Episode Transcript
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Forward Together podcast. I'm Rick Muima, president of Wichita State University.
Today my guests are Shocker softball coach Christy Bredbenner and Shocker baseball coach Brian Greene. Coach Green is entering his third season at Wichita State with a new look roster and important returners such as Wichita Jaden Gustafson in the outfield and Cape Cod League all star pitcher Brady Hamilton. Coach Breadbenner is entering her 15th season with the Shockers. Her resume is highlighted by five NCAA regional appearances since 2016 and 11 straight winning seasons. Welcome to the show. Christy and Brian.
Brian, Christy. Thanks for stopping by the podcast. It's good to see you all after the holiday break. Hopefully you're excited about the upcoming season. We're going to get into that here in a little bit.
I thought I'd start asking questions back and forth just so we have kind of equal time here with both of you. I'm going to start with you, Christy.
So we're seeing in college softball and it's growing in popularity. We have that professional tournament. It's been the last two seasons. Maybe you can comment on that.
What is the interest in the sport? Why is that growing?
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Well, I think the biggest thing is, you know, it's action packed. You know, I think, you know, over the last 10 years you're seeing a lot more softball on television.
So that's increased popularity in a big way. I think you're seeing some baseball fans, you know, turning the TV on and watching some softball. The games are shorter, the field's smaller, it's quicker paced.
I think just an interest in women's sports has probably caused a little bit more of that popularity. But, you know, softball is a great game and, you know, it's a, it's competitive, it's loud, it's energetic, you know, and again, it kind of fits in its little window. And, you know, you get all of that television audience going and then you get these young girls who are like, oh, I want to do that, I want to play on tv. And you know, I just think at the end of the day it showcases women at an ability that most people 20 years ago didn't think that they could achieve. And, you know, you've got women throwing 75 miles an hour underhand, which is similar to like 103 mile an hour fastball and baseball. And I think it opens the eyes to a lot of people and, you know, girls want to do it and the popularity is growing amongst the youngsters. And when that popularity grows and they get older and it just kind of has that trickle effect to it. So, you know, it's a great sport. And you know, obviously I'm biased sitting next to the baseball guy here that I think baseball is boring now that I've been a part of softball forever. And you know, I do think that that is why baseball, you know, television has created so many changes in our sports. You know, the baseball game for MLB is shorter than it's ever been because there's clocks and things like that. And I think a lot of that has to do with what wanting to provide a high level of entertainment on television. And I think softball is just that fast paced version of baseball that allows you to watch a whole game in two hours.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And no offense, Brian, because you know, I go to both your guys games and there is a little bit of difference. What's your thoughts on just baseball?
[00:03:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I don't want to, you know, cut the legs out of myself, but you know, going to a softball game is.
Is probably a little bit more entertaining. If you're a general fan and just want to go watch competition, it is faster pace, the games are quicker, you know, hour, hour and a half, same pitcher can throw all game, no pitching changes. I love the fact that when you watch softball, the girls are really honed in on their roles. Like, and you know that as a fan, you know, you know who the slapper and the bunner is, that's her role. You know who the bopper is, the power hitter. She's never going to bunt. Baseball can give you a little bit of a difference in that. But yeah, I think softball's great sport and I think that is why it's growing. The girls are just like in everything else, the training component for us as coaches has changed younger, so you're seeing faster, stronger, bigger nutrition, all those things. But I mean, Christie's girls are. They're fun to watch. They're good.
And watching high level softball is fun to watch.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And we'll get to your thoughts on baseball a little bit more here because we don't want to cut the leg.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I'd like to at least be a part of this.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
So I wanted to talk both of you about your facilities and your equipment. And I know that we've made some enhancements in terms of technology. It's just full of technology now. And also in softball are some enhancements that I know that are ongoing and plan for that area as well. So describe that technology. What's that do? How does that help? You know, everything's data driven Now I know our athletic director, Kevin Saul is sending me data all the time about your sports and where you all are at all times of your season, which is helpful to me because I'm a data guy. But tell me more about that and how that works.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: Boy, where do you start, right? You know, starting in the weight room and scanning our athletes bodies and giving them an opportunity. I think technology, the biggest component and it is an arms race. We all have to have it.
If we don't have it and the other school does have it, that's a value of, that's a statement of value that maybe our sport or Wichita State isn't as important to that school. Not true.
But that's the reality of what we're in from the kids perspective. But I think technology and we certainly use it, we're data driven, everybody is.
I think it impacts accountability for the coach, I think it impacts accountability for the player.
