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3 Guys Before The Game - WVU Baseball Coach Steve Sabins Visits (Episode 646) · 3 Guys Before The Game

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Hey, what do you say. Don't look now, but that
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: calendar is winding down in the month of July, which
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: means the summer series on Three Guys before the Game
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is also starting to wind down. You know a lot
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of people get complacent when things come to the end.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Not the summer series. We just get better and better
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and better as time goes on. Willy says, save the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: best for last.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, are we last?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Though we're close? We got one of them? Well, only
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I want like one more of these.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I thought you were gonna say, because the days are
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: getting shorter, and then we're about to turn the page.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: It's almost spring. We're gonna talk about.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Baseb pretty close. We've got Have I ever said this before?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: We got a good one for you, first time Mountaineer
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: baseball coach Steve Sabans. Let's do this thing. Three guys
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: brought to us by Jan Dill's attorneys at law. They won't,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I said, They simply won't take no for an answer.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: By Comac's Business Systems keeping West Virginia's business data safe,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: secure and efficient for twenty five years by Gomart. Get
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a Gomart rewards car. Go to gomart dot com for details.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: By lou Wendell Marine Sales and saying albus they sell
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: family fun. In fact, Coach Sabins came in on the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: mon river, got off a beachursed over there on a pontoon.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Today visit lou Wendellmarne Sales dot Com. Three guys also
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: brought to us by Tutor's Biscuit World Starts your Day
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the Homemade Way with a Tutor's Biscuit and by Connley
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: CPA Group providing value beyond Numbers. I'm always excited when
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: we start a show. Most of the time, I'm excited
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: when it's over too. I mean, I enjoy the whole
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: process here, but I'm fanboying a little bit today. I'm excited, seriously,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Like several times this morning, I said to myself, this
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: is gonna be good. We've got Sabans in here again.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: This is gonna be good. Welcome back to the show.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Thanks a ton for having me. Always fun, second time
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: I've had the luxury of being here.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're multiple visit guy, that's a whole different
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: area going well. Well, yeah, when you're yeah, I mean
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: you're a multiple visit guy. Now it's kind of like, uh,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: you know, organized crime you're a made man, like once
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: you come back more than once you're in the well.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: In all seriousness, I appreciate you guys before we dive
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: into this, just keeping up throughout the season, getting text
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: messages from you, Tony and Brad and keeping up with
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: the team and knowing what's going on.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It's cool.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: You start feeling like there's a community of people around
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: you that care and they're kind of sweating out these
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: games and they're following your players, and it makes you
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: feel like you belong to something.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: So I appreciate that. Yeah, your sport in particular, I
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: don't know what it is, but from a fans perspective,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: following and watching, they are gut grinders. Like you're always like, oh,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: like like that's it doesn't know, you agree, it grinds you.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I know, you take it from a different perspective because
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: it's just.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Like you no what grinds And I hear it from
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: I hear it from my wife all the time. It's
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: just like you start getting invested, and once you're invested,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: oh yeah, it's gut punches after gut punches, and usually
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: at the end it's just kind of.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: A breath of a relaxation.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: If you get the win, it's like, I think it
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: feels good that we won, but it's over and we're
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: singing country roads, so it's all good.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what a year, dude, forty four sixteen, I mean,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: where you guys went to? That was? That was you
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: can't you could not have scripted that first if this
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: was your tenth year as the head coach. That's a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: storybook season.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Recount it not just forty four Big twelve championships, super regional.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly like what you did in your first year. That's
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: that's like storybook stuff. Yeah, it's been incredible.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: When I talk about it, you always talk about this story,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: this longer, bigger story. So I think some people were
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: excited about the individual season snapshot. But we've been working
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: a lot of people been working for a really long
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: time for a decade since I've been here, and coach
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Maysie was here before that. But yeah, there was there
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: was a point when you made the first regional and
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: guys didn't know you really had a baseball team here
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: in twenty seventeen, and then you had your first first rounder,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: and then you host a regional and now we've gone
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: to back to back to back regionals for the first
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: time in sixty one years, and back to back supers
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: for the first time in program history. You sprinkle in
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: a couple of big twelve titles over the last three years,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: and it feels like you've been able to continue momentum on.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: So I don't usually differentiate between I was an assistant
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: or I was a volunteer, or I was the head coach,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: because it really has been this focus of moving a
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: program forward and doing something special here for a long time,
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: and so obviously, as a leader of the program and
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: head coach, you want to have success. But it definitely
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: didn't change from when I first got here in twenty sixteen.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I wanted it just as bad, and I was sweating
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: out everything that we were doing, and you're trying to
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: find players. So there's zero difference to me on who's
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: who's sitting in that chair, and just people have different
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: roles inside that team. So that's something that we push.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: But I think in order to have success, you have
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: to actually believe it. You have to actually know that
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: you got a whole bunch of people involved in this thing.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: It was ninety six people players, staff and coaches, and
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: so those ninety six people, and then you sprinkle in
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: donors and supporters and you guys covering it and people
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: gaining traction, and it's it's a state, right, it's a university.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Like no, bullshit, I don't know, sorry, I don't probably
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: can't say that's much fine, fine, good, Yeah, it's podcast podcast. Yeah,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: it takes that, right. You start to realize the longer
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: you're here. I've been here ten years now, you just
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: start to realize. Oh, like they call it a program
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: for a reason. It takes a whole bunch of effort
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: from a bunch of people that are doing and doing
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: hard work if you want to compete. When you know,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: we finished thirteenth in the nation, we've been top sixteen
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: for the last two years in a row. Well, there's
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: other good programs, and there's other states that have more
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: baseball players playing in them, and there's other schools that
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: got some pretty solid donors. So you have to differentiate
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: yourself in the care level at West Virginia and inside
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: of our program is taken off exponentially, and so because
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: of that, you start being able to stack some of
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: these things and start being able to do some cool stuff.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, two sides to that. Firstly, I'll use an agricultural
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: analogy here, So you guys planted seeds back to the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: days of Hawley Field and getting into the Big twelve,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and you just patiently, patiently, just kept watering and watering,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and then so all of a sudden, now and now
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: it's grown right, and you've got that, so you've got
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: great harvest. The second part of it is from a
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: fans perspective, the same analogy holds true, like if there
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was ever a better example of the old field of
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: dreams saying if you build it, they will come, it's this.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: So not only do you have this beautiful stadium, you
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: you put that together with a high rate of success
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: that had never been seen before in program history, and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: like flowers blooming, like fans went like, whoa, I'm in
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: on this, and you know, this had the baseball feel,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and the popularity of baseball has just mushroom clouded. And
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: it's great to see because now you're like football's football
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and basketball's basketball, right, and now baseball is like, we go,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: all right, we're going to be there, and West Virginia
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: fans like, so to me, it's just like this, it's
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: as storybook. It isn't.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: It's been incredible, and we've had to learn like how
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to adjust even from like an expectation standpoint with the
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: players and from the staff, and this year was incredible.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Like you take over a program, and there's usually about
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: three options when you take over a programs either really
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: stinky and you could do anything and have a pulse
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: and you're gonna look like you're smart, and you can
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: take over something that's just absolutely historic, and somebody moved
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: on because they did such a good job and took
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: another job and that's obviously hard to follow. And then
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: in our situation, coach Mazie had done an incredible job
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: and built something and passed it on to an assistance.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: It's kind of like three basically opportunities there. And so
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: there was there was ups and downs, i think perception
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: wise and what was going on with the program and
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: in general quality. But we laughed as a staff because
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: we heard more positive and more negative than we had
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: ever heard in history in my ten years being there,
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: and I basically accounted for like there's a bunch of
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: people that care. Like before there wasn't enough people in
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: the room to hear any noise, good, bad, or indifferent, right,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: And so that part, like you said, like when it
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: mushroom clouded and it was just it was we had
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: to start teaching players like, hey, this is what big
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: time sports is like in this community. Like you're gonna
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: hear when we suck, and you're gonna hear when the
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: head coach sucks or right decisions not right. So really
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: this year and last year we started getting into that
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: ballpark where there are so many people that cared. You
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: start hear in some of those outside voices a little bit.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, as this brand has grown, you're obviously stacking really
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: good recruiting class on top of recruiting class. Right, you
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: don't get where you are without some great players, and
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: certainly that's been the case over the last how many years.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Where have you seen the biggest difference when you're out
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: on the road, you're recruiting, you're talking to guys that
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: you're trying to get here to West Virginia. Where has
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: all this winning the last couple of years shown itself
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: to be the biggest difference in your program When you're
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: out there with.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: The transfer portal kids, it's been the winning immediately. So
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: before you used to have these recruiting classes. You would
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: recruit two or three years before kids would get to campus.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: And so if you won or went to a super
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: or had the best year in program history like we
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: just had, you couldn't see immediate results. It was like
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: the those kids were committed and signed grant and aids
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: years ago. So now you're starting to get the immediacy
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: of the success translating to the portal commitments. And so
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: guys like, yeah, I'd love to play on a top
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: fifteen team in the nation, right, and so you're winning
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: on some of those players. And the high school ranks regionally,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: were the best baseball program in this region and it's
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: not close. And so from a high school ranks, if
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: somebody doesn't want to play here, it's because they don't
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: want to be the best, they don't want to have
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: the best resources, they want to go far away from home,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: those kind of things. And so we've definitely submitted ourselves
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: on the high school side of things where if you're
