S2E1 - Coach Chris Finwood

NIL Intro: 00:00:03

The following presentation is brought to you by The Pride of

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ODU, the official NIL collective of Old Dominion Athletics.

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Join The

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Hello,

NIL Intro: 00:00:39

Monarch fans, and welcome back to the Hudson homers podcast.

NIL Intro: 00:00:42

Season two, episode one joined as always by CB Wilkins, but we have a special

NIL Intro: 00:00:48

guest for the first episode of the second season head coach, Chris Finwood.

NIL Intro: 00:00:52

Finny how are you doing?

Coach Finwood: 00:00:54

I'm doing great.

Coach Finwood: 00:00:55

I'm sampling dark chocolate.

Coach Finwood: 00:00:59

Did you guys know the difference in the percentage of cacao

Coach Finwood: 00:01:03

and dark chocolate of what?

Coach Finwood: 00:01:05

is too bitter.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:07

My wife.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:08

I can't.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:09

We always try to educate our our listeners on.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:11

We do.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:13

these episodes, right?

Coach Finwood: 00:01:14

So, 72 percent is nice and sweet.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:18

Eighty five is kind of in the middle.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:21

92 percent is like cooking chocolate.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:24

It's too bitter to really eat on.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:27

So, just remember that everyone

CB: 00:01:29

interesting.

CB: 00:01:30

I think my my last girlfriend like the 92 percent episode.

Gary: 00:01:36

Is that, is that why she's an ex?

Gary: 00:01:37

She's a little too bitter for you?

Gary: 00:01:38

I mean, I'm bitter now.

Gary: 00:01:40

I don't know about her.

Coach Finwood: 00:01:43

Well, we're off to

Gary: 00:01:45

We are learning great things today, but CB, I know you and

Gary: 00:01:48

I talk pretty frequently, but how you been in the off season?

CB: 00:01:50

Hey man, I'm great.

CB: 00:01:51

Been going to tons of ODU sports.

CB: 00:01:54

Uh, I think since we, we last talked, I've, I've seen, uh, what have I seen?

CB: 00:01:58

Men's and women's soccer.

CB: 00:02:00

I've seen field hockey.

CB: 00:02:01

I love field hockey, uh, volleyball, love volleyball.

CB: 00:02:04

We got some, uh, men's and women's basketball.

CB: 00:02:07

So I saw some men's and women's tennis the other night, football, obviously.

CB: 00:02:11

So I'm getting, uh, getting my sports in.

CB: 00:02:13

But obviously i'm excited because we're a few weeks away from getting

CB: 00:02:17

to see some baseball What actually mattered valentine's day good to

CB: 00:02:20

go down to atlanta and spend it with my real love some baseball

Coach Finwood: 00:02:24

Are you coming down?

CB: 00:02:25

I'm coming down.

CB: 00:02:26

Oh, yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:02:26

Oh, that's awesome.

Coach Finwood: 00:02:27

Yeah,

CB: 00:02:28

i'm gonna be there

Coach Finwood: 00:02:29

You know, the last time we opened up on the road was 2014

CB: 00:02:35

was that georgia tech

Coach Finwood: 00:02:37

georgia tech for i was

CB: 00:02:38

there

Coach Finwood: 00:02:39

That's

CB: 00:02:39

what that, I didn't realize that was the last time.

CB: 00:02:41

Wow.

CB: 00:02:41

So I was there for that time too.

Coach Finwood: 00:02:43

10 years ago.

Coach Finwood: 00:02:44

Yeah.

CB: 00:02:44

That was the first weekend for like, um, the Sinon Brothers, I think it was

CB: 00:02:48

their first weekend playing Joey Benito.

CB: 00:02:50

Few of those guys.

CB: 00:02:51

BA bridge,

Coach Finwood: 00:02:52

it was gray.

Coach Finwood: 00:02:53

Uh, my son Grace's freshman year.

Coach Finwood: 00:02:55

Oh yeah, guys.

Coach Finwood: 00:02:57

And, um, they were shoveling snow off the.

Coach Finwood: 00:03:00

Field when we got down there.

Coach Finwood: 00:03:02

'cause it, it was

CB: 00:03:02

cold

Coach Finwood: 00:03:03

drove through.

Coach Finwood: 00:03:04

Yeah, I remember that because, uh, our bus driver, Robert, it was our first

Coach Finwood: 00:03:09

time using them and, uh, the defroster was on the blink and so I was up in

Coach Finwood: 00:03:16

the front of the bus with a towel.

Coach Finwood: 00:03:19

We're driving through the mountains in North Carolina.

Coach Finwood: 00:03:21

And I'm, I'm scraping the front of the inside of the window about

Coach Finwood: 00:03:26

every two minutes so he could see.

Coach Finwood: 00:03:29

I was like, yeah, this is college baseball, baby.

CB: 00:03:32

They don't tell you about that when it comes to the coaching, uh, ins and outs.

Coach Finwood: 00:03:37

They don't put that on the resume.

CB: 00:03:38

Some

Coach Finwood: 00:03:39

of the accomplished bus windshield inside windshield.

Gary: 00:03:47

That might be the, uh, make or break for you, uh, going forward.

Gary: 00:03:51

But I know, I know I'm starting to get a little bit of baseball fever.

Gary: 00:03:54

It has not been baseball weather by any means the last couple of months, but.

Gary: 00:03:58

I'm hoping we get that nice random warm spell in February that that

Gary: 00:04:01

weekend when you're in Atlanta and just get some some good baseball

Gary: 00:04:05

going because I know I miss it.

