Joining us on the ABCA Podcast this week is Aberdeen Iron Birds manager, Roberto Mercado. Mercado is entering his second season as manager with the Orioles High A affiliate. Mercado spent 19 seasons coaching at New Britain High School and five seasons in the Cape Cod League with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox with ABCA Hall of Famer Scott Pickler. In this episode we cover the transition from coaching amateur to professional baseball, what he learned coaching high school and elite college players, o...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 330
Next up on the ABCA Podcast is Boston Red Sox catching coordinator, Tyson Blaser. Blaser is entering his first season with the Red Sox after 6 years working in the Yankees organization. Blaser signed a free agent contract with the Yankees out of the University of Iowa in 2011. Blaser spent 4 seasons playing in the Yankees organization. After he was released, Blaser started coaching and teaching at United Township High School in the Quad Cities. Blaser still gives lessons to youth and high school...
May 08, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 329
On this week’s ABCA Podcast we check in with Coastal Carolina Associate Head Coach, Kevin Schnall. Schnall’s fingerprints are all over the Chanticleers program as a player and 20 years as an assistant coach. In Schnall’s 20 seasons, the Chanticleers have 15 NCAA Div. I Regional appearances, 35 All-Americans, top 5 winning percentage in Div. I, 13 conference tournament championships and the 2016 Div. I National Championship. Schnall spent 3 seasons (2013-15) at Central Florida. In this episode we...
May 01, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 328
Next up on the ABCA Podcast is Advanced Baseball Academy owner and ABCA Travel Committee member, Luke Town. Town has been working with baseball and softball players for 33 years. Town is also an NFCA member. Town has been studying biomechanics since 2000. Advanced Baseball Academy trains baseball and softball players from ages 8 up through professional. They have over 400 athletes in their organization. Advanced Baseball Academy implements suicide and bully prevention training as soon as athlete...
Apr 24, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 327
Joining us on this week’s ABCA Podcast is Thomas Jefferson High School, Alexandria Aces, EWBC and DC Girls Baseball coach, Jennifer Hammond. Hammond also works for the Washington Nationals on the game day entertainment side. Hammond spent 5 seasons at Falls Church High School serving as Associate Head Coach of the JV Baseball Team and Varsity Assistant Coach. In this episode we cover catching, in game tips, coaching journey and differences in coaching youth, high school and college players. This...
Apr 17, 2023•48 min•Ep. 321
Next up on the ABCA Podcast is Cox High School head coach, Matt Ittner. Ittner is in his sixth season at the helm of the Cox baseball program. Ittner is a 2008 graduate of Cox High School, where he was a 3-year varsity letterman for the baseball team. Ittner played baseball at College of Albermarle and Virginia Wesleyan. Ittner spent time at Salem High School and JV head coach at Cox. The 2021 Cox baseball team won the 5A State Championship. Get your pad and pen ready because Coach Ittner has a ...
Apr 10, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 325
This week on the ABCA podcast we head back into the training world with Rockland Peak Performance owner, Nunzio Signore. Rockland Peak Performance is a high-performance indoor training facility located in north New Jersey. RPP trains professional and amateur baseball players. Signore is the author of Velocity Baseball Training and Pitchers Arm Care. Signore has written articles for the ABCA’s Inside Pitch Magazine and has spoken at many of the larger baseball clinics in the US. Signore also has ...
Apr 03, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 324
Next up on the ABCA Podcast is Troy University head coach, Skylar Meade. Meade is heading into his second season as head coach of the Trojans. Meade led Troy to a 32-win season and an appearance in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament semifinals last year. Meade spent 14 years as an assistant coach with stops at South Carolina, Michigan State, Middle Tennessee State and Eastern Illinois. Meade played collegiately at Louisville and led the Cardinals to a CWS appearance his senior season in 07’. Mea...
Mar 27, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 323
I want to thank everyone for listening to the ABCA Podcast. This is my 200th episode since taking over. I am so thankful for everyone that listens in every week. I appreciate when people reach out about what is speaking to them with the episodes. As always, I hope I am asking the right questions for you all. The ABCA Podcast was nominated for the Sports Podcast Awards again this year. If you want to vote for us, head over to sportspodcastgroup.com and put a vote in for the ABCA Podcast. We are s...
Mar 20, 2023•54 min•Ep. 322
This week’s ABCA Podcast guest is current professional baseball player, Nashville artist and Proud To Be In Baseball cofounder, Bryan Ruby. Ruby played high school baseball for his father in Pennsylvania and collegiately at Vassar College. Ruby is currently playing for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in Oregon. In the offseason he works in Nashville writing songs for country music. Heading into his senior season at Vassar, Ruby decided to come out to his coaches and teammates. Since then he has been ...
