BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
What if you could discover the secrets of the most successful coaches and athletes and become the best in the game. What separates the best coaches and players from the rest? Become the player coaches dream of having on their team. Step inside the dugout with the Baseball Coaches Unplugged, where every episode is a journey of triumph, resilience, and inspiration. Hosted by Ken Carpenter, a 27 year veteran high school baseball coach with a passion for unlocking the secrets of athletic greatness.
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BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
Parker Byrd's Return to College Baseball After Losing His Leg
Parker Byrd's journey from star high school shortstop to amputee baseball player at East Carolina University defies all conventional expectations. After committing to ECU as a freshman, his life took a devastating turn during a summer boating trip with teammates before his first college season. Caught beneath a boat's propeller, Parker suffered catastrophic injuries requiring 22 surgeries in 56 days and ultimately, the amputation of his right leg below the knee.
Most would assume a Division I baseball career was no longer possible. But when Parker expressed this fear to his mother in the hospital, her response changed everything: "There always has to be a first, why not you?" Those words sparked a transformation in Parker's mindset that fueled an extraordinary comeback.
The rehabilitation process revealed Parker's remarkable determination. Starting in a wheelchair doing visualization exercises, he progressed to performing one-handed drills while seated on a shower stool, then working with crutches, before finally receiving a proper running prosthetic with a split-foot design. With his hitting coach, Parker redeveloped his swing mechanics, discovering that a "scissor motion" technique could generate power without his natural ankle push-off.
What makes this story particularly powerful is the unwavering support from ECU head coach Cliff Godwin, who was the first person at the hospital after Parker's accident. In an era where the transfer portal offers easy replacements for injured players, Godwin's commitment to Parker transcended baseball. This loyalty, combined with Parker's faith and family support, created the foundation for his return to competitive play.
Parker made his collegiate debut on February 16, 2024, receiving a thunderous ovation from Pirate Nation that he describes as "louder than I've ever heard." Beyond the baseball achievement, Parker has embraced a greater purpose in inspiring others facing seemingly impossible challenges. His message is profoundly simple yet powerful: "Embrace adversity, love your neighbor, and trust in God's plan because He's going to lead you to something better."
Listen now to this extraordinary conversation about resilience, faith, and redefining what's possible when determination meets unwavering support. Parker Bird isn't just playing baseball with a prosthetic leg—he's showing us all how to transform life's greatest challenges into our most powerful purpose.
Join the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast where an experienced baseball coach delves into the world of high school and travel baseball, offering insights on high school baseball coaching, leadership skills, hitting skills, pitching strategy, defensive skills, and overall baseball strategy, while also covering high school and college baseball, recruiting tips, youth and travel baseball, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.
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Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged. Imagine what it takes to make an elite Division I baseball program as a freshman Transfer portal. Average age of player is nearly 21 years old and the coach is expecting production the minute you step on campus. Now imagine trying to play with your right leg amputated below your knee. Trying to play with your right leg amputated below your knee. East Carolina University infielder Parker Bird suffered a near-fatal accident while boating with teammates the summer before his freshman season. After 20-plus surgeries, parker did what most would think is impossible, thanks to his family, coach Cliff Godwin and teammates. Thanks to his family, coach Cliff Godwin and teammates the power of belief and the incredible determination. Next on Baseball Coaches.
Speaker 2:Unplugged. Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter, presented by AthleteOne. Baseball Coaches Unplugged is a podcast for baseball coaches With 27 years of high school baseball coaching under his belt, here to bring you the inside scoop on all things baseball, from game-winning strategies and pitching secrets to hitting drills and defensive drills. We're covering it all. Whether you're a high school coach, college coach or just a baseball enthusiast, we'll dive into the tactics and techniques that make the difference on and off the field. Discover how to build a winning mentality, inspire your players and get them truly bought.
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Speaker 1:I have a simple ask here. If you enjoyed today's show, please be sure and share it with a friend, and don't forget to hit the subscribe button. It helps us to grow the show. Now to my episode with East Carolina University infielder Parker Bird. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter, and I'm excited to have jumping on the show with me today. Parker Bird, east Carolina University, infielder Parker, thanks for taking the time to join me on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3:It's an honor, man. I appreciate you having me on here.
Speaker 1:For those people out there that don't know your story, which I'm sure just about everybody should you were in a serious boating accident and had to have your leg amputated accident and had to have your leg amputated. But what I wanted to start off with was February 16th 2024.
