The Players’ Corner

“I’ve always wanted to prove everybody wrong in my life….I wanted to show all the other teams that didn’t recruit me when I played them that I would have been a star on their team,” Caden Konczak shared.

While wanting to follow in his dad’s footsteps at Bowling Green, Caden’s opportunity came from the rival school next door, the University of Toledo.

Coach Reinstetle took a chance on Caden when he offered him a spot on Toledo’s baseball team, and this is how Caden Konczak proved him right.

One Chance, One Coach

Heading into what was supposed to be an essential season for recruiting his junior year, everything took a twist. He recalled, “It was supposed to be a big year for me. And then COVID hits.”

This had major implications on the recruiting process, as Caden explained, “College coaches couldn’t come watch us in person at all. So it was all relied on the coaches’ words and if they believed them or not.”

But Rob Reinstetle, head coach for the Toledo Rockets, “took a chance.” After a tournament where Caden hit a few homeruns, Reinstetle offered him a spot in Toledo without seeing him live.

It was Caden’s singular offer, but for him, it was all he needed.

Fighting Back Through Freshman Gut Punches

Many players face struggles adjusting to the college game, but Caden was knocked down hard early.

It started when he realized the talent level he was up against, “As a freshman coming in, you don’t like realize it. But when you get there, everybody was the best one on their high school team.”

But the biggest setback happened with his swing:

“I had a really bad fall my freshman year. They were going through some swing changes with me. I had no idea what I was doing. I had never gotten this in-depth with my swing because I always had a good swing. Everybody loved it. And going through those changes, I was awful. I don’t even know how to describe it. I had maybe two hits the entire fall, and they (the coaches) were like… ‘You’re probably not going to play at all. [You’re] probably going to red shirt.’”

To make matters even worse, just before the season, Caden hyperextended his knee, which ruined his chances of traveling with the team.

But a few weeks into the season, he recovered, and his season took a twist when the coaching staff felt a change in the lineup was needed. Caden remembered, “They decided to give me a shot. He (Reinstetle) pulled me into his office at 9 a.m. the day of the game — And I was just rolling in like it was another day — And he’s like, ‘you’re going to start today.’ And I was like, oh God.”

In a time when things weren’t going his way and he was facing setback upon setback, he powered through. He said, “You can’t ever get down on yourself because if you do, it’s never going to work. So just believing in myself and knowing and hoping that it was going to come out in a positive way at the end was my mindset…I just wanted that opportunity, and I was going to take advantage of every opportunity I got.”

And take advantage he did. In his second career game and with his first career hit, the Columbus native sent one past the fence against his dream school, Ohio State. Caden shared, “I barely remember it because I just blacked out, but I’ll never forget the Twitter post of it happening. The announcer said, ‘The hometown kid returns.’”

Leading into the homerun, he was still struggling at the plate and “nervous as hell,” as he admitted, “That was my seventh AB (at bat) of my career, and my first six, I think I either rolled over, hit it back to the pitcher, or struck out. And I was like, ‘This is hard… these pitch mixes are so different.’ And I didn’t even know what to expect.”

But this was a turning point for him, “Getting the homer against a Big 10 team and a power five school, I was like, ‘All right, I might end up just okay.’”

This propelled him to an unexpected freshman season, seeing action in 25 games and paving the way for his incredible career.

Mental Growth and Preparation

One of Caden’s biggest factors leading to his growth was his willingness to ask coaches how he could improve, even if it meant annoying them.

He explained, “I’m always asking questions like, ‘Why do I feel this? Why am I doing this?’ And they probably got annoyed with me over time, but they really honed in on me and helped me perfect my craft almost.”

He added an important message for younger athletes, “If I just tried to figure it out on my own, it wouldn’t have worked out… I probably would have struggled and probably would have been left on the bench if I hadn’t asked those questions or tried to fix it. Also, asking them shows that you care and you want to fix your issues.”

Asking questions was just a piece of the puzzle in preparing for at-bats. He also took notice of the pitchers’ strategies. In his junior year he executed it to perfection versus Ball State.

Late in the game, he faced the conference pitcher of the year. Caden had been hot all game, going into the inning 4/4, but he didn’t excel against lefty pitchers. He was struck out. But two innings later, he had a chance at redemption.

He shared, “We make it to the [bottom of the] 11th inning, and this guy is still out there. I come up with two outs, and I’m always a fastball-first mindset. But knowing the lefty and what my coaches had told me, I was probably gonna get a first-pitch slider. So I switched my approach… I got the bat head out early, and I just hit it.” The home run secured the Rockets’ victory and redemption for Caden.

Caden’s growth wasn’t just about mechanics at the plate; it was about curiosity, confidence, and preparation.

From Team Struggles to an Underdog Run

By his senior season, Caden wasn’t just focused on his individual growth. What began as a brutally slow start led to an unexpected and inspiring run with Caden’s leadership and play at its heart.

Even his old teammates were texting him about the struggles. He recalled, “They’re like, ‘You guys might be the worst Toledo baseball team in history.’ And I was optimistic, but…right now they’re not wrong. We are like, like nine and 20.”

The season had a turning point when Coach Reinstetle “put all of us captains into a meeting, and he was like, ‘I’m not leaving here until I feel better about this. Like, what do we need to do?’”

Coach Reinstetle challenged Caden to a new style of leadership, as he said, “I put my head down, do my work, and I lead by example. I’m not very vocal. But that’s one thing that my coach harped on me — is that I needed to be more of a vocal leader.”

The vocal style had a learning curve, including understanding how to phrase the tough love to his teammates and best friends. But eventually, the leadership style and team came together, as he expressed, “Something just clicked with us, we started having a lot of fun, and winning is fun.”

The Rockets began stringing together wins, eventually leading for a run in the conference tournament. Caden shared his mentality through this stretch, “You’re fighting for a week to get to a regional that no Toledo team has ever done. You’re not supposed to win, but we know you can. Just be the leader you are, go let loose, and have fun for four days.”

He had a “little extra fire” in the tournament, and it showed on the field. With three home runs in 6 games, Caden helped lead his team to multiple upset victories to make the conference championship.

Ultimately, the Rockets fell short, and Caden’s baseball career came to an end this past May. With nearly 200 games played for Toledo, Caden wrapped up a career including all-conference honors, the conference medal of excellence, captaincy, team highs in batting average, homeruns, and hits as a senior.

But most importantly, he left a lasting impact on the locker room. He shared, “One of my good friends who’s two years younger than me said he sat in my locker and cried when I moved out.”

The emotion Caden showed in his final post-game interview proves the care he had for the brotherhood he shared with his teammates, the gratitude for his coaches, and his love for baseball.

While his time on the field is over, his legacy carries on. And certainly, Coach Reinstetle taking a chance on Caden Konczak is one of the best risks he’s taken.