The Truth About Recruiting - Building The College Ready Athlete

Matt Cundill  00:00

Todd, this is the mental approach, where we discuss mindfulness, mental performance, and the tools available for coping in a high-performance world. Here's Todd Arkell.

Speaker 1  00:12

Welcome to episode two of our NCAA recruiting series. In our last episode, we covered what coaches are looking for, how to communicate and what families get wrong about the process. In this episode, we're going to go a little deeper into what it actually takes to be physically and mentally ready for college athletics, the eligibility rules that trip families up, and how to make the right decision when offers are on the table. These are the best moments from nine interviews with NCAA coaches and recruiting experts. We start with physical readiness. It's non-negotiable. I think if there's one message that came through louder than anything else across every single interview I did, it is this: most high school athletes are simply not physically ready for college, regardless of sport. They're not physically ready, not even close. And David Wood at Sam, he's got to buy into the.. he didn't hold

David Wood  01:12

back. Like, if there's so much emphasis on swing coach and pitching coach and fielding coach and summer baseball and fall baseball, and like that, you know, the amount of baseball that kids are playing nowadays is great. I mean, I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to tell kids not to play as much as they're playing. I think that, you know, sometimes rest is good in terms of the arm and just the body and stuff, but you don't ever have to rest from training in the weight room, and like kids, you know, there's just not enough emphasis, in my opinion, on the strength and conditioning side. There's so much money being dumped into exposure and, you know, tournaments and camps and lessons and all the things, but like take a chunk of that and put it into to the strength conditioning side, and then utilize your social media platforms to promote yourself, where you don't have to always be in front of somebody, because I guess at the end of the day, like, if we're recruiting a kid, we want to see him in person, we want to go see how he interacts with his teammates, how he interacts with his coaches, how he handles failure, instead of just a highlight video, but the strength conditioning side, we see more growth and development in that first fall for freshmen, and they're going to have in any semester of their life. Like that first semester, they're going to see insane gains.

 

Speaker 1  02:38

Then Walter Beatty reinforced this and stripped away the complexity. You don't need gadgets. I think

 

Walter Beede  02:43

a lot of girls say, "Tell me the gadget I have to get, or the guru I have to put my son with, and I'll always say, "Well, you really don't need the gadgets, and I can promise you, you definitely don't need the gurus. Here it is, like, in order to gain a pound, you have to be in a surplus, you have to be in a caloric surplus. Doesn't mean you're going to sit down and eat, you know, a whole bunch of pizza, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, but you know, you just kind of have to have an understanding. Okay, my body burns 2800 calories a day, I need to make sure I get 3300 or I need to get close to 3500 calories a day, you know, that I need to be doing the strength and the things that get my body to be efficient and effective with regard to athletics, and so it's not that complicated, and it's really a much better investment if we're talking about time as a resource, because let's face it, if we're really being honest and parents want this honesty. I'll always say there's two currencies, you know, that college coaches are really investing, and those currencies are innings pitched and at bats, and if you can't get at bats, or you can't get innings pitched because you're not big enough, you're not strong enough, you're not going to open any eyes. So, do you want to invest in a $500 bat? Do you want to invest in $100 an hour lessons, or do you just want to make sure that, hey, man, I really want to know if I'm getting a good meal plan here, and a good meal plan is just sticking notes on Tupperware and saying, here's, you know, steak and cheese with mushrooms and red peppers, and you know, here's the calories, and here's the protein, and as you alluded to, the apps that we have access to can do all the heavy lifting, we just have to input the information,

 

Speaker 1  04:41

Dave Wood also added something I think that's critical for in-season players. This is the idea that you stop lifting when the season starts. He called it out directly on there's,

 

David Wood  04:54

and, and the amount of discipline that you have to have to be an elite athlete, right. I mean, you have to, you got to give up things, like, you know, we train three to four days a week in the spring with our guys in the weight room, like we're constantly trying to build, like the word maintenance doesn't exist in our, in our vocabulary here, like we're not trying to maintain, we are trying to build in the spring, if you maintain your weight the entire spring, you have built, because the amount of taxation that you put on your body by playing 56 games and travel and all things, if you start the season at 195 and end the season at 195 you have won, you have done your job, and you're probably going to be pretty freaking strong at the end of it, right? And so you know there's this idea that, like, oh, once I'm in season, I shouldn't lift, keep lifting, keep working out. Find, you know, two to three days a week that you can work out on top of the baseball schedule or the hockey schedule, the basketball schedule. Like, how great do you want to be, and how much do you want to push through fatigue? Sometimes, you know, you're going to try and talk yourself into, oh, I'm tired. Well, give me 1520, minutes, just go put something into it, right. And so, and then make sure you get your sleep. I mean, I don't think enough people talk about it, but like 15 to 18 year olds to 22 year olds think they can pull all nighters and perform, and they sometimes they can, I guess. But for the longevity, it's not good for you. So, like, you know, get your eight hours, you want to gain weight, you got to put in some rest at night.

