Quest for Success
Kurt Takahashi | Coaching Beyond the Diamond: Cultivating Champions in Baseball and Life
Join the conversation with California's High School Baseball Coach of the Year, Kurt Takahashi, as he steps up to the podcast plate to share his extraordinary journey from the youthful fields of glory to the dugouts of mentorship. Discover the invaluable lessons of routine, mental preparation, and consistency that Kurt imparts, reflecting on his days under the sun with the San Francisco Giants and how stepping back from the batter's box led him to cultivate the next generation of champions. With humble beginnings, a rise through the minor leagues, and an inspiring state championship story, Kurt's narrative is a testament to the transformative power of dedication and the influence a coach can have on and off the diamond.
Embark on an exploration of the personal growth that accompanies the shift from athlete to coach as Kurt openly discusses the intricacies of coaching his son, striking a delicate balance between high expectations and nurturing a strong work ethic laced with good character. The conversation traverses the territory of professional identity, mental health, and the art of catching – not just baseballs but also life's curveballs. As we cover the bases of Kurt's professional and personal life, his insights into the dynamics of family, sacrifice, and finding a new purpose post-career offer a playbook for anyone navigating the complex field of sports and life after the game.
Wrapping up, we shine a spotlight on the profound impact coaches like Kurt have on their communities, molding not just athletes but individuals who contribute positively to society. From managing parent-school-athlete relationships to the overarching love of the game, Kurt's story is an homage to the coaches on the sidelines and the enduring lessons they impart. Whether you're a sports enthusiast, a coach, or simply someone who appreciates deep dives into impactful life stories, this episode promises to leave you inspired and ready to tackle your own quest for success.
Quest for Success Links | https://linktr.ee/questforsuccess
Join the conversation with California's High School Baseball Coach of the Year, Kurt Takahashi, as he steps up to the podcast plate to share his extraordinary journey from the youthful fields of glory to the dugouts of mentorship. Discover the invaluable lessons of routine, mental preparation, and consistency that Kurt imparts, reflecting on his days under the sun with the San Francisco Giants and how stepping back from the batter's box led him to cultivate the next generation of champions. With humble beginnings, a rise through the minor leagues, and an inspiring state championship story, Kurt's narrative is a testament to the transformative power of dedication and the influence a coach can have on and off the diamond.
Embark on an exploration of the personal growth that accompanies the shift from athlete to coach as Kurt openly discusses the intricacies of coaching his son, striking a delicate balance between high expectations and nurturing a strong work ethic laced with good character. The conversation traverses the territory of professional identity, mental health, and the art of catching – not just baseballs but also life's curveballs. As we cover the bases of Kurt's professional and personal life, his insights into the dynamics of family, sacrifice, and finding a new purpose post-career offer a playbook for anyone navigating the complex field of sports and life after the game.
Wrapping up, we shine a spotlight on the profound impact coaches like Kurt have on their communities, molding not just athletes but individuals who contribute positively to society. From managing parent-school-athlete relationships to the overarching love of the game, Kurt's story is an homage to the coaches on the sidelines and the enduring lessons they impart. Whether you're a sports enthusiast, a coach, or simply someone who appreciates deep dives into impactful life stories, this episode promises to leave you inspired and ready to tackle your own quest for success.
Quest for Success Links | https://linktr.ee/questforsuccess
Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Quest for Success podcast. Today we have on the 2022 California High School Baseball Coach of the Year. He was also a part of the 1991 Division 1 Valley Championship team at Menachi. He's a high school baseball coach and he is originally from Porterville but now he's coaching up in near northern California.
Speaker 2:Sacramento.
Speaker 1:Well in Sacramento area. We're so honored to have him on today. Please welcome Kurt Takahashi to the Quest for Success podcast.
Speaker 2:They. Thank you guys, man, I appreciate it. I love, always loved, coming down to Porterville. These thoughts in my heads as I drive down to Porterville are always the same. It's always about reminiscing about old stuff. I love to be able to come on here and actually just spew it. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're excited man. So, kurt, we have a little segment called the mental minute. Get us fired up, get the juices flowing, and Zach's going to kick us off with the first question.
Speaker 3:Let's get right into it. Favorite baseball player growing up Favorite baseball player Nolan Ryan.
Speaker 2:Nolan Ryan. Just his bulldog attitude, man, how old was he? It just lifting the leg up high and just getting after it, and I always consider myself throwing 150 miles an hour in high school. So I just loved any. I think it was his delivery, just anything, just the way he looked at the whole thing. Right, he just had a kind of a presence.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you know, before the podcast started, you know you talked about these guys who have this high velocity, but they don't got the attitude. What good is it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that means Zach, we're talking about that. You have 10 guys with high velocity, mid 90s, high 90s. You get three of them with that attitude, that crazy mental toughness to be able to actually use the 95 to 100.
Speaker 1:That dog in them, yeah, yeah and. Nolan Ryan, you're like that guy you didn't mess with that guy, some of his dudes trying to charge the mound on him.
Speaker 2:What was the famous one, the Ventura?
Speaker 1:Yes, when he clocked him.
Speaker 2:Oh, he got him right in the head a bunch of times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that dude was a. He was a dog. So you've played not just a high level in high school, you also got drafted by the San Francisco Giants and you've, you know, played, had a good career in minor league baseball as well. Who was the coach that had the greatest impact on you throughout your journey in baseball, whatever level it may be?
Speaker 2:Oh, whatever level man. Obviously you know I played, even playing at a high level, I would have to say it wouldn't be one coach, it would be all of my little league coaches. Oh, I know that's kind of a weird answer. They introduced me to the game at a pretty young age. They kept me in the game. I think that's what's important now in nowadays, but I would say that the most impactful guys is definitely all of my little league coaches. They made it fun but they made it competitive all at the same time. Right, and I was telling you guys early, I was never the best guy on my team, but they kept me coming back every single year and I just couldn't wait to get to the ball field.
Speaker 3:Were you always a pitcher little league or did that something that came along as you continue to play?
Speaker 2:That's another thing at these coaches. They had us play all the positions, play outfield. I didn't caught, it didn't matter Whatever. Whatever coach needed, we did I. I always consider myself a hitter. Obviously, baseball didn't choose that for me. I ended up pitching, but I think I probably end up being more of a pitcher. I mean, you get into my early leagues, those guys are playing every day. I'm not really sure that I could do that when they play every day. Man, that's a lot of games.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is Okay. So, as as a player, we'll get to the team after this one. How did you prepare for baseball games? How did you? What was your approach to it?
Speaker 2:As a player, especially in professional baseball, you kind of have a lot of time that you're playing yourself in the morning. You don't get to the fields for a seven o'clock game. At home Games are seven, seven, 30. You don't get to the field till two, depending on what you're doing In a starting pitcher, probably a little later. My routine was pretty much to myself really getting up, having breakfast by myself I didn't even catch a movie Just kind of like a. You kind of go throughout your day and just really to yourself and thinking about what my game plan is for that night, right, and what I learned later in my pitching career was that game plan was always just be aggressive and that's for some reason. I wished everybody could figure out how to get in that zone before the game. I wish I could have figured it out, or also. But it's just trying to focus and keep a routine going, because if you make it different I don't think that you can. You're prepared for what's about to happen that night, right? Yeah.
Speaker 1:That makes sense. So, going along with that same question how, now that you're a coach right, you've coached high school, and not just coaching, but you've coached your teams to a high level of success, right? How do you prepare your teams at the high school level now to get them ready for the game? Get them prepared, especially for those big games, right, that really matters. You get to the playoffs, or fighting for a league title or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Man it Blaine, it's the routine. It's the routine. We don't, we don't, we don't mess with our routine. Practices stayed the same. I'm a huge practice guy. I'm a we in high school. You only play three, two to three games a week, right? Um, those practices in between are probably the most important things. Um, we, actually our practice plans are very difficult. Um, I kind of make them that way so they are prepared for those type of games. It doesn't matter if it's a league game, if it's a non-conference game or if it's a section championship game. We prepare exactly the same. It's the same routine. Um, we have our Monday practices, our Wednesday practices, our Friday practices. Um, and high school kids, you have to keep a routine or they're going to get out of whack. The hardest thing is to actually have a team play at a later in the day when there's an off day from school, because then you don't know what time they get up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Um, but for the most part oh man, you're right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, but for the most part, to prepare them for bigger games. It's all in the same practices. We know this from the very, very beginning what our practice is going to be like, and they're not going to change.
Speaker 3:Are they? Are they high tempo, or are they they're? They're just bang, bang, bang yeah.
Speaker 2:Man, I would. I would put our practices against anybody. Um, our practice plans consist of a normal throwing routine. Throwing program um for infield outfielders and pitchers we don't have. We're a smaller program than 300 kids at our school, so most of these kids play other positions. I don't have a whole lot of POs I don't think I have any actually Um. So there is a whole lot of throwing going on. You got to be careful with that Cause. A lot of times you're, you're one of your, especially in our D five level. Your main picture, your number one guy is normally your shortstop or your third, your third baseman. So they're already doing a whole lot of throwing.
