Latest / From the Coach's Mouth / Episode 48: College Bound Jocks

Transcript

Episode 48: College Bound Jocks · From the Coach's Mouth

• 0:00
  In order to get recruited and beat, make your process
• 0:02
  effective and and less stressful, you got to be fishing
• 0:06
  in the right pond. It's like I have so many kids
• 0:09
  that you know, they're, they're, you know, they're going off to
• 0:11
  Michigan camp, they're going to Michigan State, they're going to
• 0:13
  Notre Dame. It's like you're a you're an
• 0:15
  NAIA kid. You know, it's like you're
• 0:17
  you're wasting your time and your money by going to those
• 0:20
  camps because they're not going to recruit you whether.
• 0:22
  You live northeast, West or South?
• 0:24
  The best fast pitch info comes from the coach's mouth.
• 0:43
  Welcome to the From the Coach's Mouth podcast with your host Jay
• 0:48
  Boldman and Ken Krause. Yes, hello, everybody.
• 1:07
  Welcome back once again to the From the Coach's Mouth podcast.
• 1:11
  This is Ken and I'm here as always with a good buddy, Jay
• 1:15
  Bolden. Jay, how you doing today?
• 1:17
  Hey, Ken, I'm doing really, really well.
• 1:20
  You know, I want to talk about something just right
• 1:21
  out-of-the-box. If anybody that has been
• 1:25
  listening to the our last episode there, we have our first
• 1:28
  sponsor. So you heard our fantastic,
• 1:31
  wonderful commercial for that sponsor, which can and I both
• 1:34
  truly believe in, which is Pitch Squeak Can.
• 1:36
  What do you think about having our first sponsors?
• 1:39
  It's pretty crazy how far this podcast has come.
• 1:41
  Yeah, I mean, from the time that we first started talking about
• 1:44
  doing this and it was just sort of, let's give it a try and see
• 1:47
  what happens to now actually having a sponsor come on and
• 1:50
  sounding like, I feel like Pinocchio, I'm real boy now.
• 1:56
  Yeah, Well, just hopefully that nose over there doesn't keep
• 1:58
  getting bigger. That's the only thing I'm
• 2:00
  worried about so. I don't.
• 2:01
  Think it can. But, you know, I, I think it's
• 2:06
  pretty cool, Ken. It's like, you know, we just
• 2:08
  kind of did this thing and it's kind of taken off.
• 2:10
  And, you know, we continue to get people on this podcast that
• 2:14
  people want to hear from. And we had a lot of comments
• 2:16
  this past week on on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
• 2:20
  So keep putting the comments out there.
• 2:22
  We really appreciate you guys, the feedback you're giving us
• 2:24
  and all those good things. And and so, yeah, it's just,
• 2:27
  it's really cool. Yeah, it definitely is.
• 2:30
  You know, it's just, it's fun to see.
• 2:32
  You know, it's fun to do the commercial fitting it in there.
• 2:35
  And we're only going to do products that we believe in,
• 2:38
  things that, you know, organizations that we believe
• 2:40
  in. However it goes, we're not just
• 2:42
  going to do it because we're not in it for the money.
• 2:45
  We're in it, you know, to help people and help coaches and
• 2:47
  parents and even players to have a better softball experience.
• 2:52
  So that's that's really what we're all about.
• 2:55
  Absolutely. Speaking of things that can help
• 2:58
  people, we've got some guests that are coming on today that
• 3:01
  are really, really, really going to help people understand the
• 3:04
  whole recruiting process thing. Ken, do you want to give some
• 3:06
  background about our awesome guests today?
• 3:08
  Yeah, well today's episode is a little different because we
• 3:11
  don't just have one guest, we actually have two.
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  But together, they've made a name for themselves by helping
• 3:17
  high school age athletes across many sports, including fastpitch
• 3:21
  softball, fulfill their dreams of playing at the collegiate
• 3:24
  level. Both come to their current
• 3:26
  positions with extensive fast pitch softball backgrounds at
• 3:29
  the travel ball level in the Midwest.
• 3:32
  One is coached at all ages of travel ball in the Finesse
• 3:35
  organization from 10U to 18 U and has taken the college
• 3:39
  recruiting journey himself as a parent.
• 3:41
  But it was his day job in Michigan's largest video
• 3:44
  production house that led him to his current career.
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  He learned what coaches are looking for and what they don't
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  want to see when evaluating perspective student athletes and
• 3:54
  became determined to help up and coming athletes avoid the
• 3:56
  pitfalls while presenting themselves in the best light.
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  The other is still an active coach with the Finesse
• 4:02
  organization in Ohio where he has coached the 16U team for 10
• 4:06
  years. Hopefully the Internet got that
• 4:08
  right. He is also a varsity coach at
• 4:11
  Bedford High School in Bedford, OH.
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  Together, they are the driving forces behind College Bound
• 4:16
  Jacks, which provides professional skills and game
• 4:19
  highlight videos along with guidance on what collegiate
• 4:22
  levels are the best fits for the athletes.
• 4:24
  They also offer web pages that make it easy for both college
• 4:28
  coaches to learn more about the athletes they're interested in
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  and for athletes and their parents to monitor the interest
• 4:35
  level they're receiving from the schools they're targeting.
• 4:38
  Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Brian Chitister and
• 4:42
  Brian May to the From the Coach's Mouth podcast.
• 4:47
  How y'all doing today? Good.
• 4:49
  Welcome, gentlemen. Great.
• 4:50
  Thank you guys. Great.
• 4:52
  Glad to be here. Cool.
• 4:55
  All right, so we're good. Let's let's get into it right
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  away. You know, we, we got you guys
• 5:00
  for about an hour. I don't want to take up anymore.
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  I know you're both super busy gentlemen.
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  So I want, I want to get into it.
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  But we start this question out just like we start every podcast
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  out. Give us a little bit of your,
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  your background. Like when you guys were young,
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  what sports did you play? Did you play in college?
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  So on and so forth. So whichever Brian May or or
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  Brian C, whichever one wants to go first, go ahead and give us a
• 5:21
  little background on you guys. I'll take that question and
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  start out. So I'm Brian Chester and I
• 5:26
  started college bound jocks, but it all started back when I, I
• 5:30
  actually did play a lot of ball baseball back in the day.
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  I was a varsity player and did get recruited to play college
• 5:37
  ball, but life didn't turn that way.
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  So I ended up not playing college ball and went on to
• 5:44
  being a coach right away. Right out of high school, I
• 5:46
  started coaching travel ball and that led into eventually, you
• 5:50
  know, my, my own kids playing at the, you know, travel level at
• 5:53
  1st. And then my, all of those 3,
• 5:56
  three of my five kids ended up playing college ball.
• 5:59
  My oldest three were all very, very athletic.
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  I wanted to do, do such, you know, play college ball.
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  So my my two sons both played my, my first son played D3 ball
• 6:11
  at Defiance College in Ohio. He played football and baseball
• 6:15
  there. And then my number two son got
• 6:18
  recruited at Saint Leo D2 ball in Florida after an injury,
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  though he ended up not being able to compete there anymore
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  and end up going to Defiance College and he finished at
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  Defiance College. And then my daughter, who is the
• 6:31
  softball player of the bunch, we have 5 kids.
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  There's four boys and one girl. And turned out she was by far
• 6:36
  the biggest athlete about to be recruited by University of
• 6:40
  Michigan, went on to be a two time all American at Michigan.
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  She was the Big 10 player of the year in her junior and senior
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  year and went on to Team USA and played for Team USA for 10 years
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  and was in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
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  So following her journey all the way through, I just, you know,
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  seeing and watching the the best coaches in the world, you know,
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  we traveled all over the world to watch her compete.
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  And I did a lot of talking with coaches in the lobbies of hotels
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  and really getting a lot of information on on the process,
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  what they're looking for. I made national TV commercials
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  for a living. So I really didn't need any kind
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  of their gig, but I did the skills videos for kids just for
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  fun to help them out because that was what coaches were
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  looking forward to help kids get recruited.
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  So we were doing that. I did that for quite a few
• 7:33
  years. And then eventually the company
• 7:36
  I worked for, which we did TV commercials, they took a hit in
• 7:40
  an O8 when the economy went in the tank and GM and Chrysler
• 7:45
  both filed bankruptcy, which left our company on the hook for
• 7:49
  millions of dollars and they ended up going out of business.
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  So at that point I decided, you know what, I'm, I'm going to go
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  for this. I really, really enjoyed doing
• 7:57
  it to me. I had a couple life changing
• 7:59
  experiences where I had one of our players got recruited to
• 8:02
  Harvard and like their coach kept pushing them to go to a mid
• 8:07
  major school. And I knew this kid just was a
• 8:11
  phenomenal student and it was like, why don't you go to
• 8:14
  Harvard? You want to be a doctor?
• 8:16
  It's like, why not go to Harvard?
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  And and so got the film in front of the Ivy League coaches.
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  Harvard loved the kid and they end up going to Harvard and I, I
• 8:26
  felt like, well, we changed that kids life.
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  It's it's like they are going to just get to this mid major and,
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  and now that kids a doctor in Chicago doing phenomenal and
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  it's just like, wow, that that was pretty cool.
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  I mean, commercials are cool. I've, I've done 2 Super Bowl
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  spots in my career didn't even compare to the feeling you got
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  from actually steering that kid to, to the, the Ivy League.
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  And then we had another player went to Princeton, I had a
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  player go to Stanford. So just cool life changing
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  experiences, you know, and it's just something you really want
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  to continue to do and help. And so we, we started CBJ and
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  it's kind of been quite a journey.
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  We've been doing it for like 15 plus years now.
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  And Brian Mays joined the the team about 5 right during.
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  Yeah, Yeah. Good timing there.
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  Yeah, but yeah, we've now, you know, Fast forward all these
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  years, we've done thousands of players we still have a a 99%
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  success rate on getting kids place the the only kids that we
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  don't end up getting placed are the ones that kind of get to
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  their senior year decide that they just don't want to do this
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  anymore. You know, they, they thought
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  they did, but they don't and they just stopped playing.
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  But if, if kids are really dedicated to really wanting to
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  play it, you will find a place for them.
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  They they'll always end up finding a home.
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  And I even had a player last year.
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  She was just amazing kid out of California in my mind,
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  absolutely a Division One player, a little undersized, but
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  just made-up for it and all these other ways for their skill
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  set or overhand arm all all the things that you need.
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  She just wasn't getting the traction and but she kept that
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  and she kept that and I kept promising her.
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  I said, I promise you just kind of keep doing this.
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  Things are going to fall into place.
