Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #13: Gill1918 presents TexasTrackDad "Empowering Parents to Navigate the Recruiting Game Pt. 1"

Transcript

#13: Gill1918 presents TexasTrackDad "Empowering Parents to Navigate the Recruiting Game Pt. 1" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches, for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We're bringing the once a year
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  This is Texas track dad and today we're going to talk about
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  parents getting involved in their student athletes
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  recruiting process. I'm and I'm going to label this,
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  but I guess Part 1. I'm looking forward to doing
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  some more of these with the Gill podcast 1918.
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  But this is a very, I'm very passionate about this topic
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  here. The reason why, because I went
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  through the recruiting process and I can tell you what it's
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  stressful. It is so stressful.
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  I, it's stressful on the athlete, it's stressful on my
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  parents. It's stressful everybody that's
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  involved with the athlete, the trade it.
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  It's just mad. I it's fun for the athletes, but
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  I'll tell you what, man, it's just, oh, it's a lot.
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  It's a lot to deal with, but I'm, I'm here to try to get you
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  give you all parents some tips on what to do or, or on what to
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  expect. Pretty much.
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  So first thing I would say with the recruiting process, parents
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  be aware of of your athletes performances.
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  And what I mean by that is if they run in D1 times, reach out
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  to D1 schools, right? D2 schools, D3, I mean, yeah,
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  it's still reach out, right? But if they're not running D1
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  times don't start with the D1 schools, right?
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  What I mean by that we let's take the high school girls,
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  right? They said we got a 12 flat
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  sprinter, right. I'm not saying that she's not
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  going to get better when she go to college because it happens.
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  Look at Melissa Jefferson. She was running the 12 something
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  coming out of high school. She with the coast of Georgia
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  and now she's Olivia, not coast of Georgia, but Coastal Carolina
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  and she's a she's she's a Libyan now, but we're going to use the
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  12 flat, right? So if you're high school female
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  athlete, girl athlete, she's running a 12 flat.
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  Let's not reach out to Texas, right?
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  Let's not do that. Let's not do that off the back,
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  right? Let's not reach out to Georgia
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  with those type of numbers, right.
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  But with that said, there are lower D1 schools and I think a
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  lot of athletes miss that. I think a lot of athletes miss
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  that because there are great coaches at these lower DD1
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  schools. I, I mentioned Coastal, Coastal
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  Carolina coach Davis, man, he's excellent coach.
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  He's down there now and he's he's excellent.
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  He wasn't there when Melissa was there, but he's there now and
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  they they he's a great coach. He's a great coach and you know
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  his stuff. But with that said, if you're at
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  the lead just running those numbers, just said 12 flat,
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  let's reach out to schools like that or lower D1.
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  We don't want to focus on A&M. We don't want to focus on Texas
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  with those type or numbers, right?
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  We just don't USC, We're not going to focus on USC with a 12
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  flat, right? We're going to reach out to
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  schools like Coastal, Coastal Carolina.
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  Maybe you can put it in the questionnaire, see what they
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  say, taut and state. Maybe look at some school D2
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  schools. Look at some good D2 schools
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  too. Minnesota, it's a lot, it's a
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  lot of good coaches in D2D3 and AI schools and at the end of the
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  day, if you have a talent, it's going to work for you.
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  But with that said, be aware of your athletes performances.
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  OK, so y'all can reach out to the right schools and once you
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  reach out, so let's use 11/3 girl, just say she got a visit
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  to USC, right? Just say she went on to visit
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  USC, she like it and whatnot. Talk to the coach, she liked the
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  campus, family likes the campus. Y'all meet with the coach and
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  y'all talk scholarships, right? Let's not use 11/3, let's use
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  11511. Five girl.
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  They got a visit to USC, right? So everything's good to go.
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  She loved the school, she loved the campus.
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  Parents love the school, love the campus.
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  They'll meet with the coach. The coach likes the family,
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  likes the athlete, which that brings me to another thing.
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  Parents, y'all are a part of the recruiting process.
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  Again, the schools look at the family as well, right?
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  Everything's good to go. Y'all there?
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  Y'all talking money. The coach offer the 11 five girl
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  50% and I tell, I tell parents this on my show.
