How to Get Recruited to a JUCO Baseball Program | Jimmy Martin, Dallas College North Lake - Episode 99

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Host Ross Hawley sits down with Jimmy Martin, assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Dallas College North Lake Blazers. Martin took the job in July, which makes this his first season coaching college baseball after about five years in the game as a coach. He is 33, newly married, and expecting his first child in April.

The Blazers are 4–3 through seven games in the middle of February, playing a nonconference schedule stacked with Division I opponents on purpose. Martin's answers keep circling back to two things: the relationship has to come before the coaching, and the little things have to come before the results.

The highlights:

• Why North Lake keeps a deliberately small roster, and what that does for development
• Structure and routine from the top down: lifting, diet, attitude, body language
• The body language habit he counts in games, and what he says afterward
• Teaching players to fail well, and why self-talk happens inside the at-bat
• Coaching the way he wishes he had been coached
• Simple hitting cues: stepping on a dollar bill, rocking-chair rhythm
• What North Lake hunts at the plate, and why every hitter gets a different conversation
• What turns a recruiting coordinator off before a player ever takes a swing

A Small Roster and the Little Things

The small roster is intentional. Martin says a program that brings in 80 players and stacks 10 to 12 at every position cannot actually develop them or teach them how to think, especially offensively. With fewer players he can make his rounds, talk through approach and situations, and build a personal relationship with every man on the team.

Structure comes first and routine follows: weights, diet, being a good teammate, attitude, body language. He tries to be consistent enough that players hear the same message from him every day, and he treats mastering fundamentals as the thing that eventually produces results, not the other way around.

Body Language Is the Tell

Martin's definition of body language starts with permission to fail. Expect it, then get your chest and head up and go make the next play — an error, then a double; a strikeout, then a play in the field. He is specific about middle infielders, where the cycle is fastest.

"I count how many times they put their head down after they make a mistake, because you never know who's watching."

The follow-up conversation is short: stay level-headed, stay grounded, remember that most of the players in his dugout are trying to reach a four-year school and someone is always evaluating. He also points out the leadership version of the problem. When the player who sets the tone drops his head, everybody around him follows.

Teaching Players How to Fail

Asked whether failure can actually be taught, Martin says the teaching only works if the relationship is there first. He starts building it in week one, then keeps digging as the season goes, and his read is that players let him get on them harder once they trust him.

"You can't be perfect at an imperfect game."

In games, the work is self-talk. He wants hitters talking to themselves in the positive and making adjustments during the at-bat instead of walking back to the bench to relitigate a pitch they should have swung at. If the approach is there and they execute it, the results follow; when they do not, that is part of the cycle. The traits he sees in the best players he has coached are the same three every time: composure, positive body language, and patience — including a shortstop he coached at a private school who was drafted by the White Sox last year.

The Coach He Wished He Had

Martin is candid that his own youth coaching was mostly negativity and demands for immediate results, with fundamentals treated as an afterthought. Nobody taught him how to prepare or how to have a plan. He had fun, but he did not learn the game.

"I coach these guys the way I wish I would have been coached."

That also shapes how he manages his temper. Every coach loses it at some point, so he tries to keep it in practice, where it is more useful. In a game, a player's brain is already running a thousand miles an hour, and barking only speeds it up. He is a year into college coaching and says he never wants to stop learning from the veteran coaches around him.

For players: watch who you surround yourself with. Martin's advice to high schoolers is a small circle of positive people, stay in your own lane, and leave the extra noise alone.

Hitting in Simple Words

His passion for hitting comes from watching it click, and the teaching runs on small words. A hitter who is hard on his front side gets an image, not a mechanical lecture.

"Just act like you're stepping on a dollar bill. If you land on a dollar bill hard, you're going to slip."

Land soft and the power gets through instead. Rhythm gets the same treatment — think rocking chair. Asked for three non-negotiables in a hitter, he goes with fearless, competitive, and confident.

The Blazers' Approach at the Plate

North Lake hunts fastballs, sees off-speed up, widens out with two strikes, and puts a premium on team at-bats: timely hitting, moving runners over, scoring them, and working the other way rather than clogging up the bases. Martin is not anti-pull, but in most situations the plan is to go opposite field — and he is clear that none of it shows up in a game unless they practice thinking through those situations first.

He also thinks most young hitters over-invest in mechanics. At his level the swing is mostly there, and the gains come from approach and from one small mental adjustment. That is why all nine hitters in his lineup get different words from him. Knowing which hitter needs which sentence is, again, a product of the relationship.

What a Recruiting Coordinator Watches

With his recruiting hat on, body language is the first thing Martin looks for, regardless of position. How does a pitcher respond after walking three straight? Does a hitter throw a helmet or a bat? Is he a good teammate when things are not going his way? Good teammates make the staff's job easier and pull everyone around them along.

The evaluation starts before the game does. Players who show up in slides or Crocs read to him as not ready to go, and a player who lets a parent carry his bag stands out for the wrong reason. Academics work the same way — step one is getting it done in the classroom, not as a number but as evidence that a player has the discipline to do what he is supposed to do day in and day out.

"That's what gets you recruited, and that baseball talent is kind of like the icing on the cake."

Getting Players to the Next Stop

Moving players on to four-year programs is Martin's top priority, but he says it only works if it is the player's top priority too. His word for that is desperate — used often enough in the conversation that Hawley stops to ask about it. For Martin it means scratching and clawing to become someone you did not think you could be. He never expected to be coaching college five years in, and credits learning and relationships for getting him there.

His read on his own team is that the group did not understand the relationship piece when fall started, and is starting to now: they no longer hear him as an enemy, they hear him as someone trying to help. The long-term goal he set before the fall was to win the conference, and a couple of early wins against teams North Lake was not supposed to beat have the group believing.

Off the Field and Final Advice

Martin is a barbecue-and-Mexican-food guy who does not get out to eat much, with a favorite barbecue spot north of Dallas. He would not commit to a walkout song, admitting he is indecisive about music, and says his clubhouse playlist runs through every genre his players bring to it, from rap to country to rock. The best baseball advice he has ever received is four words he still leans on when his mind drifts to the past or the future, with his wife and his mother as the people who pull him back to it.

"Be where your feet are. I still hear that every day now, and just in my life."

Episode Timestamps

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

• 0:00 — Introduction
• 0:30 — Becoming a first-time dad in April
• 2:55 — Why the small roster is intentional
• 3:50 — Structure, routine, and the little things
• 5:09 — What body language really means
• 7:29 — Teaching players how to fail
• 8:45 — Coaching the way he wishes he had been coached
• 13:05 — Who you surround yourself with
• 14:40 — Self-talk and adjusting inside the at-bat
• 17:08 — The biggest surprise of his first college season
• 18:51 — What being a dog looks like, and teammate accountability
• 23:13 — Coaching goals, and already living the dream
• 24:26 — Calm demeanor, and saving the yelling for practice
• 26:46 — Simple hitting cues: stepping on a dollar bill
• 28:12 — Hunting fastballs and team at-bats
• 32:28 — What he watches with his recruiting hat on
• 35:32 — Getting junior college players to the next stop
• 37:01 — Why he keeps using the word desperate
• 41:43 — Barbecue, music, and walkout songs
• 44:48 — The best baseball advice he has received

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Jimmy Martin is the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Dallas College North Lake Blazers. Subscribe to the Baseball Forward Podcast for more conversations with the players, coaches, and leaders elevating the next generation of the game.