3 Reasons Why Command and Movement Will Always Beat Pure Velocity

WEBVTT
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Win a state championship as a pitcher.
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Check.
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Pitch for your the U.S.
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national team and win a gold medal.
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Check.
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Return to your alma mater where you won a state title and become the head coach and win a state championship.
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Check.
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Make history as the first female high school baseball coach in the state of Delaware.
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Kristen Colwell, head coach at Caravell High School.
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Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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Baseball is changing.
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New episodes every Wednesday that showcase the best baseball coaches from across the country.
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Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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I'm Coach Ken Carpenter.
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Be sure to follow the show on X at BCU Pod.
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Once again, that's at BCU Pod.
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If you enjoy this episode, share it with someone who loves baseball.
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And also, don't forget to hit subscribe and look for a new episode every Wednesday.
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Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter, joining me today.
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And I gotta say, this is the first for me after 250 plus episodes.
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We have the head baseball coach at Caraval Academy in Delaware.
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And it's Coach Kristen Caldwell.
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She's also a member of the USA national team and a coach for the USA national women's team.
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Coach, thanks for taking time to be on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for having me.
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Well, you spent 11 years as an assistant before taking over as the head coach.
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Talk about the transition going from an assistant to being the varsity head coach, and what were your priorities that you tried to establish?
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Yeah, I started as an assistant when I was still in grad school at the University of Delaware.
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And the head coach back then is a pretty, I mean, he's about as well known as it gets in Delaware baseball, and probably regionally and nationally as well.
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Paul Nicobruga, he's, you know, 300 plus wins.
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And that's my my guy, my coaching mentor.
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And so to I played for him in the late 90s at Caraval.
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I was a relief pitcher and played some first base.
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Went to college and played basketball at the University of Delaware.
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But baseball has always been probably my true passion.
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And to be able to, you know, get right back to my alma mater and be his assistant coach was such a great opportunity to just learn the right way to do things.
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His standards, his just his character and integrity and how he represented this school always just felt like the right way to me.
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And so then for 16 years, I was the head girl's basketball coach at Caraval.
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That opportunity kind of came around first.
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I have a son who I guess when my son was in seventh grade, it was 2002.
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Now that was, I kind of figured that was my last year coaching basketball.
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He was getting older.
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I wanted time to slow down a little and not it, it's basketball is such a long season.
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And you know, Thanksgiving, Christmas, every single one I was rushing off to this tournament or this game.
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So 2022, we actually we won the base of the basketball state championship in Delaware, and it was incredible.
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And then I retired.
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I don't know if I'm old enough to say I retired from something, but I hung it up.
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I knew I wanted to just be home more, be a mom, be with my dogs.
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And then that very next fall, so less than a year, the Caraval head job opened up and I was like, man, what an opportunity.
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How can I pass this up?
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So I applied.
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And so it went from my coach that I was an assistant for to another coach, then to me.
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Uh, and so it was incredible.
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I mean, our our field is named for the coach that I coached with, Paul Nicobruga.
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And so what a what an honor and a privilege to just be out on that field every day, just trying to continue what he started.
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He won five state championships in his time in Delaware, and we just won the last one in June.
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So that felt amazing.
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Yes, that's sounds like you just picked up right where they left off and uh just keep the train rolling.
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Yeah, I mean, it's it's been a work in progress because for sure, not everyone that was in the baseball program when I when I first got to the job, they didn't come there to play for me.
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So obviously there's a a little transition period, and you know, we had honest conversations with people.
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That's okay.
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If, you know, you didn't come here to play for me.
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If you think that there's a better opportunity somewhere else, that's fine.
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No hard feelings.
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I wish you well.
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So we kind of felt like this past season was our first season with a whole roster of quote unquote our guys.
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My son's class, they were juniors this past year.
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And we had a couple great seniors, a huge junior class, and it just felt like the mix was right, the work ethic and commitment was right, and man, it worked out great.
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Well, you know, I I try to sit here when I I have a guest on and I I'm trying to think, okay, what what would a listener wanna want to ask?
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And this one came to mind.
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When you were young, you know, obviously you were very successful pitching for the high school team and you know going on and playing in the internationally.
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But when you were young, how was that decision made when you said, you know, hey, I I'm not a softball player, I I'm a baseball player.
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Well, I think it started with my parents.
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So I have two sisters, and between the three of us, we played just about everything.
