Behind the Curtain

The business side of softball

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Softball sound off with Chris and Mike.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hey, good evening, everybody. Welcome to Softball Sound Off. I'm your host, Chris, and I'm here with Mike. How are you doing tonight, everybody? So tonight we got another guest on. It is Keith Daly, owner of Complete Game Academy in Manheim, Pennsylvania. They're based out of Spooky Nook Sports. He's going to come on and talk about what it's like owning a business in the sports realm. You know, what brought him to want to do this? So we'll get right into it. Keith, welcome. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. So, first off, how long have you been with CJ or how long ago did you open it?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

We started the idea of all of this in 2017, 2018. We took off with our first official year.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

And it was you started strictly baseball in the beginning?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

100% baseball.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

And so what brought you to want to start this? Like what were you doing before, and all of a sudden thought, you know what, I want to start a program?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

So it started, I was actually coaching high school baseball while I was student teaching. Um went into teaching in a year, had to step away from baseball and coaching because the school wouldn't allow it with the hours and uh the um time that it took away from the class. Um and then um we uh I met with Austin, who uh was doing my lawn and asked me if I wanted to coach a travel baseball team with him out of Pittsburgh that was nationally ranked, and we did it for a fall, and we realized we could do this on our own, and uh we took a chance, leap, and here we are.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Nice and so you own um this do you have other partners in this?

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yes, and through the process, Austin and I have been the staple um that have remained through it. We've had uh a third partner twice now, um, and then I think just the grind of it all and everything that goes into it has just led them to other directions, and uh it's just been Austin and I in the end.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

So was there is there motivation behind starting it other than you know, I can do it on my own? Something that you think you you could provide different than what you were seeing at the time?

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Um yeah, I mean it was one of those things where we were getting we were getting paid very little and traveling a ton. Like ultimately it was a break-even thing, if not costing us money between food and travel and all those things, everything we were given really offset um financially what we were doing, and it and it cost us money. So my you know, reach to Austin was hey, we're good at this. Uh, we have a following already. We we went to a couple tryouts and we had 30, 40 kids come to these things, and everybody wanted to play for us. Um, and so I pitched doing this to Austin on our own. Um, he loved the idea. We wrote up a business plan, and a week later I found a a small facility in Etown and called him up and I said, Hey, I'm signing on the dot, and here we go.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

And so, how long were you at Etown?

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Five years. Um out of COVID is when we met with the Nook um and kind of reached an agreement with them as an internal rental um organization, and now we are leasing out of there. Um, so that has actually been a process too, um, kind of going into renting our space, and then now we're going into running that space, so it's been a big jump.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

So you guys have obviously been successful. I've been in the area for a while, and you know, we always knew CGA baseball. Um, and then I was I've been involved in the travel world for a bit now, and uh when we heard that you guys were starting the softball program up, it obviously piqued my interest and I wanted to, you know, I knew you guys, I had actually coached Austin's daughter for a bit when she was trying softball out for uh for for Hemfield, um you know, and I'd always been in touch to understand, you know, knowing you guys were gonna look into it. What I guess what inspired you? You had a successful baseball program that was running well. What inspired you or what made you say, hey, maybe we should look at branching out and and opening, you know, getting softball started?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Um a big part of softball. We while we were in Etown, um, we actually hired um a young girl that was just out of college that was coaching in high school um as an assistant coach and looking to branch out and really start her own thing. We brought her in. Um she was there for a good three, four months, and then got hired by a college. So we lost her through that process, made some good relationships, and uh, we had another guy come in who had a team, wanted to leave the organization they were with, so we we thought he was going to run a team. Um that kind of dissipated. Then when we made our move to the Nook, um, we met another um group of players and uh a family that was interested in running this thing, and we gave them the keys, and it just it didn't go super well. So we've tried multiple times um to get it off the ground, and it took um a leap of faith in a a really good person to get it started. Um the the big thing in that is we wanted to be hands-off with it. We wanted someone to come in and run the program and build it just because baseball is so different from the softball world. Um, and we and you know, Chris came in and we did a um we we had tryouts and people followed and made that made that choice to come with us, and from there it just took off. Um, so we've been trying it for years. It just took the right person to have a backbone and a structure that and a following really that was not our baseball side and for people to follow that.