Gary: 00:04:06

CB misses it.

Gary: 00:04:07

And I'm sure coach you miss it too.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:09

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:09

And this time of the year, we're kind of used to working through the ups and downs.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:13

It's been a chilly stretch here, not just here, but everywhere.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:16

I was talking to Carl and I'll make her down at Auburn this morning and

Coach Finwood: 00:04:20

uh, the high was 31 there today.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:23

On he's coming up and then it looks so by the end of the week through

Coach Finwood: 00:04:27

the weekend and the next week, we got a little bit of a warm up.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:31

So we'll look forward to that.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:32

Our 1st scrimmage date is Friday.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:37

So, um, that we're allowed to scrimmage, so we're working in into that and it looks

Coach Finwood: 00:04:42

like we got a little bit better, better weather hopefully coming up for that.

Gary: 00:04:46

Yeah, now, where is that scrimmage going to be?

Gary: 00:04:49

And that leads me into the question.

Gary: 00:04:51

I think it's on everyone's mind is.

Gary: 00:04:53

What's going on with the stadium and the new fence that's around your ballpark.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:56

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:04:57

The fence that was running right through the middle of the bullpen

Coach Finwood: 00:04:59

this morning, uh, which we got moved, but, um, so yeah, the original plan

Coach Finwood: 00:05:05

was they were already going to have be, um, started with, um, knocking

Coach Finwood: 00:05:10

everything down and, uh, I think that's gotten moved back just a little bit.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:14

So we're going to scrimmage at the bud.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:17

this Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then the following weekend,

Coach Finwood: 00:05:21

we still don't know yet.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:22

It's all really the thing that's up in the air is when they start demolition.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:26

Um, when that backstop net has to come down.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:30

And so then we can't, you know, play there anymore.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:32

Obviously live, we can still practice there every day, which we're doing now.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:36

And the field actually is in great shape.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:38

It looks really funny.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:40

I don't know if you guys have been out there because we didn't oversee this

Coach Finwood: 00:05:42

year because we weren't playing there.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:45

And it's actually great for the Bermuda grass if you have an opportunity not

Coach Finwood: 00:05:50

to oversee because it doesn't eat.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:52

We're not going to get an agronomics on this episode, but not this episode.

Coach Finwood: 00:05:58

And so the whole field's yellow brown, because the Bermuda has gone dormant

Coach Finwood: 00:06:03

and it looks strange because I've never seen a baseball field, you know,

Coach Finwood: 00:06:07

this color this time of the year, but I'll tell you this, it plays great.

Coach Finwood: 00:06:11

Um, with no rye, you know, that ryegrass sticks up and the Bermuda lays down.

Coach Finwood: 00:06:16

So, uh, you keep it cut pretty short.

Coach Finwood: 00:06:18

So it plays great.

Coach Finwood: 00:06:20

It just looks strange.

Coach Finwood: 00:06:22

Uh, to be out there and not see any green.

CB: 00:06:25

So where would you be scrimmaging?

CB: 00:06:28

Do you know, like if you all of a sudden can't use the body for the scrimmages?

Coach Finwood: 00:06:32

We're, we're planning on scrimmaging at War Memorial.

CB: 00:06:35

Okay.

Coach Finwood: 00:06:35

We have that for, for those, uh, three weekends and.

Coach Finwood: 00:06:40

Um, we're not going to need to go over there this weekend, but we would just take

Coach Finwood: 00:06:44

vans over there and probably take batting practice at our place pictures over and

Coach Finwood: 00:06:51

then after we hit, we'll send the hitters over and we'll play as long as we have

Coach Finwood: 00:06:55

to play and then and then come on back.

Coach Finwood: 00:06:57

So, it's nice actually, to not have to do that for this weekend,

Coach Finwood: 00:07:03

but it also part of me wants to.

Coach Finwood: 00:07:05

Play over there some because we're going to be playing some games over there and

Coach Finwood: 00:07:09

we need to get used to, you know, the dimensions, the backdrop, the, the visual

Coach Finwood: 00:07:13

aspects of it as well as the actual field.

CB: 00:07:16

Yeah, you only have a couple of guys who've actually played live games.

CB: 00:07:19

They're like Kyle Edwards and I can't think of the else

Coach Finwood: 00:07:23

probably only a couple.

Coach Finwood: 00:07:24

I don't know if there's many, many more than that at all.

Gary: 00:07:28

It's a different ballpark, but it has a really cool old school baseball

Gary: 00:07:31

field to it with like the wooden stands and the advertisements on the outer wall.

Gary: 00:07:35

That's reminds me of where I played in high school at

Gary: 00:07:36

Deltaville ballpark games there.

Gary: 00:07:39

But I think the 2nd question is probably on fans mind is.

Gary: 00:07:44

We've got 15 home games that we know of within the Sunbelt Conference.

Gary: 00:07:48

Is it available to the public yet of which series is going to

Gary: 00:07:52

be where do you even know yet?

Coach Finwood: 00:07:54

Yes.

