Latest / From the Coach's Mouth / Episode 56: Don Stopa

Transcript

Episode 56: Don Stopa · From the Coach's Mouth

• 0:00
  Division One, everybody's talking about the one or two
• 0:02
  kids throwing 68 to 70. There's a couple of those, not
• 0:05
  many. Most of your successful Division
• 0:07
  One pitchers are 62 to 65. There's a lot of 60 that are
• 0:10
  very successful. So like I said, you, you bump
• 0:13
  60, I'm interested. You bump 65, I'm really
• 0:16
  interested. But if you can't change it up or
• 0:18
  move it up and down, you're just another arm.
• 0:42
  Welcome to the From the Coach's Mouth podcast with your host Jay
• 0:47
  Bolden and Ken Krause. Hello Mr. and Misses America and
• 1:06
  all the ships at sea. This is the From the Coach's
• 1:09
  Mouth podcast. Of course, this is Ken Krause
• 1:12
  here with you, as always with my good buddy Jay Bolden.
• 1:15
  Jay, how we doing today? I'm doing good, Ken.
• 1:18
  Hey, how about those T-shirts? Man, we looked pretty good in
• 1:21
  those T-shirts a couple weeks ago.
• 1:23
  It's great to look good and get out there and get together.
• 1:26
  Was awesome getting together with you.
• 1:27
  But the T-shirts I thought were were really cool.
• 1:29
  Have you had any response about some people sharing the podcast
• 1:32
  and getting some free T-shirts? Oh, yeah, yeah, they're keeping
• 1:35
  me busy. In fact, I was going to do a
• 1:37
  couple of other things today and it was like, oh wow, I, I got a
• 1:40
  get out there and get some of those requests in the people
• 1:43
  that have been liking and sharing an episode and you know,
• 1:46
  getting that out there on social media.
• 1:47
  We really appreciate it. It's been growing.
• 1:50
  I did want to comment, you know, it's on our Facebook page now,
• 1:53
  one of the photos that we took the other day.
• 1:55
  And once again, people get the reinforcement as to why this is
• 1:58
  an audio only podcast. True, very true.
• 2:02
  Faces, like I said, faces for radio for sure.
• 2:05
  Yeah, but it's nice to see things growing.
• 2:07
  I think this is helping us. The last time I looked, we were
• 2:10
  over 12,000 people had downloaded or streamed an
• 2:13
  episode, at least one. We have about 400 followers now
• 2:17
  between Spotify and Apple. 87 was the last one I saw on
• 2:22
  Facebook. So words getting out there and
• 2:24
  hopefully it'll get out there a little bit more.
• 2:26
  Yeah, that's awesome. So thank you everybody who's
• 2:28
  been sharing an episode from the podcast.
• 2:30
  This is going to be another great one that you could share
• 2:33
  if you want. And if you do, make sure you
• 2:35
  click follow, share this episode and then we'll just message Ken
• 2:38
  and I and we'll get a, we'll get a T-shirt out to you guys while
• 2:41
  supplies last, of course. So, but yeah, it's great.
• 2:44
  And I love the fact that we're doing that and I love the fact
• 2:46
  that people actually want to wear those T-shirts too, which
• 2:49
  is super cool. Hopefully if you are listening
• 2:51
  us and you have shared it, when you do get your T-shirt, I think
• 2:53
  it'd be pretty cool if you took a picture with it.
• 2:55
  We'll post it on some of our social media stuff too, so that
• 2:58
  we could show some of our listeners out there as well.
• 3:01
  Yeah. You know, or you guys, I think
• 3:03
  you're able to post down there, but if not, then send it to us
• 3:05
  and we'll post it. Absolutely.
• 3:07
  All right, well, enough babbling.
• 3:08
  Can you want to give some information about this amazing
• 3:10
  guest we have today? Another great guest here today.
• 3:13
  So I'm I'm super excited to to get into some conversations
• 3:16
  today with. All righty.
• 3:18
  We're delighted to welcome today's guest to the podcast
• 3:21
  because of his experience as a collegiate and private coach,
• 3:24
  recruiter, player retention expert, in class instructor and
• 3:28
  academic advisor. The Surrey, BC, native that's in
• 3:32
  Canada for the geographically challenged began his coaching
• 3:36
  journey as an assistant baseball coach and pitching coach at
• 3:39
  Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, where he earned his associate's Degree
• 3:44
  of Arts in mass Communications. He then moved to Graceland
• 3:48
  University, an NAIA school in Limoni, Iowa where he served as
• 3:52
  an assistant baseball coach for two years before making the
• 3:55
  transition to head softball coach and Sports Information
• 3:59
  Director at Graceland. During that stint, he earned his
• 4:01
  Bachelor's degree in Communications from Graceland
• 4:04
  and then went on to complete his Master's in Science and Sports
• 4:07
  Management from California University of Pennsylvania.
• 4:10
  From there he went to Pima Community College in Tucson, AZ
• 4:14
  where he wore 3 hats, assistant softball coach, assistant
• 4:17
  baseball coach, and Sports Information Director while
• 4:20
  helping his team to a 51 and 14 mark and coming within one game
• 4:25
  of reaching the national tournament.
• 4:27
  In 2011, he became the head softball coach and Sports
• 4:30
  Information Director at Lewisburg College in North
• 4:34
  Carolina, amassing a 70 and 56 record in three years before
• 4:38
  taking on the head coaching role at the University of Minnesota
• 4:42
  Crookston. He later joined the University
• 4:44
  of North Dakota staff as an assistant coach, where he
• 4:47
  remained until 2024, when he took on a new role at the
• 4:51
  university as a program officer in its Indians into Medicine
• 4:55
  program, which helps Native Americans pursue careers in the
• 4:58
  healthcare field, including becoming physicians and nurses.
• 5:02
  He still keeps a hand in the softball world, however, as the
• 5:05
  owner of DJ Stopa Consulting and Training, which offers skills
• 5:10
  training and recruiting advice to prospective college athletes.
• 5:13
  Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm From the Coach's
• 5:16
  Mouth podcast welcome to Don Stopa.
• 5:21
  Thanks for having me here guys. Welcome, Don.
• 5:23
  Thank you for spending some time with us today, man.
• 5:25
  We're super excited to talk some softball and some other things
• 5:28
  with you today. So thanks again for spending
• 5:29
  some time with us today. Yep.
• 5:31
  Thank you. Absolutely nothing better to do
• 5:33
  on a snowy day up here in the north.
• 5:37
  Yeah, we, we, we, we haven't had snow recently, but we did have
• 5:42
  some pretty bad storms up this way.
• 5:44
  Yeah, weather was crazy. It's been a lot of lot of wind
• 5:46
  and and hail and rain. It's rained for like 4 or five
• 5:50
  days here, so yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, all the, all the local
• 5:53
  weather people were really, really excited though.
• 5:55
  They, I mean, they broke into the network shows and they were
• 5:58
  just on there showing radars and talking about this area and that
• 6:01
  area repeating themselves every 3 minutes.
• 6:04
  It was a lot of fun for them. I think that's what they live
• 6:06
  for. Well, you, you mentioned a great
• 6:08
  resume for me, which just another way to say I'm old with
• 6:11
  all those jobs. But I've actually added to that
• 6:15
  a little bit this year. I'm actually coaching with one
• 6:17
  of the high schools here in town.
• 6:18
  Really. Yeah.
• 6:20
  And the funny part is we've played five games so far, all
• 6:23
  them inside in domes. And we're supposed to play at on
• 6:26
  the road today, our first outdoor games.
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  But there is 3 weather advisories over the next three
• 6:32
  days, so we could see up to 6 or 8 inches in the next three days.
• 6:36
  Oh, wow, wow. But you know, that's good
• 6:39
  exercise. Get this kids out there scraping
• 6:41
  off the field and now you know the game is on, right?
• 6:44
  Yeah, it's it's part of my life and everywhere I've coached
• 6:47
  except for in in Tucson. There, we've learned how to get
• 6:50
  snow off a ball field. Awesome.
• 6:52
  All right, Don, well, let's let's jump in here.
• 6:54
  Let's let's get started. So we asked.
• 6:55
  It's just about everybody. Where did where did it all start
• 6:58
  for you? How did you get how did you get
• 6:59
  involved in fast pitch softball? Well, the funny part, fast pitch
• 7:02
  has been part of my life. My father played when I was a
• 7:06
  real little one. I got to see my dad pitch a
• 7:08
  bunch of times, you know, just community league kind of deal.
• 7:11
  But the guy never threw a ball overhand.
• 7:13
  I put catch them most of my life.
• 7:15
  Never saw the guy throw a ball overhand, that kind of picture.
• 7:17
  He was, wow, I even had the opportunity and you know, I'm
• 7:20
  going to say maybe early 80s, maybe late 70s to see the King
• 7:25
  and his court play up there in Vancouver.
• 7:27
  So I saw Ernie Fainer get it done.
• 7:30
  So I've been a part of that game since birth.
• 7:33
  I even played organized fast pitch as a kid, my first three
• 7:37
  years of organized sport. But all the guys in my
• 7:39
  neighborhood were baseball guys. So I eventually joined them and
• 7:41
  at age 11, I went to the dark side and played baseball, which
• 7:46
  led to what I'm doing now. At age 18 I got hurt, so I
• 7:50
  started coaching some kids. Couple years later got hurt
• 7:53
  again, so I started coaching as as a side thing and that was
• 7:56
  where I got the bug. I played ball my whole life, but
• 7:59
  I wanted to still be involved. Started coaching kids.
• 8:02
  There it is. First college job was a baseball
• 8:06
  job because that's the way it worked.
• 8:07
  It was a great story. I got a phone call 18 days
• 8:11
  later, rented out my condo, quit my job, paid off my bills, sold
• 8:15
  my car the day my flight left. And I was in Oklahoma from
• 8:19
  Vancouver, Oklahoma in 18 days. And that's how I got into
• 8:22
  coaching a couple years later at Graceland University, still with
• 8:25
  baseball. IT8 for the softball coach after
• 8:29
  TA in for him. He's like, hey, I really like
• 8:31
  working with you. How would you like to be my
• 8:32
  associate head coach next year? So I went from part time
• 8:35
  baseball coaching job to a full time paycheck coaching softball.
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  The next year he retired, so the program was mine.
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  So I went from one year as an associate head coach to the head
• 8:45
  coach and that's where I really got into college softball and
• 8:49
  I've stayed. I had a short little stint in
• 8:52
  Arizona back in baseball because we moved to Arizona for my wife
• 8:55
  to go to Graduate School. And the first job I got in town
• 8:58
  was base. But the softball coach, every
• 9:00
  year when you're going to quit baseball and get back on the
• 9:02
  real field, I, I did. And Armando Kiros, you know, I,
• 9:07
  I thank him for doing that because I've never looked back
• 9:09
  since. It's been softball, softball,
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  softball for 18 years straight. Yeah, I know this is kind of a
• 9:14
  loaded question, but which one do you prefer?
