Latest / Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball / Episode 145: Interview with Associate AD/Student-Athlete Enhancement Director Alyssa Gates

Transcript

Episode 145: Interview with Associate AD/Student-Athlete Enhancement Director Alyssa Gates · Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball

• 0:02
  Speaker A: Hey, parents and coaches, are your kids using the right glove? The most important skill for youth athletes to learn is how to play proper catch. The problem is most youth gloves are made with bad leather and are too big for small hands. They actually make it harder to play catch. That's why former Major League Baseball shortstop Kevin Smith created Cali Gloves. Cali gloves are crafted from 100% Japanese kip leather and are the perfect size for kids. All Cali gloves come with palm slits, finger loops and elastic wrist lacing that encourage proper hand placement. The right closing patterns and give kids more confidence to go make plays. Cali Gloves even allow parents to break in the glove without stretching out the fit. It's the glove Kevin wishes he had growing up and the glove all his teammates want for their kids. Visit caligloves.com to learn more and help your kids play better catch. Cali Gloves K a l I gloves.com.
• 1:12
  Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of the Dugout Dish podcast. I'm Andy Kirakidis, joined by my Wonderful co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How are we doing?
• 1:19
  Speaker A: Great.
• 1:20
  Speaker B: How are you? Special guest on tonight. Super special guest. I'll leave it to you for the intro, but she's a woman who had greatly impacted both of us while we were at Marist and we're super excited to have her on. But why don't you give the rundown here, Coach?
• 1:36
  Speaker A: Sure. Very excited for our guest tonight. Saved me from not graduating.
• 1:44
  Speaker A: Almost 20 years ago to date myself. But tonight we're joined by Associate Athletic Director and the Director of Student Athlete Enhancement at our Marist University, Ms. Alyssa Gates. Alyssa, thank you for being on our podcast.
• 2:00
  Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. I am honored and it's so great to see you both. It's been a very long time.
• 2:05
  Speaker A: It has. It's been way too long. But before we get going, if you could just give our listeners a rundown of what you do before we start peppering questions at you and have a blast on this podcast with you, that would be great.
• 2:18
  Speaker C: Absolutely. As Keith mentioned, I am the Associate Athletic Director for Student Athlete Enhancement, which is a really long and unnecessary title, but essentially what it means is that I oversee academic support services for all 640 of our student athletes. So we are providing them with academic support. We also do life skills development. So the idea is that we're developing the holistic student athlete and giving them exposure to different opportunities, whether it's leadership or mental health, nutrition. While our staff doesn't provide all of those things directly, we are getting them to the right resources to make sure they're taking advantage of those things. And then most importantly, we are helping them with the academic balance and the athletic balance so that they are gonna be able to remain eligible, be successful in their coursework, and make sure that they are accessing the resources that are available to them to be successful in the classroom.
• 3:19
  Speaker B: Yeah, it seems like things have evolved since we were there. I think when we were there it was more strictly like the academic piece. And it's pretty cool to see that you guys have decided to kind of branch out and broaden that support for student athletes. I mean, you know, you hit the mental health part and I think that when we were playing and when we were there, that just wasn't a focus. And I think it's become a focus recently. And I think it's really awesome that the school itself has really worked to try to provide a broader level of support because. And I'm sure we're going to get into this, but most student athletes, whether it's at Marist or any other school, they don't go and make money playing sports and the skills that you develop and staying on track with the eligibility. And it's such an important piece of what happens on campus. And we talk a lot about getting to school and what, how to get recruited and, you know, helping families manage that portion of it. But what happens when you're on campus can really impact what your experience is. And you played a huge role in that for us. I know that just, just even just the simplest stuff of helping us set up our schedules like it's, it's such a huge piece of the puzzle making sure that we stay on track. But it's really cool to hear that you guys have really broadened what you do and the support that you provide the athletes.
• 4:50
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, in the past it was working closely with the counseling center and making sure that the student athletes could access those resources. And more recently it's become a student athlete wellness group that was created a couple years ago by a student athlete who just wanted to bring together her peers and talk about mental health and wellness and provide training and resources to one another. Anyone that was interested in doing it to current day where we have a counselor in athletics, so he works within the counseling center on campus, but he is the main point of contact for the student athletes and the coaches when it comes to mental health. And he's doing workshops and doing team related things. And some things are more sports performance based, but some things are more one on One mental health support. So it's been a really great evolution of providing those resources. We always could use more. I. It's. It's definitely not enough to have one person devoted to 640 student athletes. I can attest to that. But I certainly think we're on the right track with providing that extra level of support because, you know, our student athletes need it and they're balancing a lot.
• 6:06
  Speaker B: I think it's a lot more than people realize the life of a student athlete. And in some ways it's really good because it provides a lot of structure. But on the other side of it, you have responsibilities to your team, you have responsibilities to yourself. And it can get overwhelming. And having someone like yourself and the folks that work with you that can provide that guidance, like, it's such a key piece of getting kids through successfully. And it's good to see that a lot of schools seem to be specifically at the Division 1 level, where some of the resources might be a little bit greater. This seems to be more the norm. Where.
• 6:49
  Speaker B: I don't know if it was 15 or 20 years ago, I think it was more like, here's the support. Make sure that you graduate on time. When this is more the ideal, where it's a broad list of selections and support that you guys can provide. And.
• 7:06
  Speaker B: Do you feel like the athletes take advantage of it?
• 7:10
  Speaker C: Yes and no. It depends on what it is we try to really focus on. The NCAA has these core guarantees that they really want you to provide to student athletes. And it's everything from career readiness to, again, mental health and nutrition, nil education, leadership opportunities, diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so I think one of the things that we launched this year in my office was called this program called Red Fox Ready, and it allowed our student athletes to engage in these different components of the core guarantees and really empower them in that holistic development. We do try to really focus on career readiness, and we partner with the center for Career Services, and we have had opportunities to do other types of time management workshops, leadership opportunities. I think the fall is always tough because, you know, for many of them, it's their first time in college or, you know, they're trying to kind of get acclimated. And so I think our engagement is not as great as I would like it to be, but I think we're finding from our colleagues at other schools that that's pretty common. Right? There's just a lot of apathy, and students want something that's going to be quick and easy and something they can access on this thing really fast. So they're not necessarily wanting to come sit through a workshop. And particularly in their first or second year, they don't see the value of that right away. They're like, I don't have to worry about having a Resume or a LinkedIn page. I don't need to worry about that right now. I'll do that junior year or senior year. I don't need to go to that career fair or that alumni networking event. So it's hard, it's hard to get them to see the value of things. But we're doing things, we're putting things out there, we're offering opportunities for them because it's important for us to have them leave Marist better than they came.
• 9:08
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's interesting because Andy and I were talking about this today that, and again my wife is going to be less than impressed with me. I don't know. Well, I know that we probably had career fairs when I was at Marist, but I never attended one. I didn't know how to write a resume. I didn't know how to do any of that stuff. And obviously LinkedIn and all like the social media stuff really wasn't a. Facebook was the only thing around when were all in college.
• 9:33
  Speaker B: Right.
• 9:34
  Speaker A: But I, I find it so interesting how like listening to you talk and then reflecting on the kids that I coach at RPI where like it's completely different.
