Rerun

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Softball sound off with Chris and Mike.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Softball Sound Off. I'm here with Mike. I'm Chris. So, Mike, um Super Bowl Sunday today. Yes. So before we get into it, uh who's your pick? Seattle or uh Seattle. Patriots. Seattle? Seattle. You got a score?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Uh hmm. I'll go 24-17 Seattle.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Alright. I'm a little more conservative. I'm doing 17-10 Seattle. I think Seattle's more a complete team this year. And I'm tired of the Patriots. So I'm sure you are as a Giants fan. Correct.

unknown 0:42

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

All right. Today we're just going to free-flow this and just discuss some of the things that came up. We're going to start off by getting into the business side of softball. I know people don't want to believe that it's more than just having fun, playing the game, which is all part of it. But when you join like travel programs, it is a business. Most of these programs are there to be profitable. So the owners can make money. A lot of times the owners, that's their job, that's their source of income for their family. So it is a for-profit business.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

And since you're involved in the the business side of travel, what do you got to say?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yeah, most of them are. I don't think anybody's, you know, I don't think anybody's looking to or really becoming billionaires running these programs. It's basically they're providing a service. Most of the people that have these programs that I've seen in the area were involved with sports and very involved. They've had kids in the sports, they've played sports, and it's something that's a passion that they're trying to turn into a business, uh, make a little bit of money while doing something they enjoy. I mean, you know, kind of the all-American dream, you know, doing something you're passionate about. So, you know, NR program, for example, it's, you know, obviously looking to make some money, but at the end of the day, we're we're primarily looking to cover costs, uh, make sure that we're giving the athletes different types of things available to them, whether it be equipment, uh, trainers, all that jazz. Um, you know, you want to make sure that those those numbers are covered so that you know we're not losing money. Um, and you know, like you said, it is a business. It's there are you know, the owners are obviously looking to make money, but I haven't seen many programs where the owners are making money hand over fist. It's just it's it's it's a business.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah, and it the other the other business side of it is the the coach's role in the business is making the player successful or putting them in a position to be successful. Um, like I've said in the past, development has to come from the player, they got to put in the extra work. Uh, it's a coach's job, and their part of the business is to put them in a six uh position to be successful in order to win, and by winning, draws in more talent, which then makes you more successful, which then makes the business successful.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Um, but people don't realize the amount it takes in the background to run a program. Um that people, you know, tend to and I think I've probably done it in the past is question, you know, well, where's all this fundraising going? Where's this? Where's that? Uh, when they don't realize there's more to it than just tuition. Yeah. Um, you got a lot of back-end stuff that needs covered, overhead, space rental, um, all that stuff, the uniforms.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Yeah, there's there's a million things. I mean, you know, and and we've I think we've touched on it a little bit. Um, I think I touched on it the other day with you know the cost of everything goes up too. Tournaments go up, you know, every year, you know, some programs raise tuition, you know, we raise it here and there a little bit. And it's it's just to really keep up with cost. Some of these tournaments with the pay to plate and and the ump fees going up, uh, you know, it's just yeah, there's a lot of a lot of fees involved, and yeah, it's uh sometimes they'll do some fundraising to offset it. But you know, that that's really like I said, at the end of the day, most most of these programs, they're just not looking to lose money. They just they're looking to cover their costs, yeah, cover their costs, make a little, you know, the piece the people that own it, it is a business. They, you know, they are entitled to make money. But like I said, it's we're just they're just trying to stay afloat.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yeah, and then when it comes to you know, high school, um, it's a business per se. Um we're not we're nonprofit, uh, but we have to generate revenue because the school and most schools can only afford so much. And most school budgets, it's a low percentage of their entire school budget that goes to sports. Uh, I think our school district, it's like one percent of the budget goes to the athletics. Um, so we need to supplement for if I need a certain equipment um that my booster club pays for it. So we do fundraising. And the business side for me is I it's my job, you know, and in order to keep my job, I have to win.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Um, so I'm gonna have players on my varsity squad that I believe are gonna help me win. Um, that's mostly I'd say 80% of high school softball varsity level is about winning.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Um, and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get those wins to keep my job because I enjoy what I do, what I do.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, no, I mean, it's it's uh I guess I think at those levels, the high school level, 14 unit up, that's if you're playing on a travel or high school varsity level, I mean, I think that's always the goal. Try to get some wins, get the development, obviously. You know, but the wins come with the development. So if you're doing the right things, you're progressing the players, developing them. Like you said, when you're winning, you're able to track more talent, you're able to track better coaches, you're able to track you know, the higher level players want to come to those teams. I see it, you know, I see it now. I saw a post a couple of weeks ago on Facebook. Young, young, young woman, 16, you looking for an A-level team. You know, she's I guess her team, I don't know what happened, maybe got disbanded, whatever it was. But you know, the higher level play, that's what they're looking for. They're looking for other high-level teams to play. So if you're obviously in that level and you know you want to keep bringing that talent, and that that's what helps you get there is when you're playing competitive tournaments that people know that they're competitive because they know, you know, you all know the team, you know, you know the team area. Um and you're winning those, you're winning the majority of them, then people know your competitive tournament, it allows you to bring it over. It it's it's no different than any other business in life. You know, from like you know, the kind of industry that I'm in, I help places companies, you know, better outfit their places to attract more talent. It's everybody has their way of attracting top talent. In the softball world, that's what you do it. You you win, you play in competitive tournaments, you start attracting better people that can help you bring in better coaches. I speak to coaches a few times a month, different people that are considering coaching. It's you know, some of the first things they do, they look at some things. Oh, I know, you know, I know this person that's over there. They all everybody speaks, everyone speaks to each other, they all have an idea, and that's what they want. They want to come over. What about this team? Does that team need a coach? I can come over here and help over there. So, you know, it's it's it's our job is on the travel side of it, to give the proper training, um, create the proper path, you know, um development, and then with that, the wins come.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