Speaker 2:You got to make sure that you figure out what's how much throwing they've done in the week. Also pay attention to that. But also it's super, super important when they're playing catch to get a feel for all their pitches changeups, curve balls, sliders, fast balls, the whole thing. So it's it's not real difficult, but our tempo of our practice it all revolves around our batting practice and our um situational stuff. Right, our batting practice we make that. It's not just guys swinging at pitches, man, it is situational stuff the whole time. We also have base runners on doing situational base running the whole time and, like I, I have an incredible coaching staff. They don't miss a thing. Um, they the. They pay attention to detail, especially in the cages. When I got a group in the cages getting ready to go hit live, um, there's also coaches watching the defense, um, and coaches watching the base runners. They're bought in. Yeah, they're bought in, man. You know I want to harp. I can't take any really credit for any of this stuff. My coaches are just. Those are the my guys, yeah.
Speaker 3:But they're not just yes, man.
Speaker 2:Like you were talking about earlier. You know you had a you're mentioning.
Speaker 3:You mentioned that one gentleman. You know who's? The complete opposite, oh, our football coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's awesome. He's the one that started the program, drew Rickert. He's the one that I was learning from, and when I first started a Bradshaw he had just stepped down as the as the coach, as the head coach, and it was just coaching football. But I did notice what he brought to the table during football season. I was like I need that on the baseball field and that's just the consistency, the routine, the discipline, the accountability. Um, that's where I think I was missing. Again, I had coach. I was never coached baseball in high school level. The last level of baseball I was in was pro baseball, so I didn't have a whole lot of thought process on. I didn't know what I was going to start with um other than shoot. How do you, how do you run a practice? But you got to run an efficient practice Right Again, a fast tempo practice and also one that's a little difficult on the mind. You can't make it super easy on these guys. How do you expect them to perform at a high level and especially under pressure?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you cause. Well you, just so nobody's confused, you mentioned that you're a D five level, but you know you, you got some studs on the team though. Right, you know you mentioned in a kid that's going to Stanford and some others. Your son just graduated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my son's at Sac City.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean you still got some ball players at that level. You know what I mean. By no means is it just this slouch time, correct, right.
Speaker 2:So that's cool.
Speaker 3:Um, I like asking this question. You know baseball, superstitious stuff like that. Were you a superstitious, uh, baseball player back in the day? That's shit, even now.
Speaker 2:Um no, no, I'm not. No, I don't think so. Um, we did on our run in 2022,. Um, where it felt like we played 150 games. Um, there was this Luke Com song that came on every day. So I would wait for it to come on and I tell my son that's our dub song. Man, it came on. Um, I'm not real superstitious man. I uh, I just my preparation for especially for these teams, I feel, is already good enough that we're ready to go it doesn't matter Rain or shine.
Speaker 2:Man, we're ready to ball out Trust process.
Speaker 3:Yeah 100%.
Speaker 1:So I want to kind of go back to you real quick. Um, where did it all start for you? Baseball, like, did you? Did you start? Obviously you play. You mentioned you played little league, had some great little league coaches. Where did that love kind of kick off for you and who it kind of introduced you to the game?
Speaker 2:Um, I would say probably Babe Ruth. We had the best time playing Babe Ruth we had in Portaville that had I don't remember the name of the stadium had a big red barn out in Lovefield. I think the fairgrounds are there now Fairgrounds Is that what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, we would be dropped off in the morning and just stay there all day long and then we would play in our game and then keep staying there, because they gave you a hot dog and a soda after the game, yeah, and but it was the competitiveness that I just loved being out there against our buddies and I think that's missing now because of travel ball You're traveling other places and playing some different guys you don't really know. But I love playing buddies that I went to school with and that's kind of what ignited that fire a little bit. And also I was never the best guy on our team, so it was always striving to be better than that guy and that guy.
Speaker 3:What's crazy is you say that is that you made it to the pro level, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know you know what I mean. We did our little league and our Babe Ruth programs were really really good yeah.
Speaker 3:You know to talk about, you know playing with your competitive teammates and stuff like that. Can you share that experience of that 91 Valley team at Menachie?
Speaker 2:That's the craziest high school team I think you're ever going to see. I know I'm coaching. This is going to be my eighth year in coaching high school baseball. I've never seen a team are rounded than that team. We had two coaches, tom Rigger, and we had Paul Beegan, which two great baseball guys, great mentors, good men. We actually just lost Rigger, I think a year ago. This last year.
Speaker 1:And Paul Beegan as well, and Paul.
Speaker 2:Beegan yeah, good, good, good, good men, good coaches. On a side note, coaches you kind of put that word next to a person's name and what it loses is that, that human factor in it, where they were just good men. You know, and one of my goals as a coach is to prepare these boys for life after baseball. And I've talked to you guys about big picture. I'm a big picture guy man. I had the process and the journey of baseball and the journey of practicing and working hard and stuff like that. I'm sorry I got off the note, but you're good. That 91 team was so stacked with players that just were good, just good man, and we had, and we talked about our size. All of us are over six foot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, giants.
Speaker 2:We were just, but also if you watched us warm up, we were having lots of fun, just tons of fun. We were buddies off the field. There is probably never been a game in high school I don't even know if you see this now where we would play in a game at Menachi, go to my mom's house after the game and still play Wiffel ball. So if I threw in that game didn't matter, I'm still playing.
Speaker 3:It's almost like the most competitive one was after the game.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so that and then that team, we just bonded well early, early, early. We all worked really hard. We had to put up our own fence, really get our field ready, but it was, it was just we basically had a bunch of team captains and we just we just loved being around each other. Yeah, Time, you won't forget you will never, Well, I will never forget that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can you talk about a couple of the guys on that team? I mean, you know we had Steve Cox on Steve, he was on that 91 team. You know you had Rusty Laughlin, farmer.
Speaker 2:Kurt Zimmerman.
Speaker 2:Watson, yeah, dennis, yeah, some dudes on the team Like we had Randy Montecino, we had Matt Jones, your Frosty O'Benavitas I told you you play at Play Football Cal Poly. We had so many good players. It's I'm still friends with them now. It's one of the reasons I come for it Well, obviously, to see you guys, but one of the reasons I come to see. I come to see Steven and then tonight we're going to see Farmer Again. Just good people, good people. I love being around them. We love being competitive with each other. In high school, steven used to come over to our house a lot and we would just be competitive in my bedroom.
Speaker 3:It never ended. Yeah, just found something, whatever it was yeah.
Speaker 2:We never felt the pressure of the actual game, which I feel a lot of kids feel now the pressure of winning. We always just wanted to have fun and play as hard as we could and it didn't seem like it was putting us out Right. It didn't seem like it was such a bother, because sometimes kids now are just like oh, this is such a bother. Yeah, man, I couldn't wait to get to the baseball field with these guys.
Speaker 3:It was the best. Yeah, so Menachi and then Fresno City. Can you explain that jump for us? You know, going from I mean that was a very competitive baseball team in high school, but then you go to Fresno City. Can you explain the difference?
Speaker 2:in that. Shoot 200 dudes, yeah, I grew up in a completely different culture than I did. It's just a bigger school.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know it was kids from Bullard and Clovis and all the Clovis schools and Hoover and some other schools out there, fresno High.
Speaker 3:Did you still feel like you belong there, though? Nope, not in day one.
Speaker 2:No, but coach Ron Scott was there when I was there. He just retired, I think. Last year. I kind of came in with the mentality of, okay, there's a lot of guys here but I still feel I'm better. I don't know that started clicking in when I was in that age and with the stuff that I had then again I was drafted that year was pretty good to be on that team, so it didn't feel that much. I didn't feel like I fit in right when I got there, but after about a month definitely fit in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's probably just, maybe because it was new you know what I mean. The whole system was new.
Speaker 2:I was like I was the worst car there too.
Speaker 3:It matters. It matters at the Juco level right.
Speaker 2:I had an old blue Dodge Colt.
Speaker 3:Rolling up the practice mat.
Speaker 2:Who the heck that? What that is.
Speaker 3:Pull it up. I got a catch back man.
Speaker 2:And it was brutal. I think my back rear tire had a bubble in it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's if you had a paint Juco as a car. That's what it is. Oh, that was it. That's awesome, that's cool.
Speaker 1:That's cool. So you're at Fresno City. Did you get drafted out of Fresno City to the Giants or out of your senior year?
Speaker 2:I got drafted out of Fresno City in 1995.
Speaker 1:So 95. So that time when you were at Fresno City, like what were you doing and like what were you doing to develop as a player, to get to that next level, like what was the difference when you got to Fresno City and then when you're gonna leave and get drafted, like that, those two, you spent two years there.
Speaker 2:At Fresno City. I just won, Just won.
Speaker 1:So that year, what were the things that you were doing to develop, to go play at the next level?
