Speaker 1 00:00:12 Hello, welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Soro of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We appreciate your time. Our guest is Shocker Baseball interim coach Lauren Hibbs. Lauren is a former shocker outfielder, played on the 1982 College World Series runner up team. He was an assistant coach at Wichita State from 1985 to 1992. Head coach at Charlotte. From 1993 to 2019, Lauren is gonna get us ready for the season. The shockers are just a few weeks away from opening up practices in mid-January. They play at Long Beach State on February 17th to get things going, we will talk about the coaching transition and how the coaching staff, how athletic director Kevin Saul, and the athletic department is helping the shockers. Through this time of transition, we'll talk about fall baseball, talk about returners people such as Brock Rodden, Chuck Ingram, and others, and how they improved and progressed during the fall. We'll talk about newcomers, uh, centerfield or Kite McDonald pitcher. Clark Kioti are two of the newcomers who made a good impression. We will go through Lauren's favorite uniform combinations. Shockers have a lot of uniforms to choose from, and we wrap up with some 1991 nostalgia. If you remember how fast infielders Billy Hall and Chris Wimmer were, we're gonna talk about those days for just a few minutes. Once again, thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast. Here's interim baseball coach Lauren Hems.
Speaker 1 00:01:38 So Lauren, thanks for your time. And we can start by acknowledging this is a difficult time for the student athletes to go through a, a transition at this time of year. It's important for Wichita State to help them. So, describe what is your, how, how are you helping the, uh, the student athletes go through this? How is Wichita State's athletic department helping them get, get comfortable?
Speaker 2 00:01:58 Well, as you alluded to, uh, it's, it's been very challenging and there's no playbook for how to deal with a situation like this. Um, you know, I think it starts at the top. And, and, and Kevin has, you know, he's had a lot on his plate here the last few weeks. Uh, his leadership has been really good with our staff and with our players in terms of the communication. He's done everything that he told us he was gonna do. Uh, and that's very much appreciated. Uh, I think at the end of the day, it's all about being student athlete centered and, you know, um, that's the way we've done things for a long time. I think that aligns with what Kevin has brought to the table here the first five or six months that he's been on the job. And everything that we're gonna do is gonna be student athlete centered.
Speaker 2 00:02:46 And our, our young people have been asked to do a lot here in the last eight or nine weeks on top of, you know, their schoolwork on top of, you know, individual workouts on top of weightlifting, you know, at varying times during the day, whether it be early morning or afternoons or whatever. And we've been very cognizant of that. Now, uh, with all that being said, uh, we have a good plan. You know, we've done this before, so we have a good plan with our guys and just continuing to build those relationships with our players, making sure that, that they are in the best spot that they can be in. We we're blatantly honest with them as to about what's going on and, and provide them information that we're allowed to provide them and, and we're able to provide them. And it's been really good.
Speaker 2 00:03:30 It has been really good. You know, the first several weeks we're a little bit challenging, you know, when everything kind of happened. Um, but it's been really good and, and, and really fortunate here in, in the fact that, uh, you know, Mike Pelphrey got a great relationship with him. So as a pitching coach, Mike Sirian does a tremendous job here with our recruiting. And then, you know, Connor Barons is also an assistant coach here in Nate Briscoe. So having that support staff along with Lottie Talbut, our administrative assistant, um, you know, we, we, we have a system we kind of put in place where they check in with Lottie every day. When the kids come in the door, she gets a good feel. She's kind of like mom to all of em anyway, and it sounds like a little thing, but then all of our offices are here.
Speaker 2 00:04:12 And, and just being in the locker room, uh, having additional team meetings, um, you know, doing, adding those things. We had a lot of individual meetings with our players, you know, and just communicating with them about where we're, uh, trying to, to go with this program. And then once the decision was made in, in Wichita State, made the decision, um, you know, with, with the situation, then, uh, we've kind of sped that up now here the last few days. So it's an ongoing process. The hard thing was, you know, we met with 'em and then they left <laugh>, you know, they were pretty much done with finals and, and they're all gone now until till January. So, but it does give us time to be able to, um, you know, to adjust some things. And, and again, at the end of the day, you know, it's our jobs to, to get the most out of our student athletes, make sure that, that they're put in a position to be successful.
Speaker 2 00:05:05 And I think when you build those relationships with players and with kids like we've done for, for a long time, that allows you to coach 'em tough, which is another deal because it's, it's gonna be hard in the spring. You know, if you've looked at our schedule, which I'm sure you have, uh, it's, we play a really challenging, aggressive schedule, and we're gonna continue to do that moving forward. Uh, in order to do that, we have to have relationships with our players to where we can really be hard on them at times to prepare them for what's coming. And I think that we're building that base, and our kids have been receptive in these early workouts or in these, uh, actually these November workouts that we've done. And I think that that's, uh, you know, it's very clear we've sent a clear message to them, and it's gonna be, it's gonna be difficult when they come back in January, but that's what we gotta do, uh, to get ready to play and get ready to compete.
Speaker 1 00:05:52 You mentioned Kevin Saul and, uh, the athletic director of Wichita State. What, what was his message when he spoke with the, with the team and the staff?
