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Episode 60: APS Recruits · From the Coach's Mouth

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I think how you carry yourself on and off the field, what kind
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of teammate you are, how you talk, how you walk, are you?
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If you want to play in college, your lessons and your team
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practices aren't going to get it done.
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What are you doing outside of those things to be better than
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girl X or girl Y? Whether you live.
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Northeast, West or South? The best basket info comes from
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the coach's mouth. Welcome to the From the Coach's
0:41
Mouth podcast with your host Jay Bolden and Ken Krause.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the From the Coaches Mouth
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podcast. Ken Krause.
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Here is always with my good buddy Jay Bolden.
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Jay, how are you doing this morning?
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Ah, doing well, Ken, How about yourself?
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I'm doing all right. You know, it looks like we're
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going to have a little bit of nice weather coming up, so
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that'll be nice and sunny and warm and, you know, life is
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good. Are you outside yet or are you
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still inside? Still inside, long story, but
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basically the field I normally use is going under renovations.
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I don't even know if I'm going to be able to use it anymore
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because I usually just go out there and squat on it so.
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But yeah, yeah. You know, but we'll see.
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You know, if not, there's a second field out there that I
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could go on. I think they did a little work
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on that one too. Well, that's good.
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Yeah, I've been, I don't know about you, but I'm watching on a
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lot of the tournament stuff right now.
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It's it's been some really crazy softball going on, especially in
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the SEC. So I can't even imagine what the
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the World Series is going to be when the regionals and all that
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stuff get started. So really excited to see what
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happens here as as these tournaments wind down, it's
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going to be really exciting. How about you?
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Have you watched any? I have not had a chance to watch
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anything yet out doing lessons. And it's kind of one of those
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weird things where there it's not a compressed schedule.
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It's like I'll have a couple of lessons and 1/2 hour off and
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then a couple more lessons and also gets extended out through
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the night. But I did see that Tennessee
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lost in the SEC tournament. That was a surprise.
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It is a surprise. There's going to be a lot of
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surprises this year. I have a really funny feeling
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where I see a lot of surprises. But yeah, after, after we're
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done recording this podcast, I today I, I plan on plopping my
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butt down on that couch and just scrolling through all the ESPN
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pluses and just trying to catch as many tournaments as as many
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conferences as I can. So I hopefully I'll see some of
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my kids throwing today in, in some of those.
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And I'm, I'm super excited about that, really excited to watch
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what how this, this one unfolds. It's going to be crazy.
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Yeah, looks like it might be quite a while here.
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Of course, by the time this comes out, all those outcomes
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will already be decided so people can see just how good we
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were predicting. Absolutely.
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Enough of us rambling on today, Ken, Why don't you give some
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information on these two amazing guests that we have for
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everybody to listen to today, man, Give them.
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Give them a little information about them.
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All right. Well, today's guests are
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particularly timely because as we finish up the high school
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season and had full bore into the travel ball season, their
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area of expertise is particularly important to many
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of our listeners. One of them holds the
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distinction of being a Women's College World Series champion,
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with the 2005 Michigan Wolverines the only team out of
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the old Big 10 Conference to ever accomplish that feat.
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In addition to that big win, her teams also won two Big 10
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Tournament titles, two Big 10 season championships and played
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in three straight Super Regionals during the time.
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The Yorba Linda, CA native received All Big 10 Tournament
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honors in 2006, was named to the All Big 10 Second Team in 2007
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and was team captain in 2007 as well.
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The hard hitting catcher also holds the distinction of hitting
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the 500th home run in Michigan history.
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After her playing career, she went on to serve as a volunteer
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assistant at Michigan and as an assistant coach at the
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University of Illinois, Chicago and Indiana University before
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founding Premier Softball in Michigan, a high level training
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facility for softball players of all ages, before leaving for her
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latest business venture. Our 2nd guest has both coached
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in and been Director of Operations for the Firecrackers
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organization out of Michigan, where he is currently waiting to
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start the 2026 season with his 18 U team, at least according to
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the Internet. I guess we'll find out if that's
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true in a few minutes. No stranger to the business
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world, in his day job he has served as an executive for
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various transportation and logistics companies, most
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recently as CEO and Founder of Freight Saver, which is now part
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of Echo Global Logistics. He is now applying that
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expertise in technology and the softball world to help student
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athletes find the right softball fit for themselves at the
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collegiate level and take the steps needed to fulfill their
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dreams of playing at the next level.
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Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm From the Coach's
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Mouth podcast. Welcome to APS Recruiting
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founder and owner Ryan Rennie and president Tiffany Deering.
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Welcome. Hello.
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Hello. Thanks so much for having us.
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We're excited to be here. Oh.
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We're excited to have you. Like I say, you know, we were
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talking about end of the season for the college, but it's also
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coming down into the season for high school going to travel
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ball. You got the juniors and seniors
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in particular, you know a lot of them on edge trying to figure
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out what their next softball move is going to be, so this is
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a great opportunity. It sure is.
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Let me, can I make a, a correction on one of one of the
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statements that you said it said I coached at or you said I
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coached at Illinois, Chicago. I think Google got it wrong.
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I I never coached in college. Interesting.
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No, I think that would be Marx. She was a catcher at Michigan.
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I think she graduated 2000 and. Six.
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Well, there you go. Just like Abraham Lincoln said,
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right? You can't believe everything you
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see on the Internet. I'm not sure I said that, but
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OK. All right, so I guess, you know,
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we want to start the way we always start in just kind of
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find out how the two of you got started in fast pitched
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softball. Well, you know, I'll, I'll start
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for myself. I spent many years coaching
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football. I had three older sons and when
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we had our daughter and it just happened at the right time and I
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transitioned into softball in Southern California.
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I, I, I lived in Huntington Beach, where softball is kind of
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a, a big deal and started coaching, fell in love with the
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game, stopped watching baseball for the most part.
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And that's how I got into it. You know, I have, this is my
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25th year of coaching, 11th in softball, but that was the
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transition that I had. Tiffany, how about you?
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So I started, like a lot of kids, with my brother playing
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T-ball. Mine's kind of funny.
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I hit the ball, threw my helmet off and ran to third base, and
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then I quit. Then I started cheerleading.
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Then I was a cheerleader, and honestly, I was tired of
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cheering for other people. My dad had a background in
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baseball. I played a little bit in the
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minor leagues. He encouraged me to try a Little
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League softball, so I did. I was one of the bigger kids on
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the team and I realized I could hit the ball pretty far, but I
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needed to keep my helmet on when I was running and I needed to
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run to first base third. But then I after that, after
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that transition, I fell in love with it.
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It just stuck. Over time, it just became the
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thing I was willing to outwork people for, so I stuck with it.
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That's my story. Good.
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Well, did you play any other sports when you growing up as
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well? Yeah, I played multiple sports
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when I was younger. I think that actually helped me
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a lot, maybe unknowingly avoid injuries.
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I encourage girls to play as many sports as possible before
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they specialized. I think it provided me with some
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balance, just with life and different planes of movement.
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But eventually softball became the focus, as it has to be at
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some point, because that's where I saw the biggest opportunity.
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That's the sport I had the most success and so of course I'm
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going to do what I like and that I'm good at.
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Yeah, Ryan, how about you did? Were you a sports guy growing
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up? What did?
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What did you play? Yeah, I played baseball,
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basketball, football. I was constantly busy with
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sports, loved it. Really never grew up to have the
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size to play football at the next level, some smaller schools
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and things like that. Back when I went to school, none
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of this recruiting was, you know, around and I just really
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enjoyed my time playing sports, my family background, my mom and
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dad spent 27 years at my high school running kind of the
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booster clubs and building the programs.
