BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
The Ultimate Baseball Coaching Podcast. Step inside the dugout with Baseball Coaches Unplugged, the must-listen podcast for players, coaches, and parents who want to unlock the secrets of baseball greatness. Hosted by Ken Carpenter, a 27-year coaching veteran, this show delivers exclusive insights from top athletes and coaches, revealing what separates champions from the rest.
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BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED
3 Leadership Lessons That Ignited A State Championship
Championship teams aren't born—they're built through transformative moments. When Olentangy High School was run-ruled by their rivals midway through the 2025 season, head coach Ryan Lucas watched something remarkable happen. His players, on their own accord, gathered in the locker room for an honest conversation about identity and commitment. That player-led meeting sparked a stunning turnaround—16 wins in their next 17 games culminating in an Ohio Division I State Championship.
What separates merely talented teams from champions? Lucas reveals it's the unsexy fundamentals most programs overlook. While teams obsess over hitting, Olentangy dedicated precious practice time to base running and mastering catching and throwing. The results spoke volumes: they committed just one error through the entire tournament while scoring 34 runs and allowing only 5. Beyond strategic decisions, Lucas shares his evolution from a hard-nosed authoritarian to a relationship-focused leader who recognizes each player's unique personality. "I don't think the kids have changed," he reflects, "society has changed, and you can't be stubborn."
The championship journey contains powerful lessons for coaches at any level. Lucas details his practical approach to the unavoidable challenge of playing time conversations, the specific drills that built their balanced attack, and the emotional Father's Day moment when he embraced his 12-year-old son after the final out. Whether you're building a high school program or coaching at any level, this masterclass in culture-building demonstrates how adversity, properly channeled, becomes the foundation for ultimate success. The blueprint for champions isn't just found in talent—it's discovered in how a team responds when everything isn't going their way.
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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What does it take to turn a good high school baseball team into a state champion? Today, I'm joined by Ryan Lucas, head coach at Olentangy High School in Ohio, fresh off of a state championship run that didn't just rely on talent. It was built on culture, belief and total team buy-in. Coach Lucas shares how he turned a group of teenagers into a connected, committed and championship caliber team, and the moments behind the scenes that made the difference. In this episode, you'll learn three things the culture building strategies that turned Olentangy from contenders into champions. How to get your players to believe in something bigger than themselves and each other. And what coach Lucas changed about his relationship style that transformed how his team responded in the biggest moments. If you're a coach looking to build a program and win when it matters most, this one is a masterclass. Brian Lucas next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 2: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 into your game philosophy Plus, get the latest insights on recruiting, coaching, leadership and crafting a team culture that champions productivity and success. Join Coach every week as he breaks down the game and shares incredible behind-the-scenes stories. Your competitive edge starts here, so check out the show weekly and hear from the best coaches in the game. On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter. Hey, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and tell a friend about the show. Check us out every Wednesday, where we sit down with some of the best baseball coaches from across the nation. And now to my sit down with Ohio Big School State Champion, baseballball Coach Olin Tangy's Ryan Lucas. It's 2025. Ohio Big School State Champion, ryan Lucas. Head coach at Olin Tangy High School Coach. Thanks for taking the time to be on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thanks, ken. I appreciate it, looking forward to it. I've always wanted to be on your podcast, so I know we've talked over the years about doing it, so now we finally did it.
Speaker 1:Yes, we finally got a chance to pull it off. That's what's great about summertime.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, you know I got to start off with the big moment when the fire was made and you're state champ, what was the first thing that kind of goes through your mind? Uh, well, there's a range of emotions. Um, you know, it happens so fast, coach, that you know when you go through it, it's, it happens, and again, it's so fast that all you want to do is just celebrate with, with, with, with your guys and with your, with your players. Uh, we were fortunate. You know, the the dugouts down in Akron sunken down, um, so I've always wanted to jump in the dog pile. I always thought that's what I would do, uh, but I couldn't make it out there. Our whole staff it was really a special moment. Our whole staff was together in the dugout and we're celebrating, and obviously the kids are on the field and they got a big dog pile going on. But what was really cool was I'm trying to get out to the field and I get to the bottom of the steps and I look up and my son, who's 12, was standing at the top of the steps and he has his arms out and he was like Dad, we did it and it was, I mean, it was Father's Day. So that was really cool moment for us. So at that moment I'm just hugging him and crying because I'm with him and getting to experience that, which was interesting because my son's team he plays on 12 U6.
Speaker 3:They were in Canton that weekend. So how are they in the same area that summer at the same time as we're playing in the state championship? And you know how we do it as coaches you schedule a year in advance and I'm looking at the state. I always look at the state tournament and I'm always mapping stuff out. I'm always doing that stuff for the previous year and and I just happened to look at my son's schedule a year in advance and I'm like, ooh, they're in Canton during that weekend and I just said to myself how cool would that be. And then you move on, um, but it happened and, uh, you know it was really neat. They got they. They actually won their tournament. It was a huge tournament for them and they won the Canton tournament. So they had a huge trophy and the whole team was in the stands and they had the trophy with them. So, um, but to, to have my son at the top of the steps and be able to you know, just us embrace, um, on father's day went into state championship was really cool.
Speaker 3:Um, and then you know, to answer your question, you don't really. You don't really start thinking about it until everybody's done celebrating. And then you're on the field and you're sitting there and you're on the line and they're calling out the state runner up and they're announcing everybody and our guys go through it. But you look up and you look in the stands and you're overwhelmed because there's a million people there and you're like, wow, we really just did this. But then you start thinking as you reflect, you start thinking about the people that make it happen. You know the players, all the coaches we've had in our program. So that's going through my mind.