Speaker 2 00:06:00 Supportive, you know, um, basically, you know, when, when Kevin, uh, approached me initially, uh, early on in the process and asked me to do the interim, and it was a shorter timeframe, and then he approached me again and asked me to continue to, to move forward. And, you know, just the po the feedback's been so positive, you know, just, there was an eight week period there where he had a lot on his plate, and he still does, he's got his regular responsibilities as ad, which is challenging, and then this on top of it. And, you know, just the trust that he's shown in me and the trustee's shown in us. But it's just, he, he hadn't had to worry about anything here, you know, because we're gonna do it the right way. And, and, um, you know, to extend that on, uh, further, um, you know, I, I bleed black and gold, man, <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:06:49 I mean, let's be real about it. I'm a shocker. I mean, this is, um, I was in the same position several years ago, you know, when playing for Coach Stevenson that these kids are in right now. Now there's things in circumstances here that, that we didn't have to deal with when I was playing that are challenging right now, but I've set in the same seat that they've set in or sitting in right now. And, um, you know, just, just fortunate that we have, uh, an athletic director that's trying to do the right thing, and fortunate that we have staff members that are, that are committed to helping our student athletes and, and our kids wanna be good, that they, they want to, they want to do well. So, um, we're excited about, you know, the challenge moving forward in the spring. And, and we'll see, see where it goes to.
Speaker 1 00:07:37 So you mentioned the challenging schedule that starts on September, February 17th. Uh, you start out at Long Beach State in that big old Blair field, and the acres and acres of, of outfield space there. That starts a six game road trip, shockers open at home on March 3rd verse. Oakland, uh, will remind people, uh, shockers have a good base of returners for the top hitters. People like Brock Rodden, Sawyer Thornhill, uh, Jordan Rogers, Chuck Ingram are all back. Some mainstays of the pitching staff such as Peyton Tulley, Caden favors Cameron by, they're among the prominent returners on that staff. Take us through the timeline about how things get ramped up and, and starting back in the spring. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:08:18 Um, we're coming off of a challenging year last year, you know, and, and, um, we've got to, we gotta be able to, to get the most out of our players, um, to be able to do that. Uh, we've gotta put together a really good plan, which we, we, we've, we've already started with that. Between now and the time they come back, the first time we can see them is January 15th. Now they can come back and do workouts on their own for NCAA rules. And we're, we're fortunate here. We got incredible facilities, as you know. Um, the work that's been put in here by a lot of people to, you know, from Gene to Brent, to, to a whole lot of boosters in between, to, to provide facilities for us where our guys can come back and they can get their work done on their own before we're able to, to meet with them on the 15th.
Speaker 2 00:09:10 We gotta be very clear with what we're gonna do, you know, and, and had some initial discussions with, with, with Pelf and, and with Siri and, and with our staff just as to how we're gonna go moving forward and what we're gonna prioritize and how we're gonna do it based on the roster that you did a really good job of going over. So we'll have a good plan. Um, you know, it's, uh, we're not planning any, any, uh, you know, Dickie v terminology, any cupcakes. You look at our schedule and it's, you know, a lot of programs, they can say, well, we can maybe start a freshman, you know, a starting pitcher on a Tuesday, and we're playing midweek. And it's, it's, you know, something we can ease 'em into. Well, our midweeks are Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, ku, K State, uh, oral Robert's, got tremendous program. Um, so, uh, you know, we've just gotta be able to, to get our guys in position and prepare them the best way so we can, uh, go out and compete that first Friday.
Speaker 1 00:10:07 When we talked earlier this week, you mentioned, uh, instituting some standards, some items you've used, dating back to your time when you were, uh, an assistant coach here. Uh, things you developed while you were at, at Charlotte. Uh, tell us a little bit about those
Speaker 2 00:10:20 Plannings. Been really fortunate, uh, to connect with some, some people that are, you know, top end people in the leadership field over the years. And, uh, from Jeff Jansen to others, and, you know, just, um, have always tried to learn, you know, even now, today, you know, just trying to learn how we can be more efficient and, and do things at a higher level. And I think the more clear that you can be with your direction of, of the program and how you're gonna go about things, you know, the better chance you have to, to eliminate all the clutter that there can be. And there's a lot more clutter now than there was even 10 years ago with these kids. You know, the first thing is just developing a vision. And, you know, our vision's gonna be to make this baseball program the best program in the aac and it's pretty clean.
Speaker 2 00:11:08 It's pretty simple, but that's the vision. Now, when we say the best program in the aac, that's, that's with our, on the field performance, that's with our academic performance sets, with our performance in the community, that's what we're trying to do and trying to accomplish. Um, in order to do that, we have to have things in place. You have to have the right people, we have to have resources. We've got a lot of those things that are already in place here. So that's, that's gonna be a pretty clean, simple deal. And then it's about developing core beliefs and, you know, taking stuff that, that, you know, I learned when I was playing and coaching here with Chin, um, to stuff that I got from, you know, from Ron Polk and Gary Ward, and, you know, norm De Bryan and, and Elliott Avent, and a whole lot of tremendous coaches, you know, over the years that, that I've had a chance to be able to build relationships with.
