Ash credits one other aspect to his coaching success. While he doesn't change his core approach to program building, he does change SOME things. "We change things up quite a bit in practice to keep things fresh," he said, "but there are things we do every day in practice. It's the boring cord of success, the buy-ins become a lot easier because they know this is what they have to do to be successful—from the footwork to the ability to make the routine plays to running the bases. These are things we do every single day. And they're not negotiable. "But through that—and learning to enjoy the process and doing
check coach who would just show up and go through the motions." Ash also learned his lessons well from coaches he met along the way. on me, 100 percent. It seemed like we didn't want to disappoint each other. We had so many shared athletes, and we all wanted to do well for the kids."
It started at Blair Oaks with coaches like Ted LePage (football), Sharon Buschjost (softball) and Ryan Fick (basketball), and con- and Andy Jahnsen (basketball) and others at Southern Boone. "Being around people like this just makes you want to do better," Ash said. "Not just the coaching part of it, but their organizational skills. I've been around a lot of great coaches, and I've tried to emulate a lot of what they're doing. It's really not about X's and O's. It's more about culture and getting kids to do things they don't think they can do."
Another staple of his success is having good youth programs that will eventually feed the varsity team.
"I learned from my dad that if you can get to the younger kids fast- er than most programs you're going to compete against," Ash said, "you're going to win a lot more and a lot quicker." Ash is 128-32 at Southern Boone, including a sparkling 34-2 in the state championship season of 2022. Surprised? Ash was. "I didn't have a guy who threw over 83 miles an hour, but I had a bunch of guys who could throw strikes and throw three pitches for strikes on any count," he said. "And we didn't have anybody who refused to lose. There is no way I thought we'd go 34-2."
22 /// March 2025
and done it a million times, so it becomes routine. The kids don't always like it, but they understand that it's very, very important. I've been in coaching Utopia most of my career with great kids and great parents who've bought into what we're doing."
“Something clicked. Something about being outside and the fresh grass, and the baseball nostalgia kind of took
over...It became my passion; I loved it.”
Ash is in a two-way tie for second place for most state baseball
The coaches who win the most—and the sport really doesn't mat- ter—have teams who do the most things the right way. No coincidence. "If people come and watch any of our teams play—no matter how much talent we have or lack of talent we have—we're always going to play really good defense, and we're going to be competitive on the mound," said Ash, who's proven to be a great pitching coach. "We "And if we get a team that can hit, then we've got something. I've been fortunate enough to have several teams who could do it all." the legacy of Brian Ash. And he's not done yet. Just don't expect "It's been interesting to see how it's grown and where it's going; it's been an evolution," Ash said about the Eagles' program. "I don't have a lot of years left doing this, so I want to continue to have fun and keep doing the things we've been doing and trying to get better ... always trying to get better." It's what champions do.
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