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: a player in this region, this is where you want
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: to go to school. From a developmental standpoint, we do
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: still have work on the talent spectrum, Like we're still
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: competing to be the best as far as bringing the
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: best talent in the country, we don't usually miss on
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: hard work, grit, people that want to be here. Those
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: are the most important things. But it gives you a
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: little bit of a clue insight into this draft. We
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: had one player taken within the top two hundred picks
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: of the draft. Arizona State had nine, right, and so
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: not that not that that matters or you compare or
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: but there is some sort of like you're always fighting
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: to be the most talented team, but the most talented
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: team doesn't necessarily win the most games, right, And that's
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: not always correlated. But if you can have the right
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: kid with the right grid, in the right makeup and
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: you're super talented, you got a chance of continuing to
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: do things that had never been done in program history.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: And so we're going to keep pushing out that. But
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: we do have more room for growth when it comes
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: to recruiting the best talent in the nation.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Using the old school grading method of ABCD, grade yourself
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: in decision making in that game in season one, I'll.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Go, I'll go with a B. You don't know what
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: you don't know? And I'd never been in that seat before,
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: and so obviously felt really good about the preparation the
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: decisions going into game, and then once you're in game,
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: until you start making those decisions, you've got nothing to
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: base it off of. So you start seeing the successes
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: the failures. By the end of the year, it starts
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: to filter, it starts to filter itself out, and so
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: you start to understand who can do what in what areas.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: But going into a fall, now, as you prepare, you
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: start looking for those things and you start correlating what
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: happened in the spring to what you need to see
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: in the fall for somebody.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: To be successful.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: So probably a little bit less trial and error next year.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Probably the most important thing is just it's very easy
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: when you make the decisions in the game to be conservative,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: but conservative normally gets your ass kicked, Like you have
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: to be fearless and aggressive when you make decisions, and
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: you have to only play to win. Sometimes if you're
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: the most talent on the team, or if you've consistently
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: won like we did all year, it can be like, well,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: we're probably going to win, so let's play the conservative route,
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: and it's just not it's just not going to pay off.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: And so if anything truly I missed on the aggressive side.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: I didn't miss on the conservative side this year, that's
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: for sure.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And I felt like.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: I felt like we didn't have a lot to lose.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: We just had our best season in program history of
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: the year before. We lost seventy five percent of our innings.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: We had one player draft from the top two hundred picks.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: You had a new head coach that had a five
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: year deal, So let's go right, like, go make decisions aggressively,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: and I wanted my players to play fearless and aggressive,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: and you'll run into You'll run into teams that are
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: just the coaching decisions are timid. The coach's decisions are
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: to not screw up, and when you do that, you're
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: not going to win a national championship. You might survive
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: another year, but the goals to be the best and
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: if if you do that, you got to put players
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: in positions to win games. Put the best guy in there.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's a voll tile player or someone that's not
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: as consistent as you would like, but it comes down
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: to trust and playing aggressively.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, where does that Where did
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: those decisions show up to you where it was like, Okay,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: I've not been in this seat before.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Is it pitching changes? Is it lineup changes? I mean
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the running the basest thing you've done. You've been there,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: you've done that. Where did it show itself?
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: Literally all those things Mays. Mays was extremely active on
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: field coach, so the days where like he was probably
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: the only coach left in the country that called pitches,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: made pitching changes, and ran the offense. He was literally
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: the last man standing of that era. So nobody in
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: the game does that. And so I make pitching changes
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: with a lot of opinions from our staff, and I
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: run the offense. But coach one calls the pitches. So
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: you can imagine if you call every pitch fastball away,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: fastball up, slider, I want you to bounce the change up, down, up,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: and in right. So you're literally playing a video game
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: every pitch right. But then as this guy's wearing down,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: who's called to the bullpen to get the next guy hot,
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: who's looking at the lineup that's coming up behind this
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: hitter to make sure that the right matchup is on deck.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: And then the inning's over and you have to think
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: about if this guy gets on, we need to steal
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: and take advantage of this picture that's slow to the plate.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: We need to have a bunch situation set up. I
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: need to have a pitch hitter ready because we're down.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: There's so many things going on, so it's almost unrealistic
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: to do it at a very high level. So probably
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: the biggest things that I noticed. I was a hitter
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: by trade, and so my patients probably for pictures getting
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: out of trouble was probably low, meaning if someone wasn't
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: throwing strikes or not having success early, it was next
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: man up. And so I probably needed to learn to
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: be a little bit more patient with our pitching staff
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: occasionally because and I'm not somebody that rips the ball
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: out or gets emotional about it. I just I'm fairly
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: aggressive because they all work hard, they all train, and
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: if someone's not getting the job done, I want the
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: next man up kind of scenario. Running the offense very comfortable.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: I've done that basically against Mazie, So in the Falls
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: scrimmages for ten years. He would call pitches and try
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: to get hitters out, and I would try to score runs.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: And I always beat May's obviously in that scenario, and
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: that's why we got good at running the offense.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Is there a decision that you made that has had
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you now a couple of months after the season has
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: been over that at any various time it pops into
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: your head and you curse under your breath that you
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: made that decision.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: No, I'm I don't hold on to things really, Like
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: in general, I don't hold on to player mistakes. I
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: don't hold on to issues. I honestly couldn't give you
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: one of those things that haunts me at night. I'm
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: a lunatic when it comes to the preparation side. So
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: I sleep well knowing like I did everything in my
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: power with the accurate information to make the decision in
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: that moment, and so I really don't have any of that.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: It probably helps when you have the best season in
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: program history and go to a super and win a
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: Big twelve title, So like that's probably helps that that fact.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Gives you a little amnesia. Yeah. Yeah.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: And if there's one pitch at the end of the
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: game and you got a chance to move on and
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: you make a decision, it goes the wrong way. But
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: I tell I preach our prep players like hell, like
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: you got to go next pitch, Like if you're really
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: in this foxhole. When all of us are together doing this,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: then I'm not worried about the last play, like make
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: a better decision, move forward, And so I don't know
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: if that's a good thing or a bad thing as
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: a coach, but I move forward pretty quickly.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Go back to recruitment and development, because you're alls identification
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: and development of guys has been unbelievable to stay with
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: the D two guys for a secondkle West on the
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: hitting side. But we can go back to pitching with
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Derek Clark and then Griffin Kern following, and then here
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: comes another the D two pitcher of the year coming
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: in and the in corn what's led to that? How
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: walk us through that process? Because I think with baseball
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: it's a really fascinating angle and that you've been around
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: this game a long time. I played the game. If
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: you can play the game, you can play the game.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: If you throw eighty nine miles an hour ninety three
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: miles and are you throw ninety three miles an hour,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what school you're doing it at. It
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: feels to me as if the coming up a level
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: is more transferable in baseball maybe than some other sports.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: You guys have clearly identified that and had some great,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: great hits with that. Walk us through the process.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Well, you talk about fearless and aggressive. I think in general,
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: human nature is to be validated. I recruited this guy
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: who's ranked this I recruited this guy, and he's from
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: this program, And so coaches are human.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: They want to be.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Validated by their decisions. But we just have come to
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: the conclusion that if we're going to fight to be
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: the best here, then we can't do what everyone else does.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: And there's certain limitations at West Virginia, just like there's
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: certain limitations at every other institution. But we found something
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: in this philosophy where we really talk about not caring
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: what a recruiting publication says, or what the fans say
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: about the recruiting class, or what we hear, because when
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: the dust settles, it's about winning ball games and creating
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: great players and player development. And so I think it
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: really it takes a little takes some balls, it takes
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: a little bit of courage, and I challenge our staff
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: and our recruiters are on the road, don't compare where
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: this guy's got an offer to because it's not football
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: and basketball the guy that can jump the highest and
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: run the fastest and hit the hardest, and that guy
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: can probably play football at this level. So maybe there's
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: some point that he's got an offer to Penn State,
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: Kentucky Virgins, any in Texas in football.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: But for us, it's just the opposite.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: It's just like, I actually want my guys to have
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: blinders on and just go after the guys that we
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: think will help us. And so, like, you can get
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: really confused in baseball because it's such a skill oriented sport.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: It's not the best athlete isn't the best player in
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: our game, And when you're talking about recruiting services and
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: you're talking about all these other things, it's just easy
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: to go after the best athlete, the guy who looks
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: great in the uniform, but it's not always the best player.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: So I think more than anything, it's that mentality of
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: find the best player. And some of these kids develop
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: when they're twenty one, twenty two. Some of them developed
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: when they're seventeen. Some of them are really good when
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: they're fifteen, and they suck when they're twenty one, And
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: so it's about trying to figure out, well, why did
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: the guy end up at D two. Well, he weighed
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: one hundred and twelve pounds and he grew up in
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: the same town as when he went to school, and
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: he never played in the select ball tournament and wasn't
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: part of the showcase circuits circuit. So you start saying, well,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: that makes sense. That's maybe why that guy has developed
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: and that's why he's ready to go, and so uh,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: it's it's about learning these individual stories of each recruit
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: and figuring out if.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: It would be a good fit. Here, you were really hungry,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: how many Tutors biscuits could you eat it?