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  And sure enough it wasn't it was let it was she had graduated
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  from high school. Was it that summer that she
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  finally got seen by the school in Northern California and they
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  they took her on as she's a walk on there now, but I know that
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  can't line up getting money at some point because she's a she's
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  a competitor. So anyway, that's kind of a
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  quick nutshell where we started and and why we are where we are
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  right now. OK.
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  And then, Brian May, what about you?
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  So I don't have an Olympic story to share.
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  So this is going to be really blah.
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  No, I, I, I actually, I was a baseball player, you know,
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  growing up. I've got two other brothers and
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  we were, we're all a year apart. We were super competitive with
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  each other. And you know, back then, you
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  know, we're talking in the, he got late 80s probably, you know,
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  that's when, you know, kids actually went outside and played
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  all the time. And, you know, that's what we
• 11:07
  did. I mean, we had a, a glove on our
• 11:09
  hand or a ball in our hand some way, shape or form, no matter
• 11:12
  what season. And you know, I was, I was
• 11:15
  pretty good baseball player back in the day.
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  And and then that carried into high school.
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  Then I actually quit baseball to pursue golf and became a very
• 11:25
  good golfer. I figured golf was going to take
• 11:27
  me a lot further in life than what baseball was going to take
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  me. And that's what I end up doing.
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  And then, you know, Fast forward to my adult life.
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  I was the club that I belong to. There was another member there,
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  you know, I became very good friends with.
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  And they had twins, a boy and a girl.
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  And the girl actually was was trying out for, and I think she
• 11:47
  was nine years old, was trying out for like a local, we'll call
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  it probably a rec team and community based.
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  And the mom said, Hey, could you help her before tryouts?
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  I said, yeah, I'll be happy to help her.
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  And, you know, so we worked together a few times and you
• 12:01
  know, she went to the tryouts. She end up not making the team
• 12:04
  that she wanted to. And but they were going to have
• 12:06
  two teams. And then I get a call from the
• 12:07
  mom that said, hey, we just found out that they're not going
• 12:10
  to have a team because there's nobody to coach it.
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  And without even thinking, I said, well, I'll coach the team.
• 12:16
  It's like you would. And she gave me this person's
• 12:18
  contact and I hung up the phone. I'm like, what the heck did I
• 12:20
  just commit to? And so next thing I know, I end
• 12:26
  up, you know, I end up coaching them and then that's, you know,
• 12:29
  that was obviously very low level softball at the time.
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  And it wasn't very much longer after that.
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  I ended up joining up with, you know, the finesse fast pitch
• 12:39
  organization. And I've been involved with
• 12:41
  finesse now for years. You know, I I've coached my own
• 12:45
  teams for a while. I have not.
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  I think this is the third summer now in a row that I haven't
• 12:49
  coached. My last team that I coached with
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  the head coach, that team was they were 2023 grads and I had
• 12:56
  two 2024 grads. So the you know, the 20 threes,
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  I mean, it doesn't seem like that long ago, but those those
• 13:01
  girls are juniors in college not playing.
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  So they're they're wealth halfway through their collegiate
• 13:07
  careers. But you know, I'm still involved
• 13:09
  with finesse on the teams coordinator finesse and
• 13:12
  expanded. It's pretty large.
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  And you know, so I kind of oversee all the teams out of the
• 13:17
  Toledo area, which is where I reside.
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  So, you know, it's been fun. And then, you know, as Brian and
• 13:23
  alluded to earlier, it was during COVID, you know, I, I've
• 13:27
  been in sales for for many, many, many years.
• 13:30
  I was actually selling copiers again.
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  And well, when COVID hit and businesses shut down, it's no
• 13:36
  one going into work. So I was actually laid off and,
• 13:40
  you know, Fast forward a few months, you know, from that and,
• 13:44
  you know, I knew Brian, I had girls that I had coached that,
• 13:48
  you know, had used CBJ and I called him not for a job.
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  I actually called him to ask him a question.
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  And then I started thinking like, what?
• 13:59
  I know he goes coast to coast. I'm like, what is he doing for
• 14:03
  marketing? What's he doing?
• 14:04
  I mean, there's no way it's just him and whatever.
• 14:07
  So I had a conversation with him and he said, I think this is a
• 14:09
  conversation that, you know, deserves a probably another
• 14:13
  conversation. And here I am almost six years
• 14:17
  later and, you know, we're plugging along and it's funny.
• 14:21
  I mean, he's what, 15 years? He's done it.
• 14:23
  And you know, I'm on coming up to probably 6.
• 14:27
  And, you know, I look from when I started with them and where we
• 14:30
  were to where we are now. And it's just, you know, it's
• 14:32
  just like the game itself. It's just constantly growing.
• 14:34
  So good things coming. So, you know, there's a lot of
• 14:38
  myths out there about recruiting and things that I think a lot of
• 14:41
  people really don't understand it.
• 14:43
  You know, a lot of parents and even coaches are lost with it.
• 14:46
  So from your perspective, what are most families misunderstand
• 14:50
  about the recruiting process? I, I would say it's the work
• 14:55
  that goes into it as well as the number of ups and downs.
• 14:59
  I mean, it's just, you know, if it's their first go through, you
• 15:02
  know, it's the old adage, you don't know what you don't know.
• 15:05
  You know, and social media is so prevalent out there right now
• 15:08
  and it is a good tool for recruiting and it's a it's a
• 15:11
  good tool for your, you know, mom and dad brag sheet, if you
• 15:15
  will. So when you see all these social
• 15:18
  media posts out there, Facebook, Twitter, wherever it may be, you
• 15:22
  know, these kids committing, you know, it looks awesome, but
• 15:25
  what's the story behind that that's not told is the amount of
• 15:29
  work that that player went through to achieve that goal.
• 15:33
  And I and I guess I would say the amount of work that the
• 15:35
  parents did too, because it's, you know, the parents are there.
• 15:38
  I mean, it's the players process, but it is, you know, at
• 15:41
  the end of the day, it's, you know, it is kind of a family
• 15:45
  deal as well. So it's just there's a lot of
• 15:48
  work and, you know, and. What kind of work do they have
• 15:52
  to put in? I think that, again, people
• 15:54
  think, you know, I show up to a tournament and somebody's going
• 15:57
  to come across me and find me like I'm sitting at the counter
• 16:00
  at the Brown Derby. Yeah, I mean, it's, I mean,
• 16:03
  obviously the work on the field, on and off the field, I mean
• 16:06
  there's obviously hours and hours of practice and
• 16:08
  instruction and lessons and stuff like that.
• 16:10
  But you know, there's a lot of work that you have to put it in
• 16:13
  the classroom that's you need to take care of.
• 16:15
  I mean, if your grades aren't up to par, it doesn't matter how
• 16:18
  good of a softball player you are, you know, so balancing, you
• 16:22
  know, the academic side of things along with the athletic
• 16:24
  side of things. And then, you know, now you're
• 16:27
  now you're bringing the recruiting side, which, you
• 16:29
  know, the, you know, the emailing, the constant reaching
• 16:31
  out the, the time going to camps, the time, you know,
• 16:35
  figuring out which camps do I need to go to.
• 16:36
  I mean, there's just there is a lot that goes into it and you
• 16:41
  know, successful college coaches, they they're successful
• 16:45
  because they've recruited kids that can handle adversity.
• 16:48
  It's not going to be easy for four years.
• 16:51
  And you know, the first stage of adversity is the recruiting
• 16:55
  process. And you know, as Brian alluded
• 16:58
  to earlier about, you know, one of our girls who it took her a
• 17:01
  long time to get recruited, but she stuck it out, gritted it
• 17:05
  out, did everything that she had to do.
• 17:08
  There were there were times where things weren't fair for
• 17:11
  her. I mean, it's just it's life is
• 17:14
  going to be that way. It's not always fair, but it
• 17:17
  works out. And you know, if you think it's
• 17:19
  easy, you know, that's you're fooling yourself.
• 17:22
  But you know, for some kids, it is easier.
• 17:25
  You know every process is different.
• 17:27
  I I'd like to jump in and just say the one thing that I would
• 17:29
  tell parents a lot is that because a lot of them will have
• 17:32
  that exact same thing. It's like, well, we've never
• 17:34
  been through this before. I don't know how this works.
• 17:36
  And, and I like to kind of settle them down.
• 17:38
  Just say, look, you know, the reality is, is you have been
• 17:41
  through this before. You just didn't realize it
• 17:43
  because anytime you had to go out and look for a job, that's
• 17:47
  what this process is like. You literally need to have your
• 17:50
  resume and you need to be sending it out to all these
• 17:53
  potential employers and you're hoping to get an interview.
• 17:55
  And in our business, an interview is when the coach
• 17:58
  comes to see you play and then hopefully you get a second
• 18:01
  interview because you did good in the first one.
• 18:03
  And if it just continues to where they finally offer you the
• 18:06
  job. And that's how this process
• 18:08
  works. So I was like, if for a parent,
• 18:10
  if you could just put yourself into that mindset and go, OK,
• 18:12
  well, this is like a job, but we're trying to get the job.
• 18:14
  It, it simplifies it a little bit for him.
• 18:17
  And, and I, and I, I also say like, and if you think that
• 18:20
  you're going to get a job by sitting at home, you know,
• 18:22
  watching TV all day and not doing anything, that's not,
• 18:25
  you're not going to get the job. So it's all about putting in the
• 18:28
  work and and sending out the stuff to the potential
• 18:31
  employers. Yeah, I think that's a that's a
• 18:33
  huge, that's a huge comment that you had there or statement you
• 18:37
  had there is you got to put the work in and that's not just
• 18:39
  hitting the ball off the tee, right, or pitching the ball.
• 18:43
  That is constant emails and constant posting on social
• 18:47
  media, constant contact with these coaches, right?
• 18:50
  I think that's that's where I think some people lose that that
• 18:53
  thing they think they just posted on social media and coach
• 18:55
  is going to watch and they're going to love me.
• 18:57
  No, when you have the ability to be communicating with the
• 18:59
  coaches, you have to communicate with them on a weekly, sometimes
• 19:02
  daily basis if you if you want to, right?
• 19:05
  I think it may, and correct me if I'm wrong, Bryans, but it's
• 19:08
  about building that relationship because these people are going
• 19:10
  to invest in you and they want to know who they're investing
• 19:14
  in. So if they can build a
• 19:15
  relationship with you, right? I think they're going to be more
• 19:18
  willing to invest in you instead of you just posting social media
• 19:22
  stuff, right? Would you agree with that?