Speaker 2:You know, blaine, it's a good question, man, I don't know I didn't pay attention enough to really. This is where I feel like, coming as a coach, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the process of the game. When I was playing there, I did get drafted solely on my arm strength and a couple of the things that I brought to the table, but I wasn't paying attention to my process of it or even getting ready for it. I think you just kind of go to practice because of the people tell you to go to practice as coaches, and they're great coaches. They prepare you for it whether you want it or not, for some reason. At junior college is part cross country running. I don't know how that works out, because it feels like you're running cross country every single day when you're pitching, foul pulls and, yeah, 30 second foul pulls was the worst.
Speaker 2:But I make my high school team do it. That's why I like I do it. But I think I was learning the game and I didn't even realize it that whole time I was there, which led me into professional baseball. But really just learning how to play a longer season than high school is difficult. But just really the competitive spark needs to be there, because junior college baseball is no joke. No, you will hear some things coming out of dugouts that you've never heard before, especially coming from an atchie, and you have to learn how to just block it out and play the game as hard as you can. That's it. Just play as hard as you can. There's no. I tell kids this too. There's no sick days. There's no hurt days. There's no. I don't really not feeling it today. I don't have my bat, I don't have my glove, it does not matter, they don't care. You play as hard as you can because everybody's getting after like a bunch of pack of wild dogs.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Especially like the Juco. The Juco scene in California, whether it's baseball or basketball, is like next level compared to most of the country. It's intense, it's insane.
Speaker 2:You put it close to. Let me do vision one baseball. There's some guys out there that are and COVID kind of hurt a lot of kids, but there's some kids out there that probably should be playing at a different level there in Juco and my son is this his first year. He's gonna be red-shirting this year. He's got some kids in there two or three years, as you don't really hear very often Very good baseball players. I got to go out and watch a couple of scrimmages Really good baseball players man.
Speaker 1:With the mentality.
Speaker 2:You roll that all in the one. They're only 19, 20 years old 21 years old.
Speaker 3:It's pretty good, would you say more often, and not the kids that you're talking about, right there? Is it because of the lack of grades? Is it why they may not be playing at a division one, division two, division three? Correct.
Speaker 2:I think. But there's also the side of maybe that these rosters are kind of overloaded in D1 baseball right now. Mm-hmm, there's not a whole lot of scholarships being offered in baseball. There's enough. It's not like football but, there's enough Right, but kids need help.
Speaker 3:And then you throw in that transfer portal, yeah, portal, yeah, it's a beast.
Speaker 2:Baseball is already hard.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's definitely a game of failure.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you're already at a disadvantage when you go there. So if you are going, plan on going anywhere higher than high school, anywhere. I don't care if it's NEIA, d3, d2, d1, junior college. You have done something. If you make that team, you have done something.
Speaker 3:Right yeah, were you a good student athlete? No, mm-hmm, was it so? School was a difficult thing. It was a very difficult thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I was younger it was just difficult. I had a tough time with basically comprehension it. Nothing really stuck in my head. The only thing that ever really just stuck in my head was sports. Yeah, I think I couldn't figure out if it was a movement, if it was a muscle memory thing, if it was because I enjoyed practicing. But I couldn't figure out a way to study, to make things stick in my head to where I could do a quiz or a test, right, I had such a hard time. It was very frustrating. I also became an athletic director and a coach.
Speaker 2:We live by the emails. Now I still struggle with emails a little bit, not afraid to say that I have to read it several times, maybe even print it out, highlight it so I can reply to a longer email, so I know what I'm talking about, right. But I think that my struggle also again why I love coaching is another part where I can see kids struggle with the same thing. And when you're on a small school, you can go to the class hey, man, what's going on with your grade? What's up with this D? What's up with this F? Let's take care of it. Right now our school has another athletic director who's our basketball coach Does the same thing. Pulls him right out of class. It's the best. But I think it's important to know that these kids that are struggling I would never say anything. That's embarrassing. Now I'd be like you got to say something.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Don't be embarrassed, say something, it'll be a lot easier. It's like ripping the bandaid off. Everybody already can figure it out. Don't be afraid, let's figure this out together. I want to be that guy. I want to be the guy. I want to be there next to you going. We'll figure it out. I can't help you with math, but I can find somebody that will. Right, you know. So I think it's in our day and age of social media and awareness. I think it's important that kids have to realize that hey, if you struggle in school, it's okay, you can find help, doesn't mean you're a horrible person. Parents sometimes parents are struggling too. Man, true.
Speaker 2:You know, and I think parents might be a little embarrassed. Also, don't be embarrassed. If you find somebody, it'll help you out. Go find somebody. Yeah, I thought it would help Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So you finish your time up at Fresno City, you're going to get drafted to the San Francisco Giants in 1995. And the draft, what's that? What was that kind of journey like of getting drafted and the process of going into the minor league system? We all know the minor league system. That journey is not easy. No, it's tough, especially. You know, I think it's got a little bit better, but not a whole lot. But you go back in the 90s, mid 90s, and it's a grind, right, it's a process.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's a grind. Your first year you had drafted, they had short season A-ball. Where you go up to the Northwest Lake was Bellingham Washington. That was the best because it kind of just, kind of just it was a soft landing in the professional baseball they just throw you into the arena.
Speaker 2:It's pretty awesome. It's like three months long, it's like two or three weeks after your season for college is done and then you go there and then you get drafted and then they send you there. The hardest one was the first spring training. That was, hands down, probably one of the most humbling experiences of my life. You go in there with a bunch of guys that look just like you, that throw just like you, and you're trying to actually separate yourself from those guys.
Speaker 2:I had no idea how to do it. So, honestly, that first off season I had no idea how to prepare. I didn't know. All I knew was I was gonna, my identity was now a baseball player and I was gonna ride. That Wasn't mature enough to figure that out yet After my first spring training definitely figured that out was a punch in right in the face when you're throwing, when you feel that you're always the hardest thrower in the best picture, why you all of a sudden you're pretty average out there. Those guys are either, I wouldn't say better than you. They had the same stuff as you, but maybe a different mentality.
Speaker 3:So when you talk about that journey as you're coming up to be a professional baseball player, talk about the journey of getting to that state championship and winning that. How is that season like with those group of guys, the coach, that won't explain that entire season from beginning to middle to end.
Speaker 2:So you're talking about my 22, 2020. That was a culmination of let's see. Let's back it up to COVID. I had a few players on the team in 2020 that we ended up having to cut short like two games in. That really set the tone for how we worked out in fall and winter and the kids that ended up being on the 22 team were probably freshmen or sophomores at the time. It was a culmination of that those guys and then COVID happening and then the hunger that they came back with in 2021. And then all of a sudden in 2022, we get to play baseball, let's go. And we honestly didn't even figure out that we were gonna play for that NorCal State Championship until about two or three weeks in we read on Max Preps that there was an extra game after the section title game.
Speaker 1:And I don't like to get ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 2:I don't like to get ahead of it and think, oh man, we're gonna go right here. My goal is always to just to have the kids understand the journey and the process. Wins will come. It's a byproduct of it. It's kind of like I don't know. I don't know if we'll call it a side effect, but I don't look too far ahead.
Speaker 2:So when that season began in 2022, we had a freshman come in, a pitcher and then another kid that ended up transferring from a different school. Kind of surprised. The pitching staff was kind of coming around and I had this leader on my team who's now. It was now is gonna be up in Sacramento at Jessup College. Up there he's probably five, four, five, probably 150 pounds, our team leader by far. He came in with. He was on a mission. I had some other players that were really good young players that I can see our team kind of coming around in January. We came around to February. We started playing some scrimmages and I'm thinking, man, our pitching is really solid right now. We're pretty good. Our base running was really good.
Speaker 2:It was easy to coach because not only was these kids actually putting the ball in play, but you could put on any situation and we were gonna be just fine.
Speaker 2:And they understood the game. So fast forward to the Fresno Easter tournament. We were playing Redwood High School from Visella. We had no business. I like to play the Fresno tournament because I again, I'm part of the process. I don't mind getting the crap beat out of us. I can figure out who my guys are from that. So we're playing Redwood and we beat Redwood. That's when our kids bought in. Oh my gosh, we're good.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, we're good.
Speaker 2:Told you guys, we were good, yeah, we're good. Your practices, we go back home. Our practices changed. Not only did it start from kids getting there early, but the weight room started coming into effect a little bit. There we go, and that's a big thing. That's a big thing with high school baseball is the kids don't understand. It's like if you're a freshman and don't be satisfied with being on the freshman team or JV team, you wanna be on the varsity team. Look different when you come in every year. But some weight on. Everybody thinks, oh, I gotta have this certain protein, blah, blah, blah. No, you don't. There's plenty of peanut butter. There's plenty of chocolate milk. You know what I mean. Everybody has that in their household.
