MMV #052: From High School of 300 Students to Professional Pitching Coach

Dec 25, 2023

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Read time: 15 minutes

First off, I want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas!

My commitment to you was to write a newsletter every single Monday in 2023.

Well, we have made it and I couldn't be more thankful for your support and encouragement this year!

I want to wrap up 2023 by telling you my journey as a player and coach.

Hopefully it can be an encouragement to a coach or player reading this.

I grew up in Cave Creek, Arizona and attended Scottsdale Christian Academy.

It was a small high school with less than 300 students!

I was fortunate to play for an incredible coach, Bill Swift.

He had a successful 13 year big league career, including a 21 win season in 1993 where he was the runner up in the Cy Young voting to Greg Maddux.

Swift helped mold me into the pitcher I was and I am forever grateful for his mentorship.

I was undersized throughout high school, graduating at 6', 145 pounds.

Being an "underdog" fueled my work ethic and allowed me to out perform expectations. I was just an average player up until my senior year where I really took a step forward.

I finished my senior year of high school with 65 innings, 1.08 ERA, and 117 strikeouts, including a 20 strikeout game in 7 innings.

Despite a very good season, I didn't have a lot of college opportunities because I lacked velocity and grades. I was topping out in the low 80's and even though I was left handed, I didn't have many big schools interested in me.

I decided to go the junior college route and played the next 2 years at South Mountain CC in Arizona. I had a good fall and was named the opening day starter against Western Nevada.

I got absolutely rocked. I think I gave up 6 or 7 runs in 1.2 innings. It was so bad, I went from being the opening day starter to a reliever immediately.

My first outing out of the bullpen wasn't much better. 2 innings and 3 or 4 runs.

I remember being so lost mentally because I had never failed like that. I went from statistically being one of the best pitchers in the state of Arizona, to getting my teeth kicked in the first couple weeks of my college career.

I remember driving home from a game with my dad just breaking down about what I was feeling and not knowing what to do.

He simply told me I had 2 choices, I could either mope and give up or I could get back up and try to get better each day. I chose the latter.

The game that changed my whole season and possibly my whole career was against Central Arizona, the #1 JUCO in the country at the time.

We were getting beat badly. We were down 5-0 after 2 innings.

Thinking we had nothing to lose, my coach brought me in to pitch the 3rd inning.

I gave up a run on 2 hits. Now down 6-0.

I went back out for the 4th. 123 inning. Went back out for the 5th. Another 123 inning.

I end of pitching into the 9th inning with 1 out before being removed. We came back down 6-0 to win 8-6!

I finished with 6 1/3 innings, 1 run surrendered and a W.

That game completely changed my outlook. I thought to myself, if I can pitch well against the best team in the country, I could do it against anyone.

Now, did I pitch great every game? Of course not. But I was able to bounce back a lot quicker because I knew I could. I had proven it to myself.

Going into my sophomore season, I had high hopes. In the fall my coach had all the sophomores meet with him and tell him our top 3 or 4 schools we were interested in. I listed all power 5 schools. I was setting the bar so high, I wasn't even considering options that I probably should have.

The schools I wanted didn't offer me in the fall so I decided to hold off on committing anywhere.

When I say I was pressing in the spring, I was REALLY pressing. I got off to horrible start and my velo had dropped from being 86-88 in the fall to 82-84! Not only that, but I was walking a lot of batter which was not something I had done in the past.

About halfway through the season I only had D2 and NAIA schools interested. A couple D1's showed interest but never offered.

I waited so long to commit that every school, including the D2 and NAIA schools no longer had scholarships available when I was finally ready to make a decision.

It was May of my sophomore year and I was without a school for the fall.

I grew up a big Arizona State fan and decided I would just walk on there if I didn't get another offer.

To get some looks, I knew I needed to play in a competitive summer league.

I emailed every single coach in the California League, West Coast League, Cape Cod, Northwoods, and many others.

The Kitsap Blue Jackets in the West Coast League were the only team that emailed me back. They were willing to sign me to a 10 day contract to start the season until the rest of their roster was able to join the team.

I said yes and drove to Washington.

I ended up pitching twice in those 10 days including a solid start of 6 innings, 2 runs.

The day my contract ended, they decided to keep me for the rest of the summer.

This proved to dramatically change my college trajectory.

In early July, George Mason University called my coach asking if he had any players on his roster that were uncommitted for next season.

He told them about me and within a couple days, I was flying to Virginia for a visit.

They had a junior left handed pitcher that was drafted that summer, but they were unsure if he was going to sign.

By the end of July the player decided to go pro and GMU had a roster spot to fill and scholarship money available!