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And after I left, they stayed another 20 plus years.
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And so I kind of was driven to give back some way into the
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sport. That's kind of a family thing.
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And then when I started having kids that it was an easy
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transition for me to go get that competitive juices going and to
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be part of the sport. Played a ton of men's league
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softball in in Huntington Beach, you know, in Southern
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California, In fact, six days a week.
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You know, we were playing down at all the different parks there
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in Santa Fe Springs, in Yorba Linda and Orange County.
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So coaching just seemed to be an easy transition and a way for me
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to give back to my community and from there it's just been a a
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kind of a passion of mine all. Right.
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So you said Yorba Linda. I think Tiffany, you're from
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Yorba Linda. Did you guys know each other
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when you were growing up or met later on?
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We didn't. Know it's a crazy actually story
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How I Met Tiffany. So when I relocated the
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Michigan, we relocated my family from Huntington Beach to
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Michigan. My daughter was looking for a
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place to play travel ball, right?
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We were transitioning and they're only a few really good
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opportunities here in the state of Michigan in terms of
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organizations at the time. And my daughter got off a plane.
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I picked her up from the airport and she was subbing for a team
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that needed a player for that weekend.
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And Tiffany just happened to be a parent on that team.
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And my daughter walked up and Tiffany knew she was nude, knew
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she didn't know anyone, took her aside and kind of helped her
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with that transition. And then that's when her and I
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started to develop a friendship. And ultimately I ended up
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coaching her daughter for a year.
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She played up on that team two years.
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And during that time is when Tiffany and I got together and I
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said, hey, I can't handle this type of softball in Michigan.
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We don't practice enough. We don't have enough outdoor
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time like we had in in Southern California.
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So I called Tony Rico and said, hey, I want to bring
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firecrackers to Michigan. Is that something we can do?
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And from there we went on and we've built 16 teams here in
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Michigan and we have our own building and all that good stuff
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so that it's a unique story. It's like right off the plane,
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right to the park. And then she did a great job
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helping my daughter with that transition.
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She also then was her hitting coach for the last six years and
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really helped her develop into a high level hitter that's just
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having a fantastic final season in high school.
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So we continue that relationship as a parent.
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Customer 2. 100th. Oh, nice.
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Congratulations. That's awesome.
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So thank, yeah, appreciate. It just goes to show you never
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know what's going to happen, you know, you go to sub somewhere
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just to get a little extra time in and it ends up being life
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changing. Yeah, for sure all.
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Right. So Tiffany, how did a nice
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California girl like you end up playing for Coach Hutch in
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Michigan? Oh geez, I get that question a
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lot. Oh, it's typical path.
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I know for me, I don't, I don't think when I was growing up I
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was looking necessarily for comfort.
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I was looking for the best environment that felt it felt
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like I was with good people and it felt like I was at home.
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I played for some competitive teams in Southern California and
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my I think I was recruited in Colorado at the Sparkler after I
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struck out multiple times. But my coaches, my travel ball
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coaches were instrumental. They, they told me to trust my
12:05
gut. And so when I had the
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opportunity to take one of my official visits, the first one
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was to Michigan. My dad wanted me to see the big
12:12
house, see what it was like a big football traditional school.
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And I decided I wasn't going to go with my parents on the trip.
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They weren't going to come with me.
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I was going to be my thing. So I flew out to Michigan.
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Jen Brundage picked me up and you just had a good feeling
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overall. The vibe, the energy was great.
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Immediately, the coaches and the team, they made it feel like
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home to me. I called my parents.
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I told them I was going to commit to Michigan before taking
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any of my other trips. My dad was like, go blue, baby,
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go blue. And my mom still holds a grudge.
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But that the culture was really what got me.
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It's it. It is and it remains being an
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excellent culture. But like I said, Roy Barnes and
12:53
John Gough from Hot Stuff in Southern California told me to
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trust my gut and it felt right. And I think I think it was a
12:59
good decision. So I had a good experience.
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So what was it like playing for Hutch?
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I mean, you know, was she as tough as she always appeared to
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be? She still appears to be tough.
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If that phone number my phone, I get a little nervous, little
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butterflies inside in the best way.
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We're friends. We're good friends.
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Now. The thing with Hutch is she just
13:18
holds you accountable. You you learn to take ownership
13:21
of your decisions. You understand that the game's
13:24
bigger than you. She really instilled that and it
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and she really instilled us it. It's not about us.
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It's about what was before us and what's going to come after
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us. If you bought into that, you'd
13:34
be all right. So I ended up being OK.
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It might have taken a little bit while, but she made the game.
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I think she did a good job of making the game harder than it
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was, so that when we're playing in the game, it was easy or
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normal. She continuously challenged us
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off the field and on the field, but just to become better
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humans. So she was instrumental in my in
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my growth into adulthood. Looking back, I think that
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environment really prepares you for life outside of softball.
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But yes, she was challenging. She's tough.
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When the sunglasses come off, you know you better pay.
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Yeah. Well, and you know, the few
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encounters I've had with her along the way, though, she also
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has this very sly, kind of dry sense of humor.
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I remember being at a coach's clinic and she was talking and
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she was explaining that you need to get your players to do this.
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If they want to play in college, you need to do this, and they
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need to do that. They need to be prepared for
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this when they walk in the door. And then she goes.
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And if you have any of those, please call me because I need
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some of those right now. That's funny.
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That's typical, Hutch. Very.
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Self aware. So Ryan, how about you?
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How did you end up moving from being a coach for the
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Firecrackers to director of the organization?
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Well, I'm a regional director, so as I've developed the the
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teams here in Michigan, Coach Rico and the the group there
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contacted me and they love what we were doing in the culture
14:57
that we were creating with our teams.
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I've tried to keep the teams at a certain level around 16 to 20
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teams. I didn't want to continue to add
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teams that just I made it bigger and bigger and bigger.
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I really wanted to try to have make an impact on the girls.
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And I've been very fortunate in my professional life.
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I've been extremely successful and I had a business partner
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that allowed me the freedom and opportunities to provide things
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for the kids that maybe wasn't there.
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So we tried to build a culture and they came to me and said,
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Hey, we like what you're doing. We want you to continue to to to
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grow the the Midwest brand for us and and continue to grow that
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Michigan organization for Firecrackers Michigan and that
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that's what I've done and and I can't not stay busy, right.
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So I have a regular job that keeps me pretty busy running our
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company at but I love the interaction with the other
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coaches and all the other players and seeing the success
15:54
of the teams that we have. We've had a lot of teams do very
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well and and we're starting to see a lot of our players second
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group through, you know, most of the players have all went to
16:03
college and that's really what I'm trying to do or make an
16:07
impact here with the Firecrackers Michigan group.
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Is it only Michigan or do you cover other areas?
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I could, you know, I've had opportunities and I've talked to
16:16
some coaches in Ohio and Indiana, you know, about wanting
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to come and be part of the firecrackers.
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I just kind of want to have that Firecrackers Michigan brand as
16:26
you know, kind of what I've built and, and I'm OK with
16:29
16/18/20 teams. I think Max wise for our
16:33
buildings and our space, that's that's perfect.
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So that's, that's kind of the goal I've, I've had.
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Maybe as I get closer to retirement from my regular job,
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you know, maybe I'll, I'll increase that or, or make that
16:46
an effort. But I haven't looked at
16:48
exploring outside of Michigan yet.