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  You know, I got my start in Oklahoma, that was with
• 9:19
  baseball. So if I want to say from a
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  baseball side of things, loved it there.
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  But softball, it, it's in my blood.
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  You know, before I was even playing, watching my older
• 9:27
  sister play back in the early 80s, she played in travel
• 9:31
  softball, which really wasn't a thing yet.
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  But in the West, in the West Coast, we had a bunch of travel
• 9:35
  softball up in BC. So, you know, from diapers on,
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  I've been around fast pitch. It's in my blood.
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  Did you play any other sports when you were growing up?
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  I played all the high school sports, you know, through middle
• 9:46
  school, I should say, because on the West Coast of, of Canada,
• 9:50
  very blessed that we had baseball all year round, indoors
• 9:54
  seven of those months, but we had baseball all year round.
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  So from age 11 on, it was baseball, baseball, baseball.
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  But I played soccer, I played basketball, I played volleyball.
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  I was good at all of them. But baseball is where it was for
• 10:07
  me. It's where I had the most fun.
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  It's the sport I was the best at.
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  So that's what it was for me. But I still agree that kids play
• 10:14
  all year round. If you're going to specialize,
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  maybe your junior year, it's time to specialize.
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  But before that, play everything.
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  Yeah, yeah, it's a huge, very, very good comment right there.
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  I think a lot of times these kids are specialized in that
• 10:27
  1011 years old and you don't even know if these kids are
• 10:29
  going to even see it all the way through, you know, so and again,
• 10:33
  you know, I think it's it's more about being an athlete first,
• 10:36
  right, Being athlete first and then turn into that softball
• 10:38
  player or whatever volleyball player.
• 10:40
  But yeah, I agree with you, play a lot of sports.
• 10:42
  I think it's huge. Yeah, You know, I think a good
• 10:44
  way I heard somebody put it once is that you may really love
• 10:47
  chocolate ice cream, but how do you know you don't love vanilla
• 10:50
  or or mid chip more? You know, try them all and then
• 10:54
  figure it out. Yeah.
• 10:56
  And there's, there's, there's two kinds of softball players
• 10:58
  that make it to the collegiate level, great athletes playing
• 11:00
  softball and softball players. And they they both make it
• 11:04
  there, you know, and it's just at times we're going to say
• 11:06
  those great softball players will probably end up being the
• 11:08
  better, the best of the best. But there is two kinds of kids
• 11:11
  that do it, and I like them both.
• 11:12
  I want to talk a little bit, Don.
• 11:14
  You've already kind of given us a little bit of your coaching
• 11:16
  journey in your path there. It's a couple 2 questions
• 11:19
  really. Like what shaped you early on?
• 11:22
  Like shaped you in your path early on to, to really realize
• 11:25
  like, or, or was there a, a time where you like, or a moment
• 11:29
  where you like, this is what I was meant to do.
• 11:31
  Like I'm I'm meant to be a coach.
• 11:33
  You know the the the coolest thing about the way my journey
• 11:36
  started and many coaches do. I started a lot of small
• 11:39
  colleges where you also have secondary duties that makes you
• 11:42
  more well-rounded person. But with the small colleges, you
• 11:45
  don't necessarily have 234 5-6 assistant coaches and director
• 11:50
  of OPS and all that stuff. So I've had to do everything.
• 11:52
  I was a pitcher, so that's what I knew.
• 11:54
  Well, I was a great middle infielder but couldn't hit a
• 11:57
  lick, so I became a full time pitcher.
• 11:59
  The DH was my best friend. But as a coach I've had to work
• 12:03
  with every group on the field and I've enjoyed every part.
• 12:06
  And when I learned something new, I picked it up in Excel
• 12:09
  with it because now that we've got the Google, you can find
• 12:12
  videos on everything to make yourself better.
• 12:14
  There is some crazy stuff out there and we all know I've all
• 12:17
  seen it, OK, but even that crazy stuff gives me an idea of what I
• 12:20
  shouldn't do. But yeah, I've been able to just
• 12:22
  grow with every job. But I've had to do everything.
• 12:25
  There's not one part been the strength coach, been the speed
• 12:28
  coach, pitchers, catchers, outfielders, infielders, you
• 12:30
  name it. I've had to do it all and I love
• 12:33
  doing it. That's why it brought me back to
• 12:35
  high school this year. I took a year off.
• 12:37
  Now I'm coaching high school ball with a a former UND player
• 12:40
  that didn't play for me, but I'm back coaching that and I'm
• 12:44
  helping her with everything because she's done a great job
• 12:47
  with her program. Now she wants to make it a
• 12:49
  little bit better and that's my job.
• 12:50
  That's fun. So you know what you say now you
• 12:53
  know Hope coaching high school, you've coached pretty much at
• 12:55
  every level, NEIA Division two, Division One.
• 12:59
  What lessons did you learn during those years and is there
• 13:02
  anything out of any of those levels or each of those levels
• 13:06
  that sticks with you today? They're all great levels.
• 13:10
  You know, it's one thing on the recruiting trail, everybody's
• 13:12
  got the D1 dreams, and so did I as a coach.
• 13:15
  But not everybody's a Division One ball player.
• 13:18
  But the the junior college kids, they're working as hard as the
• 13:21
  the Division One kids are the NEI teams.
• 13:23
  Shoot, there's great NEI beat a lot of D ones, OK.
• 13:27
  And even at the D2 level, the best of the best compete at the
• 13:29
  Division One level, as we're now seeing in schools transitioning
• 13:33
  to Division One out of division two or even Division Three like
• 13:36
  Saint Thomas and Minneapolis. It can happen.
• 13:39
  But there is great ball at every level.
• 13:42
  And just because it's Division Three doesn't mean it's a lot of
• 13:45
  work or it's not a lot of work. It is.
• 13:48
  It's college softball. It's the real deal.
• 13:50
  What kind of work do you think? Or how do you see the workloads
• 13:53
  being a little bit different? Well, and that's the the part of
• 13:56
  my story that's the negative. You know, it's not all rainbows
• 13:59
  and unicorns here. I said for a lot of years I
• 14:01
  didn't want to be a Division One coach because most of my friends
• 14:04
  that are on marriage number 23 or 4, two years into my career
• 14:08
  as a Division One coach, I became a statistic.
• 14:11
  My, my first marriage ended, you know, and that that moved on.
• 14:15
  Luckily enough, I've marriage number 2 is really successful.
• 14:18
  So I'm really happy with that. But that is the part of it.
• 14:21
  Division One, you have no life and that's something I spoke out
• 14:24
  at the National Convention couple years ago and ruffled
• 14:27
  some feathers because I got to put it on the head coaches.
• 14:30
  There is no work life balance. It's a work work balance.
• 14:33
  So when talking about calendars, the head coaches have got to
• 14:36
  give their assistants some life and even the head coaches
• 14:39
  themselves got to be able to get a life.
• 14:41
  It's 360 days a year, 16 hour days in the summer.
• 14:45
  That's Division One softball. Division Two ain't far behind.
• 14:48
  OK. But that is the the biggest
• 14:51
  thing that the negative take away is there is no work life
• 14:54
  balance anymore and it's tough. And that's why I retired after
• 14:57
  25 years at the collegiate level.
• 14:59
  I've got a 12 and a 60, 18 year old that I saw more in the last
• 15:02
  year than the last 10 years put together.
• 15:04
  Now, Don, I want to ask you a quick question.
• 15:06
  Look, there's a new calendar, am I correct?
• 15:08
  Did they, did they just come out with some new calendar?
• 15:10
  What, what are your thoughts about the new calendar?
• 15:12
  I haven't really dug into it too much, but like, is that more or
• 15:16
  is that less? Is that better or is that worse?
• 15:18
  What are your thoughts? They had a the NCAA made a great
• 15:21
  step with that. So with those blackout dates,
• 15:24
  you can't do anything you can't talk to your players, you can't
• 15:27
  talk to your recruits, you can't respond to them on Twitter if
• 15:30
  you wanted to. And it's just a couple extra
• 15:32
  days a year surrounded around some of the dead periods that
• 15:35
  makes it so you just can't coach.
• 15:38
  Now, that doesn't mean you're not running into the office to
• 15:40
  get caught up on paperwork or looking at stats or synergy or
• 15:44
  something like that. So that's once again the head
• 15:46
  coaches and the coaches got to get together say no, don't come
• 15:49
  to work. Couple of our our greatest
• 15:51
  coaches in this country over the last 40 years, talked to them,
• 15:55
  met them, some of my can call friends.
• 15:57
  They've even told me they've had days.
• 15:58
  They'll say OK, this assistant coach, you are not coming to
• 16:02
  work today, I don't want you here, OK.
• 16:04
  It's not because I didn't love them.
• 16:05
  It's because they needed them to go be a family person or go
• 16:08
  enjoy something they like. And that's something huge.
• 16:11
  And those new blackout dates, it allows a little bit more of
• 16:14
  that. So it is a step forward, but
• 16:16
  still it's it's all about the money and all about the winning
• 16:19
  and people keeping their jobs. So I don't have a problem with
• 16:22
  the workaholic mentality. But as you're looking around the
• 16:25
  country today, young coaches are lasting a year or two and
• 16:28
  getting out, a lot of the the veteran coaches are getting out.
• 16:32
  The paycheck isn't worth it. OK, the time commitment's
• 16:35
  incredible, but you got to love it.
• 16:37
  I did it for 25 years because of my love of these kids and the
• 16:40
  game because trust me, it was not a lot of paycheck.
• 16:43
  Yeah, well, and if you wanted to work that much, you'd have been
• 16:45
  an NFL coach. Yeah, with the amount of film
• 16:48
  work those guys do, I'd hate to see what that life looks like.
• 16:52
  All right, so let's talk a little pitching, if you don't
• 16:54
  mind. What do you look for when you're
• 16:56
  looking at pictures? You're out on the recruiting
• 16:58
  trail and you're trying to consider something.
• 17:00
  Maybe you guys are interested in this girl or that girl.
• 17:03
  What? What are you looking at with
• 17:04
  those pictures and what kind of expectations are you hoping to
• 17:07
  meet? Yeah, the, the, the easy part is
• 17:09
  my radar gun doesn't lie. Everybody else does.
• 17:12
  You know, I've had a lot of players.
• 17:14
  She's 6667. I get there.
• 17:15
  She's 5657. So my radar gun doesn't lie.
• 17:18
  And that that opens the door, you know, I'm going to look at
• 17:21
  the Velo and if it's something I'm interested, OK, now we're
• 17:23
  going to look more. But once again, I go back to my
• 17:26
  radar gun. If there's a change up, I want
• 17:28
  to see the difference. And then after that, I'm a North
• 17:30
  and South guy. The east and West is fine.