• 9:45
  Speaker A: And I get like, it's higher end academic. It's, you know, it's things like that. Not that Maris is a bad school, we're graduates. But you know, it's, those kids want to do some wild stuff when they graduate and they have a really good idea of what they want to do at, you know, 17, 18, 19, 20 years old. Where I think for us, you know, it's, you know, you'll figure it out like your job is to play college baseball in our sense and go to school and you'll kind of figure it out along the way. And I, like, I, I, that's a hard mindset to kind of break because I don't necessarily know if that's, if that's changed at all, you know, over the last 15 to 20 years. But like it, it is interesting to me that like I, we didn't have any of that and I think the fact that you're, that is available to students, especially student athletes, is huge because like when Andy and I were talking about like you have to have a plan at some semblance of time when you graduate, like you can't just get to graduation, be like, meh, I'll figure it out. Like, I knew I wanted to coach, right? So, like, that was, that was a little bit easier of transition for me because I, you know, I dealt with heels and Tom Shanley, who was there at the time, and I ended up with my first job through Tommy Shanley. And then it just kind of heels got me my first job. Like, you know, it kind of snowballed from there. So it was a little different. Like, you know, the coaching world is a little bit different. But, you know, if I was, if I was looking to go be a teacher or something else, like, I never even went down that path. And I, I don't even know what, like the, I mean, I'm sure the resources are there, but I didn't even, I don't even know where I would have started. And I, like, I, I just, I, I, I look back on it and I reflect on that. Like, it, it is bizarre to me that, like, at 21 years old, I was just like, meh, we'll figure it out. I'll move to Alabama and just start coaching and, you know, fly by the seat of my pants and see what happens. And like, that's, like, it worked out for me. But I wouldn't necessarily say that that's the best route to go through your college years in, you know, and you should be taking advantage of these things that they have because I think it, it adds value to what you can do. And you can actually, the earlier you can start to figure out whether or not this is what you want to do, the better off you're going to be. Because, you know, how many people do we know that went, they graduated, didn't really have a clue. And then within the first three years, like, I hate this job, I want to do something else. And then, you know, you're doing like, you kind of rather figure that stuff out along the way while you're in college when, you know, you're allowed to kind of screw up a little bit and, and figure out what you like or don't like. But no, I think that's awesome.
• 12:17
  Speaker C: Yeah. And I think, you know, there's a couple things I think a lot of times I think our athletes assume that someone's going to help them out, someone's going to connect them with somebody and help them get a job. And so, you know, in your case, that was, that's how you had to do it. Right? It's coaching and there's a lot of industries and fields where you know, who you know is really going to be helpful, but you can't rely on that and you can't just sit back and hope that that lands in your lap. And so, so we really want to be proactive and help them figure out, hey, as a sophomore, where should I start looking at internships so I get that job experience. Who can I connect with now that's going to help me down the road. And so one of the goals of this program that we're doing is to try to help them kind of build this virtual resume that's not a real resume, but it tracks kind of who they've met in their experiences doing this program and what skills they're taking out of whether it's a workshop or a speaker that they went to see or an alum that they met up with. And so it's hard to get them to understand because again, they're 18 and 19 years old and they can't see to 22 yet. They're just not there yet developmentally. So trying to get them to see big picture things is really challenging, especially if they assume that somebody is going to just connect the dots for them when the time comes and someone's just going to hand them a job or a contact or an in because they know somebody who knows somebody. And so that's one of our challenges. It always has been. I just think there's a little bit of this entitlement that comes with being an athlete, particularly an athlete at this level. And you know, we find that too they want to do things the quickest way possible. And that is not quick because it takes time to make connections and to build relationships. And so they don't want to do things that aren't quick. They want to do things that are, you know, just going to get them from point A to point B as quickly as possible. So it's, you have to sell it. You really have to sell the, the whole experience to them, which I am not in sales and not very good at it.
• 14:23
  Speaker B: The instant gratifications, we, we deal with that too, right? And we were guilty of it. Like this isn't, this isn't one of those things like, oh, we had it like Keith's talking, like we didn't have it figured out. But I can tell you now at, you know, at 41, I would tell my 20 year old self like, dude, start preparing because it doesn't hurt, right? And you know, you're talking about making those connections. Well, sometimes those are connect those connections you make because you, you decide to show up, or you go to that speaker and you go, oh, wow, all right. That's something I could actually dig my. I could dig my teeth into. And. And you know something, I could see a career path and making those connections, like the. The alumni base at Marist is. I mean, shoot, how many. You've had thousands of athletes. Thousands. And I'm sure you're a phone call or an email away from a lot of them. And if you have a student athlete who comes up to you and says, hey, I'm really interested in, you know, like, some specific sort of marketing, like, you probably have somebody in your Rolodex that you can say, hey, why don't you reach out to this person? And I. I think it's a. You can get stuck in it as an athlete because you're so focused on what you're doing in the moment.
• 15:37
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 15:37
  Speaker B: And it. For sure, it doesn't hit you until somebody tells you, like, you don't get to dribble the ball anymore or you don't get to swing the bat anymore. When you go, oh, wait a minute, now I got to figure out what the next phase of this is. And when you're sick, we deal with this with. With the players, like, they want instant gratification in the recruiting process, but sometimes you have to work at it to get to the recruiting portion. We say a lot of. We say all the time, like, you need to be recruitable before you can get recruited. And usually that means where you are now versus where you need to be. There's time and effort that is required of you to get there. And it's no different. What you're talking about that. Yeah, you have to put in some of the effort and you have to show up. Like, showing up's not hard. You do it every day at practice. You do it every day at class, hopefully.
• 16:28
  Speaker B: And I would encourage, you know, there's parents and players who listen to this all the time, like, when you get to campus, seek out these opportunities. You can't start too early.
• 16:39
  Speaker C: Nope.
• 16:41
  Speaker B: You know, and the reality is, and, you know, the NCAA has these, you know, these commercials that they'll play during the bowl games in the NCAA tournament where, you know, we're, you know, we major in more than just sports. And it's like, yeah, you have to. Because most. I don't. I don't even know what the percentage is, but a really extremely low percentage of athletes who play college sports will make money playing the sport that they play in college. And I could not encourage People more looking back on it, having coached for a decade, haven't played.
• 17:17
  Speaker B: You, you get these resources like you need to take advantage of them. And it's not just staying on track to graduate. It's all this supplemental stuff that you're talking about that I think can just have a massive impact on the long term outcome as opposed to worrying about, well, shoot, like I only got four hours, you know, Thursday night. Like I don't want to go to some seminar at 1:30. But that seminar might be the thing that gets you a foot in the door for an internship or maybe you make a good impression and that ends up leading to a job. And I think when you start to look at it through that lens, you look at those resources that you guys are providing now and you go, yeah, I should probably, should probably take a little bit of time and, and see what they got.
