Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now here's your host, Blake Elsner.

Welcome to another episode of Elevate with Elsner. I'm your host, Blake Elsner, and today we have a very special guest joining us. Thrilled to welcome Bryan Niedbalski to the show. Bryan grew up in Saint Louis, played baseball at the University of Iowa. Right after college, he jumped right into the coaching career and at one point became the youngest Division One active college baseball coach. Now, he's the current recruiting coordinator for the entire baseball program at the University of West Georgia. On top of his impressive career, Bryan has been married for eight years and is a proud father to a one and a half year old Bryan. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.

Blake Elsner

Yeah, thanks for having me. When you asked me around nine o'clock on Saturday night, I didn't think I was going to want to do it after being at the field till one to two a.m. all weekend, but happy to be here.

Bryan Niedbalski

Thanks brother. Yeah, I'm glad you could join us as some people don't know. We've known each other for since we were little little kids playing baseball, but. Going going forward, asking you questions about passion and impact about your job and what you do. Give everybody kind of a quick little rundown. You know, starting at the University of Iowa where you were a D1 athlete and and then go from there.

Yeah, so I think my passion started. I had a really good freshman year at Iowa. My last three years I was hurt, so I was on the bench a lot. I was basically coaching more than I was playing. And I was like, man, I feel like I could do this someday. And I've had three years of experience by not playing very much. And just the more I talk to the guys on the staff there, they're like, yeah, you should do it. Just know there's not a lot of money right away. I was like, all right, well. I'll grind through it and see where we're at in a few years. Then I was lucky to. I went to Maryville then Linda Wood and now I'm at West Georgia and you gotta catch some breaks along the way too. And I did that, but you just gotta keep your nose to the ground and keep working.

When you got hurt at the University of Iowa, you know those last three years, how do you? How did you, you know, keep? How did you stay passionate about baseball as you're sitting there hurt watching you know some of your best friends and teammates continue to play?

Yeah, I mean, it sucks getting hurt, but every athlete goes through that. And it was funny because I'd have guys on the team ask me to throw them BP or look at their swings. And I feel like I had a good niche at it right away and they trust me. So I was, like I said, I was doing more coaching than I was playing for three years. And I mean, it was fun. And once you see guys make adjustments and you're like, oh, that clicks, that feels better. Like I was like, all right, this is fun. It's cool to see you guys get better and develop. So that's kind of where I got my calling right away.

Yeah, that's pretty neat right there. Since, you know, technically some would say, yeah, you've been coaching, you know, since your sophomore year of, uh, college, if you know, you're, you're watching video and doing stuff that, uh, you know, these players that they couldn't do cause they're playing. So having almost another coach player coach or player that's injured is basically a coach. So having that, uh, you know, That impact on at that age level. Clearly you did find your niche and then you went ahead and started that coaching career. So what did that? What did that start with?

So yeah, I mean, basically, once I graduated, I just shot a bunch of emails out to colleges in the St. Louis area, because I knew I wasn't home very much for four years. Being an athlete, you'd stay there for Thanksgiving, come home for Christmas, and go play your season, then go to summer ball, then school starts over. So it was like never-ending. So I was like, all right, I want to be close to home for a year, and then we'll see where this thing takes us. Then, like I said, I hopped on Maryville and we had some success there. And I mean, it's crazy when you just look at the journey because they're, like I said, money is not the answer to everything. And like for me, I was coaching all morning, all afternoon, then going to do lessons from five to ten at night. Then you wake up, go to morning lifting as a coach and do it all over and then go to lessons. Like it's a battle for a young coach to get into it. But like I said, if you just if you just work, you'll eventually get lucky and catch a break to go on to somewhere else.

Yeah, that's one thing I've always noticed that, you know, you you've pursued a passion that obviously, like you said, you knew in the in the beginning, the reward isn't necessarily going to be there because that's just the, you know, the industry and most industries, when you obviously start off, you know, you don't really reap. tons of benefits in the beginning until you put the work in. And, but yeah, obviously you, you had a long road. There's a, it's a saturated in, you know, saturated industry, the coaching industry. Um, so you had to actually stand out, uh, well, you know, what'd you do in order to stand out to keep, you know, keep going.

I mean, for me, it was recruiting, like you go to any field and coach from a different school would see me and be like, man, you're everywhere. I'm like, yeah, like it's, I mean, the name of the game is to find good players to make you look like a good coach. Let's be honest. It's just for me, it was the more recruiting I could do and get out there all day, every day and go find players and meet people through networking while you're sitting in a baseball field for I mean, it feels like 20 hours a day sometimes, but I mean, you're in there and cold days, hot days, just crying there now and looking for players and looking for the right players and you meet people along the way.