Mar 13, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 321
On this week’s ABCA Podcast we check in with Wake Forest Associate Head Coach, Bill Cilento. Cilento is in his 14th season with the Demon Deacons working primarily with hitters and infielders. He has a great track record of developing players with 65 drafts and 7 big leaguers. Wake Forest has had 19 hitters earn all-ACC honors the last five seasons, including National Player of the Year and first round pick Will Craig. Wake Forest has ranked in the top 50 nationally in home runs in six of the pa...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 320
Staying on the MLB side with this week’s ABCA Podcast. We check in with Oakland A’s Major League pitching coach, Scott Emerson. Emerson grew up in Phoenix and was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 1990 out of Shadow Mountain High School and by the Baltimore Orioles in 1991 out of Scottsdale Community College. Emerson pitched in the minor leagues from 1992 to 1997. In 2000 Emerson joined the Pittsburgh Pirates Organization as Pitching Coach of their Gulf Coast League. Emerson joined the Athletic...
Feb 27, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 319
Next up on the ABCA Podcast is Houston Astros Assistant Director of Player Development and Minor League Coordinator, Jason Bell. Bell started his career path on the college side as the Director of Baseball Operations at Ohio University in 2015. From there Bell went on to be the pitching coach at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. In 2017 Bell was hired by the Houston Astros as the development coach for Quad Cities in 2017. In 2019 Bell was hired as the Astros fundamentals coordinator. Tha...
Feb 20, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 318
Best time of the year with every level of college baseball going now. Happy opening week of Div. I Baseball. Next up on the ABCA Podcast is our Div. I preview. We have an intelligent and entertaining line up of college baseball writers in this episode. New to this year’s Div. I preview is former college coach, Craig Cozart from Perfect Game. Then we hand it over to Teddy Cahill from Baseball America and we finish it off with D1Baseball’s Mike Rooney, Aaron Fitt & Kendall Rogers. As a life-lo...
Feb 13, 2023•2 hr 22 min•Ep. 317
Next up on the ABCA Podcast is our NAIA, Junior College, Div. III and Div. II preview. Robby Gutierrez from NAIA Ball leads us off. After that we kick it over to Brian Sakowski from Perfect Game and Noah Sharp from the Juco Ball Blog to cover all things junior college baseball. Then we hand it over to Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz from Cespedes Family BBQ fame and the Podcast About Division III Baseball to talk all things Div III. Finally, we finish up with Wayne Cavadi, Wayne covers all thin...
Feb 06, 2023•2 hr 43 min•Ep. 316
Our final January episode on the “Foundations for Optimal Living” is with Eleat Nutrition CEO and Owner, Angie Asche. Asche got her Bachelors of Science degrees in both Dietetics and Exercise Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Asche went onto graduate school at Saint Louis University and earned her Registered Dietician title and a Masters of Science Degree in Nutrition & Physical Performance. Asche founded Eleat Nutrition in June 2014. She has worked with hundgreds of high school...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 315
The third Foundation for Optimal Living is exercise & movement. Today we check in with Texas Rangers Assistant Strength & Conditioning coach, Al Sandoval. Sandoval has over 15 years of experience working at the professional level with the Rangers, Angels and Rockies. Sandoval got his start in strength and conditioning working with the CSU-Pueblo baseball program. Sandoval is a certified & registered NSCA Strength and Conditioning Coach. Sandoval has been an integral part of the Profe...
Jan 23, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 314
Continuing our Foundations for Optimal Living theme for this month on the ABCA Podcast is CEO and Founder of AIM7, Dr. Erik Korem. Erik played football at Texas A&M. He covered a lot of ground in the football world after graduating. He has traveled all over the world studying elite performance. He was in the NFL for 15 years as Sports Scientist and High-Performance Director. He was at William & Mary for 2 years as Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Performance. And he also ...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 313
Our goal every year with the January episodes has been to shine a light on the foundations of optimal living. Hopefully, these episodes give you some tips you can implement with yourself personally or with your team. Next up on the ABCA podcast is Major League Mindset’s, Brandon Guyer. Guyer was drafted and signed by the Chicago Cubs coming out of the University of Virginia in 2010. Guyer made his major league debut in 2011 with the Tampa Bay Rays. Guyer retired from baseball July 20’. Because p...
Jan 09, 2023•59 min•Ep. 312
The ABCA Convention and the City of Nashville have a long history together. If you talk to anyone who has been to the ABCA convention and you ask them a favorite convention story, Nashville will probably come up at some point. Today’s episode covers everything you need to know about the convention. Our goal every year is to make this a wonderful experience for our attendees, guests, sponsors and exbibitors. I hope you enjoy and we look forward to seeing everyone at the 79th ABCA convention on Ja...
Jan 03, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 311
Finishing up our 2023 ABCA Hall of Fame inductee podcasts is Slippery Rock head coach, Jeff Messer. Messer is heading into his 38th season at Slippery Rock University. Messer enters the 2023 season as the all-time winningest coach in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference history and his 1072 career victories put him 12th in Div. II baseball. Messer has led Slippery Rock to 13 NCAA Regionals and 4 College World Series appearances. Messer has done a tremendous job building consistency in the prog...