Speaker 3:One of the things that I was most proud of during that whole state tournament run was how connected our entire program was. It was amazing. I've never experienced that in my 13 years here was how connected everybody was in terms of the players doing what they had to do. All the assistant coaches, who my staff was elite during this whole tournament run. They dug into the stats and into the game plans and spray charts and making sure that our kids had all the information they needed to have to be successful and I it allowed me, as a head coach to deal with. You know, when you go to the state tournament, it's a certain, it's a different set of responsibilities in terms of now you got media, you got people calling you, channel 10 came out and did a big story on us, on coach Riley. That passed away Our coach previous, which I know. You know Jeff Riley, um, from way back, um, so like you have to handle all that stuff as the head coach.
Speaker 3:But then also you're practicing and you're trying to get your guys to continue to get better and making sure they're not rusty, cause at the state tournament when you win the region, you get a week off. Well, I think we had eight days off. So, and most of the teams everybody and people don't realize that, but most of the teams are, you know everyone's done and you're trying to find a game. Maybe if you have one in your back pocket from a rain out earlier in the year, well, we didn't have that. You know we have turf and we have. We played all our games. Well, now it's become okay. We got to practice, we got to manage all that stuff.
Speaker 3:So during that whole stretch, like our boosters, everybody was just hey, coach, what do you need? What do you? How can we help you with this? How do you need? You know, whatever it may be, our athletic director, our administration, just everybody was connected. Every I didn't have to deal with one issue and everything was seamless. And, uh, like coach, coach Tracy, um, his son, who's the manager of the Clippers, his son's on our team. Well, he reached out and was like, hey, if you guys want to practice at Huntington field, we're out of town. You guys can practice at Huntington field before you go to Akron. Well, that's a great opportunity for our guys Number one to be just have that experience of going to Huntington park and practice on Huntington park. But it's very similar to what Akron Rubberneck Stadium looks like. So we had that opportunity to go do that and practice there before we left to go to Canton.
Speaker 3:And it was just, everything was taken care of. The communication was elite Getting on a charter bus, our parents had Chipotle and had boxes and everybody name on it. Like everybody had the right order, like there was no issues with, like somebody got the wrong order or didn't get the correct food or didn't get which. In life that's what happens. And I was just like I'm standing there on the field when we want it and I just was kind of soaking it all in and I'm looking out there and I'm like just thinking about all the people that it goes into doing something like this. But I was just so proud being the head coach and the leader of the program. How connected just from a coach's staff, players, boosters, other parents, just everybody was involved and it just made the experience just something that everyone's going to remember for the rest of their life and, um, it was just special, it was really special yes, well, that was a great run by you guys and you know, you know I think about that when you you get to the end.
Speaker 1:You know the whole season prepares you for that, in the league alone that you're in, not including your non-conference, that prepares you for that, that state tournament run. Now I got to ask is there a specific game, practice or team meeting that you know may have become a turning point for your group, something that kind of shifted your momentum and said, man, we're, we're, we really got a good thing going?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, first of all, we got really good players. So that helps. But every year is a journey. Every year has different challenges, different obstacles. As you get older as a coach and get more experience, you get better at handling those situations. So this year was you get better at handling those situations.
Speaker 3:So this year was, you know, we started off we had great off season. You know, the last two years we've been under 500, but that was more. We always, you know, we had good players. I love our guys, I love all our alumni. We just weren't good enough in certain areas and we went younger, knowing that we had an opportunity to do something, maybe special this year. So we went younger and we challenged ourselves the last couple of years.
Speaker 3:But we had a really good off season. We always take an annual spring trips. We went to Myrtle beach and we we ended up playing Anthony Wayne the first day there to division two state champion and we ended up beating them 6-1. So out of the gate it was a great challenge for us to see who we are and kind of the team we're going to have in Merle Beach. And then we played Licking Valley down there in a scrimmage. They're the Division III state champion. So we got tested early and and then, like you said, you know, our league is so good, um, you know, top to bottom it's really really good and um, so we went through there and I, we were eight and six and I actually wrote this down in case you, in case you asked me, april 28th. So April 28th we're, we're, uh yeah, so we're around eight and six and we're playing Olin TNG Berlin, who we're around eight and six, and we're playing Olentangy Berlin, who's wearing the state final four.
Speaker 3:Last year Mike does a great job with his program. They have really good players. We have a tremendous amount of respect for them. So we go to their place and it's a league game and we're up one nothing in the fourth inning and they go in the bottom of the fourth and they put 10 up on us and they put 10 up on us and they put 10 up on us and they end up run rolling us 11-1. And we had some stuff and it was just baseball. I mean, first of all, elliot was pitching. He's an elite level pitcher.
Speaker 3:We didn't do some things that we normally do and it was the first time that I felt like our team didn't handle adversity and didn't go through that stretch of that portion of that game very well. Well, we didn't overreact as coaches. We took the. Sometimes when all of a sudden it's 10-1 or whatever you're like, let's just get run-rooted, get out of here so we can get back to our place and kind of regroup. That's where we were. We had some stuff go on that game that we have competitive players and we have competitive coaches, so some stuff. I'm not going to speak out of house, but some stuff happened, some things were said and those things.
Speaker 3:So when you go play in an old and tangy school, you don't have to have a bus, so the kids drive to the game. Well, after the game, usually typically the kids just go home. We don't go back to the away game, we go home. We don't need to go back to the school. Well, we just got beat 11-1. And I remember walking out of there. I'm like this could go good or bad, it can go left or right. We're eight and six, we have a talented team, but let's see kind of who we are While we go back to the locker room. Everybody's there, all the players are there.
