Marathon Dolphins Rise: Building a Baseball Dynasty with Coach Joey Gonzalez

Coach Joey Gonzalez shares how the Marathon Dolphins baseball program has transformed into one of South Florida's hottest teams, capturing back-to-back conference championships and their first district title in 2025. He reveals the program-building philosophy that combines academics with athletics, explaining how his coaching staff has created a complete development pathway from youth leagues through high school.

• Marathon's 2025 season included hosting regionals with record crowds of 600 fans
• The team succeeded with just five seniors who maintained a remarkable 4.25 GPA average
• Coach Gonzalez played for Louis Leo, who later mentored him and entrusted him with coaching Leo's twin sons
• The program faces unique travel challenges, requiring up to $50,000 in annual fundraising
• Discipline is identified as the most crucial element in developing successful baseball players
• Every member of Marathon's coaching staff has deep ties to the Keys baseball community
• The summer program includes 6:30 AM workouts with 15 dedicated players focused on strength training
• Marathon's athletes balance academics with late-night returns from games, completing homework on bus rides

Music Licensed via Soundstripe

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Coach Joey Gonzalez
• 3:10 Marathon's Historic 2025 Season
• 7:01 Senior Leadership and Academic Excellence
• 13:31 Full Circle: Coach Leo's Legacy
• 18:53 Teaching and Coaching Impact
• 29:13 Building a Complete Program
• 35:48 Marathon's Coaching Dream Team
• 38:15 Discipline Makes Great Players
• 42:25 For the Cycle: Final Questions

Transcript

Joy: 0:03

Thanks for tuning in to the Bring Joy podcast. We're in season five and it's all about baseball, talking big leagues to the little leagues, yankees to the Conchs and everything in between. I'll share my joy for the game with you and, whether you're a fan of baseball or good storytelling, you'll be entertained and each episode will bring a little joy to your day. So sit back and relax. Let's do this thing how we doing baseball fans. We're in for a good one today. I'm excited to talk baseball with Coach Joey Gonzalez, head coach of one of the hottest baseball programs in South Florida, the Marathon Dolphins. Welcome to the show, coach.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 0:47

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here with you today.

Joy: 0:50

Very good, Very good. So that's not an overstatement. Right To say that Marathon is one of the hottest programs in South Florida.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 0:58

I respect you highly for saying that. You know, I think we're finally getting to the point here in Marathon where we're earning the respect of a lot of these South Florida teams and we're trying to work our way into that top tier, no doubt. I think this year was definitely a step in the right direction and we look to continue just building up and getting into that top level there for sure. So I think we're moving along that line, no doubt.

Joy: 1:22

All good, yeah, yeah, and part of part of being a winning program is owning it too. Right, absolutely. And yeah, the last two years you all have won the conference championship and 2025 was historically successful. You won the district tournament, district champs. You end up um hosting regional uh tournament as well, so I mean you're coming off a high, no doubt. I know that high school baseball networks in South Florida were talking about you. I saw a marathon on several top 20 lists. So it's happening.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 1:59

It is, it is. You know it's still kind of surreal. You know me as a former high school baseball player in Marathon and coming up through the system and never really being a part of a winning program throughout my high school days. It's a lot of fun to see this full circle moment of just being able to lead and guide our boys and see the year-long investment, what we didn't have for so many years in the past, investment what we didn't have for so many years in the past and and and now we're starting little by little to to enjoy that success that we're putting so much work for forward to get to congratulations on your success.

Joy: 2:33

You definitely got everyone paying attention and talking about marathon baseball, myself including. I mentioned before we started recording. I need to get me a marathon hat, yeah we'll get you hooked up.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 2:43

We'll get you hooked up. We'll get you hooked up.

Joy: 2:45

I look good in blue, I look good in red, but I look good in blue too.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 2:49

I think you could pull it off from time to time.

Joy: 2:52

I got to get up there and watch a couple games before I can earn that hat, though, but you know we're here at the end of June. You've had a little more than a month actually to process the 2025 season season. How would you summarize, like I said, the historically successful year?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 3:09

I think in one word and I mentioned that word just a few minutes ago it's surreal. It's really surreal, the path that we took to get to that district title this year. Anybody that knows marathon baseball and understands how we build our program, they understand that we are typically a very young squad and we weren't, by any stretch of the word, old this season. We only had five seniors. We were heavy in the lower level in terms of ninth and tenth graders and the beauty of Marathon Baseball is that we build our kids from sixth grade on up. We're all on one campus so we kind of get that feeder group and we mesh them together with our older guys and we started that from day one last year and we got those young kids who we see as future guys here in our program and we started to mold and build. And next thing, you know, we have three or four of those younger guys starting on our varsity program and eating up big innings on the mound, getting spot starts defensively, and they were huge contributors to what we were able to accomplish this year.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 4:10

You know we didn't start off as hot as I wanted to, but that was all right. You know we faced some adversity. We had a couple of really good teams on our schedule early on and I think we got out to a two and three start. So it wasn't the best five game stretch I wanted to start the season, but it was a great test to see how the boys, how the young ones especially, were going to react and overcome that little hiccup. You know. Early on. And from that point forward we kind of hit our stride and it seemed like we were winning. We were winning every week. We weren't necessarily sweeping every week, but we were at least grabbing two out of three every week that we were on the field and one thing led to the next and we were right there playing for a district title against a really good team, and we were able to pull it off there at the end.

