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Episode #016: Manny Roman- Pitching Coach Monroe Mustangs

November 2020 By Evan

Ep. #016: Join Evan and Manny Roman, Pitching Coach for Monroe Mustangs, as Manny shares his experience as a pitching coach, what it was like at the Juco World Series as well as tips and tools to help pitchers take their games to the next level.

What You’ll Learn:

01:13 Manny’s journey

04:15 Arm care tools and tips

07:55 Training the whole body

09:39 Pitching drills

11:10 Pre-season Process

14:42 Juco World Series experience

20:24 Pitcher Catcher Relationship

21:54 On trusting your players

23:03 College Recruiting

26:51 Accountability

27:14 MLB Pitchers to watch

Thank you for being here with us! Evan and the Born To Baseball Team are looking forward to celebrating your success and sharing this journey together.

If you enjoyed this episode we’d be really grateful if you’d rate the show and leave a review on Apple or wherever you’re listening here. This will help other ballplayers find the Born To Baseball Podcast and give us more chances to shout out our listeners!

Now, let’s play ball!

Read show notes here.

Show Links:

Twitter @coachManny45

Instagram @coach_Manny45

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Episode 016_MANNY ROMAN_PITCHING COACH MONROE MUSTANGS

The transcription below was provided for your convenience through an automated service. Please excuse any unintended errors made in the process.

Evan 0:00

This episode of born to baseball is sponsored by the BTB. Travel team and training tracker. Are you a parent or player searching for travel teams or training facilities in your area Or are you a coach looking to expand your reach? Then you have to check out the BTB triple T tracker at borntobaseball.com. Make sure your team is represented. Let's go.

Music 0:23

Calling all ballplayers. Are you ready to take your game to the next level? Were you born to baseball? Then bring it in it's game time.

Evan 0:40

Hey guys, and welcome to the born to baseball podcast. I'm Evan and today we have Manny Roman joining us. Manny first started coaching at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 2012, and served as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for Lackawanna college. He is currently the pitching coach for the Monroe Mustangs from New York who have won three regional championships in the last four years. Manny, thank you so much for joining me today.

Manny 1:05

Hey, thanks for having me, Evan.

Evan 1:07

Can you start us off by sharing a little background about your baseball journey as a player,

Manny 1:13

My baseball journey started, I'd say probably around three or four years old, in my native Puerto Rico, I was born and raised there, played through a lot of the leagues over there. After high school, I decided, you know, my dream was to play professional baseball. And I also wanted to play baseball in the States. So after high school, I decided to go to Scranton, Pennsylvania Keystone college, a small Division Three school, I got to play there for four years. And after my sophomore year, I kind of realized, Hey, you know, I might not be a professional athlete, you know, but I do really love baseball and, and that's where I kind of made the transition and said, you know what I want to coach after I'm done playing, and that's what I've been doing since

Evan 1:55

Would you say there's like, a difference between baseball in Puerto Rico and then here in the States?

Manny 2:02

Yes, yes. Not not so much different from New York City, I would say but a lot different from other states. And I think in Puerto Rico, it's a lot more passionate, like the kids and a little bit more, I would say exciting. When you're in the dugout, people are always chanting and singing and all that. Here it's kind of more laid back. But yeah, it is a little bit different.

Evan 2:26

And how did you get into coaching? Was it something like you always knew you sort of wanted to do?

Manny 2:33

So? Not really, you know, my plan originally was I was going to play four years of college. And if I could play professional baseball, I would do it. If not, I would go back to Puerto Rico. But like I said before, after my second year in college, I was like, You know what, I really like this, I thought there was a lot of information that wasn't brought back to Puerto Rico. So I said, Hey, I want to coach and I want to help kids, you know, get to places where I couldn't go and offer them a better opportunity. So it kind of started with me wanting to help guys from Puerto Rico. And then it turned out that helping kids from all over.

Evan 3:06

Yeah, that's great. That's a really great, like passion that you have for wanting to help kids where you come from, and I really like that. Would you say there's one or two coaches that really inspired you to coach?

Manny 3:22

So yes, you know, there's a lot of guy had a couple coaches in Puerto Rico that, you know, they did a lot for the sport. And while they had, you know, they had their families, they had their full time jobs, and they kind of put so much time into us that you know, at first you don't really appreciate it. But as you're getting older, you're kind of like, Hey, you know, that person did a lot for me, and they put me in the right track. And then once I got into Keystone, the same thing, I had a couple coaches where I was like, you know what they, they want the best for me, not just only in baseball, but in life in general. So that's when I was like, You know what, this, this is something I can see myself doing for a career.

Evan 4:03

That's really amazing. And many of our listeners, they're youth baseball players and coaches. So for those middle school and high school baseball players, can you share some advice on how much attention these players should be putting on ARM care.

Manny 4:18

That's where the majority of the attention should be. You know, I think arm care is something that sometimes we kind of, it kind of takes a backseat because we just want to play and play and win. But I think arm care is The most important thing that you should do as a youth athlete, because it's going to help you out. Once you make that transition into college. You know, it's very important to make sure that you probably stretching before games, making sure you're getting your bands done. And then when you're done playing the same thing, I think it's more important to take care of your arm after you're done playing for a day or throwing than it is prior to it.

Evan 4:58

That's really valuable. And I know a lot of guys, including myself, we use j bands from Jaeger sports, which are definitely a great tool for arm care and arm strength. So do you have some of your guys use bands? And what are some of the different exercises and movements that you do?

Manny 5:20

So we actually purchase Jaeger bands for all our pitchers. So that's something that you know we, Monroe does a really good job is providing those tools for the guys that, you know to take care of themselves. So we implement that from day one, they show up in the fall. And we follow the program that they have. And then as the year goes on, guys kind of come up with their own exercises and do what works for them. We also do a lot of plyo ball arm care stuff from driveline. So we try to kind of implement that. And, you know, we set like I said, a program for them. But you know, everybody's different. So everybody kind of adjusts ands tweaks it to how they're feeling on a day to day basis.

Evan 6:02

For those exercises that you give them. How many reps would you say on average would you give for each exercise.

Manny 6:12

So when they're warming up, we do anywhere from 15 to 25, just to kind of get the blood flowing to your shoulders and all the way through your arm and stuff. once they're done, post throwing, we'll do anywhere from eight to 10 nothing crazy, just you know, work on the arm a little bit, and make sure we're hitting those small muscles and getting the arm strength that we need.

Rene 6:37

And like once again, for a youth baseball player like Middle School, and then again, for a high school player. Would you recommend doing like, a certain amount of reps for them? Would it be what you do for Monroe? Like in the beginning? or after? How many reps Do you think for them?

Manny 6:57

I think you know, I'm not as much as what we would do at the college level, you know, cuz guys are a little bit more mature. But I think if you can do anywhere from eight to 12 reps, and maybe two or three sets, just depending how you're feeling on that day, that would be great. No, I think that's a good baseline, you know, before throwing and after throwing to follow.

Evan 7:19

Okay, that's really good to know. And with pitching, it's not just about using your arm and training your arm. It's also about using your entire body.

Manny 7:28

Correct.

Evan 7:29

When I talked with former Major Leaguer Nelson Figueroa in a previous episode, he said that he wished he trained more his legs and even at the major league level. So my question to you is, what are some workouts and movements that you do with your players to help them train some of the other body parts that help a pitcher become physically stronger and more explosive and more effective on the mound?

