Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, parents and coaches, are your kids using the right glove? The most important skill for youth athletes to learn is how to play proper catch. The problem is most youth gloves are made with bad leather and are too big for small hands. They actually make it harder to play catch. That's why former Major League Baseball shortstop Kevin Smith created Cali Gloves. Cali gloves are crafted from 100% Japanese kip leather and are the perfect size for kids.
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It's the glove Kevin wishes he had growing up and the glove all his teammates want for their kids. Visit caligloves.com to learn more and help your kids play better catch.
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[00:01:12] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of the Dugout Dish podcast. I'm Andy Kiri Kitties, joined by my Wonderful co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How we doing?
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Great.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: How are you? Got another guest on today.
He may be. We didn't do the head research, but he might be the youngest head coach in NCAA college baseball right now.
Won a national champion chip at Misericordia as an assistant in a sense moved on to be the head coach at FDU Florum. We're pretty fired up to have Garrett Demaray on today. Thanks for joining us, man.
[00:01:45] Speaker D: Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me. Really looking forward to talking some baseball and talking some recruiting. We've, we've had plenty of conversations in the past, so it's nice to get it in a formal setting.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
Keith.
We were talking about getting people on and I was like, let me see if Garrett wants to join and I'll leave this with the listeners.
You're young, but I saw you everywhere for like a four year window and it became pretty clear early on whether it was the Boston Invite or Diamond Nation or Staten island, that this was something that was. You took a lot of pride in and a lot of passion in. And I was not surprised to get the news that you got the opportunity to be a head coach at, at FDU Florum. So if you don't mind, take a couple minutes and kind of walk the listeners through your back background and how you got to where you are.
[00:02:36] Speaker D: Totally. Yeah.
So I guess my coaching journey might have started really early compared to most. I grew up in a family of coaches. My dad won a state championship As a head baseball coach at New Milford High School, I believe my grandfather was a baseball coach in Bergen County. He won a ton of championships.
Everybody in my family seemingly coached baseball. So I just grew.
I grew up around people who coached the game. So that was kind of all I knew, was that kind of perspective and approach to the game. And that profession was something that I wanted to do. I never wanted to give up the game.
And I knew I wasn't good enough to ever play pro baseball. So the only way I could find myself doing baseball for a living was going to be on the outside of Chalk Line. So I went through college at Stockton University. I played there for four years. I had a really unique experience. I had three different head coaches in four years. And that in and of itself, if I reflect now, is a huge advantage to formulating what I believe to be my own identity as a coach. I had three different guys that I learned under that I really, really respect. And Scott Baker, Dave Lorber, the head coach at Montclair State now, and Rich Garlach, who still is at the helm at Stockton University. So that's a unique experience that I think kind of formulated and influenced me in my journey.
And then after the fact, I spent six months as a US History teacher and a volunteer assistant baseball coach on staff at Stockton. So I knew I wanted to be a part of the game. I thought the only way I was going to be able to do it was to be a high school teacher and coach baseball, whether it be at the high school or college level.
But that didn't really work out for me. I found myself sitting in a desk in a high school classroom, wishing I was on the spring trip down in Florida and missing road games and missing practices because real life sets in. So I knew I didn't want that to be how I had the game in my life. And I was young enough at the time, and my dad told me to take a jump and go after it. And fortunately, there was a job posting that year to be a graduate assistant at Misericordia University. So I went out there for two years. I kind of hit it off with Coach Egbert. Coach Egbert might be one of the best coaches in America, if not the best baseball coach in America. He's a first ballot hall of Famer in my book. I learned so much from him. He gave me a ton of autonomy, a ton of different responsibility. And like we were talking about before we even started, I think his goal with anybody who goes on staff with him is to turn them into someone who can be a qualified head coaching candidate one day. So where I am today, it's again, I don't think it's an accident that Pete Egbert was in the picture, you know, in my life and in my coaching journey too. So I was out there for two years as a graduate assistant, became a full time assistant after those two years once I finished my MBA.
So three years out there in Dallas, Penn, we made back to back World Series appearances. In 23, 24, we won a national championship.
And then I think just the timing kind of felt right and the opportunity fell into place to get me back to New Jersey, my home state, only 30 or 40 minutes away from my hometown of Oradel, New Jersey.
And to stay within the conference that I've already become pretty familiar with. And you know, all the other head coaches in the conference are really great guys. So the opportunity presented itself and you know, it was a rigorous interview process. And just to get an opportunity at 26 years old at the time they hired me is humbling in and of itself. And, you know, it's. It's certainly a cool accomplishment, but I see it more as a challenge. So I guess that's a little bit into my journey of how I ended up where I am today. And yeah, I just feel really lucky to be at FDU right now.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a lot of common threads and Keith talks about some of the guys that he's been around and you know, in the similar category to Pete with, with Carl, Stefan and Tony Rossi at Sienna, Keith was. Was able to coach for those guys. Like, you know, Pete's seen so much darn baseball, he's won so many games. Like, the amount of information those types of guys have and the experience that they have building a program handling players, the X's and O's, it's hard to quantify how important it is to have an opportunity to learn from guys like that. And you know, Pete winning, you know, Pete reached the pinnacle. You guys reached the pinnacle at Misericordia to win a national championship. I know you guys have been knocking on the door for a couple of years so that I'm sure we'll get into that a little bit. But that must have been a heck of an experience.
[00:07:05] Speaker D: Yeah, it was.
I don't know, words can't describe it. And you know, the accolades and the trophies and the championships, the fancy ring that's, you know, sitting collecting dust in my room right now, like, that's all nice. But you know what, what Coach Egbert does That I think you can't quantify is he just creates a awesome culture of young men. And in a day and age where sometimes competition is something to be avoided, he absolutely fosters an environment of extreme competitive nature. He taught me what it looks like to really and actually work hard. He's the hardest worker I've ever met.
And I thought I was a hard worker until I got to Misericordia and then I watched him just work for one week. And you learn it's a whole different ball game when you're working for, for Pete Egbert. And there's no secret to his success. He works harder than everybody else and he fosters a culture of guys who will do anything to win. It's an, it's a uber competitive environment there. So he's again, incredibly successful for there's no mystery of how he reaches his points of success. And I was just happy to be along for the ride too.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Absolutely. I mean, kind of dovetailing on that. You're, you're in the midst of, you know, developing your own, you know, Persona, your own culture in your program right now. And I think a lot of that has to do with, you know, I'm sure you're setting the guidelines and the standards, you know, this fall with a group of guys that, you know, you probably didn't have a ton of chance to recruit. But you know, moving forward, I'm sure you're looking for a specific type of player, specific type of guy to help you win in that conference. Like, what does it look like from a recruiting perspective for you in terms of things that you value, timelines, how you go about identifying players, can, you know, walk the listeners through, you know, what that process looks for you, like for you guys right now?
