Joshua Wetzel 🦚

I’ve been around professional and amateur baseball for most of my life. This weekend, I had the opportunity to spend some time around Auburn University and get a glimpse behind the curtain of @AuburnBaseball. Meet the coaches. Meet the support staff. Walk the facilities. Spend time around campus. See the people behind the program. My takeaway? Small college-town feel. SEC horsepower. There’s a special energy around Auburn that’s difficult to explain until you experience it. But what impressed me most wasn’t the facilities, resources or SEC logo. It was the people. I spent some time talking ball and life with @3strikes_AU. I caught up with @ETeafAuburnPC , an old teammate of mine from our playing days, and got to know Karl Nonemaker, Scott Foxhall and so many of the people working behind the scenes. And then there’s Sara, the program’s special assistant. She was EVERYWHERE ‼️ Every detail. Every person. Every moving piece. You spend a couple days around a program and quickly realize how many people outside the spotlight are essential to making something operate at that level. That probably summed up what I saw at Auburn better than anything: People pulling in the same direction. One thing Coach Thompson said during our conversation that stuck with me: “Hard is coming.” He was talking about the challenges SEC baseball will inevitably bring, but our conversation quickly became bigger than baseball. Because hard IS coming. School. Sports. Careers. Relationships. Life. Eventually, something is going to test you. The goal shouldn’t be to create a life where hard never comes. It should be to develop people capable of handling it when it does. That told me a lot about what they’re building. From the outside, we see the wins, packed stadiums, recruiting classes and postseason runs. Spend a little time behind the curtain, and you start to understand where those things come from. Culture isn’t a slogan on a wall. It’s the people in the building. Really impressive few days on The Plains. There’s something special about Auburn. 🦅⚾️ #WDE