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Two of us stayed with baseball.
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Our other sister played softball, two of us played volleyball, the other one played field hockey.
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So I think the the main thing growing up was just opportunity, and that is a credit to my parents that they wanted us to be exposed to a lot of different things, not even just in sports, but in in music and other things too.
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And my dad just always wanted me to have the option, if I because he loves baseball, if I loved baseball, he wanted me to have the opportunity to stay with it if that's what I wanted to do.
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Well, I I think back to when I was a kid growing up in eastern Ohio, and I don't know how it is in Delaware, but we played it was a Bronco Pony League, Colt League.
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And when I was on the pony league level, that was probably I I want to say that's maybe eighth grade level.
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Our best pitcher was a girl named Connie Hibbitz, and she just had a lights out curveball, and and nobody questioned it.
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I mean, she was legit our best pitcher, and when she was on the mound, we knew we had a really good chance to win.
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And for you, when you said, All right, I'm a baseball person here, what how did you decide, all right, what what position am I going to focus on?
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And how did pitching become your passion?
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Well, growing up, I mean, throughout little league, you know, the small field, I would say I had a an athletic advantage, you know, just biologically, females versus males when you're young.
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I threw, I was one of the hardest throwers.
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I played shortstop, I was a good hitter.
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And then I'm I always grravitated towards pitching.
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I started pitching, I guess at eight years old.
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You spend the whole season on the pitching machine.
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We did at that time in Little League in Delaware.
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And then for all-stars, they introduced live pitching.
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And so we had an older guy as our pitching coach, and he got me into it.
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Mr.
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Dag was his name.
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And he taught me, you know, location first, movement.
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Second, he taught me a knuckle curve that I just threw fastball and knuckle curve even at eight years old.
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And back then I threw hard comparatively.
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So uh, and had some early success in all-stars and stuff.
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And so I just pitched all the way through little league, through all the all-star teams.
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The big field, the big field is kind of coincided when you know, the boys started getting a little bigger and stronger.
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And so I had to kind of adapt.
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I mean, in high school, I was definitely more of a pitch backwards type pitcher, basketball, curveball, cutter, knuckle curve, and guys would get a pretty heavy dose of anything not straight.
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But what an ultimate advantage.
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I mean, as a as a female pitcher, man, if I could get them to two strikes, I could get them to swing at about just about anything.
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Cause definitely the the stress level would go way up for them with two strikes, and they did not want to head back to the dugout with a strikeout, but it definitely worked to my advantage.
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Wow, I love that.
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Now, you know, being the the first female high school head coach in the state of Delaware, I imagine there's got to be a little pressure.
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And how did you channel that into earning, you know, state coach of the year?
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And you guys are continuously in the playoffs.
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Well, I mean, I think I've always been comfortable at Caravel, and I think that's a credit to the school and the board of education and our administration from my time as a student to now as an employee and a coach.
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They have given me the opportunity to be comfortable doing what I want to do and being comfortable who I am.
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And so I just, it's a comfortability level at Caravel for me.
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And it's just, it's a love of like, I'm not, I'm not looking to coach baseball anywhere.
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I mean, Caravel baseball is my specific passion.
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I mean, that's it means so much to me.
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And I love the game, and I love representing Caravel so much that I didn't, I didn't really.
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It's hard to explain, but I feel like in my mind, it's not even newsworthy the female part of being a coach.
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I love baseball.
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I have the baseball resume, like it's normal for me.
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So maybe from the outside looking in, you know, some parents might have, you know, she needs to prove herself.
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I don't, I don't really feel that because I know how hard I'm gonna work.
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I have a great staff, and I know I have a a really supportive administration and board of education at Carabell.
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Well, let's talk about the 2004.
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You pitching the gold medal game against Japan.
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Talk about the mindset and confidence needed to be successful as a pitcher.
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Oh, that was such a great opportunity.
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Yeah, like I said, I played basketball in college, and I never really thought I'd have a chance to play serious baseball again, really.
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And so then when USA baseball announced they were gonna have a women's national team and they were gonna run tryouts, my one sister and I tried out at West Point, actually, was where one of the tryouts was.
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And we both made the team.
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She was a catcher, first baseman DH, and I was just a pitcher only.
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So we both made it.
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We had that first year, the first time they did it, we went to Japan for almost like a warm-up tournament and back, and then up to Edmonton, and that's where the first World Cup was.