Manny 7:55

Yeah, so you know, I'm, in my years coaching, you know, and what I had before a lot of people say, Hey, don't lift heavy, like pitchers shouldn't be lifting heavy, because you know, it'll restrict you, I've come to the realization that you, you don't lift heavy, but you kind of have to lift the same as a position player would. So we do a lot of squats. We do like clean power cleans. So more like a, say like an Olympic style lifting program. You know, we do a lot of box jumps. You know, skaters, stuff like that, that is not only just weight, but it's also explosiveness. So it's kind of translates into pitching because, you know, pitching is kind of like a, you know, as a short burst, you do explode once the ball leaves the other hand, there you go. So we try to get exercises that relate right to what we're doing on the mound.

Evan 8:46

And other than your arm, like what would you say the most important body part to train for a pitcher is?

Manny 8:55

I say, it's your legs and your core. And the way I see it, it's kind of like, I always tell my guys is kind of like a car, right, your legs are your motor, your core is your transmission. And then your arm is what comes out of those two. So the force comes through the ground, through your abs through your arm. So those two are not strong, it's only a matter of time we arms gonna go. So you got to make sure your legs and your core are where they need to be. So then you can put all that force into your arm.

Evan 9:24

Yeah, that's really interesting.

And for the players who are set on like pitching at the college level someday, what are some of the drills that you think would really help those players develop?

Manny 9:39

So I'm big on on on towel drills because it helps you, you know, you're not putting a lot of stress on your arm. You're, you know, you're working on your mechanics. And then it also helps a little bit you know, with the resistance of the tower with with your strengthening your shoulder. So I think tile drills are very important. And throwing, you know, I feel like a lot of kids at a younger age don't throw enough. And so I think throwing towel drills, and just maybe do things at a short distance, I think helps a lot. You know, it's, we do that a lot with our guys, because, you know, I, my philosophy is, if you can make a ball break or locate at a short distance, you can do it at 60 feet.

Evan 10:25

When it comes to like, velocity or location, which one would you say is more important?

Manny 10:33

I would say to me my preference, I would say location. I feel especially at the younger age, you know, if you can locate, it's only a matter of time with you know, with proper training and taking care of yourself where velocity is going to come in to play. So I rather have a guy that can locate a pitch than a guy that can throw in 100 miles an hour and doesn't know where it's gonna go. Right. You know, so I but you know, at some point, they have to go hand in hand. So yeah, and in a perfect world, you want to have a guy that has both. But if I would have to pick one, I'm going to take the guy that throw strikes.

Evan 11:10

Okay, can you walk us through what you do with your college guys, like during the preseason, like, before they even pick up a baseball.

Manny 11:19

So when they get in day one, you know, I always tell my guys, you're probably gonna do more running in a week than you've ever done in your entire baseball career. So we do a lot of conditioning, that's the first thing we do. And it's not just to get them ready to pitch, but it's kind of challenge them mentally, right, and kind of break them down a little bit, to kind of see how tough they are. Um, so I say like, the first week, before we fully get on the mound and do you know, start doing actual pitching stuff, we're mainly conditioning, like doing a lot of running, doing a lot of different stations like speed and agility and stuff like that to kind of get them going. And then once you start throwing, I like to get them in a long toss program first, right, kind of build their arm strength up a little bit. And then once we were right where we need to be, then, you know, we get on the mound. And then after that, it's kind of like, you know, you'll throw a bullpen on a Monday, let's say and then Tuesday, you have a, you either get a day off or you long toss, and then you go for a run and Wednesday you do something else. So we kind of map it out where every day they're throwing, they're doing some type of throwing and some type of running. And then on top of that, they d,o you know, their arm care stuff. So that that's, that's big.

Evan 12:41

Okay, that's, that's really interesting. And, as you said, like running is super important. And I like how you said, like, with your college kids, how you not only do the running to condition, but you also do them to get them ready for the troubles that they might have on the field with the mental side. So like speaking on the mental side, what do you do to help your players like if they do break down during the game and start giving up a ton of hits, and you say like, for instance, a starter, you don't want to take them out in the first inning. So what would you do during like a mound visit?

Manny 13:17

I would go back and you know, talk to him, tell him to step back, um, you know, and just relax and just go back to the fundamentals of just like, hey, just trust your stuff. You know, sometimes, you know, when you start getting hit around, you kind of doubt your ability, and you're like, oh, maybe your stuffs not good enough. But I always tell them, and that's one thing that I always tell, like harp on and say it's like, you know, everybody is a great pitcher when everything's working, right, but the day that something's not working, that's the day you're gonna find out what kind of pitcher you are, you know, you might have given up four runs in the first inning. And I'll go out down, I'll tell you guess what you gave up four. But now give us a chance, get us out of the inning. Right, we'll find a way to claw ourselves back into the game and win the game. Now your job is not to worry about what happened is what's going to happen moving forward. So it's just more kind of like, instilling in them that confidence that hey, it's baseball, anything can happen. You had a bad ending. Now you just move forward and you try to help the team as much as you can.

Evan 14:17

Yeah, that's great coaching right there.

So you've helped them enroll Mustangs to three regional titles in the last four years, as well as back to back JUCO World Series appearances, which is super impressive. Can you talk about that Juco World Series experience and some of the things that contributed to that team success.

Manny 14:42

So that experience of going to the Juco world series it's it's like no other Yeah, I wish every kid that comes through our program gets a chance to experience that. I mean, you get to see some of the best players in the country. In that stage, you know, it comes down only to ten teams and you might see a future Major Leaguer that you don't know at the time, but he might end up being in the big leagues in a couple years. You know, for example, you know, Bryce Harper got to play there. So when we went there and you go to for the banquet, you get to see them display where they have his pictures and stuff like that. So it's kind of cool to see the history of all the players that have gone through through that tournament, that, you know, end up having very successful playing careers. And, you know, getting there wasn't easy, you know, it's kind of like a lot of, you know, bumps through the road as the both years where we were playing, we didn't have the best starts, but you know, it was a matter of time, you know, we knew we had the talent, we knew we had the, the right guys to get where we needed to be. It was just a matter of getting hot at the right time. You know, in that first year, that's what happened, we got hot at the right time. And then with the weather and certain things happened, it kind of played into our favor, where we ended up playing a college that is in our same region we got, we ended up playing them in the eastern district championship. So it's kind of like, you know, we knew, you know, what they had, we know what they were going to throw at us. And it kind of made it a little bit easier that first year. Now, the second year, it was again, we started 1 and 11. So nobody in the country gave us a shot. We, nobody thought we were going to claw ourselves back out of that.

Evan 16:31

Yeah That's crazy.

Manny 16:32

Yeah. And then guys, kinda, you know, we stayed with it, we, we kept telling Hey, you're never out of it. You just got to make sure you get to the regional tournament. And then after that, it's anybody's ballgame. And that's kind of what we did. And we we ran through the eastern district where it was something very impressive, where we I think we average like 10 runs a game.

Evan 16:51

Wow. That's, that's really impressive. Yeah, that that sounds like a great, like, super cool Juco experience. And I know you must have loved going there with the Mustangs and being a part of that.

Manny 17:04

Yes, definitely. Definitely. I mean, it was a great, great group of guys, both years that we went and, and I enjoyed both of them.

Evan 17:12

What would you say like really contributed to that success? Is it like Was it the hitters? Or was it the mindset that was going on there? What type of things really contributed to that?

Manny 17:22

I think it was a little bit of everything. I mean, the first year, I'm not gonna lie, we had three starters that, you know, between the three of them, they won over 30 games. Every time those three took them on, you knew you were going to win a game. Now one of them ended up going to No, got drafted that year in the 12th. Round.

Evan 17:41

Yeah that's Unbelievable.