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Once?
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Two?
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: I could probably put down three. You think you could
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: do three?
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Three?
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Speaking of Tutor's biscuits, we need some nil with Tutors biscuits,
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: maybe like a biscuit baller of the week. We need
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: to get something going.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what do we want to do? They're very they're
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: very that will work. They'll work with you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: we need to get them going. So how do you
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: want to do that?
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: We want to pay back to back threes. By the way,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Eddie Vester Nnan when he could do the Vester in is.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: You think you could do three? I think so?
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: I think the Tutors should probably sponsored the heaviest guy
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: on our team and he could be the biscuit Baller
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: of the Year and really represent Tutors. Yeah, we could
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: do a biscuit eating contest with the team.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Or an outfielder, Like when he makes a nice catch,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: he puts the biscuit the basket, right, you do something
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: like that. There's the Tutor's biscuit in the basket. Yeah, yeah,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: we could do that. Okay. By the way, we're winding
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: down to the final several days of your opportunity. To
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: win one hundred dollars gift card from Tutors, all you
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: have to do is go to vote Tutors biscuit dot com.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Wait a sect, let me get that right.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: That was wrong.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Vote Tutors Merch. Vote Tutors merch dot com. You pick
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: what gear you want them to sell in their merch
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: department coming up, and as soon as you do that
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and sign up, you qualify to win one hundred dollars
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: gift card. I've already done it. Then that's a lot
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: of biscuits. So yeah, okay, well, yeah, Tutors work. They're
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: good people, they're nice people. They'll they'll take care of you.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: We can where they based out of Well, they're all
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: over seventy plus locations across the state. Franchises, by the way,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: are available, and we could have just like a one
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Mountaineer baseball franchise Tutors.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: That'd be pround of good, right, that'd be great.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So they're all over the place, seventy seventy plus. Okay,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: vote Tutors merch dot com and then you might be
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: seeing the new Tutors biscuit in a basket For an outfielder.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: You had some nice outfield catches this year. Incredible, huh.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: All three of those studs are gone. So we have
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: Kyle Kyle West and Skyler King and Jace Reinhart. They
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: played the majority of the time out there. So we'll
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: have a new look Mountaineers coming in the outfield.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: How much new biscuit, new biscuits and the basket opportunities ballers.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Last year you lost seventy five percent of your innings. Yes,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: what's the percentage this year?
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Fifty five percent of the innings on the mound, seventy
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: five percent of the at bats. So that's the big
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: change is that the offense is going to be new.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: We like what we brought in. Uh, I'm proud of
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: what we did in recruiting. We signed thirteen transfer portal
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: players fourteen. We lost one to the draft, but we
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: were hustling. Over six weeks we signed those fourteen players,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: so about two and a half players per week.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Walk us into that. How much quote unquote pre work
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: can you do about the portal before the portal actually
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: opens as much as you want? What do you guys do,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Like how how many of these guys had been id'd
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: before the seat, you know, before they put their name
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: into the portal. Not that you're tampering, because that's not
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: you're I mean, you're straight up guy, not that you're tampering,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: but like you guys acted quickly, like it was like
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: boom boom, West Virginia got this, West Virginia got this.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Was like it was you want like advanced scouting type.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: St Yeah, you have to.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: You have to be aware of what's going on around
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: the country with the talent. You have to be prepared.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: So it's just like anything. You don't know what these
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: players are going to do individually. You don't know if
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: someone's going to enter the transfer.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Portal or not.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: But when they do, the team that's contacts the first,
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: the team that sets up visits the first, the team
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: that puts an offer out on the table first, they
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: have some sort of advantage. It's incredible. You talk to
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: a lot of these a lot of these players. They
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: get contacted by hundreds of schools, but there's always these
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: initial conversations. There's always excitement of Hey, I'm with school
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: X and just wanted to see your intro level. Why'd
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: you enter the portal? What are you thinking? How are
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: things going awesome? We'll be in touch with you. The
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: only problem is we'll be in touch with you. It
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: starts to lose a little bit of that power over
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: the course of ten days when fifteen twenty other schools call,
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: and so we try to do a good job of
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: identifying knowing who's out there when they go into the portal.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: Sometimes we'll have an initial call, but it's basically followed
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: up by me or I'm calling originally quickly with an offer.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: So I think that's the biggest difference. That takes a
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: lot of work. It might not be sustainable for the
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: next thirty years of this system stays that way, but
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: essentially on the phone with the head coach with an
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: offer in hand. So there's no like I think they
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: like me. I don't know if.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: They like me.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: It's like SABS called me, offered me, is pushing me
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: to get on a plane tomorrow, right, And so it's
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: just we're trying to move quickly. By the time some
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: other schools made an offer, oftentimes they've already had a
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: stake on my deck, and so there's just some sort
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: of relationship that had been created.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm. You're cooking them on the back. What the
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: girl situation turned out to be?
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, solid lot of olive Areos catering going on. That's
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: free plub I'm not yet, yeah, from all of Areos.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: It's not your flagship. What about Rep cav you've been
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: doing You did a big thing with Rep cat.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, Red Cab Barbecue was incredible. He provided a
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: full dinner for all of the incoming freshmen, so them
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: and their parents got to eat some delicious barbecue at
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: the house.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: That would get deals done, right, I mean, like that
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: gets deals done. He brings that brisket out there and
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: they go like, speaking of biscuits, brisket, Well, he does
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: that brisket. All our brisk at our food court. He
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: that's what he does. Yes, he does. He does briskets
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: on the biscuit.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Three guys, food court coming soon.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we start. Have you ever been over yet? You're
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: around in the fall you stop.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: By, Oh I've been over over Yeah yeah, yeah, cool,
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: I went and picked up some catering.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Oh that's right. I was an early adopter. I'm in.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm always in.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: So I'm really intrigued. So you just call a kid
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that has a name in the portal, you guys id'ed
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: him and go like saves, call them, offer them now
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: sight unseen. We're in. Yeah, you got to be in.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: And that's you're trying to find some sort of edge,
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: and there's there's red flags and there's green flags, and
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: you're talking, there's agents involved, and there's coaches and you're
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: getting character check and you're trying to figure it out.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: And it's not done until it's done. So you want
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: to spend time with the kid. And so he may
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: not think that's an interview on the visit, but that's
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: an interview on the visit. So he thinks he's evaluating
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: our program and we're evaluating his program, and nothing's done
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: until it's done. But yes, acting fast. There is no
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: tomorrow the land of Manyana. We try to get that
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: out out of all of our staff and myself's head.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: There's just there's no time for tomorrow because by the
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: time you wait the day that kid's committed to the
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: competition and so you just don't have time. We're probably
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: overly aggressive, so we end up recruiting kids that are
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: less in to the recruiting crank then the others. So
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: I think that's a good thing. So most of these
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: kids are like I went to this place. It has
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: a thirty five million dollars stadium, a new biomechanics and
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: performance center. All the people appear to be able to
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: communicate accurately. I like the strength coach. It's a good town. Hey,
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: I'm good. I'm gonna play Big twelve baseball, right, So
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: they like want to shut it down. They're like, I
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: don't want to go on three more visits and like
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: talk to strangers on the phone and deal about money,
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Like I just want to play baseball, and like this
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: guy keeps hounding me Like that's fine, SABS, like I'll
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: I'll succumb, I'll do it. Yeah it's kidnapping, Yeah, yeah,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: whereas some of these guys, if you wait later and
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: you have the conversations, I'll follow up, you end up
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: recruiting kids that are like on their tenth visit and
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: it's just exhausting and you're going like you're having you know,
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: brisket on a biscuit on the deck, and you're like,
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: I don't think this kid's into this, and you just
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: you're just like a miserable experience. I just got to
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: have somebody that I think I got a chance of
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: wining and selling. And if that's the case, I'm all good.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: The reality is that we probably we brought it. I
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: don't know how many we brought in, but I would
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: say eighty five percent of the kids that we brought
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: to Morgantown committed. So it was like a ridiculous percentage.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Almost.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you win when you get them here. It's difficult
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: to get them here. It's hard to convince, well, why
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: West Virginia. I got offers to all the top twenty
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: five programs.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: But easier when you say Big twelve champion and multiple
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: super regionals.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: Ellie, and when you see it way easier if you
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: get them here, you can win on it. It's just
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: it's yeah, I'm from Mississippi, I'm from Florida, I'm from Tennessee,
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: I'm from here. Why why West Virginia? And so you
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: explain and you gotta work. That's the work. Really, that
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: initial couple, initial couple days of recruiting and then getting
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: that plane ticket. If I can get you on a plane,
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: we got a shot.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: This wasn't portal, but basically what you're describing. Let's how
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: about Colton Simms for a second, top third basement, coming
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: out of Kansas, originally committed to Vanderbilt, one of the
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: best programs in the country, de commits there and then
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: you you swooped in quickly, fast, got that deal done.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: We had him on sports line and he said all
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: of those things that you just said. He didn't want
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: to be through a big process. He loved you guys,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: he loved the facility, he loved the performance center, and
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: he just said, I want to play ball. I'm good
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: and go. So it's almost like that's a that's the
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: poster child for what you just want.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: We want that guy. That's the same thing with our staff.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: It's like you're not comparing everything. It's not dollars and
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: cents it's like, do you love being here? Do you
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: love the people? Do you like representing the state? Are
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: you into West Virginia Athletics? Do you think we can win? Like,
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: there's what more?