• 19:25
  It's interesting you mentioned the relationship part, you know,
• 19:28
  and how we had our, we talked about social media and you know,
• 19:32
  this is one of the, one of the big downfalls of social media is
• 19:36
  that, you know, parents and employers, you know, they see
• 19:40
  these kids committing to XYZ university or wherever it might
• 19:43
  be. And it's like, well, you know,
• 19:45
  that kid didn't do anything when we played them or, you know, I'm
• 19:47
  better than that kid or wherever it may be, you know, and it
• 19:50
  drives them nuts. And it's like, you know, first
• 19:53
  of all, you don't know the reason relationship that that
• 19:56
  coach had with that player, that player had with that coach.
• 19:59
  I mean, this could have been something that's been, you know,
• 20:02
  brewing for for years. You know, the kid could have
• 20:05
  been going to their camp since she was 10 years old or
• 20:08
  whatever. And you know, so the
• 20:10
  relationship aspect is, is an enormous part, as you said.
• 20:15
  I mean, they're investing in these players.
• 20:17
  You know, it's easy to say for the four years that they're in
• 20:19
  college, but you know, it's it's going to run deeper than that.
• 20:22
  And you know, they they want somebody there that's obviously
• 20:27
  going to help make their team better, but they want someone
• 20:29
  that's not going to hurt their team in terms of a culture type
• 20:33
  of an atmosphere. And, you know, so there's a lot
• 20:36
  that goes into it besides hitting ball, throwing ball.
• 20:39
  Yes. So you guys already kind of
• 20:41
  mentioned this a little bit, right, that the recruit, just
• 20:45
  like, you know, CBJ has, has changed over the over the years.
• 20:48
  How has recruiting landscape changed over the last 5-10
• 20:52
  years, especially now with the transfer portal, the NIL money
• 20:56
  and the changes to roster limits?
• 20:58
  Like how has that changed for, you know, the recruiting
• 21:01
  landscape? What?
• 21:02
  What's changed? What's the difference?
• 21:04
  I'm going to let Brian talk about the NIL stuff and then I
• 21:07
  can talk about some portal stuff.
• 21:10
  So, you know, NIL is obviously a huge thing that's out there in
• 21:14
  the media, you know, and it's is it causing changes to the
• 21:18
  recruiting landscape? Yeah, it is.
• 21:20
  But you know, the reality is, you know, in softball, you know,
• 21:26
  there's not nil deals typically like you're we're seeing in the
• 21:30
  football world, it is you're going to see the Nigeri
• 21:34
  Kennedys, you're going to see the Geordie balls, the players
• 21:37
  like that, that are getting big sums of money to go there.
• 21:40
  But that's I mean, we're talking the 1% of 1% of or 110th of a
• 21:45
  percent of a 10th of a percent of a 1% of players are out
• 21:49
  there. I mean, these are the best of
• 21:50
  the best. So you know the reality.
• 21:53
  They make the news because that's that's man bites dog,
• 21:57
  right? Yeah.
• 21:58
  You know, and it's again, I mean, there are, I mean, across
• 22:02
  all divisions, I mean there's thousands and thousands of
• 22:05
  softball players playing softball at the collegiate
• 22:08
  level. And there are very, very, very
• 22:10
  few that are in the NIL world. You know, So it's just not, you
• 22:15
  know, it's not really a factor. You know, the portal side of
• 22:19
  things is a little bit more real.
• 22:21
  You know, I mean, that's that's happening at every level.
• 22:24
  And obviously the portal is out of control too, but all sports.
• 22:27
  And you know, there's the old adage out there that the portals
• 22:30
  where most girls go or in this situation, girls go to die.
• 22:34
  But again, it's been a lot of that as they see Jordy Baldwin
• 22:38
  goes from Oklahoma back to Nebraska.
• 22:40
  It's just that simple. It's not that simple.
• 22:43
  Now we're the portal and, and I'm going to relate this kind of
• 22:46
  the the COVID year, if you, if you rewind back to when we're
• 22:50
  playing softball and COVID and for recruiting and everyone's
• 22:53
  like, Oh my God, Covid's killing my recruiting process.
• 22:56
  And you know, it's easy to focus on those negatives, but there's
• 22:59
  so many positives that come along with that too, you know,
• 23:03
  so for the portal, you get a late bloomer.
• 23:05
  I mean, we all know those late bloomers out there where their
• 23:08
  game just developed a little bit later.
• 23:10
  And unfortunately, it's not fair in the recruiting process
• 23:12
  because the recruiting process does start early, you know, but
• 23:16
  they just, their game came to the next level sometimes after
• 23:19
  some, a lot of doors were closed.
• 23:21
  Well, guess what, here comes the portal.
• 23:23
  A kid, you know, a school loses 4 girls to the portal and
• 23:27
  they've got to replace them. And how are they going to
• 23:29
  replace them? It's either going to be from the
• 23:31
  portal or they're going to look at some of those late bloomers.
• 23:35
  So I mean, it's, we've seen a lot of instances where that's
• 23:39
  happened. I mean, we have, what was it was
• 23:42
  two years ago, Brian and I both have a board, you know, in our
• 23:46
  offices with, you know, the girls that we have that are
• 23:49
  still out there uncommitted. And September one, one of the
• 23:52
  years, two or three years ago we had I think 99 players, 16 of
• 23:57
  those girls. And these are girls that are now
• 24:00
  seniors in high school. Sixteen of those 99 committed
• 24:03
  Division One by the middle of December.
• 24:06
  So, you know, did the portal play a part of that?
• 24:10
  You know, yeah, I hope they're senior year, Senior year.
• 24:14
  So, yeah, I mean, it's it's changing, you know, but you have
• 24:17
  to adapt with the changes as well.
• 24:19
  I mean, and that's, and, and I think every school has to.
• 24:22
  And there's frustrations, there's no doubt about it.
• 24:24
  There's frustrations from the college coaches, there's
• 24:27
  frustrations from the student athlete, there's frustration
• 24:30
  from parents. But you have to weather those
• 24:32
  storms and realize that, you know what, those changes aren't
• 24:35
  going away. So you just got to you got to go
• 24:38
  with it and seize an opportunity when it's there and they're out
• 24:41
  there. All right, So what is what are
• 24:44
  some of the things you know with being recruitable?
• 24:46
  How do you become recruitable as an athlete?
• 24:49
  I can take that. So I think the biggest thing
• 24:52
  there's there's so many things that coaches are looking for,
• 24:54
  but there's one thing that all the coaches are looking for and
• 24:58
  that's kids with good attitudes, kids that are hustling
• 25:01
  everywhere. And what kids don't realize is
• 25:03
  that first of all, there's times when coaches are at the field
• 25:08
  and they might be looking at a particular kid, but they don't
• 25:11
  go sit behind the back. They're going to sit down the
• 25:13
  line somewhere. So maybe that kid doesn't see
• 25:16
  him because they want to see how does this kid behave during the
• 25:18
  game? What are their what's their
• 25:20
  reactions when they kick a ball or when they overthrow first
• 25:23
  base or like, or they strike out, you know, like what's
• 25:27
  what's this kids demeanor? And those are the things they
• 25:29
  want to really know. I mean, that's a lot of times
• 25:32
  they'll be talking to people like us.
• 25:33
  They'll be talking to the travel coaches.
• 25:35
  They tell me about this kid, tell me about their family.
• 25:37
  There's all kinds of other things that go into it that make
• 25:40
  a kid recruitable. I had a kid, this is probably
• 25:44
  5-6 years ago now, who it was really bad.
• 25:49
  Her dad was just a super, super bad temper guy, always yelling.
• 25:54
  And you know, there was one time when the police had to come to
• 25:56
  the tournament, take this guy out of there.
• 25:58
  So all the coaches are like, no, no way.
• 26:02
  And this daughter was a really good pitcher and it was just
• 26:05
  like, you know, Division One level pitcher and all the
• 26:09
  coaches are like, heck no, I am not going, I am not dealing with
• 26:13
  that. You know, it's like and they
• 26:14
  all. I don't get paid enough for
• 26:16
  that. Yeah, and, and the kids suffered
• 26:18
  for it because of that, you know.
• 26:19
  So there's there's those kind of elements is like not just the
• 26:23
  players, but the parents need to know if you got to behave, you
• 26:26
  know, and you got to just sit back, chill.
• 26:28
  If you are somebody that can't, you know, hold your tongue then
• 26:31
  stand down way in the outfield somewhere.
• 26:34
  So you're not going to be a nuisance to your kid.
• 26:38
  I had a kid, this is going back probably 10 years ago now, that
• 26:43
  she was a solid player in Michigan State.
• 26:45
  Michigan State was recruiting this kid and I was promoting her
• 26:50
  and I thought she was a solid player.
• 26:52
  And we were in Colorado. I, I wasn't out there, but
• 26:56
  Jackie Joseph from Michigan State was there, went to see the
• 26:58
  kid and she goes, she struck out three times in this game that
• 27:03
  Jackie was at. And the kid calls, you know, she
• 27:07
  came to the game and she's talking right?
• 27:09
  The game she goes, I struck out three times.
• 27:12
  I was so bad. And she goes, she goes, now I
• 27:15
  blew my opportunity, blah, blah, blah.
• 27:17
  I'm like, just relax. Let me see, you know, let me
• 27:19
  find out how bad it is, You know, So I, I called Jackie, she
• 27:22
  picked up right away. She's already made her way to
• 27:25
  another field and I asked her, I said so, you know, I heard she
• 27:28
  didn't have a good game. She goes, yeah, she did fine.
• 27:30
  She goes, you know what, she battled.
• 27:32
  She had three at bats. She, I mean, the one at bat, she
• 27:35
  had to have 10 foul balls, you know, and she goes, she went
• 27:38
  down swinging every time. It wasn't like she sat there
• 27:40
  looking. She goes, I love the kid.
• 27:41
  I'm definitely gonna make her an offer.
• 27:43
  He says, you know the other thing, she goes, she struck out,
• 27:45
  she ranted A dugout. She got her glove and she ran
• 27:47
  back on that field. She played good defense.
• 27:50
  So she goes, no, everybody has bad Dave at the plate, no big
• 27:53
  deal. So it's like what kids might
• 27:55
  think is a completely disaster and what they think, Oh my gosh,
• 27:58
  I was terrible. Coach isn't they're looking at
• 28:01
  other things. You know, it's like, how did you
• 28:03
  what was your approach? Did you go to the at bat with a
• 28:06
  solid approach? You know how you're not always
• 28:09
  going to be successful. So especially like in Colorado,
• 28:12
  they're playing in some power pools.
• 28:14
  You know, these are good pitchers.
• 28:16
  So how did you how did you compete?
• 28:18
  So those are the things that make you recruitable.