Yeah, that's pretty neat. So, so at one point, tell us how, tell us, because I mean, this is a pretty cool fact that at, at one point, I know it wasn't very long, long lived, but at one point you were the youngest active division one baseball coach at a point, right?

Yeah. So it was division two and I was 23, I think 23 years old, 24. And I mean, it's just something changed and I was able to do it for a year and it was great. Was I ready? Absolutely not. But was it cool to do it? Yeah, it was.

Yeah. That's gotta be pretty cool, especially at that age to be able to take over the reins, even though it was probably under, you know, different circumstances, probably not circumstances that are obviously great. Because anytime you take over a head coach job, that usually doesn't come with some type of positive news on the other side. So yeah, that's real awesome. But now obviously, you found your hat and that was the recruiting side of things. So in a way, obviously, that is a coach because you're coaching kids all the time. But on the recruiting side, what like qualities and skills do you like look for in recruits that would fit the West, you know, the Western Georgia University baseball program?

Yeah, so for me, I mean, you gotta be a good human first and foremost, because as coaches you have enough stuff going on in your life and your personal life. Like you don't want to deal with headaches from some kid being an idiot off the field. Let's just call it as it is. And then for us, like for me, like I like dudes who love to play the game like a lot of guys play, but you don't know if they love it or not. So like you can tell if you watch kid like this kid loves to be out there, whether they're playing in double or triple header and travel ball game like he loves being out there. So I think that's a huge part of it as well. Academically, like, again, like, you don't have to worry about, hey, is this kid gonna make it at the end of the semester? Or is it even getting to school? Like, you don't want to deal with that stuff. So I mean, low, low maintenance kids who love to play baseball in the waiting room is something we value a lot. Like, we like physical kids who want to be in the waiting room and want to work out because some kids see like, oh, we have morning lifting, like, why do we have to do that? Like, If you're a guy who wants to play pro ball like you can't wait to get up at 7 AM and go lift and go to practice and go to study hall like you were looking for the kid who wants to wants to do it like wants to be a top notch student athlete who really wants to take their career as far as they can go.

Yeah, that's awesome and that's being passionate and wanting to make an impact in what you do and and I you know I I think having your story of what you did. and kind of how you, you know, stayed passionate about baseball is a awesome kind of relatable story that you can tell these, you know, younger kids that are in, you know, that are maybe not even, you know, they're just riding the bench and they're not playing or, you know, because of there's a kid playing in front of them, et cetera. So yeah, to keep that going and to keep them motivated, you know, whether they're not injured, how do you, how do you do that?

I mean, well, first of all, baseball is failure. I mean, three out of 10, you're in the Hall of Fame. So like, you're going to have to learn how to fail. And especially the way baseball is kind of blown up, like, there is an avenue for someone, no matter what they're doing in the game of baseball, whether it's data analytics, being a student manager, there's so many different ways you can help a team or help a school. And then I think once you get your foot in the door, like I said, there's so many different ways you can go and what you want to do if you want to stay in the game of baseball. So I think motivation, a lot of it has to be internal, like you have to want to be special and do something. But like for in our career field, like there's so many routes you can go if you just don't, if you don't bail and don't give up.

Yeah, that is pretty cool with all the, you know, analytics. Nowadays, you see some of these like game plan coaches.

Yeah. I mean, scouting reports, advanced scouting. There's so many different avenues you can go.

Yeah. Wow. Just. Coaches that are watching videos and I guess arms that are going to be coming out of the bullpen and, and I guess getting that extra intel on what your hitters might face, um, coming out. So in terms of what going to like scholarship and financial aid, if somebody comes up to you and says, Hey, uh, Coach Nabolsky, I know you're a big coordinator at the University of West Georgia and whatnot. And they say, hey, how do we go about wanting a scholarship or whatnot? What do you usually say to that?

Be really good at baseball. If you want a baseball scholarship to start, those aren't just handed out to everybody. And then for us, we're lucky because we actually get in-state tuition. to Georgia, obviously, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. So for us, we really hammer kind of the bordering states as far as getting in-state tuition, because obviously baseball, we have nine scholarships right now. So we're not even at the full 11.7 worth of scholarships right now. So we have to get kids who have good academics who are from the bordering states. Obviously, if you got Nolan Ryan sitting in Missouri, like we'll do our best to come off from and pay a little bit extra out of pocket to get him here. But for us, we try to hammer those bordering states as much as we can to save save the dollars.