Joy: 4:51

Yeah, and the city marathon, I hear, was popping, I know, as the season went on and you guys started stacking wins, like you were referring to, the stands were getting more packed every game. I'm sure. Absolutely yeah, it was really exciting. The city was. The stands were getting more packed every game, I'm sure.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 5:04

Absolutely. Yeah, it was really exciting. Our boys feed off of that energy. You know, just like Key West, we're a small town and we all love each other, we all know each other and we're all invested for the same reason. We want to see our young kids do well and be successful. And, like you said, as we started winning ballgames, friday nights went from 150 to 300. And then we win the district title and we host regionals. We have to call the local parks to bring in more bleachers. We had 600 people. It was just something that hasn't been seen at Marathon, frankly, ever, and I've been around the program for 20 years and I've never seen the crowds like we had this year. It was just. It was a lot of fun and the boys earned it. They earned every bit of that.

Joy: 5:45

And how proud does that make you feel as an alumni of Marathon High School, of the program. How proud is that for you. And then also to see your boys. They must be like celebrities around town.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 5:57

I mean. To me it's everything. You know, this is what I dreamt of when I took over the program. I didn't take over the program just to go through the motions and just be another regular coach who just is there from January to May. I took over the program to make a lasting impact and to make baseball relevant in town again, and I think we're finally getting to that point where we have an 8U, we have a 10U, we have a 12U, we have a middle school, we have a JV, we have a 12U, we have a middle school, we have a JV, we have a varsity, we finally have the ladder that you need to be successful, and our boys at the top, my coaching staff. I think we've built that, and now the younger kids are playing year-round and it's just a really beautiful thing to see what we've got going on right now.

Joy: 6:42

It's an exciting time and it seems like like they got the right guy at the helm. So you mentioned I think you say you have five seniors- yes, ma'am. Are any of them going on and playing ball at the next level?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 6:58

So this group of seniors was probably the most unique group of seniors that I've ever coached in my entire life I've been around the program obviously my whole life, but coaching between assistant and varsity head coach about 12 years now and by far the most unique group of guys. I'll start with the academic side, because that in itself is remarkable and me, as a teacher at the high school, I think it's very important to mention academics first. This group of five had an average GPA of 4.25. So they were also-.

Joy: 7:29

You said 4.25.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 7:32

4.25 average across the board for all five of those young men Exactly so. We started talking recruiting in their junior year. They were kind of unsure because they were so academic driven and we got. We got to the point in the recruiting process where three out of my five were offered the opportunity to play at the next level Mason, my tall right-handed pitcher who grew into his own and became my ace there towards the end of the season. And then the Leo brothers who many from down South know, coach Lewis Leo, who I took over for he was my head coach is a state champion from Key West in the class of 98. His boys were also afforded the opportunity to play at the next level.

Joy: 8:12

They went on their visits.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 8:14

You know they did all of those fun things and it didn't work out on the baseball side because of how academically driven these three young men were. One of them had a full academic opportunity at UMass, which is where his home state was, in Massachusetts Mason, and he went forth and took that academic opportunity because his goal and dream was to go back home and I've got to tip my cap to that and just respect that. You know what I mean. And the twin brothers same situation, but again, you know, one chose a better package academically at Florida Atlantic. And then our other twin brother is going to be pursuing the fire department and he's already done his first two years within the high school. So he's going to stay local and he's got all of that covered as well. So, in short, none of them are going on to play ball. Three had a great opportunity to play at the next level, but takes nothing away from what those young men are going to accomplish in their lives.

Joy: 9:07

No, absolutely, and being able to play ball at the next level is one path to get there, but it's not necessarily about playing ball right. You use baseball to get to college and to continue your education and opportunity, and it sounds like you have some really talented young men and you know that kind of student athlete. It's got to be a coach's dream it is.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 9:32

I mean having such a young group of guys and having such leadership at the top. Such strong leadership at the top. It sets the tone and it trickles down to the rest of those kids who who look up to them. They go, the eighth graders going, moving into ninth grade, say, wow, they're graduating with a 4.2. If I'm a, if I'm a good ball player and I have good grades, I have the best of both worlds. I can put it all together. You know what I mean. So there's there's no doubt that they were. They were tremendous leaders for us.