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And so we were gone for about a month, and so like I can't actually think of anything better than traveling the world with my sister playing baseball.
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And the women, the talent level was incredible.
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So we, I'm not quite old enough, but some of the women, a few of them on the team, had played on that silver bullets team that existed for a while for women.
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I think they played minor leagues men's teams, and we had girls that could pitch, hit, our shortstop was incredible.
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So I had confidence kind of as a in that specific game, as just a pitch-to-contact type pitcher, keep them off balance and let my defense work.
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We had scouted Japan and it seems seemed like they didn't, they weren't comfortable on anything on the inside corner.
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They're definitely, you know, bunt, steel, small ball, very technical.
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They're very good.
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But I my my mindset for that game was to just bust them in with fastballs as much as I could.
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And they took a lot of strikes.
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They weren't comfortable hitting that pitch.
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We got enough run support, and it was awesome.
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It was awesome.
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My parents flew up to Edmonton for the gold medal game.
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It was awesome.
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That's great to hear.
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I I I like how you, you know, you you took advantage of of a weakness that they had.
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And, you know, I gotta ask, at your at your best, how how hard were you throwing?
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I was throwing like upper 70s, probably in in the best shape that I was ever in.
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I would I definitely threw harder after college than I did in high school.
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I mean, just physically after, you know, four years of the weight training and stuff that you would do as a division one basketball player.
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Um I would say that 04 was the best shape I was ever in as a pitcher.
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But man, the game, the game has grown.
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I mean, just as it has in the men's game on the women's team in the summer, probably our top three or four pitchers are all low 80s or so.
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I mean, there's a couple women that pitch D3 men's baseball that play on the team.
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The talent is is really good.
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But it sounds like your your ability to the mix up pitches was really the key to your success.
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Yeah, for sure, for sure.
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Now, I yeah, I definitely back then it was such a funny transition from feeling like I had to, you know, peck on the corners my whole life playing against boys and then you know flip in a bunch of off-speed.
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I could pitch a little differently against women, and that was kind of fun, actually.
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I like that.
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Well, you've reached the state playoffs each year as a head coach.
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What's your uh blueprint for avoiding complacency with your team?
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Just and actually we're having those conversations a little bit this fall because we returned, I mean, all but three starters from a team that won the state championship on June 12th.
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So it still doesn't feel like it was that long ago because it really wasn't.
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But we've had those conversations already about just just earning earning a seat at the table with our behaviors every single day.
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So right now they're lifting together and have some informal workouts a couple days a week.
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But just the the fact that I think they do feel the same that way that I feel, but playing for Caravel is such such an honor and it's such a privilege.
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And just all of our actions, myself included, we just have to earn that privilege to represent Caravel every single day with what we do.
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Be willing to guess that if it sounds like you got a great baseball community, and yeah, you know, you you played a huge role in that both as a player and as a coach, but would it be safe to say that you silenced any doubters there may have been when you won a state championship?
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Maybe so.
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Maybe so.
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I mean, it feels it feels pretty good.
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I mean, sure.
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If you if you the last couple years we came up short in the state tournament, and sure you hear, well, well, you know, maybe you should have gone with this pitcher in this game or you should have done this.
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Well, yeah, all that can get zipped right up when you actually win the whole thing.
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So in that respect, it was incredible.
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The support that we got, so we play the semis and the championship game at a minor league stadium in Wilmington Dell or Frawley Stadium where the Blue Rocks play.
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And I mean, even though summer had started, school was over because the season ran so long this year, the support was incredible.
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I think there were a lot of people, even from opposing schools, that were pooling for us.
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It's not usual.
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I don't think that Caravel is the quote unquote like the good guys in a situation, but it kind of felt like we were the good guys and the good guys won.
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And I can't really think of anything better than that.
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How important was it to have the community to show up and give you so much support, not only in that state championship run, but throughout the season?
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It's incredible.
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Both obviously myself and one of my assistants played baseball, Matt Caravel.
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We get, you know, alumni that come back to our games.
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It was actually so cool to watch.
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We have uh an assistant football coach that has a great camera setup in center field, and really they get the pitcher, the batter, and the catcher.
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And it's like watching a game on TV.
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We upload it to Huddle, all that stuff.
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But the championship game, because of that camera view and it's so close up, you could see a bunch of kids that have played for us previously in the stands going absolutely crazy.
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The whole I'm the whole game, and it it was so fun.