Speaker 3:I'm sure that day is pretty special. Tell me about that day. Yeah, it was a cool day, for sure. Yeah, so that was last year of the. We were playing a rider Friday night, obviously, and that was my first collegiate game back from my accident and coach Godwin told me whenever we were like stretching, hey, we had comfortable leads, hey, be ready to go in. So I was like all right, sounds good. Well, we scored, like ready to go in. So I was like all right, sounds good. Well, we scored like seven runs in the first inning. I was like, oh, today's the day, god's letting it happen. Quick. Well, offense kind of spelled out for a couple of innings and then they scored a little bit. So it was like a 7-4 game or 7-3, something crazy. But then we just started scoring again and then I got in the bat and it was really cool. I mean, you got the stabilization, but just a lot of hard work, that's you know, went into that.
Speaker 1:Getting back into uh this I can imagine, you know it it's. It's crazy enough to get your first AB at the Division I level but you know, walking up there with everything that you've been through and you know a stadium and everybody there just going crazy for you, I bet you the emotions were just going 100 miles an hour and I can't even imagine it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a really cool time because Pirate Nation here in Great World they're very passionate about their sports, especially baseball, so I mean they're loud in general, but that day was even more loud than I've ever heard. It wasn't even packed out like it typically is. It was kind of a colder Friday night. We were winning big, so a lot of people had already left, but the place got louder than I've heard. Honestly, it was really emotional. But you know my competitive nature. I had to walk back into the game and obviously try and get a hit, so I just took a moment in and just took a deep breath and got back into the box.
Speaker 1:Well, coming out of high school you were one of the top players in the state of North Carolina and you know from my research it was like you were automatic. As soon as you got offered to go to ECU, you were like that's where I'm going, yeah, but if you don't mind, could you take me back to the day of the boating accident and how that all went?
Speaker 3:down, yeah, yeah. So I committed to East Carolina my ninth grade year. Both of my parents went to ECU. So I grew up being a Pirate fan and I was going through the recruiting process pretty early. I think I went to some camps going into my ninth grade year summer so around August or so and I went to three camps. First weekend I went to Duke. I had a great time, loved everything there. It was a really cool camp. Then the second one, I went to East Carolina and I was kind of already biased because of my parents and growing up being a Pirate fan, but I was. You know the recruiting process, you have to have an open mind about everything. So I came to camp here and you know everything I ever thought it was going to be. That's what it was and I loved it, loved the coaching staff, loved the field. I already knew the fans were phenomenal, so I really loved everything about it. And the third weekend I went with Coach Carolina and after that camp that was the first time I talked to Coach Collin and Coach Blumbo. Then we kept in contact and Coach Blumbo and coach g both kind of followed me throughout travel ball the next couple months and they offered me in november and I committed around spike. That's where I wanted to go, um, and then end up having a pretty successful high school career.
Speaker 3:Um, then I had to come to east carolina in 2022 for summer school after I graduated high school, and it was just all the incoming freshmen and a couple of transfers and basically they bring us here in the summertime just to get activated to, you know, a new environment, how college is, finally getting away from your parents for the first time. So it was just me and my new incoming teammates and we're having a great time. We, you know, started in probably mid-june and was planning to leave late july and we were here for probably four weeks already and we got a new recruit and he was like hey, he told us his name. He's like hey, my family has a river house probably 30 minutes from here. We should all go down sometime. Then, you know, just have a good time. And Greenville is a great town but it's pretty boring in the summertime because it's such a college town. So we're like all right, sounds good. And the fact that he was just a late recruit was kind of weird in itself because a lot of people had committed pretty early on like myself. So he came in, told us that, well, all right, sounds good, we'll go sometime. And so it was last week in the summer that we were here, that everybody was still here. He kept on asking all right, sounds good, man, we'll go down, he's had such a great time and we'll go have fun.
Speaker 3:Friday, after our more than 300 of our workouts and all that good stuff, we went down to back North Carolina where the Riverhouse was, and honestly, everything was great. It lived up to the potential and the hype that the guy was talking about and we had a great time. Well, that Saturday morning I was supposed to take one of the guys. His name is Miles Curley. So I was supposed to take Miles back to a home in Greenville because he was supposed to help an heirloom move some furniture. Well, he got a call that morning saying hey, miles, thanks for volunteering, but we don't really need your help anymore. And so us. You know, just being 18-year-old at the time, I had to have fun again. So we went out.