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  I tell everybody this on my show that elite athletes, all of them
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  were not getting full scholarships at the gate,
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  especially nowadays when NIL transfer portal, all that good
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  stuff, right? So parents, another thing you're
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  going to have to learn to do, you're going to have to learn
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  negotiate. It's a business at the end of
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  the day, it's a business, right? It's a business.
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  And those coaches, they got a lot of stuff they have to deal
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  with, you know, they got a lot. They have a lot of stuff, you
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  know, and at the end of the day, they have a job, they have
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  family, right? And that's a lot of risk to take
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  on high school athletes, right? It's a lot of risk.
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  And some coaches, some taking, some don't.
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  And I'm not mad at don't be mad at them if they don't want to
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  take the risk. But if you in there, just say,
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  OK, we in there, we had the negotiating table because you go
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  out to learn to negotiate. Yeah, at least a legit 11:00 to
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  5:00. You can wake her up, warm her up
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  11:00 to 5:00 at the gate every single time, right.
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  The coaches are offering 50% should you walk?
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  Are you mad? Are you angry?
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  Are you confused? What's going on in your head?
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  I'm going to tell you right now, it's going to be all those
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  things, all the above, right? All the above.
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  But that's just the game. That's just the track and field
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  game, and that's the way it goes.
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  You know a lot of coaches, and I don't blame them.
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  You know, you're going to have to prove yourself now more than
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  ever with the transfer portal out there, because at the end of
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  the day, these coaches that they can go to the transfer portal
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  and they can go grab 11 four girl and she has experience, you
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  know, and it's it's in there. Is it the border?
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  If they want to go grab little 4 grand, they can go grab them.
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  You know, it just depends on the school.
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  But if you at that table, you're going to have to learn to
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  negotiate at that table, right? That first offer might not be
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  what you want, but if you believe in your child because
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  you, you, you know this student athlete more than anybody,
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  right? You know more than anybody, you
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  know what they capable of, right?
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  So if you believe who they are, who they say they are, you going
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  to have to negotiate it, right? You don't have to go there.
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  You're going to have to, you're going to have to come up
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  something, come up with something, talk to their coach
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  like, hey, I know my child. I know what my child is capable
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  of. All right?
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  You're going to have to them. Coaches going to have to buy in
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  even more because at the end of the day, it's a numbers game and
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  they looking at numbers and some of them don't want to take the
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  chance, right? Some of them don't want to take
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  the chance because what if it don't happen, you know?
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  Well, what if it, you know, they get there and they go backwards,
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  you know, But what if they do get there and they rise to the
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  occasion, right? It's a, I'm telling you, man,
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  this track and field is this, it's a crazy game.
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  It's a crazy game, you know, but you're going to have to come up
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  with something to negotiate a higher offer if possible, right?
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  Like I said, if you believe in your heart that your athlete is
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  going to excel once they touch foot on that campus, make it
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  believable and talk to the coach about it.
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  And look, at the end of the day, coach might say, hey, I'm hey,
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  it's I'm sorry, I could just do 50%.
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  I can't do any. I can't do more than that.
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  I can't do more than that. And the coach will tell you,
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  hey, gives athlete 50%. They come in here and they they
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  do what you just told me they capable of.
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  We look at giving them more money.
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  But right now that's all I can do right now.
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  If that athlete truly wants to go to that school and they
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  believe deep in their heart that man, once I get here, I'm about
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  to tear that track up. I'm about to go crazy when I get
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  out of that track. If they feel that they're that
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  person, right And you know your heart, they that person a
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  parent, sorry, it's sometimes you just go out to bet on
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  yourself. They go have to bet on yourself.
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  You might have to take that 50% like, hey, all we could get is
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  50%. That's all we can get.
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  But I believe in you. I know what you're capable of
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  and I know you're going to make me proud when you go to that
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  school. And we'll see what happens after
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  that, right? And a Becky could go up there
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  and just go, let's just go off, just go off.
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  And hey, next thing you know, you got the money you need, the
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  kid is happy, you're happy, everybody's happy, right?
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  But I'd like to, I'd like to tell parents you just don't
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  expect, don't expect 100%, right?
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  It's not football. We talking about track and
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  field. And a lot of, I think, I just
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  think this is misunderstood, but a lot of parents that because my
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  kid is fast, they're going to get 100% scholarship out the
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  gate, man, I'll tell you what, it ain't, no, it's not going to
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  work like that. It's not going to work.