Coach Finwood: 00:07:55

So, um, 15 conference games and then one.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:00

Non conference game against VCU, which will be at War

Coach Finwood: 00:08:02

Memorial and sometime in April.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:05

I can't recall exactly when, but we were going to play our 1st conference

Coach Finwood: 00:08:11

series against George home conference series against Georgia State was

Coach Finwood: 00:08:16

supposed to be at Harbor Park, but they're under construction with new

Coach Finwood: 00:08:20

seats and they're not going to be done yet when we have that serious.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:26

So that 1st 1, which is the middle of March.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:29

Will be against Georgia State will be at war memorial the next 3 home series.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:35

I think it's Troy Marshall and Louisiana Monroe.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:39

No, no, they're on the road.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:41

Who is it?

Coach Finwood: 00:08:42

It's a Troy Marshall.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:45

Somebody Louisiana Louisiana.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:50

Not Monroe.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:50

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:51

Lafayette.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:51

All right.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:52

So those 3 will be at Harbor Park and then the last 1 against coastal.

Coach Finwood: 00:08:57

Carolina will be at War Memorial in May.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:00

So right before the tournament.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:02

Um, so that's, that's the, that's the schedule as we know it right now.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:07

And, um, hopefully we'll be able to stick to that.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:09

And it'll be neat.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:11

You know, it's some of our fans on, you know, the peninsula side can get out to

Coach Finwood: 00:09:16

War Memorial much easier and see us and.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:19

Hopefully they will.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:20

I know when we used to play VCU over here for that key dog classic game,

Coach Finwood: 00:09:24

we'd have we'd have a good crowd of folks over here and the pilots will,

Coach Finwood: 00:09:28

you know, help us, uh, you know, put that word out and advertise it.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:33

And then, you know, we'll have 12, we'll have 9 games at Harbor Park.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:39

So 3 series there, which is always a cool thing.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:42

And we played pretty well there through the year.

Coach Finwood: 00:09:44

So hopefully we keep that up.

CB: 00:09:46

Yeah, it's pretty great.

CB: 00:09:47

I mean, War Memorial, the pilots, that's just a fantastic place to play.

CB: 00:09:50

They do such a good job over there and then get to play at

CB: 00:09:53

the Triple A Park in Norfolk.

CB: 00:09:55

I mean, like I said, if you can't play home games, it's not bad.

CB: 00:09:59

Yeah, yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:00

And it's it's it's nice for the guys that are seniors,

Coach Finwood: 00:10:03

you know, So, um, we're playing such a cool schedule on the road this

Coach Finwood: 00:10:08

year, just fantastic places to play.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:11

And then you come home and like you said, you know, we're having

Coach Finwood: 00:10:14

to work through a lot of stuff.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:15

I mean, just every day right now, you know, our offices, our locker room,

Coach Finwood: 00:10:20

we're completely out of the stadium.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:23

We're over there in the old wrestling area and that locker room and offices.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:28

And, um, so.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:30

You know, we just walk over to practice and then, and then leave.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:34

And so it's.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:35

It's, it's, it's a different vibe and the guys have been fantastic so far.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:39

I mean, they're, you know, we've been prepping them for this and

Coach Finwood: 00:10:42

they, they didn't miss a beat, man.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:43

We got out of there, we got everything cleaned up and moved out.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:46

And, um, it's amazing how much junk you throw away when you move out of a space.

Coach Finwood: 00:10:54

Uh, I found

CB: 00:10:55

out when I bought my condo and it's a lot of stuff that you

CB: 00:10:59

just like, I don't need that.

Coach Finwood: 00:11:00

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:11:00

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:11:01

Why did I say that again?

Coach Finwood: 00:11:03

Seemed like a good idea at the time, but.

Coach Finwood: 00:11:05

Um, we've also found some things we didn't know we had, uh, uh, box

Coach Finwood: 00:11:10

of rosin bags just mysteriously showed up, uh, equipment room.

Coach Finwood: 00:11:14

So Uh, yeah, things like that.

Coach Finwood: 00:11:16

And, you know, so logistically, it's a little different, but,

Coach Finwood: 00:11:20

uh, we're making it work.

CB: 00:11:22

Yeah, every guy I talked to in the fall seemed really

CB: 00:11:25

excited about this, uh, schedule.

CB: 00:11:27

They, they didn't hear one guy.

CB: 00:11:28

It's like, oh, man, I'm gonna go on the road.

CB: 00:11:30

Like, you, again, you, you do a really good job of recruiting.

CB: 00:11:35

People who want to be here and people who want to play and have that kind

CB: 00:11:39

of Odu baseball mentality and that was very clear with every guy I

CB: 00:11:43

talked to like, yeah, I'm excited.

CB: 00:11:44

Let's go.

CB: 00:11:45

We're ready for the road

Coach Finwood: 00:11:46

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that.

Coach Finwood: 00:11:48

We try We we've got some fantastic kids and again, it showed up in the

Coach Finwood: 00:11:52

classroom, you know, we've got We set another record for, uh, GP team, GPA

Coach Finwood: 00:11:57

this, this semester, um, with the, I don't know, a three, four or something.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:01

And, you know, the guys just did a bang up job and hats off to

Coach Finwood: 00:12:06

Amy Lynch, our academic advisor for spearheading all of that.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:09

She's a superstar in every way.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:12

And, and, you know, we, we love her too.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:14

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:14

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:15

She's great.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:15

And we try to recruit good students, um, and you know, they

Coach Finwood: 00:12:19

get, you know, Very, very good support while they're here as well.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:23

And so, you know, the other thing about this year, there's so many

Coach Finwood: 00:12:26

things that your average person isn't going to Consider or think

Coach Finwood: 00:12:30

about, you know, being on the road.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:33

I guess COVID maybe helped us With preparing for this there's so many

Coach Finwood: 00:12:39

more classes now available online than there ever were and so most of our

Coach Finwood: 00:12:44

guys Classes are online this semester.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:48

Um, because we were going to miss so much, it would have been, you

Coach Finwood: 00:12:52

know, untenable for some of these guys to do well in their classes.

