Previewing WKU Baseball: Marc & Dawn Rardin Interview
WKU Baseball Head Coach Marc Rardin and wife, Dawn, sat down with Matt McCay of The Towel Rack for an exclusive interview last week.
Without question, WKU Baseball is back on the right track, in the running for Conference USA the past couple of years, and undoing the downward trends of the last decade and a half.
WKU is a proud baseball program, but historically not an elite program. There have been moments, of course. 2008-09 was an incredible moment in WKU history, igniting my personal interest in WKU Baseball. 2004 was the moment before that where WKU broke through. And before that, how many times did WKU make the NCAA Tournament? Once, in 1980.
However, with the leadership and determination of the WKU Head Baseball Coach Marc Rardin (and his support system), the Tops are carrying themselves like a program that plans on taking the next step and being a legitimate, well-respected program at the mid-major level year in and year out.
Marc and Dawn agreed to have a conversation with The Towel Rack, and some good nuggets came out, some interesting stories, and I think a lot of the burning questions that WKU Baseball fans have had over the past couple of adventurous seasons (and off-seasons) were answered in this interview. Thank you to them for meeting, and honestly, they made a great interview and it was a good time.
Without further ado, let’s answer some of the burning questions heading into the spring of 2025.
The Interview
Introduction: Who are the Rardins?
The Towel Rack: Curious about yourselves. What do you like to do? What are you interests?
Rardin: The First thing I would say is we are truly a partnership. When I go on visits to jobs, she goes with me. This was really the one job that I was really…full court press that we’re gonna do it than really setting down and talking a long time about it. I was confident enough in myself and confident enough that we can make some noise here and we went and did it…
As long as we’ve been together, she’s been with me since I started my career. We’ve been married 26 and been together 29, so it comes with the business but like for us here, we just don’t have a lot of friends. When we do something, we do something together. So many people that want to be (emphasis) my friend (and there’s nothing wrong with this), but it’s because of who I am…like (college) baseball coach
There isn’t just purity of just to be friends.
The Towel Rack: So like somebody’s trying to get something.
Rardin: Probably the hardest thing for us in this whole move was (not) Griffin (son), who’s a high school senior at South Warren, good personality, athletic kid, luckily being a male, not too much emotion…and coming here and getting to play a lot of baseball and…stuff like that.
The toughest part was her leaving all her friends. That ends up really being the toughest part, because you raise two sons. We were at a place for 20 years. And ya know all the moms that you become friends with because your kids are growing up together…
In reality, circling back around, probably the toughest (part) for me was I took her away. Because my sons are loving it here. And she is, too. We like it here a lot. She’s from Oldham County…so that was probably the toughest part. But…all these years, it’s really just been me and her.
The Towel Rack: So how does a baseball guy from Iowa meet a girl from Oldham County, KY?
(Dawn laughs)
Rardin: So she followed her coach down to Bluefield College in Virginia and I followed my coach for baseball from Iowa Wesleyan down to Bluefield.
The Towel Rack: So y’all just hit it off from there, huh?
(Dawn laughs again)
Rardin: Yeah it was like…February…yeah something like that.
Dawn: Well, I lived on campus and you lived off campus.
Rardin: Yep. It really started…she was hanging out with my roommate. She was really good friends with one of my best friends. They were just friends hanging out. He played baseball. We were just kind of acquaintances and just kind of went from there.
The Towel Rack: So you said you guys are a partnership, so do you feel like you’re heavily involved in everything here or…?
Dawn: I mean to some degree. Not as much as I will be in the future. It’s just our youngest keeps me busy with basketball and baseball. I don’t miss anything of his. The last two years, our oldest son, too. So yeah I just kind of do my thing and when I can come, I come as much as I can.
Rardin: Super independent. And that’s what I think through all of this, what she and I believe in is people need to have strength enough in their relationship to also create that independence. Ya know? You’ve gotta have strength to be super independent. I can’t worry about what she’s doing, nor does she want me to, when I gotta focus on 40 guys and doing this and doing that. We do this for the betterment of our family, much less the experience and memories of these student-athletes and our coaching staff, as well.
