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ABCA Podcast, Episode 416

ABCA Minority Member Spotlight: Louie Martinez, Jesuit High School (FL)

The American Baseball Coaches Association strives to help diversify the baseball community and help bring opportunities in the game to all areas. The ABCA Minority Spotlight series looks to capture the experiences, coaching style, and impact that baseball has had on different ABCA member coaches. A new Minority Spotlight feature is released on the ABCA Podcast on the third Monday of the month and we will transcribe a small portion of the interview, which you can find below.

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The ABCA Podcast releases a new episode weekly featuring coaches from all levels of the sport. Discussions run the gamut of baseball coaching topics, from pitching, to hitting, to the mental game, practice planning, recruiting and more. The podcast is hosted by Ryan Brownlee, longtime coach and current Assistant Executive Director of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA).

Louie Martinez is an assistant baseball coach for Jesuit High School of Tampa (FL). His primary roles involve working with the infield and hitters. He played collegiate baseball at the University of Tampa which included a National Championship title in 1998. Martinez also went on to play four seasons of professional baseball and was named the 2024 High School Division II ABCA Assistant Coach of the Year. 

Ryan Brownlee: For you guys there, is that a realistic expectation now, that you are going to win a State Championship every year?

Louie Martinez: I mean, that is our goal. We actually want to win a National Title. We schedule the best teams we can across the country just to get us ready for that playoff push and I mean its worked tremendously. We have been to the state finals five times, but our goal is always the national title. 

RB: Is it mostly upper class man for you all or are you messing with freshman too?

LM: It’s mostly upperclassman. We have had a few freshmen in the past, we have a couple sophomores in the mix but mostly juniors and seniors. 

RB: What was your focus with coaching middle school kids?

LM: For that age group, a lot of the team game. Like I feel a lot of kids will not go to the opposite field because they get thrown out at first because the fields are so big. It’s not about wins and losses at that level,  it’s about playing the game right.

RB: Do you feel like private instruction has been good for the game?

LM: It’s good, all of our hitters have their guys they go to. We tinker with some little things with them, but it’s hard. We don’t want to confuse them if they are hearing one thing from one coach and a different thing from another coach.

RB: What are some of those things you are doing with the young kids to get them ready for the big field?

LM: I focus not so much on wins and losses but trying to do things right. Like we play simulated games where I pitch just so the defense gets involved for practice. Obviously you can’t do that in games though.

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