001Welcome hot dogs to the November Community Schools of Frankfurt town hall. The superintendent h town hall focuses on programs and people who are moving the academic, behavioral, staff, student retention, athletic, and facilities needle. This month, I wanted to have and invite Frankfurt High School varsity baseball coach Andy Dudley. Coach Dudley has moved the athletic needle with his baseball program. And today, I'd like for him just to share how people, systems, and programs have led to this success. So, Coach Dudley, thanks for coming on Town Hall this month. I sure appreciate you uh joining me. >> Yeah, thanks for having me. >> Can you tell our viewers just a little bit about some background information about you? Where did where did you grow up? Where did you go to high school and did you play play
002sports in in high school and college? And what sports? >> Yeah. Um I grew up in Nightstown, Indiana. Um attended Nightstown High School. I played football, basketball, baseball at the high school level, but we kind of just were always doing something. My brother was a tennis player, so I played a ton of tennis. Um we just were always moving. >> And then um I was fortunate to get some opportunity to play some pretty high level travel baseball. ended up playing four years of college baseball at Uppy. >> At Uppui. Okay. >> And now no longer Uppui. Right. That's that's been separated recently. >> Yeah. The artist formerly known as >> That's exactly right. Uh C tell us a little bit about you, your family here. >> Um so I'm married to my wife Mandy for
00322 years. We got married right when I was hired here and we moved into town and have kind of made our home here. I have a daughter, Elena, who's a freshman at Maran University studying nursing. Okay. And my son, Brock, is a junior here at the high school. >> Okay, great. And is he in sports or >> he's a he's a cross country runner and a track runner. Okay. >> Is dabbling in swimming right now. >> Okay, good. Good for him. Um, so tell us a little bit about introduced you as the baseball coach, but what is your your your daytime job at Frankfurt High School? >> Yeah, my my my real job, my adult job is uh I'm a math teacher. I've been the math department chair for several years. >> Okay. Um, how
004long have you been in your role as the varsity baseball coach? And and did you have any other coaching roles before you took on this uh varsity baseball coaching role? >> Um, this spring will be my 24th year at Frankfurt. >> Okay. >> And then uh previous to um Frankfurt, I was uh an assistant coach at Park Tutor for two seasons. >> Okay. Assistant baseball coach there. Uh we're going to take a little commercial break and uh when we come back I'll have some more questions for you. Uh viewers, hopefully you enjoy this uh next segment of uh Eric Farley and Farley's Frankfurt funf facts. We'll see you in a moment. Welcome back to Farley's Fun facts. I wanted to share with you some of our basketball highlights. Frankfurt has won 48 sectional titles, 46
005of which took place before class basketball. The dogs have won 20 regional championships, all before class basketball, and have also won five semi-state championships and four state titles. One interesting fact is what took place after our state championship in 1939. Who's your basketball fans submitted their votes to select the first Indiana high school all-star team. However, players from one team were not allowed to be selected. That team was Frankfurt because our team being the state champions played the all-star team in August of that year. The game was played at Butler Fieldhouse. However, the dogs were severely short-handed on players due to the IHSA rule that underclassmen were not allowed to participate. Therefore, only seniors could play in that game. However, the dogs played one junior who was 20 years of age and therefore would be
006ineligible for his senior season. Regardless, because he played, the dogs were put on probation the following year. Who won the game? Despite being short-handed and playing against the best of the best in Indiana, the final score was 31 to21 in favor of the Indiana Allstars. Due to the IHSA rules that prevented fair play, this sparked the idea of the first annual Indiana Kentucky All-Star game played in 1940. That's it for Farley's Fun facts. Until next time, hot dogs. >> Welcome back, hot dogs. I hope you enjoyed that Farley Frankfurt fun fact. Today I'm talking to coach Andy Dudley, Frankfurt High School varsity baseball coach. Coach, you were recognized with an award recently from uh Coach Irwin. Can you just share with the viewers what that award meant to you? >> You know, I've coached long
007enough that it's it's not it's not a number. It's not a particular achievement winning a particular title. thinking about just what I've been fortunate to get to be a part of when I've been here. So sometimes when you hit those milestones, it makes you stop and think back through all of the players. Um I, you know, sometimes you'll say this coach has so many wins, but I haven't scored any runs. I haven't, you know, gotten any hits since I've been here. It's been the players and the culture and being uh fortunate to be involved in such an awesome program. So, um I I I appreciate the recognition, but it's really about getting to look back over that time and the people's lives I've gotten to be a part of. It's it's a it's been a
