Two-time 12U National Team Manager and three-time gold medalist Bryan Madsen returned this week to Cary, North Carolina, to coach CBU Scout Team at the 14U National Team Championships. Madsen is fresh off winning the 2025 WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup in Tainan, Taiwan, last summer, which marked his third gold medal in as many years as part of the 12U National Team staff.
Between all the action, we got a chance to catch up with the former Marine and accomplished manager and hear him reflect on his coaching experiences.
Q: First and foremost, what's it like being back at the National Training Complex?
A: Oh, it's always good. It's always fun to be here. I feel like I spend a lot of my summers here, which is awesome. But it's cool, especially seeing it in a different capacity, coaching one of the teams that's competing instead of evaluating everything. I think I have a little bit of insight into the importance of trying to win the tournament, but also showing your players and giving them a chance to be seen by the national staff.
Q: What do you think is the biggest difference between managing a national team and a travel team?
A: The amount of people it starts with. So I have 15 [players] here. Down here [when you’re evaluating], you're trying to look at everybody. Thank goodness you have an amazing task force and coaches around you. But I also try to keep an eye on who we're playing because [the current national staff] does ask me questions at times about what I see, and I take that seriously. But I’m just trying to put my 15 guys in a good position to show what they can do.
Q: What's the biggest change when you go from the small fields at 12U to the big fields here at 14U Champs?
A: I think this is the first age where this field starts fitting. At 13U, it's still so big, and they're not physical enough yet. This is the first age where it looks like it's a fit. At 12U and 11U, it's a good-sized field for those kids. At 13U, it slows down, and now at 14U it’s a little more exciting because I feel like they fit physically.
Q: With your players knowing they're auditioning for the national team, is there any challenge to getting them to play their best at Champs?
A: One hundred percent. They know this is a two-piece tournament. And I think a lot of them get that first game in, and maybe they don't do as well as they think. It's like ‘guys, there's more games.’ And I know that from trials or team trials or training camps and things like that. I also let them know that, yes, we're watching you play, but we're watching you do everything else too. So just because they don't do it well that day or on the field, I’m getting them to understand that this is baseball. It’s a process. Just be you. Don't try to do too much. That's a constant challenge, whether it's a national team or these guys here..
Q: You won three straight gold medals with the 12U National Team, including a World Cup last summer. What are some memories that stand out from those experiences?
A: When I was on my first staff in 2023, we won a gold medal, and that was a grind. It's always a grind. And I always say that I'm super happy when we win a gold medal, but we're in the gold medal business here. There's always a bit of relief. The first one we won when I was an assistant, I was really happy. With the second and third [in 2024 and 2025], there was relief. Especially as a manager, you don't want to be the manager that embarrasses. And as a former Marine, I don't want to be the manager that embarrasses my country, or doesn't hold up our end of the bargain. There's so many good moments. The comeback we had last year [from down four runs against Chinese Taipei] was one of the best baseball games I've ever been a part of. And a lot of it is just seeing the kids. They play so much travel ball, where it's about me, me, me. But when you put the right 18 kids together, it's about the team and it's awesome.
Q: Obviously that experience is life-changing for the kids. Do you think coaching those teams abroad has changed you as a coach?
A: One hundred percent. I still have a national team guy with me playing now, [2024 12U National Team alum] Jayden Portes, and seeing all these guys, there's this family. And you also see a lot of talk about bad baseball now and bad coaching and bad baseball. But it can also be on a super high level. And it's up to us coaches to put them in the kids in that spot so they can see that too. And I think coaching internationally against other countries -- it's a competition you can't really put into words until you do it. After you're in a 10,000-seat stadium, and 50 of the fans are rooting for you, I think that really brings everybody closer and gives you an appreciation for it. I mean, I know big league guys who still say that wearing a USA jersey was their favorite thing.
Q: What's it like seeing your former national team players at Champs and watching them grow up and develop as players?
A: It's really fulfilling. To see them and the qualities we saw in them and helped them grow a little bit using the game of baseball, it's great. Each time you see them, they're just better versions of themselves. Those qualities that we saw continue to grow, and hopefully they take them with them as long as they’re playing the game, and as husbands and fathers.
Q: Is there ever a moment when you see your former players at Champs, where y'all remember what you accomplished?
A: It’s funny, Jayden [Portes] and I were just talking about [the 2024 World Cup Americas Qualifier] in Panama. He was like, ‘I don't know how I was in the lineup so much. I didn't do that good.’ And I was like, ‘it’s because you were a big part.’ So there is always a moment where we'll have a conversation with a kid and we'll talk about the gold medals. What's really cool is when they say, ‘that was my favorite part of playing baseball.’ Never have I seen a kid and not had that bond. And it's great. Even if you're taking the best players of the country, and some people don’t play as much as they normally do, they get it and they're into it. And they can take that with them.