[00:08:50] Speaker D: Totally.
I think for me, when I kick off any recruiting process or when I begin any sort of recruiting summer or season, obviously the team needs and our weaknesses or areas of improvement are going to be the first thing that we have to consider.
So first and foremost, not only with us, but with any program, we need to have a need at a certain position that we're going to need to fill. And maybe within that position there's specific needs in and of itself. If we're looking for a shortstop, you know, we're probably looking for somebody who has a little bit more speed and there's definitely added benefit to somebody who's a left handed hitter somewhere, maybe at first base or shortstop or really anywhere on the field. So, you know, if we have three left handed hitting first baseman already, we're probably not going to go out in that cycle and recruit one just because of the nature of what our roster looks like at that point. So step one is we have to have a need and we need to address that as a coaching staff and decide what's the direction we're going to go down with this recruiting class and how many at each position are we going to go for.
My, I guess, metric in, you know, what I'm looking for in student athletes at the high school level, When I'm thinking about how I'm going to piece together my recruiting class, I don't really look for any specific metric. But what I do is I ask myself the question, is this player that I'm looking at right now on a high school baseball field, is he currently better than anybody on my roster?
If I can watch this 17 year old kid play baseball and he is better than maybe a 20 year old I have on my roster, that to me indicates I need to recruit this baseball player because our baseball team is going to immediately get better if you add him into our recruiting class and get this player into our program. So there's a little bit of comparison of to, of the person that we're recruiting at any position or on the mound to people who are currently playing college baseball. And if the answer is no, this person is not better than the player on my roster right now, that's okay. I have to ask myself the question, will this player be better than somebody on my roster? And if the answer is yes to that, then again that person is going to be worth a second look, a third look and go out and see them again.
I do value some things, I would say maybe a little bit differently than the modern baseball mind. Like I really, really value speed all around. I really value dynamic baseball players. I want to have an offense running at FDU that is very, very dynamic. That is never going to be one dimensional where we can do multiple things, one through nine in the lineup. I really don't want any donkeys anywhere in my lineup that are going to swing and miss and punch out 50 times a year and maybe launch some balls over the wall. That's not a good trade off for me.
So I really value team speed.
I really value high level defense, whether it's defensive, glove actions, arm strength. If you're an infielder, I really want to see you over on the left side.
Truthfully, whether I'm looking for a third baseman, shortstop or second baseman, they're all the same to me. I'm recruiting three shortstops if I need three infielders that aren't specifically first baseman. So those tools are what I look for in the infield. In the outfield. Again you need to have exceptional speed and be able to track a ball. I really really value the defensive aspect of every position. There are few positions on the field.
There might not be one where I'm willing to sacrifice defense for offense.
And obviously for a catcher that is the biggest part. I don't care If a catcher bats.000 as a batting average. If he's our best defensive catcher he's going to play every single day.
That is where my priority is. And everybody's going to be a little bit different. They might want to get some slug out of their catcher. They might value offense more out of certain positions and will sacrifice offense for defense. But I for one am not. That's what I've seen to be successful at this level. So when I go out recruiting the things that I'm looking for are just reflecting that from an on field perspective at least.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: I think the defense is the piece of the puzzle that often gets left out of a lot of the recruiting conversations because it's one of the harder things to put like a tangible number on. Right. You've got the arm speed going across the infield or you've got a pop time which is Keith's favorite thing in the.
But it's. It's not as simple as velocity and spin rates and exit velos. Right. It's. It's a little bit of a looser. More interpretable evaluation. And like what do you value? You know seeing a kid play enough? I mean we talk about this like you want to see if an outfielder can play defense. Like you might have to watch that kid play four or five games to see him have to go after a ball that might be a college level type of swing or you know really actually going track ball. Same thing in the infield. You know you can go and watch a kid play and he might not get much hit to him and it's tough to get a really good grade on that. But I talk about it and I'm firmly on that side of the baseball game.
Defense wins, it travels. And especially when you start to break it down at the different levels of college baseball. If you can defend, if you don't make mistakes, if you can make the routine play.
You generally find yourself in a lot of baseball games and I think a lot of coaches value it. I'm not sure if a lot of coaches speak on it specifically. You know but at the end of the day, if you can't play defense, it's really hard to get into a lineup just because, you know, there's, you know, there's one dh, like, you know, eight other, you know, eight other guys need to be able to put a glove on and be out there and, and be able to contribute and impact the game, even if they don't put together good at bats. I mean, I think it was Matt Hobbs, who's the pitching coach at Arkansas.
He kind of mentioned that the quickest way to get on the field with them is to be able to play defense because they can figure out how to score runs. They got guys who bang. They got, you know, at that level, they got guys who do everything. But if you want to play, putting that glove on and being a really good, consistent defender is a really good way to do it. And I think sometimes for high school guys, it doesn't get enough stress put on it in the evaluation process, and it doesn't get pushed enough in the development process. Everybody wants to bang balls in the cage, which is great. But, you know, at the end of the day, if you can't play defense, it's really hard to put somebody in the lineup.
[00:15:00] Speaker D: Yeah, 100%. I think that defense. And again, I'm not in the club circuit world. I'm not working in indoor facilities all throughout the Northeast. So this is a generalization that I'm making. But, you know, it's way more frequent on Twitter that you see somebody post their exit velocity personal best.
But, you know, they don't talk about how they're improving their hands at second base or, you know, they're not improving their range in the infield. And of course, the pop times, I don't even know how to evaluate them anymore with everybody cheating at every certain showcase. And again, it's rare that you see people highlighting their defensive skills compared to how often you see a swing and exit velocity metric, stuff like that. So for me, again, I value that a lot. There's not a certain specific metric that I think is a specific benchmark. I think from a talent standpoint, you need to be in a certain area at any certain position or on the mound in order to be competitive at this level. And that's just, you know, the. The truth, I think.
But with that, you know, the defense, the things that you really can't quantify with a metric, again, I value that a lot.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: How do you.
I mean, it's one thing for, you know, to know what you're kind of looking for. But how do guys get on your radar? Like, what's that look for you?
Look like for you in terms of how do you identify guys that you're going to go spend some time and go watch those games?
[00:16:24] Speaker D: Yeah, that's a really good question. And it happens in a number of different ways.