008great experience. >> Uh former superintendent here Joel McKini would always say everything rises and falls on leadership. So, while you didn't score any runs, your leadership at least created conditions to be able to um have some successful programs. So, that's what I'd like to ask you next. What have been the key factors that have led towards the the baseball program having uh both win success and making some advances in the IHSA state tournament? >> You know, uh I think the biggest thing is baseball's a it's just different than a lot of sports. It's a it's a marathon. You know, Major League Baseball, you play 162 games for a reason. These short runs, you can't live and die by just today's results, right? >> You know, you develop in the long run. you you develop a
009culture where you show up and you give everything you've got today. Um pitching so important, one little, you know, you can go out and play a great game, you get one little bad break here, this ball hits the foul line, you know, maybe a tough call here, whatever. The next day you go out and you play some sloppy baseball, but you grind out a win. Um so it's looking at that long term. You just show up and you you control everything you can control today and you live with the results and and man, our guys embrace that. They do a great job of it. Do you have um you know, if you have any wa anyone watching in elementary and middle school and and they have hopes of playing baseball for Coach Dudley someday, what
010do you want them to know in order to prepare when they get to this level? Uh a and what type of athlete do you want playing for you? We make sure that we communicate to all of our players, but especially the young guys that we have coming up, that we're going to win most of our games by doing very basic things. Well, it's not that complicated. If you if you make routine plays, if your pitchers throw strikes, if your hitters battle at the plate, then you're just going to win a lot of games just by not beating yourself. And and really, that's just a a microcosm of life, you know. Um, and so that's that's really the message we send to our guys, our little league guys, our middle school players and and and our
011coaches know to pass that along. >> Talk a little bit about how important it is. You talked about your little league guys and and and how important it is for a youth program to impact when they get to the high school level. you you you were just saying you do a lot of things here at the high school level, but um how important it is is it for youth programs leading up to this in order for you to get the caliber caliber of players that you've had? >> Yeah, it's it's so multifaceted. I mean, skill development, obviously, baseball's very much a skill sport. You know, you can be a great athlete, but if you can't hit and run, throw, Yes. you're not going to do much with that. Um, but also just the consistency. You
012build that pride in the community. Like you want to wear Frankfurt across your chest. Sometimes, you know, we say, "Hey, we've got some tough situations here and and we don't look that as an obstacle." We look at it as a sense of pride. You know, maybe maybe we don't have some of the things that other places have. But, but you know what we have? We have guys that that are going to go out there and they're going to play hard. And our young guys, they they not only see that with our high school guys, they see it at the Third Street League on Sundays and they see it at TPA Park that that baseball's a sport that you can just overcome. so many things just by doing things the right way and and I think
013that top to bottom, you know, those young guys seeing that and having that continuity. >> Yeah. Um, what are your team goals for this season? What's your outlook look like this season? And what do you kind of want to put out in front of your team for your vision for this year? >> We we have a a preseason meeting every year. We always talk about um our our number one focus is that we're going to control everything we have control over. And in baseball, sometimes you don't have control over particular things, right? Um, so that's our number one goal is that that we stay focused. We always say if somebody walks onto our baseball field and turns and looks into our dugout, they can't see the field, they can't see the scoreboard, they should have
014no idea what situation we're dealing with. Is it a tie game? We down 10, we up 10. You I always go back to the the sectional championship game a few years ago. We're playing Western. They are just loaded with division one athletes and all these things. and and our guys in the tensest of situations. We had some things happen during that game that could have derailed and if you looked in our dugout, guys were just going about their business. Man, it was so fun. Um that's what we pride ourselves on and now we're very senior heavy. We've got guys that that were on that roster that have seen some little ups and downs and things and it's like can we just be laser focused every day we step on that field. And while you may
015not be able to put that in a stat sheet, we know how to measure that. we know how. So, teaching our guys to be able to do that and everything else will take care of itself. >> How important is it for those senior guys to kind of pass on the culture that you initiated but you you rely on that uh student um senior junior senior leadership in order to be able to keep that culture going. >> It's critical when we talk leadership. A lot of people think leadership is barking orders and do being vocal. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it's just doing the right thing. It's just showing up and it's showing that experience. So this group of seniors when they were freshman, our group of seniors could not have been better