Coach Finwood: 00:12:56

So we got most of them might have 1 class 1 in person class.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:00

It's on like a Monday.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:02

When we're, when we're always home or something of that nature.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:05

Uh, but most of the rest of them are, are online classes.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:08

And so they're able to, you know, take them whenever and still get their

Coach Finwood: 00:13:11

work done and, uh, hopefully that'll lead to another successful, you know,

Coach Finwood: 00:13:15

academic semester for the guys, a by product of that, that we're taking

Coach Finwood: 00:13:20

advantage, uh, since they're not in class, we can start practice earlier.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:25

And so we've been able to use a better part of the day this time of the year.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:29

Like we're.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:30

Normally can't start till, you know, 2, 2 33 o'clock because classes and we're

Coach Finwood: 00:13:35

able to get out there and stretch at noon right now and get in the, you know,

Coach Finwood: 00:13:39

the warmest part of the day, um, and get, get our practice and our work in.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:43

And that, that's been very helpful.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:45

Already this, this winter,

Gary: 00:13:48

you're gonna be maxing out those wifi enabled buses as

Gary: 00:13:51

you're cruising around Alabama and Mississippi and all that.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:54

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:55

And they're gonna have more study halls on the road 'cause of all the

Coach Finwood: 00:13:58

online stuff and things like that.

Coach Finwood: 00:13:59

So we're already working on, on that type of schedule.

Coach Finwood: 00:14:02

But, you know, we'll, we'll just make it work man.

Coach Finwood: 00:14:05

It's gonna be a year where you're just gonna have to, uh, adjust and

Coach Finwood: 00:14:09

improvise and overcome some obstacles in the way and, and figure it out.

Coach Finwood: 00:14:14

And.

Coach Finwood: 00:14:14

sometimes when you're on the road for extended periods of time, which is our

Coach Finwood: 00:14:20

whole season this year, uh, the guys, the guys have a tendency to bond through that.

Coach Finwood: 00:14:26

You know, you're in hotels and you're eating together and

Coach Finwood: 00:14:29

spent a lot more time together.

Coach Finwood: 00:14:31

And I think sometimes that can lead to actually getting closer.

CB: 00:14:37

I remember the guys in, uh, 21 when they won the tournament down there,

CB: 00:14:40

I think, I think you guys played in Louisiana at Louisiana Tech, and then just

CB: 00:14:45

kind of stayed there for the tournament.

CB: 00:14:46

And I know they were saying that, like, just all that time together,

CB: 00:14:49

especially being there in the same place.

CB: 00:14:51

They're like, we own this place, like, this isn't their home field anymore.

CB: 00:14:54

I mean, that was a, and it showed up and how they played.

Coach Finwood: 00:14:57

Yeah, yeah, that was neat that worked out good for us.

Coach Finwood: 00:15:00

Um, uh, and being able to do that.

Coach Finwood: 00:15:02

And, uh, it was like a perfect storm almost that year.

Gary: 00:15:08

Yeah.

Gary: 00:15:08

Well, switching gears a little bit, I know you've got scrimmages this weekend,

Gary: 00:15:11

but you also have a big event on Friday night, the step up to the plate

Gary: 00:15:14

fundraiser at six o'clock, uh, for fans out there, they're still interested.

Gary: 00:15:19

They hear this in time.

Gary: 00:15:20

You can go to odusports.

Gary: 00:15:22

com.

Gary: 00:15:22

You can go to the ODAF website and find information there to

Gary: 00:15:25

get yourself a ticket, donated ticket, all those things, but.

Gary: 00:15:28

Tell us a little bit about what's going to be going on and

Gary: 00:15:30

step up to the plate on Friday.

Coach Finwood: 00:15:32

Well, we're giving the Bud Metheny Award out this year

Coach Finwood: 00:15:36

to Coach Wright, Roland Wright, the head coach, Ro Ro and well deserved.

Coach Finwood: 00:15:43

I mean, he's a legend and in my book and most people's

Coach Finwood: 00:15:46

book in terms of high school.

Coach Finwood: 00:15:48

baseball coaches in the state of Virginia.

Coach Finwood: 00:15:50

He's won a number of state championships, regional championships.

Coach Finwood: 00:15:54

We've had a bunch of his players here through the years and you know, maybe Zach

Coach Finwood: 00:15:59

Rutherford was was the best one we've had.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:01

Um, you know, it was an all conference and all american shortstop for us

Coach Finwood: 00:16:05

in the fifth round draft picked by the rays and rose just a great

Coach Finwood: 00:16:09

Great ambassador for baseball.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:12

He works hard.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:13

Um, in addition to his, you know, duties with Western branch, he,

Coach Finwood: 00:16:18

he helps my Kodair with that Thunderbirds group in the summer.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:22

Um, he helps with the all state games, uh, the Commonwealth games.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:28

He, he's got his hands in a lot of different pots of baseball at the

Coach Finwood: 00:16:32

youth level and, uh, high school level and even younger than that.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:36

Um, so he's, um, you know, Keeping with the theme of trying to give that

Coach Finwood: 00:16:42

award to people that, you know, really support and help baseball in the area.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:48

He's certainly deserving and, um, we're happy.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:50

He's going to be there to accept it.

