Latest / From the Coach's Mouth / Episode 51: Chanin Billings

Transcript

Episode 51: Chanin Billings · From the Coach's Mouth

• 0:00
  Well, it's a process. So I, I personally, I just, I
• 0:04
  love doing this. I think whenever you could take
• 0:07
  a group of kids and say you can be better, this is your
• 0:11
  potential and help them realize it.
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  Like that's the most fun. If you already know you're good
• 0:15
  and you're good, it's cool, but it's not as fun.
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  I don't think that's as fun at the.
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  Field in your car or on the couch.
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  Get your basket from the coach's mouth.
• 0:40
  Welcome to the From the Coach's Mouth podcast with your host,
• 0:45
  Jay Bolden and Ken Krause. Hello everyone, and welcome to
• 1:04
  the From the Coach's Mouth podcast.
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  This is Ken here, as always with that international man of
• 1:10
  mystery, Mr. Jay Bolden. Jay, where in the world are you
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  today? I'm all over the place Ken.
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  I'm actually down in Gulf Shores, AL, so we are playing
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  some games down here. The weather is fantastic.
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  It is mid 70s and sunny. What's the weather like back
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  home, Ken? What's how you feeling up there?
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  Cold, Gray, foggy. You know, all all the good
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  stuff, everything you love about spring in Chicago.
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  Oh, wonderful. So so things haven't changed.
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  OK, Good to know that when I come back home here it'll be the
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  same. So.
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  Yeah, yeah, it's definitely worth the the trip down there
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  just to get away from all of this.
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  You can feel superior. You know, you sent me that photo
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  yesterday from the beach. That look good.
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  Yeah, I intend to, I intend to get down to the beach today and
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  watch the sunset over the ocean. So there's no price tag for
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  that. You know what I mean, Ken?
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  It's it's pretty awesome. Well, I always knew you were a
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  romantic going to take your wife there with you of.
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  Course, Of course. Are you kidding me?
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  Everybody's invited. Everybody's invited.
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  So that's good. Yeah.
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  When we were in Hawaii back in September, that was one of the
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  big things. It's weird because you know, the
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  sunsets every day, but when you are in a place like that and you
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  got the ocean and maybe some mountains in the background and
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  stuff, it's like, wow, look at that sunset and you're taking
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  pictures and then you come home and you're looking through your
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  pictures and you realize you got like, you know, 10 pictures of
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  sunsets. Yeah, that's worth it.
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  I think the only thing that's going to make the sunset better
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  today is going to be if we can get two wins.
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  So if that happens, my sunsets going to be amazing.
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  If we split, it'll be half and half, and if we lose 2, I don't
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  know, maybe I won't even go to sunset.
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  I'll just go to the bar. We'll bring the bar to the.
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  Sunset. Yeah, that's a possibility.
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  So that's a possibility. But enough of us rammering on
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  here about sunsets. Let's let's get into softball.
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  That's what people are here to hear about.
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  So why don't you get some information about this amazing
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  guest that we have today? We are very excited to speak
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  with today's guest today because she is not just experienced
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  success coaching at all three levels of NCAA play and in the
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  travel ball world, but she has largely made that success
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  happen. She has definitely built her
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  reputation as a turn around specialist helping teams that
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  were experiencing tough times rise up to great achievements in
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  a short period of time. As a player, she was a four year
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  starter at third base for the University of Kansas where she
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  was named All Big 12 as a freshman as well as to the
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  academic All Big 12 for junior and senior years while leading
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  The Jayhawks to two NCAA Tournament appearances as team
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  captain her senior year. She also holds the distinction
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  of hitting the first ever home run in Rock Chalk Park's Amoke
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  Ballpark. Following her career in college,
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  our guest played as a member of the Mexican National Team from
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  2015 to 2016 after graduating from Kansas with a Bachelor's
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  degree of education in Sports Management.
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  That's a mouthful. She went on to earn her Masters
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  of the Business Administration at Harding University while
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  getting her feet wet and collegiate coaching as a
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  graduate assistant there. She later went on to become an
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  assistant coach at Harding, helping the Bisons to a 58 and 9
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  record while ranking as high as second in the NFCA Division Two
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  Coaches poll before taking on the head coaching role at Hardin
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  Simmons University. It was there that she really
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  started to make her mark. Starting with almost no
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  returning players, she quickly built the Cowgirls into a force
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  in the American Southwest Conference, twice finishing
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  third in the ASC Tournament while earning Co Coaching Staff
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  of the Year in the ASC in 2019. In her final year there, the
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  program ranked as high as 19th, the highest ranking in the
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  program's history. After spending a year as an
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  assistant coach at Division One South Dakota State University,
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  our guest returned to the head coaching ranks in her current
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  position as head coach at Maryville University in Saint
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  Louis where she is again leading another successful program turn
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  around, as well as being a wife and mother of two.
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  Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Shannon Luce Billings to
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  the From the Coach's Mouth podcast.
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  Well, thank you guys for having me and yeah, I'm excited to to
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  share a little bit about coaching today.
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  That's awesome. We're we're glad to have you
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  here and looking forward to getting some of your insights.
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  How's your season going so far? And we're still at an upward
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  trajectory from last year. I think we have high
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  expectations. So I think anybody looks at the
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  season and says, OK, we could have won this game, we clean up
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  these things, we win this game. So there's room for improvement,
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  definitely. But looking at from where we
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  were at last season at this time, we're still in a much
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  better place. So you know, there's always room
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  for growth. I think as you're kind of taking
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  over a team, it's always building blocks.
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  Rome was not built in a day, so it takes a second, but I think
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  we are in a in a good spot. We have a good group of girls
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  and we're playing at home this weekend, so we just hope to have
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  a good showing at home. Yeah, I actually looked at your
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  schedule and I saw first I saw UW Parkside, which is not that
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  far from me. And I thought, oh, that's great.
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  And then I saw at Maryville and I'm like, OK, that's a bit more
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  of a drive. Yeah.
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  So I always say too, and, and correct me if I'm wrong too, I,
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  I love the preseason because you're out there playing just
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  all kinds of different teams and it's just preparing you for that
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  conference. When does your guys's conference
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  start up? And, and do you agree like all
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  your preseason playing some of those harder teams or teams that
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  you normally don't play just as kind of preparing you for when
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  you get into that conference play?
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  Yeah. So we played a number of of
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  different teams. I'll try to get some from the
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  South, try to get some that are at the top of their conference,
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  some at the middle peek in and a few that maybe, you know, that
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  just, you know, to get the team to gel too.
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  So we try to do a good balance of that.
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  Every weekend we're going to try to peek in, you know, a couple
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  tough opponents, a couple that should be similar to us, maybe a
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  couple that might be, that might be less, but it's just a good
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  variety. So we try to look at that when
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  we're kind of building and try to create a balance.
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  Especially this year we have 3 pitchers that are freshmen and
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  one that's a sophomore. So we knew especially with a
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  younger pitching staff, we wanted them to be able to build
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  confidence while still learning and preparing.
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  So all of that was important. And our conference starts next
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  weekend. So we are right around the
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  corner to start in conference, which is fun.
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  So I think our team is definitely excited to to kind of
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  start conference, see how we compare.
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  And it's a weird year in softball.
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  I feel like some teams are, you know, beating some teams and
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  then they play somebody else and then they lose.
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  It's a weird matchup. It's almost like Parkside beat
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  you Indy this past weekend. I might have been you Indy's
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  first loss. So it's just that's it's just
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  crazy. I think still think Parkside is
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  is still lost more games than they've won.
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  So you just really don't know any given day.
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  And that's what's fun about softball.
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  So I think it's I feel like our conference is kind of up for
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  grabs this year. It'll just be interesting to see
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  how it shakes out, so I know our team's looking forward to to
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  starting that next weekend. Well, I know that for me, I
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  always felt like those early season games, the friendly
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  things before you really get into the meat of the season, you
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  know, that was a good time to try things out.
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  And you know, if you're focused on how many wins can I get,
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  you're probably wasting your pre season.
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  You know, obviously you want to try to win every game, but more
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  important I think, is to find out what you've got and what you
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  have in reserve and make sure that if your starter at some
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  position, especially a key position like shortstop, goes
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  down, that you have somebody that can fill that gap.
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  Yes, yeah, for sure. Awesome.
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  So Shannon, we're going to start this out and get into into
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  knowing you a little bit more. We always start out our first
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  question here with how you got started in softball.
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  What was your first experience? Oh man.
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  So this might have been my, yeah, my whole life almost since
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  because my grandma played back in the day in skirts.
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  So my grandma was actually the first one, like she's old
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  school. And back when I, I recruited
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  back in Arizona when she lived there.
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  And it was funny. I brought her to go recruit with
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  me and, and, and she was real cute.
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  She was wearing like, you know, the Hardin Simmons shirt and
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  everything. And she was like talking some
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  crap to the kids. And I'm like, this is not how it
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  isn't anymore. My grandpa, you can't do that.
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  So it was funny. And she just says exactly what's
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  on her mind, just like a normal grandma would.
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  It was funny. Yeah.
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  She's the original one that got us all on the softball.
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  Because then my mom and her sisters all played.
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  So of course, I grew up in Southern California, actually.
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  So I think I remember. I mean, I could literally play
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  play catch when I was like 3. I think I started playing when I
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  was three or four. Wow.
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  And at MY10U team, like my first ten under, like a little travel
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  ball team, out of the group of like 10 girls, like 6 or seven
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  of us played like professional, not even just Division One, like
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  we were, it was crazy how you don't realize those are my
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  friends and I played with them. But then you're like, Dang,
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  like, I mean, yeah, one of my the first person I played catch
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  with was Lauren Chamberlain. That was my right.
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  And you're like, you don't know any different because those are
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  your friends. But yeah, so I was, I was born
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  and bred softball basically. And, and even my brother played
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  and his teammate growing up was, was Nolan Arenado.
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  Like it was just like we were in Southern California and it's
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  just off, you know, hotbed for softball and baseball back in
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  the day. And think the rest of the
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  country's catching up on that. But yeah, that's how I got
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  started. And it was, you know, just what
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  I did and I love doing it. And my parents even had we had a
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  batting cage in the backyard and yeah, we took it seriously.
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  So. But I loved it.
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  And it was never something that I felt like they pushed on me.
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  Like it just felt like I I genuinely loved doing it.
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  And I think that's always a fine line if you're, you know, you
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  don't want to push it on a kid or feel like you're pushing them
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  too hard. But like I, I think my dad loved
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  coaching me. And so he's coached me for a
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  long time and he still coaches travel ball.
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  But he didn't, he pushed me because he knew like, I, I loved
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  it. And he was like, Oh yeah.
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  Like he's so I was his, I was the kid.
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  He spent a lot of time coaching because I always responded to
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  that and enjoyed it. So So me and him spent a long
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  time together with softball growing up.
