Baseball odyssey takes former Indiana Tech assistant Collins-Bride back to Bay Area

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

“Baseball’s a really beautiful thing. You have to be consistent, work hard and have fun.”

Those words tell of Patrick Collins-Bride’s sentiment toward the diamond game.

It’s a game that has taken him across north America and to Japan.

“C.B.” — as friends know him — played high school ball in northern California (graduating from Encinal Junior-Senior in Alameda in 2008) and collegiate ball in the Bay Area (Laney College in Oakland) and in south Florida (Ave Maria University near Naples). 

Coaching gigs have come in California (San Francisco Seals collegiate summer team that made trips to Canada, Alaska and many states and now at Academy of Art University in San Francisco), Florida (Ave Maria) and Indiana (Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne).

In his current position, working for Urban Knights head coach Dan McDermott, Collins-Bride, 30, is in charge of pitchers, catchers and infielders.

“I’m a teacher,” says Collins-Bride, who joined the ArtU coaching staff in September 2019. “Baseball and strength and conditioning seems to be my best form of teaching.

“When you see people grow and see the light click on and they create really good habits, that’s the special part.”

Developing pitchers at the NCAA Division II PacWest Conference institution for Collins-Bride is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. 

“It’s individualistic once you have a base,” says Collins-Bride. “It depends on the players’ needs.”

Some pitchers possess good command and need to improve their stuff. Some have superior velocity but lack movement on their pitches. Others need concentration on the mental side of baseball.

“We’re picking and choosing what we focus on,” says Collins-Bride.

A strength and conditioning coach for several Indiana Tech teams, Collins-Bride has studied biomechanics as it relates to athletes. He has become OnBaseU-certified.

“You have to know how each player moves and how they’re supposed to move,” says Collins-Bride, who does a movement assessment on each ArtU pitcher. “That’s critical. 

“You structure the off-season around filling those buckets.”

You’re not treating every car like a Toyota. You also have Dodges and Kias. You don’t spend all your time racing the Lamborghini, you also spend time working with it in the garage.

COVID-19 caused the Urban Knights’ 2020 season to halt after 20 games. McDermott and Collins-Bride helped the player see the quarantine as an opportunity for growth.

“It was a chance to check something on your bucket list,” says Collins-Bride. “If you don’t do it, shame on you.

“Many (players) came back (in the fall) in the biggest shape of their lives,” says Collins-Bride. “It was really cool to see what these guys did over 6-7 months after only hearing about it over the phone.”

Alameda resident Collins-Bride used the extra time to go on long bike rides, including a trek around Lake Tahoe.

ArtU practices at The Presidio and plays games at Laney College. During fall practice, players went through daily temperature and system checks.

Most of the time, workouts were conducted with just six to eight players.

“It was different,” says Collins-Bride. “But it was really good from a development standpoint.”

There was more one-on-one time with coaching while raw skills — running, throwing, fielding and swinging — were being refined mixed with intrasquad play.

“Ideally, that’s what a fall should be — create some raw skills and play a little bit,” says Collins-Bride. “Summer baseball is failing kids. They’re playing too much and not practicing enough or practicing too much and not playing enough.

“We had a really good balance (in the fall.).”

It’s about building proper motor patterns. That’s why weighted balls and bats are used to carve a new path for the brain.

“It’s a brand new road and they learn that quickly,” says Collins-Bride.

Born in San Francisco, the son of carpenter Bob Bride and professor/nurse practitioner Geraldine Collins-Bride grew up loving baseball. 

Patrick’s father did not have much experience at the game, but he did come up with several tools to guide “FUN-damentals” for Little Leaguers. Bob devoured books and DVDs while researching training methods.

“He’d have us swing ax handles,” says Collins-Bride. “We’d hit wiffle balls with hoses to teach us to whip the bat. He turned a leaf blower into a wiffle ball pitching machine. To develop soft hands, we’d toss eggs or water balloons. We had stations all around my small house.”

Flood lights were installed over the garage so these sessions could go deep into the night.