• 17:33
  They're great pitches, but not for everybody as the bat planes
• 17:37
  moving on the same plane. But if you've got a drop ball or
• 17:40
  a rise ball that is real, that North and South with a change
• 17:43
  up, I'm in love. You don't even have to throw
• 17:46
  real hard. You know, Division One,
• 17:47
  everybody's talking about the one or two kids throwing 68 to
• 17:50
  70. There's a couple of those, not
• 17:52
  many. Most of your successful Division
• 17:54
  One pictures are 62 to 65. There's a lot of 60 that are
• 17:57
  very successful. So like I said, you, you bump
• 18:00
  60, I'm interested. You bump 65, I'm really
• 18:03
  interested. But if you can't change it up or
• 18:06
  move it up and down, I I you're just another arm.
• 18:09
  So when I watch games on TV though, I mean, I'd say a lot of
• 18:12
  kids throwing 687072. Are those guns juice do you
• 18:16
  think? I mean, are you seeing something
• 18:18
  different with your radar gun? Yeah, I am at times.
• 18:21
  I'm not going to sell it out or anything like that.
• 18:23
  But here at U&D, we're playing in a tournament one time and we
• 18:27
  had one kid and she was our our soft lefty, OK, But we knew she
• 18:31
  had a team that wasn't going to ever see that all year long
• 18:33
  because they were a top 8 program at the time.
• 18:36
  And she was very successful. But she came in the Duck coach.
• 18:39
  I'm not throwing 63. No, she was throwing 5657, but
• 18:44
  the gun was showing 63. And sure, I'd love to say she
• 18:48
  was amped up for the big game, but it it wasn't real.
• 18:51
  So you do see that. And ESPN is about, you know,
• 18:54
  making money, getting people interested.
• 18:56
  And they've been so good for our game.
• 18:58
  OK, with a lot of what they do, not everything, but a lot of
• 19:01
  what they do. But if that gun's showing a lot
• 19:04
  of 69 and some 70s, that's good for TV.
• 19:07
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not necessarily for the psyche
• 19:10
  of pictures of their parents though, who think, Oh my God,
• 19:13
  I'm so far behind that. Yeah, and the parents are are
• 19:17
  bought in a lot of that and you know, my kids got to throw that
• 19:20
  hard. No they don't.
• 19:21
  They got to be able to pitch. I want to I want to share a
• 19:24
  story with you. This is years ago.
• 19:26
  I can't remember who it was. Came out, I was a director of
• 19:29
  OPS somewhere, came out and said, look at the last eight
• 19:32
  teams in the Women's College World Series.
• 19:34
  Why are they there? Because every one of those
• 19:36
  pitchers on every one of those Staffs or whatever predominantly
• 19:39
  are throwing the ball between 68 to 72 miles an hour.
• 19:43
  And one of them was just all Juarez.
• 19:45
  Do you remember her from Oklahoma?
• 19:47
  She came out and responded to that on Twitter and said I have
• 19:51
  never thrown. He posted her speed and it was
• 19:54
  like 68 and she goes, I have never thrown a ball 68 miles an
• 19:57
  hour and I am radar to every week at Oklahoma.
• 20:00
  She's like I'm probably hitting 66 when I'm amped up and she
• 20:05
  goes and it's probably getting hit because it's flat and not
• 20:08
  moving. And she just came out and said,
• 20:10
  what you're saying is not correct.
• 20:11
  Just because the gun said that, that doesn't mean that I did
• 20:14
  that. And I think that's a huge, huge
• 20:16
  thing. And I saved it.
• 20:17
  I, I posted every year in the women's College World Series
• 20:19
  because someone will come out and say, oh, look at all these,
• 20:22
  all these kids throwing 70 miles an hour.
• 20:24
  And then here, here's this little clip from the person who
• 20:27
  said, you know, from, from someone who said that this
• 20:30
  person was throwing 68 to 69 and she's telling you she's never
• 20:33
  thrown a ball over 67 miles an hour.
• 20:35
  It's mostly, you know, 66 or even lower.
• 20:38
  So again, I think that's a huge, huge thing for people to listen
• 20:41
  to. Like there are kids that do
• 20:43
  throw the ball that hard. We know this, but they don't
• 20:45
  grow on trees. They're like, they're an
• 20:47
  anomaly. A lot of them, you know, and
• 20:49
  like you said, my time at that level too was everybody that I,
• 20:53
  I saw was throwing, you know, 62 to to 65.
• 20:56
  I didn't see anybody, you know, that you're throwing the ball 70
• 20:59
  miles an hour. It was crazy.
• 21:00
  So, yeah, I agree with you. And I think that's a huge thing
• 21:02
  that people and parents need to hear and listen is like, you can
• 21:05
  be successful. Like you talked about it, North
• 21:07
  and South is going to be, if you're good at one of those two
• 21:09
  pitches, you're going to have a pretty, you're going to be a
• 21:11
  pretty solid pitcher. It could be at any of those
• 21:14
  levels. Yeah, we, we had a young lady
• 21:16
  here at UND the last couple of years.
• 21:18
  She could consistently throw 6566, but her straight pitches
• 21:22
  were anywhere from 57 to 66 because she, she changed up her
• 21:26
  speeds even with her straight pitches and once again, like,
• 21:29
  and her change up was just divine.
• 21:32
  So that didn't, that didn't help the cause or anything.
• 21:34
  You know, it was amazing. But yeah, she even varied her
• 21:37
  speeds and she could juice it up whenever she wanted to, but when
• 21:40
  she had to be throw a good pitch, she back off a little bit
• 21:43
  and throw it where she needed to.
• 21:44
  So let's stay on the pitching for just a second here too,
• 21:47
  since Ken kind of opened up those cannons because Ken and I
• 21:49
  both we do, we deal with a lot of pitchers.
• 21:51
  We, you know, we're, I'm pretty sure we're common, very common
• 21:56
  on the same mechanical things that we really look for in
• 21:58
  pitching. But I want to ask you, and I'm
• 22:01
  going to do kind of A2 fold question here.
• 22:04
  What are some of the common mechanical flaws you see being
• 22:07
  taught or misunderstood? And then to in your opinion,
• 22:10
  what do you think about all those, I'm not going to say
• 22:13
  amazing, but all of those crazy drills on Instagram and tick
• 22:17
  tock and all of that. What are your thoughts on that?
• 22:20
  So what are some common mechanical flaws you see being
• 22:22
  taught or misunderstood? And then what's your thought on
• 22:24
  all of the Instagram drills? Well, the, the flaws, you know,
• 22:28
  the biggest thing for me is lack of use of legs.
• 22:31
  You know, I see so much out there, so many pictures that are
• 22:34
  just full arm kids. You know, you get the largest
• 22:36
  muscle mass in your body is, is on those two stems of yours.
• 22:40
  A lot of power is generated from the from the legs.
• 22:43
  And I just don't see people working with that enough.
• 22:45
  Everybody's worried about their caves, their circles, you know,
• 22:48
  blah, blah, blah, their spins, their flips, which is all good
• 22:52
  stuff, but everything's pitching starts from the ground up.
• 22:55
  And you see a lot of kids out there that don't use their legs
• 22:58
  very well. So whether that's a flaw or not,
• 23:00
  not really. It's just not using it well
• 23:02
  enough and that's where I really struggle because you do go out
• 23:05
  there, I'll watch some kids, especially some really young
• 23:08
  pitchers there. There's just nothing in the legs
• 23:10
  and imagine what they could do. There's no drive or like that.
• 23:13
  It's just kind of like a little step or jump off the mound and
• 23:16
  and a quick arm. Is that something, is that
• 23:18
  something that you feel like if you saw other good things, you
• 23:21
  say I can change that, Or is that something where you look at
• 23:24
  and say if she doesn't have the legs by now, it's going to be
• 23:27
  tough to get her to get them? You know, I'm a big drills guy,
• 23:30
  so drills, drills, drills will develop a bunch of drills.
• 23:33
  Find something that gets to that kid and get her in her legs a
• 23:37
  little more. And I do the same thing with
• 23:38
  hitters. There's so many dead leg hitters
• 23:40
  out there that drives me crazy. But yeah, just get some drills.
• 23:43
  Finally get some that gets between their ears.
• 23:45
  Oh, wow, Coach, that makes sense.
• 23:47
  Now you're the kids living and and throwing a little bit
• 23:49
  harder, you know, and do things much better.
• 23:52
  And that goes to the other part of your question about some of
• 23:54
  the stuff you see online. I even tell my players, I said
• 23:58
  try everything that I say, but you don't have to do anything.
• 24:03
  Same thing with the Google, the Instagram, the TikTok, whatever.
• 24:07
  You see some goofy stuff out there.
• 24:09
  Hey, give it a shot. You know, I can't say I'm going
• 24:11
  to tell you to do it, but give it a shot because if it works
• 24:14
  for that kid, heck yeah. But there is so much.
• 24:17
  I could call it trash out there, but there's so much goofy stuff
• 24:20
  out there. And we had a Young Living in
• 24:22
  Arizona. Unfortunately, she quit after
• 24:24
  her junior college career. But this young lady was throwing
• 24:27
  upper 60s to to 70 miles an hour all day long.
• 24:30
  And if you saw her arm action, you would say who taught her how
• 24:34
  to do that? But we looked at that and said
• 24:36
  she's bumping 70, why would you change that?
• 24:39
  And it also had, and I compared it to Mariano Rivera, it had
• 24:42
  such late cut at 70 miles an hour, people could not touch
• 24:46
  her. And that's the same thing as
• 24:47
  you're not going to change that kid all.
• 24:49
  Right, let's talk a little bit about data.
• 24:51
  You know, everybody's enamored of data these days.
• 24:54
  We see it all the time, day-to-day to data.
• 24:56
  How do you use it without letting it control or maybe kind
• 25:00
  of override what you know intrinsically?
• 25:02
  You know, the the data thing, the analytics and all stuff is
• 25:05
  awesome. I'm a big fan, but I'm also a
• 25:08
  big fan of coaching and personalities.
• 25:11
  You know, as a head coach and even with the assistant coaches,
• 25:13
  your your hardest job or biggest job or is personality
• 25:16
  management. So you get to know your kids
• 25:18
  really well. Well, Data's not going to tell
• 25:21
  me who's in a bad mood who had a fight with their their their
• 25:24
  bestie, whose dad was getting on them too hard last night.
• 25:27
  So they're in a really bad mood. Data's not going to tell me
• 25:30
  that. So you got to be able to add the
• 25:31
  personalities into it. But Data's awesome.
• 25:34
  Some of the stuff that's going on out there now, taking UND for
• 25:37
  example, with Synergy and all the stuff we do with video and
• 25:41
  heat maps and all that stuff, 5-6 years ago, all the Power 4
• 25:45
  slash Power 5 schools had it. They had every single pitch on
• 25:48
  every single one of our batters, our pitchers.
• 25:51
  They had video on every single person.
• 25:53
  We didn't. We're mid majors who didn't
• 25:55
  spend that kind of money all of a sudden a couple years ago.
• 25:57
  U&D gets it. I'm telling you, it makes a
• 26:00
  difference. Now I've got take GRS like
• 26:03
  you're talking about. I could look at every pitch
• 26:04
  she's ever thrown in. Every single count, I click on a
• 26:07
  button on on her heat map, I've got video of that pitch.