 

Speaker 1  06:22

Walter also added a point that the clock is ticking earlier than most families realize, and why she should get started on taking advantage of building your athleticism. So, those that are late

 

Walter Beede  06:35

to the dance, as far as you know, I have a lot of high school juniors and seniors that are 611 58 that there's a lot of, there's a lot of catching up you have to do there, you know, there's a lot of shortstops that run a seven two to seven four, you know, that's not going to play at the collegiate level, you know, and then there's the guys that really throw strikes and they control the running game and they throw 82 to 84 okay, that has a place, but it's not going to be at the Division One level, and I think a lot of parents that have spent a lot of money, where they throw money at development, they end up figuring out I have no recourse, I can't go back and buy back time, I don't have a lot of options, without options, you don't have opportunities, and as you alluded to when we first got started, the parents that chase the exposure are often getting exposed, their athletes get exposed, and so they're ill prepared for the time crunch of 12 months. You can't fit much into 12 months, you can into 48 months, but not 12, you Bethiack

 

Speaker 1  07:45

at Boston College. She brought the same message for the software world. People, she was very specific about what she wants recruits doing. Be

 

Beth Krysiuk  07:54

elite at what we recruited you for. If you're a pitcher and your drop balls really, really good, be elite at it. Clean that up. Make sure that is ready to go, day one of college. Any, any of the health stuff we always ask kids, like, stay healthy, do what you can in that, in that frame. And it doesn't just mean don't get hurt, because, like, injuries happen, it's part of life, but, like, learn what recovery means to you. Do you, do you really like the compression boots? Are you a contrast bath person? Like, try out different recovery methods in high school. What you have access to, I understand, like everyone has different levels of access, but some tournaments now even have things out there for you to try out, and, and it can be simplest foam rolling. Foam rollers are not expensive, like take care of your body, because college is hard on it, I think. Also, you know, learning how to lift can be really beneficial, but doing that with supervision, whether that be a high school strength coach that really knows what they're doing, going to a gym and learning things, going to classes and learning things. I think learning how to lift can really set you up to have a really beneficial freshman year, and developing your skill set, I think, stay working hard and play as much elite talent as you possibly can. So, especially for us in the ACC, we want our kids playing the best of the best across the country, because that's what we're going to play day in and day out here for us. So, if your travel ball team isn't doing that, then you do have to find a team that's going to, because that's going to be the reality for life in college. So, I think making sure that you're competing at the highest level that you need to be prepared for the level that you're playing.

 

Speaker 1  09:33

The physical side matters, but every coach I spoke to eventually got to the same place. It's the reason this podcast exists. It's the six inches between the ears. What happens between the ears is really what determines who makes it. Shaquanna Miller works in compliance. She's a student athlete support at the NCAA level, and she sees what happens when players tie their entire athlete support

 

Speaker 2  09:57

as well. It's one of the largest things that I'm. Looking at, so if we, for example, if we get a student athlete that's hurt, that's a clear indicator for me to do a lot of follow-ups with them to ensure that they have the resources that they need, because what I find at this level, and I'm sure is at the high school level, they are rooted at their identity in in the sport that they play, and so if you're hurt, you're not able to contribute, you're you're you don't know who you are outside of that. So that's one of the things that I work with a lot, is ensuring that our student athletes understand their identity on day one. We do a lot with student athlete development in my role, and I'm really intentional about them understanding who they are, so it's like a 360 for us, because honestly, if they're not performing well on their field or respective playing fields or surfaces, then they're not doing well in the classroom, so that's another thing that we really work with, is helping them with the mental capacity to say, hey, I am something more than just my sport, because when they graduate, they have to understand that there's a world waiting for them where they have to be able to perform, whether it's, you know, going to their masters or whether it's going to the workplace, so it's really, it's really impactful to them just how connected those things are with the mental piece, then the playing the sport piece and the academic piece, and and I just love what you do, because we need more of it, because that's the conversation that we need to have, because mental strength and the lack of is so strong, especially when we're talking about mental health for our student athletes.

 

Speaker 1  11:52

Jake Valentine from Michigan shared something he heard on a podcast that just stuck with them, and I think it captures whatever

 

Jake Valentine  12:01

time they feel like they're behind, they feel like they're being outworked, they feel like, and so there's that constant sense of having to do more, and you know, then there's a little bit of percentage time where you're just lost, and I think not enough people understand that the product that gets put out there and the success they have that is the most minimal piece of their day, like it's it's the constant failing, the constant betterment, the constant overworking their fears. We talk about a lot on the offensive side, like anxiety comes from being unprepared, but the other part is like, if you fail seven out of 10 times, you're a Hall of Famer, right? So, like, learning to deal with the failures and a positive standpoint. So, we talk about as hitters, outwork your fears, like, get lost in the process. The Hall of Famers, the best ones, they take it personal and they get lost in the process, and they love the suck, and I think that's the part that separates people.