Manny 17:42

Yeah, the other guy went eight in one and the other guy went like, he was like, 11, or something like that. And it was like, you know, you knew when you had a shot with those three guys, right. And then the next year, we had a deeper pitching staff, but we weren't performing. So our hitters had to pick up the slack for for the pitchers. And then, at the end of the year, like I said it was you know, we got hot, so pitchers started, you know, clicking on all cylinders, plus the hitting had come around, I would say probably like two weeks prior to that. And we put it together. So it's a combination of you know, the entire team.

Evan 18:23

And some pictures, they have tendencies that really good hitters can pick up.

Unknown Speaker 18:27

Yes,

Evan 18:29

like when you identify that one of your pitchers, is either tipping their pitches or giving a baserunner a bit of an edge? How do you help them eliminate those bad habits.

Manny 18:41

So it's, you know, it's kind of tough to try and make an in game adjustment. Just because, you know, it's JUCO you're dealing with 18, 19, 20 year olds. So, you know, they are very talented, but at the same time, they're not professional athletes where they can just on the fly, make it. So you, you know, you try to get it out of him in the game, or you just you just say hey, battle through it. And then w'll get back to the drawing board tomorrow, and then we'll work on getting that out of the way. But you know, there's certain guys that can do it. And there's, there's others guys where you kind of have to take, it's gonna take a span of seven days before their next start, you know, working on it every day, they get it out.

Evan 19:22

Yeah it makes a lot of sense. And that makes you a good coach, being able to really identify them in the first place. And then say, let's work on it and knowing your pitcher knowing your guy, knowing that he might not be able to make it in game. Let's go to the drawing board tomorrow and this week and really make sure we can perfect that.

Manny 19:41

And on top of that, you know we've had some really smart hitters the last couple years so when you know they face each other in the fall and then during winter ball when we're getting ready for the season. You know, they do a great job of communicating with myself and with the pitcher and letting him know hey, when you're throwing this picture doing this or where you're going You know, when you're going to go, you go fastball, then curveball right away, like, you know, so they do a good job talking to each other, and letting each other know what they're doing and what they're not doing. So, you know, it's, it's pretty good to see when they do that.

Rene 20:14

Yeah, that's, that's a big recipe for success really being able to communicate with your team and your teammates communicating by themselves without the coach having to tell them to

Manny 20:23

Yep.

Evan 20:24

And a great pitcher and catcher relationship are, they play a huge role in the pitchers and the team's success. So how do you help create an environment that really helps foster good pitcher and catcher relationships.

Manny 20:40

So, you know, one thing we try to do is like, each catcher has to catch every single guy, you know, in the fall, we make sure that they they're not just always throwing to the same guy. And, you know, when we're doing our flat grounds, sometimes when the the catches are not hitting, we'll bring them over and have them catch a flat ground. So in that way, they get used to, you know, every single guy, how each ball breaks and all that, you know, the other thing we do is, once we're starting getting ready to the season, we start having like classroom meetings, where it's caches and pitchers You know, and we talk about how we're going to attack hitters, how we're going to control the running game, and then I just kind of like, pick each other and they call pick a catcher and a pitcher, and then we'll pick a guy on our lineup and be like, how are you going to attack this guy, and give me every scenario, if you go first pitch strike, if you go, you know, first pitch ball, if it's a 1-1 count, and they kind of, you know, bounce ideas off of each other. And, and that's how they kind of, you know, kind of gel when especially in those classroom meetings, because they kind of see whether they're all on the same page or they're not, and then they work it all out.

Evan 21:47

OK that's a really interesting and really cool way to work it out between them. Like you said,

Manny 21:53

yeah.

Evan 21:54

And what did you take away from your experiences at the Juco World Series that have really helped you become a better pitching coach?

Manny 22:07

I think sometimes, yeah, you got to trust your players more, you know, sometimes you, you get so focused on what you're doing as a coach, like, for example, you know, I call the pitches at Monroe and there's times where I find myself in a pattern, right. And, you know, some of the competition that we face, it's, it's not the greatest. So you can get away with certain things. But once you get to the, to that kind of tournament, the hitters are a lot better. So they definitely pick up on a lot of things. So it's more like, hey, trust your guys trust what they're telling you, and sometimes just let them be them. You know, don't over coach them. Just let them go out there and play. Because at the end of the day, you know, we might call anything we can but we're in the dugout. They're the ones out there that have the front row seat to the situation.

Evan 22:58

For sure. Yeah, thanks for sharing that with us.

Manny 23:02

No problem

Evan 23:03

And are you involved in like the recruiting process for high school ballplayers?

Manny 23:08

Yes. So we all kind of split up the responsibility of recruiting. So we kind of split it up, you know, one guy that's like, the Manhattan area somebody else does, like the Bronx, um, I try to do New Jersey since I live in New Jersey, and then some of the Puerto Rico and stuff like that. But yes, we're all involved in it. And it's, it's a tough process that, you know, be in practice every day, and then try to go out there and watch some games, but it's fun.

Evan 23:42

What are some of the like, the measurements and characteristics that you look for when you're looking at a high school pitcher.

Manny 23:49

So, you know, obviously, we always look at the speed to kind of see where they're at. I think that's probably the first thing you see is like alright, he's, the velocity you can play at our level, then we see, you know, how he does. Throwing strikes, and then we'll see when, how he doesn't want me struggling? I think, you know, like I said before, when everything's on, it's easy to pitch. But I want to see when you're getting hit around, I want to see when somebody on your team boots a ball, I want to see what your reaction is going to be and how you're going to bounce back from that. And then you know, once athletically, he meets all the check marks, then we talked to the coach and I asked him Hey, what type of kid is he? How is he with his teammates? Like, how is he in the classroom ? And I I'm a strong believer that everything goes hand in hand. And you know if you're a good student, and that means you're gonna go to be a good baseball player because you're willing to learn. So

Evan 24:49

Yeah, that's important for high school baseball players listening, just to really say like, Okay, this is what I need to work on. This is what they look for, and different things like Like that. And so skill is incredibly important, obviously. Because, I mean, you need a certain amount of skill to play at a certain level. But a player's character also plays a huge role, like you said, in their success. So how do you guys and like the all the other coaching staff, help your players build a stronger character,

Manny 25:27

well we try to hold them accountable for everything they do, you know, it starts from going to class, right? You got to be able to show up to class every single day, you know, be on time for practice, you know, be willing to sit out and we we try to, like I said, hold them accountable as much as we can, with all the little things that they do. Because then it turns down to the bigger things, right, when you can get a guy paying attention to something as small, as you know, picking up a cup that was left in the dugout, you know, that's just being responsible, and you're like, Alright, he's getting it. So we try to, you know, if you miss class, you're going to pay the consequences for it. And if you're disrespectful to the teacher, you're going to pay the consequences to it. And sometimes, we may get a team thing, you know, just to kind of get everybody on board and be like, hey, you're not going to be able to get this, get away with this. And then what that does when you punish everybody, for something that one guy did, then everybody else starts holding each other accountable. Like, hey, don't do that, again, because we don't want to know we don't want to run, we don't want to do this. So something like that.

Evan 26:36

Yeah, that'sa great way of going about things is like, I know, my coach, like, we do things as a team, we make sure that everything is one as a team. So that's a really great way of doing things.

Manny 26:51

Because like, we say, you know, if you're gonna win, you're gonna win as a team, you're gonna lose, you're gonna lose as a team. So it's very important that, you know, everybody is holding each other accountable, you know, in a respectful way, and, and just looking out for each other. That's, that's what it comes down to, you know, you got to look out for your brother, and you got to know that guy to your right, that guy to your left, just put in the same amount of work that you did.