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Do you want?
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: The kid that's always wanting more you're comparing, It's like,
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: we want to provide a great deal, awesome experience. We
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: got a chance to go to Omaha. We're two games
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: away from it this year. So if you can't imagine
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: being great here and it's probably not the joint for you.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: And then that kid's from Big twelve territory, so he
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: gets to play for a Big twelve school. That was
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: a huge, awesome, great deal sold yeap, that was.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: Huge, and so parents are wonderful. We really do separator
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: ourselves with player development, so we're into guys getting better.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: We can show so many players that came here and
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: got better. So now we're winning, you're getting more talent.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: Things are going in the right direction. But ten years ago,
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: all we had was people to sell. It was just
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: about the coaches in the development. And so you don't
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: go from you know, not making a regional in twenty
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: one years to winning Big twelve titles and going to
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: supers without being able to turn a certain kind of
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: player into a better player. And so now that the
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: talent threshold has increased, we still have that mindset. We
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: think we can continue to create big leaders, which is
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: twelve big leaders in the last ten years, and so
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: we just we keep hammering that. But yeah, I'm not
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: very good. I'm not great with the recruiting show. Pony,
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: Like we put on a great show. They meet everybody,
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: and we take them to dinner, and you know, they're like,
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: we have an incredible visit. But I don't have a
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: lot of tolerance for like I'll let you know in
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: a couple of weeks, right, I just yeah, if you
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: don't know within a couple hours of leaving here, like
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: the next is getting your offer, the next guy's getting
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: the money, Like we're gonna move on quickly.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Just no one has time for that. If it's not
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: hell yeah, then it's no.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: If it's not hell yeah, it's no period. It's true, truly,
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: how I feel.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: That's all it should be. You ever go to make
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: a pitching change and the picture said no, huh that
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: ever happened? I get a lot of headshakes, but they've
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: never said no. Jan Dill's attorneys at law. They won't
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: take no for an answer. Same thing, right, like.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Save they already know Savings, won't take no for an answer.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Jen Dill's attorneys at law, they specialize in Social Security
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: disability benefits and then military disability benefits, which is a
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: huge thing to go through, a process to go through,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: you got to have people that know right, you gotta
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: have you have the right people. And that's what Jan
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Dill's attorneys a law. They started here in West Virginia,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: still here in West Virginia. Parker's were forty eight different states,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: including cleaning the state of Texas, clean state of Oklahoma.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: So like, they don't take no for an answer either.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Like if Jan Dill's walk to the picture's mount right
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: and she said like, hey, we're gonna hey, good job,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: We're gonna make a little switch year like and he
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: said no, she goes, no, we don't take no for
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: an answer. He'd be out. Same thing with Jen Dill's attorneys.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: So long.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: I was listening to your last podcast and I was
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: laughing more at that part when you said they literally
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: won't take no for an answer, And I was like,
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: what does that even mean?
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: They don't want they don't.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: It's like you might need to get jan a seat
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: in the dug out there for pitch.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she was probably pretty good athlete, probably pretty good athletes,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, she's probably pretty good athlete.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: But they competitive, you know that.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the same thing with you? You're not like
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: you're going to make a god change, Like you're never
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: going to have anyone to go like, no, I'm good, man,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: just kind of go back, I'm good. You're making a change.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: And they won't take no for an answer. Who on
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: this season's team? Gone by way? What are you laughing about?
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: What's fun is literally won't take no.
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: That's you know what you should do first meeting first
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: at a certain point, first meeting with your team this year,
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: like when you're putting like all the roads, like we
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: will do this, we will do this, we will do that.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: And I useduld close it with like and I won't
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: take no for an answer, And I can eat three tutors. Now,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: what player exceeded even your expectations? One that comes to mind.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: I got multiple, but Skyler King made a gigantic leap
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: from where he was sophomore year to being a draft
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: pick and headed out with the Boston Red Sox, but
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: he started off the season so hot. He really set
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: the tone for the season. Going into the spring, there
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: was a chance that he was not our everyday centerfielder,
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: that was not a cemented position, and within two weeks
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: of the season, it was like, well, I guess he'll
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: be out there for the rest of the year. And
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: so that's the funnest part as a coach. You start
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: seeing you start seeing these kids make jump and take
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: ownership of their game, and oftentimes players think that the
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: coach wants somebody to earn a job or a position,
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: and we try to make it very clear that just
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: every position is earned. You can win, you can lose,
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: you can start somewhere, you could finish somewhere else. This
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: thing is not finite. It's about winning today's game, that
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: is it. There's been plenty of examples throughout last season
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: that you know, show that right, but for him, he
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: just earned that. It was just he came in and
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: so it makes you so proud. And usually those kids
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: that you end up, you know, holding down a position
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: for an entire season and basically saying I'm the best
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: guy on this team in this position. For an entire season.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: You grow a very tight bond with them because they
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: know I have to do what's best for the team.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: They know that they're only going to be there if
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: they're providing value to the team. So it's kind of
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: like a collective win. The coach and the player. There's
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: a relationship and like something that's really built there. It's like, congratulations,
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: you did you did it right.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like Rich Rodriguez always used to say and
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: probably still does say it. The biggest accomplishment for a
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: football player is to asked his entire stretch of eligibility,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: like if you're here for four or if you're here
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: for five, Like that's the hardest thing, like being here
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: day one and going all the way to the end. Right.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: So that's that's the true badge of honor because.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: That's just hard, just hard, that's just And Skyler King
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: was a he was a spot start guy, and then
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: he was a start guy, and then it was our
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: team got better and better, and as our team got better,
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: he had to get better. And then he cemented he
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: was here the entire time. He was recruited as a
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: left handed pitcher. So it was just a fun.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Story because to your point on a bigger scope philosophically,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: your your point is if so you're saying, hey, you've
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: got to be you've got to win your job every day. Player,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: You've got to win your job. I, as a manager coach,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: have to win my job every day. What happens in
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: organizations that goes away and people aren't challenged, like there
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: is no Bunsen burner on their butt and they've got
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: no reason to keep on. So what happens to the
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: organization neutralizes, goes flat, goes down. That's the greatness. That's
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: the great thing about sport. If you have a coach
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: that will live through it. And when a guy isn't
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: as good anymore, you just you're done, You're replaced.
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: You have to and it's easy from a coach's perspective
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: to get comfortable. These guys have played there. I don't
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: think there'll be a lot of friction if I make
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: these decisions because everyone's comfortable in those decisions. Even the
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: players that aren't playing get comfortable not playing often times.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: But the comfort is what ends up making you average,
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: and so there just has to be that. That's why
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: in non sport fields, if we meet you guys, or
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: you meet people in academia, or you meet people in
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: other areas that don't necessarily have that fire to their ass,
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: but they are extremely motivated and they're waking up every
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: day to win something. You notice it like immediately you're like,
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: that guy's on fire, that guy's cooking.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one of those guys. Let's talk about that for
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: a second, because you don't have a c like you
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: had without multiple people making big time contributions. Armani Guzman
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: season was wild, right showed flashes early. You talk about
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: those outfield great catches. He had one of the best
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: of the year on the right field catch where he
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: goes up brothers and doubles up the guy on first,
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: but then ends up playing third for you in high
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: leverage situations in that regional. Being the MVP of the regional.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: Was an absolute stud at the plate. So there's guys
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: like that right that have to step up. He in particular,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: it was a fantastic story how he stayed with you
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: even when he wasn't playing every day and came back
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: in big moments and helped you incredible.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: It's like a proud dad moment. Got to recruit that
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: kid when he was young. He was in New York City.
