Noah Marcoux grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, and built his game step by step. He became one of the most consistent college hitters in the country by staying patient, trusting development, and learning from the right people along the way.

Noah’s career was shaped by strong mentors, honest coaches, and years of learning how to handle failure, pressure, and expectations. He didn’t chase shortcuts. He learned how to prepare, adjust, and compete every day.

We talk about where he’s from.

How baseball shaped his upbringing.

The coaches and mentors who influenced his career.

What separated him as a college hitter.

How approach, preparation, and habits drove his consistency.

What he learned about failure and confidence inside a long season.

How the game helped shape who he is beyond the field.

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Hey, it's Coach Kate here, registered dietitian and owner of RD Kate Sports Nutrition. As a member of the LCC STARS Athletic Department, I teach our athletes what to eat and when to eat it, on training days, competition days and throughout the year. For over a decade, I've been helping athletes of all sports and levels meet their goals. RDKate Sports Nutrition offers individual consulting team services, on demand courses and downloadable handouts. For more information, visit RDKate.com.

Hello, friends, and welcome to Coach Cut's Corner. Streaming bright from Michigan's Capital City, this podcast is dedicated to helping you better understand the who, the what and the why of mental performance, personal growth and Lansing Stars baseball. Coach Cut’s Corner, brought to you by “eyewash” in collaboration with Lansing Community College. And now, here's your host, Steven Cutter.

Welcome to Coach Cut's Corner, where we talk real development, real journeys, and what it actually takes to win in life.

Today's episode is about the long road, not highlights, not shortcuts. The work that happens over years.

My guest today is Noah Marcoux, a Midwest kid who grow who grew into one of the most consistent college hitters in the country. He didn't skip steps, he learned, he failed, he adjusted.

And along the way, he was shaped by coaches, mentors, and experiences that still show up in how he leads his current farm system youth baseball team.

We're going to talk about his upbringing in the game, the people who influenced him and what made him a productive hitter at the college level, and the lessons baseball taught him that go far beyond the field. If you care about development, patience, and hitting 500 foot home runs, this one matters. Let's get into it. Welcome to the studio, Noah.

Thanks for having me.

Got Coach Radek in the studio as well. Beautiful morning in the capital city. Nice and warm.

Yeah, Give me a couple weeks, then we'll be down south.

Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.

So, Noah, to kind of take us back. You're from the Saginaw area, went to Saginaw Heritage High School. What did baseball look like early on for you? Long before high school.

What did it look like?

Oh, man. Taking it back real far. Just me and my dad, you know, in the front yard hitting wiffle balls, you know, as far as I could other than that.

I was playing travel ball, just getting as many opportunities and reps as I could with dad and local coaches.

Were you a natural lefty?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anybody was expecting that. I think we had one in our family.

Okay. All right. So your dad kind of was probably the pretty pivotal in putting the bat in your hands at first, from what you can remember.

Yeah, from what my mom says. Yeah. And.

And I got the opportunity to coach you later on in college and summer collegiate ball and stuff. And your dad was still there. Your family was very supportive of that. And, you know, we'll get into your college career and stuff like that.

But you think about, like, some of the guys that you played with that didn't have families that were as supportive and how important that is because it's a tough game at times.

It's very important to have that support. For sure that with them there every step of the way was. It made it easy, you know, what.

Kind of player were you when you were little?

Oh, man, I think I was a scrappy, aggressive player. My dad was like, hustle on, off the field, Be aggressive as you can.

Did you hit bombs at that point?

I think I was on my way to that. I was hitting them hard. I think they were in the ground.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. When did it, like. Did you play other sports?

Yep, I played basketball and soccer.

Okay. And pretty decent at those.

Yeah, I was athletic. Soccer, I was just running, I think. I don't think I was doing anything to help out the team, really. I was just running around my basketball.

I was pretty solid at.

Was there a point that something shifted and you're like, I think I'm gonna. I think I'm gonna play baseball more.

I think my dad and I. Dad and I had conversations like, you know, maybe pick one and, like, go all in because you're really good at baseball.

So, like, really dive into that.

Roughly what age was that?

