Dugout Chatter Podcast

We send a call all the way out to California for this one with Arroyo Grande HS’s Bryan Madsen is LIVE on this week’s show! Bringing a perspective unlike any that we have had on this show thus far, BMad is a former Marine who served overseas who is now thriving in the high school baseball world and helping with USA Baseball. We discuss how Coach Madsen details how this unlikely path has led his back to, as he states inside this interview, having the privilege to wear two of America’s best uniforms.

So good the first time around that we had to run it back in Round 2 with Cincinnati Reds Hitting Coordinator CJ Gillman again in the Dugout with us! A follow up from our first conversation led us down a few new paths including evaluating our grilling skills, social media timelines and how to improve those plus we head straight down a rabbit hole into all aspects of recruiting including parents, preferences in intangibles and even some of the mechanical aspects of amateur hitters that jump off the page.

And a familiar face around the Stick and Ball TV headquarters as we welcome on Washington State head coach Brian Green onto the podcast! What an awesome episode as we cover a myriad of topics diving into recruiting, we detail the allure of multi-sport athletes, open up on coaching staff development and then feeding and cultivating a championship culture and environment which is always in BG's sweet spot! Coach Green is always ON for a chat and he shows up for this one!

Getting comfortable being uncomfortable can be a place of personal growth and inside this week's podcast, we connect with Southern University head coach Kerrick Jackson and dive straight into an uncomfortable conversation that most all of us find ourselves having recently – a conversation around race inside and outside of baseball. Kerrick opens up an engaging dialogue from his unique perspective. While also serving as the Chair for the Diversity in Baseball Committee, Kerrick takes our listeners through his thoughts over the past weeks and into the big picture of how we can all work together to be part of the solution inside the baseball and softball community. It’s a powerful episode and one that we sincerely hope challenges all of us to think differently and be better for having listened!

Taking it back to the small college levels but this isn’t your typical small college coach as Keystone College’s Jamie Shevchik stops by to chop it up and we get loose over the airwaves with Shev! Dial in with us as we talk about the years of building up the Keystone program into the powerhouse it is now then into the years spent grinding away in summer baseball before landing a managerial post in one of the infamous Cape Cod League spots as the manager of the Brewster Whitecaps and Jamie is loving life!

With the momentum surrounding this discussion, we felt that it was perfect timing to dive headfirst into the details of a new proposed version of College Baseball being championed by some of the top coaches in Division I. In this week's episode, we connect with Erik Bakich from the University of Michigan along with TCU skipper Jim Schlossnagle as both take us through the details behind this interesting new model. This proposal shows how we can adapt to a version of college baseball that allows for greater sustainability with reductions in costs plus potentially increasing revenues along with a focus on increased student-athlete welfare and the big difference in all of this – 4 weeks. Moving the season back 4 weeks into the middle of March and wait until you hear Bakich and Schloss unpack this dialogue!

Back on the airwaves with University of Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon and what an awesome walk inside your earbuds with one of the best young head coaches in college baseball! With a robust resume of success on the recruiting trails, Bohannon has brought that energy to the Crimson Tide program and we dive headfirst into his growth inside the big chair, how he continues to mature inside the leadership space and then the script gets turned and Bo takes over the hosting duties which is always fun! Such an awesome person and its been a real treat to watch one of the best live out his dream as an SEC head coach!

Inside this episode, we connect with University of Portland recruiting coordinator Jake Valentine and this conversation takes us down so many unique paths! We discuss fatherhood and its effects on Tino's connection with his own players, we spend time on recruiting from all of the different angles and perspectives involved plus we detail out the key pieces to the Pilots' offensive surge which has led to the awakening of the entire Portland program. It's a fun journey with Jake, packed with nuggets from one of the hot young coaches in college baseball!

This week's episode finds us connecting with Adam Moseley, the head coach at Hoover High School in Alabama and we take off on an outstanding walk down so many paths with Mos. We dive into the extraordinary journey that Adam has taken, working side by side with some of the very best teachers and men in baseball, we talk about his growth as a leader and even a family man plus how he has been engulfed in learning during this time off and continues to challenge himself and his staff on a daily basis. It is a powerful episode that will sit you back in your chair plus have you right on the edge of your seat with feverish notes galore!

Inside this episode, we connect with a pair of brothers that both have found their calling in coaching as we chat with Pete Savage, head coach at Reno HS in Nevada and John Savage, head coach at UCLA - what a special treat this one was! Combined on the call is well over 2,000 wins, a few state championships and a national championship plus more perspective than you might be ready for. For the baseball lovers out there, imagine a thanksgiving dinner with these two guys holding court and that’s what we went for with both Pete and John opening up on their childhood experiences growing up playing sports, we go into lifelong learning, mental notes from the late Ken Ravizza plus working at keeping balance at home with our families!