Raising Disciplined Student Athletes Through Softball

You can tell who really wants it the moment nobody is watching. Coach Antoine is back after a break, and he’s using a personal milestone as the launch point: his oldest daughter’s final year of middle school softball and what it means to coach through a major transition. We talk about why he started coaching, how the Mamie Johnson Little League community shaped his approach, and why the best youth sports lessons have almost nothing to do with a scoreboard. 

Softball moves fast, and the pressure is real, so we dig into the mental side of the game: focus, confidence, handling mistakes, and building a team culture that holds up in tough moments. Coach shares a simple but powerful practice tool, the “word of the day,” to teach discipline, communication, and values that players can carry into school and life. We also unpack the jump from Little League to travel ball and the standards that separate “good” from truly prepared, including training habits, film work, and the grind of getting better off the field. 

Then we go beyond the diamond: what student athletes owe their families, how home preparation reduces stress, and how parents’ sacrifice shapes a player’s mindset. Coach also speaks on access to fields, equipment, and practice space in DC, plus his long-term goal to build a training facility through Diamond Edge Academy for baseball and softball development year-round. If you care about youth softball, student athlete development, and building disciplined competitors with strong character, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a coach or parent, and leave a review with the biggest lesson you want young athletes to hear.

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Transcript

Coaching For His Daughter’s Last Year

Mamie Johnson Little League Roots

Why Softball Is A Mental Game

Travel Ball Standards And Real Work

Home Preparation And Respecting Parents

The Middle School To High School Reset

Balancing Work Coaching And College Planning

Fighting For Fields Equipment And Access

Building A Training Facility Dream

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Yo, yo, yo, yo, what up, though? I'm back. It's been a minute. I I know. It's been a minute. Um Normally I try to take December, January off just to like, you know, rest, recoup, and um, you know, uh get back to like the basics and chill with family and stuff like that. But um took a little longer, but I'm telling you, the topics that I got coming up is crazy. Shout out to Quee. Um, she gave me some dope topics to talk about. But um this one, I wanted to uh touch basis back on, let me see. My my oldest daughter, Elena. Um, it's her last year of middle school. I'm coaching again. Uh just pretty much this one is about coaching. Uh, if you don't know, I'm Tweezy. Make sure you like, subscribe, share, send this out to everybody. Um, yeah, uh Coach Antoine, Coach Kennedy, Coach K, which whatever, you know what I mean? People know me why. But um, yeah, let's let's talk about it. Um it's the last year, last year of um Landis softball middle school career. Um, but the thing that I I wanted to touch on more is is the team aspect of it. Um when I started coaching, it was just because we didn't have enough coaches for the little league. Um, for Mamie Johnson Little League. Shout out to Keith and Kevin. Um, Keith and Kevin Barnes, man, if y'all don't know, they they are a uh staple in Southeast, if you don't know. Um, when it comes to girls softball and boys baseball, um they built up an organization, Mamie Johnson Little League, um, which now is blossoming to something um even bigger, which is dope because at the end of the day, you know what I mean, both my daughters are playing with Mamie Johnson. They've been playing since they were seven, eight years old. Um, but I wanted to touch on just, you know, sports and student athletes, you know what I mean, black student athletes that need the direction, um, the self-direct the self-direction, self-discipline, um, and the self-reliance um that I think that you need to get to the next level, um, which is high school. Um when I started, like I said, it was more of like we didn't have enough coaches, but I kind of, I know, kind of, I fell in love with softball and I'm a baseball guy. I started playing baseball, T-ball, Elena started playing T-ball. So it was like I never thought that my daughters would be playing softball or any or baseball or anything in that realm. I thought it was gonna be basketball because their mom played basketball or run track, but um playing softball, it opened up my eyes too as a parent and as a coach. Um, the game to me is so much faster. Um the what you want to say? I want to say it. The the level of um mental mental warfare it is to me to play softball is is like at a high level. Um it's all mental when it comes to that. Yes, it's 10% physical, but mentally you have to be there as a player, as a coach, um, as a parent, but mainly as a coach and a player. Um I always give my kids a uh what you call it. I say like a a word of the day. We do word of the day. And and when I give them that word of the day, that word I explain to them or I ask them what does it mean. Um, do they understand it and put it in a sentence, or I have them put it in a sentence and tell me what they think of it. And from there, the word goes on every practice, every game. And at the end of the year, it spells out something. So, like I said, um this journey has been dope. It's it's definitely been dope, it's been fun, and it's still fun. And a lot of people ask me, like, yo, when Lena go to high school, are you gonna coach? And I was like, I would coach, you know what I mean? But the school she's going to has coaches. If that job opens up, I'll