If I were to go watch every single person that emailed me saying they're interested in our program, I wouldn't have any time to do anything for the rest of my life. It's just not feasible. So there's absolutely a vetting process that happens. As soon as I get an email, the first thing I do is typically I watch their video and all I'm looking for is just some sense of athleticism. It's really difficult to tell anything in detail about what this baseball player is in a game setting just from their video in a cage, or just from their highlights of only the good things that happen. That they could put together a two minute montage with some music in the back. All I'm looking for is athleticism. If I see athletic actions, if I see an athletic swing, if I see anything that resembles, you know, just general athleticism, that to me is going to be say, okay, I got to go out and I got to watch this kid play.
You know, that's, that's the first thing first is just being generally athletic. Again, I don't want donkeys in my lineup that are dragging anchors behind them when they're running around the bases or you know, when they're on base. Everybody knows their red light and that doesn't do anything for us. That makes the defense's job really easy. So again, I look for that first and foremost when I get out there and when I'm watching games live. Maybe it's a first impression when I'm watching a certain recruitment.
The first thing that to me that I say to our guys too is if you want to make an impression on me, and I say this to my players right now at fdu, your body is your billboard. Your body tells me how committed you are to the sport of baseball and how badly you want to do this.
Now, I'm not talking you have to look like Ronnie Coleman or be a bodybuilder, but you have to be somebody that when I look at you, I'm not concerned that you are going to be showing up to 7am lifts when it's 20 degrees and it's snowing out. You know, you might want to sleep in that day. I don't want to have to, you know, Think that about any sort of recruit. So to me, the body is the best billboard that a kid can have. If you're someone who's physical, if you're someone who's not afraid of the weight room, if you're someone who is on the track running sprints a lot, that to me is a direct indicator of this kid cares about this a lot. This person commits their time not just playing baseball whenever they have a game scheduled, but when there's no game scheduled, they're putting in work behind the scenes and they care about this. This is, you know, they don't just play baseball, they are a baseball player. That is what I want to see from somebody and I feel like watching them and their first impression, you know, that's one of the things that we look for and getting a kid on our radar, whether it be over video or perhaps in the first time we get to see them play.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: Yeah, we talk about this quite a bit on the podcast and it's such an important part of development. The, the biggest difference between a high school player and a college player almost always is just physical strength and maturity. And I think it separates guys from different levels coming out of high school often.
But, you know, you're certainly not the first guy to mention it, but it really is like the first impression you get is what do you look like in a uniform? Sure. And you know, for the young guys who are listening to this, it's a, it's a requirement. It's the bare minimum when you get to college, if you want to be a part of a good program, if you want to be a part of a program in general, being in the weight room, being physical, being strong is the bare minimum. And if you're not doing that now, it's going to be tough when you get there because there's going to be a significant learning curve in the weight room, but it's also going to hinder your ability to get recruited to your point.
But guys who are strong and physical, they can make up for deficiencies in a swing. They can make up for deficiencies with, with other parts of their game by just being strong and being athletic and being able to move.
And I just, it's, it seems to have been picked up, it seems to pick up a lot of steam recently because you've got a lot of guys who specialize in that type of work.
But it does seem like a common theme of, you know, the 16 year old kid that, you know, we're worried about getting recruited. Well, we got to get recruitable first and oftentimes the lowest hanging fruit is we got to put ten pounds on, we got to get in the weight room, we got to get stronger, we got to start moving better. And then that unlocks kind of the next phase of the recruiting process for a lot of guys, which is, you know, looking the part and acting the part and being able to, you know, perform at a level that's required to get recruited to play in college. So it's a massive piece of the puzzle.
What does that look like in your program?
[00:20:59] Speaker D: Yeah, you know, for me, I think it was a little bit of a change up for the guys. When I first showed up, I told them strength and conditioning is one of my top priorities for our baseball team. I truly believe you need to be physically fit to play college baseball. It is a long season. It is an absolute grind. Nobody who plays four years of college baseball wakes up in the morning and says, wow, I feel great every single day. Or, you know, my arm is feeling perfect every single day. It's just not going to happen over four years. It's not going to happen over a 40 game regular season.
So, one, I need to have guys who are going to prepare all winter long and all fall long because it's very cliche, but your best ability is your availability. If you're hurt or if you're sore or whatever and you're not performing at your best, that doesn't help us out. Our ball club is worse because you didn't prepare. So I think that is one of the reasons why I really care about strength and conditioning.
I think there's a mental edge that gets developed that I preach to our guys a lot. When we have lifts or when we do any sort of strength and conditioning, or even if it's just a regular practice, there's typically a winner and a loser every day. We put some sort of competition out there, strength and conditioning competition, some sort of sprint work competition, something really creative just to get the guys competing. I want a winner and a loser every single day. And to me, the strength and conditioning environment, that is what I want out of that. I want people who want to win, who will do anything to win and do anything to avoid losing. So putting them in that kind of competitive environment, again, I think that is going to be a huge part of our strength and conditioning development.
And then again, that mental edge of it, you know, I want our guys to get into the batter's box very, very prepared. You know, whether it be facing somebody on a team who hasn't won a game in Three years or facing the ace of now in Conference, the 2024 national champions, when my player gets in the batter's box, when my player gets on the mound trying to get that last out or coming through in a huge situation, I want them to know that as soon as they get in there, they've done everything they could to prepare for that, that they have earned the right to compete in that moment. The last thing that I want anybody thinking is, is, oh man, I'm nervous. I don't deserve to be up here. I wish it was somebody else in the lineup. And I think the strength and conditioning environment that we're creating right now has that kind of mental strength and conditioning aspect to it as well. Where our guys are going to get in there and you know, they need to feel prepared for that big moment. They need to feel like they earned the opportunity to compete in that moment. So, you know, all of that to me is, is the value in strength and conditioning. We're really fortunate to have a full time strength and conditioning coach.
Gina is awesome. She works with our guys. Right now we go three days a week from 7am to 8am we threw in an additional fourth day that our guys will do in small groups of strength training on their own. I just didn't want to wake them up early in the morning for a fourth day of the week. In addition, on their own in small groups, they're also doing a sprint program and they're doing an endurance training program. Again, I really value this. I want our guys to be working their tails off. I don't think you make it through a 40 game season healthy and competitive and in your best physical condition if you're not preparing accordingly. So it's a rigorous off season program and I think anecdotally why I care about this so much. When I was at Misericordia in 2024, we won the national championship.
I really don't think we were the better baseball team that day. But the national champion was determined in the second set of a doubleheader or the second game of a doubleheader.