Evan 27:14

And so which one or two major league pitchers like past or present, would you encourage your players to watch and really learn a lot from?

Manny 27:25

Oh, that's tough. there's been a lot of great ones. But I would say, I think one of the most fundamentally sound pitchers was Mariano Rivera. I think he is he wasn't only just one of the greatest to do it. But he is very mechanically sound and in everything he did. And I think Greg Maddux, I think those two guys are the best examples to look at.

Yeah, there's two unbelievable pitchers who Yes, yeah, that amazing legacies left behind in baseball. Yeah. And what are some things like I know, you talked about like, Mariano Rivera is very, like, mechanically correct. And does everything mechanically really well? What do you think it is with like Greg Maddux? Is it that? Is it the same thing? Or is it something different about him,

I think is the same thing. You know, he's also, you know, very fundamentally sound, but his biggest thing as he learned how to manipulate the ball. And I think that that's something that kids struggle to do, because they just wait, they just want to throw as hard as they can. Which there's nothing wrong with that. But you can be able to throw hard and manipulate the baseball and make it go wherever you want. So I think sometimes it's more of a feel thing where guys need to learn how to play with the ball. And I mean, we saw how long he did it. And he wasn't throwing 95 miles an hour. So

Evan 28:56

yeah, like, once again, those are two unbelievable examples with legacies left behind in baseball. So and before we wrap it up, are there any projects that you're working on that you want to share with our board baseball community? And where can our listeners go to learn a little bit more about you?

Manny 29:17

Before everything got shut down, I was working with a travel organization from Puerto Rico that actually brings kids out here to get them exposed. So I was going to kind of help them out. You know, and help them get exposed and go to some tournaments and stuff like that. But you know, with everything being canceled, that kind of took a backseat. Um, but you know, you can go if you want to know more about myself, you can go to my Twitter. It's @coachManny45. I put some stuff sometimes up there. They're not really I'm afraid of what people are going to comment if I put some videos up and stuff or my Instagrams coach_Manny45. You know, if anybody wants, you know, to run something by me or whatever anybody can just, you know, send me a message and I'll gladly, you know, help you out if you want to send videos or anything like that. I can do that.

Evan 30:13

And I look forward to seeing the Mustangs play one day soon. They're a great team, by the way. There's a lot of success going on there. Well, Manny, thank you again. Thank you so much for hopping on and sharing insight with the born to baseball community.

Manny 30:31

Thank you for having man, this is awesome.

Evan 30:36

Thank you all for listening in. We really hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and be the first to know when new episodes launch. Check us out at borntobaseball.com for free resources and new gear. And of course on social media at born to baseball where we can connect live now let's play ball

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Episode #014: Rene Balloveras- Athletic Director Leadership Christian Academy, High School Baseball Academy Tournament of Puerto Rico Director, Coach, Trainer and Advisor

August 2020 By Evan

Ep. # 014: Rene Balloveras- Athletic Director Leadership Christian Academy, Director Baseball Academy Tournament, Coach, Trainer and Advisor

Join Evan and Rene Balloveras, Athletic Director of Leadership Christian Academy, Director at High School Baseball Academy Tournament of Puerto Rico, Coach, Trainer and Advisor, as Rene shares his baseball journey in New York and Puerto Rico, highlights the Leadership Christian Academy Baseball Program as well as the B.A.T- High School Baseball Academy Tournament and provides insight into youth baseball in Puerto Rico.

What You’ll Learn:

01:22 Rene’s Journey

06:21 Baseball in Puerto Rico

11:18 Good grades as a competitive advantage

18:52 A day in the life of a Leadership Christian Academy Baseball Player

24:01 The college prep process and finding the right fit

35:13 Roberto Clemente’s influence

38:37 Growth Mindset as a key success factor

31:15 B.A.T – High School Baseball Academy Tournament

Thank you for being here with us! Evan and the Born To Baseball Team are looking forward to celebrating your success and sharing this journey together.

If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a rating or review on Apple or wherever you’re listening here. This will help other ball players find the Born To Baseball Podcast and give us more chances to shout out our listeners!

Now, let’s play ball!

Read show notes here.

Show Links:

Email: reneballoveras@gmail.com

Phone: 787.566.1514

Facebook Page: B. A. T. – High School Baseball Academy Tournament

Born To Baseball Links:

Born To Baseball Website

BTB Travel Team & Training Tracker

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Episode 014_RENE BALLOVERAS_ATHLETIC DIRECTOR_LEADERSHIP CHRISTIAN ACADEMY_HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL ACADEMY TOURNAMENT_BASEBALL COACH_TRAINER_AND_ADVISOR

The transcription below was provided for your convenience through an automated service. Please excuse any unintended errors made in the process.

Evan 0:00

This episode of born to baseball is sponsored by the BTB travel team and training tracker. Are you a parent or player searching for travel teams or training facilities in your area? Or are you a coach looking to expand your reach? Then you have to check out the BTB triple t tracker at born to baseball dot com Make sure your team is represented. Let's go.

Music 0:24

Calling all ball players. Are you ready to take your game to the next level? Were you born to baseball? Then bring it in, it's game time.

Evan 0:40

Hey guys, welcome to the born to baseball podcast. I'm Evan and today I'm here with Rene Balloveras. Rene first started coaching as a young teenager and has been a physical education and health teacher for 25 years. He is currently the dean and athletic director at leadership Christian Academy in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and leads instruction for youth baseball coach certification across Puerto Rico. Rene, thank you so much for joining me today.

Rene 1:05

It's my pleasure. My pleasure. So good to see young people like yourself involved in this type of activity.

Evan 1:13

Thank you. So can you share your baseball experience as like a youth baseball player? Like, when did you first start playing baseball?

Unknown Speaker 1:22

Okay, I first started playing baseball, and I learned baseball here in Puerto Rico. I was born in New York City. And when I was in the about to go to the fourth grade, I moved to Puerto Rico. And even though I loved playing in school and in the backyard, we had games every day we played punch-ball. We played with the ball off the wall. One day, I went to a local team, where I had this tremendous manager who made me all fall in love with the game. And from there on, I continued to play but when I moved back to New York. About when I was in eighth grade, I went back to New York. I started playing in New York, but also coached a team. So even though I was about 14 years old, I also coached my younger brother's baseball team. So that's how I started coaching. As a matter of fact, my, my brother and myself, we would save all our money that we'd get for school and we ended up buying the uniforms for for our team.

Evan 2:31

Wow, that's really cool.

Rene 2:32

So that's how I started coaching. And in fact, there were years where I really enjoyed that more than actually playing. I played in high school in New York at the Richmond High School and then at City College. But coaching to me was my passion. I knew since I was a young person that I wanted to be a coach, and that was due to some of the coaches that I had that inspired me to want to coach.

Evan 2:55

Yeah that's awesome, could you tell us about some of the coaches that you had like, what was it about them that really inspired you?

Rene 3:01

Actually my first coach. His name was Ramon Cruz from the Dominican Republic. I had him here in Puerto Rico. Maybe he was not the type of coach that was good for everyone. In fact, when I was small, there were times I didn't really like him. You know, he was old school. And some of the methods he had I used that first, he would yell a lot, he wouldn't tolerate any errors. But one thing I learned from him was one, the love for the game. And the fact that he wanted to play the game the right way. And as I grew older, and I look back, I realized that that's where I got it from, was from him. He wouldn't allow us to accept any little mistake. He wanted us to play the best that we could, in fact, I remained in contact with him till he passed away about two years ago. So he was somebody that was very influential, but again, in the old days, it was a little different. So when I was small, a lot of things that I didn't like about him that of course, we wouldn't do now, but, he did have a lot of good qualities and thanks to him I wanted to become a coach.