• 28:21
  It's like it's the little things that you may or may not even
• 28:23
  realize. It's like, how are you
• 28:25
  approaching the game? Are you hustling?
• 28:27
  Are you vocal? Those are the things that
• 28:29
  coaches are looking for. Hey Jay, on a scale of 1 to 10,
• 28:35
  how important do you think brush contact is for pitchers?
• 28:39
  It's pretty high up there Ken, probably a 10 since it's hard to
• 28:42
  get maximum speed and or accuracy without it.
• 28:45
  Yeah I agree, but have you ever had a student who struggled to
• 28:48
  get good light brush contact? Sure, all the time, in fact.
• 28:54
  Especially when they've been taught hello elbow and are
• 28:56
  trying to throw around their hips or they're sliding their
• 28:59
  hips out of the way doing that crazy ninja move.
• 29:02
  So what do you do when you run into this situation?
• 29:05
  Keep railing on them until they get it right.
• 29:07
  I used to do that a lot, but but then I learned about a product
• 29:10
  called Pitch Squeak Ken. Pitch squeak.
• 29:13
  What's that? It's a cool little armband with
• 29:16
  a squeaker inside of it. Like a dog toy.
• 29:19
  Yeah, kind of. So how does it work?
• 29:22
  Well, you slip the armband onto the pitcher's forearm and you
• 29:26
  set it so the squeaker is where the brush contacts should
• 29:28
  happen. Then when the pitcher goes into
• 29:31
  release, she tries to get it to squeak like this.
• 29:35
  If she makes it happen, she got brush.
• 29:38
  If there's no sound, she knows immediately and can make a
• 29:41
  correction. Wow cool, so she gets immediate
• 29:44
  audible as well as tactile feedback.
• 29:47
  Oh, there you go again, showing off with those big and technical
• 29:51
  words again. But yeah, she can feel it and
• 29:54
  hear it. Doesn't really work.
• 29:56
  You bet it does. I use it with my students all
• 29:59
  the time and it helps them learn how to get brush contact pretty
• 30:03
  quickly if they practice with it.
• 30:05
  Sounds neat. Where can I get one?
• 30:07
  Oh, it's easy, Ken. Just e-mail
• 30:09
  support@pitchsqueak.com and Jason, the inventor of it and a
• 30:15
  Poly Girl certified pitching coach himself, will ask you how
• 30:18
  many you want and send them right out.
• 30:21
  I'll do that today. Thanks, Jay.
• 30:23
  What's that address again? Oh, you bet, Ken.
• 30:26
  It's support@pitchsqueak.com. One more time for those of you
• 30:32
  who are listening, support@pitchsqueak.com.
• 30:36
  And don't forget to mention in the e-mail that you heard about
• 30:39
  it right here on From the Coach's Mouth podcast and you'll
• 30:42
  receive 10% off. So I'm coaching A11U travel
• 30:50
  team, my daughter's team, and we're, you know, B level.
• 30:53
  We're not traveling across the country.
• 30:55
  We're just trying to develop kids, right?
• 30:56
  But we make our kids, after every practice shake hands and
• 31:02
  thank their coaches and thank the umpires.
• 31:04
  Those are the things that I care about more than anything, right?
• 31:09
  Because that's teaching them about life and the game.
• 31:13
  And it's respect, right? Respect the game, respect your
• 31:16
  opponent, respect the umpires, respect the coaches who are not
• 31:19
  getting paid to make you better. We're just here because we love
• 31:22
  you and love the game. And I think things, the little
• 31:25
  things that you're talking about, Brian, are the most
• 31:27
  important things. And this is a game of failure
• 31:30
  last time I checked, right? Those coaches, they want to,
• 31:32
  they want to see how you react to that failure, right?
• 31:35
  If you're going to pout, go in the dugout, throw your bat,
• 31:38
  throw your helmet, throw your mid, treat your teammate poorly
• 31:41
  at me, I don't want you on our roster, right?
• 31:44
  Because I'm not, I don't wanna deal with that.
• 31:46
  So I think what you guys said there was huge like the little
• 31:49
  things are sometimes more important than the big things.
• 31:52
  A. 100% So I coached this girl in travel for five years.
• 31:57
  She went on to play Division One softball and but during her
• 32:01
  recruiting process, there was a school at D1 on the East Coast
• 32:05
  that she was really interested. She'd already been out there and
• 32:07
  visited and they were there watching us at A tournament.
• 32:09
  And I saw her and the coach was kind of standing up on a hill
• 32:12
  behind the backstop and she I saw her, I'm coaching third.
• 32:15
  I see her, she's on the phone. My kid comes up to bat.
• 32:19
  She immediately hangs up the phone.
• 32:20
  She goes and walks. Kid has a great at bat, ends up
• 32:22
  walking or just, you know, just a little single up the middle,
• 32:25
  whatever it was. And she literally she watched
• 32:28
  her get to 1st. She watched her steal second.
• 32:31
  I mean, her eyes were on her the whole time.
• 32:33
  She gets over to 3rd and I said, you see who's here?
• 32:35
  And she goes, oh, I see it. And now this kids just she's as
• 32:38
  good as I get. Just, you know, pure gold.
• 32:41
  And so I don't really need to tell this kid that much stuff
• 32:43
  about how to behave, but she ends up scoring.
• 32:47
  She gets in the dugout. I watched the coach.
• 32:49
  The coach literally walks from behind the backstop and stands
• 32:53
  behind our dugout until the half inning ended and watched her the
• 32:58
  whole time to see how she was in there.
• 33:01
  Now this kid is a kid is always going to be up at the fence
• 33:03
  whether she strikes out or she, you know, did something.
• 33:05
  Well, so those are the little things like Brian was mentioned.
• 33:08
  They're watching everything. Well, this same kid at at
• 33:11
  another tournament, she end up not going to that school that,
• 33:14
  you know, I had just referenced, but at another tournament, her
• 33:18
  dad is her dad did my game changer and he was he would
• 33:22
  always ask me. He's like, what do you think on
• 33:24
  this? And whatever this is that type
• 33:25
  of guy. Well, the coach of the school
• 33:28
  she end up committing to is standing right next to her.
• 33:31
  She hits her first ever home run.
• 33:33
  Now, this is a slapper. OK, So she's not a power hitter.
• 33:38
  She goes yard. I mean, I was probably more
• 33:40
  surprised that started as a coach than she was who hit it.
• 33:43
  Her dad is standing next to the coach that that ended up
• 33:46
  offering her and he goes, I just watched my kid hurt the first
• 33:51
  ever home run. I want to be jumping up and
• 33:54
  down, going bananas, but I know this coach is right next to me.
• 33:58
  I don't want to look like that buffoon doing this.
• 34:01
  I said, well, what did you end up doing?
• 34:03
  He goes. I went out to the car after the
• 34:05
  game and celebrated out there. So.
• 34:07
  I mean, that's a parent who gets it and knows that those eyes are
• 34:11
  on you. And if I act like an idiot
• 34:13
  there, you know, this could hurt my kid who just did something
• 34:16
  remarkable. So, you know, you're you're both
• 34:20
  right. I mean, they're constantly,
• 34:22
  constantly watching you so. Let me add one other thing.
• 34:25
  Here's another story. I had, this is just a couple of
• 34:27
  years ago from a Power 4 assistant coach.
• 34:31
  And she, she was at this tournament, I was at the
• 34:34
  tournament. We were talking afterwards, she
• 34:36
  came over and was telling me what she was doing.
• 34:38
  And she's a big, big lady. And she says I went down to this
• 34:42
  kid that they're looking at. She goes, I went down and I
• 34:44
  stood at the end of the dugout and I just stared into that
• 34:49
  dugout and I wanted to see, am I going to intimidate this kid
• 34:53
  when she goes up to bat, I want to see what what is she made of
• 34:58
  mentally? And she just stared in there and
• 35:01
  she goes, I want to see what's going to happen with this kid,
• 35:03
  her next at bat, if I'm if I'm doing that.
• 35:05
  And I thought, wow, that's so it's not all, you know, sunshine
• 35:09
  and rainbows. They want to see if you're going
• 35:10
  to crack or not too. So you got to be ready for that
• 35:13
  and you got to go play your game.
• 35:15
  Yeah. So let me ask her.
• 35:16
  Sure. Let me ask you guys a question
• 35:18
  since we're talking going to hear about this.
• 35:20
  At what age should families really start thinking about
• 35:23
  recruiting and taking it seriously and and what should
• 35:26
  not be done too early? Well, we don't start working
• 35:32
  with. We don't.
• 35:34
  This is why we're both Brian's. He had to hire me because I'm
• 35:36
  Brian that way, you know, for stuff like this, you said Brian,
• 35:38
  you take it, so one of us is on it.
• 35:41
  No, we don't. We don't start working with the
• 35:43
  player until they're at least a freshman in high school.
• 35:47
  You know, obviously with the recruiting rules that changed,
• 35:50
  you know, years ago now in terms and it's not a, it's not a free
• 35:55
  for all anymore. You know, you, you don't need to
• 35:58
  start in 7th grade. You know, there's going to be,
• 36:01
  there's companies out there that will, that will call you and be
• 36:04
  like, Oh my gosh, you guys are late.
• 36:05
  Your kids in 7th grade. That's totally false.
• 36:08
  We have had on a couple rare occasions that we've worked with
• 36:14
  the kid who was entering high school.
• 36:17
  They were still in that summer leading up to their high school
• 36:19
  season, But these were kids that are extremely talented,
• 36:23
  extremely talented players. So, you know, I would say
• 36:27
  freshman year is about the earliest you want, you want to
• 36:31
  start and, you know, because of the NCAA rules and regulations
• 36:35
  in terms of, you know, what coaches can communicate with you
• 36:38
  and what they can't. It's a, it's a very lonely
• 36:41
  process early on. And, and we, we talked to
• 36:44
  players and parents about this, meaning it's a one way street at
• 36:48
  this point, You know, you're firing off all these emails and
• 36:50
  I can't tell you how many times we hear from parents.
• 36:53
  She's emailing constantly and we don't get anything back.
• 36:56
  And I'm like I said, you're not going to.
• 36:58
  They're not allowed to. You know, if they were allowed,
• 37:01
  maybe they would. But you know, you can get camp
• 37:03
  information and that's it. You know, a lot of the canned
• 37:06
  emails that come out. But the purpose of the
• 37:09
  recruiting process in that freshman, sophomore year is to
• 37:12
  get your name recognizable because when the NCAA does
• 37:16
  permit them to reach out and talk, you want to have your name
• 37:20
  on their board. If you're not on their list,
• 37:23
  they've got 789 others, maybe more that are on there.