Patrick went to the Boys & Girls Club and learned about pitching from major leaguers who hailed from Alameda. Pitcher Dontrelle Willis taught him how to play “strikeout.”

Middle schooler Collins-Bride learned about the proper way to field a grounder from shortstop Jimmy Rollins at an RBI camp held at Encinal.

Collins-Bride expresses gratitude of coaching with McDermott, who is heading into his 28th season as a college coach in 2021.

“It’s like coaching with your dad,” says Collins-Bride. “He really, really loves you and he’s not going to let you mess up.

“We get really great life lessons all the time. I’ve learned a lot from him.”

Collins-Bride coached for five seasons at Indiana Tech (2015-19), where Kip McWilliams is the Warriors head coach. “C.B.” worked with hitters, infielders, catchers and volunteered his strength and conditioning services while pursuing and after completing his Masters of Marketing and Management.

Indiana Tech typically carries a roster of 60 or more to help fund the program — with varsity and developmental teams.

“We had to carry a lot of players,” says Collins-Bride. “We decided if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it really well.

“Playoff time is when the Warriors showed up.”

Collins-Bride notes that almost all the players in the starting lineup in the 2015 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference championship game started out on the development team.

When Tech went to the 2019 NAIA World Series, former developmental players also played a key role.

“That was so important,” says Collins-Bride of the large squad. “They all trained together. We created an efficient practice style. Everybody had a purpose.

“We competed. If you were recruited there, you worked hard. When you have that many guys with a passion for baseball, it makes for such a good atmosphere.

“To do it right, you make sure you treat each kid well. I think we accomplished that. The beautiful thing about baseball and life is what a kid can make out of himself in two or four years.”

Collins-Bride said the Tech culture was based on standards and not rules.

“There was an acceptable level of behavior for everyone in the program and accountability is a two-way street (standards applied equally to players and coaches),” says Collins-Bride. “Coaches didn’t just talk the talk, they walked the walked.”

Or — better yet — they hustled from station to station just like the players.

It was also an atmosphere of positivity.

“No BCE (Blaming, Complaining or Excuses) was allowed,” says Collins-Bride. “Because it’s not helping the situation.”

Collins-Bride sights three players — Brandon Dossen, David Barksdale and Dante Biagini — as examples of those who bought into the Tech system.

Dosson, a graduate of Heritage High School in Monroeville, Ind., was a highly-touted player in high school who wound up behind an All-American for a few seasons with the Warriors then got a chance to hit behind Tech standout and No. 3 hitter Glen McClain.

Barksdale, who went to Cass Tech High School in Detroit, spent a few seasons on the developmental team then got his chance to shine with the varsity in a game against Florida Memorial.

“He had been training really, really hard,” says Collins-Bride. “He hit a ground ball in the 6-hole and beat it out for a base hit. That was pretty special.”

Collins-Bride calls Biagini, hard-nosed player from San Francisco, the “most impactful kid I’ve ever been around.”

“He was the epitome of leadership,” says Collins-Bride of the national gold glove shortstop. “He’d say what coaches would have to say. He’d see things and fix them.

“They way he practiced, he raised the level of everyone around him.”

Collins-Bride had been with McWilliams when he observed a Spring Arbor University practice led by head coach Sam Riggleman. The SAU Cougars made workouts fast and as game-like a possible.

“Practice is the hardest thing we would do,” says Collins-Bride. “Games were slow. Everything (in practice) counted. Everything had detail.”

Collins-Bride noticed that long-time Lewis-Clark State College coach Ed Cheff and Folsom Lake College coach Rich Gregory (who played for future Indiana State University and University of Washington coach Lindsay Meggs on a NCAA Division II championship team at Cal State Chico) also took to that kind of preparation — skill under pressure.

It did no good to see 50 mph batting practice pitches when the game was going to bring 90 mph.

Collins-Bride went from Ave Maria, where he played two seasons (2011 and 2012) and coached two (2013 and 2014), after checking his options of serving as a graduate assistant to Scott Dulin at Fisher College in Boston. 