Evan 4:15

That's amazing. Yeah, coaches play huge roles in our lives. And when it comes to baseball, they inspire a lot.

Rene 4:22

And throughout the years, I had I had many coaches who, who I learned from,

Evan 4:27

Yeah that's really cool. Did you have like growing up? Did you have like a favorite team? You say, like, favorite team or even favorite player that you could share with us?

Rene 4:39

Yes, when I was a small I of course, I like the New York team, the Yankees and the Mets being, growing up in New York. And Tom Seaver was probably one of my all time favorite players. But of the Puerto Rican players. I had two players who,,, Oh, and Pete Rose. Of course, I wanted to play always like Pete Rose that was how every kid wanted to play at that time. But two players from Puerto Rico that I really admired, one of them the reason why I wanted to play second base, and I didn't come second baseman was Felix Millan and the other one was Jose Cruz. Those two players. But Felix Millan, I saw him a lot because he played for the Mets. And every week, there'd be a Mets game, a local Mets game in New York, and I and I got to see him. So I really, really looked up to Felix Millan and interesting story when, when I was older, in fact, a few not many years ago, maybe about 12 years ago, doing a camp for the New York Mets. I got to meet Felix Mllian and he was tremendous. I mean, I was not disappointed. And to this day, we remained in contact so and he was really a great, great player, but he's a great person, also.

Evan 5:59

Yeah, that must have been a really, really cool experience being able to meet one of your idols and one of the people who you really look up to. That's awesome. So you're currently the dean and athletic director at leadership Christian Academy, which has a top notch baseball program. Before we talk a little bit more about that program, I want to talk about baseball in Puerto Rico, thinking about Hiram Bithorn and Carlos Beltran and Roberto Clemente and Pudge and so many others. What do you think baseball really represents to the people of Puerto Rico?

Rene 6:34

Baseball is a part of life here. I mean, even people that do not necessarily understand the game itself, love baseball and follow baseball. The baseball players are really important to the people here. They they, like I said, it's a way of life. And those baseball players are not just another baseball player. They carry practically the flag on their shirt wherever they go. So people here, always associate them with what Puerto Rico represents. In fact, when you have the World Baseball Classic, I mean people that never watch baseball, fill up the stadiums and and watch Puerto Rico, because of what they represent. Even if they don't understand the game. They know who the baseball players are, and the importance of them representing Puerto Rico.

Evan 7:35

Yeah, there's a level of pride that goes with the game in all over, but especially in Puerto Rico. That's awesome to hear. So this year has also been really tough for baseball. In general, like the draft was reduced to only five rounds and some minor league teams were cut. And the players in Puerto Rico are still managing through the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, and earthquakes and of course now the coronavirus pandemic. How has this impacted your players in Puerto Rico and specifically, just baseball

Rene 8:13

players in Puerto Rico and everywhere, of course have been impacted, but thinking about the ones in Puerto Rico and in particular our school. A lot of the players, of course, dream of being drafted. They dream of being drafted and then they work hard. And I can tell you they really work hard. You should see how the kids that really want to go far, in terms of baseball work at it. So it has hurt them. It disappoints them. But, for example, the players at our school who we had about four players that we thought were getting drafted and most likely they were, did not get drafted. In fact, no player from Puerto Rico that lives here was drafted because we only had five, ther were only five rounds in the draft So, those players were not taken in when those five rounds most players that were drafted, were college players. Okay. But the good thing about it is that in our school, we really focus on transmitting to them the fact that they have to get good grades and be good students, because they have the opportunity of getting a college scholarship. So we were very fortunate, and the players were fortunate that it was based on their hard work, that they have the opportunity to go to college now. So everything is not lost for them. I know it is disappointing, because you you want to hear your name called you want to be drafted. But in some cases, they might even you know, it might be a blessing in disguise, because those players, they're really good and they'll be better after a few years and in in college, and and they'll get their education. So even though we're disappointed. I'm sure they have a lot of good things ahead of them but it's been tough is really been tough for For baseball in Puerto Rico, this situation,

Evan 10:03

and like, it just says, just a lot about, like your players and the kids who go to your school, just being able to like, this is going on and then but they know they still have another opportunity. And like you said it could be a blessing in disguise. That's really awesome. Like the way you think about that.

Rene 10:20

Yeah, something that's really good is that at least our players, and I'm sure a lot of other kids in Puerto Rico are doing it, but at home, they all worked out. You know, they continued to train. They stayed positive. So, so that's, that's good. That's good. But, you know, the bigger picture is that, that it was a terrible situation. Nobody knew that this was this was coming. But um, my message always to the kids is just prepare yourself and try to be the best student possible when you're the best one impossible. If you get drafted. You know, you have options, you have options and it even serves as leverage When, when it comes to negotiating, so it's just good to have that opportunity to go to school.

Evan 11:07

For sure. Yeah. And like you said, negotiating, like, Can you talk to us more about that, like with the draft if you do get drafted, but then you also have a college scholarship, like what goes on there?

Rene 11:18

Well, yeah, I'm not an expert in terms of that, because, but what I can tell you is that if you have good grades and you have an option of going to school, a good scholarship. Teams see that and, and they will, they will give you what the maximum may be that they can give you wherever you are selected, versus knowing that you will take whatever it is that they give you. So for example, I've heard of players who are offered very little because they have no option. So it's either you take it or you leave it. But when you have those those options, and a team really wants you They are gonna go after you because they know that if not, you will just go to college. So it's it's just, it's just a, you know, common sense that as a player, getting good grades and having an option is the way to go.

Evan 12:16

That's for sure.

So, like where do you feel like the coaches and players really strong like work ethic and resilience comes from during these tough times?

Rene 12:27

Well, obviously it all has to do and as a matter of fact, one of the things that scouts look at with players is something called the makeup that a player has. Okay. And that's very important to a lot of organizations. But most of that has come to to begin with from their homes. You know, if you have parents that that support you, you have parents that are constantly teaching lessons since you're small. That will come in handy for sure. Whenever we have tough times. I mean, and in baseball, you know, in baseball part of the baseball culture is making excuses. So also, if you learn that since you're young, and you have coaches also that teach you that since you're young, it can help you during tough times. Remember, most players will not become pro players or major league players. But there's so many lessons that you can learn in baseball, that will help you in jobs and in life in general.

Evan 13:27

Yes,

Rene 13:27

So yeah, that the players that have that, that are resilient, that are mentally tough, a lot of them it was developed at home. That's that's very important.

Evan 13:38

Yeah, families, parents and home environment can also just like coaches, they play a huge role.

Rene 13:45

I can tell you that. I'm sorry. If I can tell you that these players that we have. One thing that they all have in common is support from their, from their family. So that that's the common denominator, and we even have player was a first round pick a few years ago. And with him, it was no surprise how successful he was because not only was he a good student, he was a really good kid. But when you look at his parents and his family life, it was a tremendous family life. So it seems to always come back to that support that you have around, you know, whether teachers, parents, coaches, It all seems to get back to that. Yes,

Evan 14:31

definitely. So like, like you said, you guys had a first rounder a couple years ago, I believe in 2017. And like your Academy, it has a lot of success when it comes to players being drafted and then also D-1 athletes. So yeah, like that standout who was in that first round is Elliott Ramos. And he was drafted 19th overall by the San Francisco Giants, which is an amazing accomplishment and he was named to the The 2019 All Star futures game, and he's currently doing very well in double A so he's been very successful. So what are some of the things that make your school that Academy so strong and unique?