• 26:11
  So the data is amazing. Major League Baseball guys are
• 26:14
  in there with their iPads watching they're at bat or the
• 26:17
  pictures come out of the bullpen.
• 26:18
  They're watching video on this guy.
• 26:20
  Division One baseball made that a rule this year that they're
• 26:23
  allowed to start doing that. And as usual, softballs, it's
• 26:26
  usually a couple years behind for no real reason just because
• 26:29
  we are. But you're going to see the
• 26:31
  iPads and dugouts in in a year or two and then softballs going
• 26:34
  to have that instant feedback, which is amazing, but not always
• 26:38
  the best thing. Well.
• 26:39
  You know, it's funny too, because when you talk about
• 26:41
  about that and all the data that's available now that you
• 26:43
  can just purchase, some of those bench players are really going
• 26:46
  to run out of things to do. They used to be the kids that
• 26:48
  were in there doing charts, you know, paper charts and all that.
• 26:51
  What are you going to do with them now?
• 26:53
  Well, and the other side of that too though is I am the guy that
• 26:56
  likes to burn other teams when I'm stealing their signals.
• 27:00
  I'm stealing pictures, pictures. I'm that guy.
• 27:03
  And once I do have somebody's change up, I'll ask, bring all
• 27:06
  nine batters in who wants it and half the team will say, coach, I
• 27:09
  don't want to know because that's too much thinking for
• 27:11
  them while they're trying to do their thing.
• 27:13
  And that's where their data can get some kids into trouble in
• 27:15
  the dugout. They're going to have a bat,
• 27:17
  bat, get in the dugout and dwell so much on it where, you know,
• 27:20
  my goal and rule is if you do something wrong, take about 10
• 27:23
  seconds, kick yourself in the backside for it and then get
• 27:26
  over it. Whereas now they're going to
• 27:27
  walk in the dugout for the next 30 minutes and look what
• 27:30
  happened at that bat or that at ground ball or the pitcher
• 27:33
  facing that bat or what they did wrong.
• 27:35
  So that's where it can be a negative too.
• 27:36
  It's going to be a bit of a mental approach for some people
• 27:39
  that can't do that. I.
• 27:40
  Want to ask you a question question, Don, this is along the
• 27:42
  lines there's there's been some changes in pitching in regards
• 27:46
  to leaping now, right? So and there's a lot of trends
• 27:50
  that are are currently going or what First of all, what what are
• 27:53
  your thoughts on on the leaping with the way that they're
• 27:57
  calling it now? And then also to are there any
• 27:59
  other over hyped kind of trends that you see that you don't like
• 28:03
  and maybe could even be harmful? Well, here's a funny story.
• 28:07
  For years I I've umpired a couple games a year because my
• 28:10
  schedule's too busy. But if I had a day off, I'd go
• 28:12
  umpire a high school game or a sommel ball game.
• 28:14
  Last year on my my year off, I umpire way too much.
• 28:18
  But the one thing that I've got respect for them is they can't
• 28:21
  see everything all the time. So loosening up the rules a
• 28:25
  little bit like international fast pitch or men's fast pitch,
• 28:28
  allowing the pitchers to do a little more is taking that that
• 28:31
  discretion part away from the umpires they don't have to deal
• 28:33
  with anymore. So it's going to help the game a
• 28:35
  little bit once we get settled. But you talk to some real high
• 28:40
  level pitchers that have pitched over the years.
• 28:42
  The leaping is fine, the releasing is fine, all that is
• 28:44
  that. But some people are teaching the
• 28:46
  kids to really get up in the air.
• 28:48
  Well, where are we pitching? Straight ahead in front of us.
• 28:52
  So jumping up in the air is probably taking a bit out of
• 28:54
  your legs that I was talking about.
• 28:57
  So some of that, you know, I have no problem with the leaping
• 28:59
  or the getting airborne. If you remember back at the yay,
• 29:02
  Kenzie Fowler at Arizona in the World Series kept getting
• 29:05
  illegal pitch, illegal pitch with the naked eye.
• 29:08
  I don't know how those umpires ever saw it, because when they
• 29:11
  slowed it down to slow MO, I think I saw a millimeter or two
• 29:14
  underneath the cleat. Okay, Kenzie was amazing.
• 29:17
  Imagine what she'd be today when she didn't have to worry about
• 29:20
  that, you know? So like I said, I have no
• 29:22
  problem with it because it's allowing the players to play.
• 29:25
  But there is some people instructing some some awkward
• 29:28
  stuff. And I've talked to some amazing
• 29:30
  pitching coaches and they agree that this whole up part of the
• 29:34
  leaping is not really helping most pitchers.
• 29:38
  Yeah. I mean, I've heard the argument
• 29:39
  that it's helping them get a little bit closer to the hitter.
• 29:43
  So, you know, they're claiming that's an advantage.
• 29:45
  But if you're doing that by slowing your body down, not
• 29:48
  getting as much forward drive when your foot lands, I would
• 29:52
  think that that would offset it or even still throw the balance
• 29:55
  down. Yeah, if, if they ever get to
• 29:58
  the rules, like men's fast pitch where it's a hop, skip and a
• 30:01
  jump and throw the ball and you're now 48 feet away from the
• 30:05
  plate, that's where it will make a big difference.
• 30:07
  But the concentration for at the high school level, the college
• 30:10
  levels right now is really washed.
• 30:11
  There's not a second replant, but some people are flat out
• 30:15
  teaching a second reply and that's going to hurt a lot of
• 30:19
  pictures because they're being taught wrong.
• 30:21
  That may be legal a few years, we'll see, but there is some
• 30:24
  kids that I'm watching on videos and people showing it.
• 30:26
  Yeah, that's illegal all day long.
• 30:29
  Time Blue. Hey Jay, on a scale of 1 to 10,
• 30:34
  how important do you think brush contact is for pictures?
• 30:38
  It's pretty high up there Ken, probably a 10 since it's hard to
• 30:41
  get maximum speed and or accuracy without it.
• 30:44
  Yeah I agree, but have you ever had a student who struggled to
• 30:47
  get good light brush contact? Sure, all the time, in fact.
• 30:52
  Especially when they've been taught hello elbow and are
• 30:55
  trying to throw around their hips or they're sliding their
• 30:58
  hips out of the way doing that crazy ninja move.
• 31:01
  So what do you do when you run run into this situation?
• 31:03
  Keep railing on them until they get it right.
• 31:06
  I used to do that a lot, but then I learned about a product
• 31:09
  called Pitch Squeak Ken. Pitch squeak.
• 31:12
  What's that? It's a cool little armband with
• 31:15
  a squeaker inside of it. Like a dog toy.
• 31:18
  Yeah, kinda. So how does it work?
• 31:21
  Well, you slip the armband onto the pitcher's forearm and you
• 31:24
  set it so the squeaker is where the brush contact should happen.
• 31:28
  Then when the pitcher goes into release, she tries to get it to
• 31:32
  squeak like this. If she makes it happen, she got
• 31:36
  brush. If there's no sound, she knows
• 31:38
  immediately and can make a correction.
• 31:40
  Wow cool, so she gets immediate audible as well as tactile
• 31:45
  feedback. Oh, there you go again, showing
• 31:48
  off with those big and technical words again.
• 31:51
  But yeah, she can feel it and hear it.
• 31:53
  Does it really work? You bet it does.
• 31:56
  I use it with my students all the time and it helps them learn
• 32:00
  how to get brush contact pretty quickly if they practice with it
• 32:04
  sounds. Neat.
• 32:05
  Where can I get one? Oh, it's easy, Ken.
• 32:07
  Just e-mail support@pitchsqueak.com and
• 32:12
  Jason, the inventor of it and a Poly Girl certified pitching
• 32:15
  coach himself, will ask you how many you want and send them
• 32:19
  right out. I'll do that today.
• 32:21
  Thanks, Jay. What's that address again?
• 32:24
  Oh, you bet, Ken. It's support@pitchsqueak.com one
• 32:29
  more time for those of you who are listening,
• 32:31
  support@pitchsqueak.com and don't forget to mention in the
• 32:36
  e-mail that you heard about it right here on From the Coach's
• 32:39
  Mouth podcast and you'll receive 10% off.
• 32:44
  Play ball. So is there anything else in
• 32:48
  softball that's frustrating you right now?
• 32:50
  Anything else you're seeing? No, you know, there's, there's
• 32:53
  not a lot that's frustrating, you know, outside of the, the,
• 32:56
  the transfer portal. I've got my own thoughts on that
• 33:00
  that I want to find a little tough with, but the ever
• 33:02
  changing world of college softball at the administrative,
• 33:05
  the NCA level is mind boggling. I do have some of my own social
• 33:09
  media posts that I post every day because I get a couple
• 33:12
  emails every day on the administrative side of Division
• 33:14
  One athletics and it's just unbelievable.
• 33:18
  But the portal, I am grateful, the port, grateful for the
• 33:21
  portal because there's not every school is the right place for
• 33:24
  every kid. Not every head coach is the
• 33:27
  right place for every kid. So one time transfer that's free
• 33:30
  of charge, I love it. But when we look at kids that
• 33:34
  are going year to year to year, there are four programs in four
• 33:37
  years, five programs in five years chasing the almighty
• 33:40
  dollar or the WI have a problem with that.
• 33:43
  And that's the one rule that it's not even a softball
• 33:46
  mechanical rule or any like that that's bothering me.
• 33:49
  That rule, they've got to get it figured out.
• 33:51
  And I'm going to add on to your little bit.
• 33:53
  I know we're going to, I want to talk to you about this a little
• 33:55
  later on because I got some other questions more about some
• 33:57
  recruiting stuff. But it's not just the kids,
• 34:01
  right? It's the coaches too, right?
• 34:03
  Coaches are also forcing kids into the portal like, hey,
• 34:07
  right. Like, you know, and I think it's
• 34:09
  kind of like you said it at first it was more like, hey,
• 34:13
  yeah, it's not the right fit or whatever.
• 34:15
  And now it's like, you know, or kids are just entering the
• 34:17
  portal to see what the next biggest fish is, right.
• 34:20
  And, and I think a lot of that, like you're talking about the
• 34:22
  portal issues like it's, it's coaches too.
• 34:24
  I've had kids that have been like coach said, I have to hit
• 34:27
  the portal that I'm not welcome back here next year.
• 34:29
  And I, and that's a part of it too.
• 34:30
  So I think it's, there's a ton of different issues with it that
• 34:33
  they really have to like you said, they got to, they got to
• 34:36
  get something going here. So that this is or else it's,
• 34:39
  it's, it's just completely chaos right now.
• 34:41
  Coaches for forcing kids into portals, kids leaving the portal
• 34:44
  to go to go do something else or, or, you know, see if they're
• 34:47
  going to get paid or play for a bigger program.
• 34:49
  And, and it is, it's, it's and it's also stressful, stressful
• 34:52
  for these kids. It's, it's the educational piece
• 34:54
  of this whole thing is now kind of the on the back burner,
• 34:57
  right? It's more about, you know, for
• 34:59
  for a lot of these kids, yes. What are your thoughts on that
• 35:01
  too, Don? Like it's also some of the
• 35:03
  coaches, right, like some of the some of the schools are saying,
• 35:05
  hey, well, guess what, You know what, we've got this many kids
• 35:08
  coming in. We don't see a fit for year.