I would say, like, 8th grade. 7Th. 8Th grade was like, the turning point of, like, I'm still going to play other sports, but baseball's the main focus.

Was there anybody else that kind of helped shape you through sports besides, like, family?

We had a. It was called Peak Performance in Bay City. Okay. So I would go there, and there was a lot of coaching.

The Bay City Riverdogs was a travel team, so I played for them, and they had a big facility. So all the coaches there shaped me just to who I am today, too.

Did you end up having a lot of success at a young age, or was it. Do you have to fight a little bit for it?

I think there was a little fight, but I think it came easy. I think at a young age, I just grasped the game. I grasped how to play, and it just. From there, it just kind of went up.

What positions were you playing at that.

Point I was an outfielder, I'll feel that I could play first.

Which is kind of how you finish too, right?

Yeah.

Very interesting.

No pitching or anything here and there. I, I didn't grasp it. I didn't like it really. It was JV for high school. And I remember pitching and he's like, I don't, I don't really enjoy this.

Okay. What was high school baseball like?

I was very eye opening. It's like coming in, you're as a freshman for sure. You're like, I want to play varsity, but what does it take?

And all these kids above you have these experiences. Yeah, they, they just played hard. They, they were out to win. And that was the, the shifting point for me.

It's just like, okay, I have to adapt or die.

So what point did you get on varsity?

I think it was late in my sophomore year. I was for playoffs, so my first two years were on jv.

Okay. And the team was pretty strong at that point.

Yep. We had for varsity it was Mason, Schwalmbach and Elijah. A bent.

Guys, like just guys are really good at the game and could pitch, could hit, do everything.

So what was your junior and senior years like?

I was that, that was that shift for me where, you know, I took everything I learned from playoffs in jv and me and my dad worked on my swing, my athletic ability, arm strength, just everything you could be to be a well rounded athlete. That's what we worked on. So that. Because my goal was to play varsity as a starter, so I wanted that.

When you say you worked on it, was it pretty consistent?

It was consistent. It was day in, day out, really. Like we were either hitting, we were throwing, we were doing something.

And did that seem like work at that point or was that fun?

It turned into fun at first I was like, man, this sucks.

But it really paid off, especially playing like travel and going to facilities nearby and my parents or especially my dad just like driving me everywhere to do those things.

Where was the shift at when the initial goals you had some things kind of light up with some upperclassmen that you were seeing in high school and you're still at the JV level or getting brought up during playoffs and you're starting to look at them as kind of models and then all of a sudden it's your turn to be the model. Where was the shift at from that to I think I want to play in college?

I think it was all the coaches around me that were pushing me in the right directions and giving me the insight of what it Takes to play college and like putting me in situations where, yeah, it makes. It may suck, but it's gonna make you way better. Or like pushing you towards camps just to help you get your name out there.

So I didn't know anything about it. My dad was. He was kind of like, honestly, I called him like my manager. He was like, he found every.

For me to be in front of a coach, someone important, so they could see me play. And I think the shift was when coaches at those camps came up to me was like, hey, you're a really good ball player. Do you want.

Do you have any interest in playing college? So that was the shift for me. It was like, oh, it's what I'm doing is right.

Yeah. That kind of plays into the identity piece too. When you start, people have. People start stacking on it, like, hey, you're.

You're pretty solid, you know, you're like, yeah, I guess I have been working.

So as a player, you don't really recognize, you're just playing baseball until someone kind of steps into the light and goes, hey, this might be something you. You go, go down.

So what was the recruiting process like? Because your recruiting process is way different than what it looks like today.

Yeah.

So just out of curiosity, what was it like for you?

It wasn't all rainbows and sunshine for me. Mine came from a lot of people I knew and camps that I went to. I remember I went out to Yavapai in Arizona, Mile High Community College.

And I don't know idea how they even got on their radar. And I went out there with my dad and did a tryout and then a bunch of small D1s cup and state. Norfolk State did all that, but it was.

And then Davenport, but it wasn't anything special. It was honestly, it'd come and it go. You didn't know where things were going, so you just had to keep looking out there and find the right suit.

I mean, it was tough.

Why Davenport? You end up at Davenport, have an illustrious career, you're a part of some really solid baseball teams.