Coach Finwood: 00:16:53

Um, in addition, we'll introduce this year's team, talk a little bit

Coach Finwood: 00:16:57

about the stadium project and, um, just have some good fellowship, man.

Coach Finwood: 00:17:03

It's become a pretty cool little.

Coach Finwood: 00:17:05

Grassroots almost hot stovish feeling night, um, which is shifting gears from.

Coach Finwood: 00:17:12

You know, the more formal, uh, banquets that, that we've had in

Coach Finwood: 00:17:15

the past, but I really like it.

Coach Finwood: 00:17:17

It's, um, you know, other than having to yell at people to be quiet when

Coach Finwood: 00:17:21

the speakers are talking, uh, it's a, it's a lot of fun, which I don't

Coach Finwood: 00:17:24

mind, you know, uh, you get a, you get an open bar and hors d'oeuvres

Coach Finwood: 00:17:28

and bunch of baseball guys yapping.

Coach Finwood: 00:17:31

It's hard to shut them up sometimes, but that's, that's the extent of our problems.

Coach Finwood: 00:17:36

We're in pretty good shape.

CB: 00:17:38

It really is a great event.

CB: 00:17:39

It's, you know, like you said, back when it was more like a big formal

CB: 00:17:42

kind of dinner thing, it was nice.

CB: 00:17:45

But when you made that move where y'all have it there at the, uh, the football,

CB: 00:17:48

it was the priority club, I believe it's called at the football stadium.

CB: 00:17:52

And, uh, it's, it's more like a, you know, you're standing around talking and

CB: 00:17:54

you have, you know, you have plates of food, but it's, it's just the ability

CB: 00:17:58

to interact, the ability for everyone to talk and move around and interact,

CB: 00:18:02

the players, you know, walking around, talking, interacting and people meet,

CB: 00:18:05

you know, my every year, my mom will sit.

CB: 00:18:07

Then dad will sit and talk with some player for like 15, 20 minutes.

CB: 00:18:10

And that's their guy for the whole year.

CB: 00:18:11

Uh, like Trent Buchanan was their guy last year.

CB: 00:18:13

You know, I mean, obviously they, you know, they love Vincent Bashara.

CB: 00:18:16

I've known him forever, but now Trent's the new guy.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:19

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:19

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:19

It's really cool.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:20

And I tell our guys, you know, it's a good opportunity for them to mingle and,

Coach Finwood: 00:18:26

and learn how to network a little bit.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:28

I said, man, there's a lot of business owners in here.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:30

Like, there's, there's guys that might want to give you a job if they like you.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:34

So get it, get out and introduce yourself to some of them.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:37

Uh, and, and yeah, you know, a lot of the, the, you know, our,

Coach Finwood: 00:18:41

our longtime supporters and, you know, this year it'll be much more

Coach Finwood: 00:18:45

difficult to, to see us in person.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:47

Um, you know, because we're not playing at home very much, but that's

Coach Finwood: 00:18:51

another thing that I think is neat.

Coach Finwood: 00:18:53

Um, in today's environment with, uh, the popularity and the, and the advent of

Coach Finwood: 00:18:59

ESPN plus, you'll still be a, you know, our fans will still be able to watch us

Coach Finwood: 00:19:03

if they want to see us and just be on TV.

Gary: 00:19:07

And sometimes that actually works out better for me, because I'll be at

Gary: 00:19:09

work and just have it up on my phone on the side of the desk or, you know,

Gary: 00:19:12

working here at home, something like that, a little bit more convenient.

Gary: 00:19:16

I would

CB: 00:19:16

never do that in case my boss ever sees this, but that's an idea

CB: 00:19:21

that somebody, if somebody were so inclined at a game at 3 o'clock when

CB: 00:19:25

you're still at work, they certainly could do that, put it on there.

CB: 00:19:28

They're one of their two monitors they have at work.

Coach Finwood: 00:19:30

We would.

CB: 00:19:34

So Finny I wanted to bring some up.

CB: 00:19:35

I really wanted to bring this up, especially while we're still

CB: 00:19:38

further away from the season.

CB: 00:19:39

So then, cause I'm sure it's the kind of thing you probably don't necessarily

CB: 00:19:42

want to focus on as the season comes up.

CB: 00:19:44

Uh, you have 391 wins at ODU.

CB: 00:19:48

So you're about nine away from 400.

Coach Finwood: 00:19:52

Yeah, not too many away from 700 overall, which is cool.

Coach Finwood: 00:19:57

I've got most of those here, right?

CB: 00:19:59

You have and so to, to further that, uh, I don't know if you, do

CB: 00:20:04

you know how many wins Bud Matheny had, uh, all time at old dominion?

Coach Finwood: 00:20:08

I do not.

CB: 00:20:09

So you're pretty close for 23.

Coach Finwood: 00:20:11

Okay.

CB: 00:20:12

So you're 32 away from him.

CB: 00:20:14

So there's a very real chance by the end of this year, you could be

CB: 00:20:17

the all time, or at least tied with.

CB: 00:20:20

And certainly, I would say, if not this year, we're certainly

CB: 00:20:22

getting there next year.

CB: 00:20:23

You know, we are, so you're on the edge of being the odds being having more

CB: 00:20:26

wins than the guy the stadium's named after, which I think is pretty deep.

Coach Finwood: 00:20:30

Well, that's humbling to hear that.