• 35:09
  You might you know, you probably need to be in the portal.
• 35:12
  Your thoughts? Yeah, it really is the wild,
• 35:14
  Wild West out there. There isn't any rules across the
• 35:17
  board. But I hate to say this and
• 35:19
  people are going to get upset about it, but it's the rich
• 35:22
  getting richer. I take a lot of lot of mid
• 35:26
  majors. If a coach wants to cut a kid or
• 35:29
  tell them to go into the portal, their administration won't allow
• 35:31
  them to do that. OK, it's not every program can
• 35:34
  do it. The big dogs can usually do it,
• 35:36
  but a lot of the big majors can't do that because they don't
• 35:38
  want to lose the students. OK, so but the big schools have
• 35:42
  to do it. Some of the best schools in the
• 35:43
  year. Look, you got 7 or 8 transfers
• 35:45
  every year. Why would a freshman sign there,
• 35:48
  you know, a kid coming out of high school because you're never
• 35:50
  going to play and we're seeing that often.
• 35:52
  Then they go on to the next school, other sports.
• 35:54
  It's all about the money. You know, in college softball
• 35:57
  right now, the NIL thing is awesome, but it's not as big as
• 36:01
  a deal as it is in other sports. It's going to get there because
• 36:04
  there is a few. But yeah, the the biggest thing
• 36:07
  is there is coaches that are doing that.
• 36:09
  And once again, the recruiting trail was my favorite part of
• 36:12
  being away from the field. But understand that every coach
• 36:16
  is telling the families everything they need to hear.
• 36:19
  Every family and kids telling the coach everything they need
• 36:21
  to hear. Then you get to campus and guess
• 36:24
  what? The coach is not who you thought
• 36:25
  they were and the kids not who you thought they were.
• 36:27
  Sometimes both, sometimes 1. So it may not be the right place
• 36:31
  for that kid. So like I said, that's great for
• 36:33
  the portal, but if you're chasing the dollars and the WS,
• 36:36
  it's not necessarily what it's all about.
• 36:39
  Well, it is that having an effect on on those seniors,
• 36:43
  maybe even the juniors, but especially the seniors in high
• 36:46
  school that are trying to get recruited, trying to land their
• 36:49
  spot. And maybe some of those schools
• 36:51
  that they'd like to go to are kind of sitting back and seeing
• 36:54
  who shows up in the portal because, you know, now you're
• 36:57
  going to have somebody who's got experience playing in college or
• 36:59
  at least being in the college level.
• 37:02
  And would that be an advantage going to one of them instead of
• 37:06
  a high school kid who's kind of a pig in a poke?
• 37:09
  Well, it, it is really going to hurt some of the high school
• 37:11
  kids because like the the earlier commitments, those kids
• 37:14
  are going to have their spot, but the kids that are that next
• 37:16
  wave, they're going to have to wait and wait and wait.
• 37:19
  The kids that I thought were really going to prosper from
• 37:21
  this were the junior college kids because they're they're
• 37:25
  kind of left waiting, waiting, waiting.
• 37:27
  Well, so many kids leave a program.
• 37:29
  I got to get college ready players right now.
• 37:31
  I'm going to get the best of the best JUCO kids, bring them in.
• 37:34
  So once again, these high school kids are now behind more college
• 37:36
  players. You know, I'm a big junior
• 37:38
  college advocate. That's where I started.
• 37:40
  I've had a number of kids have played in the Major League
• 37:42
  Baseball on my college baseball days that were JUCO kids that
• 37:45
  went on to the big leagues. I've had a number of my junior
• 37:47
  college softball players went on played for Power 5 and Power
• 37:51
  Four programs. So I'm a big JUCO advocate, and
• 37:54
  if I'm building a program right now and I need a couple kids
• 37:56
  quick, I'm looking at junior college because they've got 120
• 37:59
  games under their belt when they get to me.
• 38:02
  Yeah, I want to, I want to say nothing.
• 38:04
  I, I, you know, I go through the recruiting process, I've been
• 38:06
  through the transfer portal process with my kids too.
• 38:09
  And, and I always say like, especially kids that are getting
• 38:12
  recruited is like, you got to really get to know the coach.
• 38:15
  And when you're on campus, I give them a list of questions
• 38:17
  not to ask the coach, but to ask the actual players.
• 38:20
  Now, again, that doesn't mean the players aren't going to kind
• 38:22
  of sugarcoat it or whatever. But I always tell them like, you
• 38:25
  have to understand that recruiting coach is not going to
• 38:27
  be the same coach you're going to get when they step on the
• 38:29
  field. It's going to be a completely
• 38:30
  different coach. And so I always tell them to ask
• 38:33
  the players, you know, when they're alone and they have an
• 38:35
  opportunity. What is coach like when we've
• 38:38
  had a 10 game losing streak? What is coach like when she's
• 38:42
  mad? What is coach like if you have
• 38:44
  to miss a practice for a class? What is coach like?
• 38:46
  Those are like very valid and important questions to ask the
• 38:49
  players, not necessarily the coaches.
• 38:51
  Because like you said, people are going to tell you what you
• 38:55
  want to hear both coach and both player.
• 38:57
  And at the same time too, it's like you need to make sure that
• 39:00
  this is going to be a place where you're going to be
• 39:02
  comfortable at. And, and I say this to the
• 39:04
  parents, you have to be comfortable that this person who
• 39:07
  is going to be in charge of your daughter for the next 4 years
• 39:10
  and you're going to be, you're going to feel comfortable
• 39:12
  dropping them off every year knowing that they're both their,
• 39:15
  their mental and their own well-being is going to be good
• 39:18
  for the next 4 years. And I think that's a very valid
• 39:21
  message because like you said, recruiting coach and on field
• 39:26
  coach are two different things, especially after a 10 game
• 39:30
  losing streak or a 15 game losing streak.
• 39:32
  And I think that what you said was, Val, like everybody's
• 39:34
  telling everybody what they want to hear, but you have to do some
• 39:36
  digging. You know, I talk about it too,
• 39:38
  like we're talking pitching a little bit.
• 39:39
  I'm like, when I know that a kid is interested in this school,
• 39:42
  I'm doing research on the pitching coach.
• 39:43
  What does she teach? Is she going to overhaul
• 39:45
  mechanics? Are we going to be struggling
• 39:47
  here? And that's another conversation
• 39:49
  running into a little bit later here.
• 39:50
  But you know, those what you said they're down was was super
• 39:53
  huge. I hope parents that are
• 39:54
  listening to this really pay attention to it because it's
• 39:57
  important that you understand where where you're going to be
• 39:59
  dropping your daughter off for the next four years.
• 40:02
  Well, yeah. And another approach for that
• 40:04
  one too, though, is we live in the modern day of social media.
• 40:08
  So I can look at programs that are losing a bunch of kids.
• 40:12
  Shoot, if I'm a, I'm a 17 year old junior right now and I see a
• 40:15
  bunch of kids leave a program that I'm committed to, I'm going
• 40:18
  to instant message one of those kids and say, hey, you know,
• 40:22
  I'm, I'm looking at school. What happened?
• 40:23
  Some weren't going to respond, but some were going to give you
• 40:25
  the true deal and tell you why they left.
• 40:28
  And there may be very good reasons for that.
• 40:30
  And maybe hey, I wasn't plain enough and I got to move on.
• 40:33
  That's not a problem either. But this all starts at the club
• 40:36
  level too. The club transfer portal started
• 40:38
  15 years ago, you know, and you didn't have to enter a portal.
• 40:41
  You just left. You know, I wasn't playing
• 40:43
  enough. I went to a new program.
• 40:45
  I wasn't playing at that program.
• 40:46
  I went to a new program. Hey, I didn't play there.
• 40:48
  So my dad started a program. You know, we see that non-stop.
• 40:52
  And, you know, I'm not picking on Daddy Ball or anything like
• 40:54
  that. But the one where kids played on
• 40:56
  three or four different teams and all of a sudden now she's on
• 40:58
  Dad's team. That's the ones yeah, I can pick
• 41:00
  on a little bit. So I'm offending somebody, but
• 41:03
  that's the way it works. But it started young and now
• 41:07
  it's carried into college and until the NCAA or if somebody
• 41:11
  settles this down a little bit, it's just the wild, Wild West.
• 41:14
  And I I can't even talk about the tampering because I'll get
• 41:16
  myself in trouble there. Yeah, And, and I'm going to say
• 41:20
  this, Don, don't think of it as offending people.
• 41:22
  Think of this as informing people because you'd be
• 41:25
  surprised how many people have blinders on to a lot of this
• 41:27
  stuff. And that's the whole purpose of
• 41:29
  why we started this podcast is, is to try to help inform
• 41:32
  parents, players, you know, and even coaches, right about what
• 41:36
  what reality really is and what's really going on.
• 41:39
  So don't think of it as making people mad.
• 41:41
  You're free to make whoever you want to be mad here.
• 41:43
  As long as we're informing people and we're speaking the
• 41:45
  truth. That's the whole purpose of
• 41:46
  this. So again, don't don't think like
• 41:48
  you're going to make people mad. And if you do, they don't want
• 41:50
  to hear the truth to begin with anyway.
• 41:51
  So it is what it is. But I want to switch gears.
• 41:54
  Oh, can you have? I was just.
• 41:55
  Going to say I make people mad on a regular basis so I'm kind
• 41:58
  of used to it by now. Very true.
• 41:59
  But I OK, so I want to switch gears a little bit with you.
• 42:01
  I want to talk about recruiting here.
• 42:03
  OK, So what are college coaches really looking for?
• 42:07
  Let's just say that's for you. It's pitching.
• 42:08
  It's probably a little bit more, but it can be a middle infielder
• 42:11
  to whatever you want. But what are college coaches
• 42:13
  really looking for in pitches right now?
• 42:14
  I know you talked about a vertical game velocity.
• 42:17
  What else? Is there anything else you're
• 42:18
  looking for when you're evaluating out there,
• 42:20
  recruiting, evaluating a pitcher or maybe shortstop or whatever?
• 42:23
  Big part of it for me is is communication.
• 42:26
  Like I'm looking at body language all the time.
• 42:28
  I am that coach that you've heard stories about.
• 42:31
  I get there for pregame. I want to see how you walk into
• 42:34
  the field. I want to see how you place your
• 42:36
  bag in the dugout. I want to see how you're around
• 42:39
  your teammates during pregame and then how you warm up.
• 42:42
  Because when you get to college, it is a full time job on top of
• 42:47
  your full time student life, on top of your hey, maybe I got to
• 42:50
  eat and sleep once in a while. OK, so I want to get there early
• 42:54
  because if it's a kid I'm serious about, I'm watching them
• 42:56
  even after the game, how they interact with mom and dad.
• 42:59
  I had a kid a few years ago that yelled at mom.