And what players also have to understand is you may be on the team this year, but the program and the coaches are always looking to bring in better talent to make them successful. So that's you have you may have a full team come back next year, you're still gonna have tryouts, because if you can let's say you your team is ranked, you know, one to twelve for players, if you can bring in a player that falls in at number five, you can drop the 12th player off and your team's stronger. That's the business part of it. Um, you'd like to keep as much of the team as possible together, but the real reality is just like the pro like the pros, yeah. The NFL, MLB, they're always trying to bring in free agents to make their team better.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Yeah, I I I I I go back and forth. And I I know you're saying, and I know that you know you and I have worked together for a while, and you know, even when I was coaching the team, you would say to me, like, is that person gonna improve your lineup? But I I think as you maybe as you get older, the older level teams, the the the 16U, 18U, uh I you know, you see that kind of moving around a little bit. I've seen players leave because they think that another program is gonna give them a better opportunity for a college path. Um you know, and vice versa. We've had players come over because they think this is gonna give them, you know, it's it's but yeah, that that's always a tough one, especially when the you know, when they're younger, uh you kind of look at it, you're developing, and you get a full roster, you want to kind of roll with that as much as possible. Things happen over time where you know one or two kids will drop off every season, it could be an injury, could be they picked another sport, it could be they don't they don't enjoy playing for the team and the program, it could be numerous things, so that happens, but yeah, it's always tough because you want to keep the core together, they start to bond.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Um, you know, if you have a good core, but you know, it's a tough decision that they you as a coach, let's say you have tryouts and this stud walks in and you know she's would be the best player on your team. Are you not gonna make room for her?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

My first, I would try to probably maybe bring her on, but keep everybody on there as we can make it work. I we never can.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

We also don't want to be a roster of 18 either.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

No, but see, we never did that. We were always between the max we ever had was 13. We usually floated between that 11 and 13 range. We never had, you know, and we would keep it at that range. So if there was someone that was a stud that would come on, we were always like, and honestly, if we were at, you know, if we got to 13, we wouldn't even look anywhere else unless there was maybe a player that we felt like, oh, this isn't there's something going wrong here. There's something, you know. But if we're at 13, I mean I had teams this year that, you know, with there, I'd reach out to them at a couple teams. I'm full. I said, okay, cool. Like I'd I'd get we get inquiries every day. I got one this morning, uh, an email inquiry about is there any openings? First thing I do is now I know the roster's on, but we're we're pretty much full across the board. Um, but I'll always email the coach, hey, this position popped up. Are you good? You set like because again, there might be something going on that I don't know about behind the scenes, and they're like, nope, we're all set. Thanks so. And you know, to me, that's a that's always a plus when I could let people know that hey, we're we're full right now, I appreciate it, but tryouts are in a couple of months, you know, we don't know, you know, you never know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

It's like a supply and demand issue. Yeah. If they they want to play for you, but there's no spots, it makes it more appealing that wow, you know, they must it must must be hard to get into their program.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