Speaker 3:So everybody went back to the locker room. I didn't have to say anything to them. They went back to the locker room and we were probably in there for about an hour or two collectively as a group talking about, and we didn't overreact and yell and scream and do any of that stuff. We just sat down and said, hey, who do we want to be, like, how do we want to play the game? And kind of reflected back on maybe some of the goals that we talked about at the beginning of the year, like, hey, we're halfway through the stretch here and we still got a lot of baseball left to play and all our stuff's still out in front of us and we haven't lost it. Yeah, we got beat, we got run ruled, we got embarrassed because it's a league game but it's also a rival, so it humbles you a little bit. And it became like, all right, who do we want to be? And it became like all right, who do we want to be? And our kids in the locker room started talking. And that's when I was like, okay, we got a chance, need to do this better, I need you to do this better, whatever it may be. But it was all player led stuff and I remember walking out of there, we said everything we wanted to say.
Speaker 3:And the good thing about baseball is especially that time of year is, with rain, outs and everything, you can play the next day and you can play the day after that and you can play the day after that and you can. So if you get beat, you could still have a great week. And, um, it was a Monday. Well, we had a game. We had to go to Jerome the next day, and that was a Tuesday, and we played Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday. I mean, you know how it is as a baseball coach, that's what it was.
Speaker 3:And all of a sudden, I remember we went to Jerome that Tuesday and I got off the bus and I'm like, okay, it's either going to go this way or it's going to go bad, and we're going to figure out who we are. And we came out and we started swinging it and, just from a team atmosphere, we were more connected and I think of the word trust. I think we got trust out of that whole experience and we kind of reflected back and said, okay, we didn't handle that game at Berlin the right way. This is what we need to do if that ever happens again. But we're a good team, let's start trusting one another. And if we can start trusting one another, then we can start doing some things, because we're talented enough to do it.
Speaker 3:And that was the turning point and we were eight and six at that moment we won 16 out of our next 17 games to finish the year and the only game we lost was we had to play Berlin again and that game was tied 0-0 in the fourth and it got suspended. Well, we didn't play the game until like the last, like we finished it up, the last game before tournament play, and it was 0-0 in the fourth. From a mindset of me, you're only playing a couple innings. We had, like, whoever scores two runs is probably going to win the game. So we came out and we sw swung it and we scored a run and then I got our shortstop, carter Hyer, thrown out of the plate. I should have sent him, and I sent him because I was thinking all right, if we can get two runs, we're going to win the game. Well, he gets thrown out. Changed the momentum. Berlin came out, did a great job. They started hitting the ball. They beat us two to one, but that was the only game that we lost.
Speaker 3:After that April 28th game, during that whole stretch going all the way to the state championship game. So, without a doubt, that moment at Berlin when we got run ruled and just the way our kids handled that whole situation because I've had teams in the past that don't handle failure that well, it's high school athletics that's a hard thing to do and that was the special thing about this group is they were player led, they were tough, they held each other accountable and it was just. That was a fun experience for me personally as a coach that you see kids do that, because that's what we're always talking about. That's a thing like how can you handle adversity, how can you do this and uh, and they did that and we kind of just took off and we didn't look back and it was fun well, you know it's.
Speaker 1:it sounds like you know you were probably better off to lose that game than you were, if you were to want it, because it made your team really come together and, like you said, they were all back at the locker room and probably outside of winning the state championship. That'll probably be one of the things that, 10 years from now that's probably what they're going to remember is how they get together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's no doubt. And after that game, when we went to Jerome the next day, you know as coaches you're like, okay, do you need to change some things? So you know, and there was a kid who's a sophomore in our program, who was a varsity guy, ty Wahlberg. He wasn't playing that much and our goal even at the beginning of the season was to try to get him as much playing time as we could. He's a really good player. He's young Now it's a veteran team, so how can we try to figure out how to get him time?
Speaker 3:So after that game that we lost, it was a good opportunity for us as coaches. We kind of tinkered with some things. We put him at third and moved Cooper Tracy to. Cooper was at third and we moved him to second. And Dominic Peroni, who was another senior, we moved him from second base to right field. And literally it was amazing.
Speaker 3:Not only did our kids handle like that situation at Berlin the right way, but just it's amazing that the little change that you can make in a lineup or defensively, what it does for the confidence of your team, all of a sudden Ty goes in at third and made a couple of plays and all the kids now are like, okay, he's really good over there, we trust him. And then Cooper can play anywhere, he's that good, he's at second and he's playing well. And then Perrone's saying dang, he's really good and he went to right field, he starts making some dive catches and then it becomes okay, well, now I feel like our defense is set you know what I mean Right where we want it, and then all of a sudden we start hitting it, we start pitching it. We became very balanced as a team and as a coach. That's every single team you coach.
Speaker 3:That's what you're striving for is how can you get a balanced team? Can you pitch it really well? Can you play great team defense and make all the plays and maybe some exceptional plays in there Offensively? Can you swing it? Can you have great quality at bats? Can you move runners? Can you get in scoring position? You do all those types of things and then on the base, pass. Can you be disruptive? Can you be aggressive? Can you do those things to help yourself win games? And I felt like when we made those changes and our kids bought in and as player led, I felt like once we hit that stride, we just didn't look back and it was like I said earlier it was a lot of fun. Well, looking back over the course of your career?
Speaker 1:what's the biggest change that you've made in how you approach your job as a baseball coach today?
Speaker 3:Well, I think that's a good question. I think and it's part of growth, it's part of life and just growing up, I think. You know people always say the kids have changed so much. This you know in 2025. I don't think, necessarily, the kids have changed, society has changed and I think you got to be able to adapt with the times and you can't be stubborn. So I remember when I first got here in 2013 and you know we went through the stretch 2013 to like 18.
