Meyer now leading Guerin Catholic on diamond

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

New Guerin Catholic High School head baseball coach Tony Meyer comes from a family of coaches.

His father, Ed Meyer, led the football and baseball program at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., for nearly four decades. The DePauw graduate’s baseball teams won 522 games. Ed and wife MaryAnn (who taught at Cloverdale High Schoolfor 30 years) both died in 2015.

“At my age, I look back at all the things that he taught me that I didn’t realize he was teaching me,” says Tony Meyer. “It was the way he dealt with players and parents. He could take a player and make him feel like a million bucks or take him down. He never had to raise his voice.”

The elder Meyer also stressed the importance of education.

“He was a very calming influence in the dugout, on the field and in recruiting,” says Tony Meyer. “If I could be half of what he was as a coach, I’d be pretty good.”

Brother Pat Meyer was a good baseball player, he went into sales and now lives in the Chicago suburbs. Sister Anne was a strong all-around athlete and is now in banking in Florida.

Two other brothers — Mike Meyer and Pete Meyer — went into coaching.

Mike Meyer is in his second stint as head football coach at Greencastle High School. He has also been the defensive coordinator at Northview High School in Brazil and served as a football assistant at Ohio Northern University and Case Western University and football head coach at Hiram College.

Pete Meyer was head baseball coach and athletic director at Florida Southern College before moving back to Greencastle.

Tony’s wife, Denise Meyer, is an assistant volleyball coach at Greencastle High School and coaches the Crossroads Of America Volleyball Club‘s 14-1’s out of Terre Haute. She is a product of the Muncie Burris High School volleyball program. All three of Tony and Denise’s three daughters play volleyball — Marian University sophomore Maggie Meyer (part of the 2019 NAIA national championship team), Indiana State University freshman Abigail Meyer and Greencastle junior Lilly Meyer.

Tony Meyer graduated from Greencastle in 1988 and Wabash College in 1993. He played baseball for the Little Giants and head coach Scott Boone for four seasons (1989-92) and football for head coach Greg Carlson for two (1990 and 1991).

After graduation, Meyer went to Hanover College to coach football and baseball. He was on the baseball staff of American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Dick Naylor.

Meyer remembers Naylor for his persistence in finding players.

“He put me on the road to recruit,” says Meyer. “He showed me what to look for.”

Meyer spent 1994 conducting USA Baseball camps in Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma and was head scout for the U.S. team for the Pan-American Games.

He then went to DePauw and coached on the diamond with his father.

Terry Gobert, the long-time Jasper High School head coach and IHSBCA Hall of Famer, is a Greencastle graduate and was a graduate assistant to Ed Meyer in 1984 and 1985 along with basketball coach Mike Steele. He was a teammate of Mike Meyer and coached Pete and Pat in Babe Ruth baseball.

After his stint with the Tigers, Meyer coached various teams, including the Waukegan (Ill.) Waves and a summer collegiate team in Indianapolis.

When Meyer began a family, he went into sales but still volunteered in Babe Ruth and youth league baseball and gave lessons.

Then a unique opportunity happened at Cloverdale. The Clovers had an opening for a head football coach and head baseball coach and athletic director J.J. Wade hired Meyer to take both posts which he held in 2015-16 and 2016-17. He had volunteered with the baseball program during the 2014 season.

“It was a learning experience,” says Meyer of his time at Cloverdale, where he got guidance from former Clovers head football coach Mike Parks. “He showed me how he deals with kids, their lives and education.”

Many of his players went on to college.

“That’s my biggest reward,” says Meyer.

He coached 13U then 14U travel teams for Bill Sampen’s Indiana Expos and then a 15U squad for Chris Estep’s Indiana Mustangs.

When IHSBCA Hall of Famer Rich Andriole resigned as head coach at Guerin Catholic, Meyer was encouraged to apply. He was hired by Ryan Davis, the Golden Eagles athletic director and a former assistant to Andriole at Indianapolis Cathedral High School.

“It’s been great so far,” says Meyer, who has been getting about 25 players at IHSAA Limited Contact sessions and expects up to 36 when the 2020 season rolls around. “This is one of the top baseball jobs in the state. There’s a whole lot to offer up there.

