Sunday Morning Chat: Flanagan Manager Ray Evans

Today we sit down with Flanagan Manager Ray Evans for the first of a two-part interview. Evans coached in Miami-Dade County for several years before taking over the Flanagan program in 2003. In part one, Evans talks about the differences in the game between the two counties, the rivalry with West Broward and the reason why Flanagan has maintained a decade of success with him as manager. He also gives us his take on the new transfer situation and how he deals with players whom he doesn’t expect will be able to get much playing time at Flanagan but might be able to elsewhere. Enjoy!

Anthony: Alright, let’s start here. You are one of the few coaches who have been in both Broward and Miami. Can you tell readers some of the differences between the two counties?

Coach Evans: Earlier on when I was young and I was coaching in Dade County, as opposed to Broward County, we used to think that the better brand of baseball was in Dade County. We would look at Broward County more or less like a stomping ground. If you were to look at state runs, a lot of them came from Dade County for a long time. You’ve got Hialeah, you’ve got Columbus, you’ve got South Miami Southridge. You just have a lot of championships down there. And then times started to change in the late ’90s to the 2000 era. I know I made the jump to Dr. Krop, and then I made the jump here in 2003-2004. We started to see a lot of families moving, getting out of Dade, moving up to Broward. A lot of the better baseball was up here. You had a lot of travel ball starting, and that became real prominent. Then when you started looking at who was going up there (states) and who was challenging and winning, it was Columbus and South Miami, then the title came to Cypress Bay, came to us a couple times. You had teams from Sarasota, you had more teams winning it from Broward, Palm Beach and Orlando and up north than you did out there.

Well granted, they’re (Miami) going to have a team go every year. We’re not that lucky anymore. Now it’s going to be Broward and Palm Beach are going to have a team go. You’re going to have two teams go from the north part of the state. So you’re always going to have a team go. But when’s the last time where those teams have won a big title? It’s been a little bit. I think it’s still spread out. I think that a lot of good baseball is being played now. A lot better baseball is being played now in Broward and Palm Beach then it used to be. Miami has great baseball, too. I’m not negating anything from them. You’ve got the Americans you’ve got the Columnbuses, South Miami, South Dade. You’ve got plenty of good baseball programs down there. But now I think it’s sort of evened out a little bit more. I think that Broward has come into it’s own; I think that Palm Beach is a power as well. I think that any team that comes from this region always has a chance to win a state title.

Anthony: Can you attribute that success in Broward maybe to some of the good, young coaches out there?

Coach Evans: You know what, there are coaches here in Broward County that have been here for a long time. It’s changing. I know when I got here, this being my 10th year here, there’s been guys coming in since I ‘ve been here. There were guys here before I was here, they’re still here now. Others have moved on, and we have some young blood coming in here. I think that young blood, the guys getting back from playing some college ball, pro ball, minor league ball, they’ve gotten back into it coaching and rejuvenated programs. Yeah, I think it has a lot to do with things being turned around in different places and different programs.

Anthony: How much did your time in Miami helped you when you moved over to Broward. What are some of the things, because it is a different style of baseball, what are some of the things that you tried to bring with you from Dade to here at Flanagan.

Coach Evans: Early on when we first got here and with my first coaching staff, we sat down and talked. It was Eric Cruz, who is now with Nova Southeastern University with Brownie, and Howard Stein, who is still with me, and Chacko, who’s isn’t with us anymore. We saw Dade County as being very aggressive. Base-running was more prevalent in Dade County than I saw it was in Broward County. We came here, it was almost like a station-to-station type of thing. They weren’t very aggressive, and I think when we took over here in 2003-2004, in that season, we went to a regional final against Cypress Bay, we took it from there and just tried to press the defense to make plays. Try to take the extra bases, try to steal a lot more, try to be more on the offensive more than being passive and defensive. Things have changed over time because you still have to play within your personnel. Don’t get me wrong, its not like you can just run with a guy that’s running 7.3, 7.4. You still have to have some speed, you can’t teach that. To sit there and put pressure on defense and put pressure on the pitcher the catcher to execute.

