Ep. 84 | Scott Lieser, Saint John’s University

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Host Ross Hawley sits down with Scott Lieser, head baseball coach at Saint John's University in central Minnesota. Lieser grew up on a dairy farm about an hour northwest of campus, pitched at St. Cloud State, spent time in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, and started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Augsburg. He joined the Saint John's staff in the fall of 2018 and took over a Division III program whose previous head coach held the job for 48 years.

At 35, in his first year running the Johnnies, he is candid about what he inherited, what he changed, and what he refuses to do — including recruiting anyone he would have to talk into being there. The conversation covers the unusual Saint John's and Saint Benedict partnership, why a Division III program barely touches the transfer portal, the new strength program, and specific advice for parents trying to help a teenager pick a school.

The highlights:

• How the brother-sister setup with the College of Saint Benedict actually works day to day
• The Johnnie alumni network, and the tailgate he calls the greatest job fair you will attend
• Why he promises recruits an experience, not playing time
• What "all in" means on a roster in the low 50s
• Building a full-time strength and conditioning program from an on-your-own lifting plan
• Why guys who come to Saint John's tend not to leave
• A simple exercise for parents and recruits: answer the same questions separately, then compare
• Knowing the one thing you do well, and hammering it

A Dream Job in Central Minnesota

Lieser describes standing at a September scrimmage with the leaves turning, the lights on, and music playing between innings, and thinking he might be the luckiest person alive. Central Minnesota is home. He grew up on a dairy farm in a small rural community northwest of campus, and his parents now live about 25 minutes away.

The job came with an unusual piece of context: the head coach before him was in the chair for 48 years. Lieser jokes that he has only 47 and a half years left. He is also blunt that he did not grow up knowing much about Saint John's and did not look at it out of high school.

Two Campuses, One Experience

Saint John's is an all-male school; the College of Saint Benedict, a few minutes away in St. Joseph, is all female. Classes are integrated, convocation and graduation are shared days, and a bus the students call the link runs between the campuses every 15 minutes. Lieser tells recruits only two things are really separate: athletics and housing.

The athletic split is a practical advantage. Baseball is not sharing dome time with softball, which has its own facilities on the Saint Benedict side, so the Johnnies can get into the dome in the middle of October. Dining is run by two different companies, which means a player tired of one cafeteria can ride the bus and eat somewhere else. His summary is that it looks more complicated on paper than it feels to live.

The Johnnie Network

Lieser graduated from St. Cloud State and admits he used to think the Johnnie network was hype. Then he watched it work. At a senior dinner in the spring of 2019, two alumni were making small talk with four graduating seniors. Three had jobs lined up. The fourth said his interviews had not landed, and one of the alumni stood up, pulled out a business card, and told him to call on Monday.

Family weekend brings roughly 10,000 fans back for a football game, with a tailgate near the baseball field that Lieser estimates at 3,500 to 4,000 people — plenty of them people who never played a down.

"It's the greatest job fair that you'll ever go to. I've seen people get job interviews, internships. Some people get jobs."

Recruiting the Whole Package

Asked what draws a recruit to Division III baseball in the woods, Lieser goes to the complete package: a baseball experience players will remember, coaches who care about them outside the lines, and relationships with professors, classmates, and the monks on campus. He understands why a 17-year-old wants Division I. He also points out there are only so many of those spots, and the real question is fit for the player and the family.

The roster usually sits in the low 50s. Saint John's plays 40 varsity games and schedules as many varsity reserve games as Minnesota weather allows, usually landing around 20, which gives the back half of the roster real innings. He does not pretend everyone will play.

"I don't promise anybody playing time. But what I can promise is I will give everything I have to make sure that you have a great college experience."

That honesty extends to recruiting itself. He talks fast, he knows he can come off like a salesman, and he actively does not want to sell anyone on Saint John's.

"I'd rather somebody want to be here than me convince them to be here. At some point there's going to be a spot where I'm going to have to bench them or have a tough conversation, and they're just not going to be all in."

What "All In" Actually Means

For Lieser, buying in starts with wanting the Saint John's model — the private school cost included — and then extends to the classroom, the weight room, and practice. What it does not mean is silence. He wants players asking what happens if this, or what do you want here, and he wants them comfortable struggling with something new before it clicks. His staff tried some different things this fall and were bad at them at first, which he treats as the cost of doing business.

He is a self-described glass-half-full guy who would rather call a problem a challenge, and his stamp on the program is energy: playing hard every pitch, competing constantly, and feeding off a staff that is genuinely excited. He borrowed a line from Minnesota football coach P.J. Fleck to describe how he pitched the job to himself — a sleeping giant.

Energy, the Weight Room, and Nine Seniors

The biggest structural change was hiring a full-time strength and conditioning coach, one of Lieser's first calls after getting the job. What used to be a leisurely on-your-own lifting plan is now four days a week, and he says the physical changes since the first day of school are already visible. Saint John's has always slugged; he thinks the singles guys become doubles guys and the doubles off the wall start leaving, while the offense gets more creative than waiting on a three-run homer.