Dawn: Half the time, he doesn’t know what’s going on.
(Rardin: Half the time?)
Dawn: Half the time, maybe most of the time, I just take care of everything so he can do his job because that’s what we’re here for.
Why Come to WKU?
The Towel Rack: So you said you felt like this was something you had to jump on. You were at your previous stop for almost 20 years, right?
(Rardin: Yep 20 years, 12 World Series, three national championships)
The Towel Rack: So why after all that time, WKU?
Rardin: We probably turned down at least three or four Division II jobs, numerous DI assistant jobs, some were repeat people asking me.
Dawn: Two Division I’s…
Rardin: Yep. Eastern Kentucky was the first one.
Dawn: East Tennessee State was the second.
Rardin: Right. Eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee State, we turned down. East Tennessee State came back to me twice. I turned it down and then they come back and it was like $25,000 more and we just…yeah.
Current State of WKU Baseball
The Towel Rack: So getting into the current situation…one of the things we had a lot questions and comments about…the schedule this year. So a lot of people are excited to see the teams. Sometimes local fans can’t make the game. (Matt bumbles through the question here…) Is there a strategic reason that no home games are scheduled on ESPN+ until March 28?
Rardin: I am… (pauses)
(The Towel Rack: I didn’t know if you were involved in that or not.)
Rardin: What I am not involved in is the limited number that I’m given.
TTR: Ok.
Rardin: See what I mean?
TTR: Right
Rardin: So…they only give me a certain allotment of games. So do you really want to see us early on against Illinois State or Lafayette College…you know what I mean? Or do you want to start to see some into the conference. And UK. And Evansville, who was at a (Super) Regional last year…so…that was the biggest thing is I’m only given a certain amount, so I’m trying to pick. I also picked a lot of Friday/Saturdays (in conference), so #1 Sundays everybody’s on the back end of their pitching and that’s maybe not the best quality game to watch at times, but I was trying to pick some good opponents that people would enjoy. So it starts with just the limited number I get to pick.
Dawn: What was last year, like 8?
Rardin: Like 8. Right. And they picked em last year. Which I wasn’t happy about. I was like, “Ok so you’re only giving me a limited amount and you picked them for me. So…I stirred that drink a little bit and now they at least let me pick the dates and we had two more dates to do it on. I wish we could have all of em. I mean it helps with recruiting and things are out of my control.
TTR: Sure. Is that an ESPN+ deal that they give you that amount or Conference USA or…?
Rardin: Nope. That’s WKU. They’re putting them out there for football and basketball and stuff like that, you know, you kind of get to later in the spring and who’s left and what can we pay for and stuff like that. And so that’s where we’re at. Baseball and Softball, kind of the spring sports have always kind of been the ones, too, and even in other places, all of a sudden, you start getting to the end of the school…like, “Hey, we’re kind of getting crunched on our budget.” And it’s like, “Well, we’re the last ones playing,” like, “(emphasis) You guys need to kinda watch,” and I’m like, “Well, yeah cause we’re the last one playing!”
TTR: Yeah sorry I’m not soccer!
(Laughter) Rardin: Like DANG! Alright…So yeah that was how I picked the 10 dates. So yeah I’d rather have you seeing us against Sam Houston State than Central Michigan. So that was all. So…hopefully you can explain that to people when they’re asking.
TTR: So when you started, maybe WKU was on a lower level, maybe viewed a little lower by recruits.
(Rardin: Oh, sure.)
TTR: Like what is this? Western Kansas? So when you contact a recruit now, is the tone a little bit different?