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  So then, when did you wind up in Texas?
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  So when I was a freshman in high school, oh, OK.
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  So I spent most of my time in California.
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  I really only lived in Texas for four years.
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  And that's how I got recruited to Kansas as they saw me in
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  Texas. So they wouldn't.
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  And they were when even when they got me, they were excited
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  that they got a California kid, even though it's like it didn't
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  matter that much. But at the time, like it's not
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  as much anymore where California isn't as much of A hotbed.
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  But back then it was like, oh, yeah, this is a big deal.
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  We got someone that grew up playing soccer up on California.
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  It was a big deal. So.
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  Which is funny. Yeah.
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  So they recruited me, but it was back when I was in in North
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  Texas, so. OK.
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  Did you play any other sports when you were growing up?
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  Not. Really.
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  So we were, I was definitely a softball specialist whenever I
• 12:07
  moved to, I mean, I did this the soccer when you're like, you
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  know, right, you're a little kid and that's all just, you know,
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  running around. But I really just specialized in
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  softball. When I went to high school
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  though, I did do more sports cuz I was at a 3A in Texas and of
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  course they saw me and they're like, let's try all these
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  sports. And so, so I tried some sports.
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  I tried freshman basketball and I was terrible and I couldn't
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  shoot. I still just, I don't like
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  playing basketball because I'm just really not good at it.
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  So why not play this? And then I did track in cross
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  country, which I actually made like regionals in both of those,
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  which would shock some people. And then just because I was, I
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  was always competitive and I would be like, if I'm not not
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  good at it, I'm going to train. So I'm good at it.
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  Wasn't that I was that fast. I just I trained it up And then
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  then I played soccer with my sister because my sister played
• 13:01
  Division One college soccer. And so she needed help on the
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  soccer field and she goes, Hey, can you come be our goalie?
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  So I was our goalie for two years to help her out.
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  And, and I, I really did enjoy being a a soccer goalie.
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  That was fun because you just got to stop a ball and it was
• 13:16
  just so much easier than than hitting a ball at this.
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  I mean, that's always stressful, right?
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  As a player, the hitting's hardest thing and so I was like,
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  Dang, I could have done this sport.
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  That would have been a lot less stressful.
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  Well, I. This life.
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  I remember being in high school and you know, they had soccer as
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  one of the units in the gym class, and I immediately
• 13:38
  gravitated toward goalie. Couple of reasons. 1 is that I'd
• 13:42
  been a catcher and I was a baseball catcher, so that kind
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  of was a natural fit. But the other thing was when
• 13:47
  you're a goalie, as long as there's no action right by you,
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  you just get to stand there and watch.
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  You know, all those other kids were running constantly and that
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  was not going to be me. Yep, Yep.
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  I just, I, I was just good at that, man.
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  It's like, OK, it's like defense.
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  It's like third base. I can dive and stop the ball.
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  I'm like all day. I got that.
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  Yeah, you've got the reaction time.
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  That's fine. Yeah.
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  And that sounds that was fun. That soccer ball is a lot softer
• 14:09
  than a than a softball coming in, yeah.
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  It comes in slower too. I was.
• 14:14
  Like definitely slower for. Sure.
• 14:18
  I want to talk to you a little bit about your recruiting
• 14:20
  journey, Give us a little background on how you ended up
• 14:23
  at Kansas. And then with that recruiting
• 14:26
  journey, how did that, how does that influence you now since
• 14:29
  you're on the other side of that recruiting compared to what your
• 14:32
  journey was like? Yeah, so recruiting.
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  So my mom actually runs her own recruiting company.
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  She's collegiate sports advocate.
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  She's everybody knows her. She's Miss Popular.
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  She's TikTok famous as well. I am not TikTok famous.
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  My mom is so she loves it. She from my recruiting journey,
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  like like then after I kind of got through college, she started
• 14:54
  recruiting recruiting business and she loves it just from what
• 14:57
  she saw as a parent and everything.
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  So back in the day, she was the one telling me send a million
• 15:02
  emails. Do I mean, so it's all the same
• 15:04
  stuff that she does, but it was like coming from your mom and
• 15:07
  you're like, I don't want to send these right now, you know?
• 15:10
  And so I did send a ton of emails and I was playing on a
• 15:14
  top team in in Texas. So, I mean, I was going to
• 15:17
  probably get seen anyway. I think the big thing, I was
• 15:19
  already on a big team, which does, you know, make a
• 15:22
  difference. I think back then, we did not
• 15:24
  have recruiting profiles. We did nothing digitally.
• 15:27
  So they had to come see you, especially then, like they had
• 15:30
  to come see you. There was no other way.
• 15:31
  There was no. Yeah, there's no recruiting
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  sheet. Like we it's just, hey, who's
• 15:35
  that kid? That's how it was then.
• 15:37
  Yeah. So basically, I, I did not send
• 15:40
  an e-mail to Kansas. I sent emails to a lot of
• 15:43
  places. I didn't send one to Kansas.
• 15:45
  I mean, I'm from California at the time.
• 15:46
  I'm like, I don't know what that of Kansas, I don't know.
• 15:49
  I don't know that place. So I had no idea.
• 15:52
  But they actually saw me warming up.
• 15:54
  So I was actually I was I I could say I pride myself as a
• 15:58
  player as like I was not out hustled like I would.
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  I mean I was doing the most at all times, right, because I was
• 16:04
  competitive. I wanted it it to my detriment.
• 16:07
  Sometimes one that too much. But but they saw me just
• 16:10
  shagging balls, like literally picking up wiffle balls and
• 16:12
  running around and hustling. And so the lady it was like
• 16:15
  stayed to watch me. And it's actually Christy Messer
• 16:18
  who's still coaching now. I think she's out in South
• 16:20
  Carolina now. So she's a head coach out there.
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  She was the one that first saw me that I remember.
• 16:26
  So I went to visit Kansas with the first coaching staff.
• 16:29
  It was with Chrissy Messer and then Tracy Bunge was the head
• 16:32
  coach. So I went on a visit there.
• 16:35
  Love, I still loved it there and they were high on my radar.
• 16:39
  I had a visit at OU. That's my fun.
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  I I checked that box. I did have a visit there, which
• 16:44
  is fun. Didn't get didn't get an offer,
• 16:46
  but I had a visit. So that means I felt like I was
• 16:48
  pretty good. And then Oklahoma State was on
• 16:50
  me too. So all of that was going on.
• 16:52
  Then they had a coaching change. So the coaching change happened.
• 16:56
  Then you're, you know, obviously when that happens, normally
• 16:58
  you're not on that list anymore, right?
• 16:59
  Because whoever comes in, that's who's list they're going off of.
• 17:03
  Well, I was also on their list. So Coach Smith, that's now at
• 17:07
  North Carolina, she had me on her list from when she was an
• 17:10
  assistant at LSU and she had like, my mom has saved all the
• 17:13
  letters, all the fancy mailers that I got back in the day
• 17:17
  because I was still a thing back in the day.
• 17:19
  So she has it like signed by Coach Smith, you know, and she's
• 17:22
  like, this is so awesome. So whenever she contacted me
• 17:25
  again, my mom was like, Oh my God, I have that mail.
• 17:28
  Where is that? So I feel like it was a meant to
• 17:30
  be thing that like that school wanted me twice, right?
• 17:33
  And of course they needed the third baseman.
• 17:35
  That's all I did. Like I did not play anywhere
• 17:38
  else. I was very specialized in what I
• 17:40
  did and she loved me for that. So I was her first commit of
• 17:44
  that class of for her whole time at Kansas.
• 17:47
  So, so really with a good experience for me as like why I
• 17:52
  love like doing what I'm doing is because I mean, we started,
• 17:56
  gosh, we were 100 something in the RPI, right?
• 17:59
  We were down there and we had to build it up to where we were
• 18:02
  postseason team. And so like I went through that
• 18:04
  journey, like, you know, with coach Smith, with my teammates
• 18:08
  like to get us on the map. So all of that was, you know,
• 18:11
  why I'm passionate about like, okay, like it doesn't matter
• 18:14
  where you're where you're at. Like you can get there if you do
• 18:18
  the, the certain things right. If you do, if you, if you have
• 18:20
  the work ethic, if you, you know, recruit the right people
• 18:23
  and if you have good standards and, and coach Smith is still
• 18:26
  out there killing it and she's always always the best.
• 18:29
  So, so it's always those people that you can kind of connect
• 18:32
  with and, and bounce ideas off of and everything.
• 18:35
  So yeah, so Kansas, I feel like there was a meant to be thing
• 18:39
  for me and I loved it there. And I want to be able to go back
• 18:42
  since I'm not that far away now like 4 hours away ish.
• 18:47
  I was like we might be able to drive and go visit again because
• 18:50
  I love my time at KU and just a great community and everything.
• 18:53
  So I definitely want to hopefully get back sometime
• 18:56
  soon. Yeah, well, that sounds like
• 18:58
  fun. And Speaking of Kansas, I mean,
• 19:00
  you were record setting hitter there.
• 19:02
  And so I wonder about it. Do you still teach what you were
• 19:05
  doing there, or have you kind of changed what you're doing now as
• 19:10
  a coach? Things change all the time.
• 19:12
  I especially feel like with hitting there's not even close
• 19:15
  to what I I mean what I did there is not even close to what
• 19:18
  we're doing now. I mean it's just the evolution
• 19:20
  of things and how the game has changed and me trying to look at
• 19:24
  things like what can I do better?
• 19:26
  Like even thinking of our practice yesterday, I'm like, I
• 19:28
  think I made-up two drills, right?
• 19:30
  Like I'm just like, what he's like, what we need to do.
• 19:32
  We're going to figure out how to do it.
• 19:34
  How are we going to accomplish this?
• 19:35
  Let's make this this chaotic thing happen, right?
• 19:39
  How can we handle the ball better?
• 19:40
  How can we like, I'm trying to figure out with our hitters,
• 19:43
  Hey, how can we, you know, like if it is a curveball that's
• 19:47
  that's wearing us out. All right, I'm going to think of
• 19:49
  everything possible to fix that. We're going to look at
• 19:51
  mechanics. We're going to look at hand
• 19:53
  speed, strength, all those things that like, and then
• 19:56
  obviously got pitch selection, you got timing.
• 19:58
  There's just so much that goes into it.
• 20:00
  And obviously in the fall we'll breakdown mechanics in the
• 20:03
  spring, like we're trying to prepare for what we're going to
• 20:05
  face and just see. I'm always looking at like as a
• 20:08
  whole, what are we struggling and as individually, what are
• 20:11
  the what do they need to work in?
• 20:12
  And I think we've made progress. There's always room for a lot
• 20:15
  more growth, but but I'm definitely happy with our
• 20:19
  offense. I think last year we were a lot
• 20:22
  feel like we were very late to hit, like if it was a velocity
• 20:25
  pitcher, we were in trouble. This year it's.