Speaker 2:So as we start to come in towards this, we came back home from the Fresno tournament that fly is getting me. We came back home and we saw the change in the boys and then we got our transfer eligible. He got comfortable with our team and then the boys just started to click and their goals went through the roof. That's when it started to go okay, we're gonna win this thing. We won league.
Speaker 2:Then we went to the section championship, which we had to play a couple of playoff games, which we ended up doing very well, got to the section championship, played Houston, won three to one and I'm like, okay, guys, we got more. Then we tend to run and rule the next two playoff games. And then we get to the NorCal game and now the timing on it and I talked to you guys about my pitching count limits 90,. Right, I don't need to throw another one of my big guys because the timing on it they couldn't anyway and I could have brought back one of my other kids to probably at least start two or three innings, but really not necessary. I brought the freshman up who, just so happens, is now committed to Stanford.
Speaker 2:But at that time he was a freshman hadn't been up varsity, I think, one game, but he was also our JV quarterback. He's also one of our better basketball players. I had no doubt in my mind. So we actually called the captains up and say, hey, who do you guys wanna pitch today? Who do you guys wanna pitch on Saturday? And then they said the kid's name. I was like perfect, we're in, went down there with a bunch of confidence. This team was Calusa. They were 33 and 0. Wow, and I've coached against Eric who's the head coach there. Great baseball guy man. He runs such a good program. He runs summer stuff. We've met a couple of times in tournaments. We're all sitting in the dugout super comfortable. And then I realized they brought the whole. I don't know if you guys ever been to Calusa. It's way out there, man, it's deep. They brought the whole town.
Speaker 3:There was a whole lot of people there. I remember where was it at Calusa.
Speaker 2:It's above Sacramento. It's like way out in the middle of nowhere. It was like being home.
Speaker 1:They were all deep yeah heck, yeah, and we go.
Speaker 2:so it's 33 and 0 team. We go up seven to nothing in the first inning. Wow geez. And I'm like we cannot be beat. There's just no way. And then this freshman pitcher comes here and throws a complete game shutout.
Speaker 3:No way. Oh yeah, it was amazing. That's awesome man.
Speaker 2:And we were done and I just remember the boys we're driving our school vans back and we had a. Every year we do a crab feed where the boys one of our fundraisers is one of the boys all the boys actually are waiters at a crab feed and they wanted to go by that place and actually take a picture on it because it meant so much to them. I don't know, these guys are crazy, but this team now has two or three kids that are come back and help coach.
Speaker 3:That's cool, that's awesome. That's what it's all about, right there.
Speaker 2:Like I said, our outfielder one of our outfielders came back. He needed to get an Eagle Scout patch. Asked me hey, coach, what do I got to do? I got to, I have to fundraise and I have to build something, build a snack shack. Had it done in two months?
Speaker 2:It's still those little things like that but, this team was special and it reminded me a lot of our 91 Manachi team, where they just bonded, they would hang out after games, before games, they would hang out it. I think the new hangout is Dutch brothers now, so they would hang out there.
Speaker 2:But it's team leaders and then also again coaching the culture. We have the oh. We set the bar pretty high for these guys. We expect a lot out of them, but that again, me being the big process, big picture guy, you should expect a lot out of yourself If your coach expects more than you expect out of yourself when we got a problem. I think that works because, again, I'm coaching these boys so they can be better people, better men outside of baseball. Baseball is like this much of your life, it's such a small part of your life. You have the rest of your life now to be a good dude.
Speaker 3:I agree.
Speaker 2:And I think that's more important than any win. I really do man. I love the wins come with it. Don't get me wrong. I love it. It gives our high school a good look and all this, this and this. But I love it even more when the boys call up and hey, coach, man, I'm back in town, I'm gonna come by and see you at 100%.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:I love that when they call me and say hey, I'm at this college and thank you so much for our practices being the way they were, because there's no fun to our practices most of the time, but they, like you, prepared me for what's happening right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that same year you also won the coach of the year, correct? What's the exact title of that?
Speaker 2:It's the small schools. California State Coach of the Year.
Speaker 3:How did that feel?
Speaker 2:It felt pretty good. I'm not. I don't coach for me, I coach for the boys. I would owe that award to all of my assistant coaches. My, we have guys that throw BP every day. We have guys that hit fungos every day. We have again our football coach who holds the kills accountable, and he's set that school up for someone's success. But it just really. You're only as good as your assistant coaches and I, and these guys are baseball guys. These guys play college baseball. They've been around again a long time, but they we also understood that if we don't have to agree with each other on everything we do, we can actually actually get in little arguments during practices, but at the same time, we're all on the same goal. We're always for the kids, we're always for the process, the journey of it, and the hardworking part of it.
Speaker 1:Yep. So, as a coach, what are some of the values and principles that you kind of prioritize and preach to your team and your players to kind of create that that positive environment for your players to thrive in?
Speaker 2:Ooh, accountability, accountability, you know it's being on time, dressing right, our practices, you know where. Certain things everybody wearing the same thing, games also being on time, not an eye guy play for the guy next to you. I really think that that sets you up for success and these boys need those boundaries. I know the high school kids. They wanna resist them but at the same time they seem to thrive more when they're. When you put them into these little, it's not a little box, it's quite a big box Like structure Correct, it's a structure. And when you put them in it it makes them more comfortable. And the harder you lean on them in practices, the more comfortable they get with that, and that breeds success.
Speaker 2:And again, I'm not saying that success is all about the wins and losses. It is, and you know. But I'm more interested in these boys. Actually, when things get hard, they can play harder Right and be calm and take a breath and do it, Yep.
Speaker 3:Confidence is usually built in practice.
Speaker 3:Oh yes, you know, that's where that up-tempo pace you know, where you're taking a little bit different risks that you would take in practice, you know, and things like that. But it all adds up. It all adds up. I wanna talk about something we were talking about before the podcast. You know how you have a botting system, not just at the high school but with also the Little League coaches, you know, coming to seek your advice of how to run practices and you offering up your field to them and trying to get as much you know together to get on the same page, to get the boat rowing in the same direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, remember also, we have parents that are like I've told you. Our culture is unbelievable. Our parents are so helpful and the boys that I'm coaching more than likely have a little brother in Little League at that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we always reach out. We have this team. The boys have come out and helped with the All-Star Team tryouts. One of our dads was running the team and the kids are now they're in high school. It's important because these boys know what to expect when they get in high school and I love it that they ask. And to tell you the truth, it's not. They always think it's. What is the baseball level? First of all, teach them how to get a field ready to practice on teach them where to play catch.
Speaker 2:You never, at any point in your career, will ever play catch in the infield of a baseball field never. You should go down the left field line if you're at home, or the right field line when you're away, and that's where you play catch. You don't step on the line. You need to be behind her, in front of it. There's an unwritten rule book somewhere go find it. But the thing is is we have these baseball fields are so beautiful, you wanna keep them nice.
Speaker 2:And you know of course you wanna be able to play on really, really nice stuff, but you have to take care of it. Nobody else does it but you. So after games, we gotta you know, we gotta kick care of weeds, we gotta get the mounds right. You gotta get everything back set up. If we can reach out to the younger groups and show them how to play catch, I mean simple stuff like hitting each other in the chest, teaching them how to catch the ball in the pocket that's such an important thing that you don't hear of very often.
Speaker 2:You can see kids playing catch, but if you don't hear it hit the pocket, then you ain't playing catch right, you know. Also, moving our feet when we play catch, you'll see a lot of kids try to just kind of lunge over, bend over at the waist and catch it. Move your feet and go get it. When you're hitting batting practice, or usually on the little league fields, it's usually normally a live batting practice. No kids, there's no cages on little league fields, so it's usually a live batting practice. Have a purpose with a swing, right, you know, coach is not throwing very hard. Also, don't beat yourself up if you swing and miss.
Speaker 1:It's okay, it's a game of failure.
Speaker 2:You're going to do it. You're gonna miss the ground ball. I promise You're gonna miss the ball. It's gonna hit you in the face at some point. You're gonna overthrow somebody. It's okay, Guess what? Don't keep making the same mistake over and over and over you know that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of want to go back to your career. We kind of briefly started it when you kind of went into playing for your first team up in Washington. Where was the kind of the journey? Where did the journey take you after that Cause you're gonna spend, how many years did you end up spending in the minor?
Speaker 2:I played. I think I played with a Giantsville 98.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I got released and then I went into the independent league and the Western baseball league was not. It's not there anymore Until 2003, 2004. As you can tell, I'm getting old. I don't remember that's where my baseball journey really kind of amped up when I got into independent league, which is crazy good baseball. It's a lot of guys that have been released, maybe some college kids trying to catch on with a pro team. You get paid. It's a professional baseball. It's a wood bat, it's traveling, it's bus rides for 16, 15 hours. It's where I was getting older.
Speaker 2:My not as much juice on the old fastball didn't have stuff, but I sure don't know how to pitch. I got to play with some really really good baseball players. Guy named Steve Wojcikowski was with the A's. I got to play with Kevin Mitchell from the Giants, got to play under Jeffrey Hackman. Leonard was one of our managers one year. We played with some really good baseball players.