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Ryan and Tiffany, I want to ask you guys here too, what got you
16:53
guys interested in starting the APS recruits?
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Like what, what market need did you guys see that that wasn't
17:00
there? This one's for Ryan.
17:03
Yeah. So like I said, our first group
17:06
of players came in, they were a 16 new team that were coming
17:09
through and Firecrackers obviously gave us access to the
17:13
other platforms. And I started my team probably
17:17
earlier on those platforms. And as we went through the
17:20
recruiting process the last five years and I've got to see how
17:23
those platforms worked, I become frustrated with the just the
17:28
slowness and the inefficiency of the product that I figured there
17:33
had to be a better way. And what really happened for me
17:37
is when my team became sophomores and we got really
17:40
into the recruiting process, I started having a lot more
17:44
interaction with coaches. You know, we were talking about
17:47
players and I like to ask questions.
17:49
I don't just, you know, I'm just not talking and promoting
17:52
players. I'm asking a lot of questions of
17:54
coaches. And as I was at camps and
17:56
interacting with them, I started asking them questions about
17:59
third party platforms and emails because I felt the effort that
18:03
my team was putting into the recruiting process was really
18:07
good. And I know as an example, my
18:10
daughter, I've sat with her for five hours at this table sending
18:13
out emails one after another and, and doing that.
18:16
And 9 out of 10 coaches kept telling me, well, we delete
18:21
those emails. I'm like, well, what do you mean
18:23
you delete the emails? And they say, well, when we see
18:25
it come from a third party provider, we just assume it's
18:29
spam. Now we know that's just an
18:31
average, but it was a reoccurring average.
18:34
And I said, well, what do you mean?
18:35
I've, I've spent five hours, you know, with my daughter sending
18:38
you emails. They just get deleted and
18:40
they're like, yeah, we delete a lot of them.
18:42
So that got me thinking and my business partners and I had
18:47
owned a company called Athletic Placement Services back in 2008
18:51
during the financial crisis. And back then, technology wasn't
18:55
where it was at today. And we were doing a lot of
18:58
things in soccer and baseball that were centered around long
19:02
form, right? You know, we were doing, we were
19:04
creating videos and disc and doing a lot of that stuff.
19:08
And parents weren't really looking to pay $2700 back then,
19:12
right? It was a model that wasn't
19:14
sustainable. So as I use technology in the
19:18
third party logistics world and how I've helped large companies
19:21
across the country save hundreds of millions of dollars in
19:24
transportation costs, I figured how can I go to my team and and
19:29
figure this out? And that's how we started it.
19:31
We took the APS name from 2008. As I build it, I consulted with
19:37
Tiffany and said this is where we're at.
19:39
This is what we're doing. I consulted with a lot of
19:41
coaches, obviously, I consulted with contacts I had inside the
19:46
firecracker organization and other organizations around here,
19:50
and that's how I build it really out of frustration for my kids.
19:54
I think there was a huge disconnect that Ryan saw and
19:58
when he came to me and was explaining what he was building,
20:01
I was just in shock. I couldn't, I couldn't wrap my
20:05
head around it because it's just so complex.
20:07
I'm like, how do you even do all that?
20:09
How are you? How are you doing this?
20:11
This, this seems fake. This is so great.
20:13
This is everybody needs this. There's such a demand for this.
20:16
This is the solution to such a big problem.
20:18
So I, I'm really, we're really excited about it and it's.
20:22
The first thing we did was really figure out how do we make
20:25
the emails personal to the coaches so they weren't coming
20:28
from a third party. So we went and we decided to use
20:30
Gmail as the platform. And so our system integrates
20:34
Gmail. So whenever a player sends an
20:36
e-mail to a coach, it comes directly from their personal
20:40
e-mail. What we're finding in that is
20:42
we're getting really high engagement rates or open rates
20:45
when you know, and it's a much, more, much larger activity rate
20:49
than what we were getting from using the other platform for the
20:52
last five years in terms of percentages.
20:55
And that's, you know, when you're in sales or when you're
20:57
building businesses, you want your sales team to have better
21:00
results. And we're seeing that every day
21:03
now with the way we integrated Gmail, because coaches are
21:07
seeing it come directly from the player, not some service.
21:10
Yeah, and you get, although you have to be careful with that
21:12
because the next thing you know, the people, all the Nigerian
21:14
Princess are going to be trying to get onto your system so they
21:17
can send out their emails. Well, hopefully not.
21:21
We're we're pretty active and I think the other thing that that
21:24
we wanted to do is really be focused on girl athletics,
21:27
right? And we wanted our focus to be
21:30
primarily softball. This is what we're both
21:32
passionate about and how can we build a business that helps and
21:36
is really good about promoting softball.
21:39
The other frustrating part that I had and it really drove me to
21:43
create APS was coaches and information being wrong.
21:47
When you're part of a big company like the other providers
21:50
that have 17 sports, it's really hard to stay on top of the all
21:54
these constant changes in the salt and it changes.
21:57
There's a lot our variance report every week we get things
22:00
we have to look at. I was sitting with the Drexel
22:03
coach and she was a new coach and she was still getting emails
22:06
to the old e-mail address six months later from the coach.
22:09
It was, you know, let go in March last year.
22:11
That became a point how do we get really good at validating
22:14
coaches information? Is it perfect?
22:16
No, but we're we, we build a system to monitor it constantly
22:20
and. Right now, I saw a thing this
22:22
morning and I thought it was a funny way to put it.
22:24
This time of the year, the coaching portals now opened up.
22:29
Yes, it is. I think we.
22:30
Averaged last summer about 250 what we call variances a week.
22:36
Items that we had to look at regarding coaches and their
22:39
information was about 250 a week.
22:42
Wow, Tiffany. Was it difficult for you to give
22:44
up your training business to take on this new venture?
22:48
Well. My husband relocated to Arizona
22:51
for his job, so I really had no choice, but I couldn't be more
22:56
grateful to be getting the opportunity.
22:57
But I actually just gifted it to a former client of mine who was
23:03
an instructor at the facility. So I felt really comfortable and
23:05
confident that she would continue growing what I spent so
23:09
much time, energy and effort to develop and grow.
23:12
So no, I see it as more of a season and a chapter and I, I'm
23:16
still blessed to have the opportunity to be involved in
23:18
softball, just a little bit less physically.
23:20
It was sad to to say goodbye a lot of the close relationships
23:24
that I have built, but ultimately these relationships
23:28
that we're building now are new ones and it's a new season and
23:31
it's an exciting season. So I'm happy with where how I
23:34
left it and I'm excited about the new changes happening now.
23:38
So it's always fun to have new. Challenges.
23:40
Yeah. So Tiffany.
23:40
I want to ask you how has recruiting changed since you
23:43
were in high school and had to go through it?
23:45
And then in what ways is it kind of still similar?
23:48
I think it's. A lot different now the great
23:51
the game has grown so much in popularity.
23:53
It's the fastest growing sport. I think it's huge social media
23:57
is so much different now I mean we didn't have social media.
24:00
There's the transfer portal now there's earlier commitment
24:02
timelines. Those keep changing.
24:04
So I think, I think all that part of it has changed and
24:07
there's just so many girls and so many tournaments and it's
24:11
it's so saturated. But I think what what's remained
24:15
the same is what the coaches want.