Speaker 2 00:11:59 So, um, those core beliefs, it's not gonna be dictated from our staff or from me. There's gonna be things that are gonna be non-negotiables. You know, communication's a huge deal for me. We've gotta be able to talk to these kids. We've gotta be able to relate to them and staff members, you know, uh, varying things like being on time and being consistent with your habits. But we're also gonna utilize input from our players as to what they want this program to be, you know, and build that communication that's been really successful for us, you know, over the 27 years that I was a head coach at Charlotte. And, uh, then it's, you know, then it's just a matter of, you know, providing, um, you know, some, some guidance as to what those standards are gonna be. Okay. We develop our core values, we know what our vision is, and then what are our standards gonna be?
Speaker 2 00:12:47 And that's every day. That's, that's where most people fail. I think in from, from doing this for an extended period of time, most people fail. They, they can put all the stuff on paper, they can do the PowerPoints, they can do all these cool things, which is, which is great, but at the end of the day, you've gotta be able to, to hold people to a standard every single day. And that's hard sometimes, you know, as a leader, that's hard, you know, when, when you're having tough communications with people. But, you know, what we found, what I've found is, is if you take the time to communicate, communicate clearly with, with your players, that builds the relationship, which allows you to coach 'em hard. Cuz we're gonna coach our guys hard. You know, this, this notion that these kids nowadays that, you know, you have to be softer on 'em, you have to do, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:13:34 It's different than it was. And we've evolved and we understand that. I've got a 23 year old daughter, so I get all that stuff, you know, but at the end of the day, we still have to be able to coach 'em hard and they have to be, uh, willing to accept some constructive criticism. They have to be willing to work on things that they don't do well, to use a Gene Stevenson line. Um, and we're gonna do all those things. Now, when they do something, well, we're gonna compliment them, uh, but we're gonna be very clear on what's expected them of them every day. Uh, and we're going to, uh, as leaders, you know, as coaches, as a head coach, as assistant coaches, we're gonna do anything we can to impact those, those people and those young people in a positive way every day.
Speaker 1 00:14:17 So take us through Fall Baseball and the, and the Shocker World series. You had some scrimmage games with some outside competition, uh, overall impressions of the, of the shockers from the fall and, and what you learned and what this team improved on.
Speaker 2 00:14:30 Well, really kind of jumped into the head coaching role that last four or five days. So, um, you know, been in, in an administrative role, you know, as everybody knows, and, and, um, so kind of evaluating things in maybe a different light, you know, that last week, leading into the individual workouts. But man, it's fun to play outside competition. <laugh>, you know, we've talked about that a little bit. It's, you, you kind of, you kind of get beat down. There's, there's, there's things that you can do to try to motivate them to keep them motivated and, and, you know, by playing Air Squad scrimmages, but it's just, it's pretty challenging sometimes. So to be able to play, you know, the three outside opponents that we played, and, you know, the, the guys at Cali, uh, you know, I've known Lefty and, and those guys, they're coaches.
Speaker 2 00:15:18 I've known them for forever. And they even reach, I even reached out to Dave, you know, burrows, who's a longtime coach there, who retired a few years ago and just said, Hey, you know, what, what do you think? What do you see? What, and that's been, that's been great to have that relationship as you know, we've, we've had players from Cali and, you know, we had a lot of players from Cali that played for us at Charlotte. So just getting that feedback and, and, um, you know, with Pittsburgh State and then with the team that we played from Canada. So it was good. It's good to, to put our guys, you know, in uniform and, and have them play against, you know, um, outside competition. And we learned a lot. And, uh, you know, we've started, like I said, the last week of, of fall practice.
Speaker 2 00:16:00 And, and in the individual sessions we've started addressing, addressing some of the things that we've seen that, that we need to work on. What'd you like best about what you saw from the shockers our guys want to do? Well, they, they wanna be good now. Um, there's a process you gotta go through to give yourself a chance to be good. And, you know, when we met with them that last time before they left to go home for, for, um, for break, uh, we told 'em, you know, get your work done. Cuz the, the first part in the process is, uh, you've gotta continue to, to get in the weight room, you gotta get your throwing program done. That, that Coach Pelphrey has given to our pitchers. And that, that series, given to our position players, you gotta continue to get your swings in, you gotta get your conditioning done because you've gotta commit and be mature enough to get your work done over this next 4, 5, 6 week period to give ourselves a chance to be a good team.
Speaker 2 00:16:53 If, if that's not taken care of, and if they don't do the work that's necessary, then we're gonna be even further behind. It's gonna make it really challenging. And as you know, you alluded to it, I mean, we're, we're biting off a, a huge chunk. We're jumping right in the fire by playing that Long Beach state. The first three games, you know, California schools, warm weather schools are always ahead of colder weather schools. That's just the reality. But we're gonna get prepared and we're gonna go out there and we're gonna compete. But part of the process here for our players is to be mature enough and understand, and they've been communicated with, you gotta get your work done over the break and you gotta, you gotta be ready to come back here and, and, and, and compete. And we've put a, a system in place that we've used in the past that that's really worked well for us. We'll, I will reach out to our players periodically. Coach Siri will reach out to our players, our, our strength staff, you know, coach P will reach out to them, coach Pelfrey, our entire staff will be involved with, with just checking in with our players to make sure, you know, and trying to hold them accountable to get their work done and, and be ready to come back here and, and, uh, get to work on the 15th of January.