But what was the, what was the draw to Davenport?

Just the way they go about baseball, the way they handle themselves, their standards.

Me and my dad did some research, digging in, how they play the game, who the coaches are, and honestly, they're a big power hitting school and I think I fit that, that standard for them. And I wanted to play too. So a lot of the other colleges that I visited, I wasn't going to start.

And so I went somewhere where I was Going to play right off the bat.

Yeah.

I think Coach Teidee and the coaches that have been around him have done a really, really great job of just being consistent, holding their identity, what they stand for, and being able to produce, you know, solid teams year in and year out and kind of be a model for Division 2 in the Midwest of being able to compete. Were you, did you play there when they were still. When they were transitioning to Division 2?

I came in as they made that transition. So it was D2 when I first started.

So that was a different transition as well for the college baseball, but not necessarily for the team or anything else. What was your identity initially when you got to Davenport? I mean, like, what. What were you.

What were you known for and did you get much playing time as a freshman?

My identity was I was a hitter. I came in as a. As my strong suit was hitting, and I came in as an outfielder.

And later down the road, I was a first baseman, starting first baseman for them. But no, I didn't start right away. I definitely had to earn that. But when we made our first trip to Florida, that's our spring season, I got a lot of.

A lot of playing time down there. And then I think it transitioned into.

I traded time with Jacob Bushberger at the time he was playing first for them, and then I think he moved over to third.

Third, yeah.

And then I took his spot at first later in the season.

Yeah, you just want to keep saying you took Bushberger's spot at first to drive that home a little bit. So what, beyond the playing time and stuff like that, let's talk a little bit about approach or mechanics.

What was most important to you as a hitter in college?

Approach, for sure. We had great hitting coaches and we had what was called. It was like we broke the approach up into a zone for hitting.

So it was either you cut the plate in half and you picked your zone, and that's where Davenport standed on their standards is like, if that's your. Your zone, like you should be doing damage in those, like good counts in that zone.

Y.

So that was the big thing.

How did you handle failure, especially early on?

It was tough. It was a. It was a wake up call especially. We talked about adversity a lot in college and like how to handle that and.

But how I handled it was, I wouldn't say, the best to start off with. And then I definitely had to change my mental approach and play more for the team instead of myself.

Did you learn that early or did it take a while it had to.

Be early and that was the only way you were going to play. As if you could figure out how to handle things, handle adversity and handle losing in tough situations.

Were you one of those guys? Because I never saw you like that when I coached you in summer collegiate ball.

But were you one of those guys that would let the helmets fly and the bats or the Bee Gees or anything like that?

No, I was never an equipment guy. I was internal. I would, I would beat myself up a lot and then I'd have to try to figure out how to refocus.

Did you take notes after, like games and at bats and stuff like that?

During games? So I would do them. Not my freshman year. My freshman year I was still learning the ropes, still figuring out the whole system.

But sophomore year I had a notebook that I carried with me to every game. I wrote in the hotel rooms, wrote before. Like we had scouting reports and I would make, make notes of that.

So I was trying to make myself better than the next person.

That was something that I just remembered. While we're sitting here talking, we. We got an opportunity. I got to see you a little bit in high school and then I got to see you.

And you got to be a part of something that was just the most uncommon summer collegiate baseball in, in the history of, you know, we had a three team pod and then it all sudden was a two team pod we were staying at. You guys were living in cabins in what town was that in?

Oh, interlocking.

Interlocking. Yep. In interlocking at the camp. And we were just talking about it before we went on the air.

But like there was a lot of professional affiliated big leaguers, independent baseball players on those teams. Wild. I mean there's, there's a resorters pitcher Gavin Stone is a starter for the Dodgers.

Jacob Marcy, I mean Spencer, you know, for the, the Braves and Chad Patrick. And what do you remember about that summer? I mean, I kind of framed it as a wild, wild summer, but yeah,.

You never knew what you were getting. It was big leaguer or it was like a really good college player. Especially being a hitter, you. You were facing the top arms in the country.

Did you. You didn't only live in the. At Interlochen, you also lived at the splash village.

Is it.