SPEAKER_03 5:57

Were you uh were you a little bit surprised that it was taking a little bit more to get it off the ground?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yeah, for sure. Um just kind of the you you think when you you start to build something in one area that it's just gonna be easy to reach uh branch out and build in what you feel like is kind of the same concept, just girls instead of boys. Um, but it was far from that. It is a whole different world. We learned it multiple times. Um, and again, it was uh a lot of things that had to do with control of a program and the things that you were going to allow others to do financially or whatever it looked like. So we made a mold and had to carry it out, it just failed a couple times until we got the right person in there to do it.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

What would you say was probably through the process? I don't know, got kind of curious. Like, what would you say is something that surprised you the most, possibly that like, well, I didn't see that coming.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Um just kind of the idea of even though you're giving control to people and letting them run with it, they still need help and and really need to be pushed to do it because it's not a livelihood like it is for me, um, where I have goals and drive and desires to make baseball as awesome as it can be in the program. Um, I relied on other people to do that in the softball world, and I didn't have the connections, I didn't have the the the wherewithal, the the knowledge of what softball took, and that is something I've learned through this process. Um, but I think the difference in that is huge.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

So, what would you think is the uh the hardest thing, um, the biggest difference between baseball and softball? Um, because me and Mike know that you know softball is a different world. Uh I I think that's the families are different, there's a different mindset. Um there's different things that softball families care about that maybe baseball player families don't. Um is there a is there a moment you thought, wow, this is more different than I expected it to be.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah, for sure. Um the things that coaches do on a daily basis for softball, the questions that get asked, um, it is a another world compared to baseball. Um and it's so tight knit. Everybody knows everybody. They know exactly what your team is doing, and they're not even part of it. Everybody knows everybody. It is such a webbed sport in the area, completely different than baseball. Um, there's things that I don't know that are going on on travel baseball teams all over the place, but I talked to Mike in the morning. He knows what's going on with teams in New Jersey and all over the place because of how tight the community is and intertwined.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

You know, I think I think a lot of that, a couple of things. You know, and I keep you and I spoke about this before. You know, when you get emotions, you know, it it seems like some of the emotions with softball get higher. And you know, baseball is very seasonal, right? When it's done, you have your season it's done, everyone goes on their way for a couple months until you circle back for the most part. Whereas softball, it's people sign on for the year. And you've got if things aren't going the way people expected, or there's issues, you've got a year of building emotion where it's a little bit different where you don't get that break. Uh and also with with softball, I'm not sure about baseball, but with softball, you've got that whole big world of guest players. So you're right, like it is a web because you'll have girls and and different players playing all over, you know, the the tri-state, you know, region. So you're you're meeting other coaches from all over, you stay in touch with them. So it's a very entwined. Like I get every weekend, I get texts from coaches all up and down the the northeast that I've encountered, played against, played with, that are like, hey, I saw this, hey, I saw that. Um it is, it's a very everybody keeps an eye on everybody else.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