Rardin: I mean in some cases, yeah we’ve got a lot more to educate them with (like) stats and outcomes and everything that goes with it, so we can educate. I do feel like everybody in our surrounding area, at least it’s a different immediate view of it. But with that being said, there’s the mid-major and then there’s the other ones…
Rules are changing next year where it’s going to allow us to have some guys even more so…depth and talent…that maybe we usually wouldn’t have here because you have your upper tier guys and a couple of middle and then just a lot of guys that have to be your workhorses, your “Johnny Hustle” guys. Not everybody was going to be your white collar elite player. There’s going to be more of that now, just because of the roster size and more kids opening up. So if we call kids right now, I feel like we have a better chance without a doubt. But I still think recruiting is a process of elimination. You’ve gotta call a kid and he’s an Illinois kid and he’s looking at Illinois and some other Big Ten schools and it’s like, “Ok you want to stay up north and play Big Ten baseball.”
So it’s just process of elimination. So you go on to the next one. I just think that we’re getting into more houses and we’re getting more interest with recruits. Because they see all of a sudden, one of the biggest turnarounds in the country with 33 wins and 36 this last year. You show them the photos of (the indoor practice facility) being built now, renderings, and that helps as well.
TTR: A little sizzle for the steak.
Rardin: Yeah. And it still just comes down to playing time. It comes down to more of a true chance of playing time compared to some of those others. And we show them the numbers, how we play different guys early on and how we use so many different pitchers. And we get some of the arms we get because we show development and we show that they’ll get opportunities to pitch, we show them that we have the most pitchers drafted out of Conference USA last year. You know? It all starts there. We’ve gotta get some dudes on the mound.
TTR: Do you feel like NIL is anything in baseball at this point at WKU or do you feel like there’s some of that?
Rardin: It’s very little right now. What we do have definitely helps. Without a doubt. But there is haves (P4s). I would say there’s probably 55 schools baseball-wise that are like (really) invested and maybe that’s even too much. You obviously have those top…20 that are ridiculous in the millions, even for baseball. But what we have helps. It’s better than not having anything. But I think there are more schools like us as mid-majors than the haves…especially when it comes to the size of their purse. So I still think it still gives us a competitive edge with what we’ve done, our two years’ track record, of what we’re trending to, our facilies, the conference we’re in, things of that nature. But I mean, we’re going to have those uphill battles when it comes to NIL money and the next level … and getting in with those players to create that opportunity for Conference USA Championships and regionals and things of that nature.
TTR: Do you feel like the transfer portal is a little bit easier given the experience in JUCO? Or is it a little bit different now?
Rardin: What gives us an advantage is turnover in roster every year. Creating culture even if they’re not just leaving on their own. We had two leave that went to the portal and then you had others graduate but then we had everyone else back. But the turnover, the norm now, is what me and Coach Fournier are used to: Having someone for one or two years. The JUCO guys or portal guys that come in, grad transfers… I think we’re equipped to work with those guys every year and then build that locker room culture.
I don’t know if there’s a template out there that I’ve seen on how to handle NIL and the portal, but we’ve got to figure out guys that are JUCO guys that are maybe going to take that extra year… The NCAA’s giving them one more year, but I’ve got some guys who will take it, some guys who won’t. I’m sure some guys are like, “I’ve got one more year. Maybe I want to go try something else.” I get it. So we’re trying to recruit right now, we’re trying to fill in our roster, who’s leaving, who do we want back…there’s just so many columns to it, and there’s just not a precise science to it.
I’ve talked to a lot of coaches, so all of us, whether it’s Big Ten, Big 12. I’ve been chewing guys ears, too trying to figure things out. (Coaches) are asking me questions, too. When you’re trying to figure things out. Players don’t ask a lot right now. They just want to play. When guys start figuring out they’re maybe not going to be the starting guy or they’re not going to play as much or not in their position or they just want to do something else, who gets in their ear and gets something into them that maybe want to go do something else. Then you have guys who want to be back, they like what’s going on, they like the facility being built, they want to be a part of this.
Explaining the Mass Exodus of the 2023 Offseason
TTR: Your first offseason, you had a lot of exits vs. this last year you only had two.
(Rardin: Yeah.)
TTR: You feel like that was just kind of people got the feel of it and then made their decision about whether they wanted to be here or…?