• 20:27
  Not like we are not beat by velocity, which I'm like, that
• 20:30
  was one of my big goals. So I think things just change.
• 20:33
  I think how we trained back then, it's not the same now at
• 20:36
  all. Like I'm thinking about it and
• 20:38
  I'm like, it doesn't mean it was bad at the time, but I just
• 20:40
  think our game has just developed a lot.
• 20:42
  The pitcher speed has gotten a bit faster.
• 20:45
  Like I think back then whenever I played, I think the fat
• 20:48
  fastest pitcher I faced was Kalani Ricketts and she was, you
• 20:52
  know, maybe touching 70, but that was like a rare thing,
• 20:55
  right? Like that was not as common as
• 20:58
  it is now that 65 plus is common.
• 21:00
  So there's a lot of just like the speed things and, and
• 21:03
  mechanic things and stuff with hitters that you have to adjust
• 21:06
  with if the pitcher's throwing that hard.
• 21:08
  And I think even at division two, I mean, we're still facing
• 21:11
  60 + a lot. 65 is not uncommon either.
• 21:15
  So there's a lot of things that are different from back then.
• 21:18
  So like I if I really did teach what happened back then, that
• 21:21
  would be that would be not as applicable I think.
• 21:25
  Well, you know, and I think that that's good and it's always a
• 21:27
  good message. I think to get out there to
• 21:29
  coaches, especially at the youth level and the travel ball level,
• 21:32
  you get the people that you know, well, I played baseball
• 21:35
  back in 1993 and this is how we did it.
• 21:37
  And that's, that's what I'm going to teach.
• 21:39
  And it's just so unapplicable in a lot of ways to what's going on
• 21:43
  now. There's just more information.
• 21:45
  We have better technology. And I think that it's important
• 21:49
  to keep up with that stuff, you know, otherwise you're going to
• 21:51
  get left behind. Yes, I think I, I always like to
• 21:54
  look at the newer baseball stuff as well as our softball stuff.
• 21:57
  But I always feel like baseball always gets a little more
• 21:59
  creative. And so I like to look at that
• 22:01
  kind of stuff every kind of offseason, like see what's new,
• 22:05
  what's the trends there and see if there's anything we can we
• 22:08
  can learn from it. I'm also a big Houston Astros
• 22:10
  fan. I know people don't like that,
• 22:12
  but big Astros fan. So I watch every almost every
• 22:16
  single game the entire season. So I'm watching a lot of
• 22:18
  baseball too. And I also watch softball.
• 22:21
  My husband already thinks it's too early for me to watch as
• 22:24
  much softball in my free time just for fun.
• 22:27
  He's like, it's too early for this.
• 22:29
  I get post season, but it's too early.
• 22:30
  So, but no, I I just love watching the game and seeing,
• 22:34
  OK, this is how they're doing it.
• 22:36
  Does that work for us? If I think no, you don't.
• 22:38
  Doesn't mean you always have to implement everything you see,
• 22:40
  but just always. Like watching and seeing what
• 22:43
  you can learn is always good. Yeah, and there's nothing that
• 22:46
  says, you know, you can't try something and then you find out,
• 22:48
  well, seemed like a good idea on paper, but, you know.
• 22:52
  And then no yeah in. Practice.
• 22:54
  Yeah, it's not quite working. So what was it like for you
• 22:58
  playing on the Mexican national team?
• 23:00
  So this was, I love this. This was awesome.
• 23:03
  So my grandpa actually, he passed away when I was like 8.
• 23:07
  And it was actually when I was on the softball field playing
• 23:10
  and my parents weren't there. So I'm a little kid and I'm
• 23:12
  like, where the heck are my parents?
• 23:13
  You know, like none of them are talking to me, only my sisters
• 23:16
  here. What's going on?
• 23:18
  So he passed away and before he passed away, he finally became a
• 23:20
  fan of softball and girls sports.
• 23:22
  And he was very traditional, you know, a Mexican guy, right?
• 23:26
  That said he was like, no, females don't play sports,
• 23:28
  they're not supposed to do that. So he finally was like, no,
• 23:32
  you're really good at this. And he was really excited
• 23:34
  watching me play before he passed.
• 23:36
  So basically fast forwarding, like I was finishing up playing
• 23:40
  at Kansas. And then Adriana Perez, who was
• 23:43
  playing at Texas Tech, you know, we kind of saw each other in
• 23:47
  passing and stuff, but she was like, Oh yeah, no, there's a
• 23:49
  Mexican national team you can try out for it.
• 23:51
  Like when did your when was your grandpa a citizen?
• 23:54
  When did he, when was he born? And because there's a certain
• 23:56
  cut off, you could qualify. So I'm like, OK, chance to play
• 24:00
  more cool, you know, maybe, maybe not.
• 24:02
  So when I finished playing at Kansas, know if I would make
• 24:05
  that team or not yet, but I, you know, flew out to California to
• 24:09
  try out my grandma still lives there.
• 24:11
  So the field was actually that we, that we tried out at was
• 24:14
  like 15 minutes from my grandma. So I spent like a month with
• 24:17
  her, which was awesome. And she's like my, one of my,
• 24:20
  one of my closest people. And and she is, I mean, she's
• 24:23
  the fluent Spanish speaker. She talks crap to me in Spanish
• 24:26
  all the time. She's great, but she's real
• 24:29
  funny. And so me and her spent a lot of
• 24:30
  time together that whole summer because I tried out then I made
• 24:34
  the team And so we spent a lot of time together.
• 24:36
  But even when we were trying out, she's very Catholic, you
• 24:40
  know, she loves Jesus. You know, she loves him.
• 24:42
  And she was just praying like, Lord, just have Shanny make this
• 24:45
  team. Have Shanny make this team.
• 24:47
  We're so excited about it. And she literally was he always
• 24:51
  says Jesus is with us. And I'm like, OK, yes, he is.
• 24:54
  OK, grandma, I get it. You know, he is.
• 24:56
  So I hit a home run and that was I was the only one that hit a
• 24:58
  home run in this tryout. And so I'm running around the
• 25:01
  bases and she pulls out a photo of Jesus free and you're like,
• 25:06
  he's here, he's with us. And I'm like, Oh my God.
• 25:09
  Oh. Yeah, you're like Grandma.
• 25:11
  I don't think Jesus really cares about my tryout, but OK, yeah.
• 25:15
  It was so funny. It was so funny.
• 25:16
  But she's like pointing at him, like he's with us, he's with us.
• 25:19
  And then she's making friends with the coaches.
• 25:21
  It was all really funny. They loved her.
• 25:23
  They thought it was great. So yeah, no, it was fun.
• 25:25
  And so it was really just fun to represent my grandpa, right?
• 25:28
  Like in the guy was just a fun moment for me.
• 25:30
  And then my grandma made my grandma so happy, right?
• 25:33
  She had all the Team Mexico stuff, right?
• 25:35
  She was she was fired up about it would show up and and it's
• 25:40
  just fun to be able to represent your your family right.
• 25:43
  And then that was just a good time.
• 25:45
  And so we, I really only played for 2 summers and then when I
• 25:49
  was out Harding, I think it was just kind of a OK, I need a
• 25:53
  segue into coaching because whenever I, I didn't make the
• 25:56
  team moving forward, it was OK. Like I, it's time to me to just
• 26:00
  dive in here because I knew like, I, I could play softball,
• 26:03
  but there was a certain level of like, OK, they're starting to
• 26:06
  recruit the Romero sisters, you know, like I'm not that good,
• 26:10
  you know, like, it's fine. Like, and we're family friends
• 26:13
  with them. They're also like, they're
• 26:14
  better than me. That's fine.
• 26:16
  You know, like I knew I was like my time is limited here and I I
• 26:20
  couldn't play anything other than third base and first base,
• 26:22
  right. So there was no way for me to to
• 26:24
  move on anymore. So I think it was just a really
• 26:27
  fun time for me to to represent my family and to and to play in
• 26:31
  the big international events, which was which was a great
• 26:33
  time. And you get to meet people from
• 26:35
  all the different countries and just see how they do things.
• 26:38
  And my God, the Japanese, how they warm up was just pristine.
• 26:42
  I'm like, that is insane. So basically their warmups was,
• 26:47
  I always laugh about this because on the Mexican team, I
• 26:50
  think we stole the Nets that we had.
• 26:52
  We borrowed them, and then Cuba stole them.
• 26:54
  So we borrowed Cuba's Nets, but then Cuba stole those from
• 26:58
  somebody. So I don't know.
• 27:00
  And then we had random balls that we had like 10 balls and
• 27:04
  they were rough. That's what we had.
• 27:06
  No Tees, nothing. I mean, we're warming up in a
• 27:08
  field of nothingness right out in Canada.
• 27:10
  And then the Japanese team, they're pitching front toss to
• 27:14
  each other, no. And and they're hitting it
• 27:16
  perfectly to the right and the left of the person tossing.
• 27:19
  Jeez, with. Real balls.
• 27:21
  And I'm like in shock. I'm like, Oh God, that's insane.
• 27:26
  So and it just just seeing how different teams operate because
• 27:29
  every team kind of does something a little different and
• 27:31
  how their styles and how they operate.
• 27:34
  And the Japanese are way more regimented, right?
• 27:37
  The Chinese super regimented us and a couple of the other Latin
• 27:40
  American countries are just way more relaxed.
• 27:42
  And, and we, we could still go out in there and beat one of
• 27:45
  those teams, but it was just, it was just different and it was,
• 27:48
  it was fun. And, and it really like Adriana
• 27:50
  Perez, who is, was the one that kind of got me into it, is still
• 27:54
  doing stuff with the Mexican League there.
• 27:56
  She brought in Rachel Garcia. She's doing a lot of really good
• 27:58
  stuff to help grow the game out there.
• 28:00
  And there's really good players. They just don't have the
• 28:03
  training or the expertise that in the everyday training that we
• 28:07
  get here, right. So she's done a great job of
• 28:12
  making them progress with the game, which is good.
• 28:15
  Absolutely. So Shannon, I want to, I want to
• 28:17
  Fast forward a little bit. You talked about coaching.
• 28:19
  So let's get into your coaching a little bit.
• 28:21
  Was it a little intimidating taking on your first head
• 28:23
  coaching position at Hardin Simmons, or did you feel like
• 28:26
  you were ready at that time? Man, so it's hard to say you
• 28:29
  feel ready because I think I was 24 taking on the team that I
• 28:34
  mean, everyone in the in the market just said we just didn't
• 28:37
  have a lot of success right There was you have some
• 28:39
  resources, but not nearly the the resources you have in ASC.
• 28:43
  There's some schools that are beautiful and have all the bells
• 28:46
  and whistles and we just did it. We're on a street that's not the
• 28:49
  safest. There's a there was a lot of
• 28:51
  things we had to overcome with, with recruiting and the cost of
• 28:54
  everything. The cost is high.