He also bought the team baby blue shirts with a jacked-up version of the Johnnie Rat holding a bat — not as a reward for lifting, but as a signal that the weight room matters enough to spend money on. The buy-in he credits most is from his nine seniors, who had done things one way for three years and signed on from day one.

Division III and the Transfer Portal

Lieser notes his answer here would have been different a year ago, and might change again. As it stands, Saint John's is barely touched by players leaving. His explanation is the product: guys get here, they stay. He is quick to add that plenty of things are not perfect and the staff keeps working on them, but retention has not been the problem.

Incoming transfers are a trickle — a shortstop and a catcher joined last summer, and both were players the staff had recruited hard out of high school. His recruiting coordinator, who has been on staff for 24 years, checks the portal weekly for exactly those names, but Lieser does not want anyone living in there. He will take a hard-throwing left-hander any day, but not one he would have to sell on a school he has never heard of.

Advice for Parents: Ask the Questions Separately

Lieser's advice to parents is concrete. Build a list of the things that matter in a college — size, location, division, in-state or out-of-state, public or private — and have the 16- or 17-year-old fill it out. Then have mom and dad fill out the same list, separately. Compare the answers and the real conversation starts: why do you think you want a big school, and what kind of experience are you actually after? Most teenagers have not thought about life past today, and he does not blame them for it.

On campus visits, Saint John's separates the group on purpose. The recruit eats lunch with current players, away from the coaching staff and the parents, because a lot of young men will not ask their real questions in front of mom and dad. The coaches use that time to get to know the parents, who are deeply involved in the program — the between-doubleheader potlucks are apparently not ordinary potlucks. His closing advice for families is to have a direct, transparent conversation with the head coach with the player in the room.

Advice for Players: Know the One Thing You Do Well

Lieser's advice for players starts with the people around them: surround yourself with teammates who share the vision, who will push and challenge and support you. He is a believer that relationships enhance whatever you are doing, and he tells recruits plainly that he may not be for everybody, which is fine — but a player and a coach have to get along and respect each other.

The other half is competing. He currently carries four catchers plus two pitchers who can catch, because someone has to catch 20 to 25 pitchers' bullpens.

"If you don't like competition, Saint John's probably isn't the place for you. But you should know that every college in the country has multiple catchers."

Then he waves off the idea that he had a great college career. He was a guy who could put a fastball low and inside, and that is what he did — including walking off the mound the second a ball was in the air, which he now admits was not the right look.

"We don't need to be perfect in every aspect of it. Whatever we're good at, we just need to hammer home with that."

As coaches, he adds, the job is to find what each player is good at and put him in situations where he can succeed.

Music and Thank-Yous

Lieser is not sure he ever had a real walkout song, though Nickelback's "Rockstar" ran for a while in college — a song he says does not fit him at all. He is a dairy farm country guy at heart, music plays at practice every day, and he makes a point of switching genres so it is not only his taste.

He closes with a long list of thank-yous: his predecessor, his longtime assistant, the current staff and volunteers, the alumnus who led the coaching search and helped make the field and clubhouse possible, and St. Cloud State head coach Pat Dolan, who took a chance on a kid from Browerville throwing 81 or 82. The last one is the head coach he worked for as a graduate assistant at Augsburg, who taught him something he still builds on.

"Once the guys understand how much you care about them, they'll push harder for you."

Episode Timestamps

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

• 0:00 — Introduction
• 1:53 — Division III baseball in central Minnesota
• 2:32 — A dream job, and following a 48-year head coach
• 5:00 — How Saint John's and the College of Saint Benedict work together
• 11:33 — The Johnnie network and the greatest job fair you will attend
• 13:37 — The senior dinner that made him a believer
• 17:10 — What draws recruits to Saint John's baseball
• 20:39 — Wanting players who want to be there
• 22:47 — What being all in actually looks like
• 26:24 — A sleeping giant in central Minnesota
• 28:26 — High energy as the program's identity
• 29:37 — Building a full-time strength and conditioning program
• 32:22 — Nine seniors who bought in from day one
• 33:27 — Division III and the transfer portal
• 36:28 — The few transfers Saint John's does add
• 39:19 — Advice for parents navigating the recruiting process
• 42:09 — Recruits eating lunch with players, away from mom and dad
• 45:38 — Advice for players: surround yourself with the right people
• 47:50 — Six catchers, and competing for everything
• 48:54 — Knowing the one thing you do really well
• 51:16 — Walkout song and a country playlist
• 53:21 — Thank-yous to the coaches who shaped him

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Scott Lieser is the head baseball coach at Saint John's University in central Minnesota. Subscribe to the Baseball Forward Podcast for more conversations with the players, coaches, and leaders elevating the next generation of the game.