Coach Finwood: 00:20:32

And, um, you know, my, my response to those things are always just, it's,

Coach Finwood: 00:20:37

it's, it's, It's just a product of being around a lot of good players and having

Coach Finwood: 00:20:43

a lot of good coaches with you and, uh, administration that, that helps out and,

Coach Finwood: 00:20:48

and, you know, being able to hang on in this thing long enough to be get older.

Coach Finwood: 00:20:54

And college athletics has changed so much.

Coach Finwood: 00:20:58

I mean, unprecedented changes, unprecedented changes

Coach Finwood: 00:21:01

in the last five years.

Coach Finwood: 00:21:03

Certainly.

Coach Finwood: 00:21:03

Um, you know, you see the last five

CB: 00:21:05

minutes, maybe.

CB: 00:21:06

Yeah.

CB: 00:21:06

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:21:07

You know, a lot of the guys, um, you know, like the Tony

Coach Finwood: 00:21:12

Bennett's of the world and guys like that up and down, um, which is, which

Coach Finwood: 00:21:17

is a little bit of a shame, but the world keeps spinning and, you know, you

Coach Finwood: 00:21:20

got to find ways to adjust and we're certainly trying to Do that as well.

Coach Finwood: 00:21:24

Um, and you know, it's just, you got to figure out a way to

Coach Finwood: 00:21:28

make it work in the environment.

Coach Finwood: 00:21:30

You're in.

CB: 00:21:31

Well, to tell you how different things are.

CB: 00:21:33

Uh, this is 1 record.

CB: 00:21:34

I think you won't catch, but I may have this number incorrect.

CB: 00:21:38

I think I got it right.

CB: 00:21:39

He also has 198 wins as the basketball coach, which Jeff

CB: 00:21:44

Jones only broke a few years ago.

Coach Finwood: 00:21:46

Yeah, that's amazing, isn't it?

CB: 00:21:48

That's pretty crazy.

Coach Finwood: 00:21:51

So, uh, he wore a lot of hats back then, and of course, college

Coach Finwood: 00:21:56

athletics, we're talking about a different world, but it's kind of amazing, and

Coach Finwood: 00:22:00

you know, we want to make sure that We keep that legacy alive, you know, as we

Coach Finwood: 00:22:07

rename the stadium and things like that.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:11

And certainly his name will be a part of the new, you know,

Coach Finwood: 00:22:14

stadium in some capacity.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:15

I'm not exactly sure what yet.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:18

But, um, you know, there's lots of, um, there's lots of

Coach Finwood: 00:22:21

inventory in a baseball stadium.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:23

When I was at Auburn.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:24

I think it was, uh, this guy's name at Playsman Park at this stadium.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:30

Uh, you know, it was like four different names.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:32

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:33

Uh, that, that's how they, that's how they make it work.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:35

So, uh, we'll, we'll do something similar to that.

CB: 00:22:38

Having a bunch of great people to honor is not a bad, uh, plan.

CB: 00:22:41

Not a, not a bad problem to have.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:43

No, never, never.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:44

Right.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:45

And, um, you know, he's a part of our history and, and certainly a

Coach Finwood: 00:22:49

big part of ODU's athletic history.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:51

And like you mentioned.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:53

You know, athletic director, basketball coach, baseball coach,

Coach Finwood: 00:22:56

uh, played in the big leagues.

Coach Finwood: 00:22:58

And, um, I had a, uh, Brandon Pond, one of our, our, uh, graduate assistants

Coach Finwood: 00:23:04

was up in New York over the Christmas holidays and sent us a picture.

Coach Finwood: 00:23:08

He was in the Yankee.

Coach Finwood: 00:23:09

Um, the New York Yankees Museum and it had a, it had a signed

Coach Finwood: 00:23:14

ball from Bud Metheny in there.

Coach Finwood: 00:23:17

And, uh, he sent a picture that was really cool, I thought.

Coach Finwood: 00:23:20

That's very cool.

Coach Finwood: 00:23:22

Signed ball from like everybody that's ever played for the

Coach Finwood: 00:23:25

Yankees in there, which is neat.

Gary: 00:23:27

Wow, that is that's pretty awesome.

Gary: 00:23:29

Well, we won't hold you up too much longer.

Gary: 00:23:30

Just have one more question You have a birthday dinner to get

Gary: 00:23:33

to so happy birthday, of course 29 years old looking great

Coach Finwood: 00:23:38

I'll take it

Gary: 00:23:39

Yes, I gotta be honest.

Gary: 00:23:41

If you were 29,

CB: 00:23:41

you look terrible like that's that's not playing.

CB: 00:23:44

Let's be real You look great for your age.

CB: 00:23:47

You look terrible for that age

Coach Finwood: 00:23:49

I I uh, i'll take all of that man.

Coach Finwood: 00:23:51

My daddy's say Another year on the right side of the grass

Coach Finwood: 00:23:57

All of it's good, man.

Coach Finwood: 00:23:58

As long as I keep having them, then I'm okay with it.

Gary: 00:24:01

Yeah.

Gary: 00:24:02

Well, you mentioned Brandon Pond is back this year as a G.

Gary: 00:24:04

A.

Gary: 00:24:05

Uh, I think you have some other additions to the coaching staff.

Gary: 00:24:07

I know we'll go in more of the roster in a future episode, but we'd love

Gary: 00:24:10

to hear a little bit about some of the newcomers to the staff this year.