016at exhibiting that. Things went well, things went poorly. We had some guys that if you just showed a stat sheet in a season, they would have said, "Boy, that's a very disappointing result." And you never saw it. Showed up every day and and and went to work. And they passed that along. And these guys have embraced that. They've really done a good job. And I think the next group is going to do the same thing. >> Persistence. uh a long obedience in the same direction. So I I just great great great to hear that. I is um is there anything else that uh I I haven't asked that you kind of want to share about your your program uh your coaches your players anything that maybe I have missed that you want to want to
017share with the audience? >> Our program is built off of culture >> and some and a lot of that culture comes from you know we I have a tremendous coaching staff. you know, uh, Coach Juul made the jump to softball and we plugged in, um, former player Braden Compton, who was a fantastic team player for me. Uh, Jaden Skinner, who was a senior on that semi-state team. Um, Leo Lopez, all state player, won a sectional title in 2015. Those guys know what it's about. They do instruct the game well. I mean, we still have to be able to do baseball actions well, but our our our cheat code, our thing that we have an advantage over every other program is is our culture. And so if I if I had a a son coming up,
018I would look at that coaching staff and say those are the guys I want to be playing for because >> we we may win a title, we may not win a title because there's so many things, >> but our guys are going to come out the other side having benefited from it. And I know as a head coach, I've benefited from so many players I've had the opportunity to coach. Learning things, learning grit, learning how to just um you know, I I think about the wins and the losses and and all these big times and how our players handle those things better than I did when I was 17 or 18. And I take a lot of pride in that. And so, um I think that's I think that's the hallmark of our program. >>
019Yeah. Isn't grit grit's just so important, isn't it? And and and I think grit comes with just being presented with some life experiences that are tough. And sometimes people look at those tough life circumstances and um instead of really turning it turning it into lemonade, they they can be defeated by it. And it sounds like you you've had uh a lot of players and you've have coaches who support that that want would rather have a gritty kid on your team, a kid who who knows how to just dig in than your most talented person that you could probably come across as part of your culture. >> Yeah. Winning winning with our group of guys that sometimes and I would say people probably look at the head coach at Frankfurt High School sometimes and say that
020guy doesn't always look the part because I've kind of learned that >> it doesn't matter. You it's the equalizer. you walk out on that baseball field, it doesn't that guy's, you know, that guy's 6'4 and throwing 90. It doesn't matter. He still has to get me out. That's right. When they hit the ball and it comes to you, if you field it cleanly and and throw across the infield, it doesn't matter what that guy looks like, you're going to you're going to win. And that's, you know, we've kind of shown that. I love that about our game, but I love it about just athletics in general. >> Can tell why it's gone so well for you. Uh I guess last question is why have you committed your professional career to Frankfurt High School, both teaching
021and coaching? Um, I I ended up here by happen stance. I was finishing my degree. I had changed majors and done some different things. And I was coaching at Park Tutor. The head coach was up here working >> on the baseball fields because that's what he did for a living. And um, somebody said, "Hey, I we we need a baseball coach. We've we have an interim coach this year. We want someone. We've gone through some coaches." And he said, "I think I have your guy." And I came up and interviewed. I, you know, had to find Frankfurt on a map. I didn't even own a cell phone at that point. N and I and I and and then I I got here >> and it was just home. >> It was it it clicked. I
022liked the people. >> Um and that's it. That's what it comes down to. It's the people. Um I like the fact that that when when you get by in here, you get buy in here. Like our guys, I I can't remember last time I felt like someone was questioning what we're doing >> because I I try to be honest with our guys and they respond to that. And I feel like the same thing in the classroom. So, um, I've enjoyed almost every single day that I've walked into this building and walked out to that of that field because of that. >> We're not I I think we we're not called community schools of Frankfurt. I mean there's meaning to that that [snorts] community is the very first word in the community schools of Frankfurt and
023you've said it so eloquently that that's why you have committed your career here to Frankfurt because um you've come in and this community has pretty much wrapped their arms around you. I think trust is a factor. they see you come in and um you're you're here to do great things for kids and they they can see that by your work ethic and just pe people can tell kids especially can tell if you're the real deal or not and uh I just can't thank you enough for committing your whole career here and raising your family here in Frankfurt and um just just teaching kids how to really navigate life and you do that both in the classroom in math but out on the baseball field and I think some sometimes our greatest lessons are learned through
024through sports and uh because of sports you have so much adversity on and off and you can work through that with kids. So thank you for investing all of your your your career here. Um you're you're you're the real deal. We I I often talk about when I hire people, you know, and I know you don't toot your own horn, but the IT factor you look at who are people who can connect with kids. You are somebody who can connect with kids and and you're hopefully you know how valued you are here and I can't thank you enough for investing your whole career here at Community Schools of Frankfurt. Coach Dudley, >> I can truly say it's been my pleasure. >> Yeah. Great. Well, Hot Dog Nation, I hope you enjoyed learning about how Frankfurt