(Rardin: After the first year? TTR: Yeah)
Rardin: After the first year, I moved them on.
TTR: Ok.
Rardin: That’s just the reality of it. And I told my administration as we were going through the spring, “This is what’s going to happen,” whether it was a personality thing, I didn’t fit them, they didn’t fit me. Our vision of where we were going and the type of student-athlete we needed for that position or on the mound or whatever…we just…you know.
I felt when I took the job, I felt like the right thing to do was give them a shot, you know? I felt like the last couple of years probably weren’t the best experiences, and I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to really I mean this place won 18 games so I kind of felt like I shouldn’t get rid of them, because, who am I gonna bring in? So I just started doing a lot of talks with the players and started doing my homework about who they were and how they are as athletes and things of that nature and then we got through that year and I was basically assessing everything every day and we just kept moving on that way, and that’s where it came to. There were guys that exited on their own, and then there was quite a few that (we) said we’re going to part ways. And that’s kind of where that came about.
But I also told my administration that is NOT something that I think is right nor needs to be done every year, so they were like, “You’re the head coach. Do what you need to do.” But I thought it was important to let them know like this isn’t who I am. I am a big culture guy, big development of a program from within, and that’s really hard to do bringing in 33 guys every year.
Dawn’s Questions
TTR: Mrs. Dawn, I have a few questions for you, too. This is one my staff came up with and I like it. Male or female, do you have a favorite non-baseball WKU athlete at WKU?
Dawn: At WKU?
(TTR: Yeah. I guess we could do in general, too. I don’t mind either way.)
Dawn: Current?
(TTR: Yeah)
Dawn: Ok. Umm gosh there’s several I like to watch. We watch girls basketball. I haven’t gotten to a game yet. I like (figuring out who it is…)
(TTR: Telegdy? Dawn: No. She’s a guard. TTR: Josie? Gilvin?)
Dawn: Yeah. I like Josie.
(Rardin: Yeah we went to the Middle Tennessee game. That was the first one we got a chance to go to.)
Dawn: And umm I mean I’m a big basketball fan. That’s what I played. On the men’s side, I like Don McHenry. He’s pretty fun to watch. But so are so many of them. Because when you meet them, you know, they’re nice boys. So I’ve met several of them, so it’s hard to choose one. And of course, I liked Veltkamp because Colton (Veltkamp) played with our youngest. They’re friends. So I always root for him, too.
Rardin: Colton was over at our house a lot.
Dawn: Yeah. They’re big buddies.
TTR: Do you have some favorites outside of WKU?
Dawn: (Smirks, looks at Marc) Ummmm
(Rardin: Oh hooo…you can say it!)
Dawn: I mean, I am from Kentucky so I do like (The University of) Kentucky. My favorite of all-time was Derek Anderson. I watched him play in high school.
Rardin: That was probably before his time.
Dawn: And Allen Houston. Got to meet him. That was fun. He was fun. He came by one of our basketball camps. But right now I can’t really…I like Andrew Carr. I just like to watch sports.
Rardin: We are big college football and college basketball.
Dawn: And college baseball.
Rardin: Well, I’m saying away from our sport.
Dawn: Well, even if you weren’t a coach, we’d probably still watch it all the time. I love…yeah. I love college sports.
Marc Turns the Tables on Me
Rardin: What’s your favorite sport?
TTR: Uhh…
Dawn: Basketball
TTR: You think so? Yeah that’s probably number one.
Rardin: I mean she reads your stuff. I don’t even follow you, dude. She reads all your stuff.
TTR: I’ll keep that in mind.
Rardin: What? Keep what in mind?
(Simultaneous) TTR: That she reads everything; Dawn: That I watch everything (laughter)
Rardin: How many times she’s probably wantin’ to…
TTR: Punch me in the face?
(laughter)
TTR: I’m here! I can turn off the recording! No I’d say basketball #1. I was an equipment manager for the football team, so that’s right up there, too.