On his first working day with Tech, he flew from San Francisco to Boston then drove 15 hours to Fort Wayne. He met McWilliams at 5 a.m. and they drove all the way to Vincennes (Ind.) for a junior college showcase.

“We talked baseball the whole way,” says Collins-Bride.

During Collins-Bride’s entire at Tech, Debbie Warren was the athletic director.

“She was an unbelievable leader of people,” says Collins-Bride. “She knew how to push you. She was very tough and phenomenal to work with.”

Warren helped get the weight room updated just about the time Collins-Bride was leaving to go back to California.

While he was there he planted a desk near the weights and managed 80 athletes in a two-hour window.

While in Fort Wayne, Collins-Bride also got to manage the Indiana Summer Collegiate League’s Kekiongas and played in the National Amateur Baseball Federation World Series with the Jackers.

Shawn Summe, a graduate of Penn High School and Bethel College (now Bethel University) in Mishawaka, Ind., was the head coach at NAIA Ave Maria. He started the program. The Gyrenes’ first season was 2010.

“(Summe) is a very intense person and an emotional leader,” says Collins-Bride. “We practiced really hard. He was really awesome to play for. 

“He deeply had your back and wanted you to succeed.”

Collins-Bride, who received a Politics degree from Ave Maria, sees his transition from player to coach as a smooth one.

“It was easy to step into a role of leadership and demand respect,” says Collins-Bride. “We had a special senior group in 2013.”

Pete Lesniewski, Gabe Loweree, Trace McDermott, Justin Repullo and Alex Sanchez raised their game that spring for a Ave Maria team that went 38-21.

“(The seniors) were the epitome of sacrifice,” says Collins-Bride. “They didn’t party. They were very good in the classroom. They motivated and led by example.”

Collins-Bride was an AMU assistant on the same staff as Chuck Lennon and Jeff Tenbarge.

Lennon, who died in 2019 at 80, won three baseball letters at Notre Dame and later taught at the university and served as three decades for the Notre Dame Alumni Association.

Lennon’s zeal was on display even at early hours when Collins-Bride was getting a few more winks before greeting the day on an Ave Maria road trip.

“He’s say, ‘Wake up C.B., the world is waiting for us,” says Collins-Bride. “Talk about positivity. He was a beaming, shining light.”

After a semester at Cal State East Bay, Collins-Bride transferred to California Community College Athletic Association member Laney and played two seasons (2009 and 2010) for Eagles coach Francisco Zapata.

“Coach Z is a great human being,” says Collins-Bride. “He really knew his stuff and he knew how to push you.

“It was really hard to let him down. You know what he had to go through to play baseball. You’ve got nothing to complain about.”

Zapata grew up in Nicaragua and brought a work ethic to his coaching.

“There was an expectation level,” says Collins-Bride.

His prep career began on the Alameda High junior varsity for coach Joe Pearse and concluded at Encinal for Jim Saunders.

“(Pearse) was a hard-nosed guy,” says Collins-Bride. “We were working hard and there was a lot of competition. 

“(Saunders, who coached Rollins) was an excellent manager of talent.”

During his time as a player and manager with the San Francisco Seals, Collins-Bride not only got a chance to enjoy the rivalry with the Arcata-based Humboldt Crabs but got the chance to play all over the place. During a two-year span, he traveled through 33 states and played in around 20. 

Among Collins-Bride’s side jobs has been head of social media marketing for MDS Baseball Bats (a company owned by Brad Lightfoot that has appeared at many conventions, including the American Baseball Coaches Association and Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association).

Collins-Bride and Sara Schaefer are engaged to be married in Fort Wayne in September 2021.

Patrick Collins-Bride has been an assistant baseball coach at Academy of Art University in San Francisco since September 2019. He coached five seasons at Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne, Ind. (2015-19). He played two seasons at Ave Maria (Fla.) High School for Penn High School and Bethel College (now Bethel University) graduate Shawn Summe. (ArtU Photo)

Advertisement

Shambaugh talks about ‘being competitive on game day’

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Detailed planning and setting expectations.