• 17:58
  Speaker C: Yeah. And that, you know, that less than 1% that's going to get to go and play after college in some capacity, you know, they're eventually going to have to figure out life most likely as well. So even that small percentage that's going to get a chance to play is going to really need to be able to have their, their backup plan or their, their post, you know, professional sports plan. And I think one of the things that would really helps us is when we have coaches who are willing to step up and say, hey, this is valuable, this is important. And, and you know, coaches are one track minds, right? They, they have to worry about wins and losses and keeping their players healthy and you know, dealing with all of the fun things that are going on in their seasons and in their off seasons. But if they can just kind of reiterate how valuable a program is or if I come to practice and I talk about, hey, we're doing this event, we'd love to have you come. If I could just have them reiterate how important that is and that they support it. That can make a world of difference too. Right? There's a big difference between me going to practice and talking to a coach who's like on their phone the whole time and then when I'm done is just like, all right, thanks, we're moving on to the next thing. And a coach who's like, hey, you know what? Ms. Gates is really, really doing some good things here and we, we want to encourage you to get there. In fact, you know, next week's event, I want all the juniors and seniors to go. It's going to be required, it's going to be Mandatory. Those little things go a long way if you have the support of your coaches.
• 19:31
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. You take a minute and kind of talk about the student athlete life in terms of.
• 19:41
  Speaker B: It'S more than just being that athlete portion, like, and you've got this whole academic piece that you need to take care of. And I know that that's a world that you're, you know, embedded in. And, you know, we were talking before we. We started recording about scheduling and planning and, you know, 15 credits versus 12 credits and like, how that. That kind of trickles down and, you know, talk a little bit about that. And then I'd actually really love to hear about. You've seen so many kids go through this. You've seen me and Keith do it personally. You've seen thousands of kids do it. What do you. What are the commonalities you see between people? The student athletes that are really successful and the ones that kind of stumble their way through college?
• 20:23
  Speaker C: So I think it depends on a lot of factors. Right. Their academic preparedness coming into college. I've met with so many different students over the years, some of whom went to high schools where they didn't have to do a heck of a lot academically because they were good athletes.
• 20:41
  Speaker C: And some who were so rigid in their academic pursuits that they oftentimes feel like they're not being challenged at Marist. So all different ends of the spectrum and the ones who have really not had to be challenged prior, they can't believe that they have to go to class and they have to do their work. And it's not one of those places where you're just not going to be able to not have to go and you're going to get an A. You have to go. And so it really comes down to finding the right major and the right program for them. And all of our programs are challenging. So there's really no easy major at Marist. So where you may be able to find something at another school that you can get students through, none of them are like that. I mean, there are definitely ones that are harder than others, but it's really challenging no matter what program you take at Marist. And so it's finding the one that's going to work best for that student, knowing what their challenges are for baseball players, you know, what that season is like, and it's intense and it's long and it's a lot of travel. So, you know, we don't tell a student athlete on the baseball team you can't do biology. We don't Tell them that. But we have long conversations about what that's going to look like and how they are going to be so far behind their other classmates if they are in that program and missing classes and the work that they're going to have to put in to that major outside of just the regular day to day stuff that they'd have to do as a regular student. So those are conversations that happen often because you always have students picking majors that maybe they haven't done a lot of research on or they don't really understand or they think is a catch all. You know, the, the students that come in and just I'll do business, business is like, that's fine, I can get a degree in business. Yes, you can. But did you know our business program is pretty analytical and quantitative, so you're going to have to do a good amount of math and econ and accounting and financial management and things that you may not be particularly strong in. Do you know what the requirements are? And so a lot of times they don't think through that, those things. And you know, we know that the major doesn't define you, your degree doesn't define you, you can do a lot of different things. But it's making sure the students that want to be teachers or want to go to med school are in the majors that are going to help them get there as opposed to having to start all over again after they've gotten a four year degree in English or four year degree in communications. So those are, those are really important conversations. And you know, we really just want to make sure that they understand what they're getting themselves into and that they understand the rigor of the program that they're going to be in, particularly with their sport. You know, there are some sports that can, that can manage those majors, those challenging majors better because they're not gone, you know, for the first four weeks like a baseball player is and they have a little more time on campus to meet with professors or to meet with tutors. And so those are the things that I think right up front we have to have really important conversations about and then understanding like what, what kind of load they can carry with the credits. So it's, it's 15 credits each semester, ideally so that you can graduate with 120 credits at the end of four years. But times have changed and people may be staying extra semesters or extra years and have, you know, extra years of eligibility. So we might be able to spread those credits out a little bit or stretch it out. But knowing that if they are only in 12 credits. They can't withdraw from a class because then they wouldn't be full time ineligible. So in some cases, our baseball players want to take less credits in the spring because of the travel and just, you know, the rigor of that particular semester. So they may take a summer class just to stay on track or a winter course just to stay on track. So those are conversations that we have, you know, well ahead of time. I don't ever want to see somebody have to drop something and then be ineligible. And so those conversations can be difficult when you have the caseloads that we are working with.
• 25:01
  Speaker C: But fortunately we have a lot of good systems in place where we can make sure that they have to check in with us before they drop a class or change a major or do something that's going to impact them. Those systems will catch those students even if they're not regulars in our offices, so that we can make sure that they're not doing anything that's going to cause them any kind of academic delay or eligibility issue.
• 25:26
  Speaker B: The major change that's, that's one that I think that as a student athlete.
• 25:34
  Speaker B: You assume like, oh, I can just change my major, but there's a lot of trickle down effect with the courses that you need to take in order to be eligible there. And, you know, having someone like yourself be able to guide through that and help kids make good decisions. I mean, I'll simplify it a little bit, but it was always a big thing in the spring for us. To your point, you know, we were traveling the first four or five weeks. You know, you're leaving Thursday morning, so you're not going for, for five weeks. You are not going to be at a Thursday or a Friday class. So how do you handle that? You know, you have to sometimes take a class in the fall a semester early than you normally would, or you have to be really communicative with your teachers ahead of time where they understand, like, hey, I'm these, I'm gonna miss these. You know, and I ran into that with a teacher that I was in who wasn't as accepting of me being a baseball player and made it very difficult on me. But, you know, those are important things. And that workload, you know, especially your freshman year, it's, it's.
• 26:48
  Speaker B: No athlete has ever had to do what they're being asked to do that first year they're on campus. So that spring is new and you just think, oh, I'm going to play baseball. It's like, well, you're forgetting that, you know, when you fly down to Louisiana on Thursday and you get back at 2 o' clock in the morning on a Sunday, you need to get up and go to your 8am class on a Monday morning. And you know what those expectations are. And I think that that can trip people up. Just not understanding the level of commitment that's required. And you personally helped me dodge some of those bullets when I was setting up my schedule for my junior and my senior year to, to be able to look, look at me and go, hey, I don't. You shouldn't take this class. Like, why don't we look at this section or maybe we this one to next fall and you take this one here. Like those are. It's such an impactful conversation. And for kids who don't take advantage of this just doesn't make any sense to me, especially looking back on it. Because you're there to make their lives easier.
