By Jesse Swafford | CSwaff Media

CONTEXT: Brandon Rexin — The Story Is a Long Way From Finished

There is a point in the life of a young athlete when everything can start to feel urgent.

Someone else committed.

Someone else added five miles per hour to his fastball.

Someone else posted a new metric, attended another showcase or picked up another college follow.

Social media makes sure everyone sees it.

For a teenager still trying to figure out what kind of baseball player he might become, it can be easy to look around and wonder if everyone else is getting somewhere faster.

Brandon Rexin would like young baseball players—and perhaps some of the adults around them—to slow down.

“The highly recruited kids get most of the attention online, but that isn’t the experience of the average high-school player,” Rexin said.

At Northmont, where Rexin serves as head baseball coach, he has watched players develop on different timelines. In fact, since he arrived at Northmont, he says the program hasn’t had a player commit to a college before the start of his senior year.

His message to the player who feels like recruiting is passing him by is simple.

“At 16, the story is a long way from finished.”

For Rexin, that idea extends well beyond recruiting.

It helps explain how he develops players, how he views travel baseball, why he encourages multi-sport athletes, how he measures the success of his program and, ultimately, what he hopes his players remember about him long after their baseball careers are over.

Because the goal, as Rexin sees it, isn’t to determine as quickly as possible what a young athlete is going to become.

It’s to give him the opportunity to find out.

Finding His Own Place in the Game

Baseball has been part of Rexin’s life for as long as he can remember.

He started in T-ball, continued through high school and eventually played at Central Michigan. By the end of his college career, Rexin knew his days as a player were probably over.

He wasn’t ready for his days in baseball to end with them.

“At that point, I thought the business side of professional baseball was the best way to do that,” Rexin said.

He spent nearly a decade working in professional baseball, moving around the country and experiencing parts of the sport most people never get to see.

Coaching began finding its way into his life along the way.

“The more I did it, the more I realized how much I enjoyed teaching, developing players and building relationships,” Rexin said.

Then COVID shut down professional baseball and gave him an unexpected opportunity to reconsider what he wanted from the game.

He decided to move away from its business side and invest more of himself into coaching.

Northmont wasn’t necessarily the obvious destination.

Rexin admits that when the opportunity first surfaced, he didn’t know much about the school.

“I didn’t even know where it was,” he said.

Rexin was coaching with the Dayton Classics under Gregg Beemer at the time. Beemer’s son, Blake, had played at Northmont, and Beemer passed Rexin’s name along to the athletic director.

Once Rexin began learning about Northmont’s baseball history and tradition, he saw an opportunity.

“I wanted to build something people genuinely wanted to be part of,” Rexin said.

His vision was to take the structure, purpose and expectations he had encountered at higher levels of baseball and bring them into a high-school program without losing sight of whom that program existed to serve.

The kids.

Development Without the Rush

Rexin isn’t arguing for less player development.

Quite the opposite.

At Northmont, development doesn’t begin when the high-school season starts and disappear when the final out is recorded.

The program incorporates structured offseason training, strength and conditioning, arm care and individualized skill development. Players are exposed to technology and data. They’re educated about nutrition and given access to recovery tools.

But there is a purpose behind all of it.

“We want consistency throughout every level of the program so players understand what is expected and are prepared for whatever comes next,” Rexin said.

And “whatever comes next” doesn’t necessarily mean college baseball.

“Most of our players won’t play baseball forever, so our responsibility has to be bigger than preparing them for the next game,” he said. “We want to help them develop habits that will benefit them long after baseball is over.”

Rexin embraces many of the advancements that have transformed modern player development. Data allows coaches to evaluate players more objectively. Strength training, arm care, movement work and workload management have helped athletes become stronger and better prepared.

But more information isn’t automatically better coaching.

“The technology is valuable, but only if a coach can take all of that information and make it simple for the player,” Rexin said. “A kid doesn’t need every number on a report.”

And there is a point, he believes, when development can begin working against itself.

“We can get so caught up chasing velocity, exit velocity or perfect mechanics that we forget the kid still has to compete, adjust and play the game.”

His philosophy can be distilled into one sentence:

“The tools should fit the player—not force the player into a model.”