(We get into my personal story, when I was there as a manager, etc. I mention Petrino)
Rardin: Petrino…
(More details)
Rardin: Taggart…Taggart…he was an absolute blur there. Where is he now? (Then proceeds to give Taggart’s whole history through getting fired at Florida State)
TTR: Yeah he was an interesting guy.
Rardin: So was Petrino, right?
TTR: Yeah.
Rardin: I’ve heard. ‘Cause I ask. I’m curious. I’m a nerd. To the coaches. Like how people are and how they do stuff and…I dissect people. I do.
TTR: I wonder what you’ve heard…
Rardin: All the books…I read. People go down the rabbit hole of social media. I go down the rabbit hole of YouTube and just…man. Like listening to them, about them, and their leadership and stuff like that.
TTR: I’ll share something about Petrino after we turn off the recording…
Rardin: Sorry. Go on.
Back to Dawn’s Questions…
TTR: No it’s good! No problem. (to Dawn) So is there a role…do you gather some of the moms or coaches or is there any effort to do that?
Dawn: I mean the coaches’, we’ll take out some of the younger ones but we don’t really hang out with them. The assistants kind of more hang out with themselves. But we have Coach Napoleon who has five daughters now, so whenever they need anything, I’m always available. But no, we kind of keep things separate. You know, he’s the boss. But I do birthday treats for the players. So once a month, I’ll do like February birthday, so I’ll make a birthday treat thing.
I did that at Iowa Western. I didn’t start it here, I had been going through cancer recovery and…you know that’s a lot of work to make that because I make them three different things.
Rardin: I like when she does that because then I get leftovers.
You know Tyler Herbst has been with us 12 years. Napoleon’s on his 6th year. Napoleon and Bethany. (Director of Ops) Derek (Francis) played for me, and he was on one of my national championship teams as a player. He went and played for (former Hilltopper coach Chris Finwood) at Old Dominion and played for him there. He was a recruiting coordinator at Eastern Illinois and chose to come here and be my Director of Ops. He’s in his second year now.
So we’re familiar. Fournier and I have known each other 20 years. Talked all the time on the phone and we knew each other, we played each other every year to go to the World Series. So we’ve been real fortunate. You know we’ve got Fournier and his wife, Jen, she’s super independent, which makes it tremendous on the recruiting side. You’ve got Bethany with the kids…
(Dawn: She’s the boss)
You know, she was a college athlete and you know the toughness and “getting it”, like understanding “it”. Jamie, super independent, as well. I joke, but I’ve always hired really well and I married really well. Like you get the right people. Like when you do that, it does a ton for you.
Dawn: Yeah, you have to make sure (they have) the right spouse when you hire a coach because they have to let them do their job.
Rardin: So I told you when I go do a job interview and she goes with me…when we go to hire and I want them to come in, I tell them that their wife is coming with them. I don’t ask if she can. Like if you’re going to come and interview, your wife is coming with you.
TTR: (Surprised) Ok. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of that.
Rardin: Yeah. Because I wanna see interaction, I wanna see how they act, I wanna see what their questions may be or what their concerns are, stuff like that.
TTR: Is that something you came up with on your own or does that come from somewhere else?
Rardin: Yeah it’s just from our experience.
Dawn: Well, and he would have assistants who would want me to meet their girlfriend to see what I thought…like to see if she could be a coach’s wife. Actually, Chris Johns!
Rardin: So yeah the new assistant basketball coach, Tara Johns, so Chris Johns…
(Dawn: I was his dorm director)
…played for me in Lamar Community College in Colorado and then he coached for me at Iowa Western and he won two national championships with me as my assistant. Well, now it’s years later and he’s back here and he’s back in Bowling Green as Tara’s husband…and she is the assistant women’s basketball coach.
So that’s just…really our belief. Like we don’t really talk about “Oh (the program’s) gotta be a family”, but she’s right, we don’t hang out with the coaches a lot. We’re friends.
(Dawn: We’re friends. We’re available.)