Speaker 3:It's always funny those alums come back and they're like coach, you're so soft and you're not tough on these guys anymore and we're still tough. I think hard is good, like the hard thing and the right thing are usually the same thing. We want hard, we embrace hard, we want to try to challenge our guys and do different things like that. But I think nowadays you don't need to be screaming and yelling and doing all those types of things. You've got to adapt and it becomes more of Can you have great relationship with your guys and can you connect with them and know everybody's personality. I think I think me as an educator. Um, I'm an intervention specialist, so, as I've grown in my job and I and I'm in meetings about mental health and suicide and things like that. I'm in so many of those meetings that it's changed my perspective on how I treat people and how I handle people and for our players, I just want to connect with them and kind of feel everybody has a different personality. Some guys like to be challenged. You can be harder on some guys. Some guys you got to put your arm around them and just say, hey, you're good, and just get them to be confident and then just teach them along the way. So I think I've changed in that regard is I don't treat everybody the same. I just it's more individualized based. But again, we still have standards. We still expect the same thing in our program. I think it's a balancing act of you know, can you, can you relate to the players? Can you, can you make sure not only you trust them, but can they trust you? I think that's a huge thing because that's when development starts and their confidence growth is when you start doing that type of thing. So I think that's more than anything.
Speaker 3:How I've changed is my ability to kind of just connect more with our guys individually and see what kind of motivates them. So just connect more with our guys individually and see what kind of motivates them, and also our coaching staff, like being able to manage. You're the head guy, you're the CEO of the program. How do you manage your coaching staff? Again, everybody has different personalities, everybody has different strengths. How can you get the?
Speaker 3:I just wrote down on a piece of paper the other day when I was thinking about future stuff and I was thinking about my job, and the first thing I wrote down was my job is to make sure I get the right people on the bus. Well, that's my job. To make sure I get the right people on the bus. That goes from boosters to families to players. Making sure we have the right coaches on players. Making sure we have the right coaches on staff. Making sure we have the right players, guys that are high quality guys, high character guys that believe in the same things we believe in and that are talented. So that's where I've changed probably the most is just my ability to do those types of things with the kids.
Speaker 1:To help a coach out there who might be listening. What do your practices look like during the grind of the season? How do you balance that teaching competing? And I believe I had the WAPA Kinetic coach on a couple episodes back and he has a theory that at the end of the season they don't practice that much. He wants them fresh. So how do you deal with?
Speaker 3:that. I think it's a balancing act. I think it goes back to you got to know your team. Nowadays, I feel like everything's. Obviously you get a month in August where it's a dead period, but it's 11 months out of the year. It's fall workouts and development, it's winter practices, it's or not practices, but six man stuff, um, and then you go into your season and you have team practices, obviously, um, but you just got to manage like. You just got to have a good feel of your team and and where they're at in the season, um, are they young? Well, you can do a little bit more competitive things. Are they older and more veteran? Where they don't necessarily need that stuff. They need more rest.
Speaker 3:Um, that's the feel that you have as you go through the season, um, and in baseball, like I said, you play every single day. Sometimes you know you can go through two week stretches where you play every single day. Well, a day off is is a good thing, and I actually I've been fortunate because while they extended the season, that allows us, you know, another week or whatever to do stuff. So, instead of having we don't do a lot of double headers on Saturdays anymore, like we did back in the day, um, and it's allowed me personally, my son's 12, he has all his summer tournaments in April and May. So we give our guys the weekend off, or if the in most of our guys, they come up and they hit on their own and they do things like that. But that's their time to, kind of it's. It's a great time for them to kind of individually work on whatever they got to work on and you get some rest. It's a great time for us to kind of get away from each other. You know, as a player and coach, just, we don't have to talk all the time, um, but then it allows me to go and watch my kid. So, um, we've tried to balance, like all those types of things.
Speaker 3:We have a committee, we have a, you know, captain committee. So I, I lean on those guys heavily like hey guys, where are we at? Do we need a day? Do we need to do? We need to practice this more? Do we need to do that more? You know, whatever it may be, and and and it goes back to relationships and trust Can those guys, can they not be, yes, guys? Can they actually come and talk to you and tell you things that you need to hear as a coach.
Speaker 3:I think that's very important and in our program that's what we strive to do is to make sure that we don't have just a bunch of yes guys. We have a bunch of captains that come in there and they say, coach, this is what we got to do and it's player led and those guys listen to each other and they trust me and I trust them. And sometimes it's hard because you're like do I want to have a weekend off? And then you got a league game on Monday. It becomes hard, but you got to just trust them and again they're all hitting on their own and doing what they need to do. Now we had a veteran group, so you can do things like that. If it's a younger team, like we've done in the past, we may be practicing a little bit more. And then I think the other thing is we continue to lift during the season, so that allows us to stay physically and mentally where we need to be throughout the year, which has helped us.
Speaker 1:One of the hardest parts of being a coach is poking that starting lineup. And you know it's varsity baseball and not everybody gets to play. What is your approach to handling those tough conversations when it comes to players and even parents, and especially? You know, I spoke to a coach last year and they made it to the state championship and he talked about a parent just rippening after they lost the state championship and it was a player who played in the game who started. You know. So it it's never easy, but posting that lineup is a challenge because I always, deep inside, would be like man. I'd love to get every guy in the game, but that doesn't happen yeah it, you know it.