• 37:27
  And now you have to try to crack that quote UN quote lineup to
• 37:30
  get on their list. So, you know, you start too late
• 37:35
  and you know it's going to be an uphill fight, you know, for you
• 37:39
  the whole time. Now, the second part of your
• 37:41
  question, you asked some of the what should not be done too
• 37:44
  early? I'm going to kind of gear it
• 37:47
  towards the attitude in the approach of this.
• 37:50
  You can't freak out early. I mean, it's a marathon now.
• 37:55
  It goes fast, you know, and I've used this saying a lot with
• 37:59
  parents. It's like, you know, for them,
• 38:02
  little Susie, going off to school and moving into a dorm
• 38:04
  probably seems like an eternity away from them.
• 38:07
  But the recruiting process, you almost have to subtract a year
• 38:10
  and a half, sometimes even 2 years from when that happens.
• 38:14
  So the process isn't in itself extremely long in terms of the
• 38:19
  years, but you can't freak out. You can't worry too early on.
• 38:23
  I mean, you know, the parents actions are going to be seen by
• 38:26
  the player. So if mom and dad freak out,
• 38:28
  what's player going to do? They're going to freak out as
• 38:30
  well. You know, just you just got to
• 38:32
  stay positive. And you know, the other thing is
• 38:36
  on the academic side of things, yes, you can start your
• 38:40
  recruiting process as a freshman in high school, but your your
• 38:44
  academics, you need to be on par that freshman year and and start
• 38:49
  going. I mean, it's grades fall way
• 38:53
  faster than they rise. And you know, it's just like
• 38:56
  your ERA, you know, or your batting average.
• 38:59
  You know, it takes a while to get that thing back up once it
• 39:02
  tanks. And you know, academics is not,
• 39:04
  and you know what these schools they want to see, you know, is
• 39:08
  this kid even recruitable, you know, on the academic side,
• 39:11
  because there's so many financial aspects for a, for a
• 39:14
  coach and their budget and stuff like that, that they want that
• 39:17
  high academic. Now, fortunately in the softball
• 39:21
  world, you know, these girls by and large are, are pretty high
• 39:25
  academic kids. They're, you know, they're very,
• 39:27
  they're smart. It's not a it's not the biggest
• 39:31
  issue, you know that. You see it across the rest of
• 39:34
  the athletic landscape out there.
• 39:36
  You could probably count on one hand, and I'm not kidding, the
• 39:40
  kids on our website that have less than a three-point O so
• 39:45
  that I think that most girls are taking care of it.
• 39:48
  But literally most of these players are going to get more
• 39:51
  academic money than they're going to get athletic money.
• 39:54
  And a lot of the coaches like to stack their scholarships.
• 39:59
  So there'd be like, oh, wow, you got this, you know, 4 point O
• 40:02
  that's awesome because now I can give you this much academic
• 40:05
  money and I only have to give you this much athletic money to
• 40:07
  get you to a full or, or, you know, to a really good offer.
• 40:11
  The higher the grades, the better the coach is going to be
• 40:14
  because that allows them to save more money for another player,
• 40:17
  you know, so they can get more kids on scholarship.
• 40:20
  So, yeah, grades are, are really big.
• 40:22
  I'm. Going to share a very, very,
• 40:24
  very little known NCAA rule here that most people don't know, you
• 40:29
  know, the Division One level. If you have a daughter and she
• 40:32
  has a 3.3 GPA, you think, yeah, my kids smart.
• 40:36
  She's got a 3.3. I mean, heck, when I was in high
• 40:38
  school if I had a three three, I was thrilled.
• 40:41
  But her her NCAA regulations, if, if a school offers and that
• 40:50
  kid commits an athlete who has a sub 3.5 GPA and that kid still
• 40:58
  receives academic scholarship from that institution, all that
• 41:02
  academic money gets credited towards the athletic budget of
• 41:07
  that softball team. So I'm going to, I'm going to
• 41:10
  lay it out in real simple terms. If that coach offered that
• 41:14
  player $10,000 athletically and the school offered that player
• 41:18
  $10,000 academically, that's $20,000 total.
• 41:23
  All 20,000 of that gets hit towards the the softball team's
• 41:28
  allotment for number of scholarships.
• 41:31
  Now if that player does maintain a three-point O GPA once they
• 41:35
  get in college, then the 10,000 academic, assuming they're still
• 41:39
  on it, now that falls off the athletic side of things.
• 41:42
  So if that's if that athletic program wants to give the 20,000
• 41:47
  now they can give 20,000 athletic.
• 41:50
  The kid still gets the 10,000 academic.
• 41:52
  Now you've got 30,000. So why you think you may have
• 41:55
  really good grades sitting at a three, three or three four if
• 41:58
  you are a sub 35 coming out of high school, any academic money
• 42:03
  gets hit towards that softball program.
• 42:07
  That's a huge thing that people don't understand.
• 42:09
  And I've had a we had AI mean one prime example.
• 42:13
  I mean, the kid is at that school and they're like, you
• 42:15
  know, I feel like the coach kind of low balled us.
• 42:17
  Well, it's because your kids getting academic money still
• 42:20
  from that school and that's going on the coach, you know,
• 42:24
  give your grades up and then it's going to be different.
• 42:26
  So that's where grades are so important out there.
• 42:31
  Wow, yeah, I was not aware of that at all.
• 42:34
  Most of the kids that I work with, when I talk to them, they
• 42:37
  they're well above that 3.5 area.
• 42:40
  You know, my experience has been the same way.
• 42:42
  And you know, you get the kids with, you know, 4 plus and you
• 42:45
  know, that's always helpful too. One thing I wanted to ask you
• 42:48
  guys, you know, kind of want to get into the meat of your
• 42:50
  business. You're really known for video.
• 42:53
  I mean, that's, that's a lot of what you do.
• 42:56
  How important is game footage versus skills footage?
• 43:00
  And how do you how do you build a good video?
• 43:03
  I can take care of that. So first of all, from my
• 43:06
  perspective, and I've talked to many, many, many coaches for a
• 43:09
  lot of years, the the skills video, which is what we produce,
• 43:14
  that's going to be what coaches really want to see more than
• 43:16
  anything, because we're setting it up to where they can see a
• 43:20
  lot of reps at the plate. They can see we're, we're doing
• 43:24
  profile shots so they can see actual your swing mechanics.
• 43:28
  What are you looking like? We're we're, we put on screen
• 43:32
  measurables for everything that a kid could measure.
• 43:35
  So your home to 1st speed, we're going to put that on the screen
• 43:39
  for coach to see and everything we do is legit.
• 43:41
  There's no fudging of numbers or whatever.
• 43:43
  It wouldn't do us any good to do that for coaches and obviously
• 43:47
  it doesn't help the kid either. So, so everything that we put on
• 43:50
  screen is is legit. We have actual measures in the
• 43:55
  computer like a home to first thing from the actual frame that
• 43:58
  the ball hits the bat to the actual frame when the kids foot
• 44:01
  hits the bag. That's your home to 1st from
• 44:03
  contact. You know, when we're doing exit
• 44:05
  velocity, it's right there on the screen so you can see
• 44:08
  exactly when it Paul it gets hit by the kid off the and we're
• 44:12
  hitting off a tee with exit velocity so that kids generating
• 44:15
  all the power. It's not from a pitch.
• 44:17
  So you get to see, OK, what's their exit Filo?
• 44:21
  You know, it matters because like a bigger Division One
• 44:24
  schools, I've had several, you know, power for schools.
• 44:27
  Tell me, look, I'm looking for kids that are hit 747374 or
• 44:31
  higher because in their game, if you're not driving the ball to
• 44:35
  the wall, you're you're our singles and you're not winning
• 44:39
  game with singles. You know, they want you staying
• 44:41
  on second base because that's how you're striving in runs.
• 44:44
  So they want that ball getting to the fence in a hurry.
• 44:47
  And to do that, you need to have kids hitting a higher eggs.
• 44:49
  If you low now, obviously your slappers aren't going to be that
• 44:52
  way, but most of your kids that are hitting the ball, that's
• 44:54
  what they want. They want higher exit filos,
• 44:57
  overhand arm speed. Obviously that's an easy 1 is
• 45:00
  like kids with stronger arms are going to be more effective.
• 45:03
  If you got a kid with a a cannon in the outfield, that's what we
• 45:06
  want. So we put that all on screen so
• 45:08
  you can see exactly where this arm strength is.
• 45:11
  There's pop times for catchers. Same thing when we're measuring
• 45:14
  it, it's literally on video. The frame, the ball goes in the
• 45:17
  catcher's glove to the frame, the ball goes into the shortstop
• 45:21
  glove. That's what's on the screen
• 45:23
  measuring it. So the pop times cannot be more
• 45:25
  accurate than what we're putting out there.
• 45:27
  Pitchers, all the pitch speeds are out there.
• 45:30
  So you get to see a big, you know, pocket radar display out
• 45:33
  there. And every pitch the kid throws,
• 45:34
  you're seeing what their speeds are.
• 45:36
  It's important because a lot of people, you know, and I don't
• 45:39
  know if you guys are giving lessons, you'll see this all the
• 45:41
  time where people are like pitchers.
• 45:43
  They're like, oh, yeah, ask the parent or the travel coach.
• 45:45
  Like, what are they throwing? Oh, it's got to be around 6061.
• 45:48
  It's like, no, it's like 57. You know, it's like what, what
• 45:51
  your eye sees. And maybe sometimes you really
• 45:53
  hear that glove popping. I mean, even us sometimes.
• 45:55
  I mean, if you got a kid with a really good Wilson, that's like,
• 45:58
  sometimes that glove just sounds so good and you're like, oh,
• 46:01
  they got to be humming it in there.
• 46:02
  And, you know, but not the radar gun says otherwise.
• 46:05
  You know, it's like that's 58 that those are the things that
• 46:08
  help a college coach. It's like, yeah, you can show
• 46:10
  your game changer footage. It's like, Oh yeah, they hit a
• 46:12
  dinger. That was cool.
• 46:13
  But that was a one pitch in that one game.
• 46:15
  And I really don't even know how hard that kid was throwing.
• 46:17
  She might have been throwing 55 and you just jacked a bomb off
• 46:20
  her. So for our stuff, it's most
• 46:22
  important to give them those measurable so they can really
• 46:25
  see, OK, how do they stack up with other kids that we're
• 46:27
  looking at? And they and you can also
• 46:29
  obviously see just athleticism. I mean, we're we're filming
• 46:33
  everything in a way that coaches get a really good look at like,
• 46:36
  Hey, Brian and hitting a ball up the middle.
