Coaching Baseball & Raising Ballplayers: Eric Dillinger, Lutheran High School (CO) | Ep. 114

Listen on Apple Podcasts

At a Glance

Eric Dillinger — new head baseball coach at Lutheran High School ("Luh High") in Parker, CO, after eight years at Erie High School (the last three as head coach). Contributor for Three Quarter Slot. Dad to three ballplayers: Ethan (LHP, Air Force Academy senior), Evan (catcher, freshman at Southeast Community College in Beatrice, NE), and Ian (eighth grader, first year playing up).

Moving programs, coaching his own sons, building a culture around failure, and what he's learned writing scouting reports.

Takeaways:

  • A program move driven by his wife's new job, not by wanting to leave Erie
  • Guys don't care what you know until they know that you care
  • Intentional outreach to former players matters, but it has to stay genuine
  • Being tough on his own kids to avoid any hint of "daddy ball"
  • A written failure plan turns a real weakness into a practiced skill
  • Mission, vision, and principles in writing removes the guesswork for players
  • Checking your "why" constantly keeps a program from chasing trophies for the wrong reasons

New Job, New City

  • Eight years at Erie High School, the last three as head coach — loved every bit of it, had no intent of leaving
  • Catalyst: his wife Marlo took a job with the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office in February, adding roughly three hours of daily commute
  • Got "tapped on the shoulder" about the Lutheran High School opening; accepted a couple weeks before this recording and is already building a staff
  • Mentors who shaped his enthusiasm for the game: Jason Bates (Rockies, 1995–99) and Mike Kazlowski ("Coach Cass"), who just stepped away from Air Force — "it's way bigger than baseball for him"

Coaching 14- to 18-Year-Olds

  • Sees that age range as the most formative window there is
  • The game eventually tells everyone they're done — his job is helping players use the field to handle adversity in life
  • Touch every guy every day, and talk about more than baseball — "guys don't care what you know until they know that you care"
  • Is intentional about reaching alumni, but resists it becoming a rote checklist — genuine reasons (a walk-up song on the radio) usually prompt the call

Three Memories That Stuck

  • 2023 playoff win over Grand View: Ethan, a senior at the time, worked into the seventh up 3–1 before hitting his pitch count; walking out to pull him, Eric saw both the senior and "the five-year-old kid" at once
  • Six months later, Ethan started for Air Force against Southern Miss on opening weekend in Hattiesburg — a text from Coach Winkler on the bus ("you're starting tomorrow") six months removed from high school
  • 2025 Erie season: a staff goal of 12 wins turned into 22 wins and a run to a regional championship game; after a gut-wrenching loss, the team sat in the infield grass until the sun went down, "laughing, crying, all of that stuff"

"Guys don't care what you know until they know that you care."

Dad Hat vs. Coach Hat

  • The hardest part is turning "coach" back into "dad" once they leave the field
  • Was hardest on Ethan, who was the worst player on his team from ages 12 to 15 before growing into a Division I arm
  • Evan was more of a self-starter (hockey background); Ian, now in his first season being coached by his dad, is getting a softer touch focused on falling in love with the game itself, not "the circus" around it
  • Recruiting changed significantly between sons — Ethan's cycle predated current roster limits and today's transfer portal
  • Has actively fought the "daddy ball" perception by holding his own kids to a standard he admits isn't always applied evenly to everyone else

Three Quarter Slot

  • Writes scouting reports and prospect rankings for Three Quarter Slot, after Sean Kernahan put out a call for additional writers last fall
  • About 75 reports written in eleven months, plus contributions to a draft guide and time in MLB draft rooms
  • Credentialed at the MLB Desert Invitational at Salt River Fields after four months of writing for Sean
  • Good evaluation means studying video, talking to the coaches and people around a player, and remembering that a showcase performer isn't always a good baseball player
  • Holds Rapsodo and Driveline certifications, picked up during COVID to go deeper on the technical side

On-the-spot scouting reports (his own sons):

Player Notes
Ethan LHP, 6'1", ~200 lb. FB 88–91 with spin; four pitches, changeup plays off the fastball, big overhand curve, slider that bites into a right-hander
Evan Physical catcher, good receiver and blocker, average pop time, developing raw power; also pitched some in a summer collegiate league (4–0, ~1.75 ERA)
Ian Still growing into his frame ("high-waisted... he's a giraffe right now"); early signs he'll follow his brothers as a pitcher who can spin a breaking ball