24:18
You know, the coaches ultimately want want to win and they but
24:20
they want reliable, consistent, coachable athletes who maintain
24:25
quality character and are not going to put a bad name on their
24:28
program or their brand. The target market is still the
24:31
same, though, I think. And I think if girls understood
24:34
that the coaches are looking for character and athletic kids.
24:39
Communication is just so much different, I think, and it's so
24:42
much more public. I feel.
24:44
I feel blessed because I was maybe shielded from all that
24:47
because I, I can't imagine the pressures that these young
24:49
ladies feel and they face and the overwhelm and the constant
24:53
comparisons. So I'm grateful that I was, I
24:57
had good coaches growing up and I was at the right place at the
24:59
right time. And I was, it kind of fell on my
25:02
lap, so I didn't have to struggle with all those
25:04
pressures that all these girls are facing.
25:06
Yeah, well. That's the yeah.
25:08
That's, you know, definitely. Different, especially with
25:10
social media, I think, I don't know if this is true.
25:13
You guys can probably speak to this better than I can, but I've
25:15
heard that X or Twitter is really important for
25:20
communicating with coaches now, you know, so it's much more of a
25:23
direct kind of communication. The old days of sending out
25:26
videos and and that kind of thing, that's gone.
25:30
Yeah, for sure. We that's why the second part of
25:34
that identifying how we can make it easier for players is we
25:37
integrate X into the platform. So we, we've met with a lot of
25:41
parents that they really don't want their kids on, especially
25:44
at the, the freshman and sophomore or even 8th grade
25:48
level players just getting on X and scrolling.
25:51
And, you know, as a coach, trying to tag and do things in
25:54
the past has been, you know, it's just time consuming.
25:57
So we integrated X into the platform so players are able to
26:00
balk, tag and do their post and manage their YouTube all in one
26:04
location. And we recently just released
26:08
the direct messaging. So right from there, they can
26:10
send a direct message with their schedule or they can introduce
26:13
themselves there or through the e-mail process.
26:16
But you're right, we wanted to incorporate those three things
26:19
along with me trying to find what are the best camps, right?
26:23
Like where are the best camps? You know what camps are going
26:25
on. And so Riser was our first, you
26:28
know, integration where we bring in all the Riser camps into the
26:31
platform so a girl can look and say, OK, I'm going to be here.
26:33
There's a camp going on. And we're constantly looking to
26:36
bring those camps into the camp platform.
26:38
So again, how do we build a hub that allows the players to
26:42
manage this crazy process that Tiffany's talking about?
26:46
I mean, it's, you know, I just went through it with a group of
26:49
girls and, you know, I dealt with them constantly talking
26:52
about the recruiting stress. And what I found is a lot of
26:56
girls talked about wanting to be recruited and but a lot of girls
27:00
didn't want to put in the work to do it or to do those
27:03
communications. And we wanted to make it easier
27:05
for them, right? Even with the other platforms
27:08
that, that are out there that most organizations have, you're,
27:12
they're still extremely time consuming and you still have to
27:15
leave the platform to go to your popular platform of X and your
27:20
other platform of YouTube to get your videos posted and get your
27:24
links and make your tweets and do all that stuff.
27:28
So it's he's completely cut out so much time from the the
27:32
process and, and made it. So I think, I think we really
27:35
just want the girls to be more engaged in it.
27:37
You know, parents are usually the ones that have been doing it
27:40
because it's just so much to manage with all the different
27:43
spreadsheets and time and hours. And you, you can't even imagine
27:47
how how much time it takes to do get all the e-mail addresses and
27:51
then then go to your regular e-mail and send them so you know
27:54
that they're getting through and then go to your Twitter platform
27:57
and make sure you're posting a couple times a week and make
27:59
sure you're getting video content.
28:01
So he's kind of cut out the the middle man or bridge the gap
28:04
between all those different platforms and sites that you
28:08
would typically have to go to to find your information and get
28:11
your information delivered. So that's.
28:13
What's made it really nice? OK, so other.
28:16
Than the integration portion of it.
28:17
And here's the shameless self promotion part of all of this.
28:20
What makes the APS recruits platform different than other
28:24
services? I think.
28:25
There's two things that makes it different than the other
28:28
services. 1st, as I've coached kids and you guys can probably
28:32
say the same thing. Every kid develops their list
28:35
based on what they see on TV. And most parents all think their
28:40
kids have the ability to play at that level.
28:42
And we know that level that we talked about at the beginning of
28:44
the of the podcast is very hard for players to get to.
28:48
So the first thing we did is we we tried to take the information
28:53
that we have regarding their metrics, a ton of information.
28:56
We build an algorithm that provides them with a target
28:59
list, the list of schools that allows them to have a starting
29:03
point to start looking at schools, realistic schools,
29:07
right Second, we brought in rosters.
29:09
We take rosters from the school year over year rosters and we
29:12
look at where these coaches are recruiting from, what areas are
29:16
they traditionally getting their players from.
29:18
So as an example, with the Michigan players looking to go
29:21
to Arizona, while I'm sorry, 92% of the Arizona team comes from
29:25
California, Arizona, and I always get this with Michigan,
29:29
Michigan right now is 33% of their rosters from Michigan.
29:34
So how are you going to be a Michigan player and you're one
29:37
of four or example percentage wise?
29:41
So we bring that in. Then we bring in the transfer
29:45
portal so parents can see which teams are active in the portal,
29:48
how many are they losing? How many are they bringing in?
29:50
And is that a school you really want to be looking at and the
29:53
academics. And then the next thing is, as
29:56
an example, one of our Firecracker players last night
29:59
sent out 125 emails in less than 10 minutes.
30:02
Now I've been told, well, that doesn't seem right.
30:05
You know, how's a player be able to do that?
30:07
The way we built the platform, as younger players are reaching
30:11
bigger target schools, they're able to send out messages much
30:16
quicker than say the our competitors.
30:19
You know, our competitors, we've time between 3:00 and 4:00
30:22
minutes per e-mail. Rs system allows them to send
30:25
individualized emails out quickly and personal, building a
30:29
personal relationship with them. Just like tagging, a player can
30:33
have their videos from Game Changer on their phone and
30:36
YouTube before they get to the parking lot.
30:38
No, no other platforms doing that.
30:41
And I think what we found in the recruiting process is, is these
30:45
girls, you know, they'll have a great tournament, they'll get
30:48
home, they won't do anything in recruiting, and then it's
30:51
Monday, then it's Wednesday. The parents doing it, our system
30:54
allows them to be engaged. And then lastly, we build an
30:58
analytics background around it. We want kids to know what's
31:01
working when they're posting, how many views are they getting,
31:04
what content are they posting, and how is that content
31:08
impacting their engagement rate. So we build our own internal
31:12
engagement rate, we track opens, we track views, and we build our
31:17
own algorithm around that. So we'd really tried to build a
31:21
system for players and parents so they can have a consistent
31:25
view of what they're recruiting and their efforts are doing, I
31:28
think to add. On that, Ryan didn't mention
31:30
just recently the coach's side of the the platform has opened
31:35
up and it's it's going to be a game changer for coaches and
31:38
organizations as a whole because they can now see what their
31:41
players are doing. They can see the engagement
31:43
rates. They can reach out to college
31:45
coaches on the on the students behalf.
31:46
They all their lists, all the players potential target lists
31:50
are on there so they can view it.
31:51
So say for instance, a certain coaches to be at that game or is
31:55
that that game that coach could easily just pull up the kids
31:57
list and see, okay, is are any of my kids interested in this
32:01
school that just showed up to our game that I need to go
32:03
communicate to these coaches about.
