Mongero Monday #22 – Trent Mongero is joined by his former coach and highly respected mentor of many, Mark Scalf, founder of Coaching Your Kid, former head coach at UNC Wilmington. Mark was a 5 time CAA Coach of the Year, Team USA Coach and had 941 Division 1 wins. Mark’s teams also participated in 9 NCAA regionals and they averaged 3-5 draft picks per year including 2017 1st round pick, Greg Jones.
Show Notes:
- Investing your life in others.
- Role Model
- Coach separators: things that allow certain players to advance, to achieve and to reach goals where other players may hit a dead end.
- Player development.
- Motivation.
- Finding athletes that have an understanding of the game and have a great desire to get better in their work everyday.
- Ability to make adjustments.
- What coaches are looking for in a high school athlete= lean bodies, quick twitch and good feet.
- Coaches are looking for lean bodies because then they know there’s room for improvement and growth.
- Looking for players who are competitive, ability to make adjustments.
- Need to have short memories because you’re going to fail.
- How does he respond to each at bat?
- Does the player talk about the game?
- First thing a college coach does is check and see how their grades are.
- Coaches are looking for a limited amount of issues in high school athletes.
- The athletes who want to get better and want to work hard will get better with time.
- College baseball prepares the athlete for whatever profession the athlete gets into.
- Coaches set a foundation for young athletes to succeed.
- Arm strength.
- Teaching college infielders to recognize the prep movement is not just physical but it’s mental too.
- Throwing program. Detailed catch play routine.
- Infielders need to be able to throw the baseball from every angle and be accurate throwing the ball.
- Defense positioning.
- Don’t pick a school because your social media post is going to look good. Pick a school that fits the athlete.
- Winning matters in college… Compete
- Looking for athletes who can handle the day to day grind.
- Sooner the college athlete understands how to organize time and organise their day, sooner they can focus on what they’re doing right in front of them.
- Control what you can control.
- Stay away from TOB (Transfer of blame) don’t always put the blame on coaches, teammates, umpires, weather.
- Hold yourself accountable.
- Body language.
- How disciplined is the athlete?
- Freshman being leaders and not being afraid to ask for help.
- Letting players fail!
- “It’s going to get worse before it gets better”.
- The definition of ignorance is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result..it doesnt change.
- Adapt, change, overcome.
- “Buy into the program”.
- Accountability
- Holding teammates accountable for good decisions, showing character, and being a quality person.
- Discipline
- “Knowledge is power”.
