Robbins, Isufi do their part to help Notre Dame baseball

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

The University of Notre Dame moved to 9-2 on the 2024 college baseball season with an 11-2 win Tuesday, March 5 against Purdue University in the home opener at Frank Eck Stadium for the Fighting Irish.

Sophomore Estevan Moreno slugged three home runs for ND — the third time he’s done that during his career.

After the contests, two Irish staffers — assistant coach Logan Robbins and Director of Analytics Daniel Isufi — sat down and talked about their roles.

Robbins started at Notre Dame in the August of 2022 and Isufi August of 2023.

Both are part of a group with head coach Shawn Stiffler plus assistant Ryan Munger, assistant Seth Voltz and graduate assistant Jay Schuyler, works with hitters, infielder and coaches third base. 

Before ND, Robbins was an assistant for seven years at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., for seven seasons. He helped at Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Ky., in 2015.

An Owensboro native and 2008 graduate of Apollo High School, Robbins played at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., and was a 10th round draft pick by the Atlanta Braves in 2011.

Isufi (pronounced ISS-OOF-EE) is a 2018 graduate of St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Ill., and a former Chicago White Sox season ticket holder. He has worked for the club as a Sox Surveys Representative. 

He has also been Assistant Director of Baseball Operations at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., an intern with the Cape Cod League’s Wareham Gatemen, worked as a team manager for the baseball program at the University of Dayton (Ohio). He holds a Political Science and Government degree from UD.

Diagnosed with Lupus — an autoimmune disease— at 14, Isufi received his second kidney transplant in 2020.

RBI: You were busy tonight (directing traffic at third base). Are you like an offensive coordinator?

LR: A lot of times I’m feeding off what the guys are telling me in the (batting) cages. Sometimes we do things that don’t work and we have to figure something else out … When we’re doing bad I’ll always get the credit and when we’re doing good it’s those guys who are working hard. That’s where it starts — the amount of work they put in.

RBI: It’s not a cookie-cutter approach (for all hitters)?

LR: I don’t believe in cookie-cutting anything … You could go in the cages tomorrow and see six guys doing six different things. You’d say this is ‘Helter Skelter.’ I’d walk in and smile because because I know why (each player is doing what he’s doing) … Everybody has a different way that they think and move their body. It’s my job as a coach to adapt to them rather than making them adapt to me.

RBI: What have all your experiences brought to this job?

DI: Being able to talk baseball with someone is important … I’m able to sit down and understand where a player or coach is coming from. I’ve learned so much about the game … Especially at VCU, I worked a lot with TrackMan. I was very familiar with how it works and how to get it calibrated and set up and what the data means.  

RBI: What do you do to help the coaches and players?

DI: Coaches tell me what we need on the analytic side of things. I manage all of our technology … If we’re doing bullpens, we may need two portable TrackMan (systems). We also have an Edgertronic camera which is really high-definition. It can be super-zoomed in to look at pitch grips and things like that can help our pitching coach (Voltz) make adjustments with our pitchers … We’re using TrackMan in our hitting cages to get a better understanding of how we are approaching hitting baseballs … I help lead our excellent group of student managers who are getting that data to help our coaches.

RBI: Do the players go to the coaches for the information or come straight to you?

DI: Sometimes when we’re in bullpens we’ll have the iPad right there with all the numbers. (Pitchers) will ask something like ‘what is my horizontal breakdown?’ A lot of time if (players) have questions on how they’re performing, I refer them to their position coach because that’s their job to do that and they have all that data.

RBI: Everbody’s kind of the some of their parts from where you played and where you coached before. What did you pick up along the way?

LR: You pick up how to treat people — first and foremost. Players don’t want to listen to you or be coached until they can trust you … I’m always trying to get to know them as a person. Once we develop that trust and that relationship that’s when the coaching really begins … I’ve had so many great coaches along the way … You have to keep learning. If you stop learning, I think you’re in trouble.

RBI: Is every coach little bit different?

LR: It’s funny. Coach Stiffler and my boss at Old Dominion — Chris Finwood — were under the same coaching tree of the late Paul Keyes. A lot of their philosophies are the same. It starts with playing defense and throwing strikes. There wasn’t much of a difference coming from Old Dominion to (Notre Dame).