It’s what Bret Shambaugh has done as a baseball coach and educator.

There’s a always a plan and things are done for a reason.

Shambaugh, who has coached at college, high school and youth level, and is in his fifth year as an English teacher at Pioneer Junior/Senior High School in Royal Center, Ind., shared his ideas on “Being Competitive on Game Day” at the Huntington North Hot Stove clinics session Jan. 12 as a guest of Vikings head coach Mark Flueckiger.

A 1980 graduate of Pike High School and Marian College — both in Indianapolis — Shambaugh began his baseball coaching career while attending Marian (1984-89) and later became the Knights head coach (1990-93) before serving one season as an assistant to Bob Morgan at Indiana University (1994) then serving as head coach at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (1995-97).

He has served as a high school assistant to Jake Burton at McCutcheon, Phil McIntyre at Indianapolis North Central and John Zangrilli at Brebeuf Jesuit.

There have been a number of youth baseball coaching jobs, including the Lafayette White Sox, Hoosier Diamond, Indy Jets and, most recently, the Mavericks (which is attached to the McCutcheon program).

John Shambaugh, Bret’s son, is a senior first baseman/left-handed pitcher at McCutcheon.

“As an educator I’m amazed that there’s a lot of different ways to be successful in this game,” says Shambaugh, 58. “I believe in having a philosophy.”

Shambaugh says the coach’s philosophy should mirror that of his administrators.

This can help prevent future issues.

“We thought that they hired us because of us, but we forgot we answer to them,” says Shambaugh.

Since 2005, Shambaugh has been working from a syllabus/playbook that lays out the elements of his program. He shares this agenda with his players and often tests them on its content.

With the Mavericks, he emails it on sectional week.

“One week from the time they’re eliminated from their high school (season), they have to know this chapter and verse,” says Shambaugh. “It’s no different than reading the first three chapters of a novel.

“That is to make sure all of us — myself, whoever I have helping me, parents and players — that we all speak from the same book.

“I — for whatever reason — have never been good in the subjective. I have measured everything my entire life.

“That’s the only way I could understand as a coach how I could be good for the player.”

If everything is measurable those who enjoy competition will strive to meet the stated goal.

“‘A’ students will strive to make A’s,” says Shambaugh. “They’ll do whatever it takes to make an A.”

The same is true for someone trying to make the team, a sophomore wishing to play on the varsity rather than the JV or a player who wants to make the everyday lineup.

Shambaugh says putting an objective in front of the players eliminates favoritism and “who do you know?”

In Shambaugh’s calculations, he figured out to be a high school baseball head coach it takes at least 21 hours a week 52 weeks out of the year.

“That’s the amount of time minimum you would have to spend as the head coach for your program to do it right in my opinion,” says Shambaugh. “Of course, most of those months, as head coaches, you’re not in-season. But yet you have to give your program 21 hours a week.”

On game day, Shambaugh wants no wasted second.

The plan takes into consideration what is done for home and away contests.

“I’m talking everything,” says Shambaugh. “How they will be dressed on the bus, for example.

“I always have a rule when travel, the only thing you don’t have on are your spikes because I don’t want you to trip getting off the bus or the van and not be able to play.”

As soon players in the dugout, they change into their spikes and go to work.

Shambaugh devotes practice time to these things so players understand that no second is to be wasted.

If players are trained to know what they’re supposed to be doing, there will be no need to worry about “down” time.

“Evaluate what you’re doing constantly,” says Shambaugh. “Wins and losses don’t necessarily determine what you believe is the best practice for your players and your assistant coaches. It can always be re-tooled to meet the ultimate objective.”

Shambaugh learned from former Lewis & Clark College (Idaho) head coach Ed Cheff the importance of practicing delays with his players.

“They’d show up for practice and he’d send them back to the dorm. He would practice the rain delay in the third inning. What are you going to do during that time?”

Shambaugh says the worst thing you can create for teenagers is dead time.