Yeah, it's a water park. We stayed at a water park for a while.

Yeah.

So it's a pretty wild summer. We were up There for a long time, at least. It felt like a super long time. And we were able.

I think that I look back on that summer, and that was one of the things that really helped, like, with growing problem solving skill set. Like, you just had to adapt and you had to figure things out. And it applied to everything from food to anything else.

And we just kept playing games every night at 7:05. Yep.

It was adapt or die. That's what I took it as.

Yeah. So. So I got to see you there. And then you ended up playing for the Mesquite Clippers.

I think the next season, the following that, and we got to spend some more time there. But that, you know, circling back to, you know, just trying to be thoughtful about your last at bat, your last game, writing stuff down.

I mean, that's. That's stuff that even though it's talked about, you still don't see a lot of that in the game, but it's super important. And that.

That memory of me thinking, seeing you in that dugout in Traverse City with a notepad and writing stuff down after at bats and games and stuff, I. I've seen that before, but you don't see it a lot.

No. And it's really helped, like, after I started doing it helped my career just. Boom.

What was the plan going into your senior year? Because you played five years at Davenport, right? Or you.

You had five seasons and what was like the senior year, were you thinking, like, I'm done or no, I want to keep playing.

I want definitely keep playing was on my mind. But at the time, it was last year, the. My junior year. Yeah, we were in the regional conference championship.

And, like, going in a senior year, it was like, okay, let's make it to the super regional and let's make it to the World Series. So, like, I wasn't thinking about the next step until we either accomplished that or we were, like, done.

You were done.

Yeah.

And then when did that transition? How far did you make it your senior year?

We made it back to the regionals because we hosted it that year and we lost to Quincy, I think, in our first. First or second round of the. I can't remember, but it was Quincy.

What was that feeling?

That was a kick in the butt because they. Their field is so short. They hit bombs there, and they come to our field and we're thinking, man, they're not gonna hit. Like, they do it their place.

And, you know, they showed up and they hit bombs, like, yeah.

Was that a pretty big low point for you in Your career that day?

Yeah, because it felt like we got kicked in our teeth in our own field. So it was not a good feeling.

Then what happened?

And then I remember Coach Tidy, we had a conversation before regionals even happened. I was talking with one of the coaches from uspbl. He was interested, but I mean, you had to come try out still. It's not like you just make the team.

So that's the, that's the crazy thing about independent balls. You still got to go try out and make a team.

Yeah, let's get into that a little bit. What was, what was Indy ball like?

Well, I'll take you a little bit before that. Right after Davenport, I got on a plane to go to California to go play for the Palm City springs power for 15 days.

The coach out there, he said, I'll give you 15, you know, 15 days out in California. And he was like a recruiter for mlb. One of the MLB team went out there. Worst baseball I've ever played in my life.

Like, this is, this is where we're hitting my low points. And I was going to be on a flight.

So we're talking offensively worst baseball or defensive.

Offensively. Okay.

Offensive, yeah. Because I mean, like you, you were, you always had like that light tower power and you could, I mean, you were, you were a hitter.

And it wasn't all about home runs by any stretch, but man, if you, if you got the, the right angles on everything, like, you could really had some great pullside power as well, you know? So struggling offensively has got to be like, you got to be kidding me, right?

That was, Those are my low points. When I struggle with my strong suits. Those are what really gets me. So, yeah, that was crazy.

So I did my 15 days there and then I had to jump on a plane back to Michigan so I could go try out for the uspbl. And I had a layover in Austin, Texas. The flight ended up getting canceled. So I'm on the phone with my dad and he's like, I, I found you flight.

It's the last one out. It's literally probably 11 o' clock and it's straight through. He's like, I'll pick you up in Detroit. And we stayed the night.

And next morning I tried out, but I had to try it with a first base glove and no bat. My luggage got lost or it was delayed.

It was delayed.

Yeah.

So that. And that was at Jimmy John's Field there.

Yep.

Okay. Which they just went under. Some serious renovations.

Yeah, I think they're Putting turf in there.

I saw that. Very impressive. That well needed, but yeah, that's. That's pretty cool. So you end up trying out. How'd the tryout go?