• 27:47
  Speaker C: Yeah, where we can, yeah, we try. And I think, you know, there's, you'll still get a student athlete here and there. That's like, oh, sweet, I'll take this class on Thursdays and I'll miss it for the first week, four weeks. And you're like, no, that's not a good plan. And it's like, oh, I'll get the notes or I'll get a tutor. And I'm like, you can do those things too. But it's the time in the classroom that you're missing that is really valuable. And this is, I'm putting on my professor hat right now because I teach a class and it's hard. It's hard for a faculty member who has the same student athletes that are constantly missing the same days of the week. And it's, it's like, okay, I can continue, just teach the lesson and hope they figure it out. But if you care about your students, you're going to want them to be just as caught up and knowledgeable as all the other students in your class. And you have some faculty members who will go above and beyond to try to support our student athletes and meet with them and offer extra sessions or extra help. And then some that are just like, yeah, too bad, so sad, you better figure it out. But it's trying to teach those student athletes that what you're missing in person is valuable and you just getting the notes from a classmate isn't going to make up for that. In some courses it might be okay, it might be enough. But in courses where there's a lot of discussion or a lot of group work or in class conversations or debates. Those are valuable things. I can empathize with professors and their frustrations. And I also have our student athletes who, you know, don't always understand why it's like such a big deal. And we don't really have the luxury of having them, like, just not schedule classes on Thursdays and Fridays. It doesn't work. You all remember that Thursday attaches to another day and Friday attaches to another day. So the class that meets on Friday also meets on Tuesday, and the class that meets on Thursday off also meets on Monday. So you can't just like, avoid those two days altogether. And so trying to get them to understand that they're going to have to do more. And it doesn't make sense to them because in the spring they're like, when do I have time to do more? You have to go above and beyond. You have to meet with that professor more often. You have to try to supplement the conversations and the discussions that are going on in some way, shape or form. If there's a way someone could record the class for you, those are other things. And now with technology, as long as the professor is okay with it, there's a lot of other things that we can, can do. So they're not necessarily missing all of the components of the class. But it can be challenging. It can be challenging because the other piece too is we look at the college student athlete experiences like a pie, right? So you, you slice it into threes and it's academics, it's athletics, and then it's your social life. And you know, they have so many times a week that they're practicing our requirements. They have travel, they have weights, they have film, whatever, and then they have all of their courses. And then we're like, oh, and don't forget to come to this event that we're having. Oh, and don't forget you should join a student government or you should join a club or try to make other friends outside of your sport. Like, when, when or when are we doing that? Oh, and going to the extra help and going to see the tutor. And so we ask a lot of them and you know, they're trying to do all of that in season as well.
• 31:14
  Speaker A: I also think it's, and not to sound old, but it's also part of the agreement with being a student athlete. Right. Like, and I think it's something that, you know, having coached for so long and been a student athlete, it's fair to say, like, there are some times where, like, yeah, you're you might not go to a workshop. You should. Or a class or whatever, but, like, it's also part of the agreement. Like, you, you have to go to class. You have to stay eligible. You have to. Those are like, I remember getting off the bus. I can't remember what year it was. I remember getting off the bus at 5 o' clock in the morning on a Sunday, and I had like four Monday classes. And it was like, all right, well, I guess I'm gonna not sleep and just go hammer through this day with a night class included. Like, I was a zombie by the end of the day. And then you got to wake up and go lift at Tuesday morning and then go to practice and go to class and do these things. And I think it's, you know, I get the sentiment sometimes of, like, when am I supposed to do all this stuff? But at the same time, like, this is kind of the contractual agreement that you entered into in being a scholarship student athlete or just a student athlete at school. It doesn't matter if it's Marist or anywhere else. Like, this is, this is what it is. Like, this is why you get to get into college early. Like, you know that you're getting into early. This is why you get scholarship money. This is why you get to travel and have, like, no one else gets excused absences. You get excused absences to do these things. So, like, the, the other part of that agreement is, like, you don't just get to do whatever you want when you want. Like, it's. Sometimes you have to show up to these things whether you like it or not. And that's like. And I also think it's part of the world. Like, you're gonna leave this place and go enter the world. Like, yeah, you're gonna have to go to things you don't want to go to. That's just life. Like, learn to deal with it now and figure out how to get around these. Not to get around them, but get through them. And I think that though, like, I get the sentiment and like, I think it's. I remember what I was like when I was in college and I was probably very similar to, like, these, these types of kids. But, like, I look back at it from coaching standpoint, it's like you're. I'm preparing you to be a better human being leaving here than when you entered here. And some of these things, you know, they, you might find value in things that you might not think are there.
• 33:37
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 33:37
  Speaker A: And I, And I, I think the old adage is true from A coaching perspective, too. Like, it's not for everyone. Like, not all these workshops are for everyone, right? But, like, if you hit 40 of the people that went there and they find it valuable, like, that's 40 of people. Like, if there's 100 people, that's 40 people that we just helped. And you can probably find some semblance of value where it's going to come back at some point in time in your life where you're like, I remember that workshop I went to. Yeah. Like, this is similar to that. But I, like, I, I, I push back on the notion sometimes with kids, you know, especially when I was coaching of, like, I don't see the value in this. Like, yeah, you, like, for you as a senior right now, it's probably not that valuable, but for our freshman, it is. And that's why I need you there to do X, Y and Z. You know, just like when seniors would, you know, freshmen come into your office and like, they're like, oh, I'm struggling. So taught, like, this class is so tough. And then by the time they're senior, like, huh, Andy struggling in calc 100, like, I, I mean, I could get an A in that class. Like, yeah. Four years ago, dude, you sat across my desk crying because you had a D and couldn't figure out how you were going to get out of this class. Like, how quickly we forget, you know, But I, I just think it's part of the agreement, you know, for people that are listening, if you want to go play in college, like, regardless of the level, like, this is part of the agreement in being a student athlete. And I do, like, I do think sometimes, you know, I look back from a coaching perspective, and I look back from, like, when I was a player. You are asked to do a lot, but it's also, like, you're the face of the school in a lot of instances, and you're the people that will actually go do. Like, I remember setting up for graduation for four straight years. Like, yeah, you know, I know Heels wasn't too thrilled about it, but, like, yeah, there was no one else on campus. We got to do it. You had Robbie Ryan out there setting up, you know, obstructed view seats behind trees, but, like, it was fun at the same time. Like, you, you got to get out with your teammates and do stuff. And that wasn't, that wasn't the normal practice baseball and extracurriculars that you would partake in.
• 35:43
  Speaker C: Yeah, I think that you have working.
• 35:45
  Speaker B: For Randy on the side.
• 35:46
  Speaker C: Yes, absolutely. This is the best job on campus.
• 35:51
  Speaker B: Absolutely.
• 35:51
  Speaker C: Because you're going to learn things that I always say this working for him. You're going to learn things that are going to prevent you from having to hire someone to do that job. Because now you know how to put that together or you know how to fix this little plumbing issue. Like that is the best job on campus. But all of the things that, you know, they have a hard time with, I don't want to do this. It's all teaching them something. Right. And that, that Monday where you all overloaded your schedules because you were coming back from travel and you had to get as many classes on Mondays as possible. It sucked. It was awful. It was a long, grueling day. But it taught you how to power through, it taught you adversity, it taught you how to face challenges. And, you know, it made you better. It made you better. And so it's hard for them to see that when they're in it, but eventually, hopefully they do just like you all.
• 36:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. The.
• 36:47
  Speaker B: I think a lot of kids who go who are like, aspiring to be student, you know, be college athletes, they're in love with the idea of it. But what we're talking about is so relevant to this, is, to Keith's point, like, this is what you sign up for when you want to be a student athlete. You don't sign up to not go to class. If that's what you're doing it for, you're probably not there for the right reasons. Like, if you're just there to be an athlete, you better be one of that half a percenter point zero one percent that is going to go and make a ton of money playing a sport. But the reality is that's, you know, especially a school like Marist, it's just not the reality for kids who go there and you sign up for all of this. And to your point, like, you learn so much along the way. Right. The time management, like, you know, we used to practice at nine o' clock at night.
