Passion draws Wabash College assistant Niespodziany to coaching

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Wabash College baseball assistant Jordan Niespodziany appreciates coaches that do their jobs with feeling.

The South Bend, Ind., native played at South Bend South East Little League, St. Jude Catholic School in South Bend and at Marian High School in neighboring Mishawaka.

It was while attending Marian Knights baseball camps as a grade schooler that Niespodziany was led by head coach Tim Prister, a Marian graduate who played at University of Notre Dame.

“(Prister) was such a passionate coach,” says Niespodziany. “He was such a passionate coach.

“He’s first guy who pushed me toward being a coach.”

Niespodziany played for Prister at Marian and learned that he expected his players to buy into his passion and did everything they could to make the team successful.

The Knights went to the IHSAA Class 3A state championship game in 2008. Junior right-handed pitcher Niespodziany led the team in victories that season with eight.

In the summers leading into his junior and senior years of high school, Niespodziany played travel ball for the Jim Reboulet-coached Indiana Dirtbags.

“He’s had the experience at the highest level,” says Niespodziany of Reboulet. “He brought the seriousness of the game and let me know some of the goals he thought were attainable for me.

“I always enjoy seeing him when I’m out recruiting.”

At NCAA Division III DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., 6-foot-4 Niespodziany made six mound appearances in 2010 and eight in 2013 with team bests of four victories and a 3.32 earned run average while completing his Computer Science degree. He missed the 2011 and 2012 seasons because of Tommy John surgery.

While not toeing the rubber for the Tigers, Niespodziany served as a player-coach. Jake Martin was DePauw’s head coach at the time (he guided the Tigers from 2010-16) and is heading into his fifth season leading Wabash in 2021.

“That added to my perspective,” says Niespodziany of his time as a player-coach. “I’m able to relate to the team and (players) with struggles or injuries.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help them succeed on or off the field.”

Niespodziany coached five seasons at DePauw — the first two as a graduate assistant who also worked in Athletics Communications for director Bill Wagner and also earned a Masters in Sport Management at Indiana State University. 

“(Martin) is very similar to Coach Prister with his passion for baseball,” says Niespodziany. “He was an assistant for six years, figuring out different things that worked.

“He has the ability to connect with the guys. He also knows there’s a biggest goal, especially at the Division III level. We’re here to make better men and enter life after baseball.”

Wabash and DePauw are both members of the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Niespodziany, 30, has been on the Wabash coaching staff for two seasons (2019 and 2020). The Little Giants went 21-19 in 2019 and 6-2 in 2020 (a slate ended early by COVID-19).

As Wabash pitching coach, Niespodziany wants his hurlers to do what they do best.

“There’s so many different pitching gurus now,” says Niespodziany. “A lot of information is being thrown at them.

“They need to make sure what I’m saying to them makes sense. They’ve not all cookie-cutter pitchers. They need to do they can to advance.”

Niespodziany shares recruiting duties with Martin.

Located in Crawfordsville, Ind., Wabash College is a private all-male school with high degree of academic rigor.

“It’s easier to check guys off early,” says Niespodziany. “We want to get a guy who’s passionate about this place. We love to compete and we want to win. 

“Wabash is a place that sets you up for success and I’m happy to be a part of it.”

While COVID-19 has changed the way things are done on-campus, the admissions office was able to accept visits from potential students and students were able to meet for classes during the fall semester.

At first, baseball workouts were done in groups of 10 maximum and got up to 20 so the Little Giants could scrimmage. Masks were always worn.

“It was a challenge for myself and Jake,” says Niespodziany. “We did the best we could.”

Jordan married the former Emma Derheimer in August. The couple lives in Westfield, Ind.  It’s close to Grand Park, where Niespodziany is able to recruit players.

Jordan Niespodziany, a graduate of Marian High School in Mishwaka, Ind., who played and coached at DePauw University, is now an assistant baseball coach at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind. (Wabash College Photo)

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Love of teaching helps Wright State’s Talarico guide basestealers and more

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Matt Talarico has a zeal for teaching.