Speaker 3:We met a guy named Diggs on the tube first that day and the first ride in Austin was really, really good. We were on for probably about 20, 25 minutes and we got back going. The driver was like, hey, I'm going to try to throw you guys off a little bit quicker this time. You guys are all for a good ball. So I'm going to throw you guys off a little bit quicker this time. You guys are all for a good ball, so I'm going to go a little bit crazier. All right, sounds good. Well, you know, I'm going to go a little bit crazier than we thought.
Speaker 3:Diggs ended up falling off the tube pretty quickly and I followed shortly after him. We both hit the water pretty hard so I had to get back to the boat. Got it done for right. Now We'll let somebody else go go and we're just gonna hang out. So we're swimming back to the boat and I was far ahead of from where we had landed, uh, with the boat, and as I got within 10 to 15 yards, I was using the rope from the tube to help get myself back in, and in the meantime the driver put the boat in reverse, or got knocked into reverse somehow, which eventually led to me being stuck under the boat. The propeller hit both of my legs and then I pushed off to my left hand, which was also hit.
Speaker 3:And then, from there. Miles Curley, the guy I was supposed to take back to be home with Greenville, jumped in immediately because he was from Florida and had a friend die in a boating accident. So he knew that getting me help was really urgent. So he jumped in Him and Dixon helped guide myself back on the boat From there. They were trying to turn it, get through it the best they could with these shirts that they had.
Speaker 3:In the meantime they were also waving down on the boats because our boat wasn't able to move due to the rope being caught in the propeller. They waved down on the boat. The first boat stopped and they addressed the situation to him, told him they needed help, and the boat basically said sorry, we can't really help, but we have kids on the boat. We don't really want to expose them to the scene, but here's a first aid kit and my friends were like his legs were torn from a Band-Aid at this point. So the guys threw, threw the picket and then continued to wave down to the boats and the second boat stopped. They addressed the situation to them and they agreed to help.
Speaker 3:So they transferred me over to that boat and on that boat one of the ladies was actually a nurse, so she knew even more what to do. And the only reason they were going back in that day was because it was two couples on the boat. One of them had got into an argument and they're like hey, can you just take me back, we're done for the day, we want to go home. So they're on the way back. They saw us and they stopped and then so they transported me over to that boat and then they took me to the marina where there was an ambulance waiting on me which took me to a local hospital where I had a helicopter waiting on me to airlift me to Eastview Health here in Greenville. I stayed there for a total of four weeks and then I had a total of 22 surgeries in 56 days. So it was a lot.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's an amazing story and you know, it's kind of crazy that you said that the first boat didn't want to help. You know, right, right, and luckily the next boat is someone with a nurse and you know, it's amazing how those things come together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no coincidence, man, everything was working out for God's plan.
Speaker 3:He just had his hand on everything. And it's just crazy. I mean, if that person tried to help, maybe I wouldn't even be here, because a lady tied her circuit all the way, because she knew how to, you know, tie it with a rope. Um, I maybe not even got to the marina where the ambulance was waiting, you never know. So it's really cool because you know, in the meantime it's easy for human nature to get mad at something that doesn't get your way. You know, not just accident, but that's just life.
Speaker 3:You know, like, for instance, the other day I got my first collegiate RBI and my dad wasn't at the game the away game midweek and he has to work so he wasn't there that day. My first collegiate RBI and I was, I honestly got my first hit. It was honestly a middle, middle basketball, competitive nature. I just I had a stack fly but I was like, dang, I should get that ball 400 feet. But then Friday that was on Wednesday, friday I got my first collegiate hit and my dad was there. So you know, in the meantime I was eating this thing. Dang, I should have hit that ball, hit that ball that he's working out for the better.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely. Well, when they made the decision at the hospital to amputate your leg below the knee, what led them to that decision? I mean, was it like we got to do this now?
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, so my accident happened on July 23rd of 2022, and I had my amputation on August 4th and, honestly, the whole hospital said it's kind of a roller coaster for me and my whole entire family because we got there and they stopped the bleeding in my first surgery. They didn't really know what to tell my parents. They're like, hey, we don't really know, we just know that your son's alive and the bleeding's not. A couple surgeries later, they didn't know where the static nerve was and they filmed that Everything's looking like it's going well. The doctors tell my parents hey, we think that he's going to be able to keep both of his legs, everything's going like we hoped it to and it looks like he will get back to playing baseball with some extensive rehab.