Speaker 2:But also I got to listen to more in the clubhouse of the game itself, of the little stuff, the, the preparation, the hey, what guys did? And search you certain situations in Pro ball, because it's a little different, and also pitching the wooden bats. That was way different in Pro ball too. But what I did learn, am I? If you talk about my journey, my journey, is it really ended there, but it started there at the same time, if that makes sense, being being in Pro ball. It's go so by, so it goes so fast. And then when you're on the end your career, hanging off your drill life, it starts to slow down. But you're like you're right at the end of that plan anymore.
Speaker 2:And if I could touch on this briefly, when your your identity as a baseball player, the most difficult part is when you're not playing anymore. It's a very, very difficult transition. It can, it's, and Depression never really was a thing for me until I stopped playing. You. You're not Kurt Takahashi the baseball player anymore, you're just some guy. That's hard. That's really hard.
Speaker 2:It's a take took a couple years for me to figure that out. You really you take for granted the things you miss. You take for granted the birthday parties and stuff you miss because you're on the road and you're You're super selfish when you're doing these things. But now you get to. The good thing is, you get to have relationship again with your mom and your dad and your brothers and sisters. But the hardest part was me trying to figure out my identity and that was very difficult for me and I know it's difficult for a lot of guys and I do take great pleasure in talking to everybody who played overseas in basketball and we started working together and he's like, okay, what do I do? I was like you're gonna go through a hard time. Basketball professional athletes have this inner confidence, the self confidence. That's really hard to beat. It's not cocky, it's just pride. Yeah, absolutely, I'm a percent man.
Speaker 2:And it's difficult when it stops and you don't get the pad on the back and the pad on the butt. But you really have to self reflect. You have to reflect and go okay. So what I learned from that? And I wish I would have figured out sooner. But you realize that I can do this all by myself. I can't. I don't need other people to do that. I can do this all by myself. I can't. I don't need other people pat me on the back. I don't need tell people telling me good job, I do it for the for, because I truly believe in something.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's the hardest part of that journey is there's side effects, man and that's that's the hard part. The mental part of it is it's tough it is and it needs to be talked about yeah, it's tough, the mental side of being an athlete, the mental side of just being a person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 2:But it's speaking up and asking for help when you need it. I don't know how to really word it, but as a man you're not supposed to cry and whine and gripe. But if you need help, if you're feeling a little dark, then ask yeah you know support and also have some support system in place.
Speaker 2:Have some good friends. You know I have. I have friends that will tell me what I'm doing something stupid. I have a wife that does the same thing. You want to talk about a passion. I know I keep going off of your questions.
Speaker 3:No, it's good, it's good stuff. Yeah, you know being vulnerable to strength.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is, and it's not talked about yeah it's not toy and the people aren't don't realize that. You know. They think strength is oh, I win and I do these things. It is it is. We talk about a lot of passion stuff too. I'm super passionate about the game itself. I'm passionate about the details, but I'm passionate about being a father and I'm passionate about being a dad. That will always be my top priority, no matter what I get really emotional about it, because I love it. I would not want to be anybody else in the world but me when it comes to my kids and my wife. They are what gets me up in the morning and what gets me on track to do the things I want to do, but also do the right things and I'm now leading by example, when you're a father and and your husband.
Speaker 2:So when we talk about sports, you know there's a whole lot of good things that comes with sports, the bigger picture of it.
Speaker 2:It's it's the hard work and and the accountability that you have to. It comes with also being married and also being a father, but the rewards are there is no monetary value on being that. You know there isn't man, I, I, you, you don't need it. You know what I mean. A lot of people think that they need to give their kids these certain things or even take their wives on these places and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:No, it's the time spent. It is, and there was a lot of time spent I missed when I was playing. I wouldn't trade that, but I do realize when I did miss a lot of things. I missed a lot of things, but I do realize. When I did miss a lot of things, yeah, but I do realize them. Now I appreciate it 100% that I got to play at a high level and I get appreciated 100% that I get to coach these kids. It just we all are human and it's it can be mentally taxing on you when you give that much and you guys know you guys you run a gym and you do some other stuff too. There are days where you don't feel 100% and but that's still. I've never felt that that was okay to not give 100% effort to people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, yeah, that's. The thing is like you repeated it a couple of times, it's like you you made a choice to try to be the best that you could be. There's sacrifices that are going to come along with that. A lot of them there's. No, it's non-negotiable. You can't avoid them. It's going to happen. You're just going to have to embrace and accept them. Yeah, and so, yeah, that's that stuff is it's. It gets wild, man, it gets dark for some people, but, like you said, you got to have a strong support team, man.
Speaker 3:You know and you got to be able to be okay with being a little vulnerable when those moments do come and, you know, get that help. Yeah, I want to talk about this. This is going to lead to a second question, but what was the? You mentioned your father. What was your relationship like with your dad?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I got, I got a. I have a crazy family. I love it. I'm Japanese, mexican, okay, okay, I have a. Mom was Mexican, my dad's Japanese. My mom was married three times to three wonderful dads, wonderful, nice, a bunch of brothers and sisters from these families, lots of grandmas and grandpas, lots of cousins. Big family. Wouldn't trade it for the world, man. You talk about an unbelievable Christmas. Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3:That was the best because I only do you get like three Christmas. You know what I mean? Yeah, birthdays.
Speaker 2:I it's my relationship with my dad is awesome as an adult. My dad was great. My dad was always there for us and then my both of my step-dads great people, great men. I just had a strong mom. I had a very strong mom. Most most people in portable, probably newer. She passed away about things. You know we're going on 16 years, which is one of the reasons I don't. I don't get to come home very often. It's a little difficult. But when you grow up with a parent that is strong, will and type A and and maybe at that moment you know, realize how good for that good good that is for you.
Speaker 1:But I realize it now as a dad.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that was my relationship with my parents. And again, my mom made it. This is how strong she was, man. My mom made it. Where we had Thanksgiving and Christmases, all the dads would bring their families over. We don't have dinner together. No way, you don't hear that you know, that's amazing amazing woman. But yeah, that's that's my relationship with those those people, man, it's great.
Speaker 3:But that's huge because that's not a worry. Right, it wasn't a worry, for you know what I mean. The stress, the Possible arguments from this person, that person. It made baseball more simple, you know, and that's the thing. It's like a you, your parents, I'm assuming they knew you were an above average baseball player, so did they just trust you enough to go out and be that best baseball player, or were they somewhat hard, or were they be like anything? Or were they putting pressure on you to reach that level, or how was that? No, there was no pressure to play baseball, because you know you're a coach now, you know sometimes you might get a dad and he's like son let's. You know what.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 3:And so how, how were they with you there?
Speaker 2:was never any pressure to play baseball. It was always just pressure to be a good person as good as you can. Yeah it, baseball was never a top priority.
Speaker 2:They loved it. They love coming to the games. They always supported me. My mommy can hear from any stands. Dad would travel out of town to come see me. Both of my other dads to. They would come to see me. It was never a top priority, though, so it wasn't anything. They pushed me to be. Try to be the best Baseball player in the world. Yeah, it's pretty new to some families, though, man, there's not a whole lot of professional baseball players and families where people go well, you know, do it like your younger brother did. It wasn't like that. I was the oldest in the family, so nobody knew what was really happening. Even when I got drafted, they're like, wow, okay, this is actually possible it happened, I'm like, yeah, I can't believe it, but yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker 3:There was never top priority in my life, not really so I'm going to assume that you kind of like, I'm going to assume that you kind of took that to your son right not a whole bunch of, I mean, because you coached them, right, yeah, and so you weren't a stiffer on them, you weren't putting a bunch of pressure on them. You kind of just went the way that your parents went about, or was there like a sense of standard. Now that you're a professional baseball player, you know how describe that relationship.
Speaker 2:Well, that's tough man I had to take. I had to do a lot of growing up. Yeah, my me personally I can't be easy to play for a dad that played at a level like that. I was maybe a little more competitive when he was younger 8 to 12 and then I coached him in high school and of course it's different. I tried not to be harder on him, but I my expectations for him are a little different. Good baseball player, though, big, strong kid. Good head on the shoulders, good kid. But it's really hard not to be a little harder on him. But at the same time I try to be a dad and say, okay, big picture is this is probably got a like less than a 1% chance of ever playing in a professional, so let's not bank on that let's just you get through school and if you want to keep playing baseball, awesome sounds good, but just work hard yeah
Speaker 1:yeah just work hard.
Speaker 2:That's it just work hard if you want to whatever you want to do, just work hard. You know, be a good guy, good handshake, good eye contact, mm-hmm, that's that's.
