Coaching Buddies: O'Brien and Cada team up to lead Winona VFW baseball team

Posted: July 20, 2012 at 9:22 am


without comments

It all started many years ago in the basement of Matt OBriens parents house.

As OBrien and best friend Matt Cada spent countless hours acting as managers on baseball video games, they dreamed of having their own team.

Now, an actual scorebook has replaced those hand controllers and the players are no longer video-image; they are real people.

Oh, and perhaps the most important thing: the two Winona VFW Buddies coaches are still just that: buddies.

This team is like having our own video game come to life, OBrien said. We love to think about the game. We have our style and system, but we are creative. That video game aspect, its allowed the creativity to come in.

Those hours playing video games have been put to good use as OBrien enters his sixth season as the Buddies coach and Cada his fifth. The two will sit on buckets in the dugout instead of a couch in the basement this weekend as the Buddies play in the Divisional Tournament.

We can finish each others thoughts, Cada said. When a play happens, (OBrien will) say to me what I was going to say. We see the game with similar eyes. We know what we are looking for and what we expect. Its easy to be on the same page.

The similar style comes from growing up two blocks away from each other in Winona and being best friends for 22 years. Cada still calls OBriens parents mom and dad.

They have played on at least four teams together, but that doesnt count the backyard games or the times they hopped the fence at Gabrych Park. In a single summer day as 12-year-olds, they would play for the Winona Park and Recreation in the morning, have a Goodview Park and Recreation game in the afternoon, practice with their traveling team and still find time for some backyard whiffle ball as the sun went down.

If we werent playing it, we were playing a video game of it, we were talking about it, OBrien said of baseball. When it comes to our thinking, we are pretty darn close on the same page. It doesnt happen very often that we arent on the same page.

Original post:
Coaching Buddies: O'Brien and Cada team up to lead Winona VFW baseball team

Related Posts

Written by admin |

July 20th, 2012 at 9:22 am

Posted in Life Coaching




matomo tracker