The days of the coach saying that's better, looks great, keep doing it. Very important.
But the kids now are growing up with, they know if that ball is 105 off the bat versus 96 and miles an hour and that's their exit velocity. And both of us are engaged in that.
And that's a nice, great training tool. Just like velocity and spin rate and the ball rising and dropping. You know, 10, 15 years ago, the coach, we were watching video, we were commenting on it.
Those days are over. The kids get the feedback and I think that's where you're seeing it. The one thing that I would say about technology and we have so much of it, we have our pitching lab, Christie has it in her facility. You do have to have it because the kids are used to it coming up in high school and club ball.
But in using that, I think it really helps us to train them the way that they need to be trained. For example, if we really want to impact a spin rate, making a mechanical move and seeing that immediately, the kids are going to buy into that faster.
And I think in today's portal era, with constant turnover, trust is depleted. In a sense, kids leave us quicker.
I think it's an area for us to as coaches and teachers and instructors to improve trust.
If we're teaching them the right thing and they see the results through technology. I mean, you think about us, exit velocity, spin rate, bat speed, we can measure a hitter, as Christy can too.
Instead of us talking about coming into the zone as a hitter flat, we can actually measure the, the angle of which your bat is entering into the zone, which is how he's going to impact your swing through the zone.
Those are great things.
The one thing that I think coach would probably say too, that we have to watch is because technology is so everywhere, we do lose sight of the fact of training for competition.
And I think especially we just came out of a break.
Kids these days are training for numbers. And so you're seeing kids really throw it really hard, swing it really hard. That's great.
But there's also a component of compete really hard that we have to find the balance for that. But I'll tell you, we need it. We use it. We use it every day.
When our kids throw bullpens, I'm sure, Christie, it's like this for you with BP or bullpens. But on our scoreboard we have our trackman, all of the data for our pitchers. When they're on the mound throwing a bullpen, they'll throw, they'll turn around, they'll see their spin rate, they'll see their velocity, they'll see their vertical, their horizontal angles of the ball.
Coach Clagett can make a tiny little adjustment. If they see it on the board immediately, the feedback is tremendous. I think that's where we really feel
[00:09:13] Speaker A: it's completely necessary and it's just incredible what, what we have available to us.
So, Christy, back to you.
The university kind of prides itself on being student centered. And I just recently wrote a book about that and that whole innovation driven aspect to it.
And I know that both of you, but wanted you to address this, really believe in building that team chemistry. And you have diner dinners, not diners, dinners over at your house with some of your athletes.
So why do you believe in those kinds of things? And what are some other things that you do to help kind of build that chemistry?
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Well, I think you all learn as a young age getting into coaching, the chemistry piece of it's going to be the make or break. You know, we've all had teams that have been super successful. When you look at the numbers or you're looking at your team lineup and you're like, okay, I've got a great team together this year.
To me, what's the deciding factor that's going to get them across the finish line or to win the championships? The chemistry piece, can they play together? You know, can we be cohesive throughout the season?
Are we going to, you know, be fans of each other or are we just going to be a fan of ourselves?
And so I think that chemistry piece is important and we spend a lot of time. Yep. We do dinners every Probably a couple weeks. You know, a different group eats dinner at a coach's house. So, you know, Tyra is involved in that, our director of operations. But we've got our full coaching staff and, you know, four or five girls rotate and you have dinner at the coach's house. And I think the difference in that for us is getting to know our athletes. I mean, Brian hit the nail on the head with the portal.
You're bringing in new kids every year and you're trying to figure out a way to keep them at the same time. And, you know, some of the best ways to keep them is providing an environment that they can be themselves. And so I want to get to know who that person really is. You know, we have a, you know, beginning of the year barbecue at my house where, you know, I've got 21 players and our managers all come and our whole staff. And at the end of the day it's, you know, 40, 45 people. I don't get a lot of one on one time, you know, and we want to include our families. And so we started doing these dinners where, you know, it's smaller groups and they get to sit at the table. And so, you know, Jamie and I host and we have three kids and they sit at the table. Yeah, the team, the four or five girls sit at the table with my kids. And my kids love it. And they're playing maid and garbage monsters and all the things and telling them everything that's going on.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Sounds really chaotic.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: It is awesome. Well, it's my life every single day.