Speaker 1 00:17:57 Yeah, that's a unique thing about baseball, I guess, and softball where you coach them during the fall for an extended period and then you lose some amount of contact day-to-day contact with them for a significant period. A lot can happen over the, you know, three or four weeks of break. Has people staying in good baseball shape, has that been helped over the last 15 years as more kids have access to indoor facilities and batting cages and things like that.
Speaker 2 00:18:24 So what happens is all these kids go back to what you're saying, they go back to their indoor facilities or travel ball facilities and you know, we've got kids from Wisconsin, we've got kids from Texas, we've got kids from Oklahoma, we've got kids from Kansas. And what happens is all these kids go back, they have an opportunity to work out at these facilities, but they're working out with kids that are plant at other schools, whether it be Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, Texas a and m, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, ku, K State, they have a chance to, to kind of go back and work with, with them. Um, which is pretty cool, you know, now that leads to conversations, you know, about how you're doing this, how you're doing that, you know, how are your coaches there at Wichita State? How are your coaches here? There, it leads to a lot of things, which I think are positive, you know, that they can have that, that feedback and communication.
Speaker 2 00:19:16 Um, you know, we've made an adjustment over the last probably 5, 6, 7, 8 years in that when they come back, I'll have meetings with certain players and encourage our, our, our assistance to like, Hey, was there something that, that maybe you had a conversation with somebody that's playing at, you know, Mississippi State or playing at Oklahoma, that maybe they did something a little different in the fall that maybe we can implement, you know, and try to learn from our players again, build that communication with them, continue to build that relationship with them and provide them input. And then also utilize our staff and the, and the context that we have, uh, with trying to just find ways to do things better and put our guys in a better position to be successful.
Speaker 1 00:20:00 Tell us about some of the returners who maybe made, uh, made some strides or made a good impression in the fall. Who should people maybe be paying attention to? Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:20:08 Everybody's gonna focus on, you know, on our three guys that were all conference from last year and, and you know, they've earned that. And, you know, Brock Rodin's kind of the first one on the list. And man, we love that guy. A shocker fan should have loved that guy. He is a throwback. Just get after it. Competitive chip on his shoulder every day type player. And, um, you know, I think he, he really worked hard this fall at becoming better defensively. Um, coach Sirian does a good job with our infielders, and, and there was some things that were addressed and if, if people noticed, we, you know, he played quite a bit at shortstop this fall, which he's got the ability to do that if we choose to move that direction. Uh, but just a, a worker, you know, it was our last, last week of, of fall after we had kind of made that transition from a coaching staff standpoint.
Speaker 2 00:21:03 And, and, you know, I saw him in the dug, I saw Brock and the dugout, and he was mad, and he's like, I gotta go get some more swings in the indoor, you know, well, you know, it's the last week of fall practice, you know, I mean, he's, he was drafted last year. He's a returning all conference player. You know, most guys, you know, or some guys would've just shut it down. I got, I got three more inter squads, and it's not that big a deal. He wasn't that way and he lit it up the last two or three, you know, inner squads. So that's just the type of mentality he brings and, and he's obviously gonna be a centerpiece of what, what we're doing moving forward.
Speaker 3 00:21:47 Hi, this is Rick Yuma, president of Wichita State University. Check out the latest episode of the Forward Together podcast. Each episode I sit down with different guests from Chacar Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita State University. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1 00:22:16 Chuck Ingram had a really nice year last year for you in the outfield. Tell us about his fall.
Speaker 2 00:22:21 Yeah, he, uh, had a good year for us last year as, as you alluded to. And, uh, coach Sirian and I, and Coach Barons met with, with, with Chuck, you know, before he left to go home for the, for the break. And one of the things that he brought up was, you know, he felt like that he learned from str he struggled in, in the Cape, you know, it's a tremendous league. Um, he went up there and coming off a, a good year here and, and struggled. But to his credit, he stayed the whole summer. He worked through it. He didn't tap out, he didn't come home, he didn't, you know, kind of wind around and, you know, I think that, that, that shows a lot about what he wants to be as a player. I think, uh, we tried to adjust, uh, some things here the last few weeks, you know, in terms of helping him become a better hitter.
Speaker 2 00:23:08 And, and, uh, we fully, um, believe that he's got a chance to continue to improve moving forward. I mean, it's, for him, it's all about putting the ball in play. He's so strong and got such tremendous bat speed. It's just about putting, putting the ball in play. And when he does, even with two strikes, if it's a, you know, an 80% swing just to try to get the barrel there, you know, the Paul usually comes off his bat with a really high exit, you know, velocity, speed. So, and then, you know, people are gonna focus on Cameron by, you know, Cameron was a all-conference player for us. Had a, had a little bit of a, a medical issue with his arm that, that wasn't major, but had to be, uh, kind of cleaned up this, this fall. Uh, so we did not throw him this fall. He, he set out, uh, got that taken care of. And all indications are, um, you know, with his throwing program that he just started, he's gonna be maybe a little bit behind the start of the season with his pitch count and the number of pitch he's gonna be able to throw, but, uh, knock on wood, hopefully back to, to a full recovery and, and can be one of the centerpieces of our pitching
Speaker 1 00:24:08 Staff. So Brock Rodden hit 3 38 for the shockers 17 home runs. You mentioned he was drafted 10th round by the Oakland a, decided to come back and continue at Wichita State. Wh what kind of a boost is that to get a guy like that back on your roster?