 

Speaker 1  13:12

Beth Chris, yeah, at Boston College had an interesting way of reframing failure means to

 

Beth Krysiuk  13:18

fail, honestly, because you're going to fail a lot, one, our sports want a failure. If you're earning 300 you're failing 70% of time, like. And that's considered really good. You have to be willing to fail. And as a freshman, you're up against 2223 year olds that have been doing this a long time and have figured out how to succeed at that elite level. And so knowing that, like, it's okay that you don't match them day one.

 

Speaker 1  13:45

Mike Eversole at Akron told me a story about a freshman who embodied this perfectly, a kid who literally was a guy that, like, we just

 

Mike Eversole  13:53

went and got extra work, and, like, every day, like, every single day, you know. And it was good to build that relationship with him. And, long story short, I mean, we just kept stacking days on days on days, and he became a guy that, you know, ended up playing a bunch for us as a freshman, you know, he got like 50 to 60 at bats that freshman year, you know, but he hit, you know, 350 you know, did a really good job, and talking with him when he would fail, it was honestly just like funny, like he would find like the funniest thing, you know, from certain outcomes, so it was really cool to see him like be a freshman that fall, and then not be a freshman at all, you know, during the season, it was like two different years, you know, totally themselves, but I thought, thought he just owned his process, you know, from a development standpoint, I thought we obviously built a good player-coach relationship, and we were getting after it pretty often, but I thought when it, when the lights came on, I thought he just fully removed himself from his outcomes, and I thought it was. Really cool to see, you know, and I would say that's kind of a common theme that I see with players that do thrive are the guys who fully remove themselves, you know, from the results, they have full conviction in their process, and they have full ownership and what they're responsible to do to stay accountable to the things that they know help them and make them better.

 

Speaker 1  15:23

David Wood at Sam Houston has a message about failure that I think every parent needs to hear, because this really, I think, is important,

 

David Wood  15:30

right? A lot, you know, a lot of parents try to make avoid their kids failing, and it's like, look, man, let them fall flat on that face, and I've become a better coach because of my boys that I have to raise daily, right, because like 18 to 22 year olds are the exact same as 13 and 11 year olds, I mean, you have to, you got to allow them to fail, and you got to like, because they're, you don't know how they were raised, and so we're trying to mold young men, and if we're constantly trying to do everything for them, we're hindering them, they're not going to become strong, they're not going to learn how to deal with failure.

 

Speaker 1  16:06

Then, finally, Tracy Joyner at Oregon, a top student athlete herself with a master's in sports psychology, gave advice for how players should approach showcases and big just be you. I think

 

Tracy Joiner  16:18

that where players start to like lose confidence, or they get like more anxious in their preparation, is they think they have to do more than what they normally would. The reason we're there is because their normal is what we're coming to watch, right. And I even, this is like same for ID camps, when they know we're there and they got to perform at like the big events where they know we're on the sideline, it's like the reason we're there is because of their, their normal, their medium, like, where, where do they always play, like, where is their standard? They don't have to be exceptional in that, in those moments, or in those, in those performances. There's, I think, I read this somewhere, like, we would rather you be consistently reliable than occasionally extraordinary, and that kind of peace of mind, of you know, just just be you, be do the things that you're good at, like you don't have to be extraordinary at everything, right. And because the way that we piece together a team, right, is looking at someone's standard skill set, what are the things that they're good at, and then you build your team off of each person's skill sets, like, okay, if we find an attacking mid that is, you know, super crafty, has great vision, good, you know, off the dribble, good combination player, but maybe doesn't have, like, the speed or mobility that we would want in the midfield, great. Well, then we'll put another attacking mid with you that has great endurance level, that can cover bigger distances that we can rely on more from a defensive standpoint, so like we don't need you to be the full thing all the time, right? Like our job is to put together a team, so just be great at what you're good at, and you don't, you don't need to be consistent, you know. Don't feel like you have to be exceptional in different moments, like you're going to be fine, just be consistent, you So

 

Speaker 1  18:05

let's pivot now and talk about the overlooked athlete and the late bloomers. I wanted to address something that a lot of families feel but don't always want to say out loud. My kids being overlooked, are they being overlooked or are you looking in the wrong places? I asked Rob McCoy at William and Mary about this, and he gave me a straight up honest answer.

