Before the Savannah Bananas played in front of a sold-out Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, they found themselves sitting in front of Clemson Football Head Coach Dabo Swinney for some words of wisdom. We were on the sidelines as player after player approached Swinney, shook his hand, and thanked him for the “best speech ever.”
Bananas Head Coach Tyler Gillum, Director of Baseball Operations Adam Virant + Catcher Bill LeRoy gave us a peek into the inspirational team meeting.
Tyler Gillum, Head Coach
“Dabo is one of the best coaches in the world, and one of the things that stuck out to me was back in 2017. I watched him give an interview before they won the National Championship against Alabama and he said, ‘Coach the person first and the player second.’ He talked about that. It’s all about the people. It’s all about who they are inside, and if you can change who they are inside and make them the best version of themselves, they can win championships on the field. That’s who we’ve got inside of our program, and that’s what stood out to me that really relates to the Bananas.”
Adam Virant, Director of Baseball Operations
“His enthusiasm is insane. When he spoke to our entire group, you could hear a pin drop. We were hanging on every single word. But then when he got in the bus with us to go around the stadium and run down that hill, he was just hyping us up, just like a kid. That guy is super special. I’m a Clemson Tiger for life, right here.”
Bill LeRoy, Catcher
“You can tell he’s just living in his purpose. He was meant to do this. He was meant to run an organization and coach a football team of this size. Intertwining so many awesome things, like loving the player. He said, when a player comes back when he’s 30 years old, is he going to hug your neck or is he going to walk away? He cares about those personal relationships. That’s what drives our culture, as well. If we don’t love each other and take care of each other… it starts internally to be able to spread love to everybody else. Dabo is really an awesome speaker and spoke to my heart.”
As for Coach Swinney, he told us it was “unreal” seeing the stadium like this, and he enjoyed the game as a spectator, after leading the Bananas down the hill (of course).
“This is the first time I’ve been to a game that I wasn’t on the sidelines coaching,” Swinney said. “This is wild.”