That includes knowing when baseball isn’t necessarily the best thing for a baseball player.

Rexin is a strong advocate for young athletes playing multiple sports.

Different sports create different movements and competitive situations. They can also provide something increasingly rare in year-round youth sports:

A break.

“Specializing earlier doesn’t guarantee that someone will develop faster or go farther,” Rexin said.

A Follow Is Not a Roster Spot

Few places illustrate the urgency surrounding young athletes better than college recruiting.

Rexin sees it from multiple sides.

Six players from Northmont’s 2026 roster earned opportunities to continue playing in college. When one of his players tells him he wants to do the same, Rexin begins with a distinction.

Wanting the opportunity and being willing to earn it are different things.

His job starts with honesty.

Rexin evaluates the player’s skills, physical tools, strength, athleticism and understanding of the game. Then he tries to help build a development plan around the areas that need the most work.

“Telling every kid he’s a Division I player doesn’t help him,” Rexin said, “but I also never want to put a ceiling on someone who is willing to work and keep improving.”

Recruiting isn’t simply about finding the biggest baseball program willing to listen, either.

Rexin talks to players about academics, distance from home, cost, positional depth, player development and whether a school actually fits the person making the decision.

One question cuts through much of the noise.

“If baseball ended tomorrow, would you still be happy at that school?”

Rexin will help players create video and assemble the information college coaches need. He’ll make phone calls, provide honest evaluations and use relationships he’s developed around baseball.

He’s even driven players to visits and workouts both inside and outside Ohio.

But there is a line he won’t cross.

The player has to own the process.

“I can help open a door; he has to walk through it.”

That’s increasingly important in a recruiting environment where attention itself can begin to look like achievement.

Followers.

Likes.

Graphics.

Showcases.

Metrics.

Videos.

Rexin doesn’t dismiss those tools. Used correctly, they can help.

But none of them are the destination.

“A follow or a like is not a roster spot,” Rexin said.

Sometimes, the best recruiting strategy isn’t finding another place to be seen.

It’s becoming better before asking people to look.

“Sometimes the best thing a kid can do for his recruiting is stop chasing attention for a while and become a better player.”

Finding the Right Opportunity

Rexin believes honesty is one of the most important things a coach can give a player during recruiting—even when it isn’t what the player or his family hoped to hear.

An unrealistic evaluation might feel encouraging today.

It can cost a player the right opportunity tomorrow.

That doesn’t mean Rexin believes an evaluation at 16 or 17 should become a permanent label.

“Kids develop at different rates,” he said. “Where he fits today may not be where he fits a year from now if he grows, gets stronger and keeps improving.”

The destination doesn’t have to be Division I for the journey to be successful.

Rexin would rather see a player choose a program where he’s valued, can develop and can enjoy his college experience than chase a particular logo or level simply to say he reached it.

“Success isn’t the logo on the uniform,” Rexin said. “It’s whether the experience helps the player grow, earn a meaningful education and prepare for whatever comes next.”

And for the teenager watching commitments appear on his phone while wondering why his hasn’t come?

Keep going.

“What a kid looks like at 16 doesn’t determine what he can become at 18, 20 or 22,” Rexin said.

There is still time to get stronger. Time to improve a skill. Time to create better video and build relationships.

The eventual path might include junior college, Division III, NAIA or another opportunity the player didn’t originally imagine.

“You don’t need every college coach to believe in you,” Rexin said. “You need to keep getting better and eventually find one program that does.”

A Game of Opportunity

Baseball itself offers a lesson in what happens when things don’t move according to plan.

The sport is often described as a game of failure.

Rexin prefers another word.

Opportunity.

“Every pitch is another chance to compete, adjust and help your team,” he said.

A hitter can execute his approach perfectly and line the ball directly at a defender. A pitcher can make exactly the pitch he wanted and watch it turn into a hit.

The result matters.

But the result doesn’t always tell the truth about the process that produced it.

That’s why Rexin wants players to build confidence around things they can control: preparation, approach, effort, decisions and response.

“If confidence is tied only to results, it changes with every at-bat,” he said. “If it comes from preparation and the ability to adjust, it’s much more stable.”