Joy: 10:05

I'm glad that you mentioned Louis Leo, because I watched him play when he was a boy and he was a hell of a ball player and then keeping up with his two boys and seeing the success that they had at Marathon, I know that that had to be special and he's still a big part of Marathon athletics, right.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 10:20

Absolutely yeah. So I'm glad you brought him back up because Coach Leal is a full circle moment for me. He is the only baseball coach that I've ever had in my life. He was my middle school coach, he was my high school coach, he was my mentor. He was. He was everything that a high school student would look at, look for in a coach high school student would look at, look for in a coach.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 10:48

It was Louis Liu, and when I went off to college, obviously we stayed in contact because we were, we're basically we're family. You know we're not blood but we're family. And he knew my goals and he knew my dream was to come back home and teach and eventually get into the baseball, get my foot into the baseball program. So he, as soon as I returned and got hired by the Monroe County School District, he started mentoring me again on a more adult professional level and kind of took me under his wing, brought me in as his assistant, gave me the head middle school coaching position and gave me a few years to get my feet wet with the middle school program. And then, when his kids hit our middle school, he was ready to take a step back and become a parent and that was in our plans.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 11:28

And he told me. He said listen, it's your time to shine. I've groomed you up from the time you were 12 years old. Now my kids are 12 years old and I'm ready for you to lead them to their graduation and to their next step in their careers. And it gives me the chills talking about it, because now those kids are like my own and step in their careers. And it gives me the chills talking about it, because now those kids are like my own. And, wouldn't you know it, they both just graduated, and Louis Liu was in the stands watching me coach them.

Joy: 11:50

That's beautiful. I've got. I had chills and now I get, I get tears in my eyes. It's you know, my podcast is all about the joys of baseball and how much joy it brings. That story you just told is a classic and that's what it's all about. And that's the other thing right Beyond the game, when the more you stay in baseball and talk to baseball people, you realize how many threads there are that connect us and I think that's really special. Thank you for sharing that. Hopefully he's watching this episode.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 12:22

And if he's not, we'll make sure. We'll make sure to get him the link for sure. I know he tunes in.

Joy: 12:26

Yeah, that's, that's, that's good stuff. So you talked about you know student athletes. You mentioned already that that you're a teacher. Talk about that, you. You are a teacher and an instructor. What do you? What do you teach and you realize what an opportunity you have to impact so many young people.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 12:46

Yeah, absolutely. You know I take joy in teaching at the high school and having the opportunity to interact not only with my students but with my athletes on a different level daily. So, to touch on what I do, I am the going into my 10th year of teaching. I'm the 12th grade ESOL teacher and the ESOL contact for our entire school, 6 through 12.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 13:07

I initially started as the ESOL teacher for our entire high school, 9th through 12th grade, which, for those of you who don't know what ESOL is, it's basically our immigrant population, all of our non-native English speakers. So kids from Cuba, puerto Rico, all over the globe, not United States. I work with them to get to graduation and to teach them English and recently, as we had a larger influx of immigrants, they brought on a couple more ESOL teachers to help ease the load for myself, I'm able to now focus specifically on our 11th and 12th graders, our older kids, and help them get to that finish line and pursue either college or the workforce, but get them to that high school diploma and just see them successful in life beyond high school. So that's what I do.

Joy: 13:53

That's doing a lot for your community and for those young lives. So I saw something on social media recently where you were congratulating one of your former students who I believe he's in the track, running track and having a lot of success at the college level, and I just thought it was so cool how proud you were of him, not as his former coach, but as as his former teacher. It's really special.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 14:22

Yeah, no, that was that was. That's one of my, I would say, top three coaching slash teaching moments I've ever had in my 10 years at Marathon. That was an unbelievable experience. So I'll just touch on that briefly. His name is Pedro and he arrived to us as a super shy immigrant student his 10th grade year. He barely knew how to say hello in English, came over from Venezuela with his mother. His dad was already here for some time, so he was able to get them over legally through the process and he came to me and of course I was the first one to greet him at the high school, because I'm the one who intakes our immigrant students and I test them and I give them their evaluation and see where they're going to be placed. And of course he didn't know any English. So he landed with me and he immediately said Mr Gonzalez, I'm a soccer player, I'm excited to be able to join the soccer team. And, mind you, it was early September, two months out from soccer. I'm like, all right, well, I'm the assistant cross country coach at the time. So there's no better way to get you in shape for soccer than to throw you on the cross country team and see what you're made of soccer than to throw you on the cross country team and see what you're made of. So we did that and one thing led to the next. He became this unbelievable runner distance for cross country. Made it to states with the team his first year, participated in soccer, enjoyed his time in soccer but absolutely fell in love with the running. Then he did track in during the spring season, became a three-time. Now we'll fast forward to 12th grade, became a three-time state participant for cross country Excellent.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 15:58