But it just, it's an opportunity for us to ask questions. In fact, my wife is a communications major, is awesome and she came up with a fishbowl questions that we sit in the middle and the girls have to pull a question out. We go around the table and everybody answers it. Even my kids, if they understand what the question is sometimes favorite movie or something like that. But like, it allows us to really get to know our athletes and then they get to know us. They see what my life, as chaotic as it can be with three young kids, is like every single day. And, you know, it's made a big difference. It's allowed all of us to really get to know everyone. And, you know, we do a number of things. Obviously we're in our preseason right now. The girls are coming back tomorrow. And so for the next week and a half, basically. I won't say that we're gonna monopolize their time from morning to night, but we are in an unlimited kind of Time. We do a lot of team building type stuff, you know, and we do try to create competition within that team building. So we do a shocker challenge throughout the year, and there's three teams. They accrue points throughout the year. Each milestone that they hit, they get apparel or something like that that's distributed to them. And then the team that gets to 101st doesn't have to carry equipment all season, which is a really big perk. And that has created really great competition, but also camaraderie. And there's different things that we do with, like, Halloween with costumes and pumpkins. And so it's not just softball all the time. There's a fun component to it that I think gets them out of their comfort zone a little bit and allows them to get to know each other on a different level. And I think it's important. It has a big impact. And, you know, the years that I felt like we have struggled in softball, whether it's been here or at Emporia or Santa Barbara, places that I've been, it's always been the years that we haven't had the best chemistry. And, you know, winning makes things better. Right? Winning makes things more cohesive. But it's when you have a team that maybe doesn't have all the ingredients to be successful physically, but if you can challenge them to come together as a team, you're going to get more wins out of that team than you ever thought you could. And the chemistry piece is what puts
[00:14:06] Speaker A: that together and also kind of promotes that positive culture that we want to have in the athletic department, which to me is really important because, you know, we've had some times where that wasn't the case.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a huge, you know, component of it is the chemistry piece. And I mean, you know, we're all going to have our ups and downs. It's hard to consistently have a really good team throughout a long period of time. And we, you know, I felt like last year we had a talented enough softball team to.
To win 35 games. And, you know, we came up short. And when you reevaluate and you kind of look at how your season went, there is some team chemistry components that didn't match up and, you know, a little bit more of that I over me type mentality. And that's when you're gonna struggle a little bit.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: So, Brian, you know about the legacy of shocker baseball.
I think that's why you wanted to come here. That strong support in the community, the facilities and put a lot of our athletes into professional baseball. You know, you go into the team operation center and you see all those photos. It's just incredible. So tell me what that means to you, that success, the past success.
Just the visual of seeing all those former student athletes go on to play professionally. And what's. How do you use that to leverage
[00:15:39] Speaker C: this might be a. Yeah, it's a great question. And I think Christie's gonna be like, wow, that's a coach. You went there. You know, we. We play here at Wichita State under, you know, the allure of a legend. You know, somebody who tells a story of building this place from essentially a circular table like this from his own hands, and boasts that he's going to be in the College World Series in four years, and it ended up being five.
And he did it without a field and wasn't going to take no for an answer. We are talking about one of the legends of college baseball.
So I do think that there is a large component of that, of making. Because coach is up there, and when I say he's up there, whether he's in the suite or he's watching you or he's thinking about you, and I think everybody who puts that uniform on understands that. And I think there's some stress that goes with that. So I think we have to make sure that we leave that where it is and take it as an honor to play here.
Coming here was one of the greatest. It is the greatest honor of my life. When I walked into the stadium for the first time, I had never been to Wichita State. I'd never been to eck. I'd been to Wichita for recruiting, recruiting the junior colleges around the area. I'd never been to eck. I walked into the stadium, I saw the mural, I walked out to the field, I saw Brent Chemnitz.
And that's when it hit me. It was like, you get to put the same uniform on that Gene Stevenson wore.
57 All Americans, 42 major leaguers, seven trips to the College World Series, four national runners up, and one national championship in 1989. So Coach Gooda had five rings. So I think it's really important for our players to understand how important this program is to the community, to this university, and out of respect to Coach Stevenson, that we play a specific way.
That's the pressure that I want all of us to feel is the pressure to perform, play hard, play with respect, play with honor, and understand what it means to wear this uniform.
Wichita State baseball needs to get back into national prominence. It's good for college baseball, but it is an honor to play here.
All of our kids get that. What we try to do in recruiting is to make sure, you know, Coach, when you're. When we're quoting Bull Durham, Major League Hoosiers, and the kids don't even know what we're talking about these days. We've gotten old.
But, you know, we. We really work hard in the recruiting process. As part of the presentation, there's two or three slides with Coach Stevenson and the history of this program just to make sure the kids know what they're getting into. And what they're getting into is high expectation.