32:05
So the coaches side of the platform is actually going to be
32:09
great for these organizations. So that's where.
32:12
Like the travel coaches so that they can help with the with the
32:16
journey. Yeah.
32:17
So we build. It with a organizational down to
32:20
the coach level. So an organization, maybe they
32:23
have someone that overseas their entire recruiting or all their
32:25
kids, they're able to look at all their kids inside the
32:28
platform and then a coach can obviously only focus in on their
32:31
team. But I took the same idea, being
32:34
a coach and sitting here and trying to e-mail on my girls
32:37
behalf. It was costing me a lot of time
32:40
on those weekends as well. And I wanted to basically in
32:44
phase two of the development is, you know, complete the
32:47
organization and coaches portal, which I'm really excited about.
32:51
That's how I know what the girl did last night, right?
32:54
I was able to see this morning how she did.
32:56
She had a 44% engagement rate or open rate on emails through
33:00
lunchtime before we got on. So, you know, that's not a bad
33:04
first day. You know, obviously she's a
33:06
pitcher, so maybe they're looking a little harder at that,
33:08
but that's kind of what we built just again, and it's
33:11
data-driven. So we get information back to
33:13
the organization and the coach, what schools are looking, what
33:16
players are having success, and then we can look at that content
33:20
and see, OK, what messaging is really driving with these
33:23
coaches. And then finally, the third
33:25
portion that's being built over the summer is the college
33:29
coaches portal, which will be significantly different than
33:32
anything they've seen from a college coach.
33:34
Obviously, we made that last because we need to grow volume
33:38
inside our database. So when coaches go in there, we
33:41
have thousands of players. Blue time out.
33:48
Hey Jay, on a scale of 1 to 10, how important do you think brush
33:51
contact is for pictures? It's.
33:54
Pretty high up there Ken, probably attend since it's hard
33:57
to get maximum speed and or accuracy without it.
33:59
Yeah, I agree. But have you ever had a student
34:02
who struggled to get good light brush contact?
34:05
Sure. All the time, in fact,
34:08
especially when they've been taught hello elbow and are
34:11
trying to throw around their hips or they're sliding their
34:13
hips out of the way doing that crazy ninja move.
34:16
So what do you? Do when you run into this
34:18
situation, keep railing on them until they get it right?
34:21
I used to do. That a lot.
34:23
But then I learned about a product called Pitch Squeak,
34:26
Ken, Pitch Squeak. What's that?
34:28
It's a cool. Little armband with a squeaker
34:31
inside of it like a dog. Toy.
34:34
Yeah, kind of. So how does it work?
34:36
Well, you. Slip the armband onto the
34:39
pitcher's forearm and you set it so the squeaker is where the
34:42
brush contact should happen. Then when the pitcher goes into
34:45
release, she tries to get it to squeak like this.
34:49
If she makes it happen, she got brush.
34:52
If there's no sound, she knows immediately and can make a
34:55
correction. Wow.
34:57
Cool, so she gets immediate audible as well as tactile
35:01
feedback. Oh, there.
35:02
You go again, showing off with those big and technical words
35:06
again. But yeah, she can feel it and
35:08
hear it. Does it really?
35:10
Work you. Bet it does.
35:12
I use it with my students all the time and it helps them learn
35:15
how to get brush contacts pretty quickly if they practice with
35:19
it. Sounds neat.
35:20
Where can I get one? It's easy, Ken.
35:23
Just e-mail support@pitchsqueak.com and
35:27
Jason, the inventor of it and a Poly Girl certified pitching
35:31
coach himself, will ask you how many you want and send them
35:34
right out. I'll do that today.
35:36
Thanks, Jay. What's that address again?
35:39
You. Bet Ken it's support at pitch.
35:43
Squeak dot com one more time for those of you who are listening,
35:47
support@pitchsqueak.com and don't forget to mention in the
35:52
e-mail that you heard about it right here on From the Coach's
35:55
Mouth podcast and you'll receive 10% off.
35:59
Play ball. Ryan I.
36:01
Want to ask you a question because you kind of mentioned
36:03
this. You know what you said everybody
36:04
wants to be where you know, they're watching TV.
36:06
What happens, You know, if you have a parent and athlete that
36:10
feels they should be that D1 prospect, but the software and
36:13
then the the data basically just says no.
36:16
How does that happened and and how does that work through your
36:18
system? No, I mean.
36:20
I think if if a player, if a player puts in their true stats
36:24
and metrics, it's going to give them an honest feedback of where
36:27
they should look. Is it a higher D1?
36:29
Is it, you know, low D1, Is it D2?
36:32
Is it D3? My daughter, who is a lower D1
36:36
talent, she got 130 matches from her from D ones down to D3.
36:42
So she's able to go in and look at those schools.
36:45
But the system allows them to communicate with any schools.
36:49
I mean, they can search and select.
36:51
All we're doing with the match is taking the information as
36:55
coaches and people inside the business have told us what, you
37:00
know, coaches are looking for and giving them a starting
37:02
point. Every, every kid could be
37:05
different. I mean, we know of kids that
37:07
have succeeded at the highest level that really didn't have
37:09
the metrics on paper that that drove that.
37:13
But again, when you're a coach and you're engaging with parents
37:16
and, you know, I had a parent tell me last year that why am I
37:21
not getting his daughter recruited to Michigan?
37:24
She's better than some of the players on the team.
37:27
Now, this is a true parent statement.
37:30
And so we had to come up with some way to say, realistically,
37:35
parents, when you get on this is a good starting point.
37:38
That doesn't mean Michigan doesn't see someone like Tiffany
37:42
at Sparkler and they come up and it creates some interest or they
37:46
go to a camp and have good feelings after a camp.
37:49
But really, the list was designed as a way to give
37:52
parents a starting point of schools.
37:54
And keep in mind our system is looking at those rosters and
37:59
looking at what the needs may be for that year, right?
38:02
Our algorithm looks at what are the positions on the team on the
38:05
roster every year, what is the roster limit and what they may
38:09
need for a 2028. They're looking at that and
38:13
that's coming back as part of the the algorithm in the fit.
38:16
So really looking. To see if there's even any
38:18
opportunities there or if they're set of that position for
38:21
the next couple of years. Yeah, and that's.
38:23
Still an up in the air thing because people leave and come
38:26
down and that's changing every time we bring a new roster in
38:29
every year, right? But again, it's still better
38:31
than if I looked at my team five years ago when they went on the
38:36
other platform and I looked at every school.
38:39
The girl hearted. It was a girl that we would all
38:42
go on and watch in these the regionals and the World Series.
38:47
You know, they, they all, it's Alabama.
38:48
It's, it's every school. And so now if I showed you what
38:53
all these girls are still picking today, even though the
38:56
algorithm is giving them examples, we're still seeing a
39:00
lot of those big time schools being the ones checked off as a
39:03
three heart, right? I don't think it's.
39:05
Necessarily anything about the algorithm.
39:08
I think it's more of the the mentality that everybody's
39:11
learned of the D1 or bust mentality.
39:13
I don't think we can do away with it, but I think we can at
39:16
least provide them just a a few more schools to maybe to maybe
39:21
consider or to maybe they didn't even know we're out there.
39:24
But we can't really convince them that it's not D1 or bust.
39:27
Well. I mean, it's just like somebody
39:29
with academics deciding that it's either Harvard or nothing.
39:32
Very high level chance that it's going to be nothing.