Gary: 00:24:13

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:14

So, so Paul Panic, um, is our new full time assistant.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:19

Uh, he took, uh, Ryan Fineman's place.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:21

Ryan went to Troy, um, University and Paul was at William and Mary most recently.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:28

Um, Paul was the head coach at Iona.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:32

Um, his brother, Joe, uh, Panic, uh, I think it's Joe.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:37

Is that right?

Coach Finwood: 00:24:38

Played in the.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:38

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:40

And so he comes from a baseball family.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:43

He's a fantastic guy.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:45

He uh, he reminds me a lot of Coach Guzzo.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:50

Uh, he's like a young coach goes, man.

Coach Finwood: 00:24:52

He's got great personality, great energies, catching guy,

Coach Finwood: 00:24:56

hitting guy, recruiting guy.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:00

Um, he's just doing a bang up job.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:02

Just a really solid dude.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:05

And, uh, we're so happy to add him to our coaching staff.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:09

And, um, then we got, uh, we mentioned Brandon Pond, who pitched

Coach Finwood: 00:25:13

for us last year, uh, transfer here from Lynchburg College.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:16

He's helping out with the pitching.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:18

Uh, Ryan Moore, who was an All Conference USA pitcher for us here, um, retired from

Coach Finwood: 00:25:24

ProBall, and he's back helping us out.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:26

Uh, with the pitching as well.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:28

Um, John Keane is our, our Director of Baseball Ops.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:32

And, um, so yeah, so there's a few more, um, kind of player development,

Coach Finwood: 00:25:37

uh, pitching guys to add to the staff and it's, they've been great.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:41

They're, you know, these young guys are so talented.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:45

Proficient at the analytics part of it.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:48

Um, and that's been really, really cool to see their input and how

Coach Finwood: 00:25:54

much they're putting into that.

Coach Finwood: 00:25:55

And I think it's been really helpful for our pitchers for sure.

CB: 00:25:59

So did I hear you guys have a data Analyst team now?

Coach Finwood: 00:26:03

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:26:03

So they, Mike was able to work with our, um, gosh, it's somebody in the math

Coach Finwood: 00:26:09

department, I guess, but, uh, they, they have a group, they have a actual class.

Coach Finwood: 00:26:15

Baseball analytics.

Coach Finwood: 00:26:17

Uh, undergrad or grad students, but yeah, they've been out to practice a few times,

Coach Finwood: 00:26:22

you know, they're, they're, they're in the, you know, I walk in and I see them

Coach Finwood: 00:26:25

all around the table and I call them the propeller heads, the nerd, the nerd

Coach Finwood: 00:26:31

meeting, you know, they start talking to my eyes go cross cause I'm an English

Coach Finwood: 00:26:38

major, like numbers, uh, they, they, they, they got it all, but they've got the You

Coach Finwood: 00:26:44

know, the algorithms and all this stuff.

Coach Finwood: 00:26:46

So they're taking stuff off the track, man.

Coach Finwood: 00:26:49

And this stat file thing, I couldn't tell.

Coach Finwood: 00:26:51

I'll have to get Mike on here to explain it sometime.

Coach Finwood: 00:26:54

But

CB: 00:26:54

yeah, because I'm definitely curious to see how that influences things.

Coach Finwood: 00:26:57

They're running a whole class on this, which I think is awesome.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:01

Cause some of these people are actually interested in that side of baseball.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:06

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:06

And so they're getting, you know, which baseballs, you know,

Coach Finwood: 00:27:09

every year goes more and more to the analytics side and, and so they're

Coach Finwood: 00:27:13

getting, uh, you know, some real hands on experience at this, um, through

Coach Finwood: 00:27:18

our, our program, which is neat.

CB: 00:27:20

Well, I know one of your former players, uh, Joe Homaker, who's

CB: 00:27:23

the pitching coach at Princeton.

CB: 00:27:25

He teaches that class at Princeton, which we always like to joke

CB: 00:27:28

that, uh, you can go promote you.

CB: 00:27:29

You can go teach at Princeton.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:31

There you go.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:32

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:33

You can do anything.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:35

So, yeah, that's cool, that's cool.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:36

I'm bummed we're not playing Princeton this year.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:38

I know.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:39

No home game, so we're gonna try to get it back on the schedule when we get there.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:43

When we get the, uh, the stadium back and, you know, I miss, uh, Coach Bradley

Coach Finwood: 00:27:47

and, you know, especially when he brings Bruce Hornsby in the dugout for us.

Coach Finwood: 00:27:52

That's super cool.

CB: 00:27:53

Never a bad time.

CB: 00:27:54

Um, well, I know we said we're gonna let you go, but you

CB: 00:27:56

did bring it up a minute ago.

CB: 00:27:57

I want to make sure, you know, we, this is the first time we've had the podcast

CB: 00:28:00

since, uh, since we lost, uh, Coach Guzzo.

CB: 00:28:04

Um, and so just want to take a minute, you know, I mean, I know

CB: 00:28:06

for me, he was such a special guy.

CB: 00:28:08

He's just one of the first day I ever met him.

CB: 00:28:11

It was like, I mean, I, I went to games when he was coaching

CB: 00:28:14

back in high school and went out.

CB: 00:28:15

I really never met him then.

CB: 00:28:17

And then when you brought him back to help coach you, um, the 1st day I met him,

CB: 00:28:21

it's like, I had known him for 30 years.

CB: 00:28:22

Like, it's just who he was.

