'I'm Just Saying' with former Prairie Ridge pitcher Nick Hall

After graduating from Prairie Ridge in 2002, Nick Hall continued his baseball career at Northern Illinois University, where he set records for games started and innings pitched. He played four years of professional baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies organization, the San Diego Padres organization and the Windy City Thunderbolts of the independent league. When his playing days ended, he began coaching in Louisiana and this season he took over the St. Francis program in Wheaton. On May 13, he will coach against his high school coach, Glen Pecoraro. 

I didn't think I wanted to coach. I never thought about coaching my entire career. My first job was as a pitching coach at a 5A school in Louisiana, outside of Baton Rouge, called Live Oaks. About five minutes into my coaching debut, at a practice, I loved it. I was able to pass on a wealth of knowledge. I was able to transform a couple pitchers. It was pretty special.

The next year Redemptorist High School in Baton Rouge offered me their head coaching spot. They were kind of on the decline. Our first year we went 11-15 and made the playoffs. Our second year, we finished 23-10 and at one point we were 18-5 and the No.1 ranked team in Louisiana. We made it to the Elite Eight in the playoffs. I was was named Class AA coach of the year.

About Christmas time last year, I realized that Louisiana really wasn't for me. I enjoyed my time there. I was looking forward to coming back. I really enjoy it here — the people, the food, the family. I thought I wanted to do that. After spending the last 10 years traveling and playing and coaching baseball in the south, I thought it was a good time to come back. Everything just worked out perfectly.

My goal is, and it always will be, to run a Division I program at the high school level. Do what Division I teams and professional baseball clubs are doing, but do it at the high school level. You'll get a lot of coaches that say, they aren't ready for that or they can't understand that. They really are ready. The kids are eager to learn.

A lot of it is the accountability. I made every single kid accountable, whether it's being on time or doing a drill as hard as you can possibly go. That becomes contagious. The kids really start to buy in and if you don't want to buy it, we don't need you. It's so easy to be average. You just can't be average, it's too easy. You've got to do everything you possibly can to be special.

I tell my kids all the time, we never lose. We either win or we learn something during that game. We're working on something every single day. And if we lose the game, there's four of five things we did during the game that we can use and learn from the next day in practice to get us better.

It's going to be very different for sure (when I coach against Prairie Ridge.) I don't think I've even stepped foot in the first base dugout, as a coach or player. That will be weird to be in that dugout.

One of the people I look up to most on this planet is coach Glen Pecoraro. Half of the things I do as a coach are directly stolen from him. I know a lot of the guys on the Prairie Ridge team. I actually work in the building, so I get to see them on a daily basis. It's going to be a fun experience for sure.