39:34
Then you have to know what schools are out there and what's
39:37
a good fit. It's funny you.
39:38
Say that because that's part of this whole process of APS.
39:42
My daughter is a high academic and really focused her
39:47
recruiting only on Ivy League and Harvard and Penn.
39:51
And you know, that's where we spent all our time.
39:53
I think I went to Boston 9 times.
39:55
I mean, Coach Rome would know me if I walked up today, right?
39:59
So we kind of put all our eggs in that basket and we didn't
40:01
really expand. We didn't expand the universe
40:06
that there were other good academic schools outside of, of
40:09
that. And when it all came down to
40:12
Harvard telling her they went a different direction November her
40:15
junior year, she just decided, hey, I'm, I'm going to go to
40:18
college. And so she's going to Holy
40:19
Cross. But that was a perfect example
40:22
of when we sat down as, as building this with her and the
40:26
problems, we narrowed our focus just in one area, two months.
40:30
You got to have a safety. School.
40:31
Yep. Absolutely.
40:33
We didn't do well. We didn't do that.
40:35
So she's that wasn't her goal. Her safety was it was Harvard,
40:39
Penn or one of those schools are bust.
40:41
And so that's that was her process, which was fine.
40:45
She wasn't going to go just to college because another coach
40:48
came up and said, hey, we'd love you to come and play.
40:50
It was going to always be a school she wanted to go to.
40:52
But it really struck a nerve in that lots of these kids don't
40:58
focus in opportunities that could be there.
41:01
And it really, really hampers them when it comes down to, and
41:05
then they're just left with whatever, whatever coach shows
41:08
interest, right? You maybe have one or two
41:10
options. One of my players, you know,
41:13
ended up at a really good D1 school, but they expanded their
41:17
base to too many power for schools and she could have more
41:22
opportunities at other schools if their focus wasn't it at that
41:25
level. Well, I'd have to.
41:27
Imagine, too, that the portal is also complicating all of this.
41:30
Because you kind of have our hero, the rosters, everything is
41:33
set. This is what I'm targeting.
41:35
And then all of a sudden, the portal opens up and some of
41:38
those power for schools in particular, they're, they're
41:41
picking off say, OK, you know, this kids got two years of
41:44
experience. They look like, you know,
41:46
they're really high level. I'd rather take a proven
41:48
commodity rather than some high school senior that I don't even
41:52
know she's going to make the transition, you know, that she's
41:54
going to come here for two months, get homesick and want to
41:56
go back and live with her boyfriend.
41:58
Yeah. For sure.
42:00
And we've had some firecracker coaches calls where you know,
42:03
lots of schools they, they don't even recruit high school kids
42:06
anymore. They're just recruiting in the,
42:09
they're doing their recruiting in the, in the transfer portal.
42:13
So we thought about that and we said, well, how do we do that?
42:16
So when the transfer portals close, we go get the data and we
42:20
upload it. So when a parent's looking at a
42:22
school down at the bottom, it'll say 6IN and six out.
42:26
So you know that they're active in the portal.
42:28
And those may be questions you're able to ask the coaches
42:31
as a player or parent and see how you know how the portal is
42:35
impacting their recruiting and. It.
42:37
May be a school you steer away from because I always look at
42:40
this too if it if only 40% of the girls and I don't remember
42:44
what the stat is, but it was a real low stat like 30% of the
42:47
girls that go into the portal find new homes.
42:50
So there's a lot of girls that don't find new homes.
42:53
Well that leaves opportunities for incoming freshmen to go find
42:56
the right homes that have lost girls that went somewhere else.
43:00
It opens up a door somewhere else when someone well.
43:05
Do you also kind of flag it when you look at it and say, all
43:07
right, here's a school that the last three years we've had, you
43:11
know, 8 kids went into the portal after playing there a
43:14
year. You know that might not be a
43:16
good situation to be get into, no matter how attractive you
43:19
might think it is year over. Year the data will allow us to
43:23
be able to show that since this system, you know, was built last
43:26
year and just went live this year, we haven't pulled data
43:30
years when the since the portal started.
43:32
Maybe we should do that and we can obviously give that result
43:36
back to the the player or the parents or even the, you know,
43:39
the travel ball coach. At least throw a caution.
43:41
Up there to say, hey, just just so you know and you're going in
43:44
with eyes wide open, could be an issue with the coaching staff,
43:48
it could be an issue with the kids that have been recruited
43:50
there. Maybe they just couldn't get a
43:52
high enough level. But just be aware.
43:54
As a tech guy I just have to ask, is there AI involved in
43:58
this as well? Not.
44:00
I wouldn't say AI in terms of like we're using AI the the
44:05
algorithms using data based on the information that's put in by
44:09
the players and the, the information that we got from
44:12
different sources and how they, you know, showcase the players
44:16
metrics in terms of exit velocity, overhand velocity,
44:20
speed, all that stuff. That's not really AI driven.
44:23
That's our algorithm driven and we, we build it proprietary and
44:28
different things. You know, it has different
44:31
weight for different things. So I wouldn't say it's like
44:34
AIAI, you know, I'm not a tech guy.
44:36
Like all the way back in the back end.
44:39
But I know when a player signs up and they go through the
44:43
onboarding process and they answer all the questions, the
44:46
algorithms run and that's what generates the fits.
44:49
We don't have an AI bot that answers questions.
44:52
You know, if a question comes in, it's answered by the team.
44:55
Our variants report where we're going out and looking at all the
44:59
data from every coach, which we do on Sundays because it's so
45:02
expensive to, if we did it every day, it'd be too expensive.
45:05
So we run it every every Sunday and then during the week the
45:09
team processes those variances that may have some type of AI
45:14
algorithm that's helping us do that.
45:16
I, I don't get into the weeds on that.
45:17
I just know it works so I want to ask.
45:20
You, you guys a question too. Let's let's, I want to broaden
45:22
out a little bit here. What, what are some common
45:24
mistakes prospects make when they're contacting coaches?
45:27
I know you guys have this here, this app and all that stuff, but
45:30
what do you think some of the big mistakes are when when
45:32
prospects are are contacting coaches?
45:34
I'll start. I think first the books that I
45:37
read, because I get to see all the emails, you know, as APS, we
45:40
get to see it. And I think a lot of kids try to
45:44
say too much too early, try to really sell themselves an e-mail
45:48
#1 I think kids could take a longer approach and have a
45:53
better cadence in terms of how they're communicating with the
45:55
schools. I think the second thing, what I
45:58
noticed over the five years is the inactivity that comes with
46:02
recruiting. We e-mail, we go six weeks with
46:06
nothing, right? No X posts, no videos, no follow
46:10
up. So were you truly interested or
46:12
were you just really sending out an e-mail blast and trying to
46:15
just throw a fish? And in sales, when people don't
46:18
get a response fast, it typically leads to, well, no
46:21
one. They're not interested.
46:23
They're not reading what we know.
46:24
They can't communicate with you. So that's part of the analytics
46:27
platform. But I think Cadence is one of
46:29
the things that I see mostly kids.
46:32
Kids give up. Kids don't build a relationship.
46:35
Kids don't put the time or invest in the time to stay on
46:39
task. And I think before it was kind
46:42
of hard. It took a long time.
46:43
I that's kind of why we ended up here.
46:45
But I think kids could do a better job of building that
46:48
relationship from their freshman year to their junior year with
46:51
schools and coaches, I think, I think.