My wife and I took him on a recruiting trip up to Alabama. We flew him out. He got an invite to the national running tournament and his goal was to run under a 17-minute 5K. We had been in contact with Daytona State, which is the most elite junior college for running in the state of Florida, pretty much in the whole southeastern region, and the head coach, joy Wilson, is her name. She told me. She said if we could get him under a 16.45 at the national tournament, he's got a scholarship. So we did that. We got him at a 1641, and he went on to Daytona and fast forward a couple years. He's running at FIU on an athletic scholarship to finish up his career.

Joy: 16:46

That's big time. That's big time. Thank you for sharing that. I saw something online and I had no idea how much influence you had on him. So again, your opportunity to impact in the community and from the classroom to the ball field really makes a difference. Speaking of coaching, do I see that you coach T-ball and Little League I do.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 17:10

This year was my first year I did. I was the spearhead for my daughter coach T-ball in Little League I do. This year was my first year I did. I was the spearhead for my daughter's T-ball team my daughter's six years old, going into the first grade. And of course, how can I say no to that? How can I say no to that when I'm around all of these kids all day long who aren't blood to myself? But then I tell my daughter no, I'm not going to coach your t-ball team. There was no way of doing that. So right smack dab in the middle of our varsity baseball season, I found some time and went out and coached t-ball for my daughter. It was an absolute blast.

Joy: 17:41

That's fantastic. What's one of the fundamental skills that you teach in Little League that the player can take with them to the high school field?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 17:53

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think the main focus for our young ones because it was it was a very young T-ball team. We had fourth, fifth or four-year-olds, five-year-olds and some right on the cusp of six, so a lot of them just for the first time put in a club on their hands.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 18:08

Yeah, so so I mean we were. We were just teaching the fundamentals of of what foot to step with, how to throw, how to break down for ground balls and some of them even further back, what base to run to after you put a bat, put the bat on the ball. So it was. It was a lot of fun just teaching them the basics and and I think they learned a ton. You know, we went from from kids chasing balls after they hit it off the tee to kids running all the way around and our pitcher fielding it and stepping and throwing to first. So it was a. It was a good time, good experience.

Joy: 18:38

That's awesome. What's? What's your daughter's name?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 18:41

My daughter her name is Gabriela and I have a little, a little boy who he's going into pre-K. He's four years old, his name is Adrian, and my wife's my wife's. We're expecting number three in September. Congratulations, thank you. Thank you. We'll be a family of five real soon.

Joy: 18:58

Yeah, you're working on your own team.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 19:01

Yeah, working on my little, my own little squad. But that's it Five. Five of us total and we're good to go.

Joy: 19:07

That's plenty. So is it harder to coach?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 19:12

five-year-olds or 15-year-olds. I think it's a healthy balance, you know, I think they both come with their challenges. The 15-year-olds you got to deal with Sometimes you got to put some egos in check and you got to balance the academics with that as well and it's more of a task where with the five-year-olds it's more of like an attention thing. Hey, stop playing with the grass, get out of the dirt, stop picking your nose. We got a game to play.

Joy: 19:37

That's good stuff. I love it Speaking of your daughter and women's sport is blowing up.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 19:47

Yeah, absolutely.

Joy: 19:48

I'm starting to pay more attention to softball.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 19:51

Really cool that there's opportunity for girls to keep playing beyond high school high school as well absolutely yeah no, my daughter, my daughter's taking a little liking to, uh, to running as well, so that's, we'll see where that leads her. You know me with a that, that small window of cross country in my background, it'd be. It'd be fun to see if she she takes that up. We were actually up at Disney last week for a little family trip and I was doing my morning jogs around the lake by the hotel and she's like daddy, I want to get up early with you and do a lap around the lake. So she got up, mom, mom was sleeping in with my son and we took a little, took a little mild jog at six years old. So I think we might have a little runner in our future.