We had already played seven games in seven days that week. It was 95 degrees and you had already played nine innings that morning. You know, if you're going to tell me you can win game eight in eight days in 95 degree heat without being physically fit, I just don't really see that. I won't believe you if you tell me you don't need to be fit to win that baseball game. And I don't know if we were the better baseball team that day. But I certainly know we were more physically fit and I certainly know we were more physically and mentally tough than our opponent. And to me, that's the only reason we won that national championship.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: So.
[00:25:02] Speaker D: So as long as I'm a head coach and have my own program, this emphasis on strength and conditioning will be there because I've seen the benefits firsthand of it.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: I mean, obviously that culture is really important.
How do you, how do you find guys who fit that? Right. I. I know, I kind of know the answer to this, having talked to you about a bunch of different guys over the past couple of years. But how do you suss that out in the recruiting process that you're not going to get a guy who's going to get there and be intimidated by the expectations of that? Because I know you dealt with it at miserable courtier that, you know, not everybody can walk in those doors and is going to be comfortable in an ultra competitive environment.
[00:25:43] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: How do you suss that out?
[00:25:44] Speaker D: Yeah. So. Well, first things first, it's definitely not an absolute science. Like we're never perfect with it. There are kids that we think are going to be great in our program that just end up not being a fit and that we made a mistake and they made a mistake and it just wasn't a great fit because of the approach to the game and the preparation.
But to me there's so many different indicators that are going to ultimately lead me or my staff to believe that this person is going to last here and that this person is going to put in the work.
What I really like is the multi sport athlete.
I love the kids who wrestle. I love the kids who play football. I love the kids who even play basketball and soccer.
I love the kids who play three sports in high school.
Reason being to me is that this person has a scoreboard in their life all year round where, you know, you might look at a baseball player only and if it's a po, they might have a scoreboard in their life that they impact maybe six or seven times in a season and then in the summer they don't care in the fall nobody cares about the score. But the multi sport athlete. One, if you are a high school wrestler, a football player, a hockey player, even a basketball player or a soccer player, the conditioning that you're doing on a daily basis is going to be probably much harder than what we're doing when it comes to just a sheer difficult difficulty standpoint.
Two, I know you're an athletic person because you're playing these multiple sports and you have a diverse set of skills that contribute to your success in these other sports. And then three, there's going to be an edge to you. You are going to find a way to win, especially if you come from successful programs.
Now me personally, I've stood out in the rain at soccer games watching kids play soccer. One, because I really wanted them to come play for me. But two, because that told me a lot about what that kid was. I've been to high school basketball games and I've watched kids play and perform. I've been to multiple high school football games. I really, really value that stuff. And one, if you're a multi sport athlete to begin with, again those sports, I think you're going to have a pretty good shot to make it through with our program and build the good habits and do what we ask you to do without tapping out but to the competitive nature that we want to bring in the environment. You know, you're in it year round, you've been doing it your entire life. It's not necessarily something that's new to you. It's probably a little bit of a different font and is going to look a little bit different at the baseball level of college. But you know, you've been there before, you have experience in it and you're probably going to acclimate pretty quickly and maybe not crack as quickly when the going gets tough. So those are some things that I look for. I love to go to different sporting events. I love to watch our recruits play football, I'd love to watch them basketball wrestle. All the above. To me it's, it's truly valuable and just getting a gauge on what kind of competitor this person is. So it's not always we can get out there, but it certainly helps when we can.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Keith would have been your dream recruit.
[00:28:42] Speaker C: I played football, I wrestled and I played baseball.
[00:28:45] Speaker D: Probably would have worked out.
[00:28:47] Speaker C: I think it's, I mean you're right and I think it adds value to what you can do as an athlete when you play multiple sports.
You know, I think we're in an era where there's not a lot of people who are willing to be multiple sport athletes.
We have a lot of people who just think that we can become a big leaguer at age 6 and hammer baseball for the rest of their lives or soccer or whatever.
And that's obviously not the case.
It's way too hard to do. And I, I think that at some point in your athletic career you become limited in, in your athleticism to get to the next level because you've only done said sport for so long.
[00:29:33] Speaker D: You.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: Know, the other side and I, I believe this about our game is that it, it's too hard to just do year round 24, 7, 365. Like at some point your body needs a break. Mentally, you need a break. Like you can be the, the most mentally tough person in the world, but you hit a stretch of over 15, over 20, like you're gonna start questioning everything it is about your life and like what you should be wearing. Like am I wearing the right socks? Like what's going on here?
You know, But I think when you, you know, when you're a multi sport athlete, generally speaking you're not like you're not the dude in all three sports. So you have to figure out some semblance of a way to contribute or be a role player or you know, I'm not saying that you're not starting, but you like, you might not be the point guard and the best player on the team when you're the best baseball player or you're not the quarterback or the running back, you're you know, the tight end or receiver or corner.
And I think that it teaches you to play within a system and to figure out how you can still contribute when you might not be the best best because inevitably you're going to get to college and you're. The likelihood of you being a freshman and setting foot on campus at a college baseball program and being the best player in that program is pretty low. Like, not to say it doesn't happen, but the likelihood of that happening is pretty low. So you're going to have to figure out some semblance of a way to work your way up that ladder. And if you go through that stuff early on in your life, you're probably going to be able to figure it out quicker when you get to college. Of like, okay, like I'm not the dude and that's okay. But if I put my head down and work and get after in the weight room and get after in practice and be coachable and do the things they're asking me to do, the likelihood of me being able to kind of climb that ladder faster, you know, generally speaking with those types of kids become, it happens a lot faster than the kid that has just played baseball his entire life. And there's, you know, I, I'm not a proponent of, of specializing in baseball. I mean if you want to do it later on in your career, sure, but I'm not a proponent of like, oh, he's only going to play baseball starting at five. Like, yeah, okay, like, let him go do other things. Let him be kids. Let the, but like you develop far more important attributes playing other sports that go beyond just the, the athleticism you're going to pick up in those sports. Like, there's other life lessons in them and how to become a, you know, a team player. And you know, wrestling is very individualized. Like there's a team aspect of it. Yes, there is, but like it's individualized. Like it's you versus one other human being and you have no one else to blame if you lose. Like, you lost and that, that's tough to, that's tough to handle.
And being able to kind of figure that out as a young kid and work through that, it starts to, you know, you start to figure out like, all right, it's not, it's okay if you fail. It's what we do moving forward. Like, am I going to lose and just go.02 in every tournament or am I going to wrestle back and try to get third? Or like, you know, am I, you know, I, I, I can't get tech fault here because that's going to be six points for the other team. I have to actually, you know, try to score some semblance of points and maybe not give up six. I can't get pinned, whatever it might be. Right.