It's you know we we fortunately have had success over the past few years, like anything else. Like, you know, there's been ups, there's been downs, there's gonna continue to be ups and downs. Um, but you know, we've built a fairly decent program. Um, coaches, good coaches, we enjoy them. They enjoy working with the kids um and young adults. Uh so you know, we were fortunate that we have fairly full rosters, especially at this time that you and I have spoken about, such a watered-down, tough time. I mean, my goodness, we see programs advertising tryouts almost every other almost year round, every month, open practice. So, but anyway, it's it's we it is a business, just to kind of wrap that up. It is a business to a degree. Well, not to a degree, it is a business. Uh, I know that our side of it is, you know, we basically are just, you know, we want to make sure that our covers, our costs are covered, we're not losing money. Um, you know, there things do pop up like crazy, and when they do, you know, say we're gonna do a fundraiser, the you know, these things popped up, or you know, other teams, um, you know, they're given a certain amount of tournaments, hence, because it is a business, so we budget for that, but they say we want to add a couple, yeah, no worries, go for it, but just have to fundraise for it. And then, you know, they'll they'll be doing, I see it every day. I say on Facebook, one of our teams fundraising that it's got nothing to do with the program and say, Oh no, my god, they must be looking to pick up a program, another, another tournament, another uniform, you know, something like that. So, you know, that's I I I support that.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

All right. Uh, before we move on to uh recruiting, uh, just want to shout out to Carusos in Silver Springs, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, uh, for a sponsor. Uh they provide us with gift cards uh to send out to uh individuals that send in topics for us. Um so we'll be getting those out. Uh I'll be reaching out to some individuals to get their address and uh send them a gift card. Uh, you can follow us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, uh, email us topics at softballsoundoff at gmail.com. Uh, we're also on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. So the next topic we're gonna touch on um is recruiting. Um, and I'm gonna break it down for you um to the basics.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Are you talking about recruiting, college recruiting?

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Yeah, what players need to do and when they need to do it um to start their recruiting process. Um, it's really not as difficult as you think. Um I had a player, she was actually your player last year. She's now 16 you uh come up to me while I was giving a lesson this week. Um, and her and her mom wanted to know um about recruiting services and and profiles and stuff. And I'm gonna break it down like this you do not need to pay for recruiting service. In my opinion, they're a scam, they're a waste of money. Um you can do this very simply, and it it is all up to the player. So, first thing is you know, I think it's the summer uh after your junior year, I believe. I could be wrong, but there's a there's a time point a time frame where college coaches can start talking to you. Up until then, uh you can email them. So ideally what you want to do your first Can they respond?

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Like, so you email them, are they able to respond to you? Do they respond to you, or you basically they're just taking that info in, okay. Jenny emailed me, she's in ninth grade or tenth grade. Cool, noted, you know, but I can't reach out. I've seen some video, blah blah blah, but I have to wait a year and a half to speak to her, or can they respond?

SPEAKER_00 14:25

The until the until they get to the point where they are allowed to respond, they can respond. They typically what'll happen is if you email them, um, hey, you know, I'm so and so, I'm interested in your college. What you what you want to do is research the college. Tell them something about the college outside of softball. Like let's say you're into education, you want to be an education major, look into that program, tell you, hey, uh, you know, I'm interested in going to your school. I see you have a great education, you know, program. Um, go to the about like like so you've done research. They see you've done research. Even say, hey, I saw you went so-and-so record last year, um, and all this, and and make it personal.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Um, and what'll happen is, and you can tell them, you know, I'm on this and this such and such team. We're gonna be in a tournament at X location, uh, and send them to your schedule for that showcase. Most of their responses are just gonna be when their camps are. They will send you information on their camps. They cannot just talk to you and discuss your recruiting until that time opens. So the response you're gonna get is very generic and just about their camps to attend their camps.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Do you do you recommend or does it matter? Should they like copy their high school coach in that email or their travel ball coach in that email? Say, you know, like, hey, so-and-so, uh, you know, they reach out and they say, I'm copying um, you know, my coach, Chris, he's my high school coach, varsity coach, and uh coach Elise, she's my travel ball coach. Like, do you like is that make sense to do that?

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah, I I don't see a problem with it. Um, and then if the college coach, they'll then have those coaches' emails if they want to reach out.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Um, because they can talk to me, they just can't talk to the player.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

That's uh yeah, that's what I was coming.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Um so the first step is create a email specifically for softball. So if it's Jenny, it's you know, Jenny123 at gmail, you know, Jenny123 softball at gmail.com or Jenny um abc high school at gmail.com. Just make it specifically for softball, and that's what you're gonna do. All you're communicating to all the coaches. Now, when you develop these, when you create these emails, it you can't cut and paste. College coaches see that instantly. They can tell if you've cut and pasted.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

When you do that, it's the font is different.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