025High School baseball team is moving the athletic na needle for hot dog students. And you know, of course, we thank uh Coach Dudley for sharing with the viewers the commitment uh that he's made along with his coaching staff to put in place systems and programs that develop high-erforming baseball players and really people in general for life. Uh and and we wish the Frankfurt High School team good luck for this uh upcoming season and your coaching staff uh during the spring of 2026. Uh what I'd like to say now is you're you're going to see a a uh a roaming with Roa and and Hot Dog Nation. Have a have a great rest of your day and again thank you Coach Dudley for coming on today. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Welcome
026to the November Roaming with Roa. I am at Frankfurt High School today and with Thanksgiving coming up next week and when you view this, it'll be after Thanksgiving. But I'm going to ask students what they're thankful for this year as they head into Thanksgiving break. Enjoy this session of Roaming with Roa. Kaylee, what are you thankful for? We run into Thanksgiving next week. What are you thankful for? >> Um, my family and my like I'm healthy. >> Uh, I'm thankful for my family and the people I became friends with this school year. Yeah. Uh [sighs and gasps] my friends for always being uh around me, you know, supporting me through tough times. >> Uh my family for, you know, making me happy. >> Uh-huh. >> Uh the school for giving me an education. >> All
027right. >> And um food. [laughter] >> Okay. And food. All right. The big four. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. >> I am thankful for I don't know my friends, my family. >> Your friends and family. What's your favorite uh food as we're coming up on Thanksgiving? Mashed potatoes. >> Mashed potatoes. All right. >> Um, thankful for sports. >> Okay. Thankful for sports. >> My favorite Thanksgiving dish is stuffing. >> What is it? >> Stuffing. All right. >> I'm thankful for my family and friends. And my favorite Thanksgiving dish is mac and cheese. >> Mac and cheese. All right, gentlemen. Thank you. >> I'm thankful for my friends and family. And my favorite Thanksgiving dish is rolls. >> Rolls. All right. >> I'm thankful for my friends and family. >> All right. What's your favorite
028uh food? >> Tamales. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> I'm thankful for my family, my friends. >> Okay. >> And my favorite dish? >> Yes. >> Smashed potatoes. >> Mashed potatoes. All right. >> I'm thankful for my family. >> Your family. And what's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> Ham. All right. Thank you very much. >> Thankful for my friends. >> Your friends. And what's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> Probably Probably um ham and mashed potatoes. >> Ham and mashed potatoes. Good selection. Thank you. >> My friends, my family, and literally everyone. >> Literally everyone. I love your attitude. And what is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> Got to be turkey. Thank you very much. >> What are you thankful for this time of year? And what's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> Friends and life.
029>> Family, friends, and life. And what's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> My favorite dish is it's got to be turkey. >> Turkey. [clears throat] All right. >> I'm thankful for um my family, my friends, of course, and um being here, you know. And what is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> Um, probably macaroni and cheese. >> Macaroni and cheese. All right. >> I'm thankful for my family. They've always been by my side. >> My favorite dish is pumpkin pie. >> Pumpkin pie. Thank you very much. Uh, this is Mr. Clayton, by the way. All right. Famous teacher here at Frankfurt High School. Mr. Clayton, what are you thankful for and your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> Um, I'm thankful for all my wonderful students. And I would have to go with a corn casserole. >> Corn casserole.
030All right. Thank you very much. >> I am thankful for my daughter and my family. >> Okay. >> Um and my favorite Thanksgiving dish is probably green bean casserole. >> Green bean casserole. Thank you. Caroline, what are you thankful for and what is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> I [snorts] am thankful for my friends and family. My favorite Thanksgiving dish is pumpkin pie. >> I'm thankful for my swim coaches. >> Your swim coaches >> and um I really like stuffing. >> Stuffing. All right. Um, my friends. >> Your friends and your favorite Thanksgiving dish? >> Ham. All right. >> Uh, I'm thankful for my family and turkey. >> Turkey. All right. Jordan, what are you thankful for this time of year? >> Um, my parents. >> Your parents. What's your favorite food this time of
031year? >> Um, I would say turkey. >> Turkey. All right. >> My parents are still around. >> I love it. Okay. And what's your favorite food at Thanksgiving? >> Just depends. Like our Mexican culture probably tamales. >> Okay. Uh over here probably uh turkey. Just depends. >> Okay. All right. Tamales and turkey. Enjoy them. All right. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that segment of Roaming with Roa asking kids what they're thankful for as we head into our Thanksgiving holiday and perhaps what their favorite food is over the holiday. So in hope you enjoyed this section of roaming with Roa. Thank you.