Speaker 1:You know, that's pretty much how my relationship with my kid now is easy and you got a great one, right, I do, man he's a good yeah he's a good kid, yeah so I mean, when you you kind of talked about I'm kind of going back a little bit but the mental side of finding your purpose after playing baseball or whatever sports, what's playing right, how would you kind of able to find that purpose? Or did you have a plan when you were done playing yet and like what was that journey of finding that purpose and kind of getting out of that rut, maybe that you were in and finding that that value you could give back and that purpose of kind of going back and whatever you kind of went in with with coaching and education eventually.
Speaker 2:But that's tough man. That's such a blurry like timeline because when you, when you're out of baseball and again you're going through a tough time, you you tend to, you know, do some adult stuff. You go to bars and hang out and just super selfish and do stuff like that and thinking I'm gonna conquer the world by doing absolutely nothing, standing here and hopefully the world catches up to me, and then these things get handed to you. And then when I got married, my brain did this weird like hard wire reset and then when I had a kid, the grace of God just put his arms around me and says this is what you're gonna do. That is when I came out of it.
Speaker 2:Me and my wife dated for five years before we got married. It was awesome, man. She was actually with me when the independent league talked about a life changing person to come into your life. Thank God, the stars all aligned because I was not that type of guy. But when, honestly, when I had my son is when I realized that my purpose in life was this. That is a crazy thing to do to an excellent athlete, because athletes think they are invincible, they don't need anybody, I'm all about me, I, I, I, I and then you have a kid and that changes everything and it's the best and that's what kind of led me into. I'm gonna make sure I can do within my power to do the best for my kids and I can't say 100% of the time. It's good for dads to coach their kids. I don't wanna get on that and say I don't wanna die.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna die on that hill, man, cause you wanna do it for the right reasons. I'm not trying to put my kid at the top of the lineup and make sure that he's the big guy all the time, because I know from playing that it doesn't end up like that. It always ends up being the guy is the guy. You can try to pay for all this stuff. You can try to say this kid is that this, this and that? But they're gonna have to eventually put up these numbers, they're gonna have to actually be that guy and you're gonna set him up for failure if you do that. So you have to be very careful as a coach to realize okay, should I coach my kid, or should I, shouldn't I? This year I got to. This is my first year, probably in my first year, actually not coaching my kid in the summer. Ah, it's the best.
Speaker 3:Oh man.
Speaker 2:I got my lawn chair, sat down the line with my Pepsi and just watched.
Speaker 3:Soaked it in. Huh yeah, it was the best.
Speaker 2:I saw a couple of the guys I know I coached and they're like are you dad today? I'm like this is the best. Why didn't you guys tell me this was?
Speaker 3:that good.
Speaker 2:There's no pressure.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Of course I want my kid to succeed, but man, he prepares hard. I don't get nervous when he plays. I want to see him good. I want to see him have good at bats. I want to see him play hard. I want to see him get ready for the games, and he does all of that, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool man yeah.
Speaker 3:So I kind of want to, for all the pictures that are gonna be listening to this, I kind of want to tune into your mentality that you had on the bump. You know what I mean Facing against another guy in the box that you knew that was gonna be a tough battle. Explain that to us. How was your approach? What was your mindset? What were you going into when you faced a guy?
Speaker 2:Have you guys ever seen Love of the Game?
Speaker 3:Love of the Game Cap of the Officer.
Speaker 2:That clear of the mechanism is that it is one on one battle. I don't care who's in the stands, I don't care who's in the dugout, I don't care who's behind me. Actually, I'm going to get you out. If my arm is falling off, I'm gonna kick the ball up there and I'm gonna get you out. I am not a super physical, confrontational, big, raw, raw guy, but for some reason, when I was on the mound and didn't matter what stuff how I felt I'm getting you out. You may get me once Lucky.
Speaker 3:Lucky. That's what we're calling it Lucky.
Speaker 2:That was my mentality. I wish I knew that. I wish I learned that a little earlier in my career. The game seemed to be moving so fast when I first got drafted that. I couldn't quite catch up to it. I really started getting that towards the end of my career in the Independent League really. But again that was me slowing it down, taking a breath and then just competing and battling.
Speaker 3:Maturing basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just maturing these kids that have a lot of success when they're younger. And I had a lot of success again. I wasn't one of the best players, but it was pretty good. You don't have to deal with a whole lot of adversity when you're younger, when you're real good and you feel hard. I was hitting you. You don't have to put the ball where you want.
Speaker 1:You just throw it anywhere near, they're gonna strike out facing adversity.
Speaker 2:It just built such an inner strength that I needed that. When I was younger I didn't really get it. So when I got into pro ball, it was when I had to really figure out who I was as a pitcher, and that was like that's when my brain clicked on. If you wanna win today, you will put me on the bump. I will toe the mound today. If you wanna win, If you want the best chances to win, I'm your guy. But then I had to realize the next step was what's my preparation? You have four days till your fifth day start. What's my preparation? I had to realize what days I needed to run, how I needed to lift, how I needed exercises, how do I need an ice? Get my brain right. The visualization of the night before, the visualization in the morning before games when I pitched, all became so much more important. It wasn't just I get to pitch today, show up to the park, there's a whole lot that goes along with it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's pretty much in an nutshell, you became more of a student of the game basically with the mental preparation and things like that. Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1:As a coach? How do you continue developing as a coach? And the game? I'll say that I guess the game is constantly evolving, but at the end of the day, it's still baseball and it's still the same game that we've played for 100 years, right? But as a coach, the mental side of it, the gameplay, the practice planning and all that stuff how do you continue to evolve as a coach?
Speaker 2:Not being afraid to evolve as a coach is one. I'm not so good that I can't keep learning Right.
Speaker 1:That humility and open mind oh heck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, when you start coaching, you figure in your head there's one way to take a ground ball, there's one way to throw that pitch, there's one way to hit, there isn't. You're wrong if you think that Also, getting coaches from old school to new school being around coaches I was around some really good guys in the summer and then again my own coaching staff that some guys that just came out of like a Dean one call is that came out of. I had a couple of guys, couple of guys in the summer that came out of Cal State, fullerton, and they were showing me some stuff on the infield that I hadn't seen. Nice Again, my old school way is getting in front of the down ball and knock it down and throw them out. Okay, I had to watch that and listen and I'm like man, those dudes, they know what they're talking about.
Speaker 2:I like it. I like the movement.
Speaker 2:I love that they're teaching these kids to be athletic and not just so baseball player Putting a finesse on it, yeah there's an athletic movement to sometimes taking a step back on a ground ball and it's okay to do a backhand type deal. That's where I feel that I'm always learning. And you know what man? Again, kudos to social media. There's a lot of good guys out there. There's a lot of good baseball dudes out there Some, I don't know, yeah, but a lot of good stuff that I really really like. And you can't not like professional athletes, you can't not like D1 athletes, you can't not like college players. I love watching. This is crazy. My son knows this.
Speaker 2:We go to the Sacramento RiverCast game, which was the AAA for the Giants up in Sacramento. I love watching bullpins. I could stand there all day long and watch these guys get ready for a game because there's such a feel to it and such the body timing. And then I love watching catchers block. I love all that stuff. Man, that's just me learning. And there's a. I have a notebook. I take notes for every single game and I can go back to any questions that I had about the game before. But I love being a student still still being a student of the game and the preparation of it. You have to be, yeah.
Speaker 3:So what advice do you get kids that do have that desired play at the next level? You mentioned a kid. He's going to Stanford. You throw 96, they're gonna come find you. But if you don't have that, God giving talent and you got to dog it out, what advice do you give these kids? How do you tell them to prepare and what do you tell them to do and things like that to help them reach that next level that they're fighting so hard to get to?
Speaker 2:I think that's the biggest thing, and me and you, I think, text back and forth about this Don't be afraid to jump in the deep end, don't be afraid to fail. Do not be afraid to fail in anything in life, in anything. You want to go, do something, do it. I always tell kids look, you're going to screw up, you're going to make an error, you're going to walk a guy, you're going to hit a guy, you're going to lose a game. You're going to do all you're going to be able. You know how humiliating it is to throw a pitch and have to walk off the mound.
Speaker 1:It's awful.
Speaker 2:So what Tomorrow? There's tomorrow, there's tomorrow. God willing, there's tomorrow. You have to wake up and get to do it again. There's a perspective in this. It's not the end of the world. If you're super competitive yes, it might be you might think it's the worst thing in the world. It's not. There are worse things. What I tell kids is also have fun, but take care of stuff, man. Do good in school, be good to your mom and dad, thank them. Anytime I have a conversation with kids on the phone, I'm going to think I'm thinking about committing to this school or I really want to take this recruiting trip. Hey, make sure you take your mom and dad. There's a whole lot of stuff that goes behind the scenes there.