Rardin: But not we’re not having everybody over to the house. We’ve never had the team over to the house before…a lot of these coaches do it all the time and I just never have.
TTR: Maybe it’s a football thing, but the coaches wives would be on one trip a year.
Rardin: Yeah, like if they’re going to a football game, like Florida International or something.
(TTR: Yeah to the beach or whatever)
Rardin: Yeahhh that ain’t happening! (Laughter)
Dawn: I mean, we’ve been busy with our kids in sports…
Rardin: I mean we’ve talked about in the future on maybe traveling but Griffin is getting ready to go to Shelton State JUCO in Tuscaloosa and so that’s where he’s going to go, and eventually, maybe somewhere like here. So she’s got at least four years of doing other stuff. I mean, if I’m playing here for a home series and Griffin’s playing, she ain’t gonna be here.
(Dawn: Nope)
Rardin: It’s just the way it is.
(TTR: Bye)
Rardin: Yep! So we’ve got four more years of that before she can even tag along and hang out with me on the road.
TTR: So when y’all go to like an FIU, do y’all just go down to Nashville and catch a commercial flight?
Rardin: Yep
TTR: So what distance do y’all go that you take a bus?
Rardin: We still drove to La Tech. (We’ll fly to) New Mexico State, Florida International, (and) Dallas Baptist. We’re driving to Liberty.
Dawn: Liberty’s what like 7 hours?
Rardin: So it’s not too bad.
Dawn: That’s probably the only one (conference tournament at Liberty), that I’m hoping to get to go to, but it depends on Griffin.
The Close
TTR: Well, I have two more questions…
Rardin: Whatever you got!
Dawn’s Battle With Cancer
TTR: One for each of you…so Mrs. Dawn, you’re a cancer survivor and you’ve had amazing support since being diagnosed. Like I saw a video about kids shaving their heads and all that kind of stuff. Is there a message you would like people to hear or a cause you would like to promote related to that subject?
Dawn: I think anytime you have something like that, your attitude, how you approach it, attitude is everything. So if you are not attacking it and having a good attitude, you’re not going to get as good a result. So that’s the message. Attitude is everything. And it is in sports, too. That’s kind of how we live. It’s how you approach things with your outlook.
Rardin: So whenever I send my texts out, I put at the bottom “attitude is everything”. Every time with players, recruits, boosters, things of that nature, I send it out. She never missed a day of work, she never was late, she never came home early. She had people she was working with that had a headache or it was too hot in the surgery room.
TTR: You kind of had the trump card.
Rardin: She’s there with no hair, no eyebrows, no nails. Like chemo affected…and this is what you learn about people… They are still going to complain. This is what I talk with my life survivor skills…that’s what I call how I coach…I’m teaching kids about life and we just get to do it on a field and everything else, but I tell them these stories.
A big thing I try to teach them about is the BCD’s out there:
The bitching, the complaining, the blaming, the critiquing, the defending, the denying, the BCDs we call them. And grown people were working with her and be like “Oh I can’t do this today!” Like, “I gotta go home.” Hello? She’s working today right beside them, going through breast cancer, going through chemo, and we just learned a lot about people. And it totally has changed us. You don’t think you can be any closer to your best friend, your soul mate, your partner, whatever, like all it did is ration out really what’s important and how we’re gonna do this together. It just taught us a lot about people.
Not just negative stuff, but there was good stuff. You find out who a lot of your good friends are, who wants to be around you, or who just says it and doesn’t. It’s helped us a lot.
The biggest thing when I’m out, and I’ve spoke to a ton of sororities and stuff and the big thing I always tell them, I tell them is, “Listen, when we found this, it was because of a routine checkup.”
(Dawn: It was a mammogram)
Rardin: We tell girls…well, I do, when we go out. I know this isn’t something you want to hear from me, but this is my wife and this is what happened. I’m just telling you, go get your checkup. I obviously speak at a lot of places. When we do the Knockout Breast Cancer (with softball and baseball) in the fall on our field, I happened to be in our dugout and I go, “Ladies, turn around here, listen to me for a minute.” And I told them the story. They’re probably like, “What’s the baseball coach talking to us about that for?”