 

Rob McCoy  18:28

I have a hard time with the overlooked thing, like if you've gone and you've played in front of people, you're not overlooked, you're just not good enough. I'm sorry, but yeah, if you're good enough and somebody sees you, they're going to talk to you, even if they say, "Hey, man, like you're really good, I don't have a spot for you, but you're, you're gonna have a shot. To most, most coaches are reasonable, and will say stuff like that, so you're not being overlooked, you know? If, especially if you're, if you're in a good travel program, and you're having, you have coaches working on your behalf, you're not overlooked, you know. Now, you maybe you went to four power four camps, and they didn't like you, and they don't have time to tell you how good you are. That doesn't, that doesn't mean you're overlooked. It means you're not targeting the right, the right levels. So, my advice to that, the people that think they're getting overlooked, is go to their coaches and go to somebody who's, who's experienced, and just ask the hard question, like some, a lot of people don't ask the tough questions because they don't want to know the answer, right? Like, you don't want to know the truth because you, it's going to hurt your feelings, but I think that's a good thing, because you know, I've even asked, I asked one time, it was funny, I competed against a guy in the Mac for a long time, and I really respected him. And one time we were talking at, while we were at a recruiting event, and I said, "Do you think that we're bad? I said, "Is it the roster or is it me? You know, this is an opponent, this is a guy that I beat my beat my behind, and he goes, "It's not the roster, I. I was like, okay, all right, sounds good.

 

Speaker 1  20:04

That's hard to hear, but it might be the most valuable thing in this episode. Athletic advisor Shaquanna Miller brought up a point about what players should be doing with their social media, because coaches are looking,

 

Speaker 2  20:15

they're looking at everything in totality, the best fit culture wise, academic wise, Who they are as a person, personality is a lot. Now today's time is different because this portal is so crazy. They want to win, and they want to win fast. You do have some schools that still focus on culture, but for me it's educating families to understand one, this is a business, this is a business for schools, and so you have to go in and understand that that's a business for you, and what that looks like is making sure that you have the right conversations, that you reach out to your coaches and recruiters in a timely manner, that you're making sure that your social media looks like a resume, you know, and when I mean a resume looks like, okay, I can be able to tell who that person is, and all the craziness is taken out and deleted, you know, vulgar music, all of those things that students really don't know, it makes a huge difference, so I go in and I help them say, hey, we want you to make the best decisions, but we want you to understand that if they think it's a business, you have to as well. So, you have to have a strategy also. And this is what this looks like.

 

Speaker 1  21:32

And for the late bloomers, the kids who just aren't there yet physically, maybe even a lower bid on the talent, Walter Beatty has strong advice on using maybe a post grad year or a gap year strategically.

 

Walter Beede  21:45

To be honest with you, I've done a 180 on this topic, and the reason is because as a dad I watched my youngest son graduate high school at 17. He turned 18 after he graduated, so he was very young. His freshman year in college, he got his rear end kicked. His sophomore year in college, he did a lot of damage, and the reason behind that was just physical and mental maturation. So, if we're taking the playbook from college, in other words, major league baseball and college are basically telling us we want older, mature physical athletes. Okay, if that's the case, and your student athlete is on path, you know, to graduate at a relatively younger age. Okay, academically they can handle it. A lot of parents will say, "Well, I don't want to repeat because he's academically I don't want him to, you know, plateau. Okay, that's not necessarily the case. You can maybe do AP or honors. Some guys will definitely do the post grad year, and I'm a big proponent of the post grad year with regard to accumulating hours at the college level that will transfer into your college. It also gives you that that year of physical maturity when I say that, living away from home, living with a roommate, being accountable for your laundry, or going to the cafeteria, making sure you're eating right, there's something to be said for that reclass if we're really doing so with a plant, if you're just doing it for the sake of, oh, I hope this works out okay, might not really make a lot of sense, but most parents will push back and say, well, really doesn't need to do it, he's a really good student, or she's a really good student, okay, the one time in your life, the one time in your life where you can kind of get a do over. We used to call it that when we were kids, you know. We couldn't get along, you didn't, didn't agree on a call. Okay, do it over, do over. But the one time in your life where you can make that happen is as a kid, and you know, whether we want to say 18 or 19 year olds are kids, I happen to think they're still kids, but you can do that year, and if I said to you, "Okay, you got a B plus, and you really still need to gain 15 pounds. Let's take another year, gap year, post-grad year. Let's get that A in that subject, and let's maybe take a few college classes, and let's put on that 15 pounds, and be better prepared to be a college student, as well as a college student athlete. So, yes, I think that's the biggest growing segment of youth sports today is going to be the gap year, the post grad year.

 

Matt Cundill  24:38

Now, more of the mental approach with Todd Arkell.

 

Speaker 1  24:42

Now let's talk about the silent scholarship killer. This next segment might be the most important one in either episode, because it's the thing that blindsides families most. I've spoken to dozens of people who are in their grade 11 year in high school and had no. Idea what academic eligibility looked like for their athlete, so either they weren't focused on it or they were just kind of letting nature take its course, and I firmly believe that if you have a child that you know think might want to down the road focus on getting a scholarship, it's always good right off the start in grade nine to be prepared and understand what you need to be doing right from the day they step on campus at their high school from an academic perspective. Shaquana Miller runs Next Play Athletics Consulting. She spent years in NCAA compliance and she told me the number one issue is simply that families don't know what they don't know,

 

Speaker 2  25:42

just the lack of knowledge, that's the biggest thing that I have experienced with families, is just not understanding the process and what it takes. Everyone loves to bring people into the high schools and talk about what it looks like for recruiting side and what it looks like to play at the next level, but the most important thing for me, and being in my background in compliance, it's just that if you're not eligible, you're not going to be playing. If you're not eligible at some universities, you're not going to get scholarships, and so that is so important, and it's really overlooked because it's not the fun thing to do, is not the, you know, the glitz and glamor, it's not the, you know, going to practice and camps and all those other things that are important, but for us, especially in compliance, if you're not eligible, you're not going to be on anyone's playing surface, and nowadays the scholarship is important as well, so

 

Speaker 1  26:43

and here's a story that blew my mind. A high school that didn't even have a profile set up with the NCAA eligibility center.