Joy: 20:30

Yeah, it sounds like you have a good athlete. So you mentioned you were an athlete at Marathon. What position did you play and how good were you?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 20:39

Yeah, you know, I was a left-handed pitcher and I was a first baseman primarily first base my entire career. And then we had a need my junior year, for somebody to come in and eat up some innings. So I started developing a little bit more as a pitcher. I didn't throw too too hard, you know. I was an upper 78 to 81 guy with a couple of decent pitches. I just threw a lot of strikes. I didn't fall behind too much. I was just one of those guys who would give you seven innings on 75 pitches and sometimes we'd win, sometimes we'd lose, but I was sure to get you 80% strike.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 21:13

So I like to tell my guys you know, it's not about how hard you throw the ball, it's about how confident you are and how accurate you throw. And luckily the shift has changed from when I used to play. Now we've got a few guys who are living in that culture of getting that velo and learning how to do it healthy in the right way. So we're finally getting to that point where we have a bunch of hard throwers and now we're just working on getting that command that I emphasized to them so much. So you know I was a decent ballplayer.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 21:43

I think I was a 340 guy offensively my senior year and it was different. You know, it was a lot different when we played. We played because we enjoyed our time out there and it was tough to play for championships. We had westminster, christian, florida, christian all of those at the time those recruiting powerhouses year in and year out. So it was. It was really tough to swallow that every year, knowing that you'd have to see that at the end of the season and we didn't have the talent that we have now.

Joy: 22:09

So we enjoyed our time out there, for sure, but what we've got now is just a completely different breed, for sure so let's talk about that a little bit, because I see that following the key west conks, we get to a certain point and you're going to run up on these private schools that are recruiting all these players and it makes it real hard to compete and it can be frustrating. Marathon's a smaller school. I know you guys are in a class they call the rural class.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 22:39

The rural class.

Joy: 22:40

Rural class. And so how do you find the competition? Is it an even playing field?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 22:48

You know. So this is obviously. This past season was the first year that the rural classification was formed and it's very interesting. I'm glad you brought that up because, like I said for so long, marathon Baseball we would hit a brick wall at the end of the regular season First round of districts. We would hit a brick wall and we knew with this rural classification we had the opportunity to get through that first round. Now there are some unbelievably talented teams in the rural classification when you get beyond that first round.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 23:21

In the past that first round was where we were done. Now I think for a very long time we're going to be able to get our way through that first round and compete for district titles. But as soon as we get through that first round you're going to have to bring your A game because you've got Fort Meade on the other end, and that's the team who we saw four different times this year. We beat them in the title. Fort Meade was a top 100 across the entire state, all seven divisions all year long. They were top five in our rural classification all year long. So once you get beyond that first round, the competition is just like any other big name private school opponent that you'd play. So, in short, getting to that point. Although it may be a little bit easier getting through that point, you're still going to have to have one hell of a squad to get through that point.

Joy: 24:09

Yeah, it's challenging as a fan, because I followed the Lady Conks softball team and they ran into the same thing. You get so far and then you run into that school who has recruits from not only all over South Florida but some pull from other countries and everything. So not to have sour grapes, right, it is what it is. You've got to put your best team on the field and compete. But uh, it is what you think about the three game series. How did that work out for you as a coach? What's your thoughts on that?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 24:43

yeah, you know, for us we were on the short end of the three game series, but in my opinion a three-game series proves your best team.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 24:54

There's been so many times where a mediocre middle-of-the-road team has had one horse on the mound and has been able to ride that horse all the way down to the end, and that wasn't the case this year.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 25:05

We had a couple guys that could really throw strikes, but we ran into a Fort fort meet who had three guys who were 80 88, one guy who ran it up to 90 and they were the better team. This year we got the best of them in the district title game. It was a small scrappy game where we were able to squeak out a 2-1 win and we won a district title and we we're not going to take that away at all, but in a three, in a three game series, you tip cap. They had three upper 80s guys and they deserved to win that series because they outpitched and outperformed us. So I think this year, and hopefully moving forward, not only does it give our boys an opportunity to play more games, but it gives the team the opportunity to show who's the deepest come postseason, which is ultimately what you want to see. You want to see what team has the most to offer at the end of the season.

Joy: 25:55

Right, right, it was tough traveling as a fan following your team, right, even as a fan, it's hard to get up and go and keep going. You know you're marathons 50 miles north of Key West, so you have those same travel challenges. Talk about that a little bit. How does that add to the pressure of your program from a funding standpoint, from a fan standpoint? Talk about that 100%.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 26:22

You know this is a really good point you bring up because not many programs other than Key West and Marathon High School understand what it takes to pull off a season full of travel. Key West is fortunate enough that they are able to host a ton of games. You know they have an unbelievable facility and just their history of Key West baseball. Who doesn't want to go down there and play at Rec Switch? You know? But for us we still split. We play 12 home, 12 away typically and people don't realize it's a 12-month fundraising commitment.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 26:56

As a coach and as a program you have to have tens of thousands of dollars to be able to pull off these travel days. Even the one day where you go up to Miami play at 5 o'clock, you're back home at midnight. It's still a four or five thousand dollar event If you're taking a charter bus. People don't realize the amount of money it takes to pull these things off, let alone now in our rural classification where we want to see our district opponents and we have to go four hours, five hours, six hours to play these district opponents. You're staying in a hotel one, two, three nights, three times a year. You need $40,000 or $50,000 in fundraising to pull those efforts off, and it's a very, very tough task. But I think that's what makes our programs both of our programs so unique is that we understand the commitment it takes to be able to pull that off.