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  It's definitely not going to work like that.
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  But that's going to be the negotiating piece of that.
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  And I can talk about that a little bit more too.
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  But just keep in mind parents, you're going to have to be a
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  negotiator, you'll have to negotiate, you're going to have
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  to talk to those coaches and y'all going to have to figure
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  out if they want to figure out anyway, but going to figure out
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  a plan form. And like I say, at the end of
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  the day, the communication, communication is the most
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  important thing when it comes to the recruiting process with the
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  coaches and athletes. You know, just make sure y'all
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  are on the same page. Another thing on this parents,
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  and we will dig a little deeper in the social media part of it
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  later on, but social media is a big part of the recruiting
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  process. They need to make sure they have
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  the proper page set up. Make sure you have a picture on
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  your profile. I don't know how many times, I
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  don't know how many times every day.
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  It never fails. I see I have to leave no picture
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  on the profile going. There is nothing about track and
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  field on there. You want to have a mixture of
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  both. You want to have a mixture of
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  track and field, especially on IGIG.
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  You want to have a mixture of what you do for fun and track
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  and field stuff, right? You want to have a mixture of
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  both having a profile with two pictures on there and you're
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  trying to get it recruited and it's not going to work.
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  It's not going to work. I just want to hit on this just
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  a little bit. Social media profile.
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  You want to make sure you have for the username first and last
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  name, right? Use that across the board.
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  If you know on Instagram, if you don't X make sure you use the
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  same name is so much easier to put your first and last name on
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  there. Just make sure you're doing that
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  all right, Make sure you're doing that first and last name.
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  I'm going to use that to username right.
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  You want to put your PRS on there, your recent PRS on there.
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  If it's win aided, I'll go ahead and put AW on there.
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  But the the end of the day, the coach is going to know if they
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  recruiting you and they're going to know what times I win Aiden
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  and what times are not win Aiden.
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  So just go ahead and throw the W at the end for the win 80 times,
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  right? Put your events on there.
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  Make sure you put your GPA on there attended major.
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  You can put that on there as well.
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  And I always ask, you know, the unsigned seniors, what are your
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  goals for this season? So whatever goals you have, make
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  sure you put that on there. The reason I say that they let
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  the coaches know that you are actually working towards
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  something, right. If you got just say you got you
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  went at 11/6 as a high school girl last year or whatnot and
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  you put a goal on there 11/4 this year that it lets that
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  coaches know. Let the coaches, recruiters
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  know, hey, this athlete is actually working towards
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  something, right? They actually working towards
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  something they, they like to progress, you know, and, and I
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  think that's, I think that's a good thing.
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  I think it's a good thing. So let's just a little bit on
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  the social media part of I'm, I can really talk about social
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  media about 3 hours. I'm telling you, I can really
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  dig deep in social media, but we'll we'll save it for the next
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  next show on the Guild podcast 901918.
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  We'll save it for that. All right, but go to my website.
• 17:22
  My website is live and I'm man, I am excited about this website.
• 17:27
  I'm so excited about it. You can go to
• 17:30
  texastrackbedpodcast.com. That's my website there and it
• 17:36
  has everything I do. My YouTube, it has has my
• 17:41
  Spotify on there, has my publication beyond the
• 17:46
  Scoreboard where I talk about track and field on there.
• 17:50
  That's actually doing really well.
• 17:52
  I'm really excited about that. But go on my website guys, y'all
• 17:56
  check it out and I'm still building it.
• 17:59
  But you can see some things I have on there now.
• 18:04
  But also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
• 18:09
  Follow me on there LinkedIn, I'm also on there.
• 18:12
  Just put in Texas track that podcast and check me.
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  I'm also on I'm also on YouTube as well.
• 18:21
  So make sure y'all check me out. But thank you to all the
• 18:24
  supporters. That's all I have for right now.
• 18:27
  I'll be back for Part 2 and guys, thank you for all these
• 18:33
  support. I really I'm really enjoying
• 18:37
  what I'm doing and I appreciate all the support guys.
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  I will talk to y'all later. Peace.
• 18:43
  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
• 18:46
  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
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  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
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  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
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  and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
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