• 37:43
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 37:44
  Speaker B: And the whole idea was, well, nobody's got an excuse to miss practice.
• 37:48
  Speaker C: Yep.
• 37:49
  Speaker B: Because there's no classes going on. I mean, I remember walking from a night class when we were practicing indoors. Like you'd get done with your 6:30-9:00 night class. We used to take those because there's only one day and it was three credits and you'd walk from Lowell Thomas. I had this class with George Heath. We would walk, we would go get a big bottle of water and we'd walk to class. We'd walk from class to camp to practice and go and practice for three hours. Like, that's stuff that you. You kind of get to do. And the funny thing is, is, like, you get some awesome stories out of this stuff.
• 38:27
  Speaker A: Move the bleachers, move the hoops.
• 38:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, we did pull the cages out.
• 38:32
  Speaker A: You really only need two guys.
• 38:35
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 38:38
  Speaker B: Unbelievable.
• 38:40
  Speaker C: Yeah. All the physical labor y' all have to do, I mean, there's this. They still do it, you know, like, they're tarping the field. They're raking. They're doing all of it. It's. It's.
• 38:49
  Speaker B: It's.
• 38:50
  Speaker C: It's unfortunate in some ways, but it also was like, man, that's teaching you something, man.
• 38:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, you got to show up sometimes. You got to get your hands dirty a little bit, and.
• 39:00
  Speaker C: And you don't take it for granted. You know what I mean? Like, this is. This is your product. Like, you. You are part of all components of it. So there's. You have a little bit more investment in it, in my opinion.
• 39:12
  Speaker B: Yeah. I got a question for you around the technology piece.
• 39:16
  Speaker C: Oh, boy. Okay.
• 39:17
  Speaker B: We had. Well, you know, obviously, everybody went through the whole Covid thing where a lot of stuff was being done online.
• 39:23
  Speaker B: Is that. I know it happens in some of the bigger conferences where the default is just take a virtual class. Right. That's kind of a unspoken secret out there that a lot of student athletes at the highest level, they're taking a lot of virtual classes. Is that something that Marist is offering at this point still, or is it. Have we kind of gotten back to most of this stuff? Is going to be in person, or do they have a little bit of a hybrid approach where maybe a baseball player is able to take more of a virtual class in the. In the spring to kind of account for, you know, the travel that is, you know, And I think for baseball, you travel more than any other sport.
• 40:07
  Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. We are. We are kind of back to. We've been kind of back to normal with courses, classes. I think, you know, our approach has always been we want people in person. We want to be able to have those in the classroom interactions. We do have some online courses, but they're mostly our liberal arts courses that people can take, you know, as. As a fifth class or as a fourth class. It's not. There's never an intention that they're going to be fully online. We do have programs that are set up for. For people that want to come back and finish degrees where that can be done online.
• 40:49
  Speaker C: Those are our Professional programs. But for the most part, everybody's doing everything in person. And, you know, I would say 95% of our major courses are all offered in person without any online option. So I think when we first returned, or I shouldn't say returned, when we first kind of like started going back to a normal semester, I think there were some faculty members that were just like, I can't make it in today. Let's just do it online. Or, I'm not feeling like driving to campus. My commute's 45 minutes. I'm just going to do it online. And deans and the provost office were quickly like, nope, you're not doing that. That's not what we're here for. We're back to the way things were.
• 41:40
  Speaker C: There are some faculty that are still doing it, depending upon who their boss is and who they report to. But.
• 41:47
  Speaker C: The message has been very loud and clear that we are. We are in person. And if you are having an issue getting to campus, you cancel class. You're not really supposed to rely on a remote opportunity.
• 42:03
  Speaker B: No, I think that's good to hear. I mean, I think when you're. You're on campus, being there is important. You know, there's whole schools that have online, you know, degrees that. That's what they do, and that's what they, you know, Southern New Hampshire, I know, is really big into that. Liberty is another one where, you know, a big portion of what they do academically is, you know, is remote by design. But, you know, if you're a student athlete, go to class, go meet some people, get some FaceTime with the professors.
• 42:32
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 42:33
  Speaker B: You know, I think. I think it makes a huge difference.
• 42:36
  Speaker C: Yep. Make those connections. You know, obviously, we hope they're making friends outside of, you know, their fellow athletes and connecting with others in the classroom. But, yeah, it's been. It's been really good to have that kind of messaging and to that, you know, is kind of the policy now. It's. It's. It's just expected that we're going to be in class. So. And I think for the most part, they. The students understand that. I don't get a whole lot of, like, pushback in the first couple years after Covid, for sure, I was like, can we just be remote? Can we just be remote now that what we're doing anymore? Because we missed that experience. Right. Like, that was. That's important. And it was really hard for a lot of students to learn that way, and it was. It was hard to teach that way, for sure. So I was. I was very excited to be back in person. And I think, you know, that's the intention moving forward for everything.
• 43:27
  Speaker B: Who wouldn't want to walk around campus now? I hadn't been back in a long time until I came back to the. The first pitch dinner.
• 43:33
  Speaker C: Yeah. It's pretty. It's pretty gorgeous.
• 43:36
  Speaker B: Yeah. What's the big deal? Park down in McCann. Walk up to, you know, whatever building that you got class in that day. Like, it's just such a, you know, that's part of your college experience. I think in something that you don't, you might not think about it in the moment, but you look back on it. It's like the time you actually spent on campus.
• 43:56
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 43:57
  Speaker B: Was, you know, valuable in a lot of different ways.
• 44:00
  Speaker C: Yeah. Now our student athletes can. Can park in McCann. They have special stickers so they can park in McCann, leave their car all day, go do class, whatever they need to do. And no ticket on their car. They have a special sticker. Oh, that's pretty nice gig. Yeah.
• 44:17
  Speaker B: Yeah, we did not have that.
• 44:19
  Speaker C: No, you didn't.
• 44:20
  Speaker A: Kenny Anderson will be thrilled to know.
• 44:22
  Speaker B: That the amount of tickets that I had to pay in college is not. My mom still hangs it over my head.
• 44:29
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 44:31
  Speaker A: Couldn't register for class. Oh, by the way, I have, like, $120 in tickets.
• 44:38
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 44:39
  Speaker C: So many financial holes were because of parking tickets back in the day, especially on a.
• 44:46
  Speaker B: Like a basketball event day. You couldn't get. Get anywhere near McCann.
• 44:50
  Speaker C: Yeah. No, not even if you work there.
• 44:54
  Speaker B: It's terrible. I got a hot, hot fire question for you. Okay. Put yourself in the shoes of a student athlete, prospective student athlete, parent. What are some questions that you would want answered from an academic perspective? So say you're going to sit down with a coach and you're a mother or father. What are some of the things that you think are important for those families to ask to better understand the academic experience and what that looks like?
• 45:25
  Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, I meet with parents and recruits all the time, and, you know, just they want to know what we offer.
• 45:33
  Speaker C: They want to know about things that are in place to support their son or daughter as they're, you know, coming in and how their schedule will be made. That's a huge one. Who makes their schedule? Who chooses their classes? You know, how do they make adjustments if they need to make adjustments. So I walk them through, you know, that process.