 

Speaker 2  26:51

There are a lot of different things that can be corrected at that level. That's one of them. I'm actually working with a high school now, which is baffling to me still, that that particular counselor of that high school, they don't know anything about NCAA, and going further into that, deeper, they didn't even have a profile set up with the NCAA eligibility center, so while I'm actually reviewing a transcript, which is one of the services that we do provide with Next Play Athletics, I've did so much digging and I say I can't seem to find this school, and due to research they didn't even have a profile set up, so this kid was the first kid who was a student athlete, and now they have so many student athletes coming behind him, and we're hoping and praying that everything works out with the NCAA eligibility center, that all the classes work through, because now he's going into his senior year and didn't have - he didn't know, you know, of course he didn't know, and that's another thing, you know, just small things that could be rectified and fixed early on makes a world of difference for us at our levels, whether it's division one or two. So,

 

Speaker 1  28:11

so what should families actually do? Shaquanna gave really clear, actionable advice.

 

Speaker 2  28:18

Honestly, when you first get into high school, something as simple as signing up for the NCAA Eligibility Center, because that gives you a lot of resources on there that will populate an NCAA ID number, which I like to say is your social security number, while in college athletics, no matter what school you transfer to, you're going to have that same number, and then again inside of that portal there are a lot of resources to kind of give you a roadmap from grade level to grade level to see, or to let you know, hey, this is where I should be at this grade level, this is where I should be at that grade level, this is what I need to do, or upload at this point. So those are one of the things that I try to tell people that you could do for free until it's time for you to start going on the recruiting visits, where you then have to transition to a certification account for amateurism and academics, if you want to play a division one and two. So, understanding what's required of you because of that roadmap, it lets you know you know what your academics should look like and what you should be taking at grade level 10 or 11, it's a great resource for them to be able to kind of guide them.

 

Speaker 1  29:29

And here's where GPA gets tricky, because the GPA on your kid's transcript is not the same as their NCAA core GPA. The

 

Speaker 2  29:36

sweet spot is a 3.5 Now, remember, a transcript GPA is going to be totally different than what your NCAA core GPA is, and so when I tell and I ask, and I just ask the question, hey, what's your GPA? Oh, my kid's good, he has a 4.0 GPA, but what does that mean for the NCAA? In our eyes, it's going to be totally different, because we look at. Core courses, we look at courses that are approved through the NCAA on your school's profile, like we, that's what we look for. So, what might be a 4.0 on a transcript is not what's going to be with the NCAA, and so we see that a lot of times, and we've had kids that had a 4.0 and still ineligible because they don't have a core GPA of at least a 2.2 for division two, you know, and it's a 2.3 for division one, but again it's core courses, so at my institution we are a rigorous for our academics is really rigorous, so we're looking at maybe three twos, I would say a sweet spot is a 3.5 and so that's what you're looking at for transcript when we're talking about GPA, that says he pot at 3.2 to 3.5

 

Speaker 1  30:49

and here's the real consequence on not focusing on GPA and core courses. If your kid can remain academically eligible for a four year school, it opens every option possible, then it comes down to can they play, and often, if you're the 3.8 GPA student, and the talent is equal between two recruits, coaches might very well choose the athlete they know can get it done in the classroom as well, and if your talent level is maybe not quite up to that school's level, a four year school's level, and you choose to go to the JUCO college route, having that academic eligibility for four year school is great, because if you blossom in year one, you can transfer then you don't have to wait for the full two years, so it just really opens up doors and gives you options, and Shaquanna made one other point that I think is crucial, the difference between advisory services,

 

Speaker 2  31:40

we focus on the eligibility piece. We focus on ensuring that you are eligible, because families can work with recruiters all day and still not be eligible to get the scholarship. So, for us, we focus on the most important part. We do talk about recruiting, but we let families know, and we put it in our clause. We're not a recruiting company. We don't ensure that you get a scholarship. We ensure that you're knowledgeable, that you're educated, and that you understand the process, so that you can make the best decision for yourself for whatever scholarships you may obtain. And so that's why we feel like it's important, because there's so many recruiters out here that are just throwing names and emails to coaches, but not educating the families, okay, on what's the next steps, or not educating them on what they should be doing at this level versus this level, and even looking at an offer letter, we have families sign offer letters all the time. I just dealt with a student athlete at our institution who didn't look at the offer letter, thought it was a full ride, and it wasn't, and he just signed it. And I always, and I said, listen, this is a life lesson, never to sign anything without reading it and understanding what. So we look at offer letters as well, do

 

Speaker 1  33:05

So here we are, got all our grades in place. We have reached out to schools, we've gone to camps, we've done everything we can to get ourselves seen from a talent level and academic level. Offers are starting to come in. How do you evaluate an offer? How do you make the right decision? This is the moment every family's been working towards, right, and offers on the table, maybe multiples. And how do you make the right decision? Jake Valentine at Michigan laid out four principles that I think should be printed out and taped to every family's refrigerator.