And. And that's a great thing. And. And we want to chase it down. We want to be the first team to get back to the NCAA regionals since 13, and that's what drives us every day. And we want to do it for coach, to be honest, it is an honor to play here.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: So Christy talked about that success, their facilities.
One of my major priorities, as you know this, I hope you know, this is to improve the facilities of softball, you know, because it doesn't take a rocket science to be sitting in your stadium and look across the parking lot and see his. You know, we have to have equitable experiences for our students, and that includes facilities. A lot of people don't understand that. I think that gets lost on people.
You have a new practice facility just opened this past fall, and I know that's probably getting a lot of good use. I was over there one day after it wasn't quite done.
Didn't have all the. Everything tricked out on the walls, but the students were in there using it. It was like, this is great, great space. I was really, really happy to see that.
And we're getting ready to break ground on the team operations center, so that will start this spring.
So how do you.
First of all, what do you think about the transformation that we're undergoing in terms of facilities and that support and how do you use that? Kind of similar to us asking Brian, in terms of the legacy of baseball, how do you use that sort of thing to help recruit whatever else helps in terms of getting a winning sort of culture?
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Well, the indoor facility is a game changer for us. I mean, when you start kind of comparing and contrasting who you're trying to compete against. Right.
I mean, and this is a long time coming for them, but we have nicer facilities than Oklahoma State, a team that's made it to the World Series the last six years. You know, and Kenny and I talk about it A lot. You know, they've got an awesome baseball facility and they've. And they're in the works of putting together something, obviously. But, you know, the indoor facility for us is, you know, so many different things. It's a culmination of a lot of blood, sweat and tears of our program. I mean, just when you look at the, the time that I got here in 2011 and 2012 was our first season, we didn't have a warning track. We had a wooden fence, we had grass field. Our lights were old.
We had one hitting cage that was kind of shared between everybody. At practice, you had very small visitors dugout, a somewhat small, which is what we're in right now, home dugout. But we had a locker room and we had nice offices and things like that. But as time has changed, just like the growth of the program, you know, and the sport that you've talked about, you know, we have more staff, right? We have an additional assistant coach. We have an additional director of operations.
We have gas. We carry, you know, we can carry up to 25 kids.
You know, we're out of space. We don't have enough offices, we don't have enough lockers. We, you know, our team room is now the office for our director of ops and one of our assistants and all of our gas. And, you know, so you think about how we've evolved and, you know, we're super fortunate, you know, that we've had very passionate fans that have shown that they can fill our facility and want to support our softball program. And, you know, we got the ball rolling with the turf and the lights and, you know, the cage area where the new office building is going to go. And that was awesome. And those were huge upgrades. And now it's like, oh, my gosh, now we're kind of looking at this next big piece of this. That to me is like the Taj Mahal for us, because the indoor facility is. It's everything that we needed it to be. And, you know, and it's kind of twofold because it totally helps, Brian, at the same time, because it was always a challenge to share, you know, Bombardier, because at the end of the day, it didn't matter. Our kids were still taking classes at the same time. You know, we could try to say, hey, try to be done by noon every single day. You're still going to have your four or five kids that had class until 1:30 or that had a 3 o' clock class that was always at 3 o', clock no matter what. And so, you know, for 15, 14 years. The communication of trying to make practice work when we had a shared facility was a challenge. And that's their, you know, their everyday. I mean, when it's nice out, they're still using that indoor facility. When it's nice out, we're not going over there, right? And so now we get to kind of see what that part of it's like, you know, we can hit in that indoor facility every single day and leave our stuff set up and we're not having to tear it down and put it up. And so for us, that component once we can get kids on campus to see is unreal.
And we've been fortunate to have some, you know, start having some camps and get kids on campus a little bit more. And they walk in, they're like, oh my goodness. You know, it's been a, it's been a game changer for recruiting.
You know, for the first time ever in the program's history, we had a top 50 recruiting class. It's never happened. Doesn't happen at a lot of, you know, mid major schools, quote unquote. And you know, I think a lot of that has to do with, you know, the financial support, the facility support, the overall support that our university has put towards our softball program. And people see it, it's just a matter of getting them here once we can get them here and you know, hey, take a visit, come check us out, see what we have to offer. We can blow away a lot of kids. And that's unbelievable.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: I've been to some of those stadiums at other American Conference, they're not great for softball. I mean, it's going to be a premier.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: It is.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: I'm sure those other coaches are going to like be salivating.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Oh yeah, believe me, they always ask, how are you getting this? And send me your plans. I mean, you know, and like I said, you know, we've had such a really great rivalry with Oklahoma State and they're not in our league by any means, but you know, they're a program that we respect and we recruit up against them a lot and we don't always win. The recruits, I would say nine times out of 10, they're probably beating us out in that recruit aspect just because they've made it to the, the World Series or whatever.