Dawn: Well, we caught it super early but I had to go through a bunch of chemo and radiation, but because of the type of cancer and how aggressive it was…
TTR: Was it Stage 1?
Dawn: Yeah it was Stage 1. It was just really rare and (extremely) rare for my age. Like usually it’s women in menopause, not 40-year-olds.
TTR: Yeah my mom’s a pathologist and I’ve heard horror stories.
Dawn: Mmhmm. Some of them get scared to find out. It’ just…you’ve just gotta do it. We were just like “Ok what’s next? Let’s get it scheduled. Let’s go.”
Rardin: Yeah the biggest thing was…we just attacked. Instead of like, “Why us?” We just attacked. We did a really good job with our sons and never made it look that big nor did they worry. I thought she did a tremendous job of just status quo, attack it. I mean, trust me, never late for work, never came home early, but she could be in bed by 5:30 and I just took care of Griffin and we did what we needed to do and just kind of go on with the day. We just learned a lot and we just came closer together because of those experiences as well.
Why Should WKU Fans Show Up and Support the Tops?
TTR: Wow. Well, I have one more for (Marc). I like to give whoever I’m interviewing kind of a chance to advertise. When you first started, maybe you had 10 or 20 in the stands, and maybe that still happens early (in the season) or it’s rainy or whatever, but what would you say to the fans? What’s the goal for WKU Baseball in terms of energy, fan attendance…what would you like to see? Why should they get out and show up?
Rardin: So…you’re going to have to decipher this how you want and put it how you want, but I grew up in this business if there’s 20 people in the stands or 2,000, we’ve gotta play the game… The experience I want for our kids is those fans are going to enjoy their competitiveness and their energy and the way they play. We’ve got a lot of (WKU) people that are really prideful and have so many opinions.
So we start being like, “Ok we’re here now.” You start to look at what’s happening. It’s no different than when you recruit kids. You know like “Wow they’re doing better. I’m interested!” Fans are kind of the same way. They need to see what’s going on. A lot of them have. I just met with a booster and he introduced me to somebody else and he goes, “You’re doing a great job!”
But… I don’t know what the answer is to get more butts in the seats. Other than the one thing that I can do is just keep having it enjoyable and exciting and fun. Baseball to me, it’s not basketball, it’s not (a set) 40 minutes. Football, same thing. Baseball, you go out there with a business partner, wife and kids, you know. You can have a conversation while watching the game. I think there’s a different fun and enjoyment to it with beer and hot dogs and the pace of the game and things of that nature.
I can only do what we do which is recruit the great kids that make great players that make a great team and get some wins on the board. Make it relevant again. I think we have immediately.
I can’t make people come to the games. I wish I could. I wish we had 250 coming every time. We’ll have 55 people instead of 255 people. But I can’t worry about that all the time because then all of a sudden we’re below .500 anyway. Why would people want to come? I heard when I got here that it had been a few years and they would be losing and they would be down three and it was just done and it was just boring.
All of a sudden, we come in, we bunt, we steal bases, we try to do various things, we have energy, it’s fun, our kids celebrate for each other, with each other, and it’s I think more fun to be around. And that’s all we can do. I want people who want to be a part of that. Like, “Hey, there’s a Saturday evening in April. Well, the Toppers are playing. Let’s go.”
It’s $5 a ticket for God’s sakes. We took $50 ticket packages for the season and we put it up to $80 and people are complaining that it’s $80 for a season. That’s like $2 and change to walk through the gate to support WKU Baseball.
Dawn: We pay more to go to our son’s high school games.
Rardin: So…yeah. I do feel like I’m the straw that stirs the drink a little bit. I come in with different ideas. Whether it’s with our game management people. My first year, we had a live band out there for one of the Charlotte games. They played for batting practice and for the first five or six innings. The Charlotte coach was like, “This is AWESOME!” Like man, we’re like by Nashville. We had a great band come in. I got the beer prices knocked down. Just trying to do different stuff.
