IHSBCA Hall of Fame to induct Weybright, Storen, Samardzija, Johnston, Johnson in ’23

By STEVE KRAH
http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Coach Kelby Weybright, players Drew Storen and Jeff Samarzija and veterans committee selections Lenny “Lefty” Johnston and Wayne Johnson make up the 2023 induction class of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Weybright is a graduate of North White High School. Following graduation, he attended and played baseball for three years at Blackburn College before earning his bachelor degree from Indiana University.
Following one season as an assistant at North White, Weybright spent six seasons as an assistant and 11 seasons as the head coach at Norwell High School where he compiled a record of 243-93 with two NHC, seven sectional, four regional and two semistate titles with an IHSAA Class 3A state runner-up finish in 2006 and 3A state championships in 2003 and 2007 before retiring in 2012 to coach his sons in travel baseball.
The 2007 team went 35-0 and finished ranked 10th nationally (Collegiate Baseball/Easton Sports). The 2006 and 2007 squads went a combined 64-2.
Weybright coached 22 players that played collegiately with six IHSBCA North All-Stars and four Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft selections.
Two NHC Coach of the Year honors (2006 and 2007) came Weybright’s way as well as two IHSBCA Coach of the Year awards (2003 and 2007).
He was recognized as a National High School Baseball Coaches Association District and National Coach of the Year in 2007.
Weybright is currently athletic director at Norwell and continues to work with the baseball program during its summer development period and occasionally during the season as time permits.

Storen is a 2007 graduate of Brownsburg High School.
As a freshman, he was the No. 2 pitcher (3-0, 1.17 earned run average) behind Lance Lynn on the eventual 2004 state runner-up.
As a sophomore, right-hander Storen went 9-0 with 86 strikeouts in 57 innings and helped the Bulldogs to go 35-0 and win the 2005 state championship while earning a No. 2 ranking in the country from Baseball America.
The Indianapolis Star called that team, “The greatest high school team in Indiana history.”
For his career, Storen finished 28-2 with 270 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.61. At the plate, he hit .400 with 16 home runs.
He was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2007, but attended Stanford University.
In two seasons with the Cardinal, he was named to three Freshman All-American teams and was twice chosen first team All-Pac 12. He got the win in Game 1 of the 2008 College World Series.
Storen led Stanford as a sophomore in saves, wins and appearances and was named team MVP for 2009.
He finished his collegiate career with a 12-4 record, 26 saves, 59 appearances and a 3.84 ERA.
As a draft-eligible sophomore, Storen was taken by the Washington Nationals as the 10th overall pick of the 2009 MLB Draft.
In eight seasons with the Nationals, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, he went 29-18 with 99 saves, a 3.45 ERA and 417 strikeouts. He made six postseason appearances for Washington in 2012 and 2014 with one win and one save.
Drew and his wife Brittani currently reside in Carmel and have two boys — Jace (6) and Pierce (2).

Samardzija is a 2003 Valparaiso High School graduate is considered one of the best athletes in Indiana history.
By his senior year, he was recognized as one of the state’s best football players and was the runner-up for the Indiana Mr. Football award. Samardzija was a three-time all-state player and was selected to the Indiana All-Star team.
In baseball, he was a runner-up for the Mr. Baseball award as a senior, a three-year varsity letterman and an All-State honoree as a center fielder. He hit .375 with five home runs and 37 runs batted in as a junior and .481 with eight homers and 50 RBIs as a senior.
As one of the nation’s top football recruits, he chose Notre Dame where he was also invited to pitch for the baseball team.
Samardzija was a two-time All American wide receiver, a two-time All-American pitcher and a two-time runner up for the Biletnikoff Award given to the nation’s best receiver.
Despite his football skills and the likelihood of being drafted as a first-round pick in the National Football League, Samardzija opted to play professional baseball after pitching for the Irish for three seasons.
The right-hander was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the fifth round of the 2006 MLB Draft. He made his MLB debut for the Cubs in July 2008 and went on to pitch 13 full seasons.
In addition to the Cubs, Samardzija pitched for the Oakland Athletics (2014), Chicago White Sox (2015) and San Francisco Giants (2016-2020). He was named an All-Star in 2014.
Jeff and older brother Sam represent a rare achievement in VHS history with each being selected as All-State performers in both football and baseball.

Johnston graduated from Western Michigan University and was a minor league outfielder from 1952-67.
He played for the Indianapolis Indians from 1960-1966 and played in the
Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds and Washington Senators organizations.
He was a career .286 hitter and had 525 stolen bases. He led his league in stolen bases six straight years (1953-58). He paced the International League in 1956 with 182.
Johnston was a minor league manager for nine years and was the with the Bluefield Orioles in the Appalachian League and the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota, Fla., in an administrative role.
In 2020, he was inducted into the Appalachian League Hall of Fame. Johnston served as a scout, scouting supervisor, cross-checker and minor league coordinator roles before retiring in 2019. He currently resides in Nashville, Tenn.