“I’ve got some good players. I think we’re going to be very competitive for 3A. Hopefully we can continue the upward trend Rich (Andriole) started two years ago.”

Meyer has named Jalen Cushenberry and John Magers, Eric Wott and Kevin Paulin as Guerin assistants and has two openings yet to fill.

What about the daily drive between Greencastle and Noblesville?

“It’s only a 53-minute commute,” says Meyer. “In sales, I drove to Carmel every day for five years.”

Guerin Catholic (enrollment around 725) is a member of the Circle City Conference (with Bishop Chatard, Brebeuf Jesuit, Covenant Christian, Heritage Christian and Roncalli).

The Golden Eagles are part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional grouping with Delta, Hamilton Heights, Jay County, New Castle and Yorktown. Guerin has not yet won a sectional crown.

Tony Meyer is the head baseball coach at Guerin Catholic High School in Noblesville, Ind. The 2020 season will be his first in charge of the Golden Eagles.

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With a little help from dad, Sampen pitching in Dodgers organization

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Caleb Sampen, a right-hander in the Los Angeles Dodgers system, is a second-generation professional baseball pitcher.

His father — Bill Sampen — toed the rubber for pay for 10 seasons and appeared in 182 major league games with the Montreal Expos, Kansas City Royals and California Angels.

Selected in the 20th round of the 2018 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft out of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Brownsburg (Ind.) High School graduate Caleb Sampen had been in three pro games though July 10 — all with the Short Season Class-A Ogden (Utah) Raptors.

Caleb has picked up pointers from his father. But it hasn’t been too much.

When Caleb was getting started in the game, Bill was coaching his two older sons. Isaac and Sam played for the West Side Crusaders.

“I was just around,” says Caleb Sampen. “(My father) didn’t force any mechanics on me. He let me be an athlete.

“It wasn’t like I had a pitching lesson with him everyday.”

The elder Sampen decided when his older boys were reaching their teens that he would stop serving as a coach for their teams and he never coached any of Caleb’s squads.

“It was best for them to learn to play for other people,” says Bill Sampen, “I thought that was part of the process. I think that’s the best route for kids.

“I got to step back and just be a dad and enjoy watching them play.

“I just played coach when they asked me questions.”

In November, Samp’s Hack Shack baseball/softball training facilities will reach the ninth year in Brownsburg (5,200 square feet) and mark one year in Plainfield (7,500 square feet).

The Indiana Expos travel organization are in their second season and have seven teams in 2018. None of them have fathers coaching their own sons.

Bill Sampen says that policy for Expos coaches achieves a couple things.

“It allows us to be completely honest and give honest and objective feedback,” says Bill Sampen. “And they just get to watch their kid play.

“I know I enjoy the value of just sitting back and being a dad. The truth is they’re not going to play very long. Enjoy the journey. Don’t stress so much.”

Bill Sampen coaches the 16U National team, David Brewers the 16U American, Derek Hankins the 15U National, Nick Spence the 15U American, Isaac Sampen the 14U National, Leo Tobasco the 14U American, Tony Meyer the 13U National.

Calling the teams the Expos was not Bill’s call.

“My family decision informed that was what the name was,” says Bill Sampen. “You can see I have no clout.”

Bill coached the Bethesda Christian School baseball team for about a decade before starting his training business.

“It’s a very pure level of coaching I have now,” says Bill Sampen, “I appreciate that.”

During the school year, he has students from 4 p.m. on. But he is involved seven days a week most of the year as either an instructor or travel ball coach.

His 16U team has been in Georgia, competing against some of the best from all over the continent.

“Our upper age groups do more extensive travel,” says Bill Sampen. “We’re helping them get exposure. They get to see kids committed (to colleges) all over the place.

“It’s good for our players to see the skill level and talent that’s out there. We want to play people that the only way we can beat them is if we out-execute them.

“Do things right day in and day out. If you have a plan and do the routine things, you’re going to be in baseball games, no matter who you’re playing.”

Knowing that some players will not go on to college, they are getting to have experiences they may not have without travel baseball.

“We want to hope them grow and develop — not just as baseball players but as people,” says Bill Sampen. “It’s the life skills that carry past baseball.

“If you’re trying to win trophies, I think you’ve got the wrong purpose.”