The graduate of Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger High School and Manchester College (now Manchester University) is the grandson of longtime Fort Wayne educator Sam Talarico Sr., and holds a masters degree in education from Heidelberg University.

Sam Talarico Sr. was a defensive tackle at Indiana University and drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1952. An injury caused him to come back to Fort Wayne.

“To help out a priest, he took a temporary teaching job,” says Matt Talarico. His grandfather went on to teach for decades at St. Jude Catholic School.

It was between the 2008 and 2009 seasons at NCAA Division III Heidelberg in Tiffin, Ohio, that Matt Talarico began to craft a teaching method for base stealing.

It started with two Heidelberg players — one who had speed but would not run like Talarico wanted.

“What I was doing before wasn’t really working,” says Talarico. “Simple cues like watch for this on the pitcher (were not hitting the mark with the player).

“Ultimately, it wasn’t giving him any confidence to go. He couldn’t see what I was seeing. So I had to think outside the box.

“That’s kind of how it all started.”

By the end of his second year at Heidelberg, Talarico was convinced he had something different than what everybody else was doing.

Talarico went to to use his system at the D-I level — first the University of Toledo (2010), University of Dayton (2011-15) and since the 2016 season Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Wright State went into play Friday, May 4 tied for 22nd among D-I schools with 73 stolen bases (in 86 attempts). The Horizon League-winning Raiders swiped 101-of-128 in 2016 and 130 of 161 in 2017.

During Talarico’s time at Dayton, the Flyers stole 117-of-163 in 2011, a nation-leading 164-of-198 in 2012, 81-of-118 in 2013, 91-of-118 in 2014 and 52-of-83 in 2015. Toledo runners pilfered 74-of-96 bags in 2010.

“I like all development and I love teaching,” says Talarico, who serves as hitting and infield coach and helps members of the RaiderGang with physical training and nutrition. “For me, it’s all teaching I have passion about.

“Basestealing has gone to the front not because I think it is more important than anything, it’s more teachable than anything,” says Talarico, who founded the StealBases.com website and has been a presenter on the subject at the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention, been featured on an ABCA podcast and addressed the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association State Clinic. “You wouldn’t guess that.

“It helps score runs and it helps teams that might not be on. We might not be due for 15 hits and eight runs, but it gives us an avenue (to offensive production).”

His website has many subscribers with teams also employing their brand of aggressive running.

“We use it as a way to create pressure, hit better and score more runs,” says Talarico. “If you look at our offensive numbers all-around, they are better than they’ve ever been. The threat of us running makes you throw fastballs and give us pitches to hit. It’s cool how it’s spread through baseball.

“I encourage guys to coach base stealing. We never coach it. It’s always something you recruit. The more you coach it, the better they get at it.”

While he has created a small business around his findings, he does not consider his methods proprietary.

“I don’t know that it’s something I can reserve for my own and say you can’t take it,” says Talarico. “If you can also teach it, you can do it.”

Talarico counts renowned coach and baserunning expert Mike Roberts among his mentors. Roberts coached at the University of North Carolina and is the father of former big leaguer Brian Roberts.

The coaching staff at Wright State — led by head coach Jeff Mercer and also including Nate Metzger, Alex Sogard, mental skills development coordinator Diamyn Hall, director of operations Denton Sagerman and volunteer Jacob Burk — is way into innovation and learning.

“We talk about it a lot — what’s the best way to learn? What’s the best way to teach?,” says Talarico. “Let’s do that. We want to be leading the way when it comes to how we talk to our players about development — hitting, pitching, basestealing, defense.

“We’ve got guys who are obsessed with social media — Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and whatever — and we want to communicate with them like that.

We want to be able to talk to them about things that can help them develop in ways they want to learn. We’re not trying to get them to go back to encyclopedias and the Dewey Decimal System and all that stuff we had to learn growing up.

“We want to communicate with them like social media — quick and out front. We’d like to think we have some success stories because we’re able to adapt.”