With about 3-4 weeks until school started, I had officially signed with George Mason.

My junior year did not go as planned. I was the Friday night starter, but didn't pitch like it.

About a month into the season we found out we were changing conferences the next year and as a result we were no longer eligible for the conference tournament.

We completely tanked and finished the season 18-35.

I had a 2-9 record with an ERA of 6.18!

Due to the amount of innings I had thrown the previous couple of years, I took the summer off from playing games. Instead I trained back home in Arizona.

Something special happened the following season for myself and our team.

We won our conference tournament and received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

I had the best year of my college career, winning 8 games and positing a 2.03 ERA in 115 innings.

We were selected to the Rice Regional with #1 seed Rice, Texas, and Texas A&M.

Quite the regional for a mid- major like George Mason.

I was named the game 1 starter against Rice.

When people describe the feeling of being in the zone, this was it for me. I can barely even remember parts of this game. It feels like a foggy dream looking back on it.

We were the last game of opening night and in addition we had a rain delay. The game started close to 9 p.m.

Being from Arizona, that was about as humid of weather as I've ever pitched in. Late at night in Houston after a rain storm was something else!

I had anxious butterflies as I was warming up, but nothing out of control. Once I made my first pitch and got the called strike, I was ready to go.

First 2 innings I sent them down in order 123.

The 3rd inning started off with a ground ball double down the 3rd base line. I manage to get out of it without giving up a run.

The next 3 innings flew by, working around 2 singles and picking a runner off.

7th inning brought a little trouble with a double and an eventual run on a single.

We come up to bat in the 8th down 1-0.

We score 2 runs to take the lead!

I am sent back out for the 8th inning.

Inning starts off with a single followed by a sacrifice bunt. 1 out, man on 2nd.

Next guy hits a ground ball single up the middle to tie the game and is followed by another single.

I then went with my signature pickoff move I did multiple times that year.

When there were runners on 1st and 2nd, my first basemen and I had a sign we would give each other when the play was on.

He would play behind the runner like normal and as I would lift my leg he would break for the bag and I would back pick to 1st.

We were successful with this multiple times including in the conference tournament the week prior.

Checkout the pickoff move here.

On this pickoff our timing was slightly off and I threw the ball down the 1st base line. 1 run came in as a result.

The next pitch, the batter hits a double down the line before I am finally removed.

What was the game of my life on the biggest stage I had ever pitched on was shattered in a matter of a few batters.

We went on to lose 7-2 and lose again the next day to Texas A&M.

My college career was over at this point, but I still had high hopes of playing at the next level.

Despite throwing low to mid 80's I thought I had a good shot based on the numbers I put up and showing scouts I could pitch well against good competition like Rice.

The draft came and went and my name wasn't called.

I didn't know much about independent ball, but knew I wanted to keep playing.

I emailed every team in the Frontier League, Can-AM, American Association, and the Atlantic League.

I heard back from a couple teams, but decided to sign with the Wichita Wingnuts in the American Association.

I had no clue what I was getting into and truthfully, the skill level on the field was much higher than I expected.

I had 4 former big leaguers on my team and every other team in the league had at least 1.

Within a 4 day window I had accepted the offer, drove to Wichita, and made my pro debut going 5 innings, giving up 3 runs (3-run HR in the 4th).

I played 4 years of independent ball before getting hurt in December of 2017.

I ended up needing Tommy John and had the surgery done in March of 2018.

I had full intentions of continuing to play after I rehabbed, but other doors seemed to be opening and pointing me in another direction.

To talk about my coaching journey we'll have to back up to the fall/winter of 2014.

I had just gotten back to Arizona from my first pro season and I had an email from a local high school baseball coach.

He wanted to know if I was interested in helping out and being his pitching coach.

Because the high school season ended before I would have to leave for Indy ball the next summer, I figured, why not.

I would have a field to throw at and could start my coaching journey since I knew that was probably what I wanted to do when I was done playing.

The school had a lot of kids from lower income families and broken homes. I really connected with a lot of them and it became more about mentorship than baseball.

Right after the season ended, the head coach told me he was leaving and asked if I would be interested in being the new head coach.

Knowing I was still playing, I wasn't sure if I could make that commitment.

I decided to take the job anyways and to this day it is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

To be completely honest, we were not good. We were actually terrible.

But it didn't matter because it wasn't even about baseball.

I fell in love with the relationships and the responsibility I had to mentor these kids.

My whole life to that point was all about me. What was best for my career. What was going to help me get to where I wanted to go.

But to be a good coach you can't afford to be selfish. Players will see right through that.

They know when you are doing things for the right reasons.