Wayne Johnson spent 12 years as a varsity assistant to Greg Silver at Mooresville before spending two stints as the head coach at Brownsburg High School.
At the helm of the Bulldog program, he compiled 278 wins over 15 years.
During his first stint from (1987-2000), Johnson-led teams took home sectional championships in 1988, 1992, 1995 and 1996. The Bulldogs were also regional champions in 1996.
Then on short notice, Johnson was asked to return to coach Brownsburg in 2011 and won another sectional title.
While Johnson’s victories and championships are impressive, his contributions to Brownsburg baseball far exceed his won/loss record.
The 1990 Central Suburban Athletic Conference Coach of the Year was instrumental in the construction of Brownsburg’s home baseball field — Mary Beth Rose Park.
Johnson partnered with countless members of the community to design and build the stadium and it has served to host over a 1,000 games since the spring of 1988.
Rose Park is still considered a premier location to play baseball in Indiana.
Johnson was a big supporter of the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame and it fundraising efforts.
He also owned a business, Johnson Sports Collectibles in addition to teaching for 39 years at Mooresville and Brownsburg High Schools. Johnson impacted many lives through the game of baseball and his presence is sorely missed. He is being inducted posthumously as he passed away on Dec. 19, 2018.

Inductees will be honored during the IHSBCA State Clinic. The ceremony is slated for 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, 2023 at Sheraton at Keystone Crossing. The clinic is Jan. 12-14.
For questions about banquet reservations, program advertisements or events leading up to the ceremony, contact Hall of Fame chairman Jeff McKeon at 317-445-9899.
Banquet tickets can be purchased at https://www.cognitoforms.com/Baseball3%20_2023IHSBCAStateClinic and can be picked up from McKeon on the night of the banquet at the registration table. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

2023 IHSBCA Hall of Fame class. (Graphic by Dan Hardy Hill)

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Thurston teaching ballplayers how to be mentally tough

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Coaches and athletes talk all the time about overcoming failure — sometimes referred to as adversity.

Dan Thurston has been studying these concepts for years and how to achieve mental toughness. He is now sharing his knowledge with the baseball community.

Thurston, president and general manager at Long Toss Indiana, LLC and Indiana Rawlings Tigers, LLC which have 19 travel teams and a 9,100-square foot training facility in Clarksville, just launched his Mental Toughness Training website at confidenceinbaseball.com. The Twitter handle is @MentallyTuffBB.

Thurston played baseball at Mooresville High School for Greg Silver and later was head baseball coach at Madison Consolidated High School.

In addition to being the police chief in Madison, he is a pitching instructor and son Ryan is the No. 1 starter in the rotation at Western Kentucky University.

Thurston talks about the genesis of his mental toughness training program, which is designed to help players of all ages and abilities.

“Coaches have always known when we have a mentally-tough kid and a mentally-weak kid,” says Thurston. “They struggle getting weak kid off his island. A lot of people were in my corner saying it should be able to be taught.

“That’s what drove my passion.”

Thurston learned that some people are naturally strong and can overcome adversity and setbacks. He wanted to help people who struggle.

Knowing that high school baseball coaches are occupied with skill development and strategy and had little or no time to devote to the mental game, that’s where Thurston found his niche.

Thurston began taking clients in January. While he does most of his work one-on-one with individuals, he does mental toughness training with a few high school teams, including East Central and Silver Creek.

He starts each athlete off with an initial assessment.

“To get to Point B, we have to know where we are now at Point A,” says Thurston.

This also helps gauge progress.

Techniques he uses include guided visualization for those who are visual learners and mental practice (thinking in words) for those who are not a visually-inclined.

With Thurston’s assistance, players explore their fear of failure or lack of confidence and why they are putting internal pressure on themselves and develop a plan of action.

“I’m not going to teach you how not to fail,” says Thurston. “They’re still going to make an error, strike out and get thrown out on bases. It’s about teaching them to overcome that quickly and move on to the next pitch or play.

“Baseball is the closest sport out there that replicates life itself. Not every day is going to be our best. It will also carry on through life.”

Like stones in the passway of life, mental obstacles can block the ballplayer’s desired result.

“The word I use with my players is interference,” says Thurston. “The equation is P = P — I (Performance equals Potential minus Interference).”

If not dealt with, this interference will keep players from reaching their ultimate potential.

Thurston says he is driven by a goal of daily improvement.

“I want to be a better coach today than I was yesterday,” says Thurston. “I’m always trying to learn something. There’s not one technique that I use on players that I don’t use on myself.

“If I’m facing a stressful situation myself, I use the techniques I use with my clients. I have the potential to leave a great mark on the game and help a lot of kids, but it’s helped me as well.”

When teaching the mechanics of pitching, Thurston wants his players to feel the movement then blend it into their delivery.

“The key is being able to put it all back together so it becomes a natural movement pattern for that kid,” says Thurston. “The blending competent is key. It’s the same thing with the mental game. You feel like you have no confidence. In your subconscious mind, you are afraid to fail. Your mind now effects how your body performs.”

Thurston says it is the subconscious mind which controls the body.

“We try to change the programming that’s gone on there for several years,” says Thurston. “We then have to put it all back together again.”

Pitchers at Long Toss Indiana begin with a physical analysis, video analysis and go through a boot camp to help them “build a bigger motor” and add “speed, strength, flexibility, mobility and power to key areas of the body to increase velocity and strength in the pitcher to make him more powerful and athletic.”

As the pitcher’s body develops, LTI “will tweak the program as necessary.”

Then comes the mental training, which is modeled after the program developed by Alan Jaeger.

Dan Thurston is the president and general manager at Long Toss Indiana, LLC and Indiana Rawlings Tigers, LLC. He is the former head baseball coach at Madison Consolidated High School.