Jan 02, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 310
Another titan in the game joins us this week on the ABCA Podcast with Jefferson High School head coach, John Lowery. Lowery is a well-deserved inductee in the 2023 Hall of Fame class. Lowery is heading into his 52nd season at Jefferson High School. Lowery has amassed 1392 wins, 12 West Virginia State Championships and 26 state tournament appearances. Lowery got an opportunity to coach all three of his sons in high school and all three went on to play college baseball. In this episode we discuss ...
Dec 26, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 309
Next up on the ABCA Podcast is 2023 Hall of Fame inductee, Jerry Dawson. Dawson spent 37 seasons at Chaparral High School winning 773 games and 8 State Championships. Chaparral High School produced 7 big leaguers including Ike Davis, Paul Konerko and Brian Bannister. Dawson left Chaparral as the all-time winningest coach in the State of Arizona. In 2004 Dawson was honored with the ABCA/Diamond Sports National High School Coach of the Year Award. Dawson moved on to be the pitching coach at Yavapa...
Dec 19, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 308
Joining us on the ABCA Podcast is 2023 Hall of Fame inductee, Dave Demarest. Demarest spent 34 seasons as head coach at La Quinta High School and is still the winningest coach in Orange County with 753 wins. He led La Quinta to 15 consecutive league championships from 1993-2007 and 3 CIF Championships. La Quinta has a great history of producing MLB players. Demarest coached future big leaguers Gerald Laird, Brandon Laird, Bobby Crosby, Ian Kennedy, Cole Garner, Jeff Heathcott and Ian Stewart. De...
Dec 12, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 307
With Covid pushing our 2020 ABCA convention to a virtual, we felt like it would be beneficial to interview our Hall of Fame inductees for that year. We have continued that tradition since. At the Hall of Fame banquet, our inductees only get 3 to 5 minutes to talk so these podcasts allow them to tell their stories and get a few more thank-you’s in before the ABCA convention. These have been some of my favorite interviews the last 3 years. I encourage you to go back and listen to past Hall of Fame...
Dec 05, 2022•54 min•Ep. 306
Next up on the ABCA podcast is our 2023 Dave Keiltiz Ethics in Coaching Award winner, Ball State head coach, Rich Maloney. Maloney has been a Div. I head coach for 27 seasons with stops at Ball State twice and Michigan. In 2022 he eclipsed the 900-win mark ranking him 16th among active Div. I coaches. Maloney is the winningest baseball coach in Ball State history. In his 10 seasons at Michigan, Maloney led the Wolverines to 3 straight Big Ten Championships and 4 straight NCAA regional appearance...
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 305
We are honoring our 2023 award winners heading into the Nashville convention. Next up on the ABCA podcast is former Horizon High School head coach, Eric Kibler. Coach Kibler is being honored with the Dave Keilitz Ethics Award and also going into the ABCA Hall of Fame this year. In 1980, Kibler started the baseball program at Horizon High School. Kibler shaped the landscape of high school and youth baseball in the State of Arizona and nationally with a 2007 National Championship, 6 5A State Champ...
Nov 21, 2022•55 min•Ep. 304
This week on the ABCA podcast we sit down with ABCA Div. II Assistant Coach of the Year, Bob Mitcheltree. The 2022 season marked Mitcheltree’s 20th year overall as an assistant coach on Jeff Messer’s Slippery Rock staff. Slippery Rock had one of their most successful seasons going 33-18 and competed in the NCAA tournament. Mitcheltree has also been an assistant for Wilmington High School’s football program for over 40 years. He has helped the Greyhounds to state championships and several state r...
Nov 14, 2022•33 min•Ep. 303
We have a special edition of the ABCA Podcast this week on the road with Texas A&M Associate Head Coach, Nate Yeskie, during the Aggies pre-game. This is a must listen with one of the best pitching & baseball minds in the game. Yeskie led the Aggies to the 2022 College World Series in his first season in College Station. This was back to back trips for Yeskie in Omaha with Arizona competing in the 2021 College World Series. Yeskie is no stranger to Omaha as Oregon State’s pitching coach ...
Nov 07, 2022•44 min•Ep. 302
Next up on the ABCA Podcast is NAIA Assistant Coach of the Year, Matt Saliba. The Webber International University recruiting coordinator guided the Warriors program to a 43-22 record and their first appearance at the NAIA World Series. Saliba is a Florida native attending Winter Haven High School where he was Polk County Player of the Year his senior season, playing for his Father. Saliba attended Daytona State College for two seasons, Valdosta State for a year and transferred back home to Webbe...
Oct 31, 2022•41 min•Ep. 301