Speaker 3:Well, I think probably around surgery eight or nine, they realized that blood was going down to my foot but it wasn't returning back up. And that was just the initial shock of the body. I was already clamping up and all that good stuff. Well, it was going down to my foot but it wasn't returning back up, so basically, it was dying slowly. I just came into my room the morning of August 4th so I was like hey, barker, you have two options we can continue this medicine that we're having on now, which isn't really working, and infection can spread to your kidneys and lungs and basically you'll end up dying, is what they said.
Speaker 3:Or option B we can just amputate your right lower extremity. And I was like, well, this is bigger than just a leg man, this is not life. So I obviously chose option B and amputated him. But you know, obviously he chose option B and imitated him. But you know, I just realized that life's bigger than baseball. At that point it's more about life and obviously baseball is on your brain, but essentially, you know, the life's bigger than just baseball. It's just more than that.
Speaker 1:Well, this is where you had a conversation where you know you're like anybody in that situation is probably thinking baseball, of all things, it's over. But you kind of went into the why not me? Why can't I see if I can overcome this right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So my mom in the hospital. I was staying, it's like due to the hospital. At that time COVID was still kind of in effect. I was in the ICU and only one person at a time could be in my room, two people per day. So my mom and dad were switching on and off.
Speaker 3:As much as I love both of them, I kind of got tired of seeing them. I was wanting to see my sisters and all my friends and all that good stuff. My mom was saying we'd be in the hospital Maybe the day after my invitation, maybe two days around that time period. She could tell I was kind of down. She was like Parker, why are you down? I was like well, mom, I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't think I'll be able to play baseball again. And she's like well, why do you say that? And I was like there's never been a player that ever played a prosthetic leg in college. And she was like well, there always has to be a first, why not you? And that's where things kind of just flipped in my brain to where I was like you know what?
Speaker 3:that's going to be a first for everything, and now I have the privilege to, you know, set the standard for other kids out there with prostate legs and showing them that you know you can do it. There's still hope out there. Even though adversity hits your life, you don't look the same as everybody else. It doesn't matter, because you will, especially if you work hard and there's some God in you that will do what's possible.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you know, as a parent, my son was born with severe club feet and the doctors told us early on they said baseball or any sports probably not going to happen, right, and we just attacked it like anything's possible. And you know attitude's everything. And even as a young kid he really changed his approach to everything and ended up getting a chance to play high school and college baseball. That's awesome. But you know, in your situation everybody thinks baseball is over. But you know you guys had a different mindset and you know it leads to you playing for Coach Godwin at East Carolina there. And the reality with college baseball these guys are coaching for their life. It's their job, it's not like a high school coach. And talk about Coach Godwin and, if you could, a little bit about the coaching staff and the team, how they responded to your situation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and I'm so blessed to be here at East Carolina because of the coaching staff and honestly, that's why everybody commits here. Really it's because Coach Godwin, coach coach blumbo, aka our pitching coach, everybody's going to push you to. You know your limit to get the best out of you, you know, but with also that they, they trust in you too and they believe in you. Um, and you know, after my accident the first person at the hospital was coach gollum. I mean, he was all of our recruit, was on a visit, he was with them. My dad called him because my parents were back home in Warrenburg, where I'm from, and that's like two and a half hours away from Greenville. So they got in a call that basically said hey, you need to get to Greenville fast, parker's been in a boating accident and he's dying. That's basically what they got. And so my dad wanted somebody to be at the hospital when I got there, even though I wouldn't see him, he just wanted, you know, that validation. So he called Coach Collin Coach Collin, let it ring out the first time because he's a recruit or a visit with a recruit, and my dad keeps calling him and finally, he's like a recruit or a visit with a recruit and my dad keeps calling him and finally he's like coach gollins. I held up one second, uh, and answered phone to my dad. My dad said, hey, coach gollin, um, I'm sorry to bother you, but parker's been in a boating accident. And, uh, we really could you go to the hospital? And coach gollin immediately said, yes, I'll be there. So he told the recruit hey, I I'm so sorry, but one of our players has been in a boating accident. I need to go to the hospital. So he went to the hospital, was the very first person there at the hospital and it just really showed us how caring he is, how much of a great person he is. He's honestly changed so much over the past three, four years.