definitely take it. But um, if some other jobs open up high school-wise, um, I'll look into them. Um, I don't just take jobs just to take them. I try to see what I can do to help the kids overall, because being a student athlete, it's not just about the sports, it's about the the pride of belonging, the uh the self-awareness, the the team, uh fellowship, the camaraderie, and all of those things that fall into it. And it's kind of the same thing as a Marine, like it's a team. Um, there's no I and team. So I try to make sure that the players, the players get everything out of it, all right. Um, so let's talk about it. Uh question was what younger black men and women need to hear to hear as a student athlete. Let's break it down. Hey. If you're good at let's say little league level, you can you can you can do some things in little league level, but travel, you you can't just be good. Cause you're gonna play teams that are either below you, and it you you whatever level, you C level, B level, A level, you're gonna play teams that's either below you, at your level, or above your level. And then once you get to that high A-level sport of travel, that's that's like the the highest competition to me, because um everybody's great. Everybody's great. And I think to me, as a student athlete, you need to be able to do things when nobody's watching, i.e. hustling, um, pushing yourself to the next limit of uh either weight training, speed training, uh film, um just having that that all to just fight to how to get to be better because I've seen it myself um going back to back to you know the Little League World Series two years in a row, trying to hit the third year, because I'm also the coach for Mamie Johnson Little League, the Brown Bombers this year. Um, but it's mainly pushing yourself, pushing yourself when nobody's watching because we have teams in our organization that that that's not on the girls' level because we play so much. And we actually go out to Dunkirk and play teams out in Maryland, Southern Maryland to get even better. But I think we should play more teams like um Delaware and Pennsylvania just to get more competition. It's not it's not about the wins. It's not about the wins in Little League, it's about the development and the understanding of what they did wrong and how can we get better. Um, do we win? Yes, we win most of the time, but the lessons to me is the most important part because without those, a lot of people can get complacent. You know what I mean? And you got girls that's pre-teens and teens, and you have to know how to level out all of them and manage all of the attitudes and and aggression and and disagreements that they might have within each other, not even with me, with within themselves. Um so student athlete, man, you you you just have to you have to want it more to me, I think so. Um you have to be able to not only look out for the player that's next to you, but look out at home. It starts at home. All right, whatever goes on at home, you bring it to practice. So be that good sibling, be that good daughter or son to your parents, help them out. You know what I mean? Make make life a little bit easier because you gotta understand parents are taking you to these games. If it's five minutes away or if it's hours away, you gotta understand the toll that it's putting on the parents' bodies. And shout out to the parents, I mean, my myself, um we we do it, we do it, and then you gotta break it up. You got if you got siblings, you gotta break it up. Last week, I was what in Loudoun County with Lena in London, they team. Benita had to take Tootie to, I forgot where, but it was the opposite way. So being able to have that relationship and that and that um that, I guess you can say, um standard or or uh agreement that y'all know, hey, no matter what, we're gonna get these kids to where we gotta go, that that relieves some of the stress from the from the kids. But as a student athlete, you have to do the same for them. Don't make it hard for the parents, right? Don't make it hard for the parents. You know you got a game. Make sure you you got your uniform ready. Make sure the uniform wash. Make sure you're you're you know exactly what uniform that you're wearing. Um, make sure you got your cleats, your back, your glove, your bag, everything that you need, your IBLAC, everything that you need, your slide mitt, whatever. Just make sure you got all your accessories ready to go the night before because sometimes we got to get up 5, 6 in the morning to drive hours away for these games. And I know all the parents understand when I say that, um it's a toe sometimes. And um, me, I try to do it as much as I can now, you know, with my crazy schedule. Um, but you gotta make a way. You have to make a way. Gotta make a way. So for me, for for the men and women, the young men and young women, make it easy for yourself by making it easy at home. Prepare at home. So when you get to practice, you get to these games, you're already prepared mentally and positive, positive mindset at PMA, positive mental attitude at all times where you're going to play these games. Because sometimes it's cold, sometimes it's early in the morning, sometimes it's you haven't ate. Prepare yourself. Prepare yourself. You know it's about to warm up, you know, come out the sweater. You know it's getting cold, put on a sweater. Put on the put on anything warming layers that you can help yourself make this game a little bit better. Um, what else? Let me see. See what else we got. What else we got? Um, uh like I said, last year in middle school, um coaching at Hardy, um, shout out to the Hawks. Um it's great. It's great. Um the great thing is, is Tootie's coming right behind Lana. I I would have loved to see them play again, um, but I won't be able to see that until high school, if they go to the same high school when Lena's a 12th grader and Tootie's in the ninth grade. But um last year in middle school for Lana, I think um, and I wanted to ask her, I wish she was here. I'm all the way in H Town right now, but I wish she was here just to ask her, like, what it feels like, you know what I mean? Um, because it's it's a new transition. You went from being top of the of the throne as an eighth grader, and now you're about to go back to the bottom as a ninth grader. Um, and not in a in a diminishing or or or disrespectful way, it's just you gotta start over. Everywhere you go from whatever team all the way up, you gotta build back up to get to the top um level. So um is this my last year? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think I'm gonna coach, God willing, I'm gonna coach Hardy until Tootie's done, and then the goal is to build the sport, build the sport up, get more teams, get more middle school teams into the the fold of playing softball versus playing the same six teams, and it's like 20 middle schools plus in DC. Um but yeah, I want I want to know like what's what Lena really got going on, like for her, like how she feels. And I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna ask all my eighth graders. I'm gonna ask them, hey, how y'all feel? What do you what do y'all need? Um what you need, what what do you need in order to get to the next level? What do you think you need to prepare for the next level? What can I do to get you to help with that um process? Um my girls going to Maryland schools, um my girls going to private schools, some of my girls going to DC schools. So it's good, it's gonna be good these next couple of years to watch them play. And I think that's the most important part is setting them up for success for middle school and I mean for high school on. Um so to answer the question, this won't be my last year of middle school coaching as of now. As of now. Uh so yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, let's talk about uh having a daughter going into high school and one into middle school all while balancing a full-time job. It's tough. Tough um being able to to coach, I think helps me be closer to my daughters. Um but now it's is it's about to turn up because now we're thinking college and high school now. At first it was middle school, then to high school, now it's high school to college. So it's middle, high, and college now that I'm thinking about. Because you know, as a parent, I think you gotta be, I would say four years ahead. Whatever your whatever grade that your daughter's in, you gotta be four, four, four years ahead so you can prep them to get to that next level. Um being down here in Houston, um it was like a reset, definitely. Um getting my mind right, because the game's about to start. Hopefully we got a game Monday coming up, um, and getting the season started. And uh the goal is to win the chip, but um also to win the chip, and what's next? Like, where do we go next? Where where can we elevate to? Um, oh uh that's what I want to talk about too. Um DCIAA, getting these girls the proper equipment, getting these girls the proper um time and and and space to practice. Um it's too many parks that we have available to our students, and we can't somehow can't get access to um, we had an issue where we couldn't practice across the street from our our school and we would have had to catch the bus. We'd have had our kids, our students, catch the bus to get over to Palisades when it's a park field right across the street from the school. And there's plenty of schools that's like that. Um I just ask that we can get a better grasp on this concept of DPR and Rex and everybody to come together so we can get this um taken care of because it's too many times where we're trying to build something with the softball and we can't get any access to a field or they don't know that this field is available to them. And also shout out to the Nats Academy because they always been uh an intricate part to our softball that we've been doing here um in DC. So uh yeah, DCRAA, come on, let's let's let's get let's get this under control um because there's been a lot of issues and parents was about to start writing people and yeah, it was about to get out of hand. But yeah, um softball, I love it, I love it, man. I I I'll my goal is to open a facility to where I can train softball and baseball players and and other athletes as well, but my focus is on um baseball and softball, and you know, get enough room to have at least two cages, two pitching cages, two batting cages, um, and a little fielding area so people can get in shape because when it gets cold, there's not really places to go. Um, unless you're all the way out of Manassas at 643 or um down the road at um what's the name of that that baton cage we go to on deck. Um so like yeah, the goal is to get that um uh starting my Diamond Diamond Edge Academy. Um that's gonna be the name of it, Diamond Edge Academy D E A. So if you see my name on social media, that's what it is. It's uh coach underscore Antoine underscore DEA. Um, but yeah, so softball, softball, softball. That's my thing, and and um I love doing it coming from Detroit, playing baseball under Coach Coker, rest in peace. Um that's where it all started from. So um I appreciate y'all. More podcast ideas, more podcast interviews are coming. Um, but I want to get in front of y'all and talk to y'all some more. Um apparently uh y'all loving it. So let me make sure that I make sure I get in front of y'all and make sure that I'm talking to y'all and and we getting everything understood. And um just giving y'all ear to listen to what I gotta say, and I appreciate that. Um, but yeah, it's my last day in Houston. We out