Thank you to "My People"

Hello again readers. Hopefully, this post finds your 2020 starting off the right way, and filled with great weather, as our minds turn to spring and the upcoming baseball season. Ryan and I attended the American Baseball Coaches Association National Convention over the weekend in Nashville, Tn. This annual convention is the largest of its kind and hosted over 7,500 professional, college, amature, and travel baseball coaches from all over the United States. We were blessed to hear many great presenters including guys like Harold Reynolds and Buck Showalter, as well as highly successful coaches like Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson and 2019 College World Series attendee University of Louisville assistant coaches Eric Snider and Adam Vrable.

I don't want to dig in too much on the content of the individual speakers, but one common theme I did want to touch on is the use of technology in the game. It was amazing to me the amount of data and analytics that these college and professional coaches have nowadays. Additionally, you didn't have to walk far in the massive vendor expo to find a truck load of new technology based products to measure everything from launch angle, exit velocity, spin rates, and much more . It's very easy to get caught up in all the "cool" new gadgets and it's also easy to lose yourself in the tidal wave of information and data available to even us as youth coaches. However, back to the overall theme of the convention and something that I heard every single speaker we listened to say was "the data is great, but it's just that - it's just a bunch of numbers, and we as coaches cannot allow that to replace actual coaching".

A trend that everyone is starting to see is that all people are talking about is this number or that number. Player X has a 88 mph exit velo and that's not good enough to play at this level, for example. The theme and the caution was - yes, it's great to know the exit velo, that's helpful, but what we really want to make sure we keep our eyes on is the fact that we need to be able to coach the fundamentals and techniques that will help that player get from 88 to 92 mph so he can play at the next level. What they are seeing is that people are eliminating high potential players simply because at the moment they don't measure up to a predetermined number. So I caution you as youth coaches (I see you all - measuring pitch speeds - read my other post about how I could care less how hard you throw, and exit velos etc) to not ignore the data, but make sure you are educating yourself on exactly what it means and more importantly on how you can impact your players numbers through great feedback and coaching.

The other overall topic that I heard every single speaker who coached discuss was what I really want to touch on with this blog. Every person we heard talk at the convention made it a point to thank the coaches that had helped them reach the point they were in their career and each one of them encouraged us in attendance to do the same thing. To reach out to or thank the men and women in our lives who have had the most impact on us being the coaches we are today, so I'd like to take some time today to do just that with the folks who have impacted my coaching career the most.

My Mom - Linda Trout

Yep, that's right. I know most coaches, especially male coaches, would be more likely to have first been exposed to coaching by their father, but for me it was my mom. During my elementary years, starting around my 3rd or 4th grade year, my mom was the middle school volleyball and softball coach at Crossville junior high. This is surely where my passion for coaching and practicing were first developed. I was the "team manager" on her teams each of those years. At my age, that meant I got to carry the equipment and make sure she had her clipboards, but it also meant that I attended practice everyday and each of the games whether home or away. This is where I first learned what it meant to be a part of a team and what it was like to show up day in and day out with a plan and how to work hard. Her players also welcomed me in as a part of their team and made me feel welcomed. I can still remember some of them bringing me cards or gifts on birthdays etc. I didn't know it at the time, but undoubtedly this was the start of my passion for competing, teamwork, and coaching. That passion continued to grow during those years as I watched another amazing coach back then, but I'll touch on that more later. Thank you mom!

Tony Dennis - Carmi-White County Middle School Baseball Coach

Coach Dennis wasn't the most famous or accomplished coach in the school system I grew up in, but he played a major part in my coaching career and unbelievably gave me my first ever coaching job. See, as a sophomore in high school, our school had the rule that if you were going to play a spring sport you had to participate in a fall sport. At our rural school, that meant either cross country or football. Well, at the time I hated to run (now as a 40+ year old I run 50+ miles a month) and at that time I was also about 6'2" and weighed all of 165 lbs soaking wet so my football desires were minimal to say the least. What I was passionate about was baseball though and I quickly figured out that the middle school baseball team led by Coach Dennis was not afforded a second paid assistant coach so I asked for and was granted permission to be the volunteer middle school coach in lew of playing football or running X-country.

That first year I was more of a practice dummy than a coach. I threw lots of batting practice or just flat out pitched to challenge the players, but I did coach first base and try to help. However, as I matured and gained more trust from Coach Dennis during my junior and senior years so did my responsibilities. By my senior year, Coach Dennis was having some health issues and I had taken over running pre-game warm-ups and even attending the plate meetings with the umpires and coaching some third base as a 16 year old (I'm an Oct. birthday).

I recall this being really cool and I recall knowing just how much I enjoyed being with the team each day and getting to coach in the games. What I didn't realize at the time, but I do now, is just how much I learned and how lucky and fortunate I was that he even gave the idea of me being there as a 14 year old HS student a chance. Following my graduation, Coach Dennis retired from his coaching duties as a middle school baseball coach and he told me that it was in part, because he didn't think he could do it anymore without my help. What I didn't know at the time was just how much of a help he was to me. For those three years he spent allowing me to help coach and teaching me to coach I will forever be grateful. Thank you to the late Coach Dennis!