If I’m going to run eight times, I’ll be safe, say five. It’s a matter of when you run, you’re going to run yourself out of the innings sometimes. You’ve got to just weigh it. I think that was one of the main things I saw was they (Broward teams) weren’t running a lot back then. Now with the younger guys, things are changing. A lot of people are sitting there moving on the bases, putting the pressure on like we do, a lot people do that now. Also with maybe taking care of the pitching and what was going on. Of what I saw, before you have maybe one arm, now you got a couple people like us right now, you have two, three arms, you’d be OK. You see what happens when you have one or two, last year with us, you sort of run out of steam. But if you can spread it out, like one year Douglas had several guys and they were pitching maybe two innings a pop, two innings a pop and suddenly they’re in the regional final. That sometimes will help the team as well, and I think those are some of the things that I see that are different or have changed.

Anthony: Following up on a couple of things you’ve just said. I talked to Coach Rovetto last week from Coral Springs Charter about what you just mentioned and coaches knowing their personnel and coaching to their personnel. I see in the games that I watch coaches are putting guys in motion that are running 7.3, 7.4 and then getting upset with the player because he didn’t steal the base. So how much of that responsibility is on the coach to put the kids really in a position to win.

Coach Evans: Well, here’s the thing, from the coaches side of it, maybe that’s his fastest guy. Some of the programs that are maybe doing it, maybe that’s their best base-runner. He’s not the fastest but he gets the best jumps and maybe they don’t have a lot of speed. I couldn’t tell you. Sometimes you just try to put something in motion. Maybe your guy misses a hit-and-run, and he’s doing it for a protection type of thing and he doesn’t do the job as well. You’re going to take chances. Sometimes they are going to work out for you. If you have a guy with a lot of speed, running 6.6, 6.7, and he’s going to run, he’s going to be safe 80 percent of the time unless he gets a bad jumper or the guy has a cannon behind the plate. Guys that are running a little bit slower, they’re 7.3 and above, boy they better get great jumps and great leads and it’s going to very difficult for them to steal the bases.

It’s an art. Baserunning is an art just like bunting is an art, and some of it’s lost. It’s getting lost now because they’re not teaching it well when they are young and they go into travel ball and it’s not about team ball. Sometimes it’s about being an individual and just trying to win trophies on the weekends, and they’re not teaching them how to do the small things that make kids better baseball players. They’re worried about winning trophies and being successful that way. So you have kids that don’t know how to get base leads, how to get jumps. What are they looking for? Last night we picked something up along the way early on against the kid at Springs and we could have done a lot more running, but we really didn’t need to. It’s the art of picking things up, knowing what to look for in the the leads, how to get leads, how to get that first step explosion. Like bunting. Kids right now have trouble bunting. That’s another art.

Anthony: Moving on with that point a little bit more, you’re one of the, we’ve talked about how you feel about the travel program in general, but you have one of the programs here in Broward that has established yourself as elite over the past decade. How have you been able to maintain that standard of excellence.

Coach Evans: Coaching staff. The coaching staff. Coach Stein and I have been together for a long time, 10 years. Figgie (Coach Figueroa) has been here for eight years. He only missed out on the first two years here. Cruz was here. He was a mainstay here. Pete (Greenwood) has been here now for five years. The other guys, one of them, first-year coach David Maristany played here for us in 2003-2004 as a senior. I got him a scholarship and he ended up going somewhere that Coach Cruz got him another scholarship to, and he coached at the college level but wanted to come back here. Coach Hobbs has been here for a couple of years. I think it has a lot to do with the coaching staff staying together. They have the same mentality when we’re out there coaching. We’re not coaching too much. We have to change with the times, but we’re still somewhat old-school.

Anthony: But you adapt as group.

Coach Evans: We have to change as a group. Very little, but at times we have to move on because that’s just how it is. Figgie also does. Coach Figueroa, he does a travel ball team during the summer and a lot of kids are able to be coming in here as eighth-graders that are going to be our kids, or ninth-graders that are our kids already, get to play together. It’s a young group that plays together, and then he has an older group that some of them are not playing on elite teams. He does the same exact tournaments that everybody else goes to, and they get to play together and he gets to oversee them, make sure that they’re not acting uncharacteristic of a Falcon baseball player. They’re doing the right things, they’re getting BP, they’re still getting practice over the summer with infielder/outfield, or bullpen work. I think putting all that together, that is the reason for the success , honestly.

Anthony: There is always little things that separate coaches and coaching styles. What are some of the things you do with your program that you think may be different than things other coaches do around the county?

Coach Evans: Some of the other coaches have started doing some of the things that I thought were real good. We work with the handicapped, the Miracle Field, I know that some other people have done that. We’ve gone to Joe DiMaggio and seen the Cancer ward and been with those kids and given them balls and hats and shirts and stuff. We’ve done that.