RBI: As a White Sox follower, can you go to a game and look at it as just a fan or are you looking at it analytically and thinking about what you would be doing.

DI: 100 percent. There are times I will go and just enjoy the game with family or some friends. But, honestly, the majority of the White Sox games I go to by myself, and I’ll kind of zone out. I’ll keep score and (ask myself) what I would do in this situation. I kind of manage the game from Section 534 where I sit every game and that’s fun.

RBI: You have to look at baseball in an analytical way in some sense don’t you?

LR: I’ll got home tonight and turn on a game and watch it and because I’m a coach I’m watching the other coaches stress out. I know what he feels like … I like to watch teams that are really good and figure out why they are good and then try to bring that here … You can learn from just watching the game. 

RBI: The American Baseball Coaches Association Convention each January brings together thousands of coaches at all levels to share ideas. Do you feel that baseball coaches are pretty good about that?

LR: That’s what’s neat about baseball. It’s a really tight-knit community. I don’t work for the government. Nothing here is top secret. If you want to know what we’re doing, I’d be more than happy to share.

RBI: Can you share on what has Moreno (.321 on 9-of-28 with six homers and 11 runs batted in for a team with 32 homers and 108 runs scored) locked in so far in ’24? 

LR: (Moreno) is walking (in the batter’s box) with confidence and swinging at the right pitches. He’s swinging at strikes and taking balls. That’s where it starts … He just loves it right now … I want him to go up there and get his three best swings off. If three of them go out of the park, great! 

RBI: Can you talk about your Lupus?

DI: It can be a challenge. But I do my best every day I wake up to not let it affect who I am and my work performance. I let it motivate me to be the best version of myself. People may look at the Lupus diagnosis and multiple kidney transplants and feel sorry for me. Honestly, I’m going to make it a good thing because it allows me to not feel sad. It keeps me going. I’m really happy with where I’m at right now.

Daniel Isufi (left) and Logan Robbins. (Steve Krah Photo)