It really hit me when I got a call from a player late one night because another kid on the team was hit by a car while riding his bike.

He came from a single parent home and his mom was working.

It hit me afterwards that I was the person he thought to call when he was in trouble.

He ended up being fine and it wasn't a serious injury, but the fact that he called me gets me choked up to this day.

Flash forward to the summer of 2016. This was the summer after my first year as the head coach for Coronado High School.

I am playing indy ball in Michigan at the time.

My former high school baseball coach, Bill Swift is now the head coach at Arizona Christian University.

He calls me to see if I'm interested in being his pitching coach.

I tell him I'm still playing and I'm not ready to give it up yet.

He tells me that it's fine and that I can leave the team early when it's time for me to go play.

This was a much harder decision for me than it might seem.

I loved working with the kids at Coronado I also was coaching there with my brother and best friend.

After thinking and praying about it for a while, I decided to take the job.

I was at ACU for the 2017 and 2018 seasons and grew so much as a coach.

I was given freedom to try anything which allowed me to fail fast and grow as a coach.

Similar to the high school kids, I built a strong bond with many players at Arizona Christian that I still talk to today.

Like I said earlier, I had TJ in March of 2018, which was during my second year at ACU.

Now that I had the summer open, my plan was going to be to rehab, recruit, and build plans for the fall.

My trainer at the time, Luke Hagerty at X2 is from Ohio and asked if I was interested in coaching a collegiate summer baseball team.

He connected me with the Lima Locos in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate league where I became the head coach.

Between the time of having surgery and coaching summer ball, something significant happened.

At Arizona Christian we had a player who had transferred in and I wanted to get some details on him.

He played at Virginia Commonwealth University a couple years prior to that. My pitching coach at George Mason, Steve Hay was the pitching coach at VCU while this player was there.

So I decided to reach out to him and see if he could give me any info on the player.

After talking and catching up, he asked me what my plans were moving forward with coaching.

He mentioned VCU had a 1 year grad assistant program where you would be the director of baseball operations and get your masters degree in Sport Leadership.

I knew as I continued coaching I would want to be a D1 pitching coach one day and this seemed like a good way to get my foot in the door.

I decided to do it and went to VCU right after coaching summer ball in Ohio.

All of this was happening while I was rehabbing and having the intention of playing during the summer of 2019!

At this point I had become very active on my social media accounts.

Sharing all things pitching and training, including my rehab process.

I was also doing remote training with a handful of players.

In December of 2018 I received an email from the pitching coordinator of the Astros asking if I was interested in interviewing for a job.

I honestly couldn't believe it.

Coaching in pro ball wasn't even on my radar.

I figured once I was done playing I would try to climb the ladder as a college pitching coach.

I made it far into interviews, but ended up not getting the job.

Over the next couple months a few other teams had reached out, but at this point we were about to start the spring season and even though I was just the DOBO, I didn't want to leave VCU out to dry.

Not to mention I was taking all of my classes in person, which would have made it difficult to transition to online classes at that point in the semester.

Then around early March the Twins reached out.

They had just lost one of their coaches and had an immediate need to fill.

They completely understood my situation and commitment to the team and school.

They agreed to let me finish the season and school before joining them, if I got the job.

I ended up getting the job and joining the low A affiliate as a pitching coach.

I never officially retired from playing, but it became clear to me the path I was supposed to go on.

I was fortunate to be a pitching coach in the Twins organization for 5 years and couldn't be more grateful for my time with them.

I learned an incredible amount of information and built lasting relationships.

My wife and I decided it was time for the next chapter in our lives and to move back to Arizona (we were living in Florida).

We have a son and another one due any day at the time of this post!

I want to be able to spend more time with my family and less time on the road, which is what ultimately led to this decision.

Now I am back in Arizona running Pitching Coach "U" full time.

Training players online, in-person, and being a resource for coaches.

My mission is to help as many players and coaches as I can because I know I wouldn't be where I am without the many people that invested time into me.

If you've made it this far, hopefully I encouraged you in someway regardless of where you are on your journey.

My main takeaways for myself are:

Go after what it is you say you want
There are learning curves at every level
Relationships should be put above self-gain
Your journey doesn't need to look like everyone else's

Enjoy time with family and Merry Christmas!

See you in 2024!

Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Remote Training: a personalized throwing and lifting program built for you and your goals.

2. In-Person Training: Work with me in Scottsdale, Arizona. Personalized training program to help you reach your goals. Trackman and edgertronic for bullpen sessions.

3. One time Trackman and Edgertronic camera bullpen (don't need to be a client). I'll give you video and your movement report afterwards. Email me at [email protected] to set up your bullpen.