• 28:55
  There's a lot of things like that.
• 28:57
  So whenever I first took it on, honestly, I'm doing much better
• 29:01
  taking on Maryville because I've learned a lot since then and I'm
• 29:04
  a lot more mature. I think then you just kind of
• 29:07
  learn by just getting thrown in the fire.
• 29:10
  I think there's some stuff I well, some stuff I didn't do
• 29:13
  well, some things that I know looking back, you're like, I
• 29:16
  could have done that differently.
• 29:17
  Like I was a super, super fired up coach, very passionate.
• 29:21
  But like I think for me now I've grown a lot on like the
• 29:24
  relational side of connecting with the players.
• 29:26
  I think then I was very much of we're trying to fix this, we're
• 29:29
  going to win and doing what it take took there.
• 29:32
  So I think our first year, it was hard for me and I think I
• 29:35
  reached the point where I learned how to, you never want
• 29:38
  to get comfortable losing. But in that sense I had to get
• 29:41
  OK losing and seeing where I was at to be able to build it.
• 29:45
  So we were one in 37 my first year.
• 29:48
  And that's tough. That's tough because I, I mean,
• 29:51
  this coming from where I grew up and everything, I've never lost
• 29:53
  like that, right? I've never had that happen to
• 29:57
  me, right. And so there reaches a point
• 29:59
  where you're trying to get them to understand, you're trying to
• 30:01
  get them get there. And I think you reach the point
• 30:03
  where you have to take a step back and be like, OK, I just
• 30:05
  want to connect with the few that I know can help us moving
• 30:07
  forward. And I just need to, you know,
• 30:10
  try to ride the ship out, unfortunately.
• 30:13
  And that's kind of the point we reach.
• 30:14
  Then come fast forwarding to the next year.
• 30:17
  They got brought in like 16 new players and we only ended up
• 30:21
  returning four. I did not cut any of them.
• 30:24
  They just decided it wasn't for them once we brought in kids
• 30:27
  that could play, right? Because you're like, I'm not
• 30:29
  gonna play. So that is a natural fall off
• 30:32
  that happens at Division Three because a lot of them go for the
• 30:34
  school and then softballs A+. But a lot of them just stayed at
• 30:37
  the school anyway. So yeah, it was a big, a big
• 30:40
  shift. A lot of a lot of rebuild from
• 30:43
  that first year to the second year, but we went from one win
• 30:46
  to 21 wins in one year and it was mostly freshmen.
• 30:50
  It was a super fun year because everyone was like, oh, they're
• 30:53
  terrible. And then we'd go win and it was
• 30:55
  awesome. I was like, man, I was like, we,
• 30:59
  we just took a lot of people by surprise.
• 31:01
  We had, I mean, that team was fun because I mean, sometimes
• 31:06
  our defense was just not it like man, we would throw balls
• 31:09
  everywhere, but then we would score six runs in the seventh
• 31:12
  with like 2 outs. We would do crazy rallies.
• 31:15
  Like they would just hit a gear and just be like we're scoring a
• 31:18
  lot of runs and they would just go and just shock people.
• 31:21
  Like we beat a team that hadn't lost a game in over a year and a
• 31:25
  half. We walked them off on our field
• 31:27
  and that was like, I mean that was massive.
• 31:29
  I remember I was almost crying. I was like, this is such a big
• 31:31
  deal. Like this is all awesome.
• 31:33
  And like they still believe that they could do it.
• 31:35
  And then some of them it's like, you know, they just didn't know
• 31:38
  any better. They were just freshmen, but for
• 31:40
  the most part and they just competed.
• 31:42
  But like, especially for our pitchers that were that were
• 31:44
  overturning kids like that was like, Dang, like this is a big
• 31:46
  change in one year. Like it was it was awesome.
• 31:48
  So that was really fun. And then get COVID hit.
• 31:51
  That kind of put a wrench in our trajectory a little bit because
• 31:54
  we lost some kids for financial reasons.
• 31:57
  All of those things happened. So Harden Simmons, I learned a
• 31:59
  lot. I was I was there for six years.
• 32:01
  You know, we had a lot of good times and some things that, you
• 32:04
  know, you always think, OK, I could have done these things
• 32:06
  better. And I think those are things
• 32:08
  that you just learned year to year as you as you grow.
• 32:11
  And I think those are the things I'm trying to to do here at
• 32:14
  Maryville. Well, Shannon, just out of
• 32:16
  curiosity, that second year, how long was it into the season
• 32:20
  before other teams started figuring out, you know, I can't
• 32:23
  throw my #2 at these guys like I thought I could, or my #3 I
• 32:27
  better throw my number one or I'm going to be in trouble?
• 32:30
  Probably. So we start conference played
• 32:31
  pretty quick. I think I remember being when we
• 32:34
  played UMHB, so Mary Hard and Baylor, they're always good.
• 32:37
  And it was their coach that retired and he's awesome.
• 32:40
  Henning is his last name and I remembered him after the game.
• 32:43
  He was like, Dang, you guys don't suck.
• 32:45
  And I'm like, well done, well done.
• 32:48
  You know, I'm like, what do you think?
• 32:49
  We were just going to be bad forever?
• 32:51
  And he was like, Nah, he goes you guys are pretty good because
• 32:53
  we actually we played really well to beat them.
• 32:55
  And I think from then on out, people didn't play us like that
• 32:58
  anymore, which was fun. And we still had some up and
• 33:01
  down moments, of course, but like the, the team was fun
• 33:04
  because they, they really just believe they could do it, even
• 33:07
  if no one else thought they would be any good.
• 33:09
  And they're like, no, we're good.
• 33:11
  And like they, you're like, we're going to, we're going to
• 33:12
  do it. And they, and they did, which
• 33:14
  was fun. So that was one of my most fun
• 33:17
  years coaching just by the surprise element and the amount
• 33:20
  that they believed they were good like that was that was fun.
• 33:27
  Hey Jay, on a scale of 1 to 10, how important do you think brush
• 33:30
  contact is for pictures? It's pretty high up there Ken,
• 33:34
  probably a 10 since it's hard to get maximum speed and or
• 33:38
  accuracy without it. Yeah I agree, but have you ever
• 33:41
  had a student who struggled to get good light brush contact?
• 33:45
  Sure, all the time, in fact. Especially when they've been
• 33:49
  taught hello elbow and are trying to throw around their
• 33:51
  hips or they're sliding their hips out of the way doing that
• 33:54
  crazy ninja move. So what do you do when you run
• 33:57
  into that situation? Keep railing on them until they
• 34:00
  get it right. I used to do that a lot, but
• 34:03
  then I learned about a product called Pitch Squeak Ken.
• 34:06
  Pitch squeak. What's that?
• 34:08
  It's a cool little armband with a squeaker inside of it.
• 34:11
  Like a dog toy. Yeah, kinda.
• 34:14
  So how does it work? Well, you slip the armband onto
• 34:18
  the pitcher's forearm and you set it so the squeaker is where
• 34:21
  the brush contact should happen. Then when the pitcher goes into
• 34:25
  release, she tries to get it to squeak like this.
• 34:29
  If she makes it happen, she got brush.
• 34:32
  If there's no sound, she knows immediately and can make a
• 34:35
  correction. Wow cool, so she gets immediate
• 34:38
  audible as well as tactile feedback.
• 34:41
  Oh, there you go again, showing off with those big and technical
• 34:45
  words again. But yeah, she can feel it and
• 34:48
  hear it. Does it really work?
• 34:50
  You bet it does. I use it with my students all
• 34:53
  the time time and it helps them learn how to get brush contacts
• 34:56
  pretty quickly if they practice with it sounds.
• 34:59
  Neat. Where can I get one?
• 35:01
  It's easy, Ken. Just e-mail
• 35:03
  support@pitchsqueak.com and Jason, the inventor of it and a
• 35:09
  Poly Girl certified pitching coach himself, will ask you how
• 35:12
  many you want and send them right out.
• 35:14
  I'll do that today. Thanks, Jay.
• 35:17
  What's that address again? You bet Ken it's support at
• 35:22
  pitch. Squeak dot com one more time for
• 35:25
  those of you who are listening, support@pitchsqueak.com and
• 35:30
  don't forget to mention in the e-mail that you heard about it
• 35:33
  right here on From the Coach's Mouth podcast and you'll receive
• 35:36
  10% off. So you've coached at Division
• 35:42
  One, division two, Division Three.
• 35:44
  What's similar and what's different between those
• 35:47
  experiences? So Division Three, I'd say it's
• 35:50
  a, it's a bit different and I had to do some things
• 35:52
  differently that maybe if it's I pick, I wouldn't do right.
• 35:56
  We did a lot more just funny team bonding stuff, right?
• 35:59
  We did a lot of just, you could say fluffy things, right?
• 36:03
  That's just for the experience because really the those kids,
• 36:07
  they are normally high academic, they love softball.
• 36:10
  But if you do need more of a balance than you would
• 36:14
  otherwise, right, Like they, they want, yeah.
• 36:17
  They want an experience that they, they're having a good
• 36:19
  time. They, they bond with their
• 36:20
  teammates and you can push them, but there is sometimes a level
• 36:24
  where you're like, that's not beneficial.
• 36:26
  And so that looks different than even than in their practice days
• 36:30
  or less. I think now they have more.
• 36:32
  But in the fall when I was there, we only had 15 the whole
• 36:34
  fall. So it's very minimal, very
• 36:37
  minimal. And then now I think they maybe
• 36:39
  get 20 or so. I think the rule change where
• 36:41
  they get more and you only get one day to compete in the fall
• 36:44
  and then in the spring you only get 40 games.
• 36:47
  So it's way less. So they there, there's a lot
• 36:51
  more days off, right? So I think we played Saturday,
• 36:54
  Friday, Saturday. You had Sunday off as a, the ASC
• 36:57
  is more of a Christian affiliated league and so you
• 37:00
  always had Sunday off. So there is just more, more of a
• 37:03
  balance in there. They had more time for
• 37:05
  themselves. So it's just different.
• 37:07
  They can still play. There's still a lot of really,
• 37:09
  really talented Division Three programs.
• 37:11
  It's the, it's like the outline is different.
• 37:14
  Doesn't mean they don't work hard, but the time is the time
• 37:16
  commitment is, is an adjustment. And we had some kids in nursing,
• 37:19
  we had some of those very high academic majors.
• 37:22
  I have one that's like a super pre Med brilliant, like going to
• 37:25
  be some scientists. We have a lot of those kind of
• 37:27
  people. And so they do need that
• 37:29
  balance, but just just, it's just a different kind of of kid
• 37:33
  and, and person that you're recruiting for that, for
• 37:37
  Division One, especially at South Dakota State.
• 37:39
  I think that's the hardest working team in America.