Joy: 27:48

And you really have to tip your caps to the community and your business partners and help support, because when you're talking about that kind of money, that's a big investment and we're fortunate, go ahead.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 28:02

Coming from such a small community, it feels like sometimes you're asking the same generous business donors over and, over and over and they will never tell you no, because they know how essential it is to the growth of the program. So it's like you said, joe, you have to. You have to just respect every community member that puts their hand in making this possible, because they're the ones who do it year in and year out. You're the banner fundraisers, this that, the plaque sales, the dinners, car washes. They're there every step of the way.

Joy: 28:32

And those are. I was just going to add to that we're fortunate to come from such tight-knit communities, right, where we show up and support our kids, especially support each other. But when it comes to Keys, keys kids there's a lot of support behind those program. Talking about tip your cap, I'm listening to you talk about the, the amount of hours on the road with your players and gotta tip your cap again to your kids who did so well in school. You know being on the road playing the game and then turning around and driving back home and going to school the next morning and for your kids to have the success they did in the classroom, that's something special.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 29:20

Absolutely, you know, I think. I think it makes it makes it a little bit easier for our kids to understand the importance of academics. When their head coach and their assistant coach, which is my brother, were both school teachers at Marathon. When their head coach and their assistant coach, which is my brother, were both school teachers at Marathon you know it's me at the high school level, him at the middle school level, spearheading our younger kids, which some of them travel with our varsity as well. They understand it doesn't matter if we're home at midnight.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 29:42

You've got to on our way back from our game. I don't care if we won by 10 or we lost by 10,. Your Chromebook is open, You're knocking out your homework and when you get home you're going to bed and at 7.15, when the bell rings, we're going to see your faces in class, because it's a reflection of us and our program. So they buy into knowing that, while my coaches are also teachers and if they don't set the standard for us, it's going to make them look bad as well. So we've got to respect the fact that they are mature enough to see that, which is huge.

Joy: 30:14

Talk about you. You mentioned your brother and your coaching staff. You all have roots, deep roots, in the Keys and Marathon, and how does that add to the quality of your program that you and your staff are part of?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 30:31

You know, I think we've put together what I would call a power team in terms of our coaching staff. We've got Coach Leo. You can't leave him out. He's our athletic trainer and he's got a hand in everything we do. We've got my dad at the very top as the head of our booster program, who, for those of you who don't know my dad, is a Key West Baseball state champion from the class of 84 as well.

Joy: 30:57

I had that on my list, so I'm glad you brought it up.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 31:00

Let's go. There you go. I've got my brother, who's my right-hand man. He's my first base coach. He's my analytical guy. He's the guy up here who doesn't talk much but he dissects a lot of the things that I don't necessarily catch during the course of a game. Who's also an alumni from the class of 2010 at Marathon High School. We have my strength and conditioning coordinator, who is the owner of our local gym here in Marathon, coach Chris Cook. He spearheads all of our strength, our off-season workouts, our in-season workouts, our keeping our kids healthy, giving them the nutritions that they need, the way to eat, eat, the way to go about their lifting.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 31:39

Also a former marathon high school graduate, who from the early 2000s, who played at Jacksonville University after high school. And then we've got coach Kyle Pierce, who's our pitching coach, which is a very familiar name down south as well. He was a former marathon born and raised, and then, of course, we had the, had the few years where marathon baseball was, you know, on a down, and he went down south and got a couple really successful seasons down at Key West before going on and playing at the Division II level as well. And then Coach Chad O'Rourke, who his son was Mason, our pitcher, who just graduated, and he's been our tech guy. He's just been our anything wewe-need type guy. He just oversees everything kind of like my dad and financially has been a huge booster and supporter for the program. So we definitely can't leave him out.

Joy: 32:28

And it comes to mind it takes a village right.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 32:32

It does, it does. It's not a one-man show. It's not a two-man show. You need a group of guys all pulling on the same side of the rope, that are in it for the right reason.

Joy: 32:40

Well, it sounds like you have a great crew, and is everybody coming back for the 26th season?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 32:46

Everybody's coming back. So when I took over this will be my seventh season as the varsity head coach it was myself, my brother, my dad who's now the head of the booster. Coach Leo and Coach Chad came in my second year when Mason moved into town and then, as we started seeing slow successes, coach Kyle finished college. He jumped on board. We brought him in, and my third year we brought Coach Chris, our strength coordinator, and all six of us have been pushing in this direction together and don't plan on slowing that anytime soon.