Rene 15:17

I feel that we've had success because we're not just a baseball school. We are a regular school with Christian faith based education, right. We have a strong values system there at the school, and we have a baseball program and so we we can be selective in terms of who comes in to our school. We just don't take anybody that plays baseball or any good baseball player. They have to have certain characteristics, right? We, we observe and we do a background check to see what what kind of kid is he, what kind of family Background and of course, yes, he does have some some talent, but we want them to want to have that option of going to college. And we have very good teachers who emphasize that. So once we have those players that come to our school, being that it's a small program, because even though our school has over 700 students, our baseball programming, the high school only has about 60 to 63. Players were able to work with them closely. For example, when we're at a batting session, we only might have seven players hiting, in our case, we have two hitting coaches. Okay, so maybe we might have 10 some classes might have five, so we get to give them a very good, almost individualized instruction. Being that we don't have, a coach does not have 15 kids or 20 kids to work with at a time so that really helps. Plus, we have an excellent staff, we have a staff that knows the game and knows how to teach and cares about kids. So that's very important to us.

Evan 17:08

And like you said, like the individualized, almost individualized practices where you might only have 5 or 10 kids, it's really good because you get, the coaches get to really develop them and as a player and it's not necessarily just repitition, it's more quality and getting that couple of players better. So, you know, your program definitely sounds like a great one.

Rene 17:32

I'm really glad you mentioned that about repetition. Because, um, you know, when we teach baseball many times we might make the mistake, and we'll have kids just take reps and take reps and take reps, but there's really no feedback. There's no correction given and that that is key, you know, it's not just taking repetitions. It's taking good repetitions. It's like you said it was the quality, not the quantity and we We try to pay attention to that, we really do. Because a lot of academies here have excellent instructors on almost all the academies have excellent instructors. But the fact that we put that emphasis on that on that amount of instructors per student and the way in which they teach the kids to us, it's very important and I try to stay on top of that, in terms of the teaching methods and strategies used when working with the players. It's not the same working with youth players, and working with professional players. It's very different.

Evan 18:35

It's awesome. Definitely just what you do, it's part of what makes it such a good program top notch baseball program.

Rene 18:42

Thank you.

Evan 18:43

That's really good to hear. So how many hours would you say like a week are your high school players practicing baseball?

Rene 18:52

I'll give you an idea of what we do at the school. So usually during their elective class. So let's say if they have physical education or, music, whatever electives they have during that period, they will take, they will have a baseball class, and it can be either strength and conditioning or hitting. That's just during school hours. Right? So that's basically their phys ed class. So two days a week, they will go with their hitting instructor during that period that corresponds. And two days a week, they will go with the strength and conditioning coach that's during school hours. Then after school after school, they will have two days a week of defense, right. Two days a week will be let's say infielders, and outfielders and two days a week will be the pitchers and catchers and two days a week, they will have speed work so they will go to a track and work with a speed specialist at a track. So, and they will do that from three in the afternoon til about 5pm you know, the school bus takes them to wherever it is, whether it be the field or the track, and then they will bring them back. But those players, most of them, of course, will also play on a weekend too. So some of those players also practice at night. Now the reason why we only have two days a week of defense two days a week of, of hitting, is because we know that they play on outside teams, and we do not want to overwork them. Okay, so um, that is the reason why we're only doing two days a week, but there's still two days a week of hitting defense and it's really a specialized instruction, that they're getting. And then on Fridays, on Fridays, we don't have baseball programming school, but we have some players might get extra work. They might need or so might work a little extra for something specific that they need to improve with the conditioning coach. That's the way we go about it in the program. But the idea is to really try to take care of the kids and not overwork them.

Evan 21:14

Yeah, that's really great. Knowing your players, knowing your team knowing that, okay, we don't want to overwork them. They're playing outside, knowing your players is a really big thing in order to have a successful team. You've also coached like basketball and volleyball. And so are there certain like drills that you've pulled from those sports that you now just teach to your players?

Rene 21:39

Well, there are always exercises that that are common at the lower age levels of baseball. One of the things that happened or can be a common mistake is where you want to teach players how to do advanced baseball drills. or think that they can perform high level skills when in reality at those lower levels you should be developing your fitness, okay your fitness and your motor development, for example, agility, balance, coordination and those have exercises that can be universal to various sports. It all depends on what category the sport belongs to, because of course, you know, there are some sports that are aerobic in nature and some are anaerobic. Okay. And one of the problems is that many times we train wrong for the sport that we're involved in, but of course, the lower levels, you want to work on all components of fitness. Very important because many times for example, you might have a pitcher, who's nine years old, and you hear you might hear the coach saying throw strikes, but the kid cannot throw strikes because he does not have any balance, or his coordination is off. So there are drills that we will use for coordination and balance that of course, we will use in volleyball and we can use in, in basketball, okay, so, so of course, we'll have drills that we can use for different sports. But there are other common denominators for all the sports is where we want to teach discipline, we want to teach dedication, we want to get kids to be committed. And each sport also does have their own culture. And, and we can see, we can see it with the baseball players, of course, that each one has their own, as you say, unwritten rules and sports culture. But um, players that learn that when they're young discipline, commitment, dedication, they can transfer that to any sport.

Evan 23:47

That's really interesting right there. And so like many of your players have attended D-1 schools which is amazing. So how do you guide your players to balance the academics and baseball?

Rene 24:01

One of the things at our school we have we have a person who works with the college placement, who does an extraordinary job. She, she makes sure that what based on the player's needs, what she knows about the player based on his grades, she will try to be realistic with the players and try to find something for them where they will most likely be successful. Okay. One of the things is we try we make sure our school not to talk to kids or want them to go to certain places where we know that it's setting them up to fail. For example, if we if we know that a personality of a kid is not to be in a big city, and like something small, we're not going to try to get them into a place where we know that that might affect them, but at the same time At the same time, we let them know that it's not just going wherever they want to go. Sometimes it depends on that school's needs, because we might have a kid that wants to go to a particular college, but that college doesn't mean that position, that college might already have players for that position. And it does not have to do with that player not being good. It's just that that college does not need that. So we try to give them a proper counseling or orientation and the person that does that our school is really, really good at doing that. So that it minimizes the possibility of that student failing once they go to that college that they're interested in or that the school is interested in that player.

Evan 25:47

Yeah, it's amazing to hear that.

Rene 25:49

But it's not a it's not an exact science. I mean, there are times it'll happen it'll happen where you have players that go away to a cottage and then come back because something didn't go right They didn't like the place. But with us again, since we're not such a big program in terms of amount of players, we can give them that special attention. In fact, I'll send you a little video when we when we get done in terms of our college players and their placement. We had about 20 players that that our, I think we have 21 seniors. And I think the 20 have a commitment to a college where they will be playing baseball.

Evan 26:32

Wow. That's amazing. That's amazing.

Rene 26:36

Thanks.

Evan 26:37

Um, have your players like really shared whether their experience playing in the states is different than playing in Puerto Rico?