My HS Coaches - Don Garrett, Brad Lee, and Rod Wiethop

I had three high school coaches that I would like to sincerely thank for all they did for me and my career. First Coach Garrett was my coach the first to years of my high school career and he gave me and Bill Mahon a chance on the varsity baseball team as freshman. At the time we made the team, we were among just a handful of freshman to ever make the varsity team. I didn't get to play much that first year, but Coach Garrett taught me a ton about repeatable mechanics and especially my balance point. Some of the drills he taught me back then are things I still use with my pitchers today. The other thing I learned from Coach Garrett was that he cared about me as a person. He was one of the kindest most caring coaches I've ever been around and I have so much respect for him. Thank you Coach Garrett for giving me a chance!

The second half of my career I was fortunate enough to play under Coach Lee and Coach Wiethop. At the time, I and pretty much everyone on the team, hated playing for Coach Lee. He was by far the strictest most disciplined coach any of us had ever played for in any sport. He pushed us hard and I'll be the first to admit I was one of the "better" players on the team and I didn't always see why I also had to be the "hardest" working player on the team. Coach Lee knew, though, that he needed to push me to be the best I could be - not just better than the other guys, because I had bigger goals. I didn't like it and I certainly didn't make his job easy so I'm thankful he didn't kill me! (He probably should have). He knew baseball, but the discipline he brought to the table is what made the difference with the team we had and through his tough love and the guidance and assistance from Coach Wiethop (who helped play the "good cop" role and keep all of us from quitting) they led us to the state tournament my senior year and those are memories I will never forget. It took a couple of years out of school to mature enough to realize what Coach Lee did for me and that team and to know that he was the reason why we went to state (not me like I thought at the time) and I made sure to write him a letter to let him know just that. Coach Wiethop is now a Hall of Fame coach up in Effingham, Il, but he is someone that I respected back then and even more so now as I've grown to know him as an adult and continue to stay in touch with him and follow his career now. He's just a great coach and more amazing human. Thank you Coach Lee and Coach Wiethop for dealing with me at my worse!

My Softball Rocks - Craig Brey and Alyson Trout

A big chunk of my coaching time was spent coaching 18U girls softball in the state of Texas. At the time there were two people who were constant rocks in both my life and my coaching. When I first joined the American Freedom softball organization we started a 16U team and at the first tryout I meet Craig Brey. Little did I know the day I met him, and his spunky daughter Delaney, what an impact he and his family would have on both my coaching and my family. I couldn't have known then that he would 11 years later be one of my nearest and dearest friends. Craig helped me through my early days of fastpitch softball in Texas. I had plenty of coaching experience in the game, but all in Illinois and he helped me learn the north Texas landscape. In year two of knowing him, he became our recruiting coordinator and I can't tell you the countless number of hours he spent emailing schedules and scouting reports to college coaches about our players. I may have helped them, taught them the game, and pushed them, but Craig was the one that made sure their college coaches of choice got to see all their hard work. Throughout this time he was constantly challenging me by questioning why I made this decision or that decision or why I didn't pinch hit here or there. He was also there to allow me to "cry" on his shoulder when things didn't go well and keep me humble when things were going great. As I said, he was a rock for me and all of those kids and we absolutely could not have helped as many people as we did during those years without him. Once I stepped away from softball and started coaching Ryan in baseball one could have expected his guidance and help may have waned, but that was not the case. Craig continued to assist us off the field. He had a new title with our baseball teams though - he was our "Quality Control Coach". Constantly making notes of things he was seeing that I might be missing and figuring out ways to help a bunch of boys he had no relation to other than wanting to continue to help me and the kids we coached. Craig you'll never know how much I truly appreciate all of your help and more importantly our friendship. Thank you dear friend!

Mrs. Coach Trout, as she's widely known to the teams we have coached, has been on the diamond with me all but 3 of my 25 years of coaching. I don't have enough time or the right words to explain to everyone how much she has done for me personally (and I am strictly talking about on the field - forget personally) and our teams. She has always handled, budgets, clothing and spirit wear orders, and hotel bookings and pretty much every administrative task you can imagine which allowed me to focus on the on field stuff, practice schedules and game management etc. She allows me to focus on what I love which is coaching! Additionally, it can't be overstated what it's like to have an assistant coach that you can trust so much. She gives me the freedom to completely walk away from a team to go talk to a TD or scout or whatever and I know that our kids will be warmed up and ready just as if I was there myself. Additionally, in game, having coached for so long together, she knows what my next move or how I'm thinking before I even think it most of the time and to you coaches out there you know that's invaluable. There's a million things that she does and has done that makes me the coach I am today, but simply put I would not be the coach I am today without her being there every step of the way. Thank you Alyson for literally everything!