Speaker 2 00:24:24 Tremendous. You know, he's a guy that can hit in multiple spots in the order. Um, and to, to have him along with, with Ingram and Sawyer Thornhill and, you know, Jordan Rogers and, and you know, Peyton Toley, you know, as possible DH can, I mean, we've, we've got a pretty solid core, you know, to build from, from an offensive standpoint. And then, you know, some of the guys and some of the pieces that we've added, um, you know, Kai McDonald's got a chance to be a good player. Um, he has a skillset set to play center field, which we really haven't had a true center fielder, you know, and in the time that we've been back here. But he's a guy that could, you know, possibly do that, which allows us to, to maybe, uh, you know, move Ingram to right field or left field or whatever.
Speaker 2 00:25:11 And, and, you know, Chuck played center field force all year last year. So when you have the ability to be able to take a really good athlete and make your, make your defense better and your outfield better, possibly, um, that's gonna help us. You know, uh, Jack Little's a freshman, um, that hadn't been there, hadn't been much talked about him. He's a really athletic guy, you know, he's, he's, we think he's got a chance to be, you know, a shortstop or middle infielder, you know, moving forward. And he'll compete for time, you know, at that, at that, uh, position or those two positions. But he's a guy that can flip to the outfield as well. So, uh, and then David Harrings, another guy just kind of running down some of the newcomers, uh, starting shortstop for Cali County, you know, community college. Uh, last year they finished runner up in the JUCO World Series.
Speaker 2 00:25:58 I mean, he's about as solid as you get. He's a baseball player, getting kind of a throwback guy. He's gonna dive for ground balls, he's gonna be in the right spot. You know, he's a left-handed hitter, which, which gives us a chance to kind of balance our lineup out a little bit. Um, you know, Pennington's another kid that transferred in from, from central Missouri. Uh, it's a right-hand hitter that's, you know, another guy that, you know, if, if we can get him to make consistent contact, he's got tremendous power. And a guy that, you know, that's got a chance to play first base for us. Uh, Mauricio Milan's, a catcher that we brought in junior college catcher that's, you know, that played in the, in the draft league this summer. And, uh, he's got a chance to be a good player, you know, and, and to combine him with Burge and, you know, some of the other guys from the catching standpoint that we got, we feel like that we've got a good mix of three or four guys there with, with Cooper Harrison, and, you know, Williams to, to, to try to, you know, hopefully one of those guys kind of rises up above everybody else and separates themselves.
Speaker 2 00:27:04 Um, you know, Jordan Rogers is another guy that's, you know, that was a, developed into a consistent player that could possibly hit in the middle of the order for us, you know, really competitive guy and, and pretty good athlete. He was a, he was an infielder in high school and we kind of moved him to the outfield. He can play multiple positions. So, you know, there's, there's some options. Csro, you know, a guy that's now in his third year that's shown glimpses and he's got tremendous raw power, you know, again, it's just a matter of trying to get him to put the barrel on the baseball more frequently. So from a position player standpoint, um, you know, I think the people should be excited about some of the options that we have. Um, we're gonna do everything we can to, to be extremely aggressive offensively. We've gotta be able to hit and run.
Speaker 2 00:27:49 We've gotta be able to play up tempo. We've gotta be able to, you know, pressure opponents defenses and opponents pitching staffs and make them, you know, defend a lot of different things. You know, if we're a, if we're a football team, we're gonna, we're gonna be able to spread it out. We're gonna throw it around and we're gonna be able to run the ball. We're gonna make them play, you know, vertically and, and horizontally. I kind of reference football a lot, but, uh, you know, same with, um, same with, um, you know, anything that we're gonna do offensively, it's gonna be aggressive and we've got a good, do a good enough job coaching them to where they can bond, they can hit and run, and we've got as many options as possible so we can pressure the defense. And, you know, for me, offensively, it, it kind of revolves around the fact that it's easy to score runs when the wind's blowing out. And the, the pitching's not real good <laugh>, the reality is, is the wind's gonna be blowing in, or the pitching's gonna be really good, or both, you know, so we've gotta figure out a way to, to manufacture runs and, and give ourselves the chance to win games when the pitching gets really good. And, and maybe the conditions aren't as conducive to hitting as, as what they may be as as the year goes on and the weather warms up.
Speaker 1 00:28:57 I've done a lot of stories on people who went to the Cape Cod League over the summer, <laugh>, and it seems a lot of them really benefited from it almost regardless of how they performed, that there was just something about being in that league Yeah. Facing that kind of competition that really helped them. What's your experience been with guys going to the Cape and coming back and, and why is it, why does it seem to be generally really helpful?
Speaker 2 00:29:19 So the best hitting coach there is is to go out in the summer when the wood bat league and figure it out, <laugh>. I mean, it was that way for, you know, when I played here. Uh, it's, it's that way now. And you know, there, there's, there's so many positive things about just getting away from this bubble and, and going out and, and it's, it's basically, uh, an internship for professional baseball. I mean, let's be real. It's going to the Cape or going to the North Woods League or going to California, like a lot of our guys do. Uh, it's, it's just, it's an internship for professional baseball. And, and the good thing is if you're in pro ball and you fail like that, you don't have a job anymore. You know, you get released in college, you can go and you can fail or you can succeed, or you can make adjustments and, and do whatever you gotta do, and then you can come back and address those issues, you know, back in college.