• 46:38
  Can they can they field that ball on their side, get their
• 46:41
  body turned, get their hips right and make that good low arm
• 46:43
  slot throw? But you know, I mean, what do
• 46:45
  they look like when they're doing that?
• 46:47
  There's a lot of those kind of things that you can really see
• 46:50
  and get a good look at in the skills video that you really
• 46:53
  don't get to see in like a game changer video.
• 46:55
  And I forget about if you're in the outfield, don't even bother
• 46:58
  putting your game changer video out there because nobody's going
• 47:00
  to see you. So that's why the skills video
• 47:03
  is so important because it really gives coaches, you know,
• 47:05
  like I always say this, it's your resume.
• 47:07
  You know, this is like we're creating your commercial right
• 47:10
  now so you can have that to put out to coaches.
• 47:13
  And then, you know, to me, the the biggest part of what we do
• 47:17
  is we give every player we work with a written evaluation of
• 47:21
  where we believe they're most likely going to be recruited.
• 47:24
  And that's based on measurables. It's based on overall
• 47:27
  athleticism, and it's based on our experience of helping
• 47:30
  thousands of players get to the college level.
• 47:32
  It's like, you know, I've had a million kids just like you and
• 47:35
  this is where they've ended up, you know, and so I say my big
• 47:39
  thing is telling people you in order to get recruited and make
• 47:43
  your process effective and, and less stressful, you got to be
• 47:47
  fishing in the right pond. It's like I have so many kids
• 47:50
  that you know, they're, they're, you know, they're going off to
• 47:53
  Michigan camp, they're going to Michigan State, they're going to
• 47:55
  Notre Dame. It's like you're, you're an NAIA
• 47:57
  kid. You know, it's like you're
• 47:58
  you're wasting your time and your money by going to those
• 48:01
  camps because they're not going to recruit you and just by you
• 48:05
  showing up and it's like, hey, you know, but they know her by a
• 48:08
  first name basis. Like, yeah, they do.
• 48:10
  They're cashing your checks. It's like you got to get to the
• 48:13
  right level and when and like I like to say, it's like, look,
• 48:17
  when you get to the right level and you get in front of the
• 48:19
  right coaches, that's when the magic happens.
• 48:21
  That's when you start seeing that interaction where the coach
• 48:24
  goes, hey, I like this kid. You know, it's like if you're,
• 48:27
  if you're at that level, then when you find your level, that's
• 48:31
  when the coaches are going to show the interest.
• 48:33
  But if you're just going to schools that are beyond your
• 48:38
  reach because they're just recruiting different level kids,
• 48:41
  you're just wasting time, time and money.
• 48:44
  So we we always give kids where we believe they're going to most
• 48:48
  likely be recruited. We also give them a like, hey,
• 48:50
  you know what, some kids are like, you know, they're really
• 48:53
  good D2 kids. And it's like, hey, you know,
• 48:55
  you actually have if you increase your exit below to this
• 48:59
  and use your overhand arm speed up and a little bit you got to
• 49:01
  get stronger, then yeah, could you get into that small D1?
• 49:05
  Yeah, you can. You know, it's like that's you
• 49:07
  know, we'll give them some some benchmarks to say this is where
• 49:11
  you need to get if you want to play at that level right now,
• 49:14
  you're here. But if you do this isn't this,
• 49:16
  you could get the eyes of catch the eyes of these level coaches,
• 49:20
  But you know, that's and then, you know, right after you give
• 49:23
  them all that information, they'll have the time.
• 49:25
  They they don't listen and they go off and they waste, you know,
• 49:28
  a whole year going to the wrong camps.
• 49:30
  So it's like if you could just, you know, I, I know it's a dream
• 49:34
  of everybody, they want to play at that really high level.
• 49:36
  I mean, it's, it's awesome to watch those teams on on TV, but
• 49:41
  you also need to have a little bit of reality and go, do you
• 49:44
  think you can compete at that level?
• 49:46
  Another issue is like depending on what level travel ball you
• 49:50
  play at, it's like if you're playing at AB level, travel
• 49:53
  level and yeah, your kids like the best kid out there.
• 49:56
  Yeah, she's the best. It's like that's awesome.
• 49:58
  But that, you know, puts you at that D 3DD2, maybe NAIA level.
• 50:05
  It's like if you were to go and compete at the highest level of
• 50:08
  travel ball, if you're going to Clearwater, if your team was
• 50:11
  going to, you know, zoom into June and these kind of
• 50:13
  tournaments, you'd see what level your kid was at or like,
• 50:17
  how good does she compete against that level of talent?
• 50:20
  So that's the thing a lot of people, like Brian said, you
• 50:22
  don't know what you don't know. It's like because you haven't
• 50:24
  been to the mountain, you haven't been to the highest
• 50:27
  level tournaments. So you don't see what's really
• 50:30
  out there. So that's always a challenge.
• 50:32
  It's just making sure people start fishing in the right pond
• 50:35
  because like I said, if you fish in the right pond, that's when
• 50:37
  you get bites. If you're not fishing in the
• 50:39
  right pond, you're not going to get any bites.
• 50:41
  So, yeah, you guys have have covered, covered a lot of our
• 50:43
  questions here already with a ton of this stuff.
• 50:45
  So I want to, I want to jump around here on this one here.
• 50:47
  And and I, I see this all the time on social media.
• 50:51
  How can families tell the difference between real
• 50:54
  recruiting interest and generic responses or broadcast emails
• 50:59
  for camps that are just fundraisers, You know, more than
• 51:02
  recruiting. Like you'll see these kids on
• 51:04
  social media, Twitter holding up this wonderful letter from, you
• 51:07
  know, Tennessee that they got mail from Tennessee.
• 51:09
  And it's like you just fill out a questionnaire.
• 51:12
  You're going to get one of those like what help help families
• 51:16
  understand the difference between what real recruiting
• 51:18
  interest is and what those generic responses are just to
• 51:21
  get you to camp. As you said, right?
• 51:23
  You know, that's, I try to tell kids all the time, some of these
• 51:25
  camps are nothing more than money makers, right?
• 51:28
  So give us a little information on how families can determine
• 51:31
  the difference between that. Most of them can't determine it.
• 51:34
  And that's the problem. I I can't tell you how many
• 51:37
  times we're here. Yeah.
• 51:38
  I mean, this coach really loved her at camp.
• 51:40
  And, you know, she said she was awesome.
• 51:42
  And I said, well, the reality is these college coaches are
• 51:46
  people. And by and large, they're very
• 51:48
  nice people. You know, you're not going to
• 51:51
  get a college coach at a camp and go up to a kid afterwards in
• 51:54
  the picture line and say, you know what, you were terrible.
• 51:57
  It's just not going to happen. I mean, the coach is going to
• 51:59
  say, you know what you did really well.
• 52:01
  You know, I, you know, I can't wait to see you this summer.
• 52:03
  Well, you know, how you comprehend that is, you know, is
• 52:09
  what's really going to separate you and, you know, in terms of
• 52:13
  like emails, what's a canned e-mail and what's a personal
• 52:17
  e-mail? I mean, there's a lot of candy
• 52:18
  emails out there that will still address you, you know, dear
• 52:22
  Susie, you know, so they think it's personal, but there's
• 52:25
  nothing in the body of the e-mail that makes any reference
• 52:29
  to you as a player. Hey, I saw you at Grand Park or
• 52:33
  I saw you out at Berliner. You know, so those are pretty
• 52:36
  telltale signs of what's just kind of a canned e-mail and you
• 52:41
  know, what's what's personal, you know, if they mentioned
• 52:45
  something about you, you know, in it, that's a pretty dead
• 52:49
  giveaway that this is, you know, they're referring to you.
• 52:51
  They know who you are and they may want to see you because,
• 52:55
  yes, these college coaches need to use their camps and stuff
• 52:59
  like that, obviously to recruit the best players they can.
• 53:02
  But you know, they're still using it to make money for their
• 53:05
  programs. I mean, we're, we're
• 53:07
  unfortunately softballs, not, you know, the highest funded
• 53:11
  sport in the at the school and they need all the funding that
• 53:15
  they can get there and, and you know, camps are one way for it.
• 53:19
  So I mean, and there's no shame in denying that they use camps
• 53:22
  for fundraisers. You know, the, the one, one
• 53:26
  thing that we do really, really, really well, and obviously we
• 53:30
  need the, you know, the interaction from the player and,
• 53:33
  or the parent where we can help them is, you know, if if a
• 53:37
  player says, hey, you know, I got an e-mail from XYZ
• 53:40
  university from their camp and you know, I signed up for their
• 53:43
  camp. Well, I can pick up the phone
• 53:46
  and call that college coach and say, Hey, we just had Susie
• 53:49
  Smith to sign up for your camp. Where are you with 20 sevens?
• 53:53
  You know, she's a 27 Audi and and this has happened before and
• 53:57
  they said, you know, I'm actually done at that position.
• 54:00
  So what you know, they've done in the past is, you know,
• 54:02
  they've said, you know, and I and I'll say, do you still need
• 54:05
  to see the kid? No, you know what, I'm not even
• 54:08
  recruiting that position, you know, and they've refunded that
• 54:10
  player before now, if that, if that registration comes in, a
• 54:14
  coach isn't going to look at and say 27 outfielder now I'm done.
• 54:17
  I'm just going to say, you know, here's your money back.
• 54:19
  That's not going to happen. But we reach out to these
• 54:22
  coaches and we'll reach out to him prior to the camp and say,
• 54:24
  hey, keep a good look on this girl.
• 54:26
  You know, she's good. And then I'll follow up after
• 54:29
  camp and say, how did she do? How did you know?
• 54:32
  Where do you stand with her after your camp?
• 54:34
  So all things like that. I know I kind of got off in a
• 54:37
  smaller tangent there, but you know, the differences between
• 54:40
  real interest and generic responses is, I mean, I don't
• 54:47
  want to say a fine line because you know, it's sometimes it's a
• 54:50
  pretty defined line that you can tell, but it's all in the
• 54:53
  interpretation. I mean, kid comes back to mom
• 54:56
  and dad walking in the car after the camp, all smiles.
• 54:59
  Well, why you? What was so good?
• 55:01
  Coach said. I did great.
• 55:02
  You know, they really liked me. No, I mean, you might have.
• 55:06
  That doesn't mean that you're on the top of their board.
• 55:08
  Yeah, I always say don't confuse kindness for interest.
• 55:12
  And so the the biggest thing too, which I, I caution parents
• 55:18
  a lot on this because a lot of people are like, they, they go
• 55:21
  to a camp and then they're all pissed off afterwards.