 

Jake Valentine  33:40

Some of the best players I've ever had. It's two years before they ever step on campus, so I think everybody's story is completely different. I think every player peaks at a certain point, and I think some are early, some are late, and it's just making sure you're getting yourself in front of the eyes that you want to get in front of, and I think leading into that, it's trying to play the best competition you can, and then narrowing it down to the universities that you legitimately have interest in and feel like you would have the opportunity to compete at, and trying to get in front of those schools as often as possible, whether that's through a team camp or a prospect camp, or going to the events that you know that they're going to be at, and then just having communication, if possible, with the recruiting coordinator at that university. I think, and we talk about this all the time on the recruiting front, whether it's Michigan or another university, I don't think you'll make a bad decision if you base it with four key principles, and one being the university itself. Like, is that a place that you're going to be happy to have a degree from? Are you going to be proud to have that label next to your name when you're all done playing baseball, because no matter if you play 20. Years in the big leagues, at some point your jersey is getting taken off. Two, are you? Do you believe in the people that would be surrounding yourself with? Like, do you believe in the coaches? Do you believe in the development plan? Do you believe in the type of players that you know are committed there, or are currently there, because you are who you surround yourself with? Three, the opportunity to play at a relatively early stage in your career at that university, like, is there an opportunity? Do they have, do they have a track record of allowing young players to play, and I think the fourth one, which is, and this is the one that people are like, how's that fourth, but the fourth one is the financial piece, right? But I think I think you put that fourth because if you got a full ride and NIO on top, but you didn't appreciate the university, and you didn't trust the people that are in the building, and there wasn't an opportunity to play, it doesn't matter how much money they throw at you, you're not going to enjoy your time there. So that's why I put it in the fourth, because if the first three check, then it's the adults in the room, whether it's the coaching staff or the parents, to figure out the fourth part on the financial side. But I think if you make a decision based on those four, you're going to make a good decision, no matter where you're at, and then there's obviously other things that you can slide into those four that maybe are important to you, whether it's, you know, weather, location,

 

Speaker 1  36:30

but Wills is Southern Indiana had a different framework, three things that he believes determine whether you had a great college career,

 

Beau Wills  36:37

so my, my big three for every kid that I ever talked to, I honestly think for the only three things that really matter about your experience, that's what you look back on when done. I think the three biggest things are, did you win, did you make a ton of memories at a cool place with cool people, and did you get as good as you possibly could get? I think if you can do those three things with your college baseball career, you had a phenomenal career, and that doesn't matter where you went, where you went after, you know, that that could, that means maybe a pro career, maybe that means you played four years and you were done, maybe that means you realize college baseball wasn't for you after a couple of years, but if you can do those three things, man, you did it right. Where, if you won, you made a ton of memories with teammates and coaches, and you did at a place that that you loved and had pride in, and that you know you got as good as you could get. You, you reached your max, you reached your ceiling, you did it right. And so I think those three things have to be top of mind in the recruiting process for you and your family. Sometimes the money doesn't always line up with those three things, and that's where you got to decide, okay? What do I want? Do I do I want the option that is a little bit easier financially for me, where maybe I have to cut out one of those top three things, or am I willing to make a bit of a financial sacrifice to make sure I get all those three things, because I'll pay the student loans down the line, and I'll pay them off, because for the rest of my life I know that I got three things, and sometimes you get lucky, and the money covers all three of those things, and you're all, you're set, you know, and you're set, but I think I think those three things have to matter the most, because at the end of the day, like, there's a lot of, there's a lot of stuff that gets thrown out in the recruiting process, and you're going to hear things, and whatever, but at the end of the day, those are the only things that happened

 

Speaker 1  38:48

over at Sam Houston State. David Wood talked about something that's harder to measure, but maybe the most important thing of all, the feel. When

 