• 43:02
  Mom, get me a gate and I said that any kid I want, if you
• 43:06
  would ask hey mom, can you grab me a Gatorade?
• 43:08
  I would have fell in love with that kid, but because it was a
• 43:11
  go get me this, go get me that Nah, I'm not interested, kid.
• 43:14
  And you better be awfully good and I can hope that you're going
• 43:16
  to change when you get a bit older.
• 43:18
  OK, but I I got to watch that person's body language
• 43:21
  communication, nonverbal communication.
• 43:24
  I want the whole ball player skills, easy to see hands and
• 43:28
  feet arm. You know, that's always bad.
• 43:30
  All those tools are easy to see. I'm not the coach that wants
• 43:33
  every player to be a robot. So if you're hitting great at
• 43:36
  that level and you're coming to me, we all teach similar
• 43:39
  mechanics. But if you're that good, why
• 43:42
  would I turn you in a robot how I want you to be?
• 43:44
  Keep doing what you're doing, just you're going to get bigger
• 43:46
  and faster and stronger at the college level.
• 43:48
  So what are some common mistakes that you see players or even
• 43:51
  parents making in the recruiting process?
• 43:54
  Well, you know, the the easy mistakes are the ones that, you
• 43:57
  know, I do a lot of camps and coaches, we'd communicate, hey,
• 44:01
  go check out the dad on field 5 and we would wander over there
• 44:05
  and everybody knows that there's that dad or that mom.
• 44:08
  I can't just pick on dads here. There's those things there.
• 44:11
  Understand coaches are seeing you.
• 44:14
  And then when you're doing something that's not favorable
• 44:16
  as a player or coach, we talk, OK, because we're all one big,
• 44:21
  big family out there. While I'm on the field, I want
• 44:24
  to kick your butt. Once we get off the field, I
• 44:26
  want to shake your hand, give you a hug or whatever it is.
• 44:28
  We're we're friends and we do talk.
• 44:31
  And there's times where I'm looking for an arm, but my, my
• 44:34
  best friend at Picker University is not looking for one.
• 44:36
  Hey, do you see that kid over on field 2?
• 44:39
  She's throwing it. And so we talk.
• 44:42
  So some of the mistakes are the, the little things that you're
• 44:44
  doing throughout the day that, that are negative.
• 44:46
  If somebody sees it, word spreads real quick because we
• 44:49
  always know, like I, I watched Jordy Ball play her junior and
• 44:51
  senior year at the state tournament.
• 44:53
  I knew I wasn't getting that kid at the University of North
• 44:55
  Dakota. OK, I knew that OK, but I had to
• 44:58
  go watch for play because that kid is one of my favorite
• 45:01
  players I've ever watched because she did everything at
• 45:04
  full speed. That kid, I call her a beast,
• 45:07
  but she ain't that big, OK? Jordy Ball is amazing because
• 45:11
  she does everything so well to the fullest of her ability.
• 45:15
  If I see a kid doing that from the moment they walk in to start
• 45:19
  their day till they leave, they can even have moderate skill.
• 45:22
  I'm interested. That's, that's a great Yeah,
• 45:25
  she's yeah. Everything she does is, is full.
• 45:28
  So that's that's fantastic. I do want to talk and and I
• 45:30
  again, I think she's she's one of those, like I said, well,
• 45:33
  she's an outlier. Like she's just, they're just
• 45:35
  such a rare breed, right? And that's why she's playing
• 45:38
  where she's at and where's what she does, right?
• 45:40
  And so and, and those kids are such outliers.
• 45:43
  So I, I want to ask you one thing.
• 45:45
  Do you feel the landscape is kind of changed with with
• 45:48
  players? So do you feel like they're
• 45:50
  they're more entitled now than in the past?
• 45:52
  What are your thoughts on that? You see some of these kids are
• 45:54
  just the expectation for them is this they seem just a little bit
• 45:57
  more entitled. What are what are your thoughts
• 45:59
  done? Well, the, the entitlement
• 46:01
  issues always there because it, it has changed and, and kids
• 46:04
  change back in my day, which is getting on now, you worked your
• 46:07
  butt off every single day to earn your spot.
• 46:09
  Now you almost expect your spot. And we see that the college
• 46:12
  level, we've had kids because every kid on my team is, was the
• 46:15
  best kid on their team. Then they get here, they're
• 46:17
  competing with a bunch of kids that are also the best on their
• 46:20
  team. So that expectation that it's my
• 46:22
  spot, go ahead and expect it because it ain't going to
• 46:25
  happen. You earn your playing time on
• 46:27
  the practice field, you keep it on the playing field.
• 46:29
  So if you're expecting anything, you're not going to get it, you
• 46:32
  know, So yeah, the entitlement issue is there, but it's not as
• 46:34
  bad that as everybody thinks because I think you got a bunch
• 46:38
  of young ladies that are still not matured yet, OK.
• 46:42
  So a lot of them when they get to college, there may be a dose
• 46:44
  of reality that does it. They get there and the
• 46:46
  entitlement thing goes away pretty quick because they see
• 46:49
  everybody else is around them, is bigger, faster, stronger.
• 46:51
  Once again, there is the entitlement issue, but I, I, I
• 46:54
  don't believe it's as bad as everybody's talks about, but it
• 46:56
  is there. And that also goes down to now
• 46:58
  the club days of I'm going to change team after team after
• 47:01
  team because I should be the starting shortstop.
• 47:04
  I should be the starting pitcher, so I'm just going to go
• 47:06
  to a different team. What happens when we get there?
• 47:08
  And they're not the starting pitcher on that team either.
• 47:10
  Yeah, there's a thing if you have the opportunity to compete,
• 47:14
  to be the starting pitcher on that team, I think that's what
• 47:17
  you should be looking for. Whether you are that or not, as
• 47:19
  long as you can compete and it's a fair competition, then yeah,
• 47:23
  go out there and do that. You know, there are obviously
• 47:25
  there are teams where you're just never going to be there
• 47:28
  because they've made their decisions or, you know, in some
• 47:31
  cases it's the coach and the coach's assistant, her, you
• 47:36
  know, his daughter and then their friends.
• 47:39
  They're the ones that are going to get the circle time.
• 47:41
  So I think that you have to travel ball level.
• 47:44
  You know, there, there's some reality that has to come into
• 47:47
  there. But again, if you have the
• 47:49
  ability, if if the path is there to compete, then yeah,
• 47:53
  definitely do that. It'll make you better.
• 47:56
  Yeah, and you know, we, we talk about Daddy ball, you know, a
• 47:59
  lot of people complain about it, but I'll bet you that almost
• 48:02
  every one of those fathers did it for the right reason, that
• 48:05
  for their kid. We even have it at the college
• 48:08
  level. You know, there's talk about we
• 48:09
  don't deal with parents. You know, we're college coaches.
• 48:12
  You still do. You're never going to escape it.
• 48:14
  We deal with a lot less at the college level.
• 48:17
  But every time somebody gets a feeling hurt over that one, I
• 48:21
  just got to say, just remember, they've got their kid in their
• 48:23
  mind. We all want what's best for our
• 48:25
  kids. Now, your thoughts aren't
• 48:28
  necessarily the coach thoughts and they aren't necessarily the
• 48:30
  best thing for the team, but that's the one thing I always
• 48:32
  get to dial it back for a second before we react is that these
• 48:36
  guys are trying to take care of their kids.
• 48:39
  Yeah, I remember it being at a clinic, too, and hearing, you
• 48:42
  know, one of the coaches was saying the best thing you can do
• 48:44
  to kind of shut some of that stuff down is invite the parents
• 48:47
  to come out and watch practice. They may see their kid in a
• 48:50
  little different light, you know, and why the decisions are
• 48:53
  being made the way they are. Yep, and you see that even for
• 48:56
  the coaches. At a school I worked at few
• 48:59
  years back an administrator made a comment about the coaches
• 49:02
  culture wasn't good enough in the program, which is the big
• 49:04
  NCAA word as culture now. There never been an
• 49:07
  administrator at one practice. How do you know that teams
• 49:11
  culture if you've never seen what they do outside of a game?
• 49:14
  Because if you're a bad team getting your butt kicked every
• 49:16
  day, okay, the culture is not automatically not going to be
• 49:19
  great on the field every day. Everybody still trying, nobody's
• 49:21
  giving up. But practice, If they're still
• 49:25
  going really hard, culture is probably really good, OK.
• 49:27
  But if there's a lot of problems on the practice field now, we
• 49:30
  might have a culture problem. Yeah, that's, that's great.
• 49:33
  And also too, I think Donna and, and you know, let me know how
• 49:35
  you feel with this to it. We have a roster at, at Saint
• 49:38
  Xavier's got, you know, 25 kids on it and that's a lot of kids
• 49:42
  with 9 positions with 25 kids. It's that's ginormous.
• 49:45
  So people are going to have to learn to kind of wait for their
• 49:48
  time and for their role. And I think what travel balls
• 49:50
  created with people just creating these teams is they
• 49:53
  don't wait. So when these kids get to
• 49:55
  college, they're like, well, like you said, I've, well, I've
• 49:57
  been the starting shortstop for my team this whole time.
• 50:00
  Well, that's great. But there's an All American
• 50:01
  who's been here for three years in front of you.
• 50:04
  And if you don't understand that, you have to wait your
• 50:07
  turn. And it might not be this year
• 50:09
  and you might go the whole year with just getting minimal reps.
• 50:11
  But if you're really into the program, I think, you know,
• 50:14
  teaching kids to sit games from time to time as a valuable
• 50:19
  experience, even if it is your own daughter, right?
• 50:21
  Like I think you have to do that.
• 50:23
  They have to learn. Hey, right now this is her turn
• 50:26
  to do things. So what are what are your
• 50:27
  thoughts on that? Because a lot, a lot of these
• 50:29
  kids, I think they think they get to college and like, Oh
• 50:31
  yeah, man, I've been starting. I played for so and so travel
• 50:33
  organization. So soon as I get there, I'm
• 50:35
  going to start. And it's like, no, these kids
• 50:38
  who have been here for three years have developed more than
• 50:40
  you because they've seen this for three years.
• 50:42
  So their development is above where you are, even though
• 50:45
  you're coming as a freshman with solid skills.
• 50:47
  What are your thoughts on that time?
• 50:49
  Yeah, well, mental and physical maturation is huge.
• 50:53
  You know, the difference between a 22 year old softball player
• 50:56
  and a 17 year old softballer or 18 year old is big, OK?
• 51:00
  And they're freshmen that start because they're just so gifted
• 51:02
  mentally and physically that they deserve to start.
• 51:04
  And they will because I, I'm, I'm the coach that does not have
• 51:07
  a problem. My favorite players are the best
• 51:09
  nine that can help me. OK.
• 51:11
  But yeah, there's a lot of times you walk into a program,
• 51:13
  especially the high level programs, you've got a 22 year
• 51:16
  old body that's been in the weight room with professional
• 51:19
  strength coach that's training specifically for their sport.
• 51:22
  Then you've got a kid that's had their own private coach that's
• 51:25
  probably helped them because that's a big thing now.