But you know, we're getting that one every 10. And then we're also getting maybe some of the kids out of the portal, sometimes from there or whatever. And a lot of times some of those kids come in and they're like, man, you have nicer stuff here than we did.
And I'm not trying to say that they don't do things that are great for their program. They're working towards it, but we're actually doing it. You know, instead of talking the talk, we're walking the walk. And that's been huge for our program,
[00:25:39] Speaker A: just for the listeners, a lot of this.
Obviously, what you just said is important, but we have something called Title ix. I know you both are familiar with that.
We can't ignore that.
When we had a consultant come in a few years ago, I didn't forget this. She told me, she said, rick, I see that you got some plans, but I don't want to come back here in a couple of years and see that you still have those plans. And so that really made an impression on me that we need to keep moving forward and not stop and not.
I think it's easy to get that way because there's so many competing priorities and limited resources and anything can happen on a daily basis. Basis in a university that we can't do that this year. Well, you just really can't do that because it won't happen. And we just get further and further behind.
So that was a pivotal moment, I think, for me, and I know Kevin saw athletic director, that we needed to move that forward.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: Nothing's getting any cheaper either.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: No, it's not.
So, Bryan, you talked a little bit about Gene Stevenson a few minutes ago, and I remember when you were being recruited, Kevin told me that you said to him, I'm not going to get to Omaha where I'm at. And I won't tell people where that was because I don't want them. I kind of know that. President, why did you say that? And obviously we have this.
This legacy and history of going to Omaha, but why was that important for you to say that?
[00:27:35] Speaker C: Well, there's a couple of reasons that I said that and I believed it. But, you know, when you look at Wichita State, it has all the components. You know, we have the fan support, we have the history of the program, we have the facilities, we have the geography. And I think that's one of the things that coaches.
And when I say geography, not necessarily climate. And our climate's fine. Great. And our facility enables us to do anything. But travel is a major component.
When your kids every other week are getting up at 5am and getting home at 2am and you're also expecting them to be great in the classroom and perform and graduate, and you're doing that every other week, that's A real bear.
That was one of the things I was really excited about. Here was an airport that you can breeze through. And I know that sounds crazy, but that is a really big deal, which even ties into a thing like budget. Are you taking the 6am versus the 10am flight?
But when you talk about Wichita State, the bottom line is it's been done before and not just once. And I think when we talk about our vision in recruiting, when someone says, coach Crean, what's your vision for the program?
And I just very simply replicate 2008's regional being hosted here in Wichita and 10,000 fans and the lawn's filled and there's RVs out there and the WU shock's going crazy and the alums are here and there's not an open seat and it's loud.
And I get to say that's not my vision. That's just something that's been done here over and over and over again. And so this isn't a pipe dream or a fantasy. This is just something that we have to go down and chase and beat down the door and make happen again. And I think primary reason for me saying that was it's been done, you know, and when you're at a spot where you're talking about what you're going to do, that's great. But in the era that we are in now with it fast changing more than ever, you know, even in recruiting in the portal, Kristen and I would love to say that we still want to go after those high school kids who are 15 pounds underweight and they put on their 10 or 15 pounds, develop them, and by their junior year, they're taking you to a league championship.
We're still chasing those players down, but those players, if they come in and aren't able to get on the field and compete, there may be going somewhere else to go play.
But the formula at Wichita State is here.
And we have support from you, we have support from Kevin, we have an administration that is all in on doing things. And just obviously the simple fact is, look at the facility growth. Look at our, our new soccer and turf stadium. Look at our softball stadium.
Those are big statements to the fans and to the coaches too. And we know that we have the support and so long reason, a lot of reasons, but support number one. And then number two, it's been done before.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up this whole statement about facilities. You know, I say all the time when I'm talking to faculty and staff, you know, because not everybody embraces athletics Right. And we decided a long time ago we were going to have a Division 1 athletic program here at Wichita State. So we have to fund it, we have to support it, and it would be catastrophic for us to do anything but that. I don't think people understand that, particularly I think in an athletic program in a city like this where, you know, we don't have a lot of other options sports wise. And we have, you know, we have the baseball team here.