Speaker 2 00:30:13 So, um, just really value the guys, including Cameron by Chuck Ingram, Peyton Toley, you know, saw your tho we, we got a lot of guys that that went out in the summer and they, they grinded through it. You know, a lot of these kids now, they, they'll go and they'll play for a couple, two or three weeks and they tap out and they wanna take the rest of the summer off. Um, but it to, to these guys' credit and the majority of 'em, they, they grinded through it. And, you know, we haven't really talked much about our pitching staff. I know we're probably gonna get into that here, here shortly, but we're very careful with our pitchers and the number of endings that they throw in the, in the summer and, and trying to monitor those things throughout the fall and, and have our best guys available for the spring.
Speaker 1 00:30:59 There was one more newcomer I wanted to ask about. I heard a lot of good things about Clark Kioti, one of the new, one of the new pitchers over the fall. Uh, give us a, a little scattered report on Clark Kioti.
Speaker 2 00:31:09 Yeah. And, and Pelf. And I just, uh, kind of revamped a few things yesterday and just kind of, kind of communicated with what our plan's gonna be moving forward. But, you know, Kioti is at the top of the list in terms of guys that perform well this fall. Um, you know, with his dad pitching the big leagues. I mean, he's been around it since he was born. So, um, he understands the type of work ethic you have to have. He understands, you know, the, the, the type of competitive nature that you have to have. Stuff's good, but it's not off the charts Crazy good, you know, he's not midnight, he's like, a lot of these kids are now, but it's good enough and our guys love playing behind him, you know? Um, so he would be a guy, you know, that, that would have a chance to compete for, you know, for, for, uh, starting rotation spot.
Speaker 2 00:31:58 Um, you know, we got the returners Caden favors, and we talked about buy, you know, toes and other guys got a chance to, to maybe be a, a weekend starter for us. Um, you know, we're gonna gonna probably, uh, train Jace Minor who started a lot for us last year in midweek and, and Cranz and another guy that, you know, that that's had a good summer and, and had a good fall. Uh, and then you kind of combine those guys with, you know, guys like Grant Adler, who was just the number one at, at Cali last year, and he's pitched in a lot of big games. He's got a chance to help us, uh, kind of blend all that stuff in with, with Kand, oti and, and some other guys. Um, Vico is another guy, junior college guy that from Arizona that that's got a chance to maybe work into the rotation.
Speaker 2 00:32:46 He's, he started before. He is a strike throwing guy. And then a young guy, you know, a Sneed that is, um, a high school kid from from Wisconsin that's got a really good arm. He, he's a tremendous athlete and got a really good arm, and he's another guy that, that from a stuffed perspective may be able to, you know, to help us, you know, uh, as a starting pitcher. So that's kind of the breakdown of that. Um, you know, you, you also, you know, Ross is a junior college guy that, that can, that can throw a breaking ball. Uh, you know, Boyer's a guy that, um, you know, that was a starter force last year, had some arm issues, but it looks like, knock on wood, he's gonna be healthy, you know, moving forward. And we got a registered ear for him last year. Uh, Nate Adler had a good fall, you know, and it threw well for us, and we got, you know, Wilkinson, another junior college kid outta Iowa that, that, um, can spin a breaking ball and, and, um, got a chance to help us.
Speaker 2 00:33:50 We think, you know, from a bullpen roll. So, um, really big on balance, you know, whether it be offensively with balance in our lineup left and right-handed balance, really big on balance with, with our pitching staff, you know, di Hoff's another kid just kind of going through these things in, in my head here. But di Hoff's another kid out of Ohio that's a big physical left-handed pitcher that showed glimpses at times, you know, to help us. Um, got another kid in Mulholland, left-hander that, that was tremendous in high school and then kind of had some arm issues, uh, missed the majority of the fall, but it looks like he's back healthy and he's got a chance to help us. So, you know, there's options, you know, it's just a matter of, of, again, trying to prepare them the right way. Um, starting, you know, in January, you know, when they come back from the break and, and kind of put the pieces together the right way. We play, we play seven games to start the first season on road trip and, uh, against challenging competition. So guys are gonna get an opportunity, you know, we're, we're not gonna go crazy on their pitch counts. We're gonna prepare 'em the right way and be at a, at a level where they can, uh, hopefully provide us quality innings on the front end. But guys are gonna get an opportunity to pitch, um, quite a bit there. That first couple, two or three weeks, you know, of the season.
Speaker 1 00:35:06 Clark Kioti is indeed the son of Tom Kioti, a long, long time Big league pitcher that whose, whose name people will, uh, will recognize. Uh, so Lauren, you were, you played at Wichita State, uh, you worked as an assistant at Wichita State from 85 to 92, and then head coach at Charlotte from 93 to to 2019. Let's start, uh, what did you learn from working with Gene Stevenson that has continued to, you know, to help you throughout your
Speaker 2 00:35:32 Coaching career? How much time do we have
Speaker 1 00:35:33 <laugh>? Yeah, we'll go to the,
Speaker 2 00:35:35 Um, and I, you know, I've stayed in communication with Gene for a long time and, uh, actually had, um, a great conversation with him yesterday just to, you know, just to get feedback and guidance from him. And he's tr a tremendous re resource. Um, you know, just like we talked about before, you have to, you know, you have to be willing to work on the things that you don't do well. You have to be consistent with, you know, with every day. You know, you have to put kids in a position to be able to be successful. You have to, to work hard, you have to have a good plan, you have to communicate all these things that we've talked about, um, you know, are things that, that I learned from Gene, obviously as a player. Um, and to compete, man, you know, when I talk about bleeding black and gold and I talk about being a shocker, there's a mentality that's kind of hard to explain to people about what that means.