David Wood  38:57

we're presenting our offer, we want it to be something that they take pride in, however, we also don't want them to make a decision based on money if they're in a situation where it's, it doesn't have to be about the money, some families it is, right, but again, that, that's goes back to our point earlier, and we're trying to figure out who can do what, where, and stuff, but we want them, we want the money side to be when, when, when they're evaluating the offer, we want them to see themselves fitting in our program, right? The money is just the additional bonus. Let's say we're like, we're there is an investment from us, but we also, we also tell a lot of kids, too, it's like, look, man, like the ones that do say yes to our program and they perform well in our program, we're going to do our best to make sure that they stay here, and if that means paying them more as they're here, you know, our head coach does a great job of explaining it, like, you know, if we're going into a, you know, in a company and we're both investing in it, what's the best way to go? And the kids kind of look at them and they're like, I don't know, he's like, coaches like 5050 like, I don't. Necessarily want to give you all of it, because I still want you to have to earn it a little bit and work for it, and so what we tell kids is like, look, we're going to be as aggressive as you can with our offer, but if you're our guy, if you're the dude in a year's time, in two years time, we're going to make sure that you're taking care of, you don't want to leave, because we're not taking, we're not paying, so you know that we try to, like, I said, we're extremely transparent. We tell kids exactly how much money we have as a program. We make it where it's as easy for them to understand when they leave without any question, but when they leave, we want it to be about the feel. What is their gut telling them? Like, do they see themselves being a part of what we got going on, do they feel the relationship side of things, and that we're not transactional, that's that is what we want them to look into the most, in terms of the offer, like, and we're not number, we don't just acquire numbers, so like, if you're in our office, it means we think you can play for us, and whether that's as a freshman, and you're getting 50 to 100 at bats, or you may need a year to develop. We're going to tell you exactly what's in front of you. There's no fluff here.

 

Speaker 1  41:08

Beth Chrisiack at Boston College made a point that I think would relieve a lot of anxiety for families. Scholarship size does not equal how much the coach values you.

 

Beth Krysiuk  41:18

I think everyone needs to know, like everyone did not increase to Mad the Magic 25 scholarship number, we all wish we would, that would make our lives so much easier. But I think it's now, you kind of used to know if someone was like, "Oh, fully funded, they had 12 softball rides for softball, and that's not the case anymore. If they, some people still have 12, some people have less than 12, some people have all the way up to 25 and so I think having that conversation with a coach early on, or having your travel ball coach, they go, "How many scholarships are you guys working with right now? gives you an idea of what that might look like for you. If you're a pitcher and you're a really elite pitcher, that's that's where the money goes. Everywhere else, it's just.. it just depends on what money they have. If you're going to be kind of a full ride kit or not, it doesn't mean that you're not good. Scholarship is not indicative of playtime. Scholarship is not indicative of how good a coach thinks you are. It's just indicative of what our budget

 

Speaker 1  42:13

is. And finally, Rob McCoy reminded me of something fundamental: any offer is something to be grateful for. But he also said there's one question you should never be afraid to ask.

 

Rob McCoy  42:23

Any opportunity you get should be looked at, and if a coach wants you and believes in you and gives you a shot, I mean you're lucky. You're lucky doesn't mean you have to take it, it just means you're fortunate. I wish more people would actually now, if it's allowed, like if the coach allows an opportunity for the kid to be around players, I wish the players would ask the like the questions they don't want to ask, because if you think about it, like nobody won't, if let's say you only have one opportunity, let's say you go on one visit, and during that visit it's kind of like having one job offer, if you, if you have one job offer, like, how do you really want to know all the bad stuff about the place, because if you do, you might, you might be like, well, I don't want to go there, and that, but that might be your only offer, so it's kind of a, it's kind of a really tough spot to be in, but I do wish, for the sake of, you know, if you do have a couple offers, I, or visits. I wish that more kids would understand the value of the people that are in the program, and the people that are running the program is way, way, way, way, way more important than what, who they're sponsored by, or, or, you know, what the name of the school is, I finally,

 

Speaker 1  43:45

the landscape of college athletics is changing faster than at any point in history. The transfer portal, NIL eligibility rules, it's a lot. Let's start with what the portal is doing to high school recruiting, and Walter Beatty laid this out clearly

 

Walter Beede  44:04

this week. For instance, I talked to Coach Shulman at Georgia Tech yesterday. I talked to Coastal Carolina, Coach Valentine at Michigan, and you know one of the things that they all say all to a man is that the high school classes are smaller, used to be anywhere from 11 to 15 high school athletes would be a part of the recruiting class, and now majority of the recruits are arms or shortstops, but maybe three to five high school athletes, and the rest they fill in with Portal and JUCO, and here's the really misunderstood dynamic from parents, college coaches are all but sending up red flare gun signals to say, hey, we're holding roster spots into late May and June, now they're holding them for the portal because they know ultimately. Be they'll be able to plug in some holes, but that also means the high school athletes still have rooms, they still have time. So recruiting is no longer about who can be the first one in the door, it's really about who can be the most prepared, but the fact of the matter is every college coach at every level, including JUCO, will tell you that their classes just had a great discussion with Weatherford, as well as Dusty Hart at Blinn. You know, these are two of the most prominent Division One JUCO programs in the country, Weatherford is going to have 24 Division One, you know, sophomore graduates going into four year colleges, and 24 of their athletes are going to be Division One athletes, you know, and Blinn is about that, McClellan, Blend, they're going to be about that same number, LSU, Eunice, and so they replace those athletes with division one fallbacks that you know didn't get any at bats, didn't get any innings, and then they find those high school athletes that are very projectable, so I would always tell parents now, yes, there's not as much room for the high school athlete that is not physically ready for college baseball used to be, I'll take a guy who's projectable, you know, I'll redshirt him for a year and then put 20 to 25 pounds on them, and then he'll be a redshirt freshman, but those days are done. So, parents and athletes need to do a better job of again being physically and mentally prepared for when that freshman year and when you're on deck and you're, you know, you're a college, you know, you're a high school senior about to be a college freshman, you need to make sure physically and mentally you're on par with that current college athlete, you're not competing with your college, your high school peer group, you're competing with college athletes for college roster spots.