There's little nuances. Yes. But you want to make them personal each one. So what you do is you select three cut three colleges that are reach colleges for you. That you the dream schools that you wish you can go to. Then you have five colleges that you believe you can play at, and then you have five settle colleges. So five, if worst case, you know, these are five of the colleges I want to get into. That's how you you rank them, and then you start emailing these coaches. Uh, attend you want to attend camps. That's the biggest thing is attending those college camps that you want to go to. Um, and then you want to create a YouTube account specifically for softball. So you put all your clips on there, uh, your game clips. You can put a couple drill clips, but I don't from what I've understand, is coaches don't care too much about drill clips. Yeah. Um, because anybody can be a drill all-star. Yeah. Um, but they want to see live action. Um so what you and then what you can do is if you're on a good showcase team, they're gonna create a flyer that has all the players' faces on, their names, their positions, their grade, and they put them in a container behind the backstop, and then college coaches on a showcase will just walk up, pull out a pamphlet, and walk away. So they have all the information. Um and the reason those coaches are at the showcase is because they know how you can play. They've already seen you through your videos, uh, through all that stuff. So you already got them there. Yeah, they're not there to see your skills and ability, they're there to see how you act off the field, how your parents act, how you interact with your your teammates, the umpires, your coaches, how you act when you strike out, um, you know, things like that. They want to see what kind of person you are, and they're also watching your parents. If your parents are obnoxious and are yelling at umpires, your name's getting crossed off real quick. So you've already got them there. Yeah, so they're there to see how you act personally. So stay away from these recruiting services. You don't need them. You simply need to be able to email and have a YouTube page, and you email the coach, your schedule. Here's a link to my YouTube page that has my clips. Um I would suggest not quoting game changer stats because that they don't care. Um, so it's a very simple thing to do. Um, but they don't want to hear from parents, they want to hear from the player themselves.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah, and I and I've I've heard you mention that before, and I've spoken to other people too, and that's that's the whole thing. They want to see that the the player, the athlete, is responsible, confident, you know, knows how to handle themselves.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, they don't need and another pet peeve of mine is after a game or going to a game at a showcase, the player better be help carrying their own bag and pulling their own bag. Um, a parent should never be pulling a player's bag or carrying it.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Uh so it's you know, I've I've heard that before. So you've seen my little guy, Chase.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

He's like, you know the bag's bigger than him.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

It's like I could literally put him in it. So he's you know, he decided to be a catcher, and you know, we we got him a uh went to play it again, and they had the uh it was like a hockey bag that a lot of people use. So but like it just takes him forever, like, and I you know, you know the patience I have. So like we were at the Nook the other day and we're walking uh in and he's you know going to practice and he's dragging this thing, and I'm like, oh my god, and it's like sub zero out. I'm like, give me that bag. I'm like, I don't care how it looked, I'm carrying your bag. I'm like, I'm it's so I was like carrying it, but in the back of my head, I'm like, God, this is such a bad look carrying this kid's bag.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

But uh it's I I I think you know, at that age, it's more understandable.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

But when they're getting to the age of being recruited, he does, he doesn't ask you to do it, he's doing it, but like I just I'm like, yeah, like buddy, it's like four degrees out. Like let's go. We're going. So we actually ordered him a little bit smaller bag because uh I just it's just silly.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So yeah, uh the like I said, in a nutshell, the recruiting part of it is very simple to do. You just gotta do the work yourself. Yeah, it's not that hard. There's no need to waste money on it. And the biggest thing, like I said, is go to the camps that you're interested in and get yourself in front of the coaches. Yeah, that's where they're gonna you know pique their interest in you.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

That's good info. It's we're starting, you know. I never really, as we're getting to that age, we're starting to look into it, and we're starting to see, at least in my program, the younger agers are starting to inquire more and more about it. I think is you know, so it's uh it's good info. And we actually held a um held a Zoom meeting for the parents, uh a couple of sessions where that's you know, one of our showcase coaches went over the the process and it was very highly attended, and and it was a great uh thing to do, and I probably should put another one together soon, too. But uh it it's an important part of it. Again, because most of the kids playing at this level, that's their goal, is to play in college.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

So I think that's a good piece of info to share.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

And the one of the misnomers is these programs that advertise they've a recruiting coordinator. You don't really need that, you just need somebody. To guide. And you don't need there's they're not going to do the work for you. The number one recruiting coordinator is yourself. Yeah, that's a good point. You do the work.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

All right. Thanks for listening on this Super Bowl Sunday. Once again, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music. Hit up Crusoe's for some pizza, especially today. They might be a little full today. But send us some topics at saltballsound off at gmail.com. And we'll check you out next time. Take care. Later.