• 55:23
  They're like, that was nothing but a money grab.
• 55:25
  That was terrible. Wow.
• 55:26
  They didn't pay any attention to the kids.
• 55:28
  It's like, OK, so put yourself in the college coaches shoes for
• 55:32
  just a minute and say, OK, so we're holding that.
• 55:35
  We have this camp going on and this kid shows up and she is
• 55:39
  lights out. I mean it's just like this kid
• 55:42
  is doing it all. She's hitting bombs, She's got a
• 55:44
  great arm, she's super athletic and you're going, I love this
• 55:47
  kid, but don't tell her because this is just a money grab.
• 55:50
  So we're not going to, we're not going to try to pursue her at
• 55:52
  all. You know, it's like that's never
• 55:54
  going to happen. It's like if you're a kid with
• 55:56
  the right fit for that school and she showed up at the camp,
• 55:59
  they're going to give her attention.
• 56:01
  They're not going to go, oh, wow, sorry, this is just a money
• 56:03
  grab. We're not going to give her
• 56:04
  attention. So that's all these things that
• 56:07
  people have in their own heads. And it's like, because your kid
• 56:10
  didn't get attention, it's because it was a money grab.
• 56:13
  That's just you justifying that your kid wasn't good enough.
• 56:17
  I mean, that's all it is. Because trust me, if a kid comes
• 56:20
  and shows up and it does happen, kids show up at camps where
• 56:23
  they're like, I don't even know who that kid was, but they were
• 56:25
  awesome. You know, we're definitely
• 56:27
  putting them on the list. I mean, my kids a coach at
• 56:29
  Michigan right now, and that happens a lot.
• 56:31
  I mean, kids show up at camp. They were not on their radar,
• 56:34
  but they are now. So it's just one of those
• 56:38
  things. But what about showcases?
• 56:41
  You know, there's a few different showcases that go
• 56:43
  around. They measure metrics and and do
• 56:45
  that sort of thing. What do you guys, what's your
• 56:47
  experience with that? How do you feel about them?
• 56:49
  And is there a difference or you know, some showcases that are
• 56:53
  better than others? Yeah, let me let me take that
• 56:56
  one because we're just dealing with this.
• 56:57
  Actually this morning I had an e-mail from one of our good
• 57:01
  player, very good players, dads, and he was asking me about
• 57:05
  signing up for this showcase camps that they have out in
• 57:09
  Colorado before the tournament actually starts.
• 57:13
  And I see my answer. Tim was like, look, those are
• 57:16
  really, really good for the kids who are trying to get on those
• 57:22
  schools radars because now they've moved into like actual
• 57:25
  schools are hosting these camps. So they'll have like Alabama and
• 57:29
  LSU and you know, three other schools or whatever.
• 57:31
  They'll have their coaches out there and they're running this
• 57:34
  particular camp. But you can also go to the camp
• 57:37
  over there and on this quad and they have these other schools
• 57:40
  that are hosting that one. But I said kids will, you know,
• 57:43
  and they're not cheap. These are not cheap, you know,
• 57:45
  camps or showcase, but if you are trying to get on that
• 57:49
  coaches radar and they don't really know who you are yet,
• 57:52
  then I'd say yeah, that's a good option to do that.
• 57:55
  But if you've already been in front of these coaches several
• 57:58
  time, they know who you are, they're already coming to see
• 58:01
  you play in Colorado, then there's not that much reason for
• 58:04
  you to have to go to all these camps.
• 58:06
  I mean, it's like you're to be a millionaire to continually spend
• 58:10
  all this money on all the different camps.
• 58:13
  One of our players just committed yesterday to AD 2 in
• 58:18
  West Virginia and her mom told me they have gone since she was
• 58:24
  a freshman till 41 camps 41. I'm like, jeez.
• 58:30
  I mean, and one of them was just a week or so ago.
• 58:33
  They were down in Florida. Don't go to a camp there.
• 58:35
  I'm like, that is just I can't even fathom what they have spent
• 58:40
  on that. And it's like, God bless them if
• 58:41
  you can do it and hopefully you're not going to the poor
• 58:44
  house doing it, but you don't you don't need to do a lot of
• 58:48
  those things if the coaches already know who you are.
• 58:50
  And I'm talking about like the camps that are like right before
• 58:52
  a tournament or something. If the coach has already come to
• 58:54
  that turnip to see you, then don't feel obligated that you
• 58:57
  have to be there. Just make sure you're reaching
• 58:59
  out to that coach, letting them know, hey, I'm going to be at
• 59:01
  the ABC tournament. Here's my schedule and they're
• 59:04
  going to be coming to see you anyway.
• 59:06
  So just keep that in mind. I mean, there are a certain
• 59:09
  there are ways you can cut some corners on the camps.
• 59:13
  The showcases are definitely good.
• 59:14
  I mean we host the CBJ D1 uncommitted games and the CBJ D2
• 59:19
  uncommitted games where we vet all those players that come in.
• 59:22
  So everybody at the D1 games is legit AD one kid.
• 59:26
  So we have a lot of coaches come to that event.
• 59:29
  We always host it at a a power for school.
• 59:33
  So the kids get that feeling. I mean, we have graphics up on
• 59:35
  the board. I mean up on the scoreboard,
• 59:37
  your pictures up there with all cool graphics.
• 59:39
  We live stream it with professional broadcasters.
• 59:42
  So it's a real feel for a big time game.
• 59:45
  But most of the players that are coming there, they're coming
• 59:48
  because we're going to have 30 plus Division One schools there
• 59:52
  and they want it in front of those people.
• 59:55
  I mean, if you're already this close, you know, to to
• 59:58
  committing to one of those other schools and you probably don't
• 1:00:00
  need that. And I'm going to, I'm going to
• 1:00:02
  jump. You talked about like some of
• 1:00:04
  these, you know, that go there and get your measurables and
• 1:00:06
  stuff like that. And there's obviously companies
• 1:00:08
  out there that this is what they do.
• 1:00:10
  You know, ODM is the perfect one.
• 1:00:12
  I mean ODM, you know, and if he's been around forever and you
• 1:00:15
  know, he's trusted, you know, in the world, but you go to some of
• 1:00:18
  these quote UN quote showcase camps that they're getting your
• 1:00:21
  measurables. You know, I, I've seen
• 1:00:24
  situations where it's actually hurt a kid because the person or
• 1:00:28
  people that are running, whether it's a stopwatch or whatever,
• 1:00:32
  it's just the accuracy isn't there.
• 1:00:35
  We have a kid. She's a, she's a power 4
• 1:00:37
  softball player currently playing power four.
• 1:00:40
  And she was at a she was at a camp actually on campus of a
• 1:00:44
  school. And we found out from the coach
• 1:00:46
  that like because she was a catcher, her pop time was like
• 1:00:49
  over 2 and like it's impossible. This kids pop time is not over
• 1:00:53
  2. And I think who's doing it?
• 1:00:56
  Yeah, like who is doing it? Well, yeah, you know, we had our
• 1:00:59
  players out there. Well, I mean that that something
• 1:01:02
  like that can bury a kid can absolutely bury them.
• 1:01:06
  And you know, so, you know, it's just it's a fine line of what's
• 1:01:12
  what's helping you and what's could completely, you know,
• 1:01:15
  submarine you. But I would you just got to do a
• 1:01:17
  little research of, you know, which ones are legit and
• 1:01:20
  accurate and get the get advice from other people who've been
• 1:01:24
  through them before. And you're going to get answers
• 1:01:26
  all across the board, of course, because, you know, maybe it
• 1:01:29
  worked for Susie, but it didn't work for Jenny.
• 1:01:31
  So of course Jenny's parents aren't going to be happy about
• 1:01:33
  it, but Susie's well. I want to ask you you guys a
• 1:01:36
  question here. I always believe in
• 1:01:38
  collaboration. So being able to collaborate
• 1:01:40
  with a recruiting service or travel ball coaches.
• 1:01:44
  So how how should travel ball coaches, pitching instructors,
• 1:01:48
  hitting instructors, defense, whatever and recruiting services
• 1:01:51
  kind of work together? What's what would be like the
• 1:01:53
  best scenario? So I'm going to take this as a a
• 1:01:57
  former coach, recent, you know, former coach.
• 1:01:59
  And I mean, this is actually why I'm still sitting here right
• 1:02:02
  now, you know, with Brian is because of this exact situation.
• 1:02:07
  I was calling him to talk about a player.
• 1:02:10
  The more collaboration there can be between, in our case between
• 1:02:16
  CBJ and that players, you know, travel coach or hitting coach or
• 1:02:20
  pitching coach, the better it is going to be for the player.
• 1:02:24
  You know what, I've seen it before where a pitching coach is
• 1:02:26
  telling a kid, you know, whatever, yeah, you're doing
• 1:02:29
  great. Well, the kid says not.
• 1:02:30
  Well, guess what, that pitching coach is getting paid every
• 1:02:33
  single week for that kid to come in there.
• 1:02:35
  You know, they're not going to say you stink.
• 1:02:37
  You know, the kids not going to come in anymore.
• 1:02:39
  We can say here, here's what we just saw.
• 1:02:42
  You know, this kid came and they just worked with us.
• 1:02:44
  They just shot their skills video.
• 1:02:46
  You know, we had this kid at 58, you know, she thought she was
• 1:02:49
  throwing 62. What are you seeing in your
• 1:02:52
  lessons with this kid? And it's, you know, it's often
• 1:02:55
  times it had to become an excuse of what, you know, why she
• 1:02:58
  wasn't doing something. But it's good when you put your
• 1:03:01
  collective heads together and say, OK, this is the plan going
• 1:03:04
  forward. This is what she really needs to
• 1:03:06
  do. And by and large, those coaches,
• 1:03:10
  you know, are, are totally on board and we're on board with
• 1:03:13
  what they're doing, you know, for the most part.
• 1:03:16
  Now the travel coaches, that's to me, it's kind of another
• 1:03:19
  layer. It's really, really, really easy
• 1:03:23
  and fun for a travel coach to talk to the, their team's
• 1:03:27
  parents and say, you know what, your kids really good, your kids
• 1:03:31
  really good. I, I think you're a Division One
• 1:03:34
  player, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:03:35
  And that's going to keep them around, especially if the parent
• 1:03:38
  doesn't know. And if it's not true, they're
• 1:03:41
  just killing the kid. You know, we, we worked with a
• 1:03:47
  A-Team, you know, shot majority of the team.
• 1:03:50
  And, you know, I, I didn't know who they were.
• 1:03:53
  I had talked to the coach prior to us working with them.