You know, we're in hoops or you know, whatever the sport might be. And you know, I think that there's, there's a lot more value in it from, you know, not only the recruiting standpoint of it, but, you know, from a, a growth standpoint as an athlete and as a person grow, go if you ultimately and doesn't matter if you end up playing college baseball or not, like whatever sport you wanted to play, like you're the same lessons we're talking about that apply to baseball are going to apply to other sports that you might play in college. And the, the, the more I, I would, I would be hard pressed to think that there's not a lot of college coaches in other sports that don't value multi sport athletes. Like, I mean, my wife is meeting with a recruit tomorrow that's a, is looking to play two sports in college. Like that's, you know, that, like it's still valued in other sports. It's valued in baseball just as much as it is in other sports. Like, yeah, they play soccer and field hockey and lacrosse and hoops. Like, you know, that stuff matters. And I think that we've we've kind of gotten away from that a little bit and you know, it's something that I would like to see come back a little bit more in the high school ranks.
[00:33:57] Speaker D: Yeah. One more thing I'll say about just the multi sport athlete and why I like them a lot too. I completely agree with everything you said and we talked about, I think the benefits of it and kind of forging the character of the student athlete.
But from a logistics standpoint as well, if they're spending one third of the year playing baseball and they're spending two thirds of the year doing something else, I'm willing to bet they're going to get a little bit better when they get to college and they're no longer focusing the other 66% of the year on other sports and other activities and other pieces of development and they're focusing more on baseball at the college level. So that's that kind of added benefit from a logistics standpoint too is that once these guys that I think, you know, they're really good athletes and they stop focusing on basketball once they get to college and they stop playing football once they get to college and they really buy into what we're doing from a baseball perspective, to me those guys have a lot of room to get better and fine tune their skills and you know, ultimately become a pretty competitive college baseball player. To me I just see the ceiling being a little bit higher for them as well.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. And I, I, Keith says about the compete factor like I don't think that can be understated in, you know, it's one thing to be in a facility and I don't, there's nothing wrong with facilities for some guys right now. If you're 27 and you're not getting recruited, you, it might be the absolute right move for you to not play basketball this year and push all your chips in and there's a lot of people out there that are doing that.
The other thing that comes to mind with even the multi sport athletes is that with baseball you rotate in one direction and you won. You run in one direction around the bases all the time.
If you're a right handed hitter, you rotate the same way. If you're a right handed thrower, you rotate the same way. It's all these really repetitive movements and it doesn't really foster the athleticism that everybody in this space really, really values. Well, when you go and you play basketball, you're required to do things athletically that you're not required to do on a baseball field. And those movements, they translate to athleticism and explosiveness and coordination, especially when kids are younger. They learn how to move, they learn how to drop their hips, they learn how your, your feet are going to interact, your body has to work together. Football is another one where the back pedals, the cuts, the intensity of the game. I think all of that stuff organically makes you a better athlete, not just a better baseball player. And they feed into each other.
There's a reason that when you look at professional scouting reports for high school kids, the first thing they tap into is what type of athlete is there?
Can, can he run, can he throw? Like the tangible skill set? Well, that stuff can all be built on by playing other sports. And you can tap into, you can tap into other types of athleticism that you're not going to get in a gym on a squat rack. You need to be in the weight room. But the change of direction in soccer, the change of direction in basketball, the flexibility and the mobility and the toughness that's required to wrestle, you don't get that if you don't play any of those sports. And to Keith's point, at some point, guys, you know, may have to decide like, hey, I really want to play college baseball and if I'm going to get there, I have to just really push my chips in there. But you're talking 14, 15 years old. Like, if you can go and play another sport and you get a chance to go and compete, I just think that too many people are shying away from that under the guise that like, well, I'll just put all my chips into baseball. Well, I think you're actually hindering your development because I think skill acquisition in baseball is much easier than people think.
It's not hard to find time to get 50, 60, 100 swings.
You know, it takes what, 45 minutes? Yeah, right. It's not hard to take.
Yeah, it's not hard to take 50 to 100 ground balls. It's not hard to get behind the plate and have somebody pump high velocity stuff at you so you can work on your receiving. Like, you can get those reps in a condensed window and get better from a skill perspective really quickly. It's harder to tap into strength. It's harder to tap into that athleticism that takes longer.
And yeah, I mean, I go back to us playing and you know, it was 20 years ago at this point, which is crazy to think, but everybody that we played with was a multi sport athlete in high school and I would love to see it go back towards that. A little bit. And the funny thing is, is that I think most coaches, when you press them on it, they'll all tell you, yeah, I love the kid who wrestles, or I love the kid who plays football. But for some reason, that's not trickling down to the development cycle.
I think baseball is unique. It's not the same as soccer.
It's a little bit different than basketball. I think that those breaks in developing athleticism, that's actually going to boost your baseball skills.
I think it can happen outside of the baseball field, and I think it needs to happen outside of the baseball field. I think some of the development stuff right now we're creating guys who are really good at doing stuff in a vacuum.
And some of that stuff doesn't apply directly to the game.
Right. I'm an infield guy.
There's nothing I dislike more than cone drills and guys running to cones to try to create angles. And you create these robots and they work in a space that is super, super controlled. And it doesn't end up being reflective of what an actual game situation looks like. And I wish we could get away from that a little bit. That's my personal thought on it. I think having some more natural flow, some more compete, I think that that really matters for guys, and I think it sets them up for success when they get to college. Because we talk about it those first six months when you're on campus, you know, that first freshman year that you go through, it is the most baseball you will ever play over the course of a year. And you need to be able to compete and be ready to compete in that environment. And I think playing those other sports, I think it really prepares guys to be able to do that.
[00:40:03] Speaker C: This is also a hard game to.
If you're just going to specifically do baseball, it's a hard game to legitimately compete in every day. Like, you, obviously you can find things to compete in, but like straight up on a field, another team in a dugout like that, that doesn't happen in this, especially on. Depending on where you live in this country. If you live in, in the Northeast, Midwest, Mid Atlantic, to some extent, like, you're not outside playing baseball all the time. And it's so hard to replicate that type of thing. And I think one of the hard things that kids don't understand, especially when you get to college, is, like, if you're a reliever, like if you're a reliever, you're likely going to have, if you extrapolate out your entire career, fall lead up to the season, the season, everything. You're going to have more appearances against your own hitters than you, you likely are against the other, against other competition like that. That's hard for people to wrap their minds around sometimes because you're going to, you know, it, you're probably going to throw.