Yeah, I gotta imagine just now since you. As a program just shifted into the Division One, correct? Mm hmm. Yep. Starting this September, starting this September. So you're in Division one. Now you're competing with, you know, some of these states that you're mentioning. You got some some serious talent, but then you also have some serious competition in terms of, you know, schooling and programs. So you got to sell. West Georgia, right? So you got to sell that program. If you want to get some of these, you know, top kids that might have a chance to go to some of these other schools that have a bigger gym or have a bigger training facility, is that going to be more pushing a culture or what? How do you, how do you combat that?

Yeah. Well, I think any kid wants to, they want the great facilities. Like that's the world we're in. They want to see the facilities. They want to look cool on Twitter, but like, What I tell a lot of kids, like you have to trust them like the coaches, like if you're just going for the glitz and the glamour, like I tell kids you're coming here to the wrong spot, like you're coming from the culture, you're coming for the people, the coaches who are going to take care of you every day. And like I tell a kid, like say your career ended and you can't play anymore, would you still be happy here being around us every day? That's what I try to sell the kids. Cause I mean, it could happen. I mean, you can get TJ and never throw again or tear labor. I'm like, would you still be happy going to school here, being around the program, even if you weren't playing? So yeah, you need the facilities, you need all that stuff, but like, are you going to be happy with this coach and staff at the school, even if you can't play?

That's a very, you know, that's an interesting perspective that I feel like. I haven't heard and to hear that is, you know, that's that's powerful because it's like, yeah, if you get hurt like yourself, obviously at Iowa when you got hurt, you were still passionate about doing something, still making an impact that you know you found yourself still enjoying Iowa and still being around the team and doing all that stuff.

Yeah, really cool. I love the coaches. I love my teammates like it was easy for me to stay like I could have went. and got surgery and probably went and played somewhere else. But I was happy there and I was totally invested in the program and the people. So it made it super easy for me. And they knew I was committed all in on them as well. It's a two-way street.

Yeah, that's right. We always, yeah, that's one thing I'm big on is, you know, you invest in me and I'll invest in you. And that's kind of somewhat of a, you know, thing to a tough rope to walk, but it sounds a little, you know, greedy ish, but it's just one of those things that, hey, like you put in the work, I put in the work, we'll both, you know, both meet each other at the top kind of thing. You know, you're going to help me pull me up, you, you know, I'll help pull you up. But so yeah, what's your like philosophy on like, you know, you, you tell a freshman that comes in and you know, they're, they're gung ho on their high school team and they, you know, you're going to tell them like, Hey, you know, you might not get all the playing time that you did as a senior in high school with these. Now you're, now you're in a whole new bracket of, uh, you know, talent. So what, what, what's that talk like?

Well, especially right now in the college baseball game, because the COVID, COVID year stuff is still going on for some guys who have an extra year. So, A freshman, you're 18, you're competing against a 24-year-old grown man. You better fall in love with that weight room quick, because you need to turn your body into a 21, 23, 24-year-old pretty quick if you're going to be on the field every day. Obviously, if you have intangibles, like your bad speed, you throw 94, that's going to obviously help you get your foot in the door on the field as a freshman. But you better be physical. You better be able to have time. Management's huge for freshmen. I think when guys come here, that's where they struggle most. It's their first time away from home, away from mom and dad. You have class and practice, but after that you have all this freedom, whereas elite athletes know exactly what they're doing every minute, every day, mapped out. Freshmen, I think just knowing who they are and being where their feet are, no matter what they're doing at that time, that's actually going to help them get on the field and not have so much outside stuff creeping into their life where they're getting distracted from all right yeah I shouldn't order this pizza at midnight like I should have a protein bar instead like there's just a lot of stuff as freshmen where it takes them takes them by storm so freshman year is very tough very tough.

Yeah, that that has, as we all know, is, you know, you've been there and been a freshman before. And yeah, it is tough to, you know, there's a transition and and whatnot. So, yeah, that's that's that's good that you can be a part of, you know. Having an impact on their transition as freshman and then you know how hoping that they continue on and you know see the field. But when you when you kind of tell some kid about your the culture like I I kind of understand obviously academics and etc and and whatnot. But from a from a standpoint of you know being I would say a. I don't want to say a man for others, but just a person that, you know, obviously takes care of their own needs, but also puts the team, you know, and up front, you know, how do you, how do you guys talk about, you know, that culture and putting, putting the team first?