A lot of other coaches have done that too, and they want to get these kids to understand that there’s more to life than baseball. And I think that I can say that we’re one of those programs that do that. There’s a lot of coaches doing that now, and I’m really happy about that. I’ve seen more and more of people giving back to things. I honestly like to think that we’re just blue-collar. We work hard. All I ask my kids to do is just meet us halfway and sometimes they cant because I think we put a lot of time and effort and with this guy sitting right next to me (Greenwood), let me tell you what, when he’s sitting there video taping and doing all the things that he does in the bullpen, he takes it home and he’s tearing apart a video, and when he comes back, he can sit there and go frame by frame with a kid. I think that some of the things that we do has a lot to do with what the coaches do. With their spare time, thinking about what we can do to get better.

We did cross fit early in the fall and you know that we don’t play a lot, we practice more in the Fall. A lot more people started doing things like that. Some people don’t. They use it as a fundraiser. They use it as a way to gauge, who are we going to keep, who are we not going to keep. I just want to condition the heck out of the kids, get as much practice time as they can. And then see if maybe they’ve gotten any better. I really have a tough time thinking that we are that much different from a lot of the other teams out there. We work our butts off. We really do. Day in and day out we see the kids in here now (working out in gym), they show up and don’t need to be babysat. Our backs are to them. He’s (Greenwood) looking over stuff and I was doing our write-up on our website. We’re working, having a conversation and we look up over our shoulders, and there’s leaders overlooking what they should be doing. We have guys that have a workout schedule. They know what they should be doing. And I would just like to think that they have the same type of work ethic that we do.

Anthony: Your team has developed a nice rivalry with West Broward. At times the rivalry has been heated you to the point you even had an emotional game in the HSBN Fall Classic tournament last year. How did that rivalry come about, and how good do you think it is for your team to have those rivalries each year?

Coach Evans: Rivalries really come up from like, they’re in your conference, they’re in your district. It happens in college ball, it happens in Major League Baseball. West Broward is a team that has become our main rival lately. Early on when they weren’t in existence, it was Cypress Bay and us. Cypress Bay sort of went down a little bit and they weren’t there, it was still a rivalry, but then when West Broward opened up, a lot of kids that at one time had played with one another, they went over there now. You have a lot of kids from West Pines over there. A lot of kids know each other that ended up transferring from Cypress Bay, us and now West Broward, and I really think it reached a really high point when they had us beat in the regional final a few years back. And Peachy Torres, who was on the hill and he had a walk-off in 2010 to push us to state, and he carried the team. He walked them off in a regional semifinal and he went ahead and carried us to state by beating Coral Springs in nine innings. We won that year and it had a lot to do with him. And that right there was when the rivalry began, it was with (Coach) Moss and we were friendly, and I think right there was where it really took off.

Then they beat us when it counted last year and that was the thing that bothered me most. We beat them three times and we played them a fourth time, they got us. Every time we see them, they know that they’re going to bring their best game, and we’re going to bring our best game.

Anthony: Speaking about the public schools, lets talk briefly about the new transfer rule. My opinion is it puts public schools as close to equal ground with private schools as they’ve ever been. What’s your take on the new rule?

Coach Evans: I agree. It’s probably the best thing that could have happened to public schools. The only thing is, I think players need have to have enough time to transfer over. You have to be there the first day of practice. The first day of practice are your tryouts. If a kid tries out and he doesn’t make the team, and they’re going to cut him, coaches could have told him that before. We’ve done that for kids.

Anthony: And a lot more schools are doing that now, telling them in the fall.

Coach Evans: We’ve done that when we’ve had fall evaluations after fall ball. We had two kids at two different public schools in our district that were actually playing and starting for those schools that would have not have played for us. And I’m really happy for them. I’m proud that they’re able to play and I feel good about being able to help them. Now, on the other hand, if they are not going to make it, but they get cut and they get cut in the Spring, they still lose a year regardless. What we do during Fall evaluations, is we say, “You might want to make a move ’cause you probably aren’t going to play a lot for us.” If other coaches would do the same thing, it’s a great rule.

Now, as far as public and private, it does even it out a little bit because some of those kids are at private schools. They could go back to their home school, or whatever they need to do to get to where they want to be. I think, yeah, it’s going to help out the public school tremendously. Tremendously.