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I mean, one of those kids is a left-handed pitcher.
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He actually just started, he's bounced around a little bit, but he's pitching at North Carolina, which is incredible.
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He was back there going crazy.
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We had a catcher that went to West Point for a while.
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He was back there, some other kids, and so that felt really good.
00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:20.319
But even, you know, guys that I coached with at Caravel the first time when I was an assistant, teachers, administrators, board members.
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Caraval is a small place.
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We're three years old to 12th grade.
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It's probably about 90 kids per class in high school, and it's just such a connected community that it's incredible.
00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:36.880
And it felt really good to do it in front of all those people.
00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:46.880
Now, you know, I'm kind of jumping around a little bit here, but you know, going back to when you're playing internationally as a pitcher, what did you learn from the years that you you guys did win?
00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:48.960
Because you want a bronze and you want a silver.
00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:54.799
What did you learn from not winning and and how do you apply that with your players today?
00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:58.319
Well, I definitely learned that I can't stand not winning.
00:18:58.480 --> 00:18:59.599
That is for one.
00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:04.480
The bronze and the silver, I'm not even sure where those are, but we'll say that.
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:06.880
I know exactly where that gold medal is.
00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:08.960
The other ones, I'm not sure.
00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:11.200
They might have gotten lost in the shuffle.
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:14.160
But I think, I think there's a couple things.
00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:28.000
I think it taught me how much you have to value, whether it's a a regular season win or a state tournament win, how much you have to value every game and every experience and every win that you do have.
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:30.480
Baseball is so hard.
00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:36.079
It's so, it's so, it can be really tough mentally.
00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:42.480
You can have the best team all year and a pitcher knocks you off in the first round of the state tournament.
00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:47.039
You could have your best guy pitching and you guys just don't hit that day.
00:19:47.200 --> 00:20:00.480
And so I think one thing is just now that we did it, we're gonna make sure that we appreciate it and celebrate it to the max because it's it's it's so rare that everything falls into place exactly right.
00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:05.680
And it does for only one team every year, and it's so rare for it to be us.
00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:11.680
But I also think it is that resiliency of, okay, the the first, this was my fourth year.
00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:14.880
The first three years, it didn't turn out like we wanted to.
00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:17.359
And so, you know, how what do you learn from that?
00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:24.480
Baseball is really hard, and it's pick yourself back up and take an honest look at what we can do better.
00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:31.359
I think I'd I'd really credit my coaching staff the the year before, so 2025 ended.
00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:32.880
We didn't really feel good about it.
00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:36.160
It wasn't like, oh, we played our best game, we just got beat.
00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:38.880
We just we didn't feel good about how the season ended.
00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:43.680
And so we had a really honest coaches meeting that I heard some feedback.
00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:52.720
We talked about a lot of things and decided to just kind of switch up the plan a little bit, do fall a little different, do winter workouts a little different.
00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:58.640
And so I think, I mean, there's no, there's my ego doesn't matter at all.
00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:02.240
I just want to give my team the best chance to win.
00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:10.960
So I think just maybe being able to hear some feedback and apply it to our team and do some things differently.
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:12.480
I think that was the best thing that we did.
00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:17.519
Well, you were a two-sport hall of famer, you know, and you played college basketball.
00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:20.319
And we're sitting here in September.
00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:20.960
It's fall.
00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:25.680
Are you a big proponent of your athletes playing more than one sport?
00:21:25.920 --> 00:21:26.400
I am.
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:28.079
I am a hundred percent.
00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:31.519
There is, we talk about it at the end of every summer.
00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:36.880
We have a bunch of guys that play football and soccer, and we talk about it.
00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:40.480
Listen, whatever your in-season sport is, that's your focus.
00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:44.480
If you can squeeze in some baseball, that's fine.
00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:47.759
But I want them, I want them to enjoy high school.
00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:55.680
And, you know, we're all hyper focused, you know, in the the day and age of social media and everybody's posting everything all the time.
00:21:55.920 --> 00:22:10.480
I think kids and families, they start thinking, you know, as High school baseball as this avenue to college, which it can be, but man, let's not forget to enjoy all the moments in high school first.
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:12.720
And that includes other sports to me.
00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:17.839
So we're gonna we're gonna value a fall soccer season or whatever it is.
00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.519
That was, I mean, my way as an athlete.
00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:23.759
I think it's just healthy for kids.