46:53
To touch on your point, when when most of the kids that are
46:56
on other platforms are, are actually doing the emails, it's
46:59
like they're doing it when it seems urgent because maybe their
47:03
coach has given them the nudge. Like you haven't been sending
47:05
your emails. So then they spend 7 hours and
47:08
just blast a bunch of generic emails to schools without doing
47:12
their due diligence and their research and actually saying,
47:14
hey, I want to start to create a relationship.
47:17
This is what I want to do. I'm going to take ownership of
47:19
it and actively be engaged. It's more of like, this is what
47:23
you have to do. You haven't done it, you're in
47:25
trouble. So it's, it's giving them the
47:28
opportunity. APS is giving them the
47:29
opportunity to, to start manageable engagement and, and
47:34
thoughtful engagement and, and give them some stuff to learn
47:37
about the school right in front of them and, and make it easily
47:41
to digest. You know, one thing that Ryan
47:43
didn't mention, and I don't maybe it's just common knowledge
47:46
is this APS was built for your phone, was built for an app on
47:51
your phone. So these kids are spending seven
47:54
plus hours on their phone, they're going to click on the
47:56
app, you know, and it's so easy to use from the app.
47:59
It's so user friendly that they can't not use it.
48:02
And they're not forced from a coach or a nagging, nagging
48:06
parent or family member to get on the desktop and start sending
48:09
your emails. And, and there's no dread
48:11
associated with it. It's more of a positive
48:13
experience. And it when, when they actually
48:16
see the engagement, it encourages them to continue
48:19
engaging. And the app also will send you
48:22
some nudges weekly and say, hey, you haven't reached out in two
48:25
weeks. It kind of reminds you without
48:27
having it to be a reminder from coach or mom or dad that makes
48:30
it. Convenient too, if they're on
48:32
the bus after a game coming home, they have a 45 minute
48:35
drive. Send out some emails, get some
48:37
information out there. Use that time productively
48:39
instead of watching TikTok videos.
48:44
It's funny because I use the the term from the the park to the
48:47
parking lot. You could actually do your
48:49
recruiting, that's how good it is.
48:51
But I think that that engagement thing is what we really want
48:55
these players to do. Like Tiffany mentioned earlier,
48:58
we have this ability inside the system for either a coach or a
49:02
player. As teams come up, the mom and
49:04
dad can say, oh, hey, Ohio State, Iowa, Northwestern, were
49:08
here watching your game today. Well, the parent can quickly
49:11
build that list for let's say the sparkler of all this, the
49:14
teams and the player as they're going to the airport in Colorado
49:18
can say, hey coach, thank you so much.
49:20
And it would be an individual e-mail to each of those coaches.
49:24
Thank you for coming by and watching our team play today.
49:27
Here's my highlights. Something like that.
49:30
They're able to do that much quicker and then they're able to
49:33
then view because every kid wants to know what's happening.
49:37
I sent them out their analytics tabs going to allow them to do
49:39
that. All right, so what's the?
49:40
Line between being persistent and being a pest?
49:44
Well, I. Think, you know, I'm using my
49:46
business background from our cadence in terms of of selling.
49:50
I think you know, when you have your, you know, depending on in
49:54
season, I think it's obviously going to be a lot more because
49:56
you're sending out your schedule each week.
49:59
You should be sending out, hey, we're at sparkler, we're in
50:01
power pool or we're at this tournament and I think offseason
50:05
it should be every two to three weeks.
50:07
If you're really working out and you're really putting in the
50:10
effort, you could do that, but minimum once a month during the
50:14
offseason. And then, you know, obviously we
50:16
get in the high school, get into the summer, then you're going to
50:19
camps, the emails to the camps and things like that.
50:23
What touch points are you doing and when is important, right?
50:27
And what is your message and why are you having a touch point?
50:29
I think sometimes parents don't really understand what to say.
50:34
What are you emailing them about?
50:36
What are you? So you got to have a reason why
50:38
you're emailing them. Hey, we're playing at Sparkler,
50:40
we're playing at Stingrays, we're playing at this
50:43
tournament. Or hey, I just was selected
50:46
Allstate, right? You know, hey, we're Allstate
50:48
Michigan. My team, you know, won the
50:50
states. You know, that's a good e-mail
50:52
to send things like that does the platform.
50:54
Kind of prompt them with some of those ideas to say, hey, you're
50:57
going to the Sparkler tournament.
50:59
These are team where coaches we know are going to be there that
51:02
you're interested in send them an e-mail or send them a a
51:06
message that's being. Actually built this summer where
51:09
we're going to, you know, we're actually going to try to
51:11
Crowdsource this and actually give gifts away to players that
51:15
are active and sending what schools are at what tournaments.
51:19
The other thing that we built, and again, I, I don't know if
51:22
it's AI pointed out, but because we're integrated with X, we get
51:26
every post from every college coach, right, that they do.
51:29
So our assist system is built where they're like, hey, you
51:32
know, see you at Legacy in Atlanta.
51:34
We could pull that out and now we know that school's there and
51:38
we can start building that tournaments list out.
51:40
And what we hope as we Crowdsource this and what we
51:43
found over the last five years is that coaches tend to hit the
51:47
same recruiting tournaments during the summer, right?
51:51
Maybe it's a different, you know, head coach here, assistant
51:54
coach there. But if we can keep targeting and
51:56
getting that information, we'll build those lists that'll allow
51:59
players, if they're on their list, it'll tell them, hey, Ohio
52:03
State's going to be at the sparkler, you know, you may want
52:06
to reach out and it'll prompt them.
52:09
I spent Monday, I sent hundreds of notes out to some players
52:13
that they're on the platform as well.
52:15
So the system's designed. So we're constantly trying to
52:19
push them to do their stuff, do their work.
52:23
It's funny. That Ken asked this question.
52:24
I have a 20, I have a 2026 who's going to a certain school and I
52:28
work, I'm working with the 2027 pitcher and is that same school
52:33
is looking at her. And so I talked to the the
52:35
pitching coach and she said, you know, the one thing that is it's
52:37
between it'll be the 2027 will be between her and another 2027
52:41
this summer. And the one thing she said to me
52:43
was, you know, what really makes this kid stand out is her level
52:47
of communication with me, that she, she wants that level of
52:51
communication because a lot of these, like you said, a lot of
52:53
these colleges want to actually get to know these kids, not just
52:56
you send them mass emails at one time.
52:58
And then you're like, hey, why haven't heard anything, right?
53:01
And so, you know, the pitching coach was like, what I really
53:04
love about this kid here, your kid is that the fact that she
53:07
keeps me updated on things and she reaches out to me and we're
53:12
building a relationship with. And that's what they want.
53:14
They want to know that the kid that they're getting there is
53:16
going to be a kid that is important.
53:18
And this is a school that doesn't said, I don't think very
53:21
little, if any kids in the portal over the last four, three
53:24
or four years. And so for them, it's really
53:26
about the relationships and building that.
53:27
And I think that's a huge thing you guys are saying is like the
53:30
mass emails all at one time and then you're, you're wondering
53:33
why you haven't heard from this coach, because you only sent one
53:35
e-mail three months ago is doing nothing for you.
53:39
It's the constant contact of just a text messages even still,
53:43
you know, or the, or those messages through X and all that
53:45
stuff. So, and I just want to make that
53:47
point. Anybody listening that you can't
53:49
just expect these coaches to respond to you just because you
53:52
sent them and you send them an e-mail every every 3 three to
53:54
six months. That's just not how this works,
53:57
right? I think I.