So um so we have have you on here to give your perspective as an owner of a business. And what I don't think a lot of people understand is it is a business, and your livelihood is based off this. And I'm for the most part, you're the only one in the program whose livelihood relies on this for the most part. Um so give the listeners a perspective of an owner and things that the decisions that have to be made, the things that go beyond behind the scenes where it's not just a sports program. It's not there, you know, it's not necessarily there for it's not only there for the love of the game. Because for you, there's more to it. Your family depends on the success of this.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yeah, that's the toughest part of this whole thing, is the business side of it. I you know, we started a goal to make this a place where everybody had the opportunity to take their foundations and build on that by extending their play, playing more often, and just having a place to be better every day. Um, but unfortunately, in the in the world, that these things come with costs. Um, and and that's the hardest part with it all. I'd love for everybody to be able to play at a very low cost, um, but to have good coaches, it costs money to have a facility like we do that we lease and and rent out. Um, all of these things are are are very expensive. And in today's world, the fees just keep going and going and going. The last thing we want to do is put it back onto the families um because they're just looking for an opportunity for their kids to play, and it's becoming a mortgage. Um, and and that's harder and harder. But at the same time, that's the way the world is going. The the tournament costs are higher. Now there's pay at the plates in the softball world that we don't deal with in baseball, and making a budget and sticking to a budget and all of the things that we have to deal with, um it's hard. And I want to give payment plans that stretch out amongst nine, 10 months of this year-round venture that these families have. Um, but we have injuries that happen. We have people that look for other teams, and that's a hard part too, is you don't budget for something like that. You don't budget for someone leaving and not being able to replace them. You don't budget for an injury where someone's out for the year, whether it's the fall, and then they come back in the spring, but they can't only they only can pay for half of it because they're only playing for half of it. Um, those things add up quickly. Um, the the profit margins on a softball player in a program like this are very, very tight when you look at what it costs to have a good coach, what it costs to have an assistant coach, and then all the practice time that's inside. Um, and things you don't really think about, too, is you know, when we made a budget, we gave equipment, we give it to them in the fall. By the spring, they need three new dozen base or softballs, they need new Ts, they need new nets. Um, all of those things quickly add up. Um, and yes, it is a business and people make money on it, but there is something for what we're offering these girls. Um, our softball teams are now putting girls in college and helping them reach their goals, and that's just opportunity-based things that cost money.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Yeah, and it's you know, that's being the director of the program, those are um, you know, those are some of the questions that I always get asked. You know, where where is the money going? How does it and you know, it's always a little bit, I don't say it's tricky for me to navigate, but to me it's always like, well, look around. Like this, that you know, everything here costs money. And it's I can tell you that, you know, we started to look at the budget uh this past year. You know, we work off of like any business what things cost in the past. You figure it out, go up. This year, things have skyrocketed with the pay at the plates, with all of these extra costs that are thousands, and you multiply that. We have nine teams in the program. Uh, it's one of the largest programs in the area. Those costs, like Keith said, they add up quickly. And all we're trying to do is provide proper training, proper facilities, you know, make sure we have all the equipment. So it's it's a challenge on a day-to-day, and keep the costs where they are for the families. Because, like I said, I that's that's those are some of our concerns. That's why we do some fundraisers here and there to try to keep the costs down, but it it's it could be a it's it's definitely a tricky situation.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Yeah, and that's what also people understand is you set your budget um based off of a certain amount of girls you have on the roster. And if you're not rostered to that, that's you know, twenty five hundred dollars that you don't have that you're counting on. Um so when you know coaches, players, families think, well, why do we got a fundraise? Well, it's because we you know A couldn't get to our twelfth player, or B, um a tea team A wants a third uniform, or they want to do this and that. Well, stuff stuff costs money. I know, you know, for a fact, you know, since I you know helped restart this softball program you know a few years back, is that we the goal was to make it as affordable as possible, and if not one of the most affordable in the area. Um but it's a balancing act between affordability and what you're offering. I mean, you're offering one of the top two indoor locations in the area. Uh you're offering um all the the the the uh apparel, all the uniforms, all that stuff. You know, stuff costs money. So yeah, you can find a team, you know, that's cheaper, and they're gonna be struggling to find indoor space. They're gonna be having to practice outside when it's freezing cold. So you get what you pay for. Um so it's it's it's a tough, it's a tough line to to to balance.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Yeah, and and one of the things too is like like you said, it's based off of a budget of 12. So and this is where it becomes an interesting world these days. And this goes back to some of the previous conversations. It's it's assuming you're building some high performance teams that have maybe 11. You know, Keith will say to me, Well, you know, that you know, we have we need one more on that roster. But you know, we're we're we're not a program that just wants to an offer here, just take anybody because we get those. I mean, we we get people that come to these evals that you know they're good players, but they're not what the team's looking for. And we we we want to hold off. So it's you know, it it it really becomes a balancing act of building the right team to get to that budget. You know, we don't just want to throw a 12th person on there to that's not what we're about. And I know that other programs do that, that's their call. We there's a reason we have one or two spots open because we're looking for that last right piece of the puzzle. Um, and that's what we do. But you know, it's it's and we try to make sure we manage that budget properly.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