• 51:27
  So they're coming in strong, but they're not nearly as physically
• 51:30
  strong as that player. And then you've got the the
• 51:32
  mental side of it, the maturity of playing.
• 51:35
  You know, we'll just put a guesstimate of 50 games a year,
• 51:37
  so somebody with 150 Division One games ahead of me or
• 51:40
  division two or Division Three ahead of me.
• 51:42
  That is a lot of maturity because that is my biggest pet
• 51:46
  peeve with club softball right now.
• 51:49
  Or, or, or the youth softball, the kids don't know the game
• 51:52
  anymore, OK? They walk in without a clue how
• 51:55
  to play a softball game. They're just great athletes
• 51:57
  playing softball. And for instance, I like the
• 52:00
  number system like on the Zone has and all that stuff where
• 52:03
  you're calling A531 and they know what to do.
• 52:05
  It's a great guide. It's a great way to call pitches
• 52:07
  some offensive place, but there's programs that use those
• 52:10
  numbers for every single pitch of every single play of every
• 52:13
  single game. The kids are baby robots using
• 52:15
  their 3 digit code to do everything.
• 52:18
  These kids have no clue how to play the game now.
• 52:21
  They have great skill levels, but if they get tested mentally,
• 52:25
  but I didn't get the right numbers, that's a big problem
• 52:28
  we're seeing. And even with the watches now,
• 52:30
  there's some great stuff there. I love technology.
• 52:33
  It's great for our game to a point.
• 52:36
  But there's some college programs, they have a three
• 52:38
  digit code or a message for everything.
• 52:41
  What happens when that technology breaks down?
• 52:43
  These kids have to think a little bit and I have a thing
• 52:46
  called next play. We always make one play, but
• 52:48
  what's, what's the next play? And that next play may be in
• 52:51
  that first play. Well, my 3 digit code's only
• 52:53
  good for that first play. What happens if something
• 52:55
  there's an error, a ball gets overthrown, a base runner does
• 52:58
  something silly, somebody bunts with bases loaded.
• 53:00
  What's the three digit code for that?
• 53:02
  So there's always going to be a next play.
• 53:03
  Those kids coming out of summer ball right now, they don't know
• 53:06
  the game enough that they could even understand what a next play
• 53:09
  is. Yeah, You know, I had an an
• 53:12
  experience like that when I was coaching.
• 53:14
  I think it was at the 14U level. And, you know, we were always
• 53:17
  emphasizing, you know, the kids learning the game.
• 53:20
  We tried to make sure that they understood.
• 53:22
  And we were playing against the team where the coach just had to
• 53:25
  insert himself into every play, and he was calling out
• 53:28
  instructions to every player. But we get down to the bottom of
• 53:31
  the seventh inning, we're down. I think we're down a run.
• 53:35
  No, no, I think the game was tied.
• 53:37
  The coach, you know, he's yelling at all that stuff and
• 53:39
  he's telling his shortstop don't try to make the play at home.
• 53:43
  You know, let's get the out at first.
• 53:44
  Get out of this game. Well, sure enough, ground ball
• 53:47
  gets hit to the shortstop and she turns and she tries to fire
• 53:50
  at home to get our runner, who was on 3rd with A tag play,
• 53:53
  throws the ball away. Runner scores, another runner
• 53:56
  scores, game over. And he's, you know, he's
• 53:59
  freaking out about the whole thing.
• 54:01
  And my assistant coach and I were talking about him.
• 54:02
  We're like, man, that guy talks so much.
• 54:05
  They tune him out in about the third inning.
• 54:07
  You can't constantly be chirping at them, especially at that age,
• 54:11
  and expect them to listen to you.
• 54:13
  Yeah, and, and absolutely. And that's like I said, that is
• 54:16
  my biggest pet peeve. The kids don't know how to play
• 54:18
  the game anymore. But it starts with the coaches.
• 54:20
  Allow them. Like if you're the you want to
• 54:22
  call every pitch at every game, that's fine.
• 54:24
  At the Division One level, I got charts and video to tell me what
• 54:27
  pitch I probably should throw. But I still would allow my
• 54:30
  pitchers to shake it off because they might be feeling something
• 54:33
  that I'm not. Shoot, the ball may have
• 54:36
  horrible seams. OK, So they don't want to try
• 54:39
  and throw that that drop curve or whatever because they just
• 54:41
  can't get the feel of the ball. Stats tell me the numbers tell
• 54:44
  me got to throw this pitch. But the kid can shake me off.
• 54:47
  Now at the end of that inning, we're coming in.
• 54:49
  So what were you thinking? Because I want to know.
• 54:51
  And she might flat out just tell me, coach, that was not the
• 54:53
  pitch in the situation because I can't get that one to do what I
• 54:56
  needed to do today or I can't hit my spot.
• 54:58
  OK, That's the things I don't know through analytics.
• 55:00
  So yeah, you've got to give them some ownership because like I
• 55:02
  said, the number system's awesome.
• 55:04
  I like it. We use it at the high school
• 55:06
  that I'm coaching at this year, and I use more fake calls and I
• 55:09
  do real calls just to throw numbers out there and keep
• 55:11
  people thinking, yeah, like I said, just we're doing too much
• 55:14
  of that. We're holding too many kids by
• 55:16
  the hand all day. And it goes back to shoot. 40
• 55:19
  years ago, if I didn't have school today, like on a Good
• 55:23
  Friday, we're at the ballpark with a bunch of guys of ball
• 55:26
  when we're playing some sort of game of of baseball or fast
• 55:29
  pitch. Somehow kids don't do that
• 55:31
  anymore either because we're too busy worrying about with our
• 55:34
  personal trainer, our jump trainer, our throw trainer, our
• 55:37
  pitching trainer, which are all great things because I do that
• 55:40
  stuff myself, right? But the kids just don't go play
• 55:43
  the game anymore. That's why basketball's still
• 55:45
  doing very well, because you give three kids a ball, go shoot
• 55:48
  around and play 2 on one, play 5 on five.
• 55:51
  All you need is a ball and a hoot, you know?
• 55:54
  But in in softball right now, do you ever go by a field?
• 55:58
  There's just a bunch of kids out there playing ball anymore.
• 56:00
  No, because they're going year round.
• 56:04
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're tired.
• 56:06
  So are are there any things that you do with your team, your high
• 56:09
  school team right now that you're doing to try to get them
• 56:11
  to understand the game? Any favorite drills or practice
• 56:16
  things that you're doing? Well, you know, one of one of my
• 56:19
  favorite coaches all the time is a gentleman you might know his
• 56:21
  name is Mike Kendrea. You know, he used to have
• 56:25
  something that he used to do at end of his practices, which is
• 56:27
  really used to it's front toss. But games feed with situations.
• 56:31
  So you have runners on. So it's game situation.
• 56:33
  They call the reactions. They finish off a lot of
• 56:35
  practice with just a scenario and reactions.
• 56:38
  I'm doing that a lot with our high school kids.
• 56:40
  We'll talk about what all three jobs are.
• 56:42
  Hitter, this is what you got to do.
• 56:43
  Base runner, this is what you got to do and defense, this is
• 56:46
  what you got to do. We started doing that a bunch
• 56:49
  with the high school kids. I tell them once we repeat the
• 56:52
  scenario ever how many batters we do.
• 56:55
  Last night we did it. We had 17 kids because of our JV
• 56:58
  was with us. There were 17 batters repeating
• 57:00
  the same scenario over and over again.
• 57:02
  I said it once, we did it 17 times.
• 57:05
  They experienced it and that's the way we're going to do it.
• 57:08
  They've got to experience without being constantly told
• 57:10
  stop everybody move here. This is already like no, tell
• 57:13
  them experience it. Then we moved on to the next
• 57:16
  scenario called the mall, the home plate.
• 57:18
  Okay, batter, this is your job. Thanks for this.
• 57:21
  Your job defense is your job went out.
• 57:23
  We did that, you know, 17 more Times Now.
• 57:25
  I had 7 scenarios yet set for yesterday.
• 57:27
  We got to three. Okay.
• 57:29
  We we didn't get as far as I'd like to, but it's it's a bunch
• 57:32
  of young kids that are learning and by the end of the day as
• 57:35
  coaches, we're like, hey, they got it.
• 57:38
  So you're still coaching high school, but what else do you
• 57:41
  have going on now? Don?
• 57:42
  What? What else is is going?
• 57:43
  I know Ken mentioned a little bit earlier in the beginning I
• 57:46
  was introducing you. What else do you have going on
• 57:47
  besides coaching the high school ball?
• 57:49
  Well, with this conversation, there's a couple of things you
• 57:51
  hit on or, or the reason why I'm doing this.
• 57:54
  Last summer I decided I'm going to start my own little business.
• 57:57
  So I started a consulting and training program, named it after
• 58:00
  mine myself. It's not original, you know,
• 58:02
  it's not some flashy, but it's DJ still for consulting and
• 58:05
  training. And I still love doing camps.
• 58:07
  People invite me to go do camps. So I love going to skill work,
• 58:10
  which I'm hey, I'm open right now.
• 58:12
  Everybody give me a call, shoot me an e-mail.
• 58:14
  If you want me to work a camp. Price doesn't have to be huge,
• 58:17
  but it has to be enough to get me there.
• 58:18
  But I'll come work your camp. But the consulting part is in
• 58:22
  the recruiting process. You've really got 2 choices in
• 58:25
  life. Pay a crap load of money for a
• 58:27
  service to help you or do it all yourself.
• 58:29
  Neither is wrong, they're both great.
• 58:32
  These services will do everything for you and it it can
• 58:35
  be pretty spendy, but they're going to take the work away from
• 58:38
  you and help you. You can do it yourself for free
• 58:41
  or minimal, but it's a lot of work.
• 58:45
  OK, some families write the check, get it done.
• 58:47
  That's the way life is. They can do that, some can't.
• 58:50
  Neither one is wrong, but with the ever changing world of of
• 58:53
  college athletics, there's so much information that changes
• 58:56
  daily. And now the federal government
• 58:58
  is getting on the ACT, sort of, so it's going to make some
• 59:01
  changes too. So I want families to understand
• 59:04
  you're not wrong whichever process you're going to do.
• 59:06
  But I'm going to give you some ideas of how you can make your
• 59:09
  process easier. And that's what the consulting
• 59:12
  part is. They're helping families with
• 59:14
  the recruiting process. I'm not even trying to get rich.
• 59:16
  I've talked to a bunch of people in the softball world.
• 59:18
  They say you're under charging. You're under charging.
• 59:20
  I don't care if I'm paying the bills and put a little bit extra
• 59:23
  gas in my tank, I'm happy. OK.
• 59:25
  And that's the same thing with the camps.
• 59:27
  You know, I used to get as a Division One coach, some of
• 59:29
  those camps paid me pretty freaking good to get there.
• 59:32
  OK, No, if you're paying for enough for my flight, my hotel
• 59:36
  and my meals were on there, I'm pretty happy if I can put 100
• 59:39
  bucks in my pocket at the end of the weekend.