Hines comes back from kidney transplant ready to coach, teach

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

Adam Hines knew there was a history of kidney disease in his family.
When Adam, a 1993 Evansville (Ind.) North High School graduate, was in college his father, Craig Hines, had a kidney transplant.
When Adam was about 35, he began getting kidney scans.
Now 46, the head baseball coach at Henderson (Ky.) High School is three months out from his own kidney transplant.
“I was not diagnosed (with Polycystic Kidney Disease) until five or six years ago,” says Hines. “I knew in the back of my mind it was a possibility.
“There’s no fixing it. You deteriorate over the years. Cysts form and there’s nothing you can do about it.
“They have drugs now that can delay it. None of that was available when I was younger.”
Hines continued to teach and coach, but over time, he became more tired and sick. Toxins were not being filtered from his blood and was vomiting to get rid of them.
More than a year ago, wife Lindsay (the Hines will celebrate six years of marriage July 5) made an appeal for a donor on Facebook. About 10 people were tested and none were matches. Brother Josh — three years younger than Adam — has shown no kidney disease symptoms.
Adam Hines went through Henderson County’s first few 2020-21 scrimmages. He went out to hit infield/outfield.
“Halfway through I said, ‘I’m not going to make it,’” says Hines. “I was huffing and puffing. I got through hitting to the outfield and walked off the field and sat in a chair.
“That’s when it hit just how bad it was.”
Since kidneys also regulate body temperature, Hines was starting to have trouble in hot weather.
Lindsay Hines made another online appeal. Then David Gustafson came into the picture.
Gustafson had been a student of Adam’s mother, Carolyn Hines, when she taught at Evansville Bosse High School and kept in-touch over the years even when Gustafson and his family moved to New England. He proved to be a match and volunteered to be a donor. The surgery was done March 23 in the University of Louisville Health Jewish Hospital Trager Transplant Center.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and his condition, Hines had been the lead virtual teacher at Henderson County and had been running software for students since August 2020. He came back to teaching about two weeks after his surgery and to coaching after about six weeks.
“I still still struggled at the start stamina-wise,” says Hines. “I learned what I could and could not do. I still had a little bit of the pain.
“I had to get used to the physical part of it.”
The Henderson County Colonels went 22-15 in 2021. The team won a District 6 title and lost to Lyon County in the Region 2 championship. Kentucky does not have classes for baseball. Trinity of Louisville beat McCracken County of the state crown June 19 in Lexington.
Hines was hired at Henderson County (enrollment of about 2,050 students in 2020-21) in the fall of 2017 after five seasons as head coach at Owensboro (Ky.) Catholic High School (2020-21 enrollment of about 450). He taught Family Consumer Science at Owensboro Catholic and moved to Henderson County where he would be closer to family in Evansville and be able to teach in his preferred area — Physical Education and Health.
“It’s a better fit for me,” says Hines, who enjoyed his time at Owensboro Catholic and still stays in-contact with many former players. “And it was a chance to move to a bigger school (one of the biggest in Kentucky) and chance to work with more kids on a regular basis.”
Because of its size and location, Henderson County played five games against Indiana schools this spring — Evansville Mater Dei, South Spencer, Castle, Evansville Reitz and Evansville Central.
Hines counted 12 ranked teams on the 2021 schedule.
“I really don’t care what our regular-season record is,” says Hines. “I like to play a tougher schedule (to prepare for the postseason).
“(Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association) rankings don’t really matter since everyone makes the tournament. It’s all going to come out in the wash.”
Kentucky High School Athletic Association has district, region and semistate leading up the eight-team State Finals, where the champion must win three games. That means depth is key.
Practice seasons are open in the Bluegrass State.
“We can coach year-round if we want to, but we don’t,” says Hines. “I will typically start sometime in September with fall workouts (typically for five weeks). We take a month off for Christmas and come back and get ready for tryouts.”
This year, Hines had a few football players and one basketball player on his varsity team.
“I have no problem with kids playing other sports,” says Hines. “It makes them well-rounded.”
He says basketball players tend to take a little time to get into baseball shape since they run much of their weight off and don’t get the amount of throwing time in during the winter as other baseball players.
Hines was a right-handed pitcher at Evansville North, where Dan Sparrow was his coach and Jeff McKeon was a teammate, and in college. He played the 1994 and 1995 seasons at Southeastern Illinois College (a junior college in Harrisburg, Ill.) and the 1996 and 1997 campaigns at Murray (Ky.) State University.
His SIC coach was Jay Burch (now athletic director at Heritage Hills High School in Lincoln City, Ind.).
“I love Coach Burch,” says Hines. “I’ve talked to him quite a few times over the years.
“He’s a great leader and a great personality. He has a little bit of humor and a little bit of sarcasm. That fits my personality. I learned a lot from him.”
Mike Thieke was head coach of the Murray State Racers when Hines was in the program.
“He had a compassionate demeanor and was kind of soft-spoken,” says Hines. “That’s the way I am with coaching.”
After his playing days, Hines became a graduate assistant at Murray State while beginning to pursue a masters degree in Education.
Near the end of his college days, Hines talked with his parents (Craig Hines was a teacher at Oak Hill in Evansville) and decided that was the best path for him.
After his GA stint at Murray State, he joined Burch’s staff at Southeastern Illinois and then became Falcons head coach for five years.
When former Murray State assistant Bart Osborne took over the head coaching post at Union College (Barboursville, Ky.), he brought Hines in as pitching coach. That’s where Hines finished his masters degree. He was with the Bulldogs for eight years.
“We had some good runs there,” says Hines. Union won a conference title and went to the NAIA World Series in 2008.
Since the season ended at Henderson County, Hines has been focused on rest and relaxation and good lab numbers.
“I feel like I need to completely rest before we go back to school,” says Hines. “We’ll go to see my wife’s family Alabama. We have not seen them because of COVID-19.
“I’m going to go back into teaching. That’s what I love to do.”

Adam and Lindsay Hines.

Adam and Lindsay Hines.

Adam and Lindsay Hines.

Adam Hines, a 1993 Evansville (Ind.) North High School graduate, is the head baseball coach at Henderson (Ky.) County High School.

Adam Hines had his kidney transplant March 23, 2021 at the University of Louisville Health Jewish Hospital Trager Transplant Center.

Adam Hines and kidney donor David Gustafson.