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: He ended up getting a scholarship offer to go to
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: a high school in Georgia, but he grew up going
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: on subways and buses outside of New York City to
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: play on his own. That's a self made guy, and
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: he has trusted me from this second he stepped foot
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: on campus. He wants to play. He wants to be
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: a big leaguer. He has as loud of tools is
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: anybody on the team. And there are certain times when
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: he was ready and certain times when he was not ready,
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: and it is an incredible story. We went into the
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: Big Twelfth Tournament and going into the tournament, we had
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: lost five of our last six games. We had won
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: one game against Kansas State, and we got swept by
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: Kansas at home. So we were in a tail spin
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: essentially at the end of the year. And so it
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: just felt like, wow, great year, you guys did it.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: You won a Big Twelfth title, and season's over, like
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: you just went one out of the last six. And
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: so we go into the Big Twelfth Tournament and we
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: ended up winning one game. So it was like a
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: little bit of icing on the cake. I guess we
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: had been swept in the Big Twelfth Tournament for three
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: consecutive years before that, so like we broke through. We
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: won a game at Globe Life in the Big twelve Tournament.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: So I think there was just a lot of people
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: that you could have been content with that. It was like,
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: you set the all time wins record with forty one
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: at the Big twelve Tournament, you won a Big twelve title,
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: you made a regional right, like nice job. But Guzman
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: was playing in the second game, we pinch hit him
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: because the lineup just was stale, Our team was stale,
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: and Guzman goes backside single. He hit about one hundred
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: and fifteen miles an hour. And then his next at
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: bat he comes up and he does the same thing again.
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: So I was giving him a courtesy at bat, like
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: could this guy get going at some point, for God's sakes,
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: like get going. And so he blasts these two balls
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: and he's he's ends up getting on third base, and
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: I'm in the third base box. I was like, dude,
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: I want to I'd love to play at third. Can
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: you play third? Like Guzman, could you play third? And
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: He's like, I can play third, man, I can play third.
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: I was like all right, we'll see. We'll see. Because
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: he hadn't been that great in practice at third, he
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: had scuffled a little bit. I thought the attention to
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: detail for him training at third was a little lackluster,
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: Like he wanted to play the infield, but it wasn't
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: quite what I wanted on that, you know, quite up
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: to my expectations there. But I love the kid. I
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: love his work ethic. He's got energy and care level
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: that's unmatched. Whenever he's in the game, he's robbing a homer,
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: he's turning a double play, he makes stuff happen. So
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: he was just so clear to eyed. He looked me
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: in the eye, He's like, I can play third base, coach.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: And I was like, all right.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: So we started him in the regional and obviously he
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: just goes Banana. He's the tournament MVP. He hadn't played
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: in six weeks, and then he's the best player out
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: of Clemson, Kentucky, West Virginia, and an upstate.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: So it's just a ridiculous story.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: It's one of those stories where it's like you're gonna
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: get to tell that to your team for years to come.
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: It's just like, you have two options if you're not playing.
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: You can either become a sour puss and like cash
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: this thing in and transfer, or you can just like
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: keep working. Our staff will know who's working and who's prepared,
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: and you'll be rewarded. If it's not now, it'll be
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: next year at your other school if you want to transfer.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: If it's not now, it'll be next season in West Virginia.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: But your choices are very simple. You either work or
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: you can cash this thing in. So the guy chose
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: to work and was rewarded for it, and sometimes you
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: work and you're not rewarded for it. So it's just yeah,
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: for me, that's like an emotional story, Like what a win, right,
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: because our even our season and our program was like
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: we weren't in a great spot going into the regional
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: like you could have said, so we lost, Yeah, what
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: what was it? We lost six of the last eight
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: and it was just a little stale. So yeah, big win.
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: Guzman's gonna be a star. I think everyone that's Mountain
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: your fans can can relate to Goozy and and root
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: for that guy.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: That's a Disney that's a Disney movie. What he did
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: that's like a Disney movie. You're like, yeah, coach, I
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: can do it, like you could see that. Can you
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: play third?
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: I can play Can you play third? Yeah, okay, go
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: play third. It really was.
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: And then he just couldn't get out in the regional.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: Right, that's it because just playing If he would have
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: just gone in and played third not made the airs,
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: it's a great story. The fact he goes out and
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: does what he does in the regional at the plate
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: was ridiculous.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: He gets the he hits the winning run into clinch
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: the regional to send us to the second ever Super
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: in program history and the most wins in program history.
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: It's like storybook stuff. He couldn't get out, he's stealing bases,
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: he's making plays at third, and he literally drives in
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: the winning run for the Mountaineers to advance. So like
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: everything lined up, it's Disney.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: They call him squat wrack, got some big legs, that's
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: what I've heard to call him. Squat rack, massive legs,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: massive jet propulsion system. Yes, it looks like an NFL
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: running back. Yeah, that is a wonderful story.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: So where's he play? Moving forward? Well, start third? Hees
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: go back to the outfield.
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: He tells me he tells me he's a short stop.
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: I always challenge him about that. He's playing shortstop, third
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: and centerfield this summer, and so center fields like the
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: no brainer just because of the skill set he can
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: do that at a high level. He trains at the
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: infield consistently. I think he's a true utility player that
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: we could plug in those spots based on what we have.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: That's a great story. You a fly fish at all?
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: I don't so. Over at Gomart they have these slim
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: gyms that are actually fly rods that, yeah, go ahead,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: show that picture. So I went over to go Mart.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: There that's just off the Whitehall exit. That's a slim jym.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: I just cast it over to the other side of
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the shelf. I mean, look at that thing with a
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: bend on that thing I caught there was something on
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: the line at that point. Had a nine foot slim
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: gym and that it's not it's a still photo obviously,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: So I didn't bring it in at that point. But
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Brad was there that day and that's a that's a
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: big slim gym. So they got all like stuff. They got.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: They got twenty two pound Recis cups for the summer.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: It's like a manhole cover. It's heavy. They got handles
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: on them. You got to bring it out to your truck,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: put in the bed of your truck. Gotta go there.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: Those sleeves that have like thirty of them in there,
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: thirty of them.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: Can I say something real quick about Gomart. Yeah, it
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: was up and down seventy nine a bunch since Friday
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: doing these TBT games. I think I've been at the
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Elkview Gomart more than my house. Four stops there since Friday.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: Excellent customer service. It did a great job. Good people,
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: nice clean store. They do a great job. People speak
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: when you walk in, say hello, get my stuff, use
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: my app right there, because of course you get rewards
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: points there. Steve, you want the rewards points, pay in
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: and out gone, great job Elkview Gomart.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: If you don't have the Gomart app yet, please do
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: you immediately save on your food and your fuel? Boat? Guy? Well, guy,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: you boat. I don't have a boat, but I would
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: like to go you like to go out on I'd
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: like we take Wendel. Thank you, thank you very much.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: We're trying to figure we're trying to get a confirmed
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I may have said it once or twice that all
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: James Bond movies, if you go back and take a
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: look at all of them, going all the way back
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: to like the old James Bonds, that whenever there's a
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: pond tune in a scene, they do get those from
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Lou Wendell and all bits. A lot of people don't
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: know that. And here's a deal. Why not. It's not confirmed,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: but we're looking into it. They're the premier pontoon boat
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: dealer in the state of West Virginia. Fortieth anniversary. You
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: know this saves when you're your fortieth year as manager here?
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: How old will that make you? When you're at fortieth year?
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: How hold you right now? I'll do the math. Thirty eight,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: So seventy eight year old manager, Steve Sabans, that'll be
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: your forty three. That's how long Lou Wendell's been in business.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Premier pontoon boat dealer in the state of West Virginia.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Great supplies right now, pontoons, the G three john boats,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: every kind of I mean boo I'm big into booies.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: I have kind of dedicating the month of July to
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: booies and anchors. That's kind of like, that's that's kind
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: of where I'm at right now. So whatever you need,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: got it. Lou Wendell Marine Sales. You think you'll be
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: doing this show, then well we're stopping before episode eight hundred.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: We're not going to do an episode now. It's sixty
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: four six is.