CB: 00:28:24

Uh, just, I, I was very fortunate that last year, uh, some point

CB: 00:28:28

point around June or so, I got to spend about 2, 3 hours at his condo

CB: 00:28:32

with him, just hanging out, talking and just, just being around goes.

CB: 00:28:35

And so I was, I was glad I had that kind of last, uh, last

CB: 00:28:38

time to hang out with him.

CB: 00:28:38

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:28:39

Wow, that's cool.

Coach Finwood: 00:28:40

And if you've been in his condo, like, no sportsman has anything on his place

Coach Finwood: 00:28:46

as far as memorabilia goes, right?

CB: 00:28:49

That it was great.

CB: 00:28:50

I like I was as I was walking up the steps I saw he had a couple like

CB: 00:28:52

couple verlander things and I was like, oh, that's amazing And then you

CB: 00:28:55

turn the corner and it's just like it's like, uh, yeah It's like any

CB: 00:28:58

member beauty shop would be shamed.

CB: 00:29:00

It's it's amazing

Coach Finwood: 00:29:02

I mean, I used to tell him man if you want to sell

Coach Finwood: 00:29:04

all this stuff on ebay, you can make a million dollars probably

Coach Finwood: 00:29:08

easy

Coach Finwood: 00:29:09

he had like whole sets of figurines of of like, you

Coach Finwood: 00:29:13

know, the 1928 yankees or something.

Coach Finwood: 00:29:16

Yeah It was incredible.

Coach Finwood: 00:29:20

Yeah, unbelievable.

Coach Finwood: 00:29:21

Well, I'm

CB: 00:29:22

bringing

Coach Finwood: 00:29:23

him up CP like what a guy, you know, uh, just larger than life

Coach Finwood: 00:29:29

legend of a guy that, um, I saw they, they inducted him into the Virginia

Coach Finwood: 00:29:33

baseball coaches hall of fame in December.

Coach Finwood: 00:29:36

And that was neat.

Coach Finwood: 00:29:37

He certainly deserving of that, but he, you know, he'll, we're

Coach Finwood: 00:29:41

wearing, uh, stickers on our helmets this year, say guz GUZ, uh, just

Coach Finwood: 00:29:47

to honor him for this season.

Coach Finwood: 00:29:49

And we'll find a, we'll find a space in that ballpark to, to keep that alive.

Coach Finwood: 00:29:53

I know there's pictures out there on the outfield wall and, uh, Maybe

CB: 00:29:57

put it next to the concession stand.

Coach Finwood: 00:29:58

Hey, that'd be perfect.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:01

We need to name maybe the hot dog after that.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:03

The hot dogs,

CB: 00:30:04

the Tony Guzzo hot dog stand.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:08

I'll never forget, you know, him sitting in the dugout.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:12

And it'd be one of those days where the guys down there cooking

Coach Finwood: 00:30:15

the burgers and, you know, it's 15 minutes before game time.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:18

We're all in there and he's sitting on his chair in there

Coach Finwood: 00:30:20

and the wind just shifts over.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:22

And so the, the, the smoke from the burgers kind of blows into the

Coach Finwood: 00:30:26

dugout and he, and he, He goes, Ooh, cheeseburgers, and he sent one of the,

Coach Finwood: 00:30:35

he sent one of the managers with a 20.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:42

And you'd peak down, he'd have them somewhere hidden.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:45

In the dugout and you peek down there about the sixth inning and he's kind of

Coach Finwood: 00:30:49

hunched over to his house in that thing.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:52

It's the most Guzz moment ever.

Coach Finwood: 00:30:59

We can have a whole episode on, on Guz's eating habits too, by the way.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:04

Uh, that, that's a story for, uh, You can do

CB: 00:31:06

a podcast series, never mind an episode.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:09

You absolutely could.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:10

So, you've never seen a guy go through a, a giant, uh, Sam's Club

Coach Finwood: 00:31:16

jar of mustard like Coach Guz could.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:19

So,

Coach Finwood: 00:31:20

I

Coach Finwood: 00:31:21

appreciate you bringing him up, man.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:23

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:23

Big loss for all of us, obviously.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:25

And, uh, it was a really wonderful tribute we were able to have at the bud that day.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:30

And, you know, yeah, that

CB: 00:31:31

was, that was outstanding.

CB: 00:31:32

I was so glad you guys were able to, it was, it was nice that everyone got

CB: 00:31:35

to have that because, because that's the thing is it was a loss, but at

CB: 00:31:38

the same time, all you can do is think about how wonderful he was and how lucky

CB: 00:31:42

we all were that we got to have him.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:43

That's, that's the best way to put it.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:45

My dad used to say, we all end up just being stories, man, make sure

Coach Finwood: 00:31:50

they tell some good ones about you.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:51

And.

Coach Finwood: 00:31:52

He certainly, uh, checked that box.

Gary: 00:31:57

Well, coach, we're going to let you get onto dinner.

Gary: 00:31:59

Thanks so much for hopping on.

Gary: 00:32:01

We look forward to having you on some more episodes here in the future,

Gary: 00:32:04

but uh, really appreciate you.

Coach Finwood: 00:32:06

Yeah.

Coach Finwood: 00:32:06

Let's do it again next week.

Coach Finwood: 00:32:07

That was fun.

Coach Finwood: 00:32:11

Thank

Coach Finwood: 00:32:11

you.

Coach Finwood: 00:32:11

And, uh, have a good, uh, have a good evening, everybody.

Coach Finwood: 00:32:14

Go monarchs.