Rene 26:45

Yeah, we communicate with them. They let us know their stories. Most of the ones we've spoken of, they love the experience. I mean, I've only been at the school for years, but during that time, I've experienced You know, success in terms of what, what they talk about. So, I think I think they enjoy we try at the school. And I know sometimes players might think that we want to be hard on them. But we want to try to give them an experience in such a way that when they go away to school, it's not a shock to them. That's why our high school teachers are demanding even though they are very understanding, the teachers at our school go out of their way to help the kids but the kids also have to go out of their way to get whatever work they have to make up if they weren't went out for a tournament. So because it's hard, some of these kids, they get home 10 o'clock at night after their other practices, and they still have to do their work. You know, we just don't give them the grades. They have to work for it. But we wouldn't be doing them any favors, if we are not demanding with the school workl. So that's something that our teachers do a real good job. As of now, we've had players enjoy their college experience.

Evan 28:06

That's great to hear. So MLB players service amazing role models and models for us youth and Players all over to learn from. So who are some players that you encourage your players to like watch and study?

Rene 28:23

Well, to tell you the truth I, I never really promote any particular players because they all have their own particular style. Of course, I do mention to them when when players that I am aware of that have strong work ethics, players that seem to be mentally tough, that behave themselves, you know, in a way a professional should, but I always leave it up to the kids to enjoy whatever player it is they like watching. What I just do is we just talk about with qualities that different players might have. So because also we don't want kids imitating a particular style. Because styles and fundamentals are different. And with youth players, not every style is suitable for them. But I can tell you, for example, a player who I admired his career, of course, was somebody like Derek Jeter and I admired the career of Cal Ripken players who've always had a positive image. But in terms of telling the kids who watch you to follow, we don't really specify Of course, there's players here in Puerto Rico, like Lindor and Correa that kids really look up to. And those are excellent players. And we we do use them as examples in terms of their their fundamentals. They are two fundamentally sound players, we just don't tell them to have their style because that's individual and if a kid wants to use their style, but in terms of quality of players Those two players are excellent players. But, but yeah, we leave it up to each kid to you know, like whatever player he he likes.

Evan 30:09

Yeah, Lindor and Correa are two very, very good players. They're two all star players. And I like how you said like, styles. It's not the fundamentals, each player has their own unique style that works for them. That's really, that's really great to hear. So building a strong mindset, like you said, and being really mentally tough, is really important. So what are some ways that you develop mentally tough players at your Academy?

Rene 30:47

Well, one of the thing is we, we try to, I shouldn't say, emphasize the fact that we don't want to make excuses that that's that's one thing. Of course, we know there are reasons why things happen. For example, we're on the field, and you drop a ball, which anybody can drop a ball, but you drop a ball because the sun was in your eyes. We know that's the reason. But we we don't want to players all the time say no, I dropped it because the sun was in my eyes or, or we lost the game because the umpire is not good. No, you know, we know things happen. And there are reasons for things, but we want players to focus on the bottom line. Either they caught the ball, or they didn't. Either they did their homework, or they didn't do the homework. So one of the ways is trying to not give excuses. Another way is dealing with whatever situation comes your way. One of the things that I tried to tell players that I've coached for years as we get to the field and it's really hot in my mindset, is Oh good, because it might be too hot for the other team. Or if the if we have to play and it seems like the grass is a little moist, and the ball might seem slippery, we say good, because we can deal with it, maybe the other team can't. So it's just a thing of getting into the players heads, and then believing that no matter what the situation is, they can do it. And of course, you know, with young kids in a small age group 7,8,9 10 until 12 you know, there, they're small and we've taken into consideration, right, you know, their age and their level, but at their level, there are certain things that we can teach them that they will always will always help them in terms of their their mindset, of course, always taking into consideration their level.

Evan 32:45

Yeah, that's that's a big key to success when it comes to coaching. Knowing like I said earlier, knowing your players and knowing the level that you're at knowing what they're ready for, and I like how you really said You don't let them make excuses. Because excuses ultimately, at the end of the day, they can lead to failure because you're not, you have to hold yourself accountable for the things that you do. That's a cool way to look at it.

Rene 33:14

Hey, that's awesome that you said you said accountable. I that's that's to me is an important word. And of course, I don't want to sound like we don't care when when kids make an excuse. I mean, you know, we do we do care because there are reasons why things happen. We just don't want kids getting into the habit of for anything negative that happens,There's an excuse. So I just want to make that clear. Because we understand that sometimes things will happen and we never, we never and I recommend this to any youth coach. Never bring down a kid or make them feel bad just because he makes an error. errors are part of the game. Errors are part of the game and I knowa kid who makes an error on purpose. And I know I was a coach when I first started, who used to get upset when kids make an error but, but as you mature and as you grow older, and then you look back and you say, wait a minute, I didn't like it when a coach we get on for making an error. So we as coaches, we never we never get on kids for making an error. And I think showing them that support, okay, will make them tougher, and have a better mindset. If we don't get on them from again, why? Because they will be more confident they'll know that you have their back. So sometimes coaches might believe that it'll make them tougher getting on them for errors, but it's the opposite. It's the opposite if we show them that we believe in them, and we encourage them to want that next ball hit to them that will make them suffer so it's just the opposite.

Evan 34:58

Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. I heard a really powerful quote from Roberto Clemente. And it's "anytime you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, you're wasting your time on Earth".

Rene 35:11

That's one of my favorite quotes.

Evan 35:13

That's awesome. Like, how does that Roberto Clemente spirit, sort of just travel and stay alive in the island of Puerto Rico?

Rene 35:22

Well, he's obviously been an inspiration to players here and the entire Latin America. He is a player who did so much on and off the field, that it'd be very hard not to have him in mind anytime we stepp onto the baseball field. So he's somebody very special here and in and Latin America. So um, so yeah, he's, he's a, he's a role model in terms of how players should act on and off the field.

Evan 35:54

That's awesome to hear. Why do you like it so much? Why is it so powerful to

Rene 36:01

Because, you know, we, and one of the things I speak about when I speak to coaches, for example, one of the things that we talk to them about is that when we coach baseball, for example, and we coach kids, we're not just speaking terms of baseball, we're not just a coach, who, who might be an instructor who knows about, let's say, fielding or hitting, to those kids they might see us as a mentor, they'll see us as a teacher, they might see us as a as a model, as a guide, as somebody who inspires them. So we have a big responsibility. And, in this case, if we just go through life just, you know, minding our business. Um, you know, just thinking of what Roberto Clemente said, then we might be wasting our time. If we have the opportunity to impact another life or do something Positive for society, then I think our life has had some, has meant something great. You know. So that's that's why I like that quote. It obviously comes from somebody who definitely has a great heart because he's thinking of how he can impact somebody else.

Evan 37:22

Definitely. Yeah, he was a great guy and he wanted to impact almost everyone he met really, it's unfortunate the way he passed away. But, you know, he passed away, wanting to do something for other people and really trying to help people out.

Rene 37:39

In fact, you know, that that there's an award Major League award, and I've heard of players who have won that award and that to them, means even more than some other awards like a batting championship, and other types of awards, but that Roberto Clemente award means so much because it means that they've they've impacted lives. So that's that's a that's a great award.

Evan 38:06

Yeah, it must be really special to win that award, knowing that you to the people of the world, you resemble some essence of him.

Rene 38:21

For sure, no doubt about it.

Evan 38:24

And so you've been involved in a lot of camps outside of Puerto Rico like in the States and in the Dr. What are some of like the key skills and qualities that you see in the most successful players that you work with?