Speaker 3:I, you know you say that and it's awesome because you know I tried to. I'm trying to do this with my own kid, but I also try to share it with other kids that come into the gym. It's like try to win in other areas of life other than just your sport, because when you have a bad game, you know and if you're winning, you help that person open the door. Something simple you know what I mean. You, you aced your math test. You shake off that loss, you shake off that embarrassing moment, that ball going between your legs or whatever the case, and just find other ways to learn how to win other than just your sport.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah it's, it's huge. You're so right, man, and you know a lot of parents also. They think they want their kids to be athletes. All the time I'm like, well, maybe they don't want to be athletes, maybe they want to be a painter or a. They're creative minds. Maybe they want to be a musician, maybe they want to be a photographer. Awesome, find something, and my biggest find a purpose in life, but also being something bigger than you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you know what?
Speaker 2:I mean being something bigger, be a teammate in some capacity. Yes, be a great student. You know Um one of my, steven his daughter is a is an artist.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, dude is crazy.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:That's her thing, man. Yeah, you know what I mean. Whether she liked it or not, it's her thing. And there's a lot of things that we figure out later in life that we were really good at it. We just missed because we were so focused on doing these other things, trying to be the big football player, the big basketball player. Well, you didn't realize that you were actually a musician this whole time, did you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But just try things out. I mean for crying out loud. Look at Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. I know Sam Smith man, baseball player, basketball player.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it built, it kind of builds them up to be those guys. And you know, you do see, and it's great that you touch on Michael Jordan or even, like a LeBron James, you touch on where they are now. You watch them on TV, you go these guys are so great, it wasn't easy to get there. Yeah, there's a whole journey to that. You have the love. You know the lifting, the criticism, the fall, the rise, the hype and all that stuff. It's very difficult to be those people. Just be you, be the best version of you, 100%. Just be the best version of you. Yeah, absolutely, I agree.
Speaker 1:I think it's like going back to you know, when you do have like a bad game or make a mistake, right. It's like you said continue to open those doors, because today, I mean, you do see, when kids make a mistake, everything else falls and like maybe it's a big mistake, right, and sometimes even as educators and teachers and whatever, like some of those kids are kind of written off and, you know, ostracized and stuff like that. But it's also like, especially kids, like it's in middle school and high school, like that's going to be the time make. Make mistakes early if you're going to make them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know we get the support and all that stuff. But just because you make a mistake, that doesn't mean you have to fall and everything else in life right Right. Keep opening the doors, keep doing the things right. Pick yourself back up right. And sometimes I think, like as a as an administrator, an athletic director yourself I'm also an athletic director Like, we get to, we see that aspect and it's like all right, let's get you back on your feet, let's get you what you need. And let's continue to move forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause it's so easy to, just like, you know, kick the kid down and you know we want to kick him off the team, all that stuff. But you know, kids do make mistakes and it's like let's make the mistake now in middle school. Yeah, let's learn from it so it doesn't happen in high school or at the next level, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it's important also that when the kids do make mistakes and disciplines in school, bring parents in. Let's talk about it. Right, you know, of course there's detentions. There's been detentions since we can remember in school. You know, there's, there's that stuff. But let's, let's. Let's first of all get it up in the open of what really happened, um, but also the big. The big picture is how can we learn from it and then we move on. It's pretty simple.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We take the slap in the face or whatever we're going to take, and then we get take the butt whooping. And then we move on and then we can become better from it. Now, if you want to make a mistake a billion times in a row, then we got to. Really, we may have a different issue, but we're we're trying to figure out what's the end goal here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, better that's it, that's the end goal is to be better.
Speaker 2:Hey, you're like I, like I said before, even with COVID, um, coming out of COVID, these athletes are struggling, um, mentally, um, I don't know, I don't want to call it soft because I don't think it's that. I think it's, um, we become a little lazy, um, because when COVID happened, pretty much we just were told to you know, go to chill in your house and hang out and do whatever, and then we came out of it and we have to go outside you know, but let's not forget the parents struggle.
Speaker 2:I'm a parent. We struggled and we're still struggling. Um, we still have to grow, and I'm not just a coach, I'm a dad. So we have to grow and still be better. That's it, plain simple 100%.
Speaker 1:What, uh, you spent like a. You spent seven years as a athletic director and also a coach educator. What are some of the biggest challenges um in today's world that that we're facing? I know you talked about some of the mental stuff um with coming out of COVID and stuff like that, but today is difficult Social media.
Speaker 1:Oh man, there's so much that comes along with it that we're seeing right now, and sometimes it's like we we don't have all the answers right. We're, we're with these kids, uh, a good deal of the day, right, day and after practice and things like that, but there's so much that they're consuming on social media. It's it's difficult today. So what are? What are some of the things that you've seen um and like, some of the challenges, but also some of the maybe benefits of helping these kids overcome these, these um situations.
Speaker 2:It's, it's the relationship between the, the, the kid, the athlete, student athlete, the parent and the administrators. Um there's, there's a. There seems to be a disconnect every once in a while a lot. Um, it's really the, the, it's really getting down to the root of the problem is so when I also helped me, when you're an athletic director, you also have to help a lot of disciplines because most of the time the kids an athlete right Sure Um and you know the parents.
Speaker 2:you probably have a relationship with them just because you coached their kid and they trust you with their kid. So they want to figure it out Now, when, when little Johnny goes home or Susan or little Susie goes home and says, hey, mom and dad, this, this, this happened.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, as a parent, you want to go. Okay, I trust you, son, daughter, and we're going to go to the school and we're going to go have it out with the student or the teacher, because what you told me was awful and I believe you 100%. Um. I'm not saying kids are liars, but kids are liars Sometimes, um. So what I think what it is is they're humiliated and they don't want to tell what really happened, and that's okay. They're children, right.
Speaker 1:Right, they're embarrassed, correct.
Speaker 2:And I think what happens is that they're the parents get kind of upset and and and rightfully so most of the time. Um, but I think if we all had the same mindset of what is the problem, what happened and can we move on, good, perfect, let's move on now, let's serve as a suspension or detention or whatever he has to do or she has to do, and we all move on. Yeah, perfect, I am, I don't hold grudges, but I think the social media thing is scary, super scary man.
Speaker 2:It's 24 hour news, whether you like it or not. You post a picture, it is now up there for 24 hours in a day and and you're honestly wondering if anybody liked it.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:That's a scary thing because Even when you're asleep they're judging it. Yeah and again, whether you like it or not. And then now you have to Pretty much get up the next morning and go okay, can I go face these people at school today because of what I posted? And then some kids there's think it's funny when they you know they seem to fight and they record it instead of helping.
Speaker 2:Yeah the situation. They want to record it and go show everybody. Again, they're kids and we need to figure out a way to actually Stop this type of stuff from happening. And that's that's on us parents to really go hey, look, if you see something wrong, try to help it right and not try to show everybody how funny it is, because maybe it's not funny. But I think a lot of that Starts at home, maybe attention. But again, parents are trying, we're all trying, yeah, you know. But I think the heart that the biggest challenge is, that I would say in athletics is I think parents think their kids are like the best athlete in the world. And I don't blame, because we don't want our kids to be the best.
Speaker 2:But sometimes they're not, and that's okay. Yeah, don't try to keep up with the Joneses and Little Johnny. Last week in a state tournament hit two doubles, and why my kids strike out three times? What's going on here? He's had a bad day, right? Yeah, the kids. Yeah, it's all other kids.
Speaker 3:It's true, you know, because I mentioned earlier that there's strength in being vulnerable. There's also strength not being the smartest or the fastest or the because, you know, sometimes those kids that are the strongest, the fastest, the smartest, they had no desire to become smarter, faster or stronger. You know what I mean. So it's like you mentioned earlier there's perspective and everything.
Speaker 2:Yep, you just got to find it, you got to find it, man, you got to find it, you know you. You talk about the kids when they're younger, and I talked about also Perseverance when they're younger. You have a lot of kids in Little League. They're hitting all these home runs on their front foot. There's this big six foot kid that's in Little League.
Speaker 2:He's like 11 years old and he's hitting these home runs on his foot foot and just flicking the ball out there it's going to the fence. No coach is telling him he's doing it wrong. What the heck is that he's doing it wrong? So when he gets to me in high school, those are lazy fly balls and they can't figure out why. Yeah well, when he was 11 and 12, he hit a home runs. Those aren't. That's not a good swing. You know Trust the process on this. Yeah, you know trust the journey. He's got to get stronger. He's got to get better. He's got to stay back on the ball. We have to be honest with the kids at the same time, which is so hard as a parent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because now you don't want to get into the this thing where you're actually trying to be friends with your kid because you're not their kid, you're their parent, right, but you also. But also they go through such a hard time sometimes that you don't want to be honest with them at that point because maybe you're just really gonna Send them over the edge and it's gonna be a time and a place, kind of thing.
Speaker 3:You know, you know it'll be awkward for 24 hours, but you'll have them forever. Yeah, you know, that's the thing and that's what parents need to truly understand. You know what I mean. It's tough, man, it's tough.
Speaker 2:You know us parents, we don't have the best days sometimes and we want to go home and have everything be great. But guess what? I have a daughter who's in stunt chair and sometimes she's missing her bow man. You know, but it's okay. And then you you know mom and dad, or you know we have we want to be able to go out to dinner and have a good time, but when something happened at home, it's like, dude, come on, man, can we not have one night off?