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: Today, So what's the stop eight hundred.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: I've just said. I've gone on record there will be
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: there will not be an episode eight hundred, so go
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: from there. That's why we needed to get you on twice.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: Hopefully we'll get a third before right.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I think there'll be a third. If Civill
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: come back, there'll be I mean he'll he'll be extended
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: a third invitation.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: There's sure. Like I said, I mean like Nate Adrian
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: came on twice then he just kept coming back and
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: we couldn't get rid of him. He just kept showing up. Yeah.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: He Speaking of Nate, we were with him this weekend.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: And I know you guy in all seriousness, you guys
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: are into helping the community. So this shirt that I'm
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: wearing here is where's the logo your right shl sight
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: live Live like Brent. So we had a we were
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: at an event at Stonewall Resort this past Saturday for
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: the Cancer WU Cancer Institute. The second year we did
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: it and had a great time. We brought down Jasper
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: Floyd Mountaineer basketballer point guard and the numbers are in Hey,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: if you would, Jake, go ahead throw. So we're getting
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: out of the truck getting out of the truck there
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: and there was a family there that was having Family
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Olympics at Stonewall, and right when we got there, they
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: were shooting free throws and so we said, well, hell's bells,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Let's get Jasper. Let's get Jasper. And I was saying,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: so Jasper stepped out, he said, okay, what team am
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: on here? He knocked down he just he didn't knock
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: down a couple. So so Floyd's first basket is the
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Mountain here actually takes place in Roanoke, West Virginia over
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: there at Stonewall. Wow. Yeah. And then we went inside
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: and you can go ahead, Jacob. Let's see some of
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: these pictures here from the event. But we had Simon Auchten.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: That's Anthony Forget. That's Michael Son over on the left hand.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: He was representing Daniels. They were selling the elite level
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: gear kind of like the stuff you're wearing right there.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Silent Auction had some really good stuff. And see that
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: guitar right there, Charles Wesley Godwin autographed guitar. And then
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: we had some Polamalu stuff and then we had that
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: was the event. Fed them like kings, I mean, fed
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: them like absolute kings. It was a good deal. Then
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: we did a little Q and A and we had
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Nate the skate. So here's Nate's deal. This was a
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: good day for him. He got to stand at the
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: tea box out in one of the par three holes
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: there and all he would do is just tee off
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: on the same hole when the groups came through, so
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: they were just like, go ahead, use my you know,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: use my ball. That's a good day for Nate. Where's
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: he any other ends there? Jake hit me with.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: A couple more and Jasper pictures.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: There's Nate. That's Nate in the middle in case you
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: don't know, and he would be the tallest among those guys.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: Just a lot of people over. So here's the deal.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: There's Jasper.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: We raised over seventy thousand dollars in our second year.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Next year we will do over one hundred thousand dollars.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: Our increase this year is about forty percent more than
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: we did last year. So we're thrilled. Thanks everyone. I
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: told the people that were their Mountaineer was there, Caden
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: was there, and I told the folks there, bring someone
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: with you. Bring another foursome next year. By the way,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: we're giving you an invite right now? Do you play?
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: I don't?
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, me neither. No, I do not too hard, So
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: you sit on the sidelines. Well, we get there when
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: they're done, when they're wrapping.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: We did.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: We did the after golf, Yeah, we did after after good.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: They be a part of the after party. Yeah, we'll
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: take you in.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it sold.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's an absolute done deal. So thanks, as.
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: Long as I don't have to play golf.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, let's go down there and hang out.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about a couple of guys that are
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: JJ weatherhol Let's get a little JJ. I's killing it.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: I know he's killing it, and I know you're not surprised.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: So do you conversate with him at all? You just
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: share text at all? Like what's he saying? Like what's
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: that new world that he's living in? Yeah, we go
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: back and forth, not usually about baseball. I sent him
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: a video of my kids learning how to cast with
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: their grandpa the other.
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: Day because he likes to fish and he's like that.
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: That fires me up. And just what he's doing is
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: not surprising. He is different, he's special, he's consistent. The
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: fun part is that you never know how it will go.
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: Early on in the career, he's literally just breaking the
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: door down. He's kicking it down, saying, you have to
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: make me a big leaguer here shortly because I'm the
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: best in the country. And so it's a it's not
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: a doing well. It's like, no, he's doing great everywhere
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: he goes, I know. So that part's so fun. He's
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: just he's different, right, Like he gave back. He came
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: and spoke at our baseball banquet after a year after
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: being drafted. He gave fifty thousand dollars in donations back
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: to us immediately after. He hasn't been to the big leagues.
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: He just he's all in. He's one of those guys
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: that will be around here and support West Virginia and
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: this community and this university forever. He's he's different.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: He's a great development guy though too, right. I mean,
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: that's one of the guys you're talking about, right, that
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: wasn't the top five guy coming out of high school certainly.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if that team read that was that the color?
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: I remember you spot him, Like, how'd you spot him? Yeah?
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: He was on Beaver Valley Red fifteen.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I remember that.
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: He was a second baseman and uh, just a little
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: shrimp that could hit, had some bat skills about to
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: ball skill and played really hard. And yeah, we were
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: his only Division one offer out of high school. He
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: wasn't ranked in Perfect Game. He had no rankings, no nothing,
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: because he didn't do that thing. He didn't barnstorm right,
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: he didn't go and.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Do the whole He didn't He did not have a brad.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: I think they want to clarify this. He did not
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: have seven bats, four bags.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: Three sliding mits, and three three sliding games a weekend.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and have two pairs of sliding and have two
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: pairs of flip flops. He didn't have. Daddy didn't take
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: care of you.
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: No, he had one team that he played on Beaver Valley,
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: and then occasionally there would be a national team call
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: him up and say like we'd love for you to
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: come down to Atlanta for a weekend and we'll pay
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: for everything, and he say, sure, if you want to
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: drive me down, I'll jump in a car with somebody
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: and sleep with somebody else's hotel room. And then he
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: played in a men's league with old, washed up dudes
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: that still like to play, just so he could be
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: at the yard, because being at the yards better than
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: not being at the yard. Yeah, so he just played baseball, man,
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: he just liked playing baseball.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's good. Yeah, that's good because baseball players play
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: a lot of baseball. That's it. And you'd be surprised.
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of guys that think that they're baseball
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: players and they don't play a lot of baseball, and
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: they will want everything other than playing. Like you said,
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: seven bats and three sliding myths and some my back, go.
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: Play, go play, get your reps in and go play.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: And what do we say all the time? You're allowed
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: to get better. Yeah, you're not what you are at
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: a certain stage, you are allowed to improve and get better.
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: He's a wonderful example of that.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Think about this saves Steve. When JJ gets called up,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: you'll have Victor Scott and you'll have JJ right on
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: the big that's kind of neat, that's so cool.
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you're ever going to have that
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: opportunity again two starting players for the Cardinals potentially, and
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: it is, uh, it goes quick, and it's got to
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: be earned every day, So you've got to perform at
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: a high level. Just with JJ, it's one of those
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: guys where it's hard to imagine him not having success
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: just because of who he is.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: With that being said, and the level of success that
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: you guys have had, So what's next? I mean, how
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: do you handle expectations now? Because you know, I always
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: used to tell Bill Stewart the worst thing that he
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: ever did was he inherited a football program that had
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: won eleven, eleven, and eleven, and then he won nine,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: nine and nine, and that was like, what's this? But
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: if the previous guy had won six, six and six,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: his nine nine and nine would have been like, this
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: is great, absolutely, which is exactly what happened to Don Neelan, Right.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: Don won nine nine nine literally and it was like
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: the greatest thing in the world because they had losing seasons.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: So what that being said, like, So what is realistic
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: as far as going forward? I know what your goal is,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: but how do you do it?
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's I don't think it's my job
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: to set realistic expectations or perceptions or what people want
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: to think about it. I think my job is literally
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: there's not enough time in the day to focus on
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: how to get better, how to be more competitive, how
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: to recruit the best players, how to develop, how to
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: build par partnerships inside the university, how to move the
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: program forward, and so there's too many variables to know
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: what translates exactly to that win in loss number every
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: every year. But I do think if you spend your
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: time in resources trying to get the program better, you
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: might look up and have a little bit of success.
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: But I think that's for fans to decide, right like,
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: what's being accomplished, if that's enough or not.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: You got ejected from a game this year, reminder, just
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: in case you'd forgotten about that. Thank you. Looking back
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: on that, what'd you learn? I think nothing.
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: There's there's very few instances in that it's worth to
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: be ejected. I wouldn't have wanted that to happen, and
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: in that situation, in all transparency, I think that particular
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: is an egomaniac and probably shouldn't be umpiring at this level.
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: Probably easy to say if you're the guy that got ejected,
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: but like on a non bias standpoint, like probably unrealistic.
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: I was actually ejected while in my dugout, and so normally,
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: if you're in your dugout, umpires, probably shouldn't pursue a
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: coach and be that close to the situation because I
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: had essentially said I'm upset, I'm frustrated with what has happened,
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: but I'm back into my hole, into my safe space
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: over the thought, right, And so to be ejected while
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: you're inside the confines of the dugout seems a little
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: bit silly, like if if I was pursuing or in
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: somebody's face or refuse to leave the field of play right, right,
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: And so I don't think I don't think it was
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: a correct decision to eject me in that moment. But
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: it's just awful, like going to the locker room watching
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: our team play and watching having decisions is being made
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: that you think you could possibly influence the game, and
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: then Skyler King gets ejected the next game, the very
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: next game. And so we had one coach ejected this
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: year and one player. So it's not coincidence. That literally
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: the next game, a player gets the jamped, gets ejected,
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: and so like, it just poor leadership if you just
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: set an example. It literally got followed within one game,
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: so it wouldn't be as notice if it was a
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: week later. But it's like, oh, I'm pretty sure I
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: had something to do with that player being ejected because
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: the frustration brewed over and people thought we were getting
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: hosed and whatever. So bad example set by me. Something
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: I can't I can't let happen on a consistent basis.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: That stuff normally works out, like the circle of life
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: lion Kig. I mean, you got kids, right, they watch
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Lion King, Right, there's this there's a cycle right that
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: things eat other things and the kind of goes through
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: the thing and the saint. You're wondering where I'm going here.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about where you're going here. I mean with
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: with with a fish, whether they be football, whether they
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: be basketball, whether they be baseball. I'mpiring crew. Normally what
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: happens is the circle of life says like, if there's
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: someone that's in that chain that is the weak link,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: normally the rest I e. Your fellow coaches in the
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: Big twelve, when you guys sit down at your meetings,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: you go like, hey, man, Spanky Smith is freaking terrible,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: and that guy over there says, Spanky Smith's terrible. Spanky
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: Smith's terrible. Spanky. You know what happens, Spanky Smith man,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: It's the chain of life. See you later, Spanky. You
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: eventually you get eaten. And that's if you're not strong enough.