That requires coaches to allow mistakes to happen, too.

Accountability matters. Fear doesn’t help.

“Confidence isn’t believing everything will always work out,” Rexin said. “It’s trusting that you can respond when it doesn’t.”

It’s a baseball lesson.

It’s also one Rexin hopes survives baseball.

Bigger Than Baseball

Ask Rexin how much of building a high-school baseball program actually has to do with hitting, pitching and fielding, and his answer might surprise someone looking at the job from the outside.

“Honestly, most of building a high-school program has very little to do with hitting, pitching or fielding.”

Northmont wants to win.

Rexin makes no attempt to minimize that.

But he believes the opportunity presented to a high-school coach is larger than a win-loss record.

“Culture isn’t a slogan on a wall or something you establish in one team meeting,” Rexin said. “It’s what you teach, reinforce and hold people accountable for every day.”

It shows up when players are on time.

When they communicate.

When they follow through.

When they don’t get what they want.

When nobody is watching.

Baseball eventually ends for everyone.

Rexin wants what players learn inside the program to remain useful when it does.

“If wins and losses are the only way we measure success, we miss the biggest opportunity we have,” he said.

That same willingness to keep developing applies to the coach.

His involvement with the Miami Valley Baseball Coaches Association, Dayton Classics, USA Baseball and other opportunities has exposed Rexin to coaches with different backgrounds, ideas and philosophies.

His biggest takeaway?

How much he still doesn’t know.

“My job isn’t to bring every new idea back to Northmont,” Rexin said. “It’s to decide what actually helps our players, simplify it and make it fit what we’re trying to build.”

The Most Impressive 14-Year-Old

If Rexin could change one thing about youth and high-school baseball, he wouldn’t eliminate travel ball.

He wouldn’t get rid of technology.

He wouldn’t throw out showcases, recruiting services or social media.

He’d remove some of the urgency surrounding all of it.

“Too many kids and families feel like they’re already behind if they aren’t specializing, playing year-round, attending every showcase or getting recruited early,” Rexin said.

That pressure can turn development into a race.

More games don’t automatically produce a better player. More exposure isn’t necessarily valuable if the player isn’t ready to be evaluated.

Sometimes the answer is less complicated.

Practice.

Get stronger.

Move better.

Play another sport.

Mature.

Social media rarely shows that part.

Players see commitments, highlights and impressive numbers and assume they’re watching everyone else pull away.

“They’re not seeing the whole process,” Rexin said.

Then comes the line that perhaps best explains his entire approach to developing young athletes.

“The goal shouldn’t be to create the most impressive 14-year-old. It should be to help that kid stay healthy, enjoy baseball and keep developing into the best version of himself at 18, 20 and beyond.”

The Story Isn’t Finished

Eventually, Brandon Rexin will coach his last baseball game.

There will be a final lineup.

A final practice.

A final player who comes through Northmont’s program.

When that day arrives, Rexin already knows how he’d like the people he coached to measure what came before it.

Not by his record.

Not by championships.

Not by how many players reached college baseball.

“I hope players say I cared about them as people before I cared about what they could do for us on a baseball field,” Rexin said.

He hopes they remember that he believed in them. That he was honest. That he held them accountable because he wanted the best for them.

He also hopes they remember something else.

That their coach was human.

“I make mistakes as a person and as a coach,” Rexin said. “I’m not going to get every decision right, and I want them to see that mistakes are okay. What matters is owning them, learning from them and trying to be better.”

He can’t ask players to respond to their mistakes with accountability if he isn’t willing to do the same himself.

Perhaps the real measure of what Rexin is building at Northmont won’t arrive while any of those players are wearing a Northmont uniform.

Maybe it comes years later.

“More than anything, I hope they say I was there for them—not only when they were playing well or helping us win, but when they struggled, needed guidance or were no longer in the program,” Rexin said.

“If former players feel like they can call me years later for advice, share what’s happening in their lives or just stay connected, that will mean more to me than any title or win total.”

That’s the thing about developing young athletes.

You don’t always know what you’ve built when they’re 14.

You don’t know when they’re 16.

Sometimes, you don’t even know when they graduate.

You have to give them time.

The story is a long way from finished.