Speaker 3:First of all, I love all my guys, just like all the coaches, and run their program. You love all your guys and you want all your guys to play. I think what we try to do and it's not an exact science, we don't do it right all the time. I think what we try to do is be as proactive as we can possibly be. We have meetings throughout the fall and winter and spring and I meet personally, individually with every kid in our program and we talk about like, okay, what are your goals, what's your developmental plans, what you know, all these things, what team do you want to be on, and those things. So we do that in the fall and winter and then, as you get closer to the spring, we start looking hard at okay, you're going to be on this team, but I don't necessarily know how much you're going to play, can necessarily know how much you're going to play, can you handle that? So we're proactive and have meetings ahead of time and say, hey, this is what your role could be. And we always tell the kids you can accept it on one level, like on game day you see the lineup and you're not in it. You have to accept it on one level in terms of I'm a great teammate. I'm going to do everything I can today to be a great teammate and help our team win. Whether it's go shag balls, whether it's go warm up the right fielder, go get foul balls, do the stats, do charts, do whatever you got to do, I got to be a great teammate. But then you don't accept it on the other level that we got practice tomorrow and you're trying to beat the guy that's playing in front of you out. So you got to accept it on one level, on game day, but then you can't accept it on the next day when it's practice time. So we try to do that and I just think authentic communication and being you know, continue to talk to them and say, hey, this is where we're at, this is what we're thinking about. You know, with this team this year, as soon as we started going through that stretch of playing and winning, I mean the lineup was the same lineup every single game. And as a coach, you look down there and you're like, okay, who's going to pout, who's going to have bad attitudes? And, to our guys' credit, everybody in the dugout was positive. They were all about the team and that's all. We talk about it all the time. Coach Trestle has the podcast all about the Team and we stole that from him because we had meetings I can't tell you how many meetings we had as a group that it would be titled All About the Team and that's what you got to think about.
Speaker 3:Now our parents know that I don't talk to them about playing time or talk to them about other kids, so there's not a whole lot of other conversations that's going to happen between me and a parent, because that's all they usually want to talk about is playing time and somebody else's kid. So our parents already know that I don't talk to them about it. So I don't get approached with that stuff too often. And then if I do get approached with it on that stuff, then I will politely say hey, we don't talk about that, will politely say hey, we don't talk about that. But we try to handle it that way and try to handle in-house with our kids and making sure they know exactly where they always stand, which I think is important, because if I was playing, I would want to know exactly where I stood in the coach's eye all the time. Okay, am I a starter If I'm a starter, what does he want from me as a starter?
Speaker 3:Do I bought it really well, whatever it may be? If I'm non-starter, what does he want from me as a starter? Do I bought it really well, whatever it may be? If I'm non-starter, what does he want in terms of how I can develop, in terms of getting more playing time, or how can I be the best teammate I can possibly be? So we try to do our best to be as proactive as we can possibly be.
Speaker 3:It happens so fast could possibly be. It happens so fast. The season, especially in the spring. It goes by so fast that I think that's something that's always a goal of mine every single year when I reflect on how do I handle anything better. It's always that I needed to communicate better with guys that don't play as much and make sure they're on the same page as us. That way there's no issues. And again, we had a veteran group so and we had, you know, 12 guys that had just graduated. So guys know, okay, now it's next man up and I get opportunities and we can kind of go from there. But that's typically how we do it in our program. Well, you know you were a.
Speaker 1:You were a great player and you've been coaching for quite a while now.
Speaker 3:What is something that high school coaches don't spend enough time working on? And you look, and our time here is my 13th year, or I just finished my 13th year here at Olentangy. I don't think, team like coach other teams, and especially us back in the day, I don't think we spend enough time on base running and I think everybody hits all the time. I think you hit ground balls, you hit fly balls, you do drills that you see at clinics, you do all those types of things right. Well, I found that, especially, we got turf and it's a huge advantage the teams that have turf, especially in the spring is that you can practice base running all the time and we got better at it just because we practiced it and you are what you practice. You know what I mean. Your team's going to be like we're going to be good at the things that we really focus on. Well, we try to be as balanced as we can possibly be, but base running something that, as a staff, we talked about when we were getting turf we were like we got to get better at base running because even when it rains, you can still get on there and do some stuff and um. So I think our kids developed really good base running fundamentals and we do different things, like in drills, where we still have base runners, where they can get, because I feel like a lot of kids don't have feel anymore and instinct with base running, especially when the ball's hitting the outfield is where's the ball? Like. Everyone has their head down, everyone's listening to the coach. You know, whatever Our big thing is, get your head up and see the ball, and we don't. I don't want to be constantly doing this or put my hands up. I want you to have an instinct and get a feel for the game and get that extra bag. And if you can get that extra bag, so I think we've developed big time in that area and that's something that when I was younger, we didn't do enough of and that when I was younger, we didn't do enough of.
Speaker 3:And when we play against teams, I noticed that they don't base run it like we base run it or like some other teams that are elite in our area base run and those teams are easy to play against because they're one-handed. If you're a basketball player and you're sitting here saying, okay, he's a right-handed guy, we got to force him left, we're going to. He's a right-handed guy. We got to force him left. We're going to make him a one-handed player. It's the same thing in baseball. If they get on base and they stand at first base and they don't do anything they don't steal, they don't hit and run, they don't bunt, they don't do whatever to get their guys in motion it becomes easy to coach against those guys Because now all you got to do is just pitch.
Speaker 3:You know, let's pitch a couple ground balls, do whatever we got to do, let's get that guy out, let's hit it and score a couple runs. We're gonna win. So it's not rocket science, but I just feel like there's not enough really good base running teams. Um, that I always that. I feel you know what I mean and that's something that we try to get really good at is our base running, um.
Speaker 3:And then the other part is master catching and throwing. I mean, from day one, that's all our kids hear from me is master catching and throwing. If we got a chance at all to be any good, we got to be able to catch it. We got to be able to throw it. The teams that can't catch it and throw it, you're going to beat them. You're going to absolutely beat them and especially when you got a team that can put the ball in play or whatever they throw the ball around, there's a run. So I just think for us it's been very like we've tried to develop can you master catch and throw? Can you be really good at master catch and throw?
Speaker 3:The team that we had this year, our fielding percentage was like 0.988 in that tournament. I think we had one error. We had one error and like we made all the plays and then we also made a couple exceptional plays, and that's what we always talk about and then we base run it really well and that's something we've really developed that. So, and going back to the state tournament, here's a stat for you that I wanted to throw it out. We scored 34 runs in the tournament and only gave up five runs tournament and only gave up five runs the entire tournament and we had a 0.5 to our 0.5 or 0.25 era from district semi to state championship. It was unreal, unreal performance by our kids.