I'm blanking on the name.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: The Wind Surge.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: Wind Surge? Yeah, I was gonna say Wing Nuts. That was before we have the Thunder, you know, minor professional kinds of experiences. But I think people look to the university for their.
Their experiences in sports, and that's a window into the university for many other things.
When we have success on the athletic side, we have success on fundraising. On the academic side, it just always goes hand in hand. So I always try to remind people of that. All right, so what really, people really want to know is what you think about your upcoming season. So I'm going to start with you, Christy. So what do you want to say about that?
[00:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think we start tomorrow, practice bright and early, 8am tomorrow morning.
Got about four weeks till our first game, first weekend in February down in Baylor. And I'm excited, you know, we've got, I mean, if you followed shocker softball at all, pretty sizable turnover this past year in roster. We've got 21 players on our team this year.
Not a single player has played in our program for longer than one year, which is a little unheard of. You know, usually we have the group coming back, but, you know, I kind of alluded to a little bit of the chemistry side of things last year. And I just think, you know, sometimes the overhaul is needed and, you know, we've got an energetic bunch that came in. And I mean, just. I've been in the office for two days, right. Since the break, since we came back from break. And there's some energy. I mean, there's kids. They were working out with Coach Horn yesterday morning. They were working out with them this morning. They're hitting, they're throwing live, they're practicing together, they're doing things. They're excited to get started.
I thought our fall went really well. I thought we competed really well. I think we're going to swing the bats great. I'm most excited about our pitching a little deeper and a little different look. But we've got six pitchers and four of them are new, and so that's a completely different look. And Then you've got Ava and Riley who are coming back from last year. Riley had a great year and Ava, I really thought started to turn a corner this fall and has really looked really great. So, you know, the six of them I think are going to, you know, kind of make or break.
That's where it's at. You know, there's, I always say there's a reason there's a white circle drawn around those pitchers because at the end of the day a lot of your season is make or break through that circle. But you know, they're a fun group to watch. We've got nine transfers, five freshmen, seven returners, and very competitive. You know, if I had to make the lineup out today, there's probably only five girls right now that I'm like, have really solidified their spot and the other spots are very competitive with some really good kids. And so it's going to be a fun season. You know, we don't back down. Our schedule's a little tougher than I wanted it to be, but that's okay. You know, Mississippi State jumped into the Baylor tournament late and then Arkansas jumped into the Texas State tournament late. So now we're playing Baylor, Mississippi State, Clemson, Arkansas, Texas State, Missouri, Creighton, who I think is much improved. I mean a lot of good teams in that first four weeks we're on the road and then we actually start on the road in conference play. So, you know, that first opportunity to watch the shocks I think is Kansas here March 3rd or 4th and then I think the third weekend we host conference. So it'll be great. I have a good feeling about this year's team. There's just something different about them. I think we've missed the last couple years and you know, I'm hopeful that it's, it's a year for us to get back after it in the conference.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: And didn't you make some changes on your coaching staff too?
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Well, you know, it's, it's interesting. My coaching staff has been getting the rigamaroo lately.
So Sid McKinney, CeCe Wong, Lauren Lucas, all left handed. All Americans that played for us are all back, all as graduate assistants.
Coach Easton took a position at Texas A and M kind of late in October and we actually did not replace his position as of yet. We plan to do it at the end of the year, but it's tough to find somebody middle of the season that late that you really think is going to make that type of an impact. So we've kind of tasked our gas with taking Up a little bit more of that responsibility. And Coach Kahneman's back.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Who.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: I think this is her eighth or ninth year with us, and to me, she's one of the best hitting coaches in the country. She does an unbelievable job with our team and the girls love her. Coach O is in her third year.
They're about ready to have a baby tomorrow, so she's going to be gone a little bit for the next couple weeks. So I get to step back into the bullpen role and helping with the pitchers and doing some stuff for the next couple weeks. So we're excited. But it's funny, we're always changing. There's some really great opportunities in softball right now. So Lauren Lucas is actually leaving Saturday to go play in Mexico professional softball for a little bit. So she'll miss a little part of the preseason. Sid is leaving at the end of February to go play in Japan, which is a huge honor. That's where the best professional softball is right now. And probably the most well paying professional softball, it's just been around for a long time. I mean, some of the best of the best. You know, Monica Abbott played in Japan forever. I mean, that's just. They've got a really well established professional league that I think AUSL is trying to match and they're doing a really job of getting there. But it's in the summer and Japan is March through June and then they come back, I think, for a small stint for their championship in the fall. So we're going to be with and without them, but having them around, and especially last fall, having them around with our group, with them all being so new has been unbelievable and it's been really cool to see them give back. And Caroline Talent has now joined our staff as a student assistant for us. She's finishing up her degree and so she'll be helping out. And you know, to me, one of the best things that, you know, you can feel about your program is when your former players want to come back and they want to give back. That, to me, means that they had a really good experience and they want to be a part of continuing that future. And so, you know, I hope we can hang on to them as long as possible. They're all really great coaches and they want to get into that coaching field. So. So we'll see. But you know, we've got a very capable staff. We'll be a little shorthanded at times, but, you know, nothing we're not used to.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Is AUSL coming back this year?