• 1:03:55
  And she's like, yeah, I've got like 6 or 7, you know, D ones on
• 1:03:58
  my team. I'm like, oh, this could be a
• 1:03:59
  fun shoot. They didn't have one, maybe one
• 1:04:01
  kid because she was absolutely Lightning McQueen.
• 1:04:03
  I mean, she's just super, super fast now.
• 1:04:06
  And I can speak at this out of experience as a coach.
• 1:04:09
  The last team that I coached that I mentioned at the start of
• 1:04:11
  this, I had seven Division One players on that team.
• 1:04:15
  I also had D twos. I had D3 at NAI and JUCO.
• 1:04:18
  I had every single base covered. I know the difference.
• 1:04:21
  I know. And it's no not.
• 1:04:23
  I mean, my one, my 1D3 kid was probably AD 2.
• 1:04:25
  Both of them are probably D2 talents.
• 1:04:27
  The one kid went to MIT and guess what?
• 1:04:30
  She's not playing softball anymore.
• 1:04:31
  She had a hip injury, her softball career's over and she's
• 1:04:34
  going to be making a lot more money than I ever will with an
• 1:04:36
  MIT degree. Very true, very true, you know,
• 1:04:39
  But so it didn't it, it doesn't do any good for a coach just to
• 1:04:45
  sugar coat it to their team or their parents that this is how
• 1:04:48
  good you are. You know, So I had to have some
• 1:04:51
  real strong, solid conversations with this coach and like, hey,
• 1:04:54
  you know what, you've got a nice team.
• 1:04:57
  Most of your girls are probably they're going to be the division
• 1:05:00
  two level. Even some are Division Three.
• 1:05:03
  I don't see the Division One. So, you know, let's not let's
• 1:05:07
  feed to where they really need to be going and you know the.
• 1:05:11
  Coaches though, that though is it's just the just the
• 1:05:15
  experience level. I mean, if you're dealing with a
• 1:05:17
  travel coach who's been around the block for, you know, they've
• 1:05:19
  been in the in it for a lot of years and they've seen and
• 1:05:23
  they've had a lot of players going D1, you know, or D2,
• 1:05:26
  whatever. At least they, they, they put
• 1:05:28
  them in those levels. They know.
• 1:05:30
  I mean, so it's like it's, it's an easy conversation.
• 1:05:32
  It's usually the younger coaches that we deal with who really
• 1:05:35
  haven't had that experience level and knowing what kids are
• 1:05:39
  where that's where you get a little bit of confusion.
• 1:05:44
  But most of the, the travel coaches, especially if if
• 1:05:47
  they're not a a parent coach, they've just been doing it a
• 1:05:50
  long time. Those people, they, I think
• 1:05:54
  everybody's got the right intentions.
• 1:05:55
  It's just experience level is what it comes down to.
• 1:05:58
  Like, and they might say, man, I think you're I think you're D1.
• 1:06:01
  Well, what are you basing that on?
• 1:06:02
  You know, that's the thing. It's like because she's the best
• 1:06:04
  kid on your team. Well, that that doesn't mean
• 1:06:06
  she's the best kid. Out there, right.
• 1:06:10
  All right. Well, guys, we told you to be an
• 1:06:12
  hour. We're a little running a little
• 1:06:13
  bit longer than that. We appreciate the extra time
• 1:06:15
  from, you know, that you're very busy.
• 1:06:17
  You got a lot of kids to help out.
• 1:06:19
  So just one more question. What advice do you give to an
• 1:06:23
  athlete who's training hard but maybe not getting the traction
• 1:06:26
  yet? Well, I mean, it's as I
• 1:06:29
  mentioned and we've actually mentioned multiple times, I
• 1:06:32
  mean, the process isn't always going to be, you know, roses and
• 1:06:35
  there's going to be UPS, there's going to be downs and you just
• 1:06:38
  have to stay in the course. But I think we, you have to do
• 1:06:42
  an evaluation of, OK, why aren't we getting the traction?
• 1:06:46
  Are we going to the right camps? Are we emailing the right
• 1:06:49
  schools? You know, we, I, I've done it
• 1:06:52
  multiple times where, you know, I've actually done a zoom call
• 1:06:55
  with the family, you know, the player and mom and dad and we've
• 1:06:58
  gotten on and we said, you know, we've discussed, OK, where are
• 1:07:01
  we right now? You know what's going on, who
• 1:07:04
  you're hearing from. And one in particular I'm, you
• 1:07:07
  know, we, I told them, I said, OK, we can't go back in time.
• 1:07:12
  What has been done that's that's over and done with.
• 1:07:16
  We can't get those days and months back.
• 1:07:18
  OK, so let's put together a good plan going forward so we can
• 1:07:23
  really, I mean, we're up against the clock a little bit more, but
• 1:07:27
  let's put a good plan forward so we can make the end of the, the
• 1:07:31
  the last few laps smoother than the first few laps.
• 1:07:35
  And I asked them, I said, send me a list.
• 1:07:40
  You know, we, we said, all right, we, I know she still has
• 1:07:43
  goals to play Division One, I said, but we haven't gotten
• 1:07:46
  anywhere there. And we, Brian and I evaluated
• 1:07:49
  this kid twice as a division two player.
• 1:07:50
  So I said, this is where we really need to focus and don't
• 1:07:53
  rule out the NAIS because there's a lot of really good
• 1:07:56
  NAIS that are better than D twos.
• 1:07:58
  I said, so let's, you know, let's start focusing on those.
• 1:08:01
  Do some research, send me a list, 1011 schools, whatever it
• 1:08:05
  may be, no particular order, I don't care.
• 1:08:08
  I'm not kidding you when I tell you this.
• 1:08:10
  I got a list 2 days later from the mom and actually texted me
• 1:08:14
  with the list. And there were six Division One
• 1:08:16
  schools out of 12 out of 11 schools listed on there, one of
• 1:08:19
  them being a power 4. And it's like, I can't help you
• 1:08:21
  there. I mean, we, what part of the
• 1:08:22
  zoom were you sleeping through? You know, so it just makes it a
• 1:08:27
  little bit trickier. And I'm, I mean, we're working,
• 1:08:29
  we're working so hard for this kid because she's a great kid
• 1:08:32
  and she's Got Talent. Let's just let let's take that
• 1:08:35
  talent and take your focuses where they need to be focused
• 1:08:39
  and good things will be will happen.
• 1:08:41
  Now there's also the time where it's like there's some head
• 1:08:45
  scratchers to us. It's like, why is this kid we're
• 1:08:48
  dealing with one right now? She's a tremendous outfielder.
• 1:08:51
  I mean, great glove skills, covers, covers so much ground,
• 1:08:56
  and she's just not giving the the attraction that, you know,
• 1:09:00
  we think she probably deserves. And it's like sometimes those
• 1:09:03
  are head scratches for us even. And, you know, if we can get
• 1:09:07
  into the heads of every single college coach out there and be
• 1:09:10
  able to crack the code, we wouldn't be on this podcast
• 1:09:13
  right now. We'd be sitting on a beach
• 1:09:15
  somewhere. Yeah.
• 1:09:17
  Yeah. But you know, there's just,
• 1:09:19
  sometimes there's, you know, even if you do everything you
• 1:09:22
  can do it and it, it still may not breed the result that you
• 1:09:27
  think you deserve or expect. And you know, but for the most
• 1:09:32
  part, for the most part, if you work the process the way it
• 1:09:36
  needs to be worked, it's going to, it's going to work out.
• 1:09:38
  And there's going to be, there's going to be lows, there's going
• 1:09:40
  to be a lot of highs. And you got a balance of both?
• 1:09:42
  Awesome. Thank you for that.
• 1:09:45
  So thank you both today for being out here with Ken and I.
• 1:09:47
  We really appreciate it. Hopefully parents are listening
• 1:09:50
  to this and your kids finding the right fit.
• 1:09:53
  I think that's the most important part.
• 1:09:54
  So thank you both Brians for joining us today.
• 1:09:57
  We, Ken and I really appreciate it.
• 1:09:58
  Yes. Thanks for having us.
• 1:10:00
  Thanks for having us. Thanks.
• 1:10:01
  And we probably have more questions and maybe we'll get a
• 1:10:04
  few in the comments. So hopefully we can get you guys
• 1:10:06
  on again sometime. Hey.
• 1:10:07
  It'd be great. I mean, what we are we off?
• 1:10:11
  No. Not yet.
• 1:10:14
  Ken will take us out here in a minute.
• 1:10:16
  So, well, yeah, we'd love we'd, we'd, we'd love to come back
• 1:10:20
  anytime. And we just want to put out
• 1:10:22
  there that we just launched our our newest website and that's a
• 1:10:26
  lot of great features on there for people.
• 1:10:28
  And we're going to be doing a lot of stuff this summer.
• 1:10:32
  So keep keep your SO. You want to give that website,
• 1:10:34
  you are out. Give it out, Brian.
• 1:10:36
  Yeah, well, it's it's it's college bound jocks.com.
• 1:10:40
  The site, the background, the back end of the site is all up
• 1:10:43
  and operational for all the players and the college coaches.
• 1:10:46
  It's just a lot different than our current site.
• 1:10:49
  They're they're actually working on the home page right now.
• 1:10:52
  So if you went to college Bond jocks.com like today, you'd
• 1:10:56
  still see the old home page. So you're not getting to see
• 1:10:58
  everything that's really going to be happening here in the
• 1:11:00
  next. We expect it to be done in the
• 1:11:02
  next week or so. They have the home page where
• 1:11:04
  everybody can go and see it, but the players that are already on
• 1:11:07
  the site and all the college coaches are already there
• 1:11:10
  working in the background on it. Awesome.
• 1:11:12
  We'll make sure we put in great notes.
• 1:11:14
  We'll be looking forward to that.
• 1:11:15
  Yeah, for sure. Well, if they have questions, if
• 1:11:18
  people have questions, they can e-mail us at Get Started at
• 1:11:24
  College Bound jocks.com. So that's GETSTARTED.
• 1:11:30
  Get Started at College Bound jocksthatsplural.com.
• 1:11:35
  Awesome. Great.
• 1:11:37
  All right. Well, thanks.
• 1:11:38
  Thank you guys. Thank you all.
• 1:11:40
  Right, that's it for us this week.
• 1:11:42
  Thanks to all of you for listening and for the kind words
• 1:11:44
  you've been sharing with us. If you like what you're hearing,
• 1:11:47
  Please remember to give us a like, leave a comment and share
• 1:11:50
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• 1:11:53
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• 1:11:56
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• 1:11:59
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• 1:12:03
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