Speaker 1:You know it's you know it's the thing I always would say is just make the routine play and you got a good chance of winning a big ball game. You know the it's great when you get the, the fantastic diving catch or whatever. But it's those routine plays, you know, shortstop fields it and then they throw it in the dirt or sail it into the dugout. That's when you you run into trouble and, like you said, you just focus on things and make it a critical part of practice. You got a good chance of being good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think I think from my experience teams beat themselves, Most teams beat themselves. So if and again I keep using the word balance and trust and those types of things but if you can develop the balance that you need and the fundamentals that go with it, and then you add in I'm fortunate enough to coach in an area at Olin's, Angie, where we have good players, so you throw in that combination and then if you can get them connected, if you can get them to play hard, and together you got a chance to win big and that's fun for me.
Speaker 1:Have you developed over your career like a certain drill that you do in practice? It's a win big and that's fun for me. Have you developed over your career like a certain drill that you do in practice? It's like every year we are going to do this drill because this is my favorite drill.
Speaker 3:You know, everything we do is try to be fundamental based. But then I think like I love listening listening to when I have time I listen to your podcast. When I have time, I listen to the ABCA podcast and you go to state clinics and you go to all these other things and you learn different drills and you're like, ooh, that's pretty cool. I think our kids would love that, because I think changing some stuff is good for the guys, because you can't do everything the same thing over and over and over and you're going to lose them. However, there's basic, fundamental stuff that you got to do. I'm a routine-based guy. We start practice, we do individuals, we do all those types of things. Then we go into team, then we go into base running, then we go into hitting. We try to do it like whole, part, whole. Get them, have them play a little bit, see what we got to get better at, come back, break it down, do some individual stuff you know, delegate out and use, utilize all your coaches and and utilize all the space. When you have turf, it becomes much easier because you can do a lot of different things at once. So we try to do all. That's how we try to organize our practices and try to make them as competitive as possible, but then also throw in some new stuff where our guys they got to start. They got to listen to you, because at times if it's still the old stuff, they stop listening. And I always tell our staff, every time you coach something, you got to coach it like it's the first time you've ever coached it that way. It's the same basic fundamentals Get your club out and down, work through the ball, all those types of things we continue to do. But then you got to throw in some new stuff that these high school kids they got to turn around and they go. Okay, I got to listen, or coach is going to be all over types of things and it makes it fun for practices. But I would say one of the things that I really enjoy to do from an offensive standpoint, because I throw batting practice all the time to our guys and batting practice can get old and it can get, like you know, everybody goes through and so you're trying to do different things.
Speaker 3:I saw a video one time. It was called Jungle Hitting and it was just situational base, so we had guys on second, third or maybe they start at second. But instead of then getting their 10 to 12 swings and then they rotate out, our guys have to situationally do something to move the rub. So they start at second base, they get one pitch. So now you're putting some pressure on them that they got to execute that one pitch like a game. All right, coach just said there's no outs to the guy on second.
Speaker 3:Can I hit a ground ball backside and I'd give him the situation hey, it's sixth inning, zero, zero game. Can I hit a ground ball backside and move that runner to third so we can get a sack, fly, squeeze, maybe hit another ground ball to a middle infielder, score a run. Now we win the game. And it teaches them to be all about the team. And that's why I really enjoy the drill, because it makes them focus more on the team and less about themselves.
Speaker 3:Our kids hate it because they want to try to hit the ball out in batting practice every time and it drives me insane. But it's a great drill. To where you know, now, all of a sudden you move to runner. Now the next guy comes up and he's got to get the guy at third base in. Well, now you're just, you're teaching your guys.
Speaker 3:It's just like in a game, you got to trust each other. So like if I give a sack butt to somebody who may be hitting well, so like if I give a sack butt to somebody who may be hitting well, instead of shrugging his shoulders and not giving a great attempt at it which we've all been there before now they'll lock in and they'll say, okay, I trust the guy who's on deck to get them in, and that's when you got something special. So that drill makes those guys feel that way and think that way All right, I'm going to move a runner over because the guy who's coming up next is going to knock them in with a base hit, sack, fly, we're going to squeeze, we're going to do whatever we got to do and we're going to win the game 1-0. And with the pitching we have, that's usually what happens. So that's probably my favorite drill, because we can teach the different types of how to to play the game the right way, or at least how we feel to play the game the right way.
Speaker 1:Um, and it makes them be all about the team and less about themselves what advice would you give a high school coach trying to build their own championship culture? And the other part of it is what would you tell him to avoid?
Speaker 3:that's a good question, coach carp. Um, I would well, I I think it's important. You got to be yourself. I think you got to be yourself and coach to your personality and you got to be willing to to your personality and you got to be willing to, uh, adapt and work well with people and you got to. You got to have a great skill of listening to your team and your and your players, and that's something that I've had to get better at because I'd be stubborn and wouldn't listen, and I think I've gotten better because I've listened more than I talk. Um, so I think it's important you got to be yourself. I think it's important you got to be yourself. I think it's important you got to be around great people.
Speaker 3:I've been fortunate in my, you know, all the way back to when I was, you know, eight, nine, 10, 11, you know all that stuff. I had great youth coaches. I had great high school coaches. I had an opportunity to move to Cincinnati and be around elite level basketball coaches, baseball coaches. We won the state championship at Lakota East in 2011. And to be part of that and to be part of their staff and the basketball staff that was at Lakota East just if you're around really good people and you take the time to listen and absorb all the information that they're teaching and how they do it, and then have your own vision of how you want to run your program and utilize all the stuff you've learned back in the day from all these types of people, but do it in your way. Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:There's so many people that, especially young guys, they try to be like somebody else and that usually is what gets into trouble. Just be you like. Just be you. Handle situations the way you want to handle situations, because then it becomes authentic and then people can trust you and it's just easier that way. So I would do that and then I would just of of with the players, the coaches, the parents, um, set a standard of what you want your program to be all about and don't waver from that Um.