“It may not happen but once or twice during the season, but are you ready for it?,” says Shambaugh. “Teenagers and parents will always react to your leadership. If you always appear to be in-control and in-the-know they’ll run through hell in a gasoline suit for you.

“If you’re not, that’s when the armchair quarterbacking begins.”

Shambaugh also says negativity should be saved for practice and not used on game day.

“I don’t think anybody lost on purpose,” says Shambaugh. “I don’t think the batter took the called strike three with guys on second and third and you’re one run down in the last at-bat. Your pitcher didn’t throw the gopher ball on purpose. Your shortstop didn’t take the ground ball through his legs on purpose.

“When we’re negative after the game, I don’t think it works. Positivity goes a lot further than negativity. It took me a long time to learn that.”

Things can be addressed at practice and no one else is around but the players and the coaches.

For Shambaugh, practices are always crisp.

Since leaving college and going into youth baseball coaching, he has learned that boring practices are a major reason players are quitting the game before they become teenagers.

Shambaugh has observed many youth practices where one player is hitting and the rest are standing around.

“When we practice with teenagers, we keep them moving,” says Shambaugh. “Whatever you are trying to accomplish on that given day, keep it crisp.”

Shambaugh says out-of-season is the time when teaching is done with individual players.

For players to know what is expected of them, objectives are written and explained.

Baseball is driven by numbers. It’s no difference than a grade-point average or the percentage of accuracy on a test.

“I believe in players knowing what those numbers are on a regular basis,” says Shambaugh. “It’s important. You can do that in the out-of-season.

“What’s the out-of-season for? To get better. Are you doing anything game-like to get better? If we don’t have written objectives for them, they’ll do what they’ve always done.”

In exit interviews with players last summer, Shambaugh told some to get 100 game-like swings three days a week. Infielders were told to field 100 grounders and throw to first base or start the double play. He also asked players to run 15 60-yard dashes for time.

Shambaugh wants his players to appreciate fitness 365 days a year.

“Teenage athletes, especially for the sport of baseball, have no idea what true fitness is,” says Shambaugh. “I agree that multiple-sport athletes, especially here in the Midwest, have some advantages.”

There are also disadvantages since the in-season athlete is focused on the next game and not so much on improving fitness.

In evaluating high school baseball, football and basketball program, Shambaugh sees a lot of natural ability but not a lot of fitness.

Shambaugh says coaches are careful with building fitness because they don’t want to take too much out of an athlete’s legs.

“If a baseball player doesn’t have his legs, he can’t hit,” says Shambaugh. “He’s anemic. He can’t move defensively.

“At the high school level, baseball pitchers play shortstop in the game they’re not pitching.”

Shambaugh says an athlete can train year-round for fitness.

“Nobody ever drowned in their own sweat,” says Shambaugh. “At least I haven’t heard of it.”

Coaches should have a written plan in what they want their players to do as an athlete in fitness.

With the Mavericks, Shambaugh has measured progress for his players in speed and strength.

“Serve those who want,” says Shambaugh. “We can hold it against players when they don’t show up. It will take care of itself over time. When players don’t want to get in the work, they won’t be on that roster or they won’t be in that lineup.

“I’ve never worried about who wasn’t there. I only wanted to serve those that were in front of me.”

Shambaugh also has written objectives for the pre-season.

“What do you want to accomplish (on a given day)?,” says Shambaugh. “Make sure your players know.”

Scrimmages allow coaches to immediately identify strike throwers and aggressive players.

“Baseball is a game that needs played,” says Shambaugh. “You won’t win any games probably on the gym floor or the batting tunnel.

“If it’s me, I’m going to scrimmage. For me to make a qualitative decision, I need to see guys perform.”

All things are game day-related. Runners are placed on the bases to create situations during batting practice. Hitters are expected to move the runners with hits or sacrifice bunts. Runners must read the ball in play. The defenders must do their jobs.

“Do they know what your expectations are in writing before you get there?,” says Shambaugh. “Because those are your coaching moments. You knew what your job was and you didn’t do it.”

Again, fitness is part of the equation.