Speaker 2 00:36:33 You almost have to see it and live it and feel it. And, you know, people, when I left to go to Charlotte and, and would run into people and they're like, man, you know, we played you guys back in 19 80, 82 and this and that, and we hated playing against you guys. <laugh>, you know, and that's boy man, that makes you feel good. Um, but just that, that competitive nature that you have to have to be able to play for Gene Stevenson and to be able to coach for Gene Stevenson, uh, you've gotta have a, a very high level of toughness and competitive nature to be able to do that. And I, I, you know, I thank Gene for that all the time. You know, I was a young dude from Wellington, Kansas who was a three sport athlete that needed to be taught those things. I had a great base from my dad and other people over the years, but I learned a lot from him. Learned a lot from Brent, uh, learned a lot from a lot of other coaches, you know, over, over a time period and still have that resource, which I'm thankful for.
Speaker 1 00:37:37 Why did you get into coaching?
Speaker 2 00:37:41 Great question. Uh, the why for me is I had such a great experience here as a player that I wanted to give back. I wanted to give back to these players and to, it's still the same today. You know, when, when, when Kevin asked me to do this initially on an interim basis, and then he asked me to do it, you know, longer term, at the end of the day, it was about the players. We, we want to do anything we can to help them have a similar experience to what I had. I mean, think about it, growing up in Wellington, Kansas and playing football and basketball, and you come to Wichita State, you get to go, I've been to Hawaii five times. I played in a national championship game. I got to play professionally and then for Gene to ask me to come back and coach and give me that opportunity.
Speaker 2 00:38:27 And, and the, the staff that we had and, you know, all the personalities, you know, Gene's personality, it's, it's, you know, Brent's personality, my personality and, and to blend that together and to go through and, and you know, the last five years that I was here as an assistant coach, we made it to Omaha four of, of five times and, and won a national championship and finished second, you know, in 91. And, and to, to go through all that. Uh, man, that's special. You know, when, when Gene got inducted into the, to the college baseball Hall of Fame, I, I flew from Charlotte and Gene asked me, you know, and several other people if we could make it. And I flew out there and was, was there for that timeframe. And, you know, skip Bertman, who I have unbelievable respect for Skip, was kind of holding court there in Lubbock, you know, and talking to, to a bunch of people.
Speaker 2 00:39:17 And, and he was dead serious. He said there was about a five to six year period there where Wichita State was the best baseball program in college baseball. And, you know, complimented me, complimented Gene, complimented Brent, and man, I'm, I'm tingling now talking about it. You know, you get that kind of validation from a guy like Skip Burman and, you know, that's, that's pretty, pretty special. So, um, you know, and then to make the decision to, to leave and go to Charlotte was not easy. But, um, we did that and, and, um, I think that that was a, a big part of preparing me, preparing us for this situation because I got away from Wichita. I got completely away from all the stuff that's here. And, uh, Brent thought it was crazy <laugh>, you know, he's like, why are you doing? Because it was comfortable here.
Speaker 2 00:40:12 We obviously, we were on a roll. I mean, we had it going. Um, you know, gene brought JT in when I left, and, and they kept it rolling, you know, for, for multiple years. And, uh, but to go and, uh, you know, I don't know if people know or not, but Pats who played here on our national championship team, pat was our pitching coach at Charlotte those first three years. So him and his wife Julie were, you know, just newly married. And he took that leap of faith too, you know, and went out there and helped us get that program at Charlotte. Started off really bad when we got there, and, and it was, was, you know, one of the first guys to help, you know, help us start building that deal and you think you're gonna be there for 3, 4, 5 years, get it cleaned up and moved on to the next thing. And 27 years later we're still there and working through things and, and, uh, took a really bad situation and made it, made it really good and won a lot of championships and a lot of games and, and, uh, then transitioned back to here. So all those experiences, all those things, uh, help us now, you know, with, with another challenge and something that we're, you know, we're excited about, uh, you know, moving forward.
Speaker 1 00:41:20 Yeah. I think that's important that you did get outta your comfort zone and go not, not just leave Wichita State, but you went about as far east as you could go without, with still being in the United States. Was that always part of your plan? Did you recognize, you know, if I'm gonna grow, I need to get outta here.
Speaker 2 00:41:38 I really wasn't looking to leave, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, you can, people can go back and look at the records. I mean, you make to Omaha four out of five years and, you know, you got some really good players coming back and you know, Casey Blake was gonna be a freshman, you know, that, that next year. And I knew his dad and all that, and I thought he had a chance to be a really good player. And Travis Woff, you know, he's an Arc City kid that we, you know, was involved in recruiting, and I was from Wellington, he's from Arc City, tremendous athlete. And you know, so you knew that there was a still, still more guys coming in. Um, two people said, Hey, you know, it's time to do it. And that was my father, my dad and Gene like, you know, and Gene warned me, he said, you know, he felt like it was a blessing that when he got here that there wasn't a program.