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: I don't love talking about it because how tired of
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: an act a coach talking about.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: Bad officiating or getting ejected. What a tired story. That
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: is just what plays well in West Virginia. Though sometimes
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: it's like you see it.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: Sometimes its bad.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: Like if you were like if you were still.
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: Got to overcome you gotta win the game. We guy,
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: we know all the disclaimers you put on.
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: It was it was, it was bad. And uh you
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: could see right when you're around the game enough and
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: you see what's going on in somebody's eyes and you
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: see the aggressive level.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: When when an officiator is supposed to be this mediator
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: to make sure that the game happens, and it happens
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: on time, incorrectly and the rules are followed, there has
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: to be some like you know, some adult supervision, adult right,
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: their job is to like control the emotions. And so
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: when you see the officiator, when the officials are feeding
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: into the emotion, you're like, well, that's definitely.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: Not your job. We say it in basketball, we see
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: your banana, We see referees get really pissed. You can't
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: do that.
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: Feel like that's once you see that, you lose respect.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: But we see I mean we you see them. I
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: mean I see guys, because I'm sitting right there, I
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: see him getting pissed, and I see him getting pissed,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: and then instantly I'll see that whistle go for no reason.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: What's the because they're pissed. You can't do that.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: No, I don't understand. I feel like that's probably more
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: important than being technically sound, is just controlling the emotions
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: of the game.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: I agree with you. I agree with you. It's like,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: just like you don't think coaches talking about officiating plays well.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: Let me explain on something. So it doesn't play well,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: Like if you belong to like a polo club like
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: over in England and you complain about the arbiter or
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: the officiating like that, that does not play well here,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: But like in West Virginia, like it plays well it's
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: played well for years, We'll play well forever, right, play well.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: We've never committed a file, right, We've never We've never
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: had a you know, that's not what we do. We
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: don't hold in football right and in baseball like we've
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: never we've never like not swung at a strike. I mean,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: that's just like we do everything right.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you got to talk about it, you know my
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: stance on this. Yes, it's a hard job. There's not
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: enough of them. We need more. We're facing an umpire
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: and officiating crisis and all that. I get it, But
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: it's also at this level when we're evaluating games and
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: sports something you have to talk about it. It influences
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: games baseball ball and strike calls influence games basketball. The
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: way you officiate the game influences games. It's it's part
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: of it, and.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: It's been a long time coming where umpires haven't really
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: been held accountable for some sort of standard. There's not
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: an official, you know, system that grades them out and
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: the weakest get eliminated necessarily. We're getting a little bit
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: closer on balls and strikes. Those are track man data
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: reports and the guy that's outside of the zone. Twenty
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: percent of the time, like he doesn't get to keep
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: his job for too much longer. So that's one that's
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: one aspect of this. So we're going in the right direction,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 3: but for a long time, it's a black box of
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: Johnnies that are getting jobs because they know their buddy exactly.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: Would you take roboms ball strikes? Are you on board
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: with that?
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: Oh? No?
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: I I like the human element a little bit. I
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: just want to hold the humans accountable. I'm not anti
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: robo you know, strike zone. I just feel like it
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: might slow the game down. And I think the human
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: element is what people are missing in general. There's so
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: much less human element in everything that we do. So
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: it's like, eventually, why don't we just play e sports?
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: You know? Interesting?
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, speaking of people, let's talk business of baseball for
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: a second. How can people help in this new era?
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: It's different now, right, there's not just the pay for
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: plays kind of gone away. There's revenue sharing's part of this.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: How can people help the program? They're listening to this podcast,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: say they say, hey, this is awesome, we want to
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: get behind this program. How can they help? How would
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: you tell people they can help your program?
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's two real ways that are going to directly
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: influence baseball. So there's something through the MAC Club that's
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: called a Baseball Enhancement Fund, and if funds go there,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: we can literally help our players eat meals, build baseball
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: lab by strength and conditioning equipment, all those things that
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: will help our program. And probably the more creative side
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: of this that's coming down the pike that we've already
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: started to implement is true NIL deals with companies corporations
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: that want to represent a baseball player. And so before
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: it was more of a collective based model where collectives
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: would raise money through either private funds or businesses and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: would funnel that money to players. And so now they're
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 3: trying to legitimize that name, image and likeness deals. So
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: the players are responsible for submitting these deals through something
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: called nil go. But essentially a great way to help
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: is if you have an LLC or a company and
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 3: you say, I want to get behind West Virginia Baseball,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: I want to be associated with those guys. I want
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: for a player or players to represent my company or me.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 3: We can do that, and so I'm in the I'm
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: currently heavily involved with trying to set up players with
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: these entities. So we can create some sort of long
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: term plan where we know that there's x amount of
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 3: business dollars coming into our team, and eventually we'll be
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 3: able to recruit with that and we'll be able to
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: build packages for the best players in the country. And
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: our guys they're not driving ferraris, Like this is a
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 3: different sport, right. We got guys that are still playing
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: pretty decent amount to just go to school. So they're
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: paying for apartments, they're paying for their bills. Nobody's getting
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 3: rich playing for West Virginia Baseball currently. And so if
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 3: there is, if there's people that have companies or LLCs,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 3: I want them to reach out to me and get
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: involved with the program.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, so they can reach out to you, they can
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: go through the Matt Golden Blue Enterprises will be a
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: new entity that's developing that can help with that. So
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: any of those ways work, that's.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: Right, I'll personally talk to you. Yeah, A couple things
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: along this line. How much would JJ Weatherholt cost in
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: today's baseball world, Like people would come after him, Like
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: let's say he had eligibility previous to getting to Like
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: what would he be? Is he a million dollar player
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: in nil world? In the baseball world. What's that.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think somebody in the right scenario that was
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: in the portal and the draft had passed, and it
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: was the best player in college baseball that just set
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 3: the the hitting record. I was the best hitter as
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 3: a sophomore. I think he's probably a million dollars. If
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: you said I'm gonna get revenue share and deals together
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: and this all this package that we bring together, I
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: would say that would be fair, but that would be abnormal.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 3: That would be very abnormal. He would be one of
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: the highest paid players in college baseball. But I think
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: they would package together these deals from companies and build
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 3: about a million dollar package.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: You do something called summer Bridge. Tell me about summer
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: Bridge with your kids. Cool program.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: Every incoming freshman gets on campus six weeks early and
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 3: just gets acclimated to college life. So I think some
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 3: programs take for granted that these guys know what they're doing.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: But they're just great athletes that want to be great.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: But a lot of them don't know how to do
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 3: laundry or cracking egg yet.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: Is this truth?
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: And so we start with basic life skills of come in.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 3: We got burners set up and pans and guys are
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 3: making omelets and breakfast burritos in the morning like a class,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: like a cooking class.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: Almost this is awesome.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: And then they're going to lift voluntarily. They're doing they're
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: learning how to take care of their arms and their body.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: They're going to a class every day. They're just getting
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 3: acclimated at a very slow period. But more importantly just building
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: relationships with their boys. They're far away from home. They
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: never lived on their own, so they're getting a group
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 3: of kids and players that they can rely on. They
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: can have rides, they know how to use their swipe
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 3: car access. They're figuring out where the hell they are.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: A lot of them, you know, came on a visit
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: and we've rushed them around and taken places, and they
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: still don't know really where they're living.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. That's a great thing. You write a
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: great email. You send an email. How many people are
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: on that email list?