We're up to 24 practice in the fall. Like, you know, let's say you're going to have six appearances in the fall. Maybe you know, four to six. You're going to have another, you're probably going to throw at least eight times live before you actually go throw before the season starts, starts just to get your pitch count up because you're like, you're not rolling in and throwing 45 pitches first time out. So like you're building that.
You're going to have 12, 13, 14 appearances before you even go play another team. You might not get 12 appearances as a reliever that year.
And I think like people, that, that's hard for people to understand. We talk about it where like, you know, your competition's in your dugout like when you get to college. But like that's, sometimes that's hard to kind of wrap your mind around because it's, it's not what you're used to. You're used to throwing bullpens. You're used to maybe facing some live hitters. But like, I mean in high school you're really just rolling it out there and, and going and playing other people. Like you're not, you're not throwing live in between starts. You're, there's no lead up to you. You know, the first time you face hitters is probably a week before your game. You open up games after the team's picked. So like it's a completely different animal. And that can, you have to somehow be able to compete in that setting all the time. And you can do it in the weight room and it fosters it moving forward and it's awesome. Like I, I, I love that idea. Like we used to do that stuff all the time. But like when it comes to baseball and specifically when we're talking about more like multi sport athlete, you learn how to compete in other settings. Like baseball is a weird, so like you're going to be inside in a cage, maybe with an L screen in front of you throwing like it's a tight, confined, kind of scary situation to be in because you're like, yo, if he hits it back at me, like I, this is, this could hit me off the face. Like it's a little terrifying. And you know, like that's, you're, if you're an arm, you know, and especially if you're a starter, right, like those guys are, you're probably going to, you know, there's a lot of build up to you throw before the season. Like you might only start, you might only have 10 starts, you might throw 20 times against your own team.
And that, that sometimes that's hard to, to, to conceptualize but that's just kind of the truth and, and how this all works out. But like you know, from being a multi sport athlete you can figure out how to compete in those types of settings because you know, that's just what you're like, that's how this is going to go and how it's going to work. It's not always going to be against, you know, another team because that's, you know, that's all situational and like, you know, to take it even further, like that's where you earn the right to get the ball in the game. Because if you can't do it against your own team, the chances of you doing another team are probably a lot less. So the opportunity for you to be able to get the ball and like these are the conversations you have when kids come in and they're like, oh, why am I not playing? Well, you haven't missed a barrel all spring. Like you've thrown eight times live. You've been barreled in literally every single that bat. Like I can't put you in a game. I need to face someone else. Well, I don't know what to tell you because everyone else is doing a better job so you ain't getting the ball.
And it's hard for younger kids to wrap their minds around that thing. But that like that's the truth of the matter. And that's what's going to happen. You get to college, you are going to have to do a really, really exceptional job against your own team before you're going to have the opportunity to do, to do it against another team.
And that like that's hard for people to kind of understand but that's, that's legitimately how this is going to roll when you get to college.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: Yeah, the, there's a reason that coaches try to scrimmage as much as you can in the fall because you're trying to suss out who can compete, who can hack it at that level. Right. And the only guys who get rope are the guys who've already done it.
You know, if you're a three hole guy who's a junior who had 360 with freaking 12 pumps last year, has a little bit of a slump in the fall. Like, you're not worried about it, but that freshman who's coming onto campus, like, that's your only chance really ahead of the season to figure out a way to get in the lineup and to prove that you belong. Like, you might get an opportunity in the spring leading up, but, you know, I can speak for, you know, most recently at Division one level, you get three weeks.
You have three weeks to get ready for your opening game.
Our lineup set in the fall.
Unless something weird happens, like, we got a pretty good idea what's happening. So, like, that fall window, those practices where you're competing, majority against the guys who are in your dugout. That's who determines who plays against the teams with the different uniforms on.
And if you can't thrive in that environment, you're probably going to have a tough time in the weight room and vice versa. Like, if you're not willing to compete in all those fronts and be able to treat that inner squad like it really matters, and that goes back to guys who compete year round.
It's just, it's a setting that's easier for them to step into.
This is different.
[00:46:13] Speaker D: Yeah, totally.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:14] Speaker D: One more thing I'll say on this too, like, like you said, if you can't do it in the fall, you know, you got a serious issue. Because it only gets harder to me as a freshman, when you get on campus to start your career, it's not that hard to be fired up and to be motivated and to do the right thing. But right now is the time of year where it's going to make or break someone's college career or their impact this spring. Because again, you're waking up, your alarm is set for 6am, 6, 15 every day, or at least three days a week for us.
And you got to go walk across campus in the cold while the sun is not even up yet. And then you got to go work your tail off and prepare to outperform somebody wearing the same uniform as you. So, you know, if, again, if you can't do that in 16 to 24 days in the fall at our level, this is the time of year where it kind of gets revealed and people, you know, kind of realize this, this might not be for them. But what I will say truthfully about our guys is I'm really, really impressed with their mental fortitude. I'm really, really impressed with their level of competitiveness. I'm really impressed with their willingness to take on new coaching and instruction like our guys.
You know, it's always from my perspective. Again, I'm going into my first head coaching job and I'm sure anytime you get a new job anywhere, there's a little bit of trepidation and you don't really know what you have. And I just feel, to repeat myself, really, really lucky because, you know, again, we might not have the best baseball players in America right now, but you know, what we sure do have is a bunch of guys who are going to work really, really hard and they really want this. This is not something that is a hobby for them.
So again, I feel really lucky. I'd rather take the field with nine guys who, you know, I want to get into, I trust to have my back regardless of the situation. I'll take the field with those guys any day. Rather than the guy who has talent but, you know, doesn't put in the work and who isn't the guy behind the scenes that shows up for the lifts, that does the right things off the field, that influences others.
All the things that we try and talk about from a character building standpoint too. So I do feel really lucky about where we're at when it comes to the stuff that you can't really measure and the makeup of this ball club, our older guys and our younger guys alike, this is the hard time of year. Our guys have been really, really good through it. So I'm really happy about that.
[00:48:29] Speaker B: Well, I think that this conversation strikes towards kind of what it's like to be a college baseball player too.
And we've talked about this before, but I think it's worth mentioning again. Like a lot of guys love the idea of being a college baseball player or just being a college athlete in general. And they think like, oh, it'll be cool, but don't really fully understand what's required of them. Like the bare minimum, you know, to your point, like, can you get up at six o' clock three days a week and go lift before class and still go to your 8:30 class, still do well in the classroom, you know, are you willing to compete, you know, for those 24 days in the fall?