So, Keith, what's your goals? Let's say let's do a five-year plan. Uh, what's your what's your goal? Where do you want to be in five years with uh the softball side of Complete Game Academy?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Um so we have so we have uh some really good people in line. Um and they're going to age out with their kids. Hopefully, some of them stick around and come back and coach younger teams and start over. Um we have some new young faces that have played the game at a high level. Um, they're learning what the coaching world is like, um, and hopefully they take a huge role in it. Um, five years from now, I would love to see us have two teams at every age group. Um, we definitely want to be on a level and a path where we're helping girls reach their goals, um, whether that's to play at high school or reach or reach the college level. Um, there's places out there we have really good connects um between the players and uh partnerships that we made. Um, CGA Ball hawks, we made with uh Joe and Nick, and they've come in and done a wonderful job helping on the recruiting side and getting girls and helping us learn what that next level of things are doing. And we want to continue that path, helping every girl reach their goals. Um, I'd love to see the tournament side take off to help keep the costs down for our players and really just build a safe environment where everyone has the opportunity to be better than they were yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

So, Keith, I've been with you now for a few years and on you for a while. And you know, I know some of the you know the the hard work and the what goes into the program and to get it to where it is. And you know, we've learned year after year, we kind of learned next year we're gonna do this a little bit different. Next year, you know, I think we do a really good job of you know taking things that we've done that some great successful things, some things that we need to make an adjustment next year. Uh you know, with that said, as we fine-tune the softball program, uh you know, what what other are there any other exciting type of adventures, you know, for the program? Are you is this something that we'd look at, you know, we see some of these programs open up teams in different states. Is that something? Are we looking to expand out in a different way? What what's on the horizon for for CGA or you know, kind of spinning off from that?

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I think a big thing is um the national thing. I don't want to become a place where people are intimidated to want to learn how to be a better player and how to build their game. I would like to keep us on the path that we are pretty fairly local. Um, girls, a lot of girls in the LL League. Um, we we venture a bit into York and Harrisburg, um, keeping it within central Pennsylvania and really helping the area become better because not only will that help all of the programs in the area, but the high schools love seeing competitive games at the high school level. Um, and then colleges coming in and taking these girls and just having an eye on them because of a program like ours. Um, that that's my goal for the program and where I see that. A big thing that I want to see happen, um, and I'm looking to really get people that are outside of the CGA program to build a team, a forceful team that includes high school coaches, college coaches, individual instructors to come together, put aside their travel organizations, and offer camps and clinics with inside the facilities that bring in girls from everywhere. Um, when a camp is put on by Complete Game Academy or other organizations that are out there, I feel that it just continues to get the same girls that are in your program. And I want to reach that outside. I want people to not be afraid to come to a clinic because we have great coaches, we have great instructors, and I want them to be able to give their knowledge to people outside of just our program. And if we do that without the CGA name, um, we can bring in girls from all over that play for other teams, whether it's a local mom and dad run team or whatever it is, um, they these people are willing to come to our stuff and we can use our instructors who are great and um really push the game to another level for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

So in that regard, would you consider um holding a camp, um holding clinics? Using maybe from competing organizations where you reach out and say, hey, yeah, we're we're competing organizations, but let's put that aside. Let's bring in the best of your coaches, best of your instructors, best of our coaches, our instructors, you know, reach out to a third program. Let's just do a joint camp, a joint clinic. Not to recruit necessarily, but just to provide players with whether it's a three-day, a two-day camp where they can just learn from the best out there no matter where they're from.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

A thousand percent. And that is actually the goal that I want to do. Um, the outlook of this is bringing in high school coaches that are well known in the area, the pitching trainers, the catching trainers, the hitting guys, these people that are really good at what they do, but people are afraid to work with them because they play for a different organization. I want the same, we all are wearing whatever this name of this organization is going to be. That's the shirts we're wearing that day. And I want to have a pitching clinic that has organization A, B, and C and four high school coaches running this. And everybody gets a group of girls for 15 minutes. Um, and again, it's it's a business, and people that are giving their time need to be paid the right way. So these things are going to cost money, but you're going to get the best training because we are hand selecting who's in this group. I would like to see local college coaches involved, um, and them sending us their pitching coach or their recruiter to help all of these things. And, you know, it also helps people realize like, oh, I love playing for this coach. Maybe I'll check out their travel organization. Also, too, there's a lot of like in the baseball world, is where I'm really focusing on this, and it's tough with you know, our competing organizations, they have high school coaches in the area. A lot of those kids flock to that organization because one day they're going to play for that coach at high school. And so, you know, I want to be able to say that high school coach is here in this clinic, come work with him, but also work with this guy who's a high school coach somewhere else that's with a different travel organization. And that way we can put all of the territorial s stuff aside and just really come together for the reason that I think all of us do this, and that's to make players better and give them opportunities to learn and pass along our knowledge versus the competitive side of things where we act like we're enemies or against each other. Um, I love rooting for everybody that plays in the organizations that I'm part of, um, whether it be the local organization my kids are part of, um, and those kids play on other travel teams, and I don't I will never root against those kids. I want them to see success in this area every day. I want the eyes to be on central Pennsylvania, and this group of instructors is going to take that to another level and help that.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