Speaker 2:Nope you can't you signed up for it, but yeah.
Speaker 3:Well so, as this thing is starting to wrap up, I gotta ask this did you ever face off with Steve? You never, never, never, did never War him.
Speaker 2:You know what? I got to watch him a couple times and he's a really good hitter.
Speaker 2:Yeah he really was. But the thing about his swing was he would catch everything kind of out in front and it was really really nice Like he would stay back. And these big league hitters they're such quick to the ball, he's such a big, tall they was here he's. He's a really big dude. To get big guys to play baseball and be short of the ball is just this crazy Technique that I just don't understand. But to watch him hit was something awesome and I got to watch him hit in high school.
Speaker 2:Obviously his swing in the big leagues was not the same as his high school, but so watching me evolve into the baseball player, he just it was just a really really good swing. But again I want to war him In that part?
Speaker 3:No, but they your competitor, man. I get it.
Speaker 2:We all understand it you know, I, I went, it's, it's like you know it's like you just never show any.
Speaker 3:You know you have weaknesses, but you don't show them, you don't talk about it.
Speaker 2:This is what. Yeah, no, you're right, and yeah but, you have to be humble enough to know him. You have because you have to work on him. You can't just go on there going. I am through a hard all the time. Yeah well guess what? There's gonna be a dude up there that's looking for that, and they're gonna smoke it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's gonna be. Do it game, pay 700 million. Yeah, I mean so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I you know what you guys are doing. Before we wrap up, I just wanted to touch on you. What you guys are doing is unbelievable, is awesome. I'm super proud of you guys. I'm super proud to be here. I appreciate you guys. Let me be in this chair for the day. Our little town of Portaville I give much love to. I love coming home.
Speaker 1:I do.
Speaker 2:I love it. There's so many people here in Portaville, in this area in the Valley, that know a lot of baseball yeah, but also they're good men. They're good husbands, and and and and dads. They're just good people. And for you guys to be able to have people on and be able to talk and tell their story, I think is crazy, unbelievable. You don't just wake up a morning, go and have all this stuff and then set it up. I think it's fantastic what you guys do. I'm super appreciative man, really.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Well, thank you, man. I we appreciate you taking the time to come all the way down here and Sitting the chair with us and it's just cool to be able to like. I mean, it's it's our honor to like. Have you guys on. Look, we get to talk to, whether it's you or Steve Cox or bear Pasca, whoever it is like. It's an honor for us and so we thank you. It's cool to bring back like you guys into the chair and get to share it with our young athletes and the parents of these young athletes. You know a lot of them do know who you guys are, but some of them don't right and they've never heard the story. So To shed light back on you guys that have given so much to our community, our kids, and now Continue to give back to our youth and just share that knowledge to help them achieve their goals, is really cool for us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, awesome. Yeah, it shows how much you love the game.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love the process. I really do. I really. You know you guys do workouts here. You do private lessons. Are you private workouts? It's the motivation part? Yep, it's the motivation part. And being consistent, that's a very difficult part to do because we are human and we have other stuff needs and stuff we want to do. But that's how we give back. If that's a passion and that's awesome, yeah. But let's you know, in perspective, we are all people and we we have to be able to to coexist and do things together. I know competition is one thing where guys want to really just really hammer at each other. Yeah, but hopefully at the end of the day you still shake hands, say I love brother, man, I'm so happy I can pet it, competed against you guys today. Also, kids want to face teams that were their best player was hurt. Why I want to face that team with their best player man.
Speaker 1:Yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah so I, you know it just there's. There's so much mental part to Athletics because it sets you up for the rest of your life. Yeah you know we're gonna be old one day, like I am now, fill it every morning when I get up, both on BP, like that rubber arm and yeah, it's, it's, it's fun stuff, man.
Speaker 3:You know, I'd like Victor Lava right, he was. He was just on the podcast and I'll tell you what I told him. It's you know, when we get people from our small town that go to the highest level of whatever sport it was football, baseball, basketball and then they come back and find a passion for coaching, man, thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you, because it that's not how it goes all the time, you know, and I mean, some people reach that level. I had my time, I'm done and they don't share the experience, I don't share the passion and the knowledge that they have. So, man, thank you for doing what you do, absolutely I know I enjoy it.
Speaker 2:I do, I do enjoy it. It's, it's part of my life. There may have been a time where I was like I do not want to do this, but it just keeps bringing me back for more. Yeah but you get attached to kids, you get attached to people.
Speaker 3:Yep. Um but you adapt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you do, and I just love everything about our little town, though. So, that's that's why I got back home man, it's just everything about from our Mexican restaurants to Again. Like I told you guys, you go down night. I taught till people were. Port of ill is like I'll go down 99 until you start to smell a little bit of rotting citrus and Maneuver. You're getting close. Yeah, now head east about 10, 15 miles, you'll start. Smells carne asada. You're there found it made it boom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, you know, like, before we wrap this up, we kind of talked a lot about a lot of the issues, right, especially we're facing as a country, as you know, with our youth, the only way you fix this is to get guys like you, like what we're doing in good coaches To, or to good people, good men, to come back and coach, right, those are what. Those are the role models the kids need. And so for you and you know all the people around this country and this community that have went on and done great things and they come back and give their time back in their communities, this is how we fix our country. This is how we're going to help our kids and to be role models for them. Right, people could complain all they want, but unless you go and put your time back in to our youth and stuff like that, you know that's what's gonna make it different. I really, really believe that yeah, well, time back in.
Speaker 2:Like I told you, my favorite coaches were my little league coaches. Yeah, this guy's gonna get paid anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I would also think that you know on that topic is let's educate ourselves. Before we spew something on online, hundred percent, let's educate ourselves. Yeah, you know, let's really figure out. Let's say it to ourselves in a mirror before we say it out loud and realize, okay, is this right or is it wrong? And then you know, kind of go from there I. We're all human, we get emotional and we get ticked and whatever and we say stuff, but let's realize who's around us and what we're saying. If somebody needs kicking the butt, you know. Kicking the butt, you know, especially kids, they need, they need that. Those Struck that structure and those boundaries. But playing, you're right, man, I think we can, we can fix everything that's going on. I think we can, but it takes everybody. It doesn't take just in it. The hardest thing to also is to line everybody on the same perfect day there, over every way.
Speaker 2:We have to we have to lose. The real is the realization that, yeah, we think that everybody's gonna wake up, feeling 100% every single day. We wake up because it's not gonna happen right, life happens, things happen, the bad stuff happens and we have to just be strong and just deal with it. Yeah, it's hard, it's true.
Speaker 3:Life's a team sport and if you do, if you do decide to take the coaching title, don't take it light you know, Because it you go into it, making an impact, the positive one at that, yeah so doesn't stop with the kids.
Speaker 2:The parents too, man. Yeah, the relationships I have with parents. You know I have conversations with some of the parents and it's awesome. Hey, with the good or the bad, take the good and the bad. Yeah, I may go home and have to grant to my wife and but there are times where I'm like you know what I love that they brought that passion in with that conversation. I don't like the way they brought it to me or the tune that Tony was in, but I do love that they love their child.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I dig it.
Speaker 2:I do man Friggin a? You know I love it, but just realize that I would hope Well, I appreciate that they trust me with their children, but I would hope that they trust me enough to know that what I said to them or what I, what they're doing like maybe they aren't, maybe they're not playing the first two minutes because they Relate to school or they got attention. I sat him out for a game Is because I love them and I want them to be better as people, right? No, there's no handouts here, you know. So life doesn't give out handouts.
Speaker 2:No man.
Speaker 1:I wish it did, though, be a lot easier quite, quite often we're looking for life's manager.
Speaker 3:you know to, you know to express what we're going through you know, have a complaint, you know stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's real talk. But yeah, cool, any kind of you know, I guess, goals or anything you have going continuing your coaching career we're in education, things that are coming up, anything you're yeah, well At this.
Speaker 2:At this point, my overall goal is actually make coaching a career. I would love to get in the pro level. I Am my. We talk about, you know, trying to get better as a coach. It's still studying analytics and stuff like that. I'm old school and new school at the same time, so analytical and old school, I believe, can coins you know co-exist. Look at Bruce Bochie he's. They brought him back in ones of World Series. You're right.
Speaker 2:He's kind of old school, but it's culture, it's management inside the clubhouse, it's a whole lot of stuff. Those are some million. You're dealing with millionaires. That's tough, but I would love to be at the pro level, even the college level, but I would love to make a career out of coaching. I feel I bring a lot to the table as far as bringing to an organization, but I just there's a passion for it, there is and I feel like I'm capable of it. But again, that's We'll see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, timing, yeah, we'll see, it'll work out, man. Yeah, well, thanks Kurt appreciate you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, man.
Speaker 1:Thanks for taking the time to be here today.
Speaker 2:Alright, guys, thank you Bye.
Speaker 1:Bye.