• 37:41
  And I guess shout them out on that.
• 37:43
  Like those kids train like nobody's business.
• 37:46
  If you let them stay at the field all day, they will
• 37:48
  voluntarily, they will train their tails off.
• 37:50
  They'll do all their I mean, there's one kid that'll give a
• 37:52
  million extra cuts. Then do a hidden group that I
• 37:55
  mean, she's they pride themselves in being able to out
• 37:59
  work and out train people. So there it's like I would do a
• 38:03
  group with them and they want more and I'm like, OK, like I
• 38:06
  thought I pushed you pretty hard, but OK, so they're just a
• 38:10
  different breed of kid and they still do their school, but it's
• 38:14
  like, no, we're here to play. And I know that from being at
• 38:17
  Kansas too. It's like, OK, I did my business
• 38:19
  major. I did that, but it's like, no,
• 38:21
  the softball part. I mean, they don't like to say
• 38:24
  it comes first, but it like it's a close second.
• 38:27
  It's right there, you know, but it's it's right there and your
• 38:31
  your time commitments high. Like, I mean, my days was booked
• 38:34
  were booked from almost 6:00 to 9:00 PM, like 6:00 AM to 9:00
• 38:38
  PM. Like you are doing this, like
• 38:41
  this is what it is. I love that.
• 38:43
  It's just it's kids that that have that and then that that,
• 38:47
  you know that signed up for that.
• 38:49
  And that's kind of what you're what the expectation is division
• 38:52
  two and kind of why I'm at division two because I love
• 38:55
  South Dakota State, but there's just no balance.
• 38:58
  And obviously, I think I, so whenever I came to interview at
• 39:02
  Maryville, my son was 3 weeks old, not months, he was 3 weeks
• 39:07
  old. So that was one of the good
• 39:08
  serious things I did in my life. But I just knew like I already
• 39:12
  had a 2 year old and then I have a newborn and I'm just like, I'm
• 39:15
  not going to get to see him very much.
• 39:18
  And I think when I was at Division Three, I got to see my
• 39:20
  daughter more. Like she went to work with me a
• 39:22
  lot. Like we were able to manage that
• 39:24
  pretty well. And so I still felt like I was
• 39:27
  able to do both. And then I knew at South Dakota
• 39:29
  State, it just, I wasn't going to be able to do both.
• 39:32
  I know I was like, OK, I need to be able to spend time with my
• 39:35
  kids and have a balance. And I mean, they drive back from
• 39:39
  trips and they get in at 8:00 AM.
• 39:41
  It's just things like that where I'm like, I, I can't execute
• 39:44
  this. And so I was looking at division
• 39:46
  two jobs. One of my friends works for
• 39:49
  Rawlings. And so she was the one I called
• 39:51
  and I was like, hey, is Maryville good?
• 39:53
  That's like near you? And she's like, Oh yeah, you
• 39:55
  better go get that job. And I was like, OK, I will, I
• 39:59
  will try to go get this job. So I interviewed here when I was
• 40:02
  when, you know, my like my son was 3 weeks old and I really
• 40:06
  flew with him and, and everything so, and then when I
• 40:08
  moved here when he was 5 weeks old.
• 40:10
  So it was very, very quick because the hiring was pretty
• 40:13
  late and I started in August, so.
• 40:16
  Yeah, so come in division two, it was more for the balance and
• 40:19
  just being able to control my own schedule.
• 40:21
  And Coach McSweeney at South Dakota State, that's why she
• 40:24
  said she was at division two for a long time.
• 40:27
  I mean, she has four kids, right?
• 40:28
  It's just it's hard to manage at the Division One level until
• 40:31
  they're older or they have their own things going on.
• 40:34
  And so I think for me it was just the the best move and it's
• 40:38
  been it's been great. So I've able to get off practice
• 40:42
  at a time to go get my kids at afterwards and still be able to,
• 40:46
  you know, take that day off here when we need it.
• 40:49
  And that's the thing with Division two.
• 40:50
  It's like they're still very competitive.
• 40:52
  I think that's why I knew Division 3 wasn't quite for me
• 40:56
  because I'm just not one that likes to play kickball for fun,
• 40:59
  you know, I mean, that's not me. And I'm like, they just want to
• 41:02
  play kickball today. And I'm like, but like, that's
• 41:04
  not going to get you better, you know, like that's just, that's
• 41:06
  like, I can't relate to that. And so I tried, but I think
• 41:11
  that's why I told my husband I was like, this is not a long
• 41:13
  term fit for me. And so I think division two,
• 41:15
  like they're still hyper competitive, right?
• 41:18
  Like you still have, you know, Jenna Kosnov comes and hits an
• 41:21
  RT every morning. She has a routine.
• 41:24
  She's going to do extra here. She did extra yesterday.
• 41:27
  And so you still get really high competitive kids at this level,
• 41:30
  which is fun. Yeah, Jenna Kosnov was always
• 41:32
  like that. She she was the kind of kid that
• 41:35
  she'd come in dead tired. And you say, well, you know, do
• 41:37
  you want to just do this? You want to do that?
• 41:38
  Nope. Gonna stick with it.
• 41:40
  Gonna stick with the routine. Yeah.
• 41:42
  Do what they need to do. Yeah, so we, we have, we have
• 41:44
  some kids that are just, yeah, really competitive.
• 41:47
  But then you still like want to give them a balance and like
• 41:50
  they're, they still want that too.
• 41:52
  So be able to, to not sell their their whole experience to
• 41:57
  softball. At least they can.
• 41:58
  They can do a couple other things with their life, which is
• 42:00
  good. So Shannon, you've, you have a
• 42:02
  reputation for taking teams that are struggling and turning them
• 42:05
  into winners. What do you think your secret
• 42:07
  sauce is? Or or is there a secret sauce?
• 42:10
  Well, it's a process. So I, I personally, I just, I
• 42:15
  love doing this. I think whenever you could take
• 42:18
  a group of kids and say you can be better, this is your
• 42:21
  potential and help them realize it.
• 42:24
  Like that's the most fun. If you already know you're good
• 42:26
  and you're good, it's cool, but it's not as fun.
• 42:29
  I don't think that's as fun. So I think whenever you're
• 42:31
  taking over a team, it's OK. Who are your kids that you can
• 42:35
  build with? I think that's always key to
• 42:38
  know like, hey, these are my poor kids we've got to connect
• 42:41
  with. You're trying to connect with
• 42:42
  everybody, but the reality is when you're trying to take a
• 42:45
  team from a starting point to an ending point, like not
• 42:48
  everyone's going to make it. I think that's a big thing.
• 42:50
  Whenever I get got here, not everyone signed up for me,
• 42:55
  right? Like they got me.
• 42:56
  Doesn't mean they wanted this. Like there's that doesn't mean
• 43:00
  they wanted it. But like you're going to have
• 43:01
  more accountability, you're going to have more structure and
• 43:04
  some kids are going to rise up to that.
• 43:06
  And I think majority did, like I'd say 95% said, yes, I'm in.
• 43:11
  But I think they came from not as much accountability.
• 43:13
  You know, they didn't have to work.
• 43:15
  It was kind of an on your own thing.
• 43:17
  So I think they're in, there's just their standards to building
• 43:20
  a team that's a top team. And I think our vision here is
• 43:24
  like we are building a team that's going to be top 25.
• 43:27
  How quickly, I don't know. They just always depends on what
• 43:30
  happens, who buys in, who steps up, who doesn't.
• 43:34
  All of those factors come into play.
• 43:35
  But I think for me, I knew we had a core group and I know we
• 43:39
  have a great product to sell, which is much easier than I
• 43:42
  think Harden. Simmons was a harder, harder
• 43:44
  product to sell. Our area wasn't as nice, didn't
• 43:47
  have a nice field, right? Maryville's got a nice field,
• 43:49
  you got great equipment, you're at a great school, you're in a
• 43:53
  super safe area. There's nothing that happens
• 43:55
  here right there. Nothing, nothing any sort of bad
• 43:58
  thing that could happen here. Like they have AI cameras that
• 44:01
  track every there's it's so safe and it's nice to know that and
• 44:06
  be able to sell that. And so there's a lot of
• 44:09
  positive. So I knew that this turn around
• 44:11
  would be much faster. And so I know we have some
• 44:14
  pieces. I know this year it's like some
• 44:16
  growing pains, but it's, it's getting, you know, the type of
• 44:20
  kids in that you know, you can work with that signed up for
• 44:22
  you. And that always helps.
• 44:24
  And I think next year, we got more pitching, more depths, a
• 44:27
  lot more things in a lot of places to help build our talent
• 44:31
  up. But it definitely does take a
• 44:33
  process. And I think you talked with
• 44:35
  those returners and they kind of know, hey, this is what we're
• 44:37
  doing, they're in with it. And obviously this year, I think
• 44:41
  we hope that we could have more wins at this point than we have.
• 44:45
  But still last year he finished non conference 8 and 14.
• 44:48
  So it's like we're still doing better.
• 44:51
  It's still not the standard, but you also need to, you know, take
• 44:55
  the kids from where they're at right now and still being
• 44:57
  positive with them of hey, we can compete like, hey, we can go
• 45:01
  out there and beat the a top ten team in the nation this past
• 45:04
  weekend. We could have if we did XYZ
• 45:06
  correctly. And so there's a lot of good to
• 45:08
  be built on and it's just take some time from recruiting.
• 45:12
  I'm very, very big on the camps. So we do a ton of camps, ton of
• 45:15
  youth camps. You just have to build like the
• 45:18
  buzz around your team. And it's almost like if you're
• 45:20
  looking at the business side of it, like you're looking at
• 45:22
  rebranding the team. And so I feel like that was the
• 45:25
  biggest thing out the gate. I'm like, all right, we got to
• 45:28
  rebrand this thing because my thing is no one has heard of it.
• 45:31
  I feel like no one had heard of Maryville softball in the in the
• 45:33
  softball community. So I'm gonna get this out there.
• 45:36
  We're going to push this out there every day.
• 45:38
  We're going to put the facility video up there.
• 45:41
  And I think my camp sold out the first two weekends and it was
• 45:44
  conflicting with Missouri softball, high school softball.
• 45:46
  And we still got like 100 kids on campus in two weeks.
• 45:50
  It was crazy. So you have to build that buzz.
• 45:52
  You have to build that excitement.
• 45:53
  And then I think we're to the point where it's like, hey, now
• 45:55
  we got to start following through with like, hey, like,
• 45:59
  like I will always say, you know, with honesty where we're
• 46:01
  at, where the team's going. But there reaches a point where
• 46:04
  it's like, Hey, now we got to start taking that jump to show
• 46:06
  promise of hey, we're doing that and we were following through
• 46:09
  with what we're trying to build. But I think we've we've made a
• 46:12
  lot of strides. We have a lot of of positive
• 46:15
  going on, But it's definitely just kind of seeing through my
• 46:18
  process. And I think whenever I first was
• 46:20
  taking on the job, I had a long list of like, we got to tackle
• 46:23
  this, we got to tackle this, we got to tackle this.
