: It's been fun, Mikey taking us through this has been terrific.
17:25
Speaker 1: Congratulations to you, man. I did this with my daughter.
17:27
Speaker 1: I know how emotional it could be. I know how
17:29
Speaker 1: much fun it could be. So I'm happy for you.
17:31
Speaker 1: I'm happy for the team. I'm happy for Mikey. A
17:33
Speaker 1: congratulations buddy.
17:35
Speaker 4: Thanks guys, thanks for having me on too.
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Speaker 2: You got it.
17:37
Speaker 6: Thanks coach,