As the 2026 National High School Invitational semifinal between Orange Lutheran High School and Casteel High School reached its final inning this past March, two of the nation's premier high school programs were locked in a tie.

In the third-base dugout were the Lancers of Orange Lutheran, a California powerhouse looking to win its fourth NHSI title. Across the field were the Casteel Colts, a dominant Arizona program coming off back-to-back state championships and a victory over the No. 1 team in the country a day earlier. But while the players commanded the attention of fans and scouts, the game was also becoming a strategic battle between two of the country's top high school coaches: USA Baseball colleagues Matt Denny and RJ Farrell.

With a runner on third and one out, Denny called for a safety squeeze, the type of small-ball maneuver his Casteel teams have perfected. When the bunt went foul, Denny called timeout. Farrell recognized the opportunity to adjust.

“He calls a timeout, so I have an opportunity to kind of reshuffle our defense a little bit,” recalls Farrell. “They go to bunt again, and we put a play on where our first baseman was coming down. Fortunately, last year our first baseman was actually an ACC-committed shortstop, and he made an amazing play.”

First baseman (and covert shortstop) Jordan Kurz fielded the bunt and caught the Casteel runner at the plate, changing the momentum of the game. Orange Lutheran won on a walk-off in the next frame to top Casteel 2-1, then earned its fourth NHSI title the next day.

Five months later, that semifinal has become one of the moments Farrell and Denny can laugh about and learn from as fellow members of USA Baseball's 13U/14U Athlete Development Program and 15U National Team Training Camp staffs.

“It was a really, really exciting game,” says Farrell. “I probably have a bigger smile about it than [Denny] does. We actually were working on some of that stuff during the ADP the other day, and he said, ‘it's reminding me of our game last year!’”

“As soon as you think you have it figured out, you're in trouble,” says Denny. “We changed some things that we do for our bunt coverages because they exposed us.”

The dynamic captures one of the most unique elements of the USA Baseball developmental pipeline: the players aren’t the only ones learning. No one demonstrates this better than Denny and Farrell, both of whom have coached nationally ranked programs and top MLB Draft prospects for years, yet continue to seek opportunities to sharpen their craft alongside other elite coaches.

“I've known Coach Denny for a few years now, and we've had some good battles,” says Farrell. “He's such a smart person of the game. His in-game knowledge is really elite, so just having the opportunity to think things through with each other when we're not competing in different dugouts is just such useful knowledge.”

It’s easy to see why the coaches would want to learn from each other, as few have achieved more success at the amateur level. In addition to his achievements across seven seasons at Orange Lutheran, Farrell owns three gold medals from his time coaching USA’s 12U National Team. Meanwhile, Denny has coached four different state championship squads in Arizona, earning him a spot in the National High School Baseball Coaches Association (NHSBCA) Hall of Fame last year.

Between last week’s ADP and this week’s 15U Training Camp, the pair have spent nearly two weeks coaching players together in Cary, North Carolina.

“We were here a couple weeks ago for an event, and we stayed up late every night, just talking hitting, talking about ‘what do you do in this situation,’” says Denny. “We're both picking each other's brains.”

For Farrell, the lessons he can learn from Denny are easy to identify. When asked about the Casteel program, he mentioned how much he admires the way Denny's teams keep opponents on their toes. In particular, the program's creativity with trick plays catches his attention.

“They run anything on any count. With any number of outs, it's on,” Farrell says. “He always keeps you thinking.”

Denny also sees something admirable when he watches Orange Lutheran.

“It's really disciplined, and there's really a plan,” Denny says, describing everything from the way the Lancers enter the dugout to how they stretch and play catch.

Learning how to incorporate these differences are precisely what make the coaching relationship valuable, though neither coach is simply looking for a blueprint to copy. Instead, each comes to Cary in the summers looking for ideas that he can fit into his own philosophy.

Farrell has even made this kind of learning a habit. His phone contains notes from each summer he has spent with USA Baseball, detailing the ideas and observations he has picked up from coaches around the country.

“When I get back at the end of the summer, I'll go through it,” Farrell says. “I’m just adding it to my personality as a coach.”

The past two weeks have offered no shortage of learning opportunities for the two coaches, as they have shared dugout steps and hotel rooms with former pros and current college coaches. Fourteen-year MLB veteran Brett Tomko served as a pitching coach for last week’s ADP, and collegiate head coaches Drew Briese, JD Pruitt, and Rob Shabansky are on staff for this week’s 15U Training Camp.

For Denny, the opportunity to learn from these coaches around him is almost as valuable as working with the athletes themselves:

“I probably use that as much as anything,” he says. “I'm stealing stuff from them, and they're stealing stuff from us.”

Five months after their NHSI nailbiter, Denny and Farrell are still heading to the ballpark each day, running players through drills and sweating through three-hour games in the summer sun. As four long days of ADP wrapped up last week, one might imagine that the coaches would take a break from baseball to regroup before 15U Training Camp.

Instead, as Denny made his way to the parking lot where Farrell and four other coaches were waiting for him to depart, he commented on what he was looking forward to.

“There's five guys in that van right now, and I'm sure we're gonna talk baseball the whole way home.”