• 46:25
  You know, we had the camps we have, you know, we have
• 46:27
  recruiting, which I was calling everyone I know who's left,
• 46:31
  who's the best kids left. We got to see them, We got to
• 46:34
  get eyes on them. Like now recruiting is not
• 46:36
  something I do passively. It's a I I take that seriously
• 46:40
  and then can then of course, when we got here, we spent a lot
• 46:43
  of time connecting with our current team.
• 46:45
  What's our current state? Where are we at?
• 46:48
  Try to build a good reputation with them, make sure they have
• 46:51
  good buy in with me and that takes some time.
• 46:54
  I think one of our kids actually apologized to me after six
• 46:57
  months. She said, Hey, I'm sorry.
• 46:59
  It took me a while to like be good with you because like I
• 47:02
  just didn't know if you were like the other people.
• 47:05
  I'm like, you know, just like just a trust issue, right,
• 47:07
  because you're like that's had some coaches and like it hasn't
• 47:10
  been it, right. So they're like, are you the
• 47:12
  same or are you real or are you like putting up a front?
• 47:15
  And so some of them take a little more time to to connect
• 47:19
  with. And I think the thing I did
• 47:21
  really the thing I did the most different now versus when I
• 47:25
  started at Hardin Simmons, because I gave a lot more grace
• 47:28
  with my standards. What you say that's like
• 47:31
  something you shouldn't do, right?
• 47:33
  Like I think you're like, oh, these are my standards or else.
• 47:35
  But I think like I've, I've, I've, I feel like I've grown a
• 47:39
  lot in this area since being a mom, right?
• 47:41
  Like you're a mom, you know, I mean, it's, you deal with a lot
• 47:44
  of things with two toddlers and it's just, is what it is.
• 47:47
  And so I think you just see things differently and you're
• 47:50
  like, OK, like there's a way that I can approach this kid and
• 47:53
  try to get through to her. Like one of our kids last year,
• 47:56
  one of our main kids, I was like, hey, like, why are we late
• 47:59
  again? Right.
• 48:00
  Like what's going on? Yes, you're going to have to
• 48:03
  run, but like, what's the deal? Kind of talking to them more
• 48:06
  about it. Yes, there's still a
• 48:07
  consequence, but like I'm not just yelling at them and
• 48:10
  shutting them off, right? Like I'm not just like away with
• 48:13
  you. I'm mad at you.
• 48:14
  I'm trying to figure out why and the reasons why that they've
• 48:18
  they're acting like that or why you haven't made the conscious
• 48:21
  decision to buy in and instead of immediately just getting
• 48:25
  frustrated. So I think as a young coach, I
• 48:28
  was just frustrated if someone didn't buy in and I'm like, you
• 48:31
  either do or you don't, but there's a, a why like in their
• 48:35
  process, they haven't had that. And so I'm trying to guide them
• 48:38
  to buy in. I mean, I think some of our
• 48:41
  returning kids that have struggled with that, like I've
• 48:43
  seen so much growth there and like they're, they, I mean,
• 48:46
  they're bought in now and it might have taken some kids will
• 48:49
  buy in within a month. Some kids it might be a year and
• 48:52
  a half like we're here and 1/2 in and I think they're finally
• 48:56
  getting it. I don't have to worry about them
• 48:58
  showing up on time, doing what they need to do, wearing the
• 49:01
  right shirt. Like all those smaller details
• 49:03
  that yes, they matter, but same time, like why is this kid not
• 49:07
  responding and then figuring that out?
• 49:09
  So I've grown a lot in that area.
• 49:11
  And I think that's the big thing is I've given a lot more grace
• 49:14
  to my rules, but still, OK, we still need to get there.
• 49:18
  But like, how, how can I help them get there without forcing
• 49:22
  them in it in it? I mean, I think allowing that to
• 49:25
  happen has helped us, I feel like have a lot more trust with
• 49:29
  this team. So I think that's the that's the
• 49:31
  biggest thing. When I start here, I'm like, I'm
• 49:32
  going to do this differently. Yeah, I have a lefty picture
• 49:35
  coming your way next year and she was showing me some of the
• 49:38
  pictures of your facilities there and just, you know,
• 49:41
  talking about you in the recruiting process.
• 49:43
  And yeah, it's man, don't sleep on Maryville if you're listening
• 49:46
  to this podcast because it's you guys have some real, I'm like,
• 49:49
  wow. Like your facilities will
• 49:51
  outshine some Division 1. So it's amazing.
• 49:54
  And, and Bridget is super happy to be going there next year.
• 49:58
  So I can't wait to see what she does there for you next year.
• 50:00
  Yeah, yeah, no, and she's that's the the good part when you're
• 50:03
  actually at a school that has more resources and, and
• 50:06
  everything, which is great because I really, I mean, we saw
• 50:10
  I saw her one time 1 fall had her on the list.
• 50:12
  And then I'm like, OK, we we were trying to get an
• 50:16
  upperclassman picture over the over the summer, right, a
• 50:18
  transfer to come to us and we just weren't able to get an
• 50:21
  older arm. So I'm like, all right, we're
• 50:22
  going to go younger. So that we circle back to
• 50:24
  Bridget pretty late, but we were still able to get it right.
• 50:27
  And I'm like, it's kind of a gamble because I always like
• 50:30
  having more of a relationship with the kids beforehand.
• 50:32
  But then when we got to know her, I'm like, OK, she's a solid
• 50:34
  kid and I was really excited that we got her.
• 50:38
  But I'm like, normally I have a lot more touch points recruiting
• 50:41
  a kid before we try to get them. But it was like, hey, KB, my
• 50:45
  assistant, I'm like, go see this lefty.
• 50:47
  I need you to go again, like now.
• 50:49
  She goes this weekend. I said.
• 50:50
  Now time's ticking. Yeah, we were at that point.
• 50:54
  I share her story all the time with parents that come in.
• 50:56
  I said, you see this kid right here and, you know, she has a
• 50:58
  banner hanging up on my wall. Mike commits to I'm like, this
• 51:01
  kid probably has it together more than most kids because she
• 51:04
  took time to go through the recruiting process and pick the
• 51:07
  best fit for her. So I just think, yeah.
• 51:10
  And again, when she showed me those cells, I'm like, how could
• 51:12
  you like, look at this? This is exactly what you're
• 51:14
  looking for. So that was that was great.
• 51:16
  So. Yeah, yeah, no, I think she's
• 51:19
  yeah, yeah, she's great. And yeah.
• 51:21
  So I think right now it's for staff, it's being my assistant
• 51:24
  KB and she does all the pitching.
• 51:26
  So that's where she, you know, was checking on this rain
• 51:28
  situation today. We are misty today.
• 51:31
  So we're looking after the pictures on the turf.
• 51:32
  But yeah, no, I think we we have a good, good thing going there.
• 51:36
  I think she loves pitching. She loves diving into that.
• 51:38
  That gives me more time to be my organizational self, make sure
• 51:42
  all my things are are dotted and crossed on the operation side of
• 51:46
  everything. And gives me that that breather
• 51:49
  because I know she, it's not easy when you're going to have
• 51:51
  to manage like, gosh, 4 to 6 pitchers every year.
• 51:54
  I mean, that's a task. Yeah, it's always a task.
• 51:58
  Speaking of recruiting, what do you look for in a recruit?
• 52:01
  What, what kind of draws you to someone immediately?
• 52:04
  And, and you know, is it something specific?
• 52:07
  Are you looking for positions or particular skills, or is it
• 52:10
  something more general? Yeah.
• 52:12
  So depending on the year, obviously I think we have a
• 52:14
  spreadsheet that, you know, if we're looking at 2829, which is
• 52:18
  so far out there, But if you run into a kid and you're like, hey,
• 52:20
  she catches my eye. Say she has good athleticism,
• 52:23
  good hand speed, whatever it is that you're like, Hey, I like
• 52:26
  that kid. He'll just add him on a list,
• 52:28
  right? Because you never know every
• 52:29
  year what you're going to need. I think for our 27 class, we're
• 52:33
  pretty specific right now, but you never know, Hey, season
• 52:36
  ends, Hey, there's a need here. Things can change.
• 52:39
  So we always have a general kind of spreadsheet and and try to
• 52:42
  figure things out there. But I think for me, like the big
• 52:45
  thing you have to be able to have, I think as a coach, and
• 52:48
  some people might have a better eye than others, but you have to
• 52:51
  be able to see where that kid can go, what's her potential.
• 52:54
  Obviously you want to be good now, but hey, where can this kid
• 52:58
  go? So I think the big thing with a
• 52:59
  lot of our hitters this fall is we had a couple kids, I think
• 53:03
  almost 3 or 4, gained 10 miles an hour in their exit velocity,
• 53:07
  which was insane. It was awesome.
• 53:09
  Almost everyone gained at least three to five for Jenna.
• 53:13
  Jenna already hits really hard, so gaining 2 or 3 is great.
• 53:16
  Once you get to the certain ceiling, it's like, OK, I can
• 53:19
  only gain one or two, but that's still great.
• 53:21
  But we had a lot of freshmen gain a lot of exit velocity,
• 53:24
  which was really, really big. So now, I mean, we're top ten.
• 53:28
  I think we're 12th or so on the NCAA for home runs right now.
• 53:33
  Our average needs to be better. We're working on that.
• 53:35
  But when we hit a ball, we hit the ball, we hit a ball farther.
• 53:38
  And so, you know, it doesn't mean that's always the type of
• 53:41
  kid we need. I really just want, I want
• 53:43
  righties. I want lefties.
• 53:45
  I feel like lefty slappers are harder to come by nowadays that
• 53:48
  are true speed, that get the ball on the ground and run, that
• 53:51
  are fast enough. And that's something that if we
• 53:54
  do get one, if we land one of those, it's always A+.
• 53:57
  At Hardin Simmons, I had one team that was just fast, fast.
• 54:00
  And I'm totally cool with whatever team the team offense
• 54:03
  presents itself as. We're going to roll with that.
• 54:06
  But ideally, obviously you're always going to look at the
• 54:10
  offensive side. On the defensive side, there's
• 54:12
  some non negotiables with infield, with catching.
• 54:15
  But I think on the personal side, like we like, I just want
• 54:18
  kids that are competitive, like right, like they really care
• 54:21
  about about playing. They love playing at a high
• 54:24
  level. I don't want to have to teach
• 54:26
  you to how to compete or how to like walk in and want to win.
• 54:31
  So it does help if you if you recruit kids that have won
• 54:34
  before. That's always helpful.