I know you guys in social media talk about how people don’t come to games. I guess I’m just kind of in the norm for that. The question isn’t just, “Why don’t people come out for WKU Baseball?” You’ve got some pretty good mid-major sports in a small town. I mean, I’m the new guy on the block and I’m trying to figure it out. I’m wanting the fans for our kids, for that life experience.
(Next year) We’re going to Mississippi State to open up the college season. And we’re going down there for the weekend, so something fun. Now that (crowd size) is never anything that I would expect here at all. But I would expect at some point, why wouldn’t we (be able to fill the stadium) with the beer patio, the upstairs of the facility with a deck overlooking? There’s enough opportunities. For me, I’ve just gotta keep putting a good product out on the field.
That is a very long answer, and you can sort through that how you want, but I got nothing against the fans here. Like even for baseball. It’s been so dormant for so long.
TTR: Since maybe what? 2011 when we were pretty good.
Rardin: The big numbers is like 2009. Yeah that was like THE year. When I talk to people around the community, they talk about those two or three years. That’s just what they remember because it quickly started to shift and just kind of went to the wayside. So here I am. I saw that when I took the job. I knew that we could do something. I thought Todd (Stewart) took a really interesting view with me. He said, “Your Year One is your Year Zero. And your Year Two is your Year One.” and so on. So I think we’re all happy where we’re at. But we’re not going to sneak up on anybody anymore. When I first took the job, I told them people are going to play that WKU Baseball emblem and it ain’t gonna be the same people wearin’ em. And that’s what we did and we started surprising people.
Executing and doing some different stuff. We played a different way than what they played beforehand. But I just don’t think we’re gonna surprise people (now). Coaches picked us third in CUSA, which is cool. That’s getting recognition from your peers. My first year, we were picked last. Which rightly so. We should’ve been. Which I loved. Because I knew that we could be better than that with coaching and love and getting after them a little bit. Again, different culture, living, breathing, showing how we do everything.
Comments and Conclusion
This was one of my favorite interviews I’ve ever done for sure. They’re always enjoyable, but this was a fascinating dynamic with a husband and wife with an amazing story. And frankly, misunderstood.
I think Coach Rardin answered a lot of the burning questions:
Why isn’t WKU Baseball on TV more?
What happened with the mass exodus during the first offseason?
Who are the Rardins?
Why did they come to WKU?
What kind of people are they?
What is the feel inside the WKU Baseball program?
Are they involved at WKU?
What about Dawn’s battle with cancer?
Why should fans at home come see WKU Baseball?
Takeaways
The controversy after the first offseason was a lot of misunderstanding.
Dawn is an absolute warrior for not only having cancer, but how she handled it with complete class is the most impressive.
The Rardins have an awesome dynamic together.
WKU Baseball is in good hands.
Because of Coach Rardin’s and staff’s leadership, WKU Baseball is carrying itself like it expects big things to happen sooner rather than later.
After I turned off the recording, we talked about how he thinks of the postseason, which was really interesting. His next goal is to get to a CUSA Championship game and see what happens from there. He always wants to push it at least one step forward.
After the recording was over, we sat and talked another 20 minutes. I had told them I had another engagement right after the interview (which was cancelled), and I think we just had a good enough time (maybe they were miserable for all I know LOL) that we just kept talking.
I came away loving them and thinking they’re great. I really like them, and they are focused despite distractions and are putting their all into it.
WKU Baseball should be supported way more than it is. Marc Rardin has come in and absolutely revolutionized WKU Baseball from a complete doormat winning less than 1/3 of its games to a legitimate contender in one of the best mid-major conferences in Division I Baseball.
Once again, I appreciate them taking the time and sitting down with me for way longer than they had to. They have my attention, and they’ll have my support this spring. I hope you got the same thing out of it that I did.
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