Joy: 33:18

I love it and I see that your boys are out there working, putting in work in the weight room, working in the cages. What is the summer program and what is the goal of the summer program?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 33:30

Yeah, absolutely, you know so. So we're, we're like I alluded to a little while ago we're young, we're going to be young again. I have one, have one senior returning next year and my core group of guys are going to be incoming juniors and they're extremely, extremely, extremely talented ballplayers. But we knew losing three major power bats. We had three guys that are graduating, three out of our five that together had 95 base hits and hit an average the three of them of 365. So that's a hard thing to replace. So we knew getting these younger guys in the weight room was on the forefront and getting some muscle on these guys and just getting back to the basics. We have a couple of our real talented kids off playing summer ball Dylan Williams, who's up near the upper 80s range right now on the mound playing on the Scorpion Scout team. A couple of our young guys are down south with you guys doing a lot of travel, and Reefer Ella, he's playing on the Padres Scout team.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 34:31

So we've got different pieces moving around, but we all come together when we're in town and we get a three-day-a-week lifting session, which is baseball specific lifts, led by Coach Chris Cook, our strength coordinator. We do that at 8 am. We go for about an hour and a half and then we do about an hour and a half on the field. After that we get our long toss session, we get our bullpen in, we get our cage working for the guys who aren't throwing pens and we go about three hours. We go through it for about a three hour cycle, three to four days a week and then the days that we're not grouped together. All the kids have Coach Chris's 24 hour gym code and they go in and do team lifts together. So I think we've got a nice system and we've got our core group of 12 to 15 bought in all summer, which we're super excited about.

Joy: 35:15

It sounds like you've got all the right things happening and you've got kids that are willing to put in the work to make it happen, not getting too far.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 35:23

That's the difference, you know. That's the difference from what marathon baseball used to be and what marathon baseball is becoming is. You nailed it. We can preach it all we want, we can ask the kids all we want, but they've got to show up. And we've got 15 kids showing up every day, waking up at 6.30 in the morning on their summers off to show up at 7.45 and get their lift and get their practice. And that's all you could ask for as a coach.

Joy: 35:49

Speaking of coach and what a coach asks for. What makes a good baseball player?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 35:55

What makes a good baseball player? Discipline Very simple.

Joy: 36:00

What are we? A good baseball player Discipline.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 36:01

Very simple Discipline. You know you have to have goals and you have to have goals. You have to have goals that are realistic and you have to have goals that might be tough to reach. But you've got to lay a path to get to both of those realistic goals and you've got to lay a path to get to both of those realistic goals and you've got to lay a path to get to those goals that are hard to attain. And if you are not disciplined and you don't take every single step in that path to get to those goals, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 36:29

I have a young man who's coming into the 11th grade who embodies the word discipline. He's a kid who didn't see much action his 10th grade year. He's got a great arm, he's got a developing fastball. He threw about 15 innings for us and did a really good job. But he came up to me at the end of the year and he said, coach, I want to be a top of the rotation guy.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 36:52

And I told him I said listen, we're getting to the point in our program where we've got to develop and we've got to be disciplined and it can't just be a January to May commitment. It has to be a 12-month commitment and he asked me. He said what do I do? I said you take it upon yourself to become disciplined. I laid it out there. I said you can hang up the cleats right now and pick them up again in December, january, or you can lace them up in a week after we get over our elimination loss in the Sweet 16 and put your nose down and get to work.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 37:24

And he's evolving unbelievably. He's in the weight room five days a week. He's driving up to West Palm and he's doing Cressy pitching clinics twice a week up at the Cressy facility. I saw videos of Jacob Burnham there and a couple other Key West alum up there. He's doing all of the things that we told him to do that take discipline. He's sacrificing time on the water, sacrificing time on the sandbar, because he knows what he wants and he knows what it's going to take to get there. So I think that one word discipline is what makes a good ballplayer for sure.

Joy: 37:57

Nicely done, coach. So I that one word, discipline, is what makes a good ball player for sure. Nicely done, coach. So I have this new new thing I want to try out to to wrap up an episode, to end on a segment called for the cycle. All right, so I'm going to ask you four questions yeah all right, they get harder as we go all right all right, so let me see, let me find them here, you ready.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 38:19

I think so you can't make me look crazy now.

Joy: 38:23

No, no, no, no, no. We're good. I have confidence You're going to be good at this. What's your favorite besides Marathon Dolphin? What's your favorite baseball team?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 38:31

Unfortunately, the Miami Marlins Unfortunately.

Joy: 38:35

Hey, they broke my heart so many times.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 38:38

I don't know how I keep going back to them. I really don't.

Joy: 38:41

Listen, Bubba, it's. The worst relationship I ever had in my life is with the Marlins.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 38:45

It is awful, absolutely awful. You know it's our hometown team and we got to show up when we're only one of 4,000 people in the stands.