Fall Ball and Development

  • Ian, an eighth grader, is playing his first fall on a 60/90 field; older Erie alumni scatter to club events in Arizona, Florida, and Georgia
  • Ran an informal Tuesday/Thursday fall program at Erie mainly so incoming freshmen could meet the staff
  • A strong supporter of multi-sport athletes — his 2025 team's best position player was also the starting varsity quarterback
  • Puts individualized development plans in front of players covering baseball and non-baseball work (weight room, etc.)

Where Players Fall Short

  • The biggest gap between players who advance and those who don't: falling in love with the circus around the game (gear, eye black) instead of the process itself
  • The other gap is the ability to handle adversity and failure — has coached high-level players who fell off because they never learned to deal with it

Building a Failure Plan

  • Last year, approached a talented but failure-averse player during batting practice and asked directly how he was handling it; the honest answer was "I'm not"
  • Built him a literal, specific failure plan — count to four steps back to the dugout, put the bat in a specific spot, then move to what's next
  • Practices failure directly at practice: a player stands in with a helmet on, intentionally strikes out, and has to walk back in front of teammates and coaches to rehearse the response
  • Coaches have to be visibly accountable for their own failures first — that's what makes players more willing to own theirs

"As coaches, we have to be accountable... when players see that you're accountable to that, when you're accountable for your actions, it makes them way more likely to be accountable for theirs."

Communication and Standards

  • Put a written mission, vision, and principles document in place last year at a coach's suggestion — spells out program values, above-the-line and below-the-line behavior
  • Small standards matter: how the dugout is left, how gloves are lined up on the foul line before warmups
  • Without a clear standard, players are "shooting at a moving target"

Advice for Coaches and Parents

  • Wishes he'd understood earlier how much failure is the catalyst for eventual success, for both players and himself
  • Looks back at some early-career mistakes with youth club rankings ("our team's probably third or fourth in the state" for 11- and 12-year-olds) and calls it "silly"
  • For young coaches: check your "why" constantly, for yourself and your staff — if winning a title is the only reason you're there, that's a problem
  • For parents: let your kid fail. Resists "bulldozer parents" who try to clear every obstacle from a child's path

"Let your kid fail. Let them fail."

Walkout song: Metallica — "Seek and Destroy" (with a shoutout to Colorado Mesa's Sean McKinney, a fellow Metallica devotee)

Episode Timestamps

Tap any timestamp to jump the player straight to that moment.

  • 1:17 - Taking over at Lutheran High School (Luh High) in Parker, CO
  • 1:51 - Why the family moved from Erie to Parker
  • 3:50 - Where his passion for baseball comes from: Jason Bates and Coach Cass
  • 6:24 - Coaching 14- to 18-year-olds through adversity
  • 8:41 - Touching every player every day
  • 10:35 - Staying intentional with players from his past
  • 13:10 - Ethan's 2023 playoff win over Grand View
  • 14:15 - Watching Ethan's freshman start against Southern Miss
  • 15:20 - Sitting in the infield grass after a gut-wrenching loss
  • 17:13 - Separating dad from coach, and being tough on Ethan
  • 19:50 - How recruiting changed from Ethan to Evan
  • 22:18 - Fighting the perception of "daddy ball"
  • 23:32 - Helping Ian fall in love with the process, not the circus
  • 26:05 - Writing for Three Quarter Slot
  • 28:30 - What makes a good scouting report
  • 30:40 - Scouting reports on Ethan, Evan, and Ian
  • 33:06 - The key to a good curveball
  • 34:26 - Fall baseball in Colorado
  • 36:50 - Where players who don't make it fall short
  • 38:37 - Building a failure plan for a struggling player
  • 43:39 - Putting mission, vision, and principles in writing
  • 46:42 - Advice for young coaches: check your why
  • 48:47 - Advice for parents: let your kid fail
  • 49:59 - Walkout song: Seek and Destroy by Metallica

Eric Dillinger is the Head Baseball Coach at Lutheran High School in Parker, CO, and a contributor for Three Quarter Slot. Follow him on X at @ericwdillinger.