So, what I'll say is uh those of you listening, if you're uh you know instructor, uh a coach or uh instructor of another program, um, keep your phones on. I think you're gonna be getting some phone calls, and I think it is a great thing to do, you know, to put differences aside and come together for one common goal, which is create better softball, create better baseball, um, and just make better players in general in our area. Um, I think it's getting to the point where it's too combative, um, you know, this program versus that program, you know, this team versus that team, when we're all here for the same reason, and that's to get you know kids to the next level. Um so let's take this moment. Um as a disclaimer, uh yes, Keith is here with Complete Game Academy. Uh we will have other guests on in the future from other organizations uh to let them come on and talk about their program. Uh so we're gonna give you this opportunity uh to talk about what's Complete Game Academy, specifically softball, since this is a softball show, um, what Complete Game Academy has to offer uh players in this area um and why they should consider coming out and checking checking you guys out.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

It's a great question. Um so I think the biggest thing that I see that our program offers is the continual development of every player. Um whether our teams start off when they become a new team and they don't win a game, or you know, our goal is to win one game a tournament versus where a lot of our teams are now at, where they're disappointed if they don't win a game. Um round robbing things on the weekend, if we don't go 3-0, we got players that are that are upset and sad. Um, where it used to be that if we got two wins a month, we were in, you know, loving what we were doing. Um, we have created a very safe place. We've created a place where girls can learn and grow on their own pace and their time. Um, and we see that. I see girls that started with Mike who I knew struggled hitting or throwing or fielding, and the players that they've become in a short amount of time, and I say short amount of time, two years, um, it's incredible. It's incredible to see how far these girls go. I I watch our tenure team, and I think in the beginning of it, we we thought it was, you know, kind of of a rec team. And now a lot of these girls are the top of their rec team. Um, in and that that's uh a shout out to what everybody's doing in the program. Um, the accountability that Mike puts on the coaches, the accountability that Mike puts on the experienced coaches to help the younger coaches. Our practices are running smoother. I used to think that our practices were TikTok and really YouTube videos of how to teach us a person to throw. Now we are an oiled machine across the board, and we are from 10U to 18U um to stout in the sense of the things that we're offering.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

So if somebody wants to get a hold of you to uh you know come check out the program, uh you have a website, email address, uh, anything like that. Uh, those of you that don't have um Mike's information, uh he can give you that. Um but Keith, is there some contact information they can get from you?

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Yeah, pretty um easy. Keith at CompleteGameAcademy.com um is a good source to start for emails. We're actually starting a new website um that's going to really house all of our things in one. We've been a really piecemeal organization of where our teams are housed in in the internet and um where our bookings and rentals go and our lessons. Um we just started a new website that's actually going to launch April 1st. Um, that is kind of an all-in-one thing, and you'll be able to really see everything that we have to offer, including rentals and bookings of the facility for your teams that are independent. So a lot of good things on the social media side. We just hired uh a social media director who's doing a killer job and really keeping you know information on our views and our likes, and the the growth of our social media is huge, which is only going to help the recruiting side and everything that we do.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

And Mike, uh where uh where can I get a hold of you for getting in contact with the softball world?

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Mike at CompletegameAcademy.com.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

All right, thanks everybody uh for listening. Um again, you know, shout out to our sponsor, Crusoe. Stop out there, grab some pizzas, subs, whatever foods you like, Alex will hook you up. Um you can listen to us on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and Amazon Music. Send us some uh topics at uh softball sound off at gmail.com. Have a good evening, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Take care.