• 59:41
  So it's not all about making money.
• 59:43
  I want more kids to play college softball.
• 59:45
  I don't want to help them get there.
• 59:47
  And the other part is reality. We're not all Division One ball
• 59:49
  players. I was not I was not a Division
• 59:52
  One or pro stud. I'm 5 foot 7 1/2.
• 59:55
  I'm throwing mid 80s. Trust me, I ain't.
• 59:57
  I was never going to be a pro ball player.
• 59:59
  That pressure was not going to hit my lifestyle.
• 1:00:01
  OK, I love this game. I want more kids to play but
• 1:00:05
  there's also so much misinformation from.
• 1:00:08
  Social media from coaches, there are programs that are telling a
• 1:00:11
  lot of falsehoods. I'm not going to come liars, but
• 1:00:14
  there's a lot of falsehoods out there on the recruiting trail
• 1:00:16
  and families are eating up and then finding out later when I
• 1:00:19
  get to so and so you that, hey, why is my bill $30,000 for this
• 1:00:23
  year? I thought I was getting this.
• 1:00:25
  Well, your scholarship was, by the way, it was 30,000 / 4
• 1:00:28
  years. You know, you're, you're getting
• 1:00:30
  8800 a year or something like that.
• 1:00:32
  So there's a lot of stuff out there that's, that's mixed
• 1:00:34
  messages. I want to help.
• 1:00:37
  So if somebody wants your help, how do they go about it?
• 1:00:39
  Well, I've got my own website. It's not pretty right now.
• 1:00:42
  It's it's effective. That's what it's need.
• 1:00:45
  But you can go right to that website.
• 1:00:47
  There's a message board on that. My e-mail is
• 1:00:49
  don.stopa@djstillpa.com. And I also have a Gmail account
• 1:00:53
  for some users, which is easier, which is djdjstopacnt@gmail.com.
• 1:00:59
  But there's just ways for people to reach out to me there.
• 1:01:01
  I've got a little free consultation.
• 1:01:04
  And then, then comes the contract part, which is still
• 1:01:06
  not expensive, but you'll get a contract and you get my services
• 1:01:10
  for one year. And then anything above that
• 1:01:12
  time lot we use then we'll add on because I've got to make some
• 1:01:15
  money at it, but I'm not trying to get rich.
• 1:01:18
  And the camps thing, the same idea.
• 1:01:19
  If you guys are hosting a camp, come out there, I'll do skills.
• 1:01:22
  The only thing I asked for you is the last 30 minutes of the
• 1:01:25
  camp, you give me a parent session and it's not about me
• 1:01:28
  selling my business, it's about me selling the information.
• 1:01:31
  And by the way, if you want to get a hold of me about doing
• 1:01:33
  this together, let's do it. So I'm allowing people to add a
• 1:01:36
  new thing to their camps that's not being done.
• 1:01:40
  That's great. We'll, we'll try to remember to
• 1:01:41
  include a link in the description when we post the
• 1:01:44
  episode, so make it a little bit easier for people to find, for
• 1:01:47
  those who didn't write it down as he was saying it.
• 1:01:50
  Yeah, and, you know, once again, it's a business.
• 1:01:54
  I'd love to quit my day job, which I'm not.
• 1:01:56
  I'm working in a medical school right now at the University of
• 1:01:58
  North Dakota where I'm doing a lot of what I did as a coach
• 1:02:02
  here as an advisor. I'm called an academic advisor.
• 1:02:05
  Well, their academics are already set by somebody else.
• 1:02:08
  They're coming here and going to school.
• 1:02:09
  I'm more their life advisor, their success advisor.
• 1:02:12
  And that's awesome because what did I do with the last 25 years
• 1:02:14
  in college? Recruited the kids, which I'm
• 1:02:17
  doing in the Med school. Help them be successful while
• 1:02:19
  they're here and see them grow to be self and bigger and better
• 1:02:22
  at the end of the day. And I get to dealt with Med
• 1:02:24
  students now instead of athletes and some of those we're my
• 1:02:27
  former athletes that are trying to get into Med school.
• 1:02:29
  I'm helping them on their journey.
• 1:02:30
  So I still get to see some of my girls an awful lot because I'm
• 1:02:33
  trying to help them take their next step after softball.
• 1:02:36
  Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's pretty cool too,
• 1:02:38
  that what you're doing there. I've been with that kind of a
• 1:02:43
  disadvantaged group, I would say, and trying to get medical,
• 1:02:47
  you know, more medical abilities out there to that, you know,
• 1:02:52
  that entire population. That has to be very satisfying
• 1:02:56
  for you. Yeah, not to get too preachy
• 1:02:58
  here, but our program was the original one.
• 1:03:01
  In Med 1973, there was 26 self identified Native American
• 1:03:05
  doctors in the whole country. Wow.
• 1:03:07
  OK, we started the program to create more, more Native
• 1:03:10
  American physicians. 283 doctors later, we've done pretty well.
• 1:03:14
  But now how we do every, every medical field, we're helping
• 1:03:18
  getting more Native American health professionals into
• 1:03:20
  facilities all over the country because we're a national
• 1:03:22
  program, even though we're part of the UND.
• 1:03:24
  And I'm telling you, I've only been doing it for 18 months, but
• 1:03:27
  I absolutely love what I do. Good for you, Don.
• 1:03:30
  That's awesome, man. That's great.
• 1:03:32
  Yep. And the paychecks a little
• 1:03:33
  better than coaching, too. Yeah, I'm sure it is.
• 1:03:37
  I'm sure it is. So we've had you for just about
• 1:03:40
  over an hour. We can't thank you enough for
• 1:03:41
  for your, your time today. We just have one last question
• 1:03:45
  and we asked us just by everybody here, do you have any
• 1:03:47
  hobbies or hidden talents that might surprise some people?
• 1:03:51
  Well, the, the, the hobbies are, are pretty boring.
• 1:03:55
  You know, I, I got remarried a couple of years ago and I got a
• 1:03:57
  woman that I am just in love with.
• 1:04:00
  My wife was 28 years Air Force when she retired, then three
• 1:04:04
  more years of civilian in the Air Force.
• 1:04:06
  So my unofficial hobby. Now I'm a Canadian, born and
• 1:04:09
  raised in Canada. I'm now a dual citizen here, but
• 1:04:12
  I've been learning a lot about the the Air Force in the the US
• 1:04:14
  military. So call that a goofy hobby or
• 1:04:17
  what, but I just, I'm enamored by it.
• 1:04:20
  Never would have joined the military as a kid, had no plans
• 1:04:24
  to. But through my my wife Heather,
• 1:04:26
  I'm telling you it is cool. Have you?
• 1:04:29
  Have you ever gone to the air show in Oshkosh in Wisconsin?
• 1:04:33
  No, unfortunately before my wife retired, the only air show here
• 1:04:37
  in Grand Forks, I could have went to UND softball.
• 1:04:40
  We were playing that weekend, so I got to see pictures, but I
• 1:04:43
  didn't get to get to go to 1. And then Abbotsford Air Show in
• 1:04:46
  British Columbia is one of the biggest air shows in North
• 1:04:49
  America. I used to live there, so we see
• 1:04:51
  the planes flying over us every year.
• 1:04:53
  Yeah, that's fun. When I was a kid, we had the
• 1:04:56
  Glenview Naval Air Station not too far from where I lived, and
• 1:05:00
  every year they would open it up for a day.
• 1:05:02
  I remember getting this cardboard rocket with a little
• 1:05:05
  capsule that would pop off. You know, you would just use
• 1:05:08
  air, you'd push it in and the thing go flying up about 20 feet
• 1:05:11
  or so and then come down with a little parachute.
• 1:05:14
  And that was always a thrill. But then we get to see the Blue
• 1:05:16
  Angels fly, and that was always a lot of fun too.
• 1:05:19
  Absolutely. And you know, and that's just
• 1:05:20
  that's just one thing I've picked up in the last few years
• 1:05:23
  through marriage. You know, as I said, my wife's
• 1:05:25
  retired and tonight I'm actually going to a majors retirement
• 1:05:28
  party. A good friend of ours, he the
• 1:05:31
  the first was his first day as a civilian.
• 1:05:33
  Great. Have have you seen there's a
• 1:05:35
  documentary, I can't remember what it's called, but it's about
• 1:05:40
  getting the Thunderbirds ready. And it's like, I guess every two
• 1:05:42
  years people rotate out and you know, I think it's a new
• 1:05:46
  commander every two years. So, you know, but whatever it
• 1:05:49
  was, it's just this really fascinating thing and they're
• 1:05:52
  showing how they fly and, and how like one of the formations,
• 1:05:56
  if you know, it's that it basically defies physics.
• 1:05:59
  So that you have to do everybody has to be right in this one
• 1:06:02
  particular key person. If they're out of position, the
• 1:06:05
  other three are going to follow them right into the ground.
• 1:06:08
  So there's like, you know, by because of what that person's
• 1:06:10
  doing, it sets up some turbulence in the air and then
• 1:06:14
  it helps them to pull back out of this dive.
• 1:06:16
  Well, if you think softball is stressful, imagine trying to do
• 1:06:19
  that every day. Yeah.
• 1:06:21
  Right. Absolutely.
• 1:06:22
  So Donna, just I just thought, you know, if you're like that
• 1:06:24
  kind of stuff, you probably want to try to find it.
• 1:06:26
  I think it was on Netflix but just look up Thunderbirds
• 1:06:29
  documentary and it'll probably show up.
• 1:06:31
  Awesome. Well, hey, I'd like to thank you
• 1:06:33
  guys for having me. And you know, when you guys get
• 1:06:35
  stuck on a topic one day you want to talk about some more.
• 1:06:38
  I'd love to be back because this has been a lot of fun.
• 1:06:40
  I appreciate it. Oh good, we've had fun having
• 1:06:42
  you. Yeah, we've had a blast having
• 1:06:44
  you. We appreciate you, Don.
• 1:06:46
  Awesome. All right.
• 1:06:46
  Thanks so much. You guys have a great day.
• 1:06:49
  OK. Thanks you too.
• 1:06:50
  And I'm free to talk. If you want to stop recording
• 1:06:52
  that's that's fine too. OK.
• 1:06:54
  Or recording it, I don't care but.
• 1:06:57
  We will. All righty.
• 1:06:59
  Well, that's it for us this week.
• 1:07:00
  Thanks to all of you for listening and the kind words
• 1:07:03
  you've been sharing with us. If you like what you're hearing,
• 1:07:05
  Please remember to give us a like, leave a comment and share
• 1:07:08
  this podcast on your social media channels.
• 1:07:11
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• 1:07:14
  that, too. Make sure you never miss an
• 1:07:16
  episode by following us on your favorite podcast platform.
• 1:07:19
  And if you're so inclined, you can also leave us a great review
• 1:07:21
  on Apple Podcasts to help more people find us.
• 1:07:25
  On behalf of the From the Coaches Mouth podcast, have a
• 1:07:28
  great rest of your week and weekend.