• 54:35
  Obviously you want that. I think a big one for us at
• 54:38
  Division 2 is can you get kids that have already played on a
• 54:41
  big competitive team, even if they weren't the starter every
• 54:45
  day, right? Like if they are at a top layer
• 54:47
  team, they're going to be able to help us.
• 54:49
  And I think those that sometimes can get slept on a little bit
• 54:52
  because they're going to know the game at a higher level.
• 54:54
  I'll have less teaching to do. All of that's fun, like they're
• 54:57
  more prepared and then they know how to play a role if that does
• 55:01
  happen their first year. And I think this is always
• 55:03
  something we always have to work through with freshmen in
• 55:06
  general. But I think it's hey, like
• 55:08
  you're everyone when they get to college is good and they're all
• 55:12
  competitive and it is hard. Freshman year's hard even
• 55:14
  playing, not playing. It's a lot, my gosh, a lot.
• 55:17
  And it's not for everybody. I always say it's not for
• 55:20
  everybody. If it's not for you, it's OK.
• 55:22
  But I do think you want to try to get kids that are competitive
• 55:25
  enough that they can work through that.
• 55:26
  Like, hey, I had a little bit of failure, but I can work through
• 55:29
  that because like, I've done this before.
• 55:31
  And so it's it's trying to get kids that, you know, have that
• 55:34
  good potential, but then have been brought up within the game
• 55:38
  a certain way that might be able to handle it better.
• 55:41
  So I want to talk to you about your coaching circle.
• 55:44
  Do you have a coaching circle like other coaches who opinions
• 55:47
  you value and trust? And if you do, do you tend to
• 55:50
  talk more about the technical aspects of like hitting and
• 55:52
  pitching, feeling, all that stuff, or is it more on the
• 55:55
  culture side and that? Sort we definitely talk about
• 55:58
  the culture side of it. So Coach Smith, who is my coach
• 56:01
  in college, that's at North Carolina, I'll talk to her or
• 56:04
  I'll talk to Coach McSweeney at South Dakota State.
• 56:06
  So I mean, it's normally just on like like team environment
• 56:10
  stuff. How do you handle this?
• 56:12
  Or hey, I've had this situation come up.
• 56:14
  What do you do? Because they've just been
• 56:16
  through it longer and it's really rarely ever on the
• 56:19
  software football side. I think if anything, we'll be
• 56:21
  like, like, we'll be like great job this weekend or hey, you
• 56:24
  know, wow, your kid hit that many home runs.
• 56:26
  That's great. You know, like we'll like kind
• 56:28
  of say stuff like that back and forth, but like not really ever
• 56:32
  is it like, you know, how to coach a position?
• 56:35
  It's really because that's not even the hard part of coaching.
• 56:38
  Like that's I feel like that's the fun part of coaching.
• 56:41
  Actually coaching that stuff is the fun part.
• 56:43
  All the other stuff is the not as fun part.
• 56:46
  And that's normally where most of your challenges come as a
• 56:48
  coach. It's not, it's not the coaching,
• 56:50
  the game itself. That's not where my stress comes
• 56:53
  at all. So how do you handle those
• 56:56
  difficult conversations? Maybe a player isn't performing
• 56:59
  on the field or maybe in the classroom or something like
• 57:02
  that. How do you approach that?
• 57:03
  Yeah, we'd like to just, you know, have a even whether it's a
• 57:06
  formal sit down or hey, we just check in at practice.
• 57:09
  But it's just just seeing mostly, hey, where are they at?
• 57:12
  Like, you know, how are they feeling mentally?
• 57:15
  I think, you know, you can't, you can't help them through it
• 57:18
  if you don't know where they are.
• 57:19
  So I think you just learn where they are.
• 57:21
  Hey, how can we help you through this?
• 57:23
  Or hey, do you need more clarity on why we're, you know, hey,
• 57:26
  you've gotten this much time. Why is that?
• 57:28
  This is what you need to do to improve all of those
• 57:31
  conversations. But I always tell them like,
• 57:33
  Hey, I'm available every time. I think every, I mean, you
• 57:36
  contact me and we can meet and then we can chat about stuff.
• 57:39
  I'd rather communicate directly then then then not know where
• 57:43
  they are. So we do three meetings every
• 57:45
  semester, faster formal ones that you have to go to.
• 57:48
  But like I have the kids that'll come by every week or two just
• 57:51
  to check in and say, hey, coach, what can I do this week?
• 57:53
  Or hey, like you want to add extra this time?
• 57:56
  Or I mean, I'm fine with that. Like I'd rather you, I'm here
• 57:59
  for you and I'm here to, you know, to help you.
• 58:01
  And so I would rather have those conversations ahead of time.
• 58:04
  And then when it comes to grades, grades are normally
• 58:06
  rare. I feel like for me, I let them
• 58:09
  that that be the thing that they, you know, they should own
• 58:11
  that for us. And maybe I'm rare, like I don't
• 58:14
  do study hall. Don't do your stuff right.
• 58:17
  You can do this on your own. And if they struggle with it, we
• 58:21
  will just be checking in with them more.
• 58:23
  But I think I checked in with another kid this week about it.
• 58:26
  I, you know, and it's like, hey, if you don't get your grades at
• 58:28
  this point, then you might have study hours, but that's not
• 58:32
  something I like to do. I would rather them have, you
• 58:36
  know, have have that accountability in themselves to
• 58:38
  kind of take care of things. And for the most part, our
• 58:41
  team's Gpas have still been really good.
• 58:43
  And I think if we've still been like in a 36 GPA, we're normally
• 58:46
  pretty high. So we have good kids.
• 58:48
  I just, it's normally when they are struggling with grades, it's
• 58:51
  struggling with life stuff. It's not even just the grades,
• 58:54
  it's normally that's normally the issue we're having.
• 58:57
  So just a just a few more questions for you, Shannon.
• 59:00
  Thank you for spending time with Ken.
• 59:01
  And I'd say we, we really appreciate your time.
• 59:03
  So, yeah, for sure. So I just wanted to know how do
• 59:06
  you continue to educate yourself?
• 59:07
  You talked a little bit about the baseball, So like and, and
• 59:10
  if it's important, where do you go to learn?
• 59:12
  And on top of that, is there anything that you're kind of
• 59:15
  digging into? Like, is there any new areas of
• 59:17
  knowledge that you're exploring? Yeah, So besides my casual
• 59:21
  watching of the Houston. Astros and college softball
• 59:24
  besides that and seeing because I normally know what our
• 59:27
  rotation will be like I'm I'm ridiculous we lost du bond,
• 59:31
  which I hate that I hate that for us, but it's fine.
• 59:35
  So anyways, I hate that but I'll be OK.
• 59:37
  But besides that like it's normally the baseball
• 59:40
  convention. It's, it's cheap online to get a
• 59:43
  membership and then watch after their conventions are over.
• 59:47
  And then with the archive of all the previous years that normally
• 59:50
  just like just listening, whether you apply it or not,
• 59:53
  like it's gonna kind of make you think, kind of rattle your brain
• 59:57
  a little bit. And so I like to do that.
• 1:00:00
  And then obviously there's a lot of content online.
• 1:00:02
  Doesn't mean it's always applicable.
• 1:00:04
  But there was a couple things this year where I was like, I
• 1:00:07
  found one page and I'm like, hey, we actually needed that
• 1:00:09
  drill right there. And that's really random, but it
• 1:00:12
  can't happen that way. And I think that's cool nowadays
• 1:00:14
  that you can look online and say, Hey, this kid needs this
• 1:00:17
  drill. That's.
• 1:00:17
  Great. What we did in the fall as we
• 1:00:20
  did just, it's real simple, but OK, we just did the blast
• 1:00:23
  metrics, right. And so we got those numbers and
• 1:00:26
  interesting, interestingly enough, we put it into AI, we
• 1:00:30
  just put it into ChatGPT. I'm like, Hey, what does this
• 1:00:32
  kid need? And I was like, interesting.
• 1:00:34
  And then we're like, OK, what does what, where does this kid
• 1:00:37
  like struggle with location in their swing of of where do they
• 1:00:41
  need to spend more time working on if there's a certain, you
• 1:00:43
  know, like in out, up, down, whatever right there.
• 1:00:46
  They gave us like a heat map too.
• 1:00:48
  And some of it was accurate, some of it was not as much, but
• 1:00:51
  it did give like a big elaborate thing where I'm like,
• 1:00:55
  interesting. So I honestly, I've been using
• 1:00:58
  AIA lot more on some stuff. I even did it for some preseason
• 1:01:01
  scouting reports and it gave me some pretty insight on some
• 1:01:05
  teams. I'm like, that was actually
• 1:01:06
  pretty cool, even on some pictures.
• 1:01:08
  And I'm like, how do they know that?
• 1:01:09
  And yeah, I'm going to look at those notes and then I'm going
• 1:01:12
  to look on film to like see how that is.
• 1:01:15
  But that speed up my time a lot because I feel like I spent a
• 1:01:18
  lot of time typing up reports. And I mean, I was like, AI make
• 1:01:22
  me a report boom with these stats and it ended up being
• 1:01:25
  pretty, pretty accurate. And then you add to it.
• 1:01:28
  But I think a lot of it is like how how can I do things faster
• 1:01:31
  and more efficiently? So I have been, I've been
• 1:01:35
  ChatGPT and a lot more than you know, then I think I would have
• 1:01:38
  admitted a year ago, but but it has helped me do things quicker,
• 1:01:43
  more efficient. And then when it comes to the
• 1:01:45
  defensive side of things, I spent a lot of time at South
• 1:01:48
  Dakota State just doing defense. So I think when I got here, I
• 1:01:51
  spent, I really had to switch gears to a lot more hitting
• 1:01:54
  because I have just a lot more hitters.
• 1:01:55
  I have a lot more time to do there.
• 1:01:57
  So it really honestly just depends on, hey, where, what
• 1:02:00
  does the team need right now? I'm going to spend more time
• 1:02:02
  figuring out what I can do to help that area.
• 1:02:05
  So I had to dive back into a lot more hitting here.
• 1:02:08
  That's not to go state. I just got to do defense, which
• 1:02:10
  was fun, but you had to get a lot more creative with defense
• 1:02:12
  there in fact, which is fun. We were in the indoor every day
• 1:02:18
  of the offseason, so it's good. So yeah, I was listening to
• 1:02:22
  another podcast from. NFCA, they had one and somebody
• 1:02:26
  else was doing it and they were talking to Anna Nickel at Game
• 1:02:28
  Changer and apparently they have some AI stuff in there now that
• 1:02:32
  you can put it in there and you can ask a question to say give
• 1:02:35
  me my most productive lineup and it'll actually give you a
• 1:02:38
  batting order suggestion. Yeah, we did that with ChatGPT 2
• 1:02:43
  and. It wasn't the most accurate, but
• 1:02:45
  it's OK, it's OK. It's OK cuz it's the metrics
• 1:02:48
  aren't always everything, right? Like it's not everything like
• 1:02:51
  just that was with the blast metrics.