• 45:55
  Speaker C: I talk a lot about what types of resources we have in terms of tutoring and study halls and how they're advised. So at Marist, they have two advisors. If they're athletes, they have someone in my office and then they have their major advisor. And so I kind of explained to the parents the difference and why they would see one over the other or when they should see both of us. And they also want to ask about, you know, what is life after Maris look like. So, you know, if you are a parent, I would definitely encourage you to talk to folks on campuses about the, you know, postgraduate statistics. You know, where are students graduating and going, where are they, are they getting jobs out of college? You know, what are they talk, what are they saying about their experiences? And I always think that the most valuable people on a college recruiting visit are the current players because they're going to tell you the real deal. We're all selling them a product. And it's not that we're lying, but it's a business conversation. And I think the student athletes on that team are going to give them the real deal. They're going to tell them, hey, Thursdays, the dining hall is not so great, but the rest of the days of the week it's pretty decent. Or these are the fun places to go off campus, or these are the places that you want to stay away from. Like, they're going to tell them all the things that I think are really valuable. What we're saying is kind of valuable.
• 47:26
  Speaker C: We hope it's, it's going to be something that they, you know, will take advantage of. But I think it's really important for them to just kind of find out, you know, what we're offering and then, and then what students are getting out of that when they leave. Like, how is, how did that benefit them? Whether it's a specific program that we did or an opportunity that they had, or just being a student athlete and wearing both of those hats.
• 47:53
  Speaker B: Yeah, they.
• 47:56
  Speaker B: I think oftentimes the, the, the student is, is tentative to ask some of those questions and I think they're really, really important. Going back to what we talked about around, like having a long term plan and like playing the long game. Like, you know, if you're at Marist and you're looking to be a business major, like, well, what's that going to get me after this? You know, what does that look like? You know, do we have tie ins to internships? Do you know, what's the job placement look like?
• 48:28
  Speaker B: You know, I'm looking to be down in New York City at some point. Like, what are the connections that Marist College has there and.
• 48:36
  Speaker B: That stuff? I think it matters so much and they get so fixated on the athlete portion. And honestly, that's the easiest thing to unpack.
• 48:46
  Speaker C: Yeah, for sure.
• 48:47
  Speaker B: Are you getting recruited heavily? Do you really like the coaching staff? But the other half of that equation is if I'm not going to play professional baseball, what's Maris going to do for me? And being able to understand what that looks like, the resources that you have in front of you, like, I don't think you can understate what you just said about figuring out what that looks like. And if the coaches don't have those answers.
• 49:15
  Speaker B: You have those answers or those coaches should be able to put you in contact with somebody who can give you some of those answers.
• 49:22
  Speaker B: We were talking about at the beginning, some schools don't have all of this.
• 49:26
  Speaker C: Right.
• 49:26
  Speaker B: I've coached the Division 1 and the Division 3 levels. For us, at the Division 3 level, we didn't have someone like yourself, but we had resources that we could go to. All right, well, this kid's interested in being, this kid's interested in being a doctor someday.
• 49:43
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 49:43
  Speaker B: We knew that ahead of camp, the campus visit, and we would make sure that we had a professor on call to be able to say, hey, this is, you know, this is what it looks like to be a pre med student at this school.
• 49:53
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 49:54
  Speaker B: And this is the schools that we've had guys and girls go to, you know, post graduation. And I think that the parents and the students who go into these visits, understanding the importance of the whole picture, I think it can, it can help you make such a more informed long term decision and get you to a place that is going to check a lot of those boxes for you. Because, you know, we were talking about it a little bit before we started recording, but like the transfer portal is a thing now. But you need to know what that picture is, where you're going to be. Because in all likelihood that's where you should probably stay.
• 50:34
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 50:34
  Speaker B: And understanding what that looks like, I think it's just really, really important. And most schools have more than people think.
• 50:41
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah. And I think, you know, the, the athletic piece is so unpredictable. Right. Like we're, we're in a very tumultuous time and the landscape is changing. And so, you know, we talked a lot about how, you know, students feel about their experience and if they don't get what they want that first year, they're looking to transfer. And it's so much easier than it used to be. So.
• 51:06
  Speaker C: That part of it is really hard to predict, but the other stuff is very Predictable, right? Find out about the academics, find out about the resources. Meet with a faculty member in your child's maybe proposed major, potential major. If they're not sure about a major, there are people that can talk to them about being undecided as well. So it's meeting the right people on the academic side. It's finding out what other resources are available. It's trying to talk to the people that they may be connected with because the athletic piece is just something that you. You kind of can't control. The other piece is whatever. Whatever is there. Obviously, your child has to take advantage of those things and utilize those resources, but those things aren't going to change. They're probably going to get better, if anything. But with the athletic piece that can be, again, so unpredictable, and things don't always go as planned. And, you know, the things that may be discussed on a recruiting trip about playing time or, you know, where they see your son or daughter on the depth chart is that could. That could fluctuate, obviously. So I would really focus on the things that you can control.
• 52:20
  Speaker B: 100%. 100%. Nailed it.
• 52:24
  Speaker A: I think it's things that no one thinks about in the recruiting process.
• 52:29
  Speaker B: Right.
• 52:29
  Speaker A: Like, there's no.
• 52:32
  Speaker A: Like, the academic side is so.
• 52:36
  Speaker A: Not. Like, not. You're not getting recruited to be a student there.
• 52:41
  Speaker B: Right.
• 52:42
  Speaker A: Like, you are. But like, you know, you're the. The vast majority of your question are going to be centered around whatever sport it is that you're being recruited in. And I like sometimes. And I think that, you know, the people that do a really good job are the ones that, you know, highlight the academics and the support and the things that we have here for student athletes. But I feel like it's something that, you know, especially with people who go through this process, it's. It's not at the forefront of their mind because it's like, well, you can get into school. And I think when people think like, why are you getting a score school, like, you're just gonna kind of easily get through school. And that's not the case for, you know, a lot of people. Like, there is a minimum GPA you're gonna have to hold, which is low at the Division 1 level if it's still what it was 20 years ago. But then there's schools who can supersede that and say, like, hey, I know the NCAA is a 1 8, but here it's going to be a 22 or a 2 3. And if you're below that, you are not playing, it does not matter. You know, like, that's more the Division 1 level, Division 3. There really isn't one. A school can kind of set that. But, you know, it's. I find the dichotomy of it to be weird because it's like I coached so long at such a higher end academic school that there wasn't really a lot of academic issues that I had to have. Right. Like, now did I have my lifelong study hall guys? Absolutely, I did. But it's few and far between because, you know, once they kind of get in their major, they're so interested in that those, like, it doesn't really, you know, you don't really have to worry about them academically where, you know, like, I was well on my way to being a lifelong study hall guy after two years of Marist College, and I.
• 54:26
  Speaker C: Was, I don't remember that at all.
• 54:28
  Speaker A: Fortunate enough to get out and study starting, I think midway through my junior year, where he was just like, all right, dude, this is enough. Like, you're, you don't go. But like, you know, I, I think that, like, you know, what does that look like, right? Like, you know, they're like, study hall, I think in some places are, you know, a little laissez faire, where, you know, a place like Maris, like, it's not, you know, you have to actually go in there and do work for.