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: Probably about eight hundred a thousand and something like that.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: So I was just thinking, I was looking at the
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: most recent edition. You could probably put a sponsor inside
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: that thing, monetize it, and then kick all the money
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: into the program. I'm serious.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's where I need help and I've we
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 3: got this. We have a club called the Inner Circle, right,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 3: people that have donated fifty thousand dollars over five years
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: to the program, and they've claimed a locker in our
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 3: locker room. I think we have seven lockers that are
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 3: remaining for people that want to be part of that.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 3: But a lot of those things that come up where
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: I don't I don't know. I'm I'm trying to teach
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 3: guys to turn double plays and build rosters and.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: Six four to three.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, But I I do value communication and I want
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: to I want people to be involved. And like you
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 3: saying that alone, I've never thought of that makes good.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: I'm just looking at it. It's great. I mean, this
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: is like really good. Well, I like it.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 3: It helps me summarize what the hell's going on in
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 3: our program and build a vision for the future.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: And I'm into that.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 3: And there's some balance, right, like of monetizing it where
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 3: it actually feels real, like I sat in the office
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: and rope that yesterday, and there's probably grammatical errors and
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 3: it's probably a mess. So there's some like balance of
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: like turning it into.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: Like chatch EPT takes care of it, like that I
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: don't do any We'll take care of the grammar like
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: about seven seconds.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I want the authentic feel of like, hey,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 3: this is I care about what we're doing inside the program.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: But also I think we are in the day and
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 3: age where like we need help financially in the program.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, well maybe maybe someone's listening or watching us. They'll
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: go like, yeah, I'll put my name on something that's
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: being seen by because we can anyone subscribe to it.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, anybody that's into what best Virginia Baseball? I want
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: to get that email. So you got eight hundred thousand.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 3: I think it's basically people that have come to the banquet. Okay,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: we'll given money. We can make that thing three thousand,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: like really fast. I don't know if you know anything
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 3: about this show. We move stuff.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: I know you're we moved up there now, So how
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: do you sign up for it?
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Literally, he doesn't.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: It's literally like, hey, who came to the banquet? Let
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: me add it to an excel I have in the office.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: I'm doing it.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: You need an email address, so if we get email addresses,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: it's added. Yeah, that's all you need.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I should probably have some system where you
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: can email three thousand out of time. I'm literally from
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: my outlook pulling four hundred and fifty and sending that.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: Then the other four hundred. Oh yeah, I'm thinking that deal.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: We'll take care of it. Yeah, we got it. We'd
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: be great.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: I just want when someone reads that to be like
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: Sabs wrote this. Yes, it didn't come from like an
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 3: intern in the back. You don't get this at all.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 3: Sometimes you get that disingenuous feel from some of those
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 3: like now, what we could do.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Deal, Let's take about fifteen or twenty of those past
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: ones you wrote, put it into chad GPT and then
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: it gets your style and then just say okay, here's
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: the topics, and it'll go and it'll be done like that.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: We'll do that. I know. I'm just saying you could could.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: Hey do you guys drink water? I have? Yeah, So
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: Coma's Business Systems, big sponsor here. They got these water machines,
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: cold water. You know, people old school lugging around those
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: big get big jugs of water in their office and
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: break rooms like that. Comax Business Systems, folks.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: You don't have to do that anymore.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: You're saying, yeah, they put it in hot water, cold water, ice,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: whatever you want. They got some fantastic machines. Check them out.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: COMAXWV dot Com. What they also do. They've got business
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: equipment from anything you need, Like Savans needs paper clips,
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: they got that, Savans needs a printer first. Whatever you need,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: they've got it. Comax Business Systems, COMAXWV dot Com. Coldest water,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: I mean great hydrogen, great oxygen combination. They go, h
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: two oh is what they do, great water systems there. Yeah,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: I hope this helped get the pro I mean we're
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: just trying to help the program because we get giddy.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: We love it.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah's giddy love it.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: We love it. We do love it.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is incredible. It's fun for us. I don't think. Yeah,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: ten years ago, there's probably not a baseball coach in
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 3: the summer talking about baseball, no.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: Nor a long way away from the season.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: And we're starting to figure out and it's amazing, Bill Roster,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: and it's been fun. And I think these kids that
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 3: are coming here, they start feeling that in a hurry,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 3: like there's a lot of people that care about place
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 3: they do.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: I mean so real quick. And this was in your newsletter.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: We got we got biscuit nil deals. We've got email sponsors.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 3: There's a lot for you to live up to.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: We're fine. So you've got a here's your here's your
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: upcoming stuff. We're recording on what twenty third, So tomorrow
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: you've got Traveling Youth Camps twenty ninth. They got Traveling
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Youth Camps August nine, Prospect Identification August ten, Middle High School,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: Middle School Pitching Hitting Camp, thirty first July Life is
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: a Mountaineer camp, and then six and seven Mountaineer Classic
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: Team Camp September sixth and seven. Doors will be open.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: Folks can watch you play fallball. Yes, you do that
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: normally on a Friday, and sometimes you interwine that with
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: a before home football game.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we will, and I'll come up with that schedule
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 3: and I'll email that on this new sponsored email to
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 3: everybody and it will look it'll look great. I'm excited
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 3: about last year. We started doing that Friday night under
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 3: the lights kind of fall scrimmages and it definitely picked
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 3: up some traction and guys will come out to the ballpark.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: It's free.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 3: People were bringing coolers and ice chests and had beers
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 3: and dinner and were hanging out watching baseball.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: You know who's really good, like really good Jake Wegghorst,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: the analyst. Yeah, he's on the Mountaineer Sports Network. Fantastic.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: Like I listened to him and I just learned he
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: knows what he's talking to. Love guys that know baseball.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: Like he just like goes, Okay, here's this. Here's that.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: This guy's thinking he's.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 3: Good because he shows up to fall scrimmages and sits
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 3: and watches heat baseball. He's a baseball fan, baseball guy. Yeah,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 3: he's not just trying to fill a side gig. No,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 3: by talking. He knows what he's talking about.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: Like he goes home and he watches like those ESPN
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: Plus games, like you know, very remote locations like far
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: away baseball Noutheastern States. He said, there's a D three
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: playing a division Why I want I catch that when
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: I get home. He's into it. He's invested. Yep.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 3: This fall, we have set up a fall game against
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 3: Kentucky at Prasco Park in Cincinnati, and then we're going
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 3: to play Wake Forest on the road as well. So
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 3: we have two Division One competitors that are on the road.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 3: The reason we do that we have to open up
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 3: the season on the road, so our guys start learning
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 3: how to travel, ride buses, get out, compete, stay the night.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 3: So we try to take advantage of those opportunities by
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 3: going on the road, and we'll probably end up playing
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 3: fifteen to twenty scrimmage games at the ballpark over the
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 3: course of the fall.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. Yeah, congratulations on your new deal. Thank you.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 3: So you're going to stick around a little bit, that's it. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 3: very fortunate. The family did a It was great for
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 3: the family. And wife loves it here. I obviously love
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 3: it here. My kids were born here there. We just
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 3: moved to a new house. They're going to Suncrest Elementary
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 3: School next year, so we have now we're going into
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: second and kindergarten.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: Second's a good great got a whole lot of stress. Kindergarten.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: Kindergarden different thing kindergar kindergarten. I mean once you a
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: just yeah, he'll be fine. What's her jobs? They still
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: do trucks in kindergarten.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: What does that mean?
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: Like big we used to I eve to truck like
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: a big truck. You just kind of push around on
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: the floor in the conner.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: They're doing calculus and stuff now playing higher.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: It's higher level. It is higher level level. Tucker's not
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: doing calculus. He's still on the truck.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: He's doing the truck, learning Spanish, some coating and some.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: Does he have a Does he have a t ball
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: that he hits off of? Yeah? He does t ball.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: What do you think? What do you think? Early on solid? Good?
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 3: He has a good swing. What he can do is throw.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: He can really throw anything better than every.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: Four year old sometimes in the house.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he gets it. Charlie's into baseball, the seven
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 3: year old girl. I keep telling her, like, next year
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: is gonna be great, We'll get into softball. She she
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 3: damn near breaks down crying. She wants to play baseball.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 3: She's coming went to baseball.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: Why wouldn't she?
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, let that thing go, man, let's fly.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, listen, you've given us a lot of
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: your valuable time. We we certainly appreciate it. I've been
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: wanting to do this, but I wanted your dust to settle.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: I wanted your portal guys to get all portaled in
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: and then yeah, this thing doesn't that I mean, it's
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: like school starts here and like less than a month.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: That's right, And it speeds up as soon as the
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 3: season's over. That's the busiest time of year and it's
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: not really close. You have players in, players out portal,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 3: new players coming to campus, and the draft, and so usually.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: Right before school starts. It's a little eye of the storm.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: You've got a couple of weeks there where you can
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 3: sneak away where everyone knows it's about to start, but
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 3: your responsibilities are a.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: Little bit less, right, I brother appreciate it.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks so much for having you guys.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: Two time visitor Steve Sabans Mountair baseball coach. Get that
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: pontoon start. He's just straight over, right back up the river,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: running right back up the river. Gets you take it
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: all away up to the just colisseum kind of there.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: We'll get you back to the baseball stadium. We'll get
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: it done there. Three guys brought to us by Jan
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: Dill's attorneys at law. They won't take no for an answer.
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: Just like Sabs does not take a no when he
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: tries to take a picture out of the game, We'll
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: not accept no either. As Jan Dill's by Comac's Business
• 1:16:14
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• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: Visit Lou Wendell Marine at sales dot com. And by
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: Tutor's Biscuit World Sabs can eat three start your day
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: the homemade way with a Tutor's biscuit and introducing the
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: biscuit in the center fielder's basket. I Love that. And
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: by Conley's CPA Group providing value beyond numbers for our producer,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: mister Jake and our assistant producer in charge of stuff.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: Jumpin Jack. We're out three guys before the game. See
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: you