• 1:02:53
  It was like, that's not it. You know, it's like, yeah,
• 1:02:55
  Jenna's definitely one through three.
• 1:02:57
  That didn't make sense. Thank you.
• 1:02:59
  So fun. Thank you for your input.
• 1:03:01
  But that's not accurate. And so it's fine, but it's just,
• 1:03:04
  it's just fun to look at that. And I always, I always look back
• 1:03:07
  at the numbers and I can, we have, I have my own detailed
• 1:03:10
  stuff that I look at in the fall that tells me the whole picture.
• 1:03:14
  And I like having a whole picture to where I look at it
• 1:03:16
  afterwards and be like, OK, who actually is our most productive
• 1:03:19
  if I'm just looking at the numbers?
• 1:03:21
  Because you can say somebody has a pretty swing or an ugly swing,
• 1:03:24
  but doesn't work, right? Like doesn't work.
• 1:03:26
  If it works, I don't care what swing it is.
• 1:03:29
  You're in, right? Like you are in and you're
• 1:03:31
  getting a job done. So I'm always about what's going
• 1:03:33
  to get the job done. You know, if we're facing that
• 1:03:35
  team or, you know, this opponent or whatever it is.
• 1:03:38
  But I always like to double check myself because as much as
• 1:03:41
  you like to say you don't have a bias like you naturally might.
• 1:03:44
  So you have to try to look at it with blank slate or hey, if you,
• 1:03:48
  I asked some people like, hey, looking at our numbers, who do
• 1:03:51
  you think's our best people or who would you suggest?
• 1:03:54
  You know, and it's always sometimes good to to check and
• 1:03:57
  make sure that you're on the right page or you're not missing
• 1:04:00
  something in that in that process.
• 1:04:02
  Yeah, that definitely makes sense.
• 1:04:03
  So you guys are off? To a pretty good start, I think,
• 1:04:06
  you know, heading in the right direction.
• 1:04:07
  What are your expectations for this year?
• 1:04:10
  I mean, we just want to, you know, keep growing, I think.
• 1:04:13
  Our our team motto is 40140 wins for championship.
• 1:04:18
  We've lost some more games, so maybe forty wins might not
• 1:04:20
  happen, but we are shooting team just to push them as far as they
• 1:04:24
  can go. And I think that's always your
• 1:04:25
  goal. You don't want you can't push
• 1:04:27
  A-Team pass where they can't they're capable.
• 1:04:30
  It's like you can't ask them to go do something they can't do.
• 1:04:33
  And so I think right now, yeah, we'll meet again as a team
• 1:04:36
  probably next week just to reassess, hey, we're going into
• 1:04:38
  conference play. How are we looking to have our
• 1:04:41
  goals changed at all? But I think they they know
• 1:04:44
  they're capable and I think we just need to start going on, you
• 1:04:48
  know, bit of more of a win streak.
• 1:04:49
  But regardless of that happens or that doesn't, I think you we
• 1:04:52
  just have to look at that team and say how what can we do to
• 1:04:55
  get the most out of this team the next year?
• 1:04:57
  It's like, OK, now I'm going to ask more of that team.
• 1:04:59
  So maybe 4 O1 might have been a little gutsy, but it can still
• 1:05:03
  happen. I think we still won over 30
• 1:05:05
  games last year and we only won eight non conference games.
• 1:05:09
  So it can still happen. And that's why I tell the team
• 1:05:11
  like I think that some of the newbies are a little down.
• 1:05:14
  I'm like, I'm fine. Like I think it's yeah, OK.
• 1:05:17
  Forty wins might be tough to ask right now, but like that's OK.
• 1:05:20
  Like it's OK to have high X expectations and fall a little
• 1:05:23
  short. That's OK.
• 1:05:24
  But I didn't think we were going to start the season saying we're
• 1:05:26
  going to win 30 because we did that last year.
• 1:05:28
  It's like that's not enough, right?
• 1:05:29
  Like we about did that last year.
• 1:05:30
  We won 28 games last year. It's like that's not asking
• 1:05:33
  enough because we can do better. So I think it's just, it's just
• 1:05:36
  continuing to kind of push them where they can go.
• 1:05:39
  And you know, it's knowing when to push them and knowing when,
• 1:05:41
  hey, let's pull back and let's just let them let them figure it
• 1:05:44
  out themselves too. I think you got to know the push
• 1:05:47
  and pull, not always push like I did back in the day.
• 1:05:50
  You got to know when to pull back.
• 1:05:52
  So that's always a big one. And I think right now, I think
• 1:05:55
  last weekend we kind of pushed him a little bit.
• 1:05:57
  So this weekend I'm trying to take a step back and be like,
• 1:05:59
  all right, can we just respond? Can we just go play?
• 1:06:03
  Can we come together? And that's kind of what I'm
• 1:06:05
  hoping to see because I think we know last weekend we should have
• 1:06:09
  won at least a game or two more than we did.
• 1:06:11
  So I think it's just, hey, let's, let's respond and let's
• 1:06:15
  stay together and they keep working.
• 1:06:17
  But, you know, we have a great group of girls and, you know,
• 1:06:19
  and I, you know, love going to practice with them every day.
• 1:06:22
  They're they're a fun group and really just good kids.
• 1:06:25
  And so. So I'm hoping we can just kind
• 1:06:27
  of come together and just see what we can do to make the most
• 1:06:30
  out of this year. Yeah.
• 1:06:31
  And I think that's always the hard thing for a coach is that,
• 1:06:33
  you know, we. Always want to fix everything,
• 1:06:35
  and sometimes you just have to take that step back and let them
• 1:06:38
  figure it out. That's still hard.
• 1:06:39
  That's what I told him. I'm like, all right, hitters,
• 1:06:41
  like I've already told. You about this picture, we've
• 1:06:43
  already seen film. Like I'm going to not say much
• 1:06:46
  today. I'm like, I need to see you guys
• 1:06:47
  to just go and it's like just start, start going and not
• 1:06:50
  feeling like I'm leading them in every every, you know, every
• 1:06:54
  step of the game. It's like, hey, come on, like
• 1:06:56
  let's start to go. So hopefully we could see more
• 1:06:59
  of that this weekend. I think, yeah, I think the team
• 1:07:01
  should be in a good place where at home, you know, I think
• 1:07:04
  regardless it's like you just want want the kids to just be
• 1:07:07
  able to to play and and just have a positive kind of finish
• 1:07:12
  of non conference into conference play.
• 1:07:15
  OK, Last question for you before we let you go.
• 1:07:18
  We ask this of everybody. So do you have any hidden
• 1:07:20
  talents or something people would be surprised to learn
• 1:07:22
  about you, man. Yeah.
• 1:07:24
  Hidden talent. I mean the only only thing.
• 1:07:26
  When I read this one, never thought about this one is, Yeah.
• 1:07:30
  I mean, I'm a bit of a cook. I know I can cook just about
• 1:07:33
  anything. I don't have as much time
• 1:07:35
  anymore with two children. But yeah, I grew up cooking for
• 1:07:38
  my family. I can cook.
• 1:07:39
  I mean, I cooked dinner for our family when I was third grade,
• 1:07:42
  4th grade, Like, I cooked all the time.
• 1:07:44
  So I know how to cook just about anything.
• 1:07:47
  When I was younger, I thought I wanted to be a chef, but then I
• 1:07:49
  was like, Nah, not really then. Not really.
• 1:07:52
  If you look at what they do, it's like, yeah, not really.
• 1:07:54
  But I do love cooking. And I love, you know, trying to
• 1:07:57
  host and take care of people. I like that part of it too.
• 1:07:59
  So yeah. So I just, I just enjoy, you
• 1:08:02
  know, make it food, desserts, all that stuff.
• 1:08:04
  So what's your, what's your favorite?
• 1:08:06
  What's your What's your signature?
• 1:08:07
  Thing you want to impress somebody Signature.
• 1:08:11
  I mean, there's a lot there. I can do a lot of different
• 1:08:12
  things. But I probably think I'm really
• 1:08:14
  good with just, yeah, we could do fajitas, you could do Mexican
• 1:08:17
  foods. Sometimes you go somewhere and
• 1:08:18
  I'm like, I can make better than that.
• 1:08:23
  I think my assistant. KB I cooked for her one day and
• 1:08:26
  it was like a Mexican dish. And she goes, Oh my God, this is
• 1:08:28
  better than Chipotle. She was so excited about it was
• 1:08:31
  better than Chipotle because I've made her food one night and
• 1:08:34
  I'm like, hey, I do this all the time.
• 1:08:36
  I refried beans and rice and all that.
• 1:08:37
  It's like, I got you, you know? So.
• 1:08:40
  So yeah, no, I just love cooking all that stuff.
• 1:08:42
  And then I think growing up, because we used to do the snack
• 1:08:45
  bar in California that we always sold food.
• 1:08:47
  I would make hundreds of cookies, chocolate chip cookies
• 1:08:50
  for days. Like I got that recipe
• 1:08:52
  memorized. I can make it from scratch all
• 1:08:54
  day. So that's the kind of stuff like
• 1:08:56
  just growing up, I did did a lot of that.
• 1:08:58
  Or my dad would just be like, hey, can you make me cookies all
• 1:09:01
  the time? I'm like, come on.
• 1:09:03
  So yeah, so that we yeah, that's just kind of one of the things
• 1:09:07
  from just growing up. I always did that.
• 1:09:08
  But you know, I enjoy, I enjoy that part of of stuff.
• 1:09:12
  So that's great. Well, Shannon, we told you to be
• 1:09:15
  about an. Hour we're a little bit longer
• 1:09:17
  than that as we usually are but we do appreciate all the time
• 1:09:21
  hopefully the rain has stopped by now and you guys can get out
• 1:09:24
  on the field today yeah, I hope yeah, I know I'm gonna go check
• 1:09:27
  and otherwise I'm. Gonna have to make some calls so
• 1:09:29
  we'll see. All righty.
• 1:09:32
  Well, again, thanks so much for being.
• 1:09:34
  With us, we do appreciate it. All right, thank you.
• 1:09:37
  All right, that's it for us this week.
• 1:09:39
  Thanks. To all of you for.
• 1:09:40
  Listening and the kind words you've been sharing with us.
• 1:09:42
  If you like what you're hearing, Please remember to give us a
• 1:09:44
  like, leave a comment and share this podcast on your social
• 1:09:48
  media channels. Make sure you never miss an
• 1:09:50
  episode by following us on your favorite podcast platform,
• 1:09:53
  including YouTube. Now we're we're on there.
• 1:09:56
  So also, if you're so inclined, you can leave us a great review
• 1:09:59
  on Apple Podcasts to help more people find us.
• 1:10:02
  On behalf of the From the Coach's Mouth podcast, have a
• 1:10:05
  great rest of your week and weekend.