Speaker 2 00:42:23 He started from scratch. He said, you're gonna inherit a lot of bad, you know, cause the program is not very good, and that's gonna be a different challenge for you. And then, you know, just having those resources, once I got out there as a young head coach and I could call Jean anytime I needed to, I could call Brent anytime I needed to jt in addition to building a whole nother, uh, network of people in that part of the country. So I learned how to, you know, to talk with a southern accent a little bit. All y'all used to could, I mean, I can get down there when I need to. Uh, not as fake as the LSU football coach situation, Brian Kelly. Well, I started laughing when I saw that. I just like, come on, dude. Like, you don't have to, you don't have to go there. But, uh, and just, you know, building those contacts and, and still a lot of great friends that live in that area and have reached out here in the last, last few days and last week or so, and just, you know, they want us to do well. They're excited, they want Wichita State Baseball to do well.
Speaker 1 00:43:23 Was there anything more fun than coaching Chris Wimmer and Billy Hall and watching them when they got on base?
Speaker 2 00:43:28 Billy stops by periodically, Chris, you know, his son plays at South Carolina. So, uh, just have stayed in touch with those guys. And I still joke around with them that, you know, I think Jimmy Thomas and I back in our prime, we might be able to give you guys a good run in a 60 yard dash, and they both just start laughing. But it was fun. I mean, they could literally outrun the ball sometimes, which sounds crazy. But, uh, they were just, and both of them were, you know, Billy was undervalued. He was at Butler County, and he comes here as a walk on and he had to grind through it and, and developed into an All-American. And Chris, I mean, I, I'll never forget going over and watching Chris practice at East High School, you know, and he had hi, they had him and that Tommy Tillman and, you know, uh, Loun, they had several really good players.
Speaker 2 00:44:15 Mike Jones, Mike Jones, yeah, Mike Jones, and, and you know, they had, they had a good run of, of players then. But, you know, watching Chris and everybody's like, oh, you know, he's a second baseman. They were worried about his throwing motion and all this other stuff, but what a great athlete. I mean, incredible athlete. And, you know, when he got here, even, you know, played him at second a lot and there was, I think maybe it was his fall before his sophomore year, and Gene had, when Brent and I, you know, met with, with Gene had stabbed me, he's like, you know, we need to play Wimmer at shortstop this fall. And I was like, what are you talking about? He can't, he gonna struggle to throw the ball across the field, but Gene was right. You know, let's give Chris, let's give Wimer a chance to play shortstop every day, which freed up a chance for Billy Hall to play second. And we had maybe the most athletic tandem at, at short and second that we've had in the history of the program. Now Lansing and PJ Forbes were pretty good, and there's been a lot of other ones over the years, as you know. But, um, just really, we were able to really speed the game up on people and, and really had a, those two guys, you know, develop into all American caliber players.
Speaker 1 00:45:25 And 1991 team was a lot of fun to watch. Maybe the, maybe my favorite. They were very, very entertaining. All right, let's wrap it up. I do a lot of podcasts in here when I come over to talk to the players, and I always, were in the baseball classroom and there are eight uniforms hanging up on the wall. I always ask them, what is their favorite? So I'm gonna ask you the same, same question. We've got camouflages, we've got the yellow with the shockers. We've got pin stripe, black gray, what they described as the old school. Shocker lettering. We've got another black and another white. What, what's, what's your favorite out all those? Lauren?
Speaker 2 00:46:00 Well, you remember with Jean, like, we were like Oregon football back in the, in the eighties before Oregon football. Like we would wear all gold. We would wear all black, we would wear, you know, gray pant and gold top. I mean, we had all, we had 9,000 different different uniform combinations. I wish that Under Armour made a gray pen stripe. How cool would that be? So to answer your question, I kinda like the pen stripe. Uh, I think that looks pretty clean. Underarmour does not right now, make a gray pen stripe. So we're hopefully that they will in the next year or two. Uh, I'm, I'm more of the, like the clean look, like a white pant or pen stripe pant with, with black top or, or yellow top. Um, just keep it clean, keep it looking good, and then get that uniform dirty
Speaker 1 00:46:50 With all those uniform combinations. How do you choose what you're going to wear for a game?
Speaker 2 00:46:56 It's a Nate Briscoe deal. <laugh>, he's got defer to him. And, you know, this whole deal about, you know, the starting pitcher's gotta picket. And I, I've never understood all those things, but I, I try to stay out of that. I, it doesn't matter to me what they wear just as long as they play hard.
Speaker 4 00:47:23 Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast. Courtesy of Wichita State University's strategic communications. We encourage you to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more roundhouse
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Speaker 5 00:47:39 It's over. It's over. Ladies and gentlemen. Say it slowly and savor it. Wichita State is going to the Final four for the first time in 48 years.
Speaker 6 00:47:53 Unbelievable. What a scene folks. The shocker fans are just going crazy in the stands.
Speaker 5 00:47:59 Just maybe the greatest win in the history of Wichita State Basketball.