Talarico played for at Larry Windmiller, a member of the University of Saint Francis Athletic Hall of Fame and Northeast Indiana Baseball Association Hall of Fame, and his son Brett.

“Brett Windmiller was a big influence on me,” says Talarico of the man who is now on the coaching staff at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne. “I was impressed with how knowledge he was and how passionate he was. He was the the first guy I got close to on that level.”

More knowledge was gained playing at Manchester from Spartans head coach Rick Espeset. Talarico got his undergraduate degree in history.

Matt and Jasa Talarico have two daughters — Callie (18 months) and Lia (less than a one month).

Matt Talarico, a graduate of Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger High School and Manchester College (now Manchester University) has helped turn the offense at Wright State University into a dynamic offensive force with his basestealing methods. (Wright State University)

 

Mental, physical toughness important to Concord’s Lehmann

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Walter Lehmann developed a philosophy about baseball as a player and it has followed him into coaching.

Effort does not have to take a day off.

“I’d rather have a kid that is going to give that max effort all the time than the kid next to him who may be a little bit more talented,” says Lehmann, who was recently hired as head baseball coach at Concord High School. “When I was a player, I never hit the ball the best or was the fastest or had the best arm.”

And yet Lehmann excelled at Mishawaka Marian High School (graduating at in 2007) and played at Bethel College in Mishawaka (graduating in 2001). He was primarily a catcher.

Lehmann had his competitive fire stoked while playing at Marian for former Notre Dame player Tim Prister.

“He taught you confidence in yourself and your team,” says Lehmann, who knew Prister beginning in first grade thanks to being a youth sports teammate of Tim’s son, Eric. “(Tim taught us about) being mentally and physically tough. If you have that physical edge, it brings that mental edge.”

Lehmann, who went to St. Jude Catholic School in South Bend for grades K-8, learned which teammates he could trust based on how they responded during grueling workouts.

Who’s going to show up on time?

Who’s going to put in that extra effort?

Who’s going lead the pack?

Those shared experiences can built chemistry, which comes in hand with the team down a run in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Lehmann picked up more passion and baseball knowledge at Bethel from head coach Seth Zartman and assistants Dick Siler and Javier Jimenez.

“(Siler) cared about us as people and not just as baseball players,” says Lehmann of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer. “The same is true with Coach Zartman. His biggest concern was what life was going to be for us after baseball.

“(Jimenez) had a passion for the game and was there for you each day.”

Lehmann went into business for a few years while coaching baseball at Marian and in the summer with the South Bend Silver Hawks/South Bend Cubs Youth Baseball Club teams and officiating hockey in the winter (he played two high school seasons in that sport).

Working with the youth teams and at the South Bend Cubs Performance Center, Lehmann lapped up the advice being handed out by veteran pro baseball men Mark Haley and Curt Hasler.

He also decided to enter Bethel’s transition-to-teaching program. After a year at Mishawaka Catholic School, Lehmann now leads social studies students at Concord High School.

“I’ve been excited to come into work each day,” says Lehmann, who turns 29 in September.

The coach is also emphasize his message of extra effort and essential skills to the Minutemen.

“I want to make sure we do the fundamentals well,” says Lehmann. “A lot of teams try to do too much and they don’t execute the basics well.

“You can win a lot of high school baseball games by throwing strikes, (correctly) running the bases and playing defense. If we lose a game, I want it to be because we got beat and not because we gave them the win. If our pitchers are throwing strikes and they beat us, it happens.”

One of Lehmann’s favorite practice drills is called “21 Outs” and involves a coach with a fungo bat and a defense trying to record all the outs without an error.

“We want to have that defensive mentality,” says Lehmann. “We’re not giving more than 21 outs. This is what they get.”

Lehmann follows Eric Nielsen, who resigned to go into private business. The new coach is in the process of assembling his assistants for 2017-18.

Walter Lehmann, a graduate of Mishawaka Marian High School and Bethel College, is now head baseball coach at Concord High School. (Concord High School Photo)