In the Meet the Staff series, Brian Feekin and Brandon Winkelmann dive into their life surrounding baseball.

Brian Feekin is the Nebraska Director of Scouting and is heavily involved with the evolution of Prep Baseball Report in Nebraska. Outside of PBR, he works in technology in Omaha and works in player development at the youth level. 

Feekin has been involved with baseball since he was about 10 years old. “I started playing later than a lot of kids do today,” he said. “I played until I was 22, then started coaching at the youth level in Papillion.”

In 2016, he opened PBR Nebraska alongside Rob Allison. “As I was working in IT Sales and coaching around here, I reached out to Rob just to connect with him on a personal level and see how he was doing,” Feekin said. “We started talking about PBR, and then that's when the idea kind of clicked in our heads with the opportunity of starting Nebraska.”

Working for PBR has allowed Feekin to be more involved with baseball. “I think the best part about running the state has been seeing the growth that baseball has had in Nebraska,” he said. “My role with PBR Nebraska also has given me an opportunity to meet a lot of players, coaches, parents, etc. that I wouldn't have connected with if I wasn't doing this.”

His favorite baseball memory was as a fan. “Back when I was in high school, I went to a Nebraska-Missouri Friday night game,” Feekin said. “We got to see a duel between Joba Chamberlain and Max Scherzer, that was one of the better baseball atmospheres I've been around.”

Feekin does not have a favorite baseball team. “I just like watching good baseball players,” he said. “If I were to have a favorite team, more than likely be the Chicago Cubs right now. I went to Chicago about a year and a half ago with my son, and we went to a game at Wrigley.”

Many players influenced his thoughts on the game as a kid. “I liked Bo Jackson when I was younger,” Feekin said. “I really liked Ichiro Suzuki when he came over from Japan. Randy Johnson. Ken Griffey Jr. was a stud when I was a kid; he made baseball cool. Also, Pedro Martinez. I started getting more interested in baseball in the late 90s, early 2000s, so I've always been a fan of that era.”

Despite not knowing much, Feekin also enjoys hockey. “ I feel like I know a decent amount about sports, but I’ve gotten forced into learning hockey because my son started playing,” he said.

Brian Feekin is a fan of good baseball, which includes the following the local college programs throughout the state and everything he does at PBR. The growth he has witnessed in Nebraska since starting the state has been inspiring for him, and the connections he has made with players, coaches, and parents have been a great opportunity.

Brandon Winklemann has helped with PBR Nebraska in some capacity for the past five years. Now as a full-time staff member, he helps out at PBR Nebraska with scouting, events, and more.

Winklemann got involved with baseball around six. “I played all the way up through college,” he said. “And that's where I met Brian Feekin and Rob. Rob coached me at Iowa Western, and then after that, I went to Nebraska-Omaha and played there.”

His position at PBR has grown over the years. “Brian Feekin had asked me to help out with a few events, and Rob had me help out with a few events out in Iowa with him,” Winklemann said. “And last year, Brian asked if I wanted to kind of help out more with other than just the events kind of with everything else. Since then, it's just been a kind of fun thing that Brian and I like to work on and help these kids get a little bit more exposure.”

Having gone to a smaller high school, Winklemann understands the importance of helping baseball players get exposed to colleges. “I think stuff like PBR and all these events, helping these kids get their name out there and make it a little bit easier for the coaches to see them,” he said. “That's my favorite part about it, helping some of these kids that wouldn't have a chance otherwise get seen by college coaches.”

His favorite memory is from college. “My sophomore year at Iowa Western, we won the JUCO World Series, and Rob was a part of that,” Winklemann said.”

He has always been an Atlanta Braves fan. “It was my brother's favorite team,” Winklemann said. “He's four years older than me, and I just got on the bandwagon. It was either them or the Cubs that were on TV all the time back in the day, and I obviously wanted to watch a team that was good.”

Winklemann’s favorite player was part of that same team. “It probably had to be Chipper Jones again; he’s a Brave,” he said. “As far as why I just like the way he played the game.”

Aside from baseball, Winklemann enjoys golf and other less demanding sports. “It's kind of funny; you pick these sports that are not the most grueling sports,” he said. “I never chose basketball; it’s too much running. No soccer for me; it’s too much running. So I guess that's the lazy part of me. That was why I like baseball and chose to play in college. I mean, I was a little bit better at it, but at the same time, I was kind of lazy.”

Although baseball and golf are far from being the same sport, Brandon Winkelmann enjoys both. But he chooses to dedicate his time to helping high school and college baseball players move on to higher levels of the sport. And that is the part of the job that keeps him at PBR. Stay tuned for the next and final article, where Rob Allison will be the star of the show.