Speaker 3:The year before I got here, a guy named Zach Agnos' dad passed away and Nico was a great human being. He was a phenomenal guy, a huge part of the ECU community, and he passed away unexpectedly due to COVID. That year really changed Coach Carver. Then next year an accident happened. He just realized how fast life can change. He got right with his place and became such a better person.
Speaker 3:Because of my accident, because of Nico's passing. It's been really cool to see him walk his faith. But you know, just for him allowing me to have the opportunity, a lot of people in college baseball, especially in today's world, would just, you know, give up on a guy, go to a transfer portal and try to get some other shortstop. But Coach Collin, coach Barbaugh, they were stuck in that with me because I told them in the hospital, I was like, hey, my goal is to come back. I was like I'm going to play baseball again. He's like I believe in you, like you're going to do it. And so the first year I kind of took a gap year, just to you know rehab, get my prosthetics and all that.
Speaker 3:And then last year was my first year playing collegiate baseball and obviously it was my first year playing collegiate baseball. Obviously, you gave me an opportunity to do this today, so I'm so extremely thankful for all the coaching staff, all my teammates, my teammates, for the huge role in, you know the recovery process, because a lot of rehab is mental. I tell people all the time. You know a lot of it is physical, like there's a lot of physical challenges, but that's only about 20% of it. The rest of it's know the mental, the mental capacity of getting up every day trying to get better and really just changing your perspective, and they really allow me to find a purpose. And you know, it was really easy to wake up those days where you don't really want to go to pt and then you see them out there grinding, so it's easy to go to p, and then you see them out there grinding, so it's easy to go to PT whenever you see that.
Speaker 1:Well, let me ask you this. I mean, I'm sure there's people listening to the podcast that are saying, okay, how does he swing, how does he hit? Because you're pushing off your back leg and you know how do you, you feel you're an infielder and could you leg. And you know how do you feel You're an infielder and could you kind of just you know, I guess briefly, kind of go through the progression a little bit?
Speaker 3:100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the progression man was incredible. I got out of the hospital and obviously, baseball was my mind and let's get back into the cages, but I'm in a wheelchair at this point and I got out on his 20th. Obviously, baseball is my mind and let's get back into the cages, but I'm in a wheelchair at this point and I got out August 20th of 2022. I didn't receive my first prosthetic until December of that year. Well, that prosthetic didn't fit very well at all.
Speaker 3:The Challenge Athletes Foundation, which is a foundation that helps the disadvantaged and your people get back into the game of life, they provided me with my first grant. Bob Babbitt provided me with my first grant in March of 2023. That was the first time I had a prostate that actually fit well and I was actually fully weight bearing on it. So there was a probably eight month period seven, eight month period there that I didn't really have a prosthetic at all and I was kind of on crutches. But in the meantime, you know, I'm trying to get back into baseball and I can't take it seven, eight, but yeah, that's just, and I held baseball roles. It's the consistency of the game.
Speaker 3:Well, uh, so I got out of the hospital I was in a wheelchair and I would just watch pitches off the eye, pitch on a machine that we have Just come in just a visualization part of it. But then after I got out of the wheelchair I got into a walker and then I started doing one-handed drills off of a shower stool. Some person sent me a shower stool after an accident. They were like, hey, you might need this. Well, I turned that shower stool into a hitting tool rather than an actual shower so I would sit on it and just do a bunch of one-handed drills off of a tee. And then eventually I got my first contact in December and I was still kind of on a crutch. So I'd take one crutch, prop it up under my left shoulder and still do one-handed drills with my first prosthetic. And then whenever I got my prosthetic from Child's Athletics Foundation that was the first running prosthetic I ever had. So it's more of kind of a blade, kind of like what you would see in the Paralympics with disc players and stuff. But this one has a split foot so it kind of feels like I have a big toe, so that lateral movement is better.
Speaker 3:So the adjustment that I really had to make in my swing to provide power, because I don't have that right ankle anymore because of the term push the bug that we've all heard of, because I don't have that right ankle anymore, because the terms push and bug that we've all heard of, I didn't have any. How could I attribute force and power into the ball, kind of like I did beforehand when me and my hitting coach at tomorrow realized that the scissor motion in the swing is the best way to do that. It's the Jose Altuve days in New Orleans, where the extreme kind of feedback with the lower leg and it's really just a counter force just to distribute power to the ball and really it's a natural movement. We just kind of get told out of it at a young age with this portion of bug mindset. So we realized that the scissor motion was going to be big. So I probably started doing that probably around April of 2023, and that's whenever I saw most progression really ever in my career, because it allowed me to have that power again. It allowed me to distribute four seconds in baseball.