Speaker 3:And and like you know, nowadays you hear so many times you were talking about earlier you get parents that complain or parents that do this or that. I think you got to set a standard and like, hey, this is how we do it. People at O&T and G know that they're not coming up to me after a game and talking to me about something negative because I'm going to blow them up and I don't care. That's what's going to happen. So parents know that and I, like all our parents, I think our families are tremendous, I think our boosters are tremendous.
Speaker 3:But there's one thing that I don't cross that line on is we don't talk about flight time, we don't talk about other kids, and that's usually what parents want to talk to me about. Now, if there's something else that they want to talk to me about, I'll sit down and listen all day long. And how can I help them? How can I help their family? How can I help their kid develop and do whatever we got to do to fix whatever situation may be up. But I would say to a young coach don't be afraid to discipline, don't be afraid of but you got to do it the right way. You can't use profanity and you can't be strict. You can still discipline and do things a certain way to make sure everybody knows. Okay, that's the standard of our program and that's what we try to do here. So that would be my advice.
Speaker 1:Hate losing or love winning.
Speaker 3:Hate losing, hate losing, I think the next day. So we win the state on a Sunday night and I had to come up here on the press box to get something Monday morning and you start and I got media guides and I got all this stuff on my desk from the state tournament. And you start and I had the depth chart of like I got names for the next eight years on my desk and this is how we do it if you're running a program and all those types of things. So I started looking down. I'm like man, we just we're lost 12 guys from our team. I hate losing. So what's the plan to get us back? You know how do we keep this going and the momentum that we have right now. So hate losing far more than I love to win, far more.
Speaker 1:Well, you thought I believe that's gonna be uh effective next season. Is it next season, or is it?
Speaker 3:27 I thought it was 27 but I think it's. Yeah, it's 27, but we're gonna. We, we got our, we got some stuff at our turf that needs to be replaced um, so we're just gonna have them come in and put the peg down. I, I think it's great, I think, think anything, um, I think anytime that you can do something for player safety is is a positive. Um, I don't see any negatives. I, the only I was telling somebody the only negative, the only negative that I could see is you know, all these schools that have turf, now you gotta have the turf company come in and they got to put the peg in. That's, that's the only negative and the only negative, and it'll cost money. So the negative is what about the programs that and even if they don't have turf, they just got a traditional field the programs that don't have the budget that an Olin Tangy has? Now they got to get a base peg, they got to get a new base, they got to do all those types of things. But I think the player safety thing outweighs that. That's very minor what I just talked about, the player safety.
Speaker 3:I've seen so many issues where the ball's going down the first baseline. It's bang, bang, the runner, the first baseman, collide, it becomes an issue. We had a situation we played Hilliard Darby at our place and Gilkerson. He was running to first Our kid. There was a throw on the inside, our kid went to catch it. He ran into Gilk and he hurt his leg and he couldn't play for a couple of games. So I think that avoids it if we have the double bag. And then I think it's also going to help the umpires too. It's going to absolutely help them with just line of sight, like in terms of he ran out of the baseline. I mean, how many times have you seen that call where the coach is going out and no one knows, did he go in the baseline? Did he come out of it, whatever? I just think that's going to kind of the gray area is gone Now it's black and white and it's going to help those guys out too. So I think that's a positive thing as well.
Speaker 1:I like to throw these ones in here and kind of just put you in a hypothetical situation. Sure, you're coaching an MLB team and you can have three pitchers on your staff, two starters and a closer. Group A you get Paul Skeensson and billy wagner's, your reliever. Group b you get, uh, terry scooble hold up.
Speaker 3:Let me write this down real quick. Okay, I don't have a pen. Randy, johnson's my first guy. Okay, go to the second. The second one, tarek.
Speaker 1:Scooble, he's your lefty, you got Nolan Ryan and your closer is Mariano Rivera.
Speaker 3:Rivera. So you're going. I want Nolan, ryan and Rivera. I'm old school. I like all the old school guys. There you go. Can I do that?
Speaker 1:I was wondering, because it's tough to pass on Randy Johnson.
Speaker 3:Randy, yeah yeah, can I throw in my? How about this? These three guys Rocco Bucci, who was a sophomore pitcher for us this year, who was a dog, cameron Burch, who was a senior, who was my two, and those guys went back. We only threw three guys all tournament Rocco Bucci, cameron Burch and then Cooper Tracy was our closer. Those three guys, I'll take those three. I like Nolan Ryan, I like all those guys, but I'll take my three old Tangy guys.
Speaker 1:Now that you've reached the top, have you you know you you mentioned it earlier about what you're going to do to keep next year's team hungry and, uh, replace what sounds like a lot of great talent?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, first of all, we have good players. So like we have good players and good young players, um, that are now have an opportunity to show what they can do. So that's the mindset now is we have really good players. We got to do a great job as coaches to keep developing them and put them in situations to be successful. But yeah, I mean I'm excited with what we just did. Obviously it was a tremendous thing, but I just I enjoy coaching.
Speaker 3:It's funny because I would make jokes like, hey, if we ever win it, I'm going to throw my keys to somebody and I'm out. I would always make those jokes and I just I enjoy, I enjoy coach. I'm at the age now I'm 44. I have a great teaching job. I work with unbelievable kids and staff and administration. We do it right and I get a chance to try to make a difference with my kids at school and the same thing here at the baseball program. We have tremendous kids in our program and we have great families and we have a great, great support staff and I just I enjoy coaching and it's like we go 10 and 15 next year. I'm going to enjoy coaching because it's just it's. It's been a lot of fun and, um, I just I love the people that we have in our program right now. So, um, that's kind of where I'm at. I know we just won the state, but I just enjoy being around the type of people that we have here at Oral Tangent.