The G.O.A.T - Coach Larry Gareipy

I saved the best and most influential for last. Coach Gariepy is another Hall of Fame coach that I've had the pleasure to know for basically my entire life. As I mentioned, my early moldings of being a coach came from my mom while she coached middle school sports, but the athletic director and high school baseball, softball, and basketball coach at my school was Coach Gariepy. He is who I first observed, then emulated, then learned from, then worked with, and still to this day call a mentor and friend. I knew I was "different" than all my friends as early as 5th and 6th grade. I can recall skipping play time on the playground and recess and walking to the fence nearest the baseball field and watching Coach Gariepy drag, line, and fix the baseball field for practice or games. I was fascinated even at that age with watching him make the field perfect for his players ever single day. This is something I do to this day. He later told me, but it was then that he taught me, that you leave a field looking nicer than when you show up. Even now, if I take Ryan to a field for an individual workout I bring my rake and drag to leave it in better shape than we found it. By my 7th grade year my parents were in charge of the sports booster club and running fundraiser softball tournaments and I was running around fixing the fields between and after games. So much so that I earned the nickname "Little Gariepy". I think people did it to tease me and make fun of me a little, but for me I can assure you even at 12 years old I LOVED being called Little Gariepy.

Fast forward until after I was out of HS and still in college, Coach Gariepy got a call from the AD in New Harmony, In and was looking for an middle school girls basketball coach. Coach Gariepy told their AD he might know someone, but that he was a young inexperienced guy. Well, that guy was me and after a couple of interviews I was hired as both the 7th grade and 8th grade girls basketball coach despite the fact that I never played basketball past my freshman year in HS. Coach Gariepy LITERALLY got me into coaching. But he didn't just get me into coaching. When I called him to thank him, he said, "well, now you got the job, we got to make sure you know what you are doing. Here's what your are going to do, come over to my house and we'll have a pizza and we will write out your practice plan". That is when and where he taught me how to write detailed effective practice plans minute by minute. He didn't just do that for that first practice. He did that the whole year. Each night possible, I'd have practice, then go to coach's house and let him know what I saw, what we struggled with, what we needed to work on and then we'd come up with the next days practice or game plan. He taught me day by day practice by practice what it was like to coach. I must have done an alright job as a basketball coach, because that spring the same school hired me as their head varsity baseball coach at the ripe old age of 21 years old.

Spring forward a couple of more years and I was fortunate enough to have my student teaching placement be at my former HS. At that time Coach Gariepy told me that I should come and be a volunteer assistant coach for his HS softball team. This is where my true education began in coaching. Getting to not only have him help me plan a practice, but watch him day in and day out go about his business from practice planning, to field prep, to making out line ups, stats, and coaching games. I had a front row seat. Not only did I have a front row seat but he once again was preparing me for my future. See that year Coach Gariepy, HOF coach, the GREATEST OF ALL TIME, took himself off the field and inserted me as his third base coach. I mean who does this? Who puts a first year softball coach at 23 years old on the field during a season where we ended up winning the regional championship and lost the championship game of the super regional? Well, that person is Coach Gariepy. He allowed me to be there, helped me through the process, allowed me to make mistakes and process things on my own and again furthered my coaching knowledge.

I'll share one last story just to help illustrate how much this guy has done for me. Several years after he and I coached together and 3 or 4 years after I left Illinois and came to Texas I was coaching the American Freedom and we had a January showcase in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Mrs. Coach Trout wasn't able to attend as we didn't want to fly with three month old baby Ryan, so I found myself in need of a trusted assistant coach for the tournament. Who did I pick up the phone and call? You guessed it! Coach Gariepy dropped everything (he was stil coaching in Pope County, IL at the time) and flew to Florida on his own dime and helped me coach in that showcase. He had previously done the same thing earlier that fall when Alyson and I were coaching two teams and we double booked ourselves on the same weekend in the same tournament. Coach Gariepy came down and helped with my 16u Freedom team while Alyson ran the 14u Firestixx team and I bounced back and forth coaching in all or parts of something like 12 games those two days.

The point is, Coach Gariepy has always been there. From the days I first had the desire to start coaching all the way until this day. I mean, just this spring, I picked up the phone in between games, on our run to a championship game, to pick his brain on a situation that was about to occur. He answered the phone, we discussed and debated, and I went with his suggestion. Thank you to Coach Gariepy for being the single biggest most influential person in my coaching career from 5th grade all the way up to this day! I appreciate your help, guidance, and most of all your forever friendship. I also thank you for what I call your coaching tree. Coaching tree meaning those he has taught (like me) allowing those folks to transfer that knowledge to their players and now the players people like me have coached are transferring that knowledge to their own kids or many are coaches and they influence hundreds of more. It's pretty awesome to think about Coach Gariepy's tree and how many people have been lucky enough to learn the things he teaches.

To any of you still reading after this long process, I hope you enjoyed hearing about some of my influences and more importantly I hope inspires those of you who are coaches to reach out to the people that have influenced you in your career and let them know how much they mean.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments or things that I can help you with along the way. Best wishes and here's hoping for some dry fields as we head toward the start of the spring season!