[00:38:05] Speaker B: They are not so you know, they're trying to create a bigger market. So they've actually added two teams. They're going to have a team, I believe, in Salt Lake City.
And then the Oklahoma Spark, which was in a different league, has now joined. And so the Oklahoma City team will be their sixth expansion team.
They're basically kind of hunkering down. Actually, I'm wrong. It's the Seattle Cascade is the new expansion team. So they're going to hunker down in one area and they want with some little bit bigger markets. So Texas is one of them. They're keeping their team in Chicago, Oklahoma City, Utah, Washington, and I can't remember where the. Where the last one is, but, you know, hopefully we'll get them to come in for maybe a game or two in the future. But they're trying to do a little bit more of an establishment spot instead of traveling as much as they did around.
And, you know, it'll be interesting. Sid got drafted for the Oklahoma City Spark, so she'll be close. And all of our fans are two and a half hours away from being able to watch her play. And it works out great for her. She's able. Like I said, she's going to Japan, but she's living here full time, bought a house, can train here and kind of get to where she needs to. She won't be too far away.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: She can train in your facility.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:39:23] Speaker A: That's great, Brian.
So you heard what Christy was saying about her season. Tell me about.
[00:39:31] Speaker C: I know. I was just. Okay, I'm going to just follow her lead right here. But, yeah, starting with new coaching staff. You know, this is really a reset for me, you know, and that's something that I've been very candid about in public and out in the community.
You know, we needed to make some changes within our program. You know, we didn't. We didn't play to a standard that starts with me, the head coach. And I'm really, really excited about our coaching staff in the. The Portal era climate that we're in right now. I genuinely feel like this is my first year at Wichita State and coaches. I ran into a lot of coaches last year and they said, boy, I don't envy you. And I would say, what do you mean?
Oh, Year two in the Portal era is actually your first year. And I didn't really quite get that.
With 31 new players as we enter into year three. I do get it now, but really excited about our program for a lot of reasons. Number one, our coaching staff, Marty Lees, Is our recruiting coordinator and infield coach from Oklahoma State and Oregon State. He's been in the College World Series four times.
Colin Wilbur is our new catching coach.
Got him from the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. We brought in an analytics and metrics coordinator, director of pitching development, Jason Foster, a bunch of new student managers. So we really have a new, fresh look. I'm now the hitting coach. So there it is, fans.
When we're not hitting, you can blame coach Green, but that's how I essentially became a head coach, was by being a good hitting coach. So I've taken that role over.
So really excited about that. 31 new players, that's a lot. You know, there's only 38 on the roster. We kept seven.
We probably would have really invited a few more back, but I think I would. Christy and I are a little bit aligned on some of the cultural issues that we have, and I think that that's an ever changing thing for us as coaches. I know that I've circled back.
You know, it's a transactional era that we're in right now, and I don't want to make it that way. And I think that's why we. I think that's where we get lost in it. And even though our kids, 50% of them might go somewhere else next year, let's make sure that this year their experience is awesome and let's make that top of mind for the coaching staff. So we make sure that we're really hammering that in recruiting.
So our coaches know that the kids need to have a great experience. That's what's going to keep them here. Winning is winning, but the experience parts was going to keep him here. So we've got a good club.
I've been very low key about it. We didn't. We didn't promote it much. We didn't promote it in the preseason rankings. We didn't promote it with coaches, we didn't promote it with the media. But we have 16 players in the portal, all of them with some real experience.
Jason Jones at times hitting the three hole for Oklahoma State.
Max Coffer started a month at South Carolina, the catcher and Alex Uloa played every game at Florida International and infielder from San Diego State.
We did well in the portal and our vibe is really good and I'll just keep it right there. But a bunch of home games for our fans, more than we've ever had.