Yeah. So, I mean, I mean, at the end of the day, our job as coaches, it's a bottom line business, like it's wins and losses. So, I mean, as a hitting coach, you look for the right nine guys who are going to help you win. Like, Billy might be better than Johnny, but I mean, Johnny's helping us win right now. Like, he's moving runners, he's having more quality at bats. So, at the end of the day, it's hard, but like, who are the right nine on that given day or in that situation to help you win? And obviously, You get guys who like, Oh, why aren't I playing? Well, your quality at bats are low or you're not doing this. Like this helps us win. He flips, he starts helping you win. Then your name gets in the lineup more. I mean, it's a bottom line business.

Yeah. And that, so from a recruiting standpoint, do you ever see like, you go, wow, you know, X made it on the field and you thought when you recruited Y that he was gonna be on the field a lot more. Do you ever see that type of?

Yeah, it happens all the time. I mean, I'll tell you right now, our left fielder is 5'6". Nobody else wanted him, but every time I'd go watch him play, he'd be on base four times. I'm like, man, I can't go to watch this team play without this kid getting on base a ton. And I mean, like I said, undersized, not not a lot like you just look at him. You're like, yeah, I've never taken that kid. But like you watch him play and he's a true gamer. Like he finally finds ways to help you win. So that stuff always happens. And it's fun to watch that happen because some guys who have more talent, just they don't want to work as hard. And their spot gets taken by the end of the fall.

Yeah, see, that's the type of stuff that, you know, you see and hear like The kids coming out of high school that think you know yeah they're they led you know their conference and every statistic every category, then all of a sudden, you got another kid putting in a lot more work and next thing you know he's. even keel with, you know, the guy that was leading the conference and all the stats in high school. That's got to be pretty cool to see. But at the same time, how do you then keep that other kid from going, hey, you know, you got to you got to put your feet back on the ground and realize you got to put in the work.

Yeah, well, one thing we do here is we recruit a lot of junior college kids. We recruit, they're mostly 21 to 23. They've played JUCO baseball for two years, so they have dirt on their cleats. They've played, they've been through it, it's been tough. So a lot of the guys we get, they've played college baseball at the junior college level or the transfer portal. And that's one thing, like we like the older kids because they're mature, like I don't have to babysit them. They know usually why they are not playing or why they are playing. They have to keep doing that. So we do like older kids. But for young guys, it's like, all right, you need to, like Johnny, you need to watch Billy. Look how he goes every day. He's here two hours before practice hitting, like the days of just rolling it out and let's go practice and call it a day. that won't get you very far. Like it has to be an internal drive to want to be great. And that's showing up every single day and on your off days.

Yeah, that's that's that's true.

And obviously from older guys too as well.

Yeah, and that's why that definitely starts from starts from the top down. And you know, from your you're at the very, very top, you know, recruiting individuals, basically first impression in some way. So yeah, so in terms of like the facility and resources, you know, how do you, you know, you talk about like, hey, we got pretty cool facilities, we got state of the art equipment, which I'm sure you do as a division one baseball program, you know, you're gonna have the necessary equipment. It might not, you know, have a diamond on it, but it's going to get the job done. So how do you, you know, take away the bling and say, Hey, this, this, this is the same thing, um, without the bling and you're going to get more playing time.

Yeah, so like our facilities are great. Our weight room is off the charts. Our academic support team's awesome. They help us tremendously. Like, we don't have an indoor facility right now. We don't as a Division I. A lot of teams do. We don't. A lot of that, obviously the weather, it's warmer down here, so you don't need a true indoor, like some schools up north, but like If you, like I tell recruits, if you need the nicest locker room, the nicest hitting area, like right now, it's not the place for you. But if you want guys who you're going to trust to make you better and be surrounded by good players, like that's what's here. I've never seen a great locker room make a team win a championship. It all comes down to your culture. how much buy-in you get from your offense approach, obviously pitching, defense, like that stuff matters more than the facilities. Don't get me wrong. Like, do we want what Vanderbilt and Tennessee have? Yeah, every coach in the country does, but we don't have it. We don't even talk about or worry about it. All we can do is control how hard we work and what we want to do with it. So, like I said, we don't have the best stuff. We don't try to hide it. We're coming here. We have to outwork people here. It's the bottom line.

Yeah, that's a I love that. I love that. You know, perspective, you guys, you obviously lay it out, you say, Hey, we got nothing to hide. Here's our program. Here's what we expect. you know, you want to be a part of it, you can be a part of it. If you don't, you know, no, no, no issue on our end. So I think that also leaves obviously then people to make a, or kids to make a decision like, Hey, you know, these guys actually are passionate. They actually will help me if I, you know, if baseball, doesn't happen to work out that they will still be there for me to help me on to that next level or help me to be passionate about my niche. Like kind of like you at Iowa.