Speaker 1:Well, I got to get this one in and uh, all time funny story from all your years of coaching and I got to wonder if, uh, maybe, uh, chris Fugate might be a part of that.
Speaker 3:Well, coach Fugate might be a part of that. Well, coach Fugate, so I played for Coach Fugate and he's a mentor of mine. I'm actually going golfing with him tomorrow, which I haven't played golf in a year because I've been so busy and he's a scratch golfer. So he's going to steal all my money because he's going to want to play for money on the first tee box. That's what he's a scratch golfer, so he's going to steal all my money because he's going to want to play for money on the first tee box. That's what he's going to say. I mean, obviously we have great stories here at Ong Tangi. Some of them we probably can't talk about. I know we have great relationships with. I think the umpiring around Central Ohio has gotten better, significantly better around Central Ohio has gotten better, significantly better, and just my time from 2013 to 25, we have some really good umpires and when I was younger, I was quick to go out on the field and argue and say things that I shouldn't say. So I'm sure Bart Andrews has some stories that he would love to share with you, but a Coach Fugate story, I'm trying to think I'll take it back when I was a player. So it was the same situation as Olentangy Burlett is. Hilliard Darby was a brand new school, so my junior year we had no seniors, so we were the first graduating class in 99. So my junior year we are practicing. We're not very good because we're. I mean, he's trying to build a program and something happened on a bus. We had an away game. We're driving back. We just got beat. We weren't very good. Somebody threw a hat out the window and it was something stupid like that. Well, we get to the field and fugue's not happy. So it's like a friday and it's nine o'clock at night. Well, we're running polls until somebody tells coach figure, who threw the hat out? Because no one would say who threw the hat out.
Speaker 3:Well, we're running poles. And back in those days kids now think of poles like you go to the pole, that's one. No, you go to the pole and you go back, that's one. And we would do poles. We'd do 20 poles a day and that was part of that's just how it was back in the day. Now I mean we had, I had our guys run five poles last year after a game that we lost and I got a letter sent to the superintendent and to my admin that I was too mean because we ran five poles.
Speaker 3:But back to my story is we're running all these poles and I had nothing to do with this. Like throwing the hat out the window is we're running all these poles and I had nothing to do with this. Like throwing the hat out the window. And we're running and we're running. I'm tired, I just caught, so I'm exhausted from catching and it's a Friday. So we played every day that week and I caught every day.
Speaker 3:So we get to like me and this kid who didn't like each other. We kept bumping shoulders, like when we got past each other at center field. We'd cross each other, we'd bump shoulders and I'm like you know what? I think if I try to get in a fight with this kid, coach Fugate's going to have to stop the whole team from running poles. So I'm just going to take it and I'm going to see if I can get in a fight with somebody.
Speaker 3:Now my record in fighting is like 0 and 10. I'm not very good at fighting, but we hit each other, we bumped each other on our shoulders and instead of continuing to run, we stopped and we started walking towards each other and then all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Coach Fugate and the rest of the staff. They're now walking towards the outfield and they're like, oh hey, everybody stop running. And then they got everybody together and then we had like a 50 minute coaches meeting, you know, in terms of like this is how we got to play the game and all this stuff. So I think that that one comes to mind just because I was trying to get out of running. And it's a good strategy. To get out of running is try to fight somebody, and the coach didn't know there you go, you go.
Speaker 1:Well, I figure it's one of those guys that you know he's a great storyteller and he's had some great ones himself and you know he's a lot of fun and just hate to see that.
Speaker 3:You know that he's uh he's retiring and stepping away yeah, yeah, him, and then ryan alexander, a couple other guys yeah, I know it's just part of I mean, I know they wanted to do stuff with their families and it gets. I have a 12-year-old and he's getting older and those moments start creeping through your head of like I need to. I mean, when you're a baseball coach, you're at the field all the time and I know Chris had some things that he wanted to do outside of baseball that I was glad to see him come back. I know when he first got out, what was that four or five years ago, I was glad to see him come back and continue coaching. I know, for me he's one of my better friends. He's my mentor. I've learned so much from him. I mean, hell, our signs are very similar. I think our sack bunt is the exact same sack bunt that he has or squeezes, because there's times in games where he's looking at me and I'm looking at him and we're both like we know each other's signs because it's the same stuff, the fact that I can coach against him and we're so close. That's been a lot of fun for me because he does it right.
Speaker 3:And I'll be honest because now my responsibility. I'm a Central District Board member and I had so many coaches when I first got here in 2013. I'm young, I don't know anything and I'm scared to death, and I had so many people older guys that would just reach out to me and help mentor me. And that's what I want to do now is we have such great younger coaches in central Ohio that that's all I want to do is just be a resource for somebody that I can help them, like the older coaches the previous coaches did for me, and that's my way to kind of give back to the game, just like you know, you're giving back to the game doing these podcasts. I think it's tremendous. So thank you for having me and thank you for what you do with these podcasts, because I really enjoy when I get you know half hour at my desk, I pull the podcast up and I'll listen and it's good stuff.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, thank you very much, and it's Ryan Lucas, the 2025 Division I State Champion for Ollantangy High School Coach. Wow, some great stuff that you shared there that I'm sure a lot of coaches will benefit from and, you know, really looking forward to seeing what you do again next season.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it. Thanks, Carter.
Speaker 1:Special thanks to Ryan Lucas for joining Baseball Coaches Unplugged. Today's episode was powered by the Nettin Professionals improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707, or you can visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. Be sure to check us out next Wednesday for a new episode. As always, I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter. And thanks for joining Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