• 54:53
  Speaker C: Six hours cracking the whip every day.
• 54:55
  Speaker A: Or eight hours a week, whatever it is. Like, and that, like, that's another piece of the time management thing where, you know, you're a student athlete, you have practice, you have lift, you have film, you have games, you're traveling. Like, you have to somehow figure out a way to get six hours of study hall in. And oh, by the way, you can't just go in there on your off day of no classes and bang out six hours. Like, that's not how this works. You have to find time throughout the course of the day to do that. And it's, you know, it's learning time management, it's learning those things. And I think that it's all of those things. It's like Andy said, you, you haven't gone through a season regardless of sport that you play, like at the college level, where you have to figure this stuff out and it can get overwhelming fast. Where it's like, oh, my goodness, how. Where do I find? Like, six hours seems like not a lot of time. And then all of a sudden you get to Thursday and you're like, I need to bang out six hours of study all over the Course of the next two days and I have no choice. Time.
• 55:48
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 55:48
  Speaker A: And you know, you have to either A, figure it out or B, you know, wear it that you didn't manage your time. And then that's leads to other issues. But, you know, it usually it only takes once. But, you know, I think those are things when you go through the recruiting process as a kid and as a parent, like, it seems so easy on the front end and like, oh, where he's going to get into school. Like, if he can get into school, he can handle it. Like, that's not.
• 56:12
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 56:13
  Speaker A: You know, college is a different beast. You know, we were talking about before, like, I stand by this. I think it's. I think college is a little bit tougher your first three semesters because you're taking some classes that you don't necessarily have a ton of interest in. You're kind of taking your electives and what you need to, you know, to, to get outside of your degree. You know, it gets a little bit easier when you get deeper into your degree because now you're taking classes that you're really interested in, you want to go to. Like, I was a history major. I didn't love math and like, science was fine, but like, I wasn't a huge math guy. I hated going to math class. But, like, you gotta go and half of the battle is just showing up.
• 56:51
  Speaker C: Yeah, but think about developmentally where you are in those first few years. So not only are you taking the classes you're not crazy about, but you're not mature enough to handle all the things that are being thrown at you. So you're trying to figure out, you know, how to make friends and how to do the social life stuff and then like, how to balance everything and coaches yelling at me. And I've. I've always been, you know, the best player on my team, and now I'm not anymore. And how do I manage all of that? And the dining hall, Like, I don't know how to eat right. I don't. I'm not sleeping well. So you are figuring all of that out while you're taking the most uninteresting classes. In some cases, you might have one or two that you like, but you're, you're just, you're too immature. So I totally agree with that. And I see the biggest growth always from freshman year to sophomore year. Because by the sophomore year, they. Not always the first semester, but by the second semester it's like, okay, I got this now. It took me three, four semesters to get it down to get in a rhythm. And now I've got these younger guys and girls that I can be like, this is how we do it. These are the mistakes I made. Let's try not to, to have you go down that path or they enjoy watching you struggle because they're like, haha, you have to go through it too. Just like I did. But it's 100%, you know, different when you are, you know, in your junior senior year and you, you have most of the time have it together. And, and for the most part, our athletes are all very academically capable. They can do the work at Marist, it's just all of the distractions and, and the video game, the video games. That's. I'll just say that, like, that is. I'm like, why aren't you doing your work? Video games. Okay, okay, makes sense. So it's like just all of the things that they have to learn how to do without someone standing over their shoulder. They can sit in study hall for six hours a week and do some of their work, but then they're going back to their room and not finishing it because they're playing video games or they're on their phones.
• 58:53
  Speaker C: So I think those are things that we have to work through. Is, is just the maturity stuff. But they're typically all very, very capable. I mean, it's. If they fail out of Marist, it's not because they're not smart enough. It's because they got other stuff going on.
• 59:08
  Speaker B: It's the first time that most kids are in a space where they're not having their handheld.
• 59:14
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 59:15
  Speaker B: And we're talking about all these resources and all these systems that are in place. They're there.
• 59:21
  Speaker C: Yep.
• 59:22
  Speaker B: Right. And you get built in structure as an athlete. And I think that's one of the really valuable things. Like, I look back and I think about it at times like if I just went to college and I didn't play a sport, I have no idea what the hell would have happened. Because there's so much free time.
• 59:38
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 59:39
  Speaker B: You know, you might only take 3, 3 hours of classes on a Tuesday. You might be done at 11 o' clock in the afternoon and you don't really have much else to do.
• 59:48
  Speaker C: Right.
• 59:48
  Speaker B: So the structure is nice. But these resources that we're talking about, nobody's going to force you to use them.
• 59:57
  Speaker C: Right.
• 59:58
  Speaker B: You have to take advantage of them. Like you don't have mom cooking you breakfast.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker C: Right.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker B: You know, you're not, nobody's waking you up in the morning to Go to class. So, yeah, some of that simple stuff is, is an adjustment period of, well, if I have an 8 o' clock class, I need to get up before 7:50 to make it.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker B: You know, because.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker C: It'S, it's all the way across campus and it's going to take me, you know, more than 10 minutes to walk there. Yeah, all of those things. Yep.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker B: And it sounds.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker A: Or if you live off campus and you're like, you have to park at whatever that old parking lot was and then walk to Fontaine some.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker C: Sometimes it comes down to literally sitting down with them and saying, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna parcel out every hour of your day. Because a lot of times they don't even recognize that they need to give themselves more time. So for instance, okay, Practice ends at 10:30. My first class is at 11. That, that's tight. I get it. But why are you late to your 11 o' clock class? Well, I had to go back to my room to shower. I said, we're going to shower in the locker room. So you're going to bring a bag of things that you're going to pack the night before and you're going to shower in the locker room. And then you're going to go straight to class. Not back to your room, straight to class. And you're going to pack a granola bar and a banana and a water and you're going to eat after class, not before. You don't have time for all that. So those types of conversations happen a lot now because I think there's just so used to someone having all of that done for them. But I'm like, it is now your turn to do this for yourself. I will help you figure it out. But I'm not going to follow you around either. So I don't wake you up. I don't come into your room and knock on your door and say, time for class. So you've got to start figuring it out. And, and then you have some students who just have one full day again. Your Mondays would have been a great example of this. Like, when am I eating? When is lunchtime? Because I have back to back to back classes. So it's, how do we slip some food in there at some point? And if you have a 12:30 class, is the professor cool? If you eat in class, like during the lecture, is that okay, let's make sure that works. So, yeah, time management is huge for them. And I think that's usually the, the thing that messes them up the most because they just don't know how to do it?