53:58
Think kids need to be a little bit more thoughtful about what
54:00
is my intention what what what is my purpose?
54:03
Is it just creating noise or do I have what's the actual intent
54:06
behind it? And I think went with those
54:09
touch points and consistent touch points like that
54:11
thoughtful ones, they're they're able to engage at them at a
54:14
different levels, I think. Also, kids start too late.
54:18
So then that stress starts, right?
54:21
Everyone asked me, you know, I, I talked to coaches that are
54:24
hey, they're, they're they're they've identified their 20
54:26
eights already. We're going in the summer.
54:29
They've identified. So let's say my team, which will
54:32
be 30s going into their freshmen, you know, I've told
54:35
all my parents you should be looking at your camps, you
54:37
should be looking at these schools in the platform, seeing
54:40
what schools you want to target. And I'm not saying as a freshman
54:44
you have a funnel that's this big.
54:46
It's obviously going to be a much bigger list and it'll come
54:48
down as year over year, but they need to be more involved in
54:52
starting. And then that way your sequence
54:55
and your information to those coaches are a longer time frame
55:00
to build that relationship versus saying, Oh my gosh, it's
55:04
now my summer of my sophomore year, what am I going to do this
55:08
summer to get noticed? I think too many people think
55:12
that, but with technology and information that's out there,
55:16
these schools are identifying players earlier than ever,
55:20
especially at the high levels. And then everybody else kind of,
55:23
you know, melts in the middle. And it's going to be that player
55:26
that spends the extra time and actually has a plan that
55:31
succeeds more than the player that just thinks that someone's
55:34
going to find them at a diamond OR in a database.
55:37
Yep, for sure. So what are some of the ways
55:39
that athletes can help themselves stand out in a
55:42
crowded field? I talk a lot.
55:44
About with my players, about how they present themselves, how
55:49
they work. We spend a lot of time about the
55:51
negativity of softball and the failure of softball because
55:55
there's so much failure in our game every weekend, right?
55:57
Kids strike out things like that.
55:59
So we really try to work on themselves and their brand and
56:04
how they promote themselves and how they conduct themselves on
56:09
the field. We as as coaches, we spend a lot
56:11
of time with my team for that. I I think again, it's about, you
56:15
know, just showing your athleticism and your excitement
56:18
for the game and that you love it and that, that you're a good
56:21
teammate. I those are the things I use as
56:24
a coach. Yeah, I think.
56:25
I think how you carry yourself on and off the field, what kind
56:29
of teammate you are, how you talk, how you walk, are you, if
56:33
you want to play in college, your lessons and your team
56:36
practices aren't going to get it done.
56:37
What are you doing outside of those things to be better than
56:42
girl X or girl Y? And really just what are you
56:46
doing outside of softball that's going to eventually impact your
56:51
ability to get noticed? And do you have good character?
56:55
How how do you talk when nobody's listening?
56:58
What are you listening to? What are you reading?
57:00
What do you you know, because eventually that stuff all comes
57:02
out. And so just just becoming the
57:05
best character that you could possibly have and doing things
57:08
for others and those kind of things go unnoticed.
57:11
But those are the things that show up in the long run.
57:13
So I think just self development and just making sure that you're
57:17
doing the right things and talking about the right things
57:20
and just being aware of your decisions ultimately affect
57:24
what's going to happen next. And then there's an old person.
57:26
I have to ask, what about and when you're communicating using
57:29
complete sentences instead of text speak?
57:31
Does that help at all? Oh, you mean no?
57:33
TTY LS. Or bra.
57:35
What's up, Bra? Bra.
57:39
My daughter called. One more time, I swear.
57:44
Not your bra bro. I am the.
57:47
Hammer. I never forget.
57:49
I am the hammer guy. That's right.
57:52
I would hope that kids or parents and players would
57:56
understand. I think if you had a
57:58
relationship with the player or the coach and you were being
58:01
actively recruited by them, that you may have some of that.
58:05
I'm not sure. I would use slang in my emails.
58:08
I would make sure my emails were really good and written.
58:11
Obviously they'll know when it's written by a parent or AI.
58:15
I wouldn't send AI generated emails to a coach.
58:18
They're going to know it's not you sending it.
58:20
I would make sure they're personal.
58:22
I would make sure you're explaining who you are.
58:24
But at the same time, we didn't talk about academics in that
58:27
whole process and academics play a large part.
58:30
What I found as I've worked with my girls, you want to present
58:34
yourself in a really good, good light and you know, sentences
58:37
and good paragraphs and things like that are, are important.
58:41
Awesome. So, Ken, any other questions?
58:43
I I just. Have one We like to ask our
58:45
guests. All of this is personalized
58:47
things a little bit. Do either one of you have any
58:49
hidden talents or unusual things that you can do, or unusual
58:54
hobbies or anything like that that you care to share?
58:58
Hidden. Talents.
59:00
No, I mean I'm not a juggler and I Can't Sing and I for sure
59:05
can't dance. But one thing that everyone says
59:08
to me is I I know how to shop, right?
59:10
Like I I can go mall with the best of them.
59:12
But no, you know, no, I I don't have any.
59:16
I don't think I have. Any talent musical instruments?
59:18
Other than. Hidden talents.
59:21
I think I'm pretty much an open book.
59:23
Dang, I'm going to start. I'm going to start juggling or
59:26
something like that. Play the harmonica.
59:30
I could lie to you and say like play the fiddle or play the
59:33
harmonica and nobody knows. Ukulele maybe.
59:35
Maybe I'm gonna get on. I don't.
59:37
I don't have any I. Think I'm really good at a
59:40
logistics management. You know, I think that for 35
59:43
years that's all I ever did. So I mean, I never had time to
59:47
other than manage that. So that's a bummer.
59:50
That was a good question. That was a good question.
59:53
I always say 2 + 2 is awful so you can see where I'm at.
59:57
There we go. Well, then I guess we've.
59:58
Given you some food for thought, something.
1:00:00
Then you say, you know what, I need to round myself out a
1:00:02
little bit. Well, thank you.
1:00:04
Guys, so much we told you to be about an hour.
1:00:06
We're just a little bit over that.
1:00:08
We really appreciate you coming on and talking about recruiting
1:00:12
in general. And then your platform
1:00:13
specifically sounds really interesting.
1:00:16
Sounds like a really good approach.
1:00:18
Hopefully folks that are listening are taking that into
1:00:21
account and saying, hey, there's more to it than just sending out
1:00:24
a tweet or sending out an e-mail now and then.
1:00:27
There's actually a system that you can apply to it, right?
1:00:30
And I. Don't know if we mentioned it's
1:00:31
still free until the end of summer as a promo.
1:00:34
So if you want to put it maybe in your show notes, we can link
1:00:37
all that information. Following us on Facebook and and
1:00:42
Instagram is where we post a bunch of our announcements and
1:00:45
promotions and the promo codes and and whatnot.
1:00:48
So if girls want to hop on, now's a great time to get their
1:00:51
feet wet with our platform so we can we can send you all that
1:00:54
information. Great.
1:00:55
Thank. You Tiffany, thank you Ryan.
1:00:57
We appreciate it. Thank you guys.
1:00:58
So. Much.
1:00:59
Thank you so much. Go enjoy some college softball.
1:01:03
Thanks guys. Thank you.
1:01:05
Well, that's. It for us this week.
1:01:06
Thanks to all of you for listening and the kind words
1:01:09
you've been sharing with us. If you like what you're hearing,
1:01:11
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1:01:38
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1:01:41
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