00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:31.839
And man, you hope if you play in college, you know it's a great experience and it's even better than high school, but there's no guarantee of that.
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:37.279
So I just want them to have all the experiences that they can in high school.
00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:42.160
How did you think basketball helped you specifically when it came to baseball?
00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:48.240
Well, I played for a coach at the University of Delaware that was really tough.
00:22:48.400 --> 00:23:01.519
So I would say in some ways, I I learned what I did want to be as a coach, and I learned a little bit, to be honest, about what I didn't want to be as a coach through that experience.
00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:10.640
And I think the basketball part, I would say specific to college, it taught me, it taught me how to work hard for sure.
00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:17.839
You know, you think you work hard, and man, then you get in an environment where there's people better than you, and it's just that next level.
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:22.000
So it taught me a true work ethic and what hard work is.
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:26.880
It taught me a lot about just being responsible to a group.
00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:29.599
About, I mean, I'm 45 years old.
00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:36.319
I still will sit up straight in the middle of the night thinking that I'm late for like basketball practice on an 8 a.m.
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:37.759
at the University of Delaware.
00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:43.200
Like, so that idea of just always being early, always being responsible.
00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:45.599
And it it carries to baseball really well.
00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:47.279
Like our field is beautiful.
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:50.160
We're one of two fields in Delaware that has lights.
00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:52.720
We're natural, you know, grass and dirt.
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:54.480
Our field is beautiful.
00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:59.200
And part of part of the deal is how hard our kids work on our field, too.
00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:01.680
Um, so the work ethic part is big.
00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:03.920
What's your favorite drill as a baseball coach?
00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:04.559
Hmm.
00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:06.000
Favorite drill.
00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:07.920
Well, that's a good question.
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:11.200
There's a lot, there's a lot that I love.
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:15.279
But we play, we play this one, this one hitting game.
00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:19.759
I'd say, I don't know, only a handful of times every season.
00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:35.759
And it's just when we bring it out when things feel so stressful at the plate, and maybe we're struggling, and we just we've done the you know tough rounds of BP, and it just feels like heavy hitting sometimes.
00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:40.000
So we bring this drill out and you go two teams, and I love it.
00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:41.839
It's it's one pitch at a time.
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:45.359
You could do it off a coach pitching, you could do it off the machine.
00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:57.279
One team is hitting, one team is in the field, and usually we have a third team in the cage and we rotate it, but the first round, the hitters get one swing at a time, and I we do it for two minutes a group.
00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:00.960
The team that's in the field in the first round is only in the infield.
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:06.559
And the only way the hitters can get a point is to hit the ball on the ground through the infield.
00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:07.920
So that's round one.
00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:15.440
Then everybody does it defense, offense, then round two, every the defense is all in the outfield grass.
00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:22.559
And so round two is you only get a point if the ball hits the outfield grass without being caught.
00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:26.240
And it's so it's one swing at a time, the next guy comes in.
00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:33.359
And that round gets really fun because when the outfielders are moving, you're not waiting for them to get back in position.
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:35.519
So it's kind of like rapid fire.
00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:40.640
They love trying to, you know, sell out and dive and steal points from the offense.
00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:44.960
It teaches the offense look, that left fielder just had to run to the gap.
00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:48.960
So now can I control my barrel and hit one down the left field line?
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:54.720
It it's actually it ends up being really fun and just kind of breaks up the maybe monotony of everyday hitting.
00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:55.279
I love that.
00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:56.319
That's a great idea.
00:25:56.559 --> 00:25:59.039
I'm gonna hit you with a couple rapid fire questions here.
00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:04.000
And I want to say that I already know the answer to the first the first question.
00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:04.559
Okay.
00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:06.079
Hate losing or love winning?
00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:07.279
Hate losing.
00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:08.079
Hate losing.
00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:10.559
That's exactly what based on what you said earlier.
00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:11.599
Yeah, yeah.
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:12.720
Hate losing.
00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:14.079
Why is that?
00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:19.839
It always just feels like like losing sticks around more.
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:32.160
I mean, listen, I love winning too, but man, losing, losing can get, I don't know, get inside of your soul or something where you're just bothered by it and you can't quite shake it.
00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:36.880
And you know, you can't really get rid of it until the next time you win.
00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:41.039
And so uh, and a win, I guess maybe it depends.
00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:48.640
I I'll say this the two state championships I've been a part of as a coach, the basketball one as the coach and the baseball one.