Joy: 38:54

No, you know, when I was a kid, like your dad, florida didn't have a team, and so at least you grew up in a time where Florida and now the Miami Martins exist. But yeah, you got to be tough to be a Martin fan. So tip my hat to you on that one. And no shame, because that shows you got a plenty heart. All right, best baseball movie ever.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 39:19

I love the Sandlot.

Joy: 39:21

That's mine too, coach.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 39:22

I am a Sandlot guy through and through. I'm not a movie guy, but when I kick back and I watch a movie, I find myself watching the Sandlot.

Joy: 39:31

That's number one. I love it. All right, you've talked a little bit about this earlier. Mm-hmm. All right, you've talked a little bit about this earlier. How important is analytics to baseball and to matching the needs of our current athletes that are inundated with data?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 39:57

up on the analytics, we're going to fall behind and that's the bottom line, because everybody around you is using analytics to move their game to a different level. And I found it challenging this year this was our first year taking that step to the more analytical side. We got our Rapsodo, we got our pitch calling through Pitch Calm and, excuse me, making that adjustment, making that move from that more old school look to that new school, breaking down data and through a machine, more so than just out of a hand, it does, it does evolve your program in ways that you wouldn't really think about when you look at it from a, from a, from a further distance away. So I do think analytics it has to have a healthy balance. So I think I think there's still important, important components of getting to the basics of what old school baseball is, but you still have to mesh both of them together because if not, you're going to get left behind.

Joy: 40:45

Very good, good answer on that one. All right, this is the last one. This is the hard one for the cycles.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 40:53

All right.

Joy: 40:54

What's a life lesson that baseball has taught you?

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 40:58

A life lesson that baseball has taught me. A life lesson that baseball has taught me don't get too high and don't get too low. Don't get too high and don't get too low for me as a player, I enjoyed my baseball career. I knew that beyond high school I had other goals and I was honest with myself and I knew that baseball probably wasn't going to be in the equation post high school other than what I did with my club team at FGCU and things of that nature.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 41:25

A lot of these kids that we coach on a daily basis are in the same situation. You have a small group of kids who are elite, who are going to move on and who are just diehard and extremely passionate and take everything that they do to a different level. But I think that the overarching message for all of our young athletes, especially our baseball players, is just to not get too high when the good is good and not get too low when the bad is bad, because if you go out and you're throwing a gem but you strike out three times offensively, you can't let that those three strikeouts get to you, because you still got to put your team on your back on the other side of the ball. So you've got to find a balance where you stay level-headed and you know the task at hand is greater than the few errors or the few kick balls or the few strikeouts that you had. So don't get too high, don't get too low, for sure.

Joy: 42:21

Good one, coach. I loved it. All your answers Well done. That was my first time to try that. I think I'm going to. I like that. I like that. You set the bar high. I really enjoyed our conversation, coach. I've been paying attention from afar. I promise you this I'm gonna have you back on the show when it comes closer to the 2026 season. I want to hear all about it, but also bigger than that. I'm gonna get in the stands and uh, watch you and your boys go at it. I'm a big fan, coach. Thank you love it.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 42:54

Thank you so much and I'm here anytime you want to. You want to grab me? Just shoot me a text, give me me a call. I think we're unique down here in the Keys. For too long people have looked at us as two separate entities, two separate programs. They look at us as Marathon versus Key West and, let's be honest, we're two different programs but we're all pushing in the same direction. I told my boys we need to go support Key West in their regional game. We need to go do these things because we are one group and I have a lot of my young guys who work their way up as young kids with you guys before they get to me. So I think it's only right that we respect each other and that we push each other and we support each other the best way possible. And you coming up and being in the stands next year will be absolutely huge for me and so many of my boys know you through social media and they would absolutely love to see that. So I appreciate that.

Joy: 43:46

I'll make it happen, and I love being able to meet some of your players at the playoffs, at the recs. It was really cool to see them. They probably thought I was crazy because I wanted to take their picture and get their autographs and all that, but that's what I do. I'm a fan, right? I can't help myself.

Coach Joey Gonzalez: 44:03

They came up to me right away. They knew exactly who you were, don't worry, they knew exactly who you were.

Joy: 44:08

Well, that's good stuff and I know who they are and I want to watch them play. So thank you so much. Bye-bye, go baseball, go baseball. I'm joy newlish and I appreciate you tuning into my podcast. My purpose is to bring joy into my life and the lives of others. If you enjoyed this episode, drop a review, share and subscribe, because there's a lot of good stuff on tap. You can also follow bring joy on youtube and instagram, or check my website at joynoodlescom. Now go, bring joy to the people in your world. Until next time, much love.