Caleb Sampen grew up in Brownsburg and played at Brownsburg Little League until seventh grade when he started his travel ball experiences. He donned the uniforms of the Indiana Outlaws, Indiana Prospects and Indiana Bulls and Indiana Blue Jays.

At Brownburg High, where Caleb graduated in 2015, his head coach was Eric Mattingly.

“He always talked about doing the little things right and an attention to detail,” says Caleb Sampen, who played shortstop when not pitching for the Bulldogs. “You take care of every little piece so you’re well-prepared.”

At Wright State, Sampen had Greg Lovelady as his head coach and Justin Parker his pitching coach his freshman year before both went to the University of Central Florida.

“(Parker) always talks about lower half and using your legs,” says Caleb Sampen.

The next two years, Jeff Mercer was head coach and Alex Sogard led the pitching staff.

(Sogard) didn’t try to change me a whole lot on the mound,” says Caleb Sampen. “He was pretty individualized, which I liked a lot.”

Recently, Mercer became head coach at Indiana University and Sogard was promoted to head coach at Wright State.

Sampen also got the chance this past year to learned from Diamyn Hall, NCAA Division I baseball’s first full-time mental skills coach.

“We worked on routines and being ready to go,” says Sampen of Hall. “He gets you in that mindset and having self awareness.”

In Caleb Sampen, Bill sees a cerebral kid.

“He’s got an idea,” says Bill Sampen. “I can’t take any credit for any successes he’s had.”

The father does see some similarities to himself.

Bill Sampen developed his abilities while playing baseball and basketball at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill.

“I see the way he moves and his athleticism,” says Bill Sampen of Caleb. “He has a long, loose arm and does things naturally.”

In two seasons at Wright State (2016 and 2018), Caleb went 14-4 in 26 games (21 as a starter) with a 2.92 earned run average, 90 strikeouts and 37 walks in 141 2/3 innings. He missed the 2017 season after having surgery on the ulnar nerve in his elbow.

On a pitch count because of the college workload in the spring of 2018, Caleb Sampen, 21, began his pro career with two relief appearances and a short starting stint. He was 0-1 with a 7.71 ERA, seven strikeouts and one walk in 4 2/3 innings.

Jeremy Rodriguez is the Ogden manager. Dean Stiles is the pitching coach.

The next stops on the Dodgers minor league trail are the Low Class-A Great Lakes (Mich.) Loons, High-A Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) Quakes, Double-A Tulsa (Okla.) Drillers and Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers.

Caleb says he goes to the bump each time with an aggressiveness mindset.

“You’ve got to go out and attack with your strengths,” says Caleb Sampen, who uses a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, change-up, 12-to-6 curveball and cutter.

What about the change-up?

“It’s own own little mix I’ve perfected over the years,” says Caleb Sampen. “I use an off-set two-seam grip and throw it with my ring finger and middle finger. I keep my index finger off the ball as much as possible.”

Amy Sampen, a former Brownsburg teacher, is now an virtual educator and is the “boss” as co-owner of the Hack Shack, according to Bill.

Isaac Sampen (24) and Sam Sampen (23) both played at Parkland College in Champaign, Ill. Sam graduated highs school a semester early and joined his older brother.

Isaac Sampen went on to play at Eastern Illinois University and Sam Sampen at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.

Besides coaching and helping with the coordination of the Expos, Isaac now helps in many ways at the Shack. Sam has an outside job and also helps out at the training facilities.

In his time around the game, Bill Sampen has seen an increase in research and scientific data related to throwing a baseball.

“It’s validated some things that should have been done all along,” says Bill Sampen. “It can be very valuable in preventing injury.

“It seems that injuries are still there in spite of new data and new science.”

The likely reason?

“It’s the intensity of weight training,” says Bill Sampen. “Velocity is based on arm speed and not body strength.

“There are big, physical guys that can’t throw hard.”

And yet 5-foot-11, 180-pounder Billy Wagner regularly hit 100 mph and won 47 games and saved 422 in the bigs.

Caleb Sampen, a 2015 Brownsburg High School graduate and former Wright State University pitcher, makes a delivery for the Ogden (Utah) Raptors in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. (Ogden Raptors Photo)