00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:59.119
I can think of both of those dates today, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, and I feel just as amazing about it as I did the day that we did it.
00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:02.319
So that's a it's a close second, but definitely hate losing.
00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:05.359
Walk-off winner or a complete game shutout.
00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:06.720
Complete game shutout.
00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:07.200
Yeah.
00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:07.759
Yeah.
00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:13.599
Favorite player, and why is that your favorite player that plays in the major leagues?
00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:17.599
Oh, I probably have to say probably Zach Wheeler right now.
00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:20.640
So we're in Delaware, we're Phillies fans.
00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:31.680
I think, I think he's so tough to come back from that, the health issue that he had, and you almost forgot that he even had it, how well he's pitched for the majority of the year.
00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:36.079
He goes long innings, he's so reliable, he's such a professional.
00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:38.160
I'd say he's got to be my favorite right now.
00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:40.160
Best coaching advice you ever received.
00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:41.839
Well, that's that's a tough one.
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:55.279
I think probably that I don't know if this is direct quote or the gist of it, but just that you can't you can't be hard on kids until they know how much you care about them.
00:27:55.519 --> 00:28:03.759
So until they trust you and how you feel about them, you're never gonna be able to be hard on them or get the most out of them.
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:05.279
And final question for you.
00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:05.759
Sure.
00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:13.279
Best story or funniest moment in all of your experience either as a player or a coach in baseball.
00:28:13.759 --> 00:28:16.960
Boy, I gotta think about that one for a second.
00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:20.079
And you can leave out names if it's if necessary.
00:28:20.799 --> 00:28:21.839
Yeah, shoot.
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:22.480
Funny.
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:24.480
It feels like there's a lot of funny.
00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:30.559
I mean, we had so many funny times when I was the assistant at Caravel with with that.
00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:35.119
We had like a a cast of characters as a coaching staff.
00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:39.200
Um, but I'm trying to think with this, with this group right now.
00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:40.559
Shoot, shoot.
00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:42.720
Uh well, this okay.
00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:46.000
I don't know if this is the funniest, but it it it is kind of funny.
00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:56.880
So our kids this year, something from their British lit class, there's this name, and they named they named all these blackbirds that sit on our lights.
00:28:56.960 --> 00:28:59.839
I don't even know what kind of birds they are, like big blackbirds.
00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:02.160
They would name them all beezil.
00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:04.000
And uh, it's something from Brit Lit.
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:14.160
And so they would get like if it's the day before a game and they saw Beezle sitting on the lights, they would all go crazy and be real fired up, like Beasle was our good luck.
00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:20.559
So we went down to a school in southern Delaware, Kate Penlopen, for our quarterfinal game.
00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:23.440
We pull up to Kate Penlopen, they're really good.
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:27.759
They were probably favored, they were favored in the game if somebody was doing that.
00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:33.039
And they had those black birds all over their trees and whatever.
00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:35.440
And so we're pulling in the front of the school.
00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:45.200
The kids are going berserk because they see these birds, and then the the absolute best one were pulling out of Caravel to go to the state championship game.
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:48.640
You go around the bend and our football stadiums out there.
00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:55.440
There were two of those big black birds right next to each other, both with their wings stretched out to the side.
00:29:55.599 --> 00:30:01.119
And I thought that the kids like the noise on the bus was gonna like flip the bus over.
00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:02.640
They were so fired up.
00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:09.599
And so actually, on our rings, our state championship rings, we got a bird that looks like that engraved on the inside.
00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:12.400
So yeah, our good luck birds, I guess.
00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:17.759
I tell you what, it's crazy what will motivate a high school athlete.
00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:19.680
Yes, absolutely.
00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:21.039
That's a great story.
00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:21.920
I love that.
00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:30.720
Well, it's Kristen Caldwell, she's the head baseball coach at Caravel Academy in the state of Delaware and a state champion coach.
00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:34.000
Thank you so much for taking time to join me on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:35.359
Thank you so much for having me.
00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:43.039
Baseball Coaches Unplugged Podcast is proud to be partnered with the Netting Professionals Improvement Programs, one facility at a time.
00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:52.480
Contact them today at 844 620 2707 or visit them online at www.netingprose.com.
00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:53.839
That's a wrap.
00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:55.920
As always, I'm Coach Ken Carpenter.
00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:58.559
Thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.