Rene 38:37

All players, it's important that they have a drive to be better in terms of their mentality, a mindset to grow to be a much better player. In fact, many professional organizations want players that have what they call the growth mindset for example. But in terms of physicals skills and some of the physical skills, you know, scouts look for particular tools, which is the strength of your arm, your speed, your power, your fielding, okay, you know, there's five tools. But of course, it's much more than just that. There are a lot of players that are talented, but if they don't have that drive, if they don't have that mindset to want to get better. Okay, it's very difficult, but I see players here. I've seen them in Dominican Republic, and Texas, New York. And something common with those players who get far up in the baseball ranks are those players that have that drive, that dedication, that commitment, and that discipline to get better, if they don't have that. Very difficult. Of course, there's someplace that are just so talented. But if they don't have those other qualities like discipline or that drive to be better at one point or another, it'll catch up to them. it'll catch up. So that's what I can tell you regarding that

Evan 40:02

Thank you for that. That's really great insight there. So you also invest a lot of time instructing youth baseball coaches in Puerto Rico, who are required to complete a baseball certification course. Could you tell us more about that, and that experience,

Rene 40:20

Yeah that course for youth coaches, I've been doing that for approximately 11 years. There's a law here in Puerto Rico, where all youth coaches must be certified to work with kids, because one of the things that includes is that when you take the course, right, which I give them a course, that involves, you know, just teaching them how to work with kids how to, and how to teach them the skills, once you take that you go through a background check. And with that background check, just so you know, it's just to verify the type of person who's going to be working with with with this Kids, right? If you once you take the course and you've come to a successful background check, then you're eligible to get that license. And that license, the great thing about having it is that if a parent takes a kid to a particular team, and that coach has that license knows that that coach went through a check, okay. And at least a parent knows that that coach might not be somebody who's harmed kids in the past, for example, and that parent knows that at least some basic about teaching kids, he must know, or he should know. So that's the reason why we want youth coaches to be certified. Because, of course, most people mean well, most people try to help kids most people teach the kids well, but there are also a lot of coaches who don't, and not because necessarily they want to be bad, or they don't want to do things the correct way, but because maybe they don't know. So we want to minimize the risks. And keep safe all the kids in Puerto Rico and we want them to love the game and not leave the sport because of something that a coach did or didn't do the right way.

Evan 42:11

Yeah that's a great mission of that Alliance.

Rene 42:14

That's a government program that has that. So it's a law. That has to be well. What you mentioned there with the Alliance, that is something was, that's an association, an alliance that we created when we got together a bunch of different coaches, and what we try to do is promote the game the right way. And we share insights. We share strategies to try. We haven't been really in action, so to speak officially, like official events in the past few couple of years. We've just been doing it more like in a private way where we speak on the phone and we get ideas out and we share strategies with coaches and try to help them as much as we can. And, and, and they can call us and we'll give them tips and ideas, basically, but this year we're planning to do, again, more activities as a group.

Evan 43:13

So do you have any projects that you're working on right now that you'd like to share and like, where's the best place that our listeners can reach you?

Rene 43:21

You know, one project that I've been working on, and it's not just me by myself, it's been a group of coaches, where we've put together and it's unfortunate This was our second season. We put together a league that involves the different baseball academies here in Puerto Rico. And, and we were really and we still are, of course, very excited about that project. Last year was our second season. The previous school year was our first season and what we did was you see here in Puerto Rico this, there wasn't a real school baseball league. All right. So we what we did is we got together with Different academies that have top players in Puerto Rico. And we made a schedule, and we formed the league. And that league was really good because not only out of the there were about 23 players drafted that year, about 18 or 19, played in that league. So all the top players in Puerto Rico belonged to one of those schools. And by the way, six were were at our school, And then there, you have good coaches, the coaches are all good, you know professional guys. And the game is played really fast. And there's a level of respect and we played in really great stadiums every single game. So we are really excited about the league. This past school year, was our second season and was going really well until the situation with the pandemic occurred. But that project is, I really love it because just to give you an example that we would play during the Week, and at a particular site, we'd have three games in a day, right. So this way the scouts didn't have to decide what field they would go to. So, because we only, each team played once a week, and there was a game, there was a one day in particular that a lot of your prospects will claim that we had over 80 scouts there because we had the Puerto Rico scouts, you know, the scouts that work for major league teams, but that are local, their bosses and some of those bosses bosses come. That would come to Puerto Rico, so that they was incredible, it was packed, but every week we'd have you know, 10, 12, 15 scouts at our our games, but that day in particular was just incredible. We had even an assistant GM come last year to see one of the players here in Puerto Rico. So, so we're really excited about that league because the it's the highest High School league here because any other league or conference where high school play doesn't have, let's say 18 players drafted. And even in the United States, you might have a league where high schools play, but they play in different conferences not necessarily all together. But here we had the best schools were in the same conference or league playing against each other so that that's what made it special

Evan 46:29

Yeah, that sounds really special. And the level of competition is awesome too.

Rene 46:33

That was one of the goals behind it. We wanted the kids play really good competition. Sometimes on the weekends. You might have a team that's really, really has a lot of good players. But then the team they play against doesn't. So we wanted with this league. They, every game You're facing good players, the good batters, the good batters are facing good pitchers. The good pitchers are always facing good batters. So that's what we wanted. It's a really high high Level High School league.

Evan 47:01

Yes. And that league that you and some other coaches created are definitely super valuable to those players and even the high schools and the academies.

Rene 47:12

If you get a chance you can check it out. Um, of course this year, we only played three games. But it's called BAT. You know, it stands for Baseball Academy Tournament. We have a Facebook page. And a lot of our games this year or last season, they were on Facebook Live so everybody can see the games. And that final game was, the year before was really tremendous. It ended, the championship game ended with a walk off Homer. Yes, yes. Yeah, as a matter of fact, our school won the championship but it could have been the other school. It was against the Carlos Beltran Academy. And it could have been them just as well because that's how close it was. It just so happened that our player hit a 3-2 homerun with two men on base, and it was a walk off. So, but we have a pages and it's called Baseball Academy tournament.

Evan 48:10

That's awesome how you and the other coaches came together to create a league

Rene 48:14

Yep.

You see, the key is the key is and I just want to emphasize this, many times the coaches see each other, you know, in general in youth sports as competition. But in reality, what we want to and what we try to promote here is that we're all a team, we all love the game. And and we want every coach to share whatever knowledge he has with the players. And if we work together, we can get much more done. And that's one good thing here that we want to do in Puerto Rico. We we care for all the players here, not only if they're from my school, I want other kids in Puerto Rico to get drafted. So because to us, it's players from Puerto Rico. So that's that's really about And that's why we're really excited about that league and, you know, anybody needs to contact me. You asked me before about a contact. It could be via my Telephone is 787-566-1514 or Reneballoveras@gmail.com. Right. But you have you have that information. But um, yeah, I really appreciate this. This is awesome the way you do these interviews. There's many, I've seen many TV shows where we don't have somebody who's doing the interview that's as knowledgeable as you.

Evan 49:40

Thank you so much. Yeah. I really appreciate that. And I'll definitely check out your league when I get a chance and our listeners can definitely check it out to you said it's Facebook page is BAT right?

Rene 49:53

Yeah, or if it doesn't come out like that put Baseball Academy tournament.

Evan 49:58

Okay, you know, that's great to know.

Well, thank you so much for coming on today, Rene. I really appreciate it.

Rene 50:05

Yeah, this was an honor. And again, I'm really impressed with your level of preparation. That's what I, Another thing I recommend to all youth coaches, be prepared. Be prepared. Whenever you're prepared. You'll feel confident and if you're confident, you're most likely to have success, so um and that's why I guess your program, your podcast is so successful, because you're definitely prepared. So thank you.

Evan 50:30

Thank you all for listening in. We really hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and be the first to know when new episodes launch. Check us out at born to baseball.com for free resources and new gear. And of course on social media, at born to baseball where we can connect live now let's play ball

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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