In fact, facilities even got on me a little bit and said, you know, we don't have budget for this. And I went, well, we're gonna play a bunch at home. So Feb third. Yeah. So four game series is also new. We're gonna eliminate some of the travel that we have and we're gonna play four games at home.
Four of the first five home weekends. So bring your blankets and beanies. We'll take a short break to Hawaii in week two and week six we'll start conference play but same cast of characters midweeks with the Kansas, Kansas states and Oklahoma states. Nebraska State.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: We need to start beating Kansas State.
[00:43:28] Speaker C: Yeah, we do down here and I go up there and he's a nice man and we've had the lead on him a couple of times and we've lost it. So thus the four game weekends to protect our pitching as we get into that time. But it's a good club. The kids that we brought back are the right kids. Brady Hamilton was a Cape Cod All Star. Jaden Gustafson, local product, continues to be a really good player. Caleb Duncan's back, the right guys are back and and we really like the makeup of our kids. So 38 players in all, 31 new February 13th at EK 305 start because it might be cold. No night games till till middle or late March.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: So just to follow up on one of the things you said, so 31 new players, how does that compare to your peers?
Is it similar?
[00:44:16] Speaker C: Well, that's high, but it's also the new normal. I think Christy and I know that 50% of your roster is probably going to turn over because that's what's the industry standard right now. So for us, we're going to be evaluating if we're really doing a good job in recruiting and we're really doing a good job with culture that we're under 50%. But most teams right now are turning over 16 to 19 players every year in baseball.
Rosters are at 38 right now, so almost half are going away.
And I love the new rosters. We have a smaller roster. We took our team photo in September. Our team is our team. Nobody left at the break.
There was no over recruiting.
So we were able to get into culture right away and that's the way that we're going to do it moving forward. So I'm really excited about the direction that we're in right now and our talent is good.
The coach has done a good job recruiting and you're going to see a much more physical group and much more athletic group than you did a year ago.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: That's good to hear.
You said something about your roster too. I don't know if the listeners know. And I think this affects you too, Christy. The caps that.
So you used to have about 45 players, right? And now 38. And what was yours?
[00:45:37] Speaker B: We actually one of the only sports that went up our travel roster in the American and then for the post season is 22 and it went to. To 25.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: So we have the opportunity. We have 21 though we've never really gotten to that 25 category. That's a lot.
You know, we're there right now next year and I'm already planning. There's a lot to think about when you got that many. But the pitchering changes have changed softball, you know, I think, you know, Brian alluded to pitchers throwing a whole inning or a whole game and you're seeing a difference in that now with the sport where you're seeing more of this baseball mindset of the scouting piece of it's out there, it's easier to prep and so you can't necessarily throw unless you have a really dominant pitcher, a pitcher an entire game. So you're seeing squads carrying anywhere from.
I mean, I know we've got a couple peers in our league that are carrying 10, 11 pitchers and so we'll have eight or nine on the roster next year. So that's been the difference maker for us jumping to 25.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: Well, Brian, one of the things also up in the box level, there's going to be some new bathrooms. You know that, right? I don't know if you've seen that because those are kind of getting a little sad looking. And so the fans will have new shiny bathrooms up there. And then Kevin and I worked out a deal to expand the president's box and combine it with athletic directors so we can actually have a bunch of people in that too. So I think all those things for me, trying to get people to come to support baseball softball, you know, sometimes we have games at the same weekend, so we're getting people back and forth to watch the game, trying to do that as well, to create some enthusiasm so you can see some new things up there, which is good. Well, it's great to see you all. Good luck on your season. I'll be as many games as I can. You know, sometimes I can't get to all of those. It's difficult sometimes. But even if I'm not there, you can be assured that I'm following. And Kevin's sending me updates all the time, so.
[00:47:49] Speaker C: And us too, after the game we get one that was the fifth inning when he didn't like that change.
[00:47:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure.
All right. It's good to see you. Thanks for stopping by.
[00:47:59] Speaker C: Appreciate it. Go Shock.
[00:48:01] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to follow, rate and share this podcast so others can find it, too. And if you're curious to learn more about the ideas we touched on, check out my book, Student Centered Innovation A Guide to Transforming Higher Education. It dives deeper into the story of Wichita State's transformation and what it takes to lead meaningful change. Visit Wichita.edu book for more information, go Shockers.
[00:48:37] Speaker C: Sponsorship for the Forward Together podcast is provided by Scott Rice officeworks and the Shocker Store.
Additional thanks to Nair Amp WSU Carpentry Shop and gocreate.