Anthony: I think that’s a tough thing for a coach. Because a lot of coaches have big egos. So a lot of the coaches when they are going to cut a kid, it becomes personal between the coach and player or even between the player and coach. How do you separate yourself from that and how do you understand that, look, just because he’s not good enough for my program, or he isn’t going to make it here, that I respect him enough that it doesn’t become personal that I have to cut him.

Coach Evans: Well why else do we do this? If you’re doing it for egos, get out of it and go do travel ball, make some money. We don’t make money. We’re supposed to be doing it for the kids. You’re supposed to be putting back into baseball what you supposedly got out of it. or in some cases, what you didn’t get enough out of it, so you want to give back to it. If I have a situation where I think a kid can play, but he can’t play for me now, and maybe not next year, but he can play, I want to help that kid. I’m going to be forthright with the kids. I’m always going to be the guy that’s going to be realistic. I’m going to tell you how it is. If you don’t really want to know, don’t ask me, because I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’ve been doing it too long. I’m at that stage in the game where I’m not that type of person.

I’m going to let them know, I had no ill will against them and they worked hard they got a chance to be with us in the fall, they got to condition with us, they got to practice with us and every single day they knew it inside and out, our program. And at the end of the day we were telling them, “You see where you stand. If there are three outfielders playing, and you’re number five or six, why would you wait for a turn when there is three, possibly four or five in front of you?” If you’re the sixth infielder, and I only can play four at a time, how long do you really want to wait in a 20-game season, which is too short as it is as well? You want to give them the opportunity to play. If for you, great. If not for you, somewhere else. If you think they are worthy of it. I had three this year — two juniors and a senior — that were all worthy of playing somewhere and they just were going to have to wait to play here.

Anthony: In that instance, if more coaches felt like that in the fall…

Coach Evans: Oh, there would be kids moving all over the place.

Anthony: Well not only that. But at the same time it allows some of these programs that have been down, those players could come in and revive a program if they get to play.

Coach Evans: They could, I agree. They could come in and help a program that maybe needed, hey, he needs an outfielder, he needs a first baseman, or he needs an infielder, or he needs an arm. Because now if you think about it, the kids have to be really dedicated. They have to be loyal to you, to be able to stay when you’ve got four arms like we have right now. In a 20-game season, how many starts are you going to get? How many innings will you get? And in a 20 game season, that all plays into the transferring decision.

Anthony: Before this rule was in place, players had to move supposedly for academic reasons, and as coaches, as much as you hold that company line, you seem to understand that to these kids, it’s about baseball.

Coach Evans: It’s about baseball, but at the same time, for us, it’s a lot more than baseball, Anthony. I battle with this all the time. Because the parents are just as at fault thinking that their kids are like the next coming. It’s all about baseball. It’s not all about baseball.

Anthony: Does it start with the travel ball?

Coach Evans: Oh, it’s starts when they’re jumping from team to team, yes it does. But it starts early when, they have to understand it’s more than just a sport. Lets make your kid a good kid. We’ll make sure he’s a good person. He’s not two-faced. It comes a lot with the parents saying things about the coach and the umpire.

Look, it’s a game, that’s all it is. The first thing I tell players coming into our program is “If you’re lucky to play the game and be really good at it, then great. But become a good person. How about being a really good kid inside and out, and being a really good student. That’s going to take you a lot farther than this game is.” Very few get to play this game at another level (college), and when they get to play at that level, even fewer than get to play at the highest level (pro ball). Alright so, lets be the good kid and lets be the good student because that’s going to get you where you want to be down the line. And if you can do that, and be pretty good at baseball, then great, because you’re going to be easy to work with. I think we can make you really good at baseball. If you’re pretty good, we can make you good. If you’re good, maybe we can make you really good.

So I think that’s more important to us than anything else. When I sit down with a player that’s thinking about coming here, that’s the first thing I talk about. What type of kid are you? You have both parents? You have one parent? What’s going on? Why are you coming here? What is the purpose of you coming here? If they are a young kid, I know, it’s their zoned school. But if they are a transfer, why are you coming here? What kind of player are you, well that’s not good enough. What else do you bring to the table. And I don’t know if you’re going to be able to stay up with our program. You have to be up for the task, because you might have come here thinking one thing, and you might not be able to stay. I always want to be up front. Right in the beginning, tell them the truth, but the main thing for us and it’s always been, trophies and championships, they come and go. It’s more important that down the line, these are successful kids. They go get degrees and move on in life in a direction that you’re hoping they go, which is a positive direction. That they can get out of life what hopefully they should.

Coming next Sunday: Part two of our Sunday Morning Chat with Ray Evans.

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