You know, it's not a hobby, you know, and it doesn't matter what level you're playing at. Division one, two, three, juco Nai. Like these programs that are recruiting players to go and play for them, they are trying to win ball games and it's an ultra competitive environment no matter where you go. And I think it's really important for people to understand and players and parents as well, that, you know, this is. This is your job, this is your livelihood, and you're trying to build a successful program. You've been a part of successful programs, and there's.
There's requirements to be a part of that. And I think sometimes the dream and the. The. The idea of college baseball is this, like, really sparkly, fun thing. And it can be like, if you enjoy working hard and you enjoy competing, college baseball is the best.
I wouldn't give it. I wouldn't give that back for anything. Some of the best friends I have in my life, I'm on this podcast, and my best friend and partner, you know, because of baseball and the stuff that you learn in that dugout, the stuff that you learn as a man, the stuff that you learn as a friend, a teammate, the character you build.
But you have to be willing to do the hard stuff to enjoy that part of it. And you have to enjoy showing up every day and busting your ass and being a part of something that's bigger than yourself.
That's where the fun and the sparkly comes in, is like, you win that, you win that back end of a double header because you busted your ass in the fall. Like, that's where the payoff is. It's not in, like, the rah rah fun. We get cool gear. Like, that's the stuff that doesn't really matter. It's, you know, your willingness and your commitment to go and try to be the best version of yourself that you can be. And that's what college baseball is. That's what college athletics at its core is. It's people who are trying to go and compete to figure out how good they can be in whatever endeavor they're taking on. And if you're not willing to do that, college baseball or college athletics as a whole could be a tough climb for you. And some guys, it takes them getting to campus to realize, hey, maybe this isn't a fit for me. You know, every program that I've ever been in, we've had guys that have come in after the season and say, hey, you know what, Coach? I'm just going to focus on academics.
Awesome.
You let me know if you need anything. It's just not the right fit for everybody. But if you love to compete and you're willing to fight for and you're willing to be a part of something that's bigger than yourself, that's when you get to have that fun and it gets to be a really enjoyable thing.
I wouldn't give it back for anything. I think it builds character. I think it's a huge part of the college experience as a whole. And.
But there's more to it than just wanting to. You got to be able to. You got to be willing to do the stuff that's hard.
[00:51:55] Speaker D: I'm right with you. Couldn't agree more.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: Talk to me a little bit about.
Be remiss to not at least ask about it a little bit. Like, you won a national championship. Right. You were a part of something.
You reached the absolute pinnacle of Division 3 baseball.
Looking back on it, any, like, big takeaways, anything that you really learned on that stretch, like, any moments that really stick out that are impactful for you now as somebody who's, you know, getting ready to step into their first spring as a head coach?
[00:52:29] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, there's certainly too many moments.
But what I will say, like, the little details are revealed in the biggest moments. Like that, to me, is the biggest thing that I took away from both 2023 and 2024. There were so many little things that we as a ball club did well and that we, you know, from top to bottom, from the freshmen to the seniors on the ball club, whether it be in game or off field, in preparation, every little thing was. Was put under a microscope for us. And, you know, very, very little things won us baseball games. When we look back at the super regionals, we went down to Christopher Newport.
They are unbelievable, and they had legitimate arms rolled out there where we knew we were not going to. We were lucky to score three runs if we did.
But the very little things that we were able to pick up on from a base running perspective, that led us to a run in the first inning, and we ended up winning game one one. Nothing, like every little thing is going to matter when you're trying to make a run and have a competitive program. So, you know, there's so many different things that I think I try and hit on now on the baseball field and off when it comes to the little details. But our guys, I'm sure to begin with, were probably a little frustrated with me when I kept calling out little things and very little details, whether it be verbiage used in communication or where our balls are put away or if someone left a bottle cap in the bullpen, like all these small little things that. That I look at now because, again, I observed it under Coach Egbert.
They may not believe me now, but it certainly makes a difference in how you do all the small things in the Game of baseball. And when it comes down to it, in the biggest moments, game 55 of the season for a national championship, your eighth game in eight days, those details that you care about and that you harp on, every little one of them is, you know, put under a microscope to the max. And, and it's revealed in that moment. So, you know, that's probably the biggest takeaway I had from that. The experience in and of itself was freaking awesome. Obviously, it was really, really cool to me. You know, it was a cool experience for me. But the coolest part about the experience was watching the guys go through it. I don't know if there was a group of kids in America that worked harder than the group of seniors in fifth years that we had on that roster in 2024. And just watching them go through it and talking about it now gives me goosebumps. But watching them do what they did from a leadership standpoint, from a work ethic standpoint, from early work to extra work, to the stuff that you do in the athletic training room, from prehab programs, rehab programs, you name it, what they did, it was, it was special.
And I think, you know, attitude reflects leadership. And Coach Egbert, he, he embodied that as well. He's the hardest working guy I've been around too. So there's certainly too much that I've learned that I could mention to hit on and what I learned from the national championship campaign. But owning the details and obviously when you think you're working hard, you know, you're still not working hard enough is kind of what I've learned from that. And, and just watching our seniors go through that was probably one of the best baseball experiences I've had, whether it be a player or a coach. So super, super cool. And again, life, lifelong memories and lifelong relationships, like you said, that I didn't necessarily expect I'd make when I went to Misericordia, that I didn't think I would be lifelong friends with some of the guys that I coached.
But, you know, a couple weeks ago I was out playing golf with guys that, that are alumni. And that, to me is why we do this. And that, to me, is the, the best part about this game.
[00:56:11] Speaker B: I second that notion. I think the relationships, the, the more you get into this, the more you realize how important the relationships are.
I think that's probably the thing I miss the most. I mean, I loved the winning, I loved competing, but I think it was the relationships you build. Watching 18 year olds turn into men after four years and seeing them grow as People seeing them grow as competitors, seeing them grow as teammates, leaders. I think that's one of the things that the more you coach and the more you're around the game, the more you value.
Because at the end of the day, I think that's ultimately your job as a coach is to foster an environment that allows these guys to figure out how good they can be in the short term, but also prepare them for that long term success. And I know you were kind of talking about some of the successes that guys from miserable Cordia have, have had post baseball. And you know, I'm sure you're hoping that's going to be the exact case for, for the guys at FDU now.
[00:57:05] Speaker D: So.
[00:57:07] Speaker B: Final question for you.
Impart a little wisdom on the listeners, folks who are going through or are pursuing playing college baseball. Any advice, any words of wisdom that you'd like to pass on as far as things to consider in the recruiting process, things that you think they might want to spend a little time thinking about?