So yeah, that's pretty. We had a center fielder who can't play this year. He got hurt and like basically he thought he's like I'm done like I'm just gonna have to go to school and first thing I said is you want to be a manager? He said yeah. So he's staying on like he has one year left. He'll get his degree here and he'll be with me every day. Help me out, which is awesome. Like he just thought like oh he's going to be done and that was the end of the story but like he has a year to help us out in a different way and he'll still be around all his friends every day.

Yeah, that's awesome. And he, obviously he got to play and, and, and the, you know, the biggest thing is you go, Hey, you know, you came here to get a degree and that's where you're going to walk out with. And here's a little, you know, coaching experience and now, Hey, you got options and that's the best part. So that's a, that's, that's real cool. Um, so what I, as we kind of wrap this up, what would you say? It's probably your most impactful moment as a coach or as a recruiting coordinator. Obviously, being a head coach was probably pretty cool, but anything other than that where it kind of stood out to you or a comment or something where you were traveling that just kind of stuck with you or a quote or anything?

So I got a story, actually. It was two years ago, our shortstop. His dad passed away right before opening day, like three days before opening day. Obviously, he goes home to the funeral, all that stuff, and he showed up the day of one of our games. I think it was our fourth game of the year. Like, we didn't know he was going to be there. He showed up like four hours, four games, and was like, I'm playing. I was like, all right. He's like, well, you just hit with me. I'm like, yeah, we'll take some early hacks, and then you'll go play short if you want to because I want to play. And I kid you not, first swing he took, after his dad passed away at a home run to lead off the game. And like when he was rounding like the round of the bases, like I'd never, I've never gotten choked up on a field, but I was like, this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. So that one will always stick with me. I'm like, that's why you do it. Like that kid just went through the hardest thing a human can do, losing his father. And then he comes out and hits a home run first pitch. I'm like, you can't make that up. So as long as I'm alive, I'll always remember that on a baseball field.

That that's special right there that you know, I can't imagine that both of our fathers are still alive. But yeah, I can't imagine, you know, losing a father and then coming out the next day and being able to smile like that.

First very first swing like just for three seconds rounding the bases. He probably forgot what was going on in life. I think that's the beauty of the game. Like you get to escape reality for three to four hours while you're playing. And then obviously when it's done, you snap back to reality, check your phone and everything comes back with you. But for night NNs, you don't really worry about anything else going on in the world.

Yeah, that is a that is a an escape and a a way to an outlet that like I said, you know most kids we donate to Saint Louis U sports outreach and that is just a fulfilling thing because having kids the opportunity to play sports and and make an impact in the world and and be coachable because obviously as you know, it's it's one of the key ingredients to anything is being coachable and being open minded. So, yeah, no, I appreciate you. I appreciate you coming on here and, you know, talking to us about your role at the University of West Georgia and, you know, recruiting and the impact you make. Any final words you want to say?

No, I mean, just find your passion, stay with it. My first job I was making $2,000. So I mean, it wasn't great, but I knew what I wanted to do. So like I said, just keep your nose down and work. I mean, you got to work people if you're going to catch a break. The world doesn't care about your feelings, doesn't care how you're feeling. The world's going to keep going. So you can't feel sorry for yourself.

That's right. And money doesn't bring happiness, just as you found out. And I don't have a job.

I tell people that all the time. Like I go coach baseball, I go and watch baseball and recruit kids. Like I don't really consider this a job. I consider myself lucky. Like I'm not clocking in a nine to five and calling it a day, waiting for Friday. Like I'm here seven days a week. I don't feel like it's work.

Heck yeah, that's awesome. I love hearing that. Well, I appreciate you coming on here, Bryan, and Coach Bryan, Recruiting Bryan, whatever you want to call him. I'm sure they got nicknames for you in the locker room.

Nah, I just go by Bryan. I don't make guys call me coach. A lot of people think that's crazy.

Wow, that's an interesting fact. I just, I feel like we're...

We're on the same team like I don't really have a hierarchy like I don't call you player Blake or player Elsner like I call you by your name. We're all in this together like I don't feel the need for a hierarchy or a special title. That's just how I am.

That's passion right there. Passion and impact. He says he's picking you up while you pick him up and we're going to see each other at the top together. and bring home a championship for that West Georgia baseball squad, right? That's the goal.

I want a dog pile. I want to be at the top of the dog pile. I'm not trying to be on the bottom.

Well, I love it. I appreciate you coming on here. And as always, let's elevate together.

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