It went great.

So it was better like a couple days later that. Yeah, it came back, right?

Yep. I think once I stepped foot in Michigan, I think things got better. So.

So you made the team.

Yep.

And then what?

And then it was. I stayed with the host family in Macomb. It was actually a teammate that I played with in. Davenport's family. They lived over there.

So they hosted me for two years over there and we got to. Grinding is way different than college.

Let's talk about that a little bit. Obviously it's different than college. Your schedule is much different than college as well. Right. And you're not doing it for money.

No. You're doing it because you love the game and you love to grind and.

Your schedule is kind of like. You play games on towards the weekend, Right. Thursday through Sunday.

Yeah. So their schedule is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Wednesday was like a no. There's no fans, there's. You just play.

It's a real game, but you play with no fans at one o', clock,.

Kind of like 20, 20 at times, right?

Yeah, pretty much. It was like, I've been here, so. And there's no music, there's no walk up songs.

It's.

You can hear crickets. Okay. Yeah.

All right. That had to be interesting. So you played two seasons?

Three.

Three.

I would say two and a half. Because when I came in, I was coming in halfway through their season when they do their second draft.

And once again you hit really well.

Yep.

You had a monster year. One of either your last one or the one before. Which one was your biggest year? Offensively?

It was my last year. I switched up everything with my dad.

What do you mean?

A lot of people don't like it. As the teacher man.

Okay.

So we dove into that and it worked for me. And that's how I teach kids now. And I mean, I think it helps. It turned my season around.

Why do you say a lot of people don't like it?

I shouldn't say they don't. Like I said, they don't understand it. And it comes from like. Because going through college, we did a lot of drills that were very exaggeration.

So like the T drills were, you know, they would never tell you to swing like that, but it was really exaggerated. So you get a. Like you'd feel how to swing correctly and be on plane and you know Hit those light tower power stuff.

So I think that's where the switch up was. It was like using all those exaggerations in my swing, really. I don't know. It puts something together. It's hard for me to explain sometimes.

Yeah, I think it's with any philosophy, it works for some and it doesn't work for others. And that applies to pitching, hitting, fielding, throwing, you know, everything.

Even on the mental side of it, you know, some things work really well and some. Some don't, you know, and we found.

Found that with like our python watches and stuff, and the ability to, you think something like simple meditation before you go out and play is going to be electric for everybody that's doing it. And we found that that's not true.

No, it's all different for everybody. It's finding what you. What works for you on a season. That's me being a coach now. It's like, I got 12 kids that all learn differently. So let's.

Let's get into that a little bit. So three seasons in professional baseball and then you decide what.

I talk with my wife and I said, I'm just going to do lessons at local place, you know, keep the, you know, keep my baseball alive, let me have my hobbies, and I like doing it. And then people there started to really gravitate towards what I was doing, and they asked if I had a team. And I said no.

I never thought I was going to coach. I was like, just going to be a lesson guy. I was like, coaching's not for me. And then.

I can't believe you said that.

Yeah, I even told my parents. I'm like. Because they tell me, like, hey, you should try coaching. And I was like, I don't think so. I don't want to be responsible for.

So you start this farm system team. Tell us about that.

That was, you know, I went to all my lessons and I told them, like, hey, I'm going to start a team. A lot of those lessons were asking me if I was starting a team.

So we put together tryouts in August of last year, and I had a really good turnout of, you know, kids in the whole area, just ball players. And I have a mix of ball players that have their own skill set, have their own, like, philosophies that they do things, how they do things. But it's.

It's been a journey, it's been fun, and I think I'm going to keep coaching. Honestly,

Ryan can kind of speak to that a little bit.

Once you get in and you see And I know, like Noah, when we talked a few weeks ago, it's, we were talking about like, once you start seeing that you can have an impact on others. And when you're a player, your main focus is. It's not your total focus, but your main focus is on your own development.

And when you start coaching and you start seeing like, well, I can have an impact on, you know, whether it's 12 or whatever it might be, it's kind of, it becomes pretty rewarding and you want to try to give them your best and sometimes you want to try to give them your best because you never, you didn't have the best. That's not necessarily where you came from.