[00:57:31] Speaker D: Yeah, I think the first thing that you have to do as you go through this process is make some decisions. And to me, the easiest and quickest decisions that you can ultimately narrow down your search with is do you want to go to a big school, do you want to go to a small school, do you want to stay close to home, do you want to go far away from home? And what do you want to study?
And if you don't have answers to those, that's okay. But those should be your jumping off point of your entire college search.
If you tell me you want to go to a school and you're dead set on going to a school in warm weather and you get an offer from, you know, somewhere up in Wisconsin, then that might not be a fit for you. If you want to go to a school with 10,000 kids and then a school with 650 kids makes you an offer that's probably not a great fit for you.
You know, while I encourage you to explore all those opportunities, those to me, the things, the variables that you have to, to consider the size of the school, the distance from home, the academic offerings, baseball doesn't matter if you don't have the things that you're looking for in a school or in a social setting or of course academically. So that's got to be the first things first. The other two pieces of advice that I give people when it comes to the recruiting process, your grades to not, you know, not to put too much pressure on the kids or recruits that are possibly listening to this but your grades are going to equate to thousands of dollars.
If you're 15 years old and you're listening to this as a freshman in high school, or if you're 13 or 14 and you're listening to this as a freshman in high school, your GPA and what you do in your freshman English class will have an impact on how much merit scholarship for academic merit scholarship you get. By the time that you're a senior and you start applying to schools, every class that you take, every GPA point could literally equate to a change in thousands of dollars.
And if it's just a $2,500 difference in your merit that you earned or you didn't earn at the end of four years, you're looking at $10,000. You know, that's. That's a lot of money for you and your family. So my big piece of advice is that your GPA will literally equate to thousands of dollars when it comes time to make decisions. And you want your grades to allow you to go do different opportunities, not something that's going to restrict you from going to certain opportunities, whether it be getting into the school or because of the merit scholarship and the financial picture that's important to you.
My big piece of advice from a baseball standpoint, just go watch baseball. All right? Go watch a college baseball game. And if you live in New Jersey, North Jersey, anywhere in maybe Rockland County, New York, if you live anywhere in those surrounding areas, there is so much good baseball for you to go see that you can actually see what a program is like, what the environment of college baseball is like. It is going to tell you more about college baseball than any podcast or conversation will. And I can recall. As a 13 year old, I went to a William Patterson vs. Kane University game up at Jeff Albee's field at William Patterson. And it changed my entire perspective about Division 3 baseball. Because those guys playing the game, it was unbelievable. The talent level, the competitiveness, the pace of the game, the energy, all of it left an impact on me. So, you know, I always tell a kid, don't tell me you can play for me unless you've seen us play. I always tell coaches, don't tell me you have a kid for me that can play for me, unless you've seen us play. Because it's really, really difficult to gauge what the product on the field is and if someone can play for me. If you've never seen that. So the big thing for a high school kid, again, go watch a game. Go watch Kane play, come to an FDU game, Go watch Stack play up in Rockland County. Go watch anybody play. Go see many different games. It's going to suck in February when it's cold out, but you're not doing anything else at that time of year. You can go watch a game, make an honest evaluation of yourself. I can play at this level. No, I can't play at this level. I need to do this. I do not look like them. I physically am behind. I'm physically comparable to them. Have those honest conversations with the important resources in your life. But to me, that is an invaluable experience that ultimately you only get when you go watch a nine inning set of games, you know, and gauge yourself of where you fit in from the college baseball picture. So your grades are important, obviously. Narrow down the distance from home, what you want to study the size of the school, and then go watch a game and then you can ultimately draw some conclusions about what you see on the field and if you'd want to go there or if you fit in at that level.
[01:01:58] Speaker B: Yeah, the watching college baseball thing, I think it, I think it's such an important piece of this process because it's easy to fixate on what you see on espn, right? It's easy to fixate on what you see in the College World Series. And you go, all right, well, if I can't play there, I can probably play somewhere else. And having played at the Division 1 level, coached at the Division 1 level, coach at the Division 3 level, had guys who've gotten drafted and signed for a bunch of money, had guys who've made it to the big leagues. And Keith's background is even more robust than mine in terms of level of play. He's seen like the elite Division 2 baseball. He's the head coach of the Division 3 level, Division 1 coach, Division 1 player. I think we would both comfortably say that not enough people know what the barrier to entry is when it comes to playing college baseball. And they don't understand what it's. How good you have to be to play at a school like Miserable Courtier, how good you need to be to play at an FDU or a Stevens or name whatever Division 3 program, because a lot of people haven't taken the time to understand it or they've never really seen it.
You know, you, you need to be a really good high school player first.
Instead, still doesn't qualify you to go be a Division 1 player. It doesn't qualify you to be a Division 3 player, especially when you Start to take into account that there's levels within those levels.
And it's the only way to.
The only way to really understand that is to either have somebody in your corner who knows what they're talking about, who's seen that, who has an idea of what it takes to play at certain levels that's going to give you good information, or you need to go see it for yourself and you need to make an honest assessment.
Right? And you're talking about being up in the northern New Jersey area.
You want to see what the, like, the big, big boys look like. Like, go watch Rutgers when UCLA comes into town, you know, then you can go see some of the best Division 3 baseball. And then in the NJAC, you know, you've got St. John's you've got FDU, you've got FDU Florum, you've got Stony Brook, you got Manhattan up the river to Maris. Like, you get this broad collection of schools that you have the ability to go and see play baseball.
And if you have the time, which you can make the time, go watch a game on a Sunday.
It's eye opening one, and it's enjoyable because it's good baseball and I think it's really informative.
I can't stress that point enough.
Well, Garrett, thank you, sir, for joining us today. I'm glad we were able to get you on.
Obviously, best of luck this spring in your, your inaugural season as a head coach.
Certainly be following you and yeah, I really appreciate your time and thank you for coming on.
[01:04:46] Speaker D: Yeah, of course. I appreciate you guys having me and I appreciate all you've done for me and all your help. I know that you guys over at emd, you know what you're doing. So the kids that you are working with right now, they're in a really, really good spot.
And, you know, I just hope you keep feeding me guys that you think would be a good fit for us. So that helps me out and makes my job really easy. So keep doing what you' and I appreciate that.
[01:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah, man, just keep answering the text message.
[01:05:10] Speaker D: Always, Garrett. Always. Thank you, guys.
[01:05:12] Speaker B: Thanks, man. Have a good night.
[01:05:14] Speaker D: You too.
[01:05:16] Speaker B: Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that, like button for us. Check us out on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram @EMD Baseball.
[01:05:31] Speaker C: If you want to find out what.
[01:05:33] Speaker B: Me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.