• 1:02:17
  Speaker A: No, I think that's one of the hardest things. I mean you have built in structure as an athlete. Like I remember lifting at 6 pretty much our whole career. But it was great because then you could take 8 o', clock, you're done lifting at 7, shower, go get breakfast and then go to class and you're, you know, your day is over by, I don't want to say over because you usually have practice but like, you know, you're done by 10:30, 11, like all right, I can go back and eat and then I can go to practice and then. Okay. Now after 4, you know, by 4:30 I'm good.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker A: But I think that like it's when you haven't, it takes a little bit of time to a get to that adjustment. But like it's tough.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker B: Tough.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. And like, you know, I struggled my freshman year with it, especially during the fall. Like, you know, you get out of lift in the leg day and you climb those stairs up from McCann up to Champagne and like, damn, man, like I just want to go back and take a nap.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker A: And that's not in the cards.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker C: Your mind and your body are being pushed and challenged more than they ever were. So you are going to be more exhausted and you have pockets of time in the middle of your day where you probably didn't have in high school. You probably went back to back to back to back class, class, class, maybe a lunch or a study hall in there. But for the most part you were going from eight to three solid. And now you may have a two hour break in the middle of the day on Thursday because you don't have a class then. And it's what you do with that pocket of time because you're going to be exhausted and you're going to want to go nap because you're tired, because you're getting pushed further than you ever have. But can you, can you not nap or can you nap for 20 minutes and then go do something else productive? Maybe it's study, maybe it's review your notes before the next class. Maybe it's make sure that you have met with your tutor or you know, you're getting something done that's maybe working a little bit ahead or getting your study hall hours done. So those are the things that we try to, you know, instill in them. It's like those free pockets of time that you never used to have. Now you have to use them more wisely because when you try to at 10 o' clock at night, finally stop, sit down and study. You're exhausted because your mind and your body are not going to be able to manage what they used to be able to manage. You're more exhausted, so you're spent. You can't sit in bed and now study for two hours. So do it during the day when you have the free time. That's what study hall is for. It's literally designed for you to learn time management.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker A: I find it. But, like, I'm gonna sound old here, Andy and Alyssa. But, like, I. It's like, I think now, like, watching my. When I was coaching, like, watching my kids would do and stuff. Like, I'm so grateful that we didn't have Instagram or Twitter or Snapchat or any of this stuff because, like, I could see myself sitting in the locker room just going down a rabbit hole.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker A: When you have two hours of free time, like, I'm just gonna, you know, practice over.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker B: I don't have much.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker A: I'll shower and then, like, just sit there and, like, scroll through social media. And before you know it, it's like, oh, I have to go eat. And then I have, like, 20 minutes to get to class and eat. Like, we didn't have that. Which I'm grateful we didn't, because it's like, all right, like, we're going to shower and we're going and having breakfast or lunch or whatever, and then I'm going to eat. I'm going to go back down to McCann, do study hall, and then that's going to run me right up to practice, and then I'm done, you know, once practice is over. Over with. Because then at least you feel productive. Like, yeah.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker A: Practice, class, eat, study hall, lift. Or practice. You know, lift, practice, whatever.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker C: Their phones, when they come to study hall, so we take them, but they find ways around it. You know, they have their.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker C: On their laptops and whatever. So it's like they're still doing stupid stuff, but I just. I watch them do it in class. Like, I'm in. I'm teaching class, and they're just scrolling, and I'm like, oh, this is so frustrating. So, yeah, I mean, I would throw them all away if I could. But you. You are very, very lucky that you didn't have it. And so am I, because, yeah, it was so distracting. And it does. It is. Is anytime anybody. And we're all guilty of it, too, right? You know, you're sitting in the waiting room at a doctor's office. You're sitting in the car Waiting for, you know, picking up your kids, whatever it may be. We're just scrolling because it's there. We don't know how to just sit with ourselves anymore. So I, I get it. Like, I complain about them, but I'm just as bad. It's just I, I'm not pulling it out in a class or, you know, trying to, you know, maybe you should.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker A: Everyone starts doing it, you should just pull your phone out up front and just start scrolling.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker C: All right, class, I'm gonna scroll for a little bit.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker B: Yeah, here's, here's a little cheat code for the parents and the students who are listening to this. I didn't figure this out until I was a junior. I think the 8, the 8am class is a cheat code.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker B: Take the morning class. You're going to get up. It's never going to interfere with anything that you do athletically. Never. And you'll get your classwork out of the way and then you don't have those funky pockets of time. If you take an 8 and a 9:30.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker B: Now, you're done with class at 10:45.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker C: Yep.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker B: You can go and eat and you can go on with the rest of your day. And you have like this expanded window of time that's easier to be productive in because it's easy to look at that hour and a half window and be like, well, I can't really get much done right. You know, by the time I walk down to the McCann center and I go into study hall, like, I'm only going to be able to get 45 minutes in. Like, I'm just not gonna go. But so those out there listening, if there's student athletes who are in college who are listening to this, take the 8 o' clock class. I promise you getting up at 7:45 or 7:30 or whatever, whatever you do, it's the least of your concerns. Your day will be started. You so much more flexible with your time and the, you know, if you're, if you're that athlete who. The sports is super, super, super important to you. Like, it opens up the rest of the day. You can go to the training room, you can go to the physio, you can go meet with a nutritionist, you can go get your extra work in, you know, basketball player, go get shots up, you want to get swings in. Like whatever it is, it just, it frees up so much time.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker C: Yep. And if you have, if you're a part of a team that has a morning practice and you can't take a class, we have a Bunch of teams that practice in the morning, take the classes right after that. Right. And I will tell you, when we changed our football practice schedule to, they used to practice when I first started, they practiced in the afternoon, like 4 to 6 or 3, 30 to 5 or something like that. We switched to a morning practice probably 15, 16 years ago. And the amount of missed classes is so much less because they're up already. They're up. So they're far less likely to go back to their rooms and mess around and then miss their next class. So I think it makes a big difference for anybody to start your day again. You don't have to get up at 5 in the morning, but if you can start your day at a normal time and a normal time that you're going to end up having to work at at some point in your life, it is so, so, so much more beneficial. I think that is a really great tip.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker A: We didn't even discuss the training room as part of your daily routine. If you have to get into it.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker C: There'S a whole other athletic training room.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker A: A whole other bag of issues of time management.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker C: Yeah. Sports medicine. If you got treatment, if you have rehab, like, all of that takes up time, too. So it's just another thing.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker C: If you can stay healthy.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker B: I loved it. Sick of seeing my face.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker A: I saw her two years ago.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker B: So. Well, Alyssa, this has been absolutely fantastic, and I'm really glad that we were able to convince you to come on and talk about this. I think this is a side of the. I think this is a side of the story as a student athlete that probably doesn't get enough coverage. And, yeah, it's so important for people to understand what the student portion of the student athlete equation looks like. And, yeah, you know, like I said at the top, you were vital in both of our lives.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker B: And really, just, really just happy to see your face and have you on the podcast.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker C: Thank you so much. I. I adore the both of you. Always have, always will. I'm just so happy that you're doing this and you're sharing your knowledge and your expertise with so many people. It's such an important topic. And, you know, I'm just really honored that you asked me to be a part of it. Thank you.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker B: We would. We would not ask anybody else, I can tell you that.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker B: Well, thank you again so much.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker B: Hopefully, I'm going to be up on campus, or one of us, maybe both of us will be up on campus this spring, so we'll be sure to.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker C: That would be really nice.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker B: All right. We'll go Red Fox at Marist University now.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker C: That's right.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker B: We upgraded.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker C: We did.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker B: Well, thank you again.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker C: You're welcome.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker B: We really appreciate it and hopefully we'll talk soon.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker C: Okay, Sounds good.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker B: Thanks, everybody.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker C: Bye Bye.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker B: Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.