You came from, you know, not only your dad and Davenport and stuff like that, but not every player gets that. And, and some of them, you know, are being like, well, I just want to make a better impact than what I had.

And so you have this farm system and it's a group of 12 year olds. Roughly. Roughly.

And I was watching you practice the other day as I was walking through the facility and I was watching you and you guys were doing some station work and I was just looking at you and you were like, pretty locked in. You were just really focused on what they're doing. And I was like, that's, that's pretty cool. That will be, that's.

That leads to really great coaching. So super proud of you for that piece of it.

Do you still see like, as you're coaching at this point, do you see some of your playing stuff come out, the competitiveness and stuff like that?

Yeah, because I come to every practice the way I would come to practice every single day, which is, it's compete. I'm going to beat you. Like, and I'm 27 years old and these kids are 12. But if, if the roles were reversed, I'm trying to beat them.

And I think they have the same attitude.

Okay, do you have to have you had to do like, what Coach Tidy does and get a little excited at.

Times sometimes just to pump them up, Especially when we're doing live at bats. It's dead. So I'm trying to just pump them up.

Ryan, you've experienced that though too, right? You know, coming from playing, boom, paradigm shift. I'm no longer playing now I'm going to teach what I've learned and, and all that.

And then like, how do you, how do you actually get people to listen to you other than just having the title of coach, you know?

Yeah, no, I, I played with half the guys on the team last year.

And so the first couple weeks of coaching I was like, these guys are laughing at me the entire time. Like yes, they don't even, they're not taking me seriously.

But it was great to kind of learn along the way and also take the stuff that I learned the past couple years that I've been here and kind of apply it as a coach.

Absolutely.

Is there anything that like with 12 year olds they wish you wish they understood a little bit more? Because with like coaching here, I say especially in the fall season, a lot of our team doesn't know what they don't know.

And I don't say it's anybody's fault or anything else. And it's not their fault. They just don't know what they don't know. It's you know, that cognitive incompetence basically.

And now you going from an illustrious college career to independent baseball that was filled with success and lows. It wasn't sunny in 75 the whole time, but you know, you go to that and then all of a sudden you go to 12U baseball.

Are there things that you wish they would know?

Yeah, absolutely.

Like especially like coming from like high, like professional baseball, college, like just the verbiage that we use and the way we teach things, you have to really break it down in either what I say as a coach is you can't do it. It's hard to teach it and. Cause I try to teach everything that I, that I've done or I know someone's done.

So that's what I wish that they understood was like the verbiage of. And I don't know just how, but just how to like handle yourself like through practices and games, how to compete.

They're learning that and like I, I already have that skill and it's, it's hard to tell a 12 year old to get pumped up to face their own pitcher like that. That's the hard part.

Do you have any of them taking notes yet?

We actually, I instilled that from day one. They all have binders. They have binders with notebooks. Our standards of hitting, fielding, pitching, even a breathing thing in their binders.

Like how we, you know, step out of the box. We breathe, we just how we are steps to hitting the ball, feeling ball and pitching.

Yeah, you don't have clocks at travel ball so you got a little more time to do some of that stuff.

Yeah. So we don't know time limit here.

Yeah, the, the game changed a little bit as you were playing too with the the clocks and stuff like that too. That was a shift, which was a, a big shift.

But I really appreciate you coming into the studio and your story is incredible and it's just I think that you did a ton of as a player, but I really believe you're going to do a lot more as a coach and the impact that you're having not only with your team but as these kind of things continue to grow and appreciate you coming in the studio this morning. Coach Ryan, appreciate you being in here.

Thank you to Noah for coming in and thank you to Ryan for helping make this show better by each of your presences. Remember, winning fades habits last. Excellence isn't a destination, it's who you become in the process and effort will always trump talent.

Thank you to everyone who continues to listen, share and support this journey. We're all playing a game. We can't win, so why not go all in and go Stars.

Coach Cut's Corner is recorded live in the WLNZ Studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry. Thanks for listening and if you enjoyed today's podcast, please share it and follow us on all the platforms of social media. You can find more about our programs at LCCStars.com and donations to our baseball program can be made at the same site. See you next time.