Speaker 3:Obviously, as I got stronger and used the leg more and more, I distributed more force. Now, the next, I think on my first year, it was like 97, 96, 97. So I mean I was back up and then what I was feeling was the lateral movement was probably the hardest thing with prosthetics, especially a blade like I have, but that split foot really allows me to golf, but feeling still is like probably the hardest thing to do with the prosthetics, just because of the movement. But you know, it's just really repetition is like the main thing and you know, just getting those, getting those reps learn how to use the leg, how it can, you know, be in my advantage and my disadvantage was the biggest thing well, I asked everybody on the podcast this one question and I'm gonna throw it at you and I kind of get the impression I'm gonna know the answer.
Speaker 1:Hey, hate losing or love winning uh, hate losing.
Speaker 3:I think I just, I despise it, it's, it's, I just I love winning, it's, it's really everything, uh, but I think losing what drives you, that's, that's where you, you learn the most, is through the losses.
Speaker 1:Um, so I would say losing was a most hilarious experience or funny story that you have from all of your playing days, from high school all the way up through oh man, what do you guys say?
Speaker 3:that's a good question? There's just so many times I've had to feel really just with my dad and I wouldn't really say that's a good question. It's. There's just so many times I've had to feel really just with my dad and I wouldn't really say it's just a game, but it's more like the practices with my dad him not being able to get a ball to me, I shortstop through grass and having to get a fungo man, like it's just, it's insane. Just all the stories that we have. But I would say most of my funny stories are you know, I practice with my dad, uh, just after hours, educators and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1:if you could pick two professional athletes to spend the day with and learn from and their mentality and how they approach the game of baseball. Who would you pick?
Speaker 3:Past or present, either, or my first one would be Mike Trout. I just think that he attacks. I love his mindset about really everything. But first of all he was committed to ECU before he got drafted out of high school, so he's a part of himself, even though he didn't go here technically. But I just love Mike Trout. I'm not anxious to have a Braves fan but second, I wouldn't say I was really for his mindset Just because it's just my favorite player ever. Is Rob McCann catching with the Braves? And it's not a common answer at all, but I wear number 16 because of him. I just love him as a kid. So I think it would really be like my childhood dream To spend the day with Rob McCann. So I would say Mike Trout and Bratwick camp.
Speaker 1:For those who are listening out there and they want to follow you on social media. What are you on? Are you on Instagram X?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, parker Bird 11 is my X Twitter, whatever, and my Instagram is Parker Bird P-A-R-K-E-R-D, but it has two D's at the end, so it's Parker Bird, and then I think TikTok is the same, okay last question for you what has adversity taught you and what is your message to anyone out there who's out there listening, facing an uphill battle?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, adversity. You know that's where you grow the most is through adversity, and I would just tell people to embrace it, because you know life throws a lot of stuff at you and it can be very monotonous. You know going through the rehab process and you know a lot of people's challenges in life aren't really physical, like mine, it's not really a boating accident, it's more mental. It's going through a divorce. You know, losing a loved one, battling cancer, whatever it is, I would just say keep going. Battling cancer, whatever it is, I would just say keep going.
Speaker 3:God has a plan for you that's bigger than our plan, because my plan would be to be a starting shortstop here at East Carolina. But obviously he had a bigger plan for me and there was a gray area there where I didn't see it like that. I didn't really like the position I was in. I was very why me? Until my mom did say the why not you? That's whenever I finally flipped the switch. I would say embrace it, love your neighbor and trust in God's plan because he's going to lead you into a lot better. I wouldn't be talking to you today unless I got into an accident. I'm so grateful for all the opportunities that have came my way, because now I get to go and inspire others that are going through things and just telling them that, hey, god's purpose is much greater than yours.
Speaker 1:Well, it's Parker Byrne, East Carolina University baseball. Parker, I can't say enough good things, man, You're a special dude and I can't thank you and your family enough for you guys taking the time to be on Baseball Coaches.
Speaker 3:Unplugged. Yes, sir, well, I appreciate it, man. God bless everybody listening.
Speaker 1:Be sure to tune in every Wednesday for a new episode here on Baseball Coaches Unplugged. Today's episode was powered by the NETIC Professionals Improving Programs, one facility at a time. Contact Will Miner and his team at 844-620-2707. And, as always, I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter. Thanks for joining me on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