“I’ve baseball players tell me for years, ‘Coach, I did not join the track team,’” says Shambaugh. “I’m sorry. It’s either that or the pool guys. (Players have) got to be in shape. All my years coaching, I never had a pitcher come up lame. That’s because we ran.”

Shambaugh asks players to do things that are difficult because baseball is a difficult game to play.

With in-season practices, Shambaugh challenges his players when they’re tired.

“It’s easy to play when you’re fresh,” says Shambaugh. “But baseball is a marathon.”

High school players play close to 30 games in seven weeks and also have take care of homework and — maybe — a part-time job.

“That’s a grind,” says Shambaugh. “Guys get tired.”

All things game day-related and the team scrimmages for three innings a day.

Once again, fitness is important.

Shambaugh says that timing is everything.

Teams might win their conference, in-season tournaments or rack up 20 wins, but the focus for the high school coach becomes winning the first game of the sectional and advancing as far as the team can.

“We’re building up momentum,” says Shambaugh. “We want to be good for that first game of the sectional.

“I would start my planning three weeks out. Get you (No. 1 pitcher) ready. Do you really know what your best lineup is when he pitches?

“Do I like what I see? Are we getting done in practice what we need to get done? Are our kids positive? Are we fresh? Do we have the right mindset? Does everybody understand what we’re looking to accomplish? Otherwise, why be disappointed when you get beat the first game of the sectional?

Once the team reaches the post-season, everyone involved knows the plan and everyone is all in.

“Just give me the baby,” says Shambaugh. “I don’t want the labor pains.”

In the postseason, everyone should know the objective is to win.

“Now your stats don’t mean donkey squat,” says Shambaugh. “No matter what it takes, we’re going to win. It’s not going to matter what gets the credit. It doesn’t matter what substitutions we make. We’ve got one objective.”

To Shambaugh’s way of thinking, the summer is the start to the next season.

Most coaches will want their athletes to play in the summer and will guide them to teams that are appropriate for them.

“Tuning it out is dangerous,” says Shambaugh. “I believe in the exit interview and not just for seniors, but everybody who was involved.

“I know the athletic director or the principal is going exit-interview me. I want to hear from all of my people.

“If I’m a good listener and they’re being conscientious, I’m going to learn. It also builds ownership in the program.”

Shambaugh says coaches should follow and support their players in their accomplishments away from the team.

“They get a big kick out of that when their head skipper or assistant coaches that don’t have any summer accomplishments are at the ballpark or become aware that they did something that was pretty cool,” says Shambaugh. “It is amazing if an adult gives a teenager positive information.”

Shambaugh marvels that many high school coaches don’t consider the summer as part of the out-of-season. In many places, basketball and football coaches are involved with their players at that time of year.

“Baseball players probably play for someone else in the summertime?,” says Shambaugh. “Why can’t you have open fields in the summertime even if it’s just two days a week?”

By reaching out to players out-of-season, coaches will know who might be considering not coming back for the next season and who might be thinking about joining the team for the first time.

Shambaugh says it will pay to support football and get those players pumped for their season.

“Football controls the numbers,” says Shambaugh. “They have 35 to 50 guys involved with their program.

“Getting along with the football staff and program really benefits a baseball guy.”

With all that, Shambaugh wants his players to have fun and he wants to know what makes them tick.

“It can be about the X’s and O’s, but it’s always about the Jimmys and Joes,” says Shambaugh. “You can have this technique or that technique or you can get involved with your people so that they know you’re in it with them. Everything you’re trying to do is on their behalf.”

Bret Shambaugh has coached baseball at the college, high school and youth levels. He shared some of his thoughts at the Huntington North Hot Stove clinics Jan. 12. (Steve Krah Photo)

Bret Shambaugh has coached baseball at various levels since 1984, including being head coach at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Marian College (now Marian University) and high school assistant jobs at McCutcheon, Indianapolis North Central and Brebeuf Jesuit. He talked at the Huntington North Hot Stove clinics Jan. 12. (Steve Krah Photo)