 

Speaker 1  47:06

Dave Wood at Sam Houston State explained how they use the portal and how they don't.

 

David Wood  47:10

We use it to supplement our roster. We are not using it to build our roster, that makes sense. We want to, you know, this past summer we brought in two guys out of the portal, one arm and one outfielder, one came from a SWAC school in Southern University, and then the other came from Missouri, and he was coming back home. He's from down the road in Tomball, he's an outfielder for us, and so that was that was a really good fit for him to finish off his career closer to home, be close to the family, so you know it, that that those are the kind of guys we're looking for in the portal, you know, the big schools are going to have the opportunity to, for lack of a better term, buy guys with the NIL stuff right now, and you know we don't have as much success with that, trying to buy guys up, but you know the portal for us is going to be relationships that we had previously with kids that maybe went to another school and maybe it didn't work out there, and we wanted to maintain a good relationship with them and rekindle that, or it's, you know, again like moving closer to home, that's a big deal too, like getting the kid that you know thought he wanted to go away and realize, man, I want to be closer to my family the last couple years. What we try not to do is sign guys, and then dump them before they get here, and use the portal we want to. If we don't have two guys that we wanted to get up until the summer before that next fall, then yeah, we'll jump in the portal and look for them, but we're not going to depend on the portal.

 

Speaker 1  48:39

Bo Wills at Southern Indiana raised a really interesting concern about potential changes to JUCO eligibility rules, and what it could do to one of the best parts of junior college baseball.

 

Beau Wills  48:49

You'll get kids that are going the junior college route, not treating it as how valuable those years are, and treating it more as if this is just like you said, my couple years just work on myself, and I think that's part of the beauty of junior college baseball, is the urgency to it, right? I think that's that's what makes junior college baseball so good, is the high level of urgency of, like, hey, I've got to get good, I've got to get to a point where I can move to the next level. I got to do it fast, because my clock's running and my time is running short, and if I don't do this quickly, you know, I put myself in a weird situation. I think that almost takes away from the urgency of that, where it's like, I, whatever, like I'm just gonna go choke out. Yeah, I think, I think, because it kind of takes away from the junior, like, in that way, and again, I'm a super pro JUCO guy, I think it's one of the best options for any student athlete, but especially baseball, of how good junior college baseball is here, I think it's a phenomenal option, and I would, I'll stand 10 toes down. That kids should be prioritizing JUCO early on, because there's really, really good options there, and so I think that rule could potentially take away from one of the best things about junior college baseball, which is, you know, the unmatched urgency that exists in that game of, like, wow, like, it's, it's every day of, like, I am trying to put myself in the position to not only be productive here and be successful here and play with pride where I'm at, but to set myself up for the rest of my career after this. I'm anti thinking that junior college programs are stepping stone. They don't think they are. I think anywhere that you don't put a jersey on, you take pride in. I think that that rule starts to make junior college feel like it's simply a stepping stone, and not, you know, what it, what it is, which is just a really, really high level of baseball, where no, you take pride in what you're doing every single day.

 

Speaker 1  51:00

Rob McCoy at William and Mary had the most refreshing take on the portal I've heard from any coach.

 

Rob McCoy  51:05

If you want to know about a coach, go to the players, man, or go to the portal. The portal will tell you all you need to know about the type of coaches that are running things. So I'm not going to hide from that. I love the portal. I think I think the portal is the best thing I have, because it forces us to all be better, and you know, you have to find a way to coach these kids hard and hold them to high standards, but also, you know, not not be a jerk, because they want to be pushed, they want these kids, they're not, I don't, I'm not buying into this like this generation of kids is soft, they're not, they, they just need to be coached differently, treated differently, they expect to be treated better, which don't we all? I mean, I don't want to be treated like crap at work, so you know if you can treat them well and hold them to a high standard, you know that's the cheat code.

 

Speaker 1  51:52

Then Walter Beatty ended our conversation with a look at where all of this is heading, and if you think the current landscape is competitive, bucko up.

 

Walter Beede  52:01

I think ultimately it's going to become this unified path. I don't think they'll ever say, okay, well, JUCO is not going to, you know, because in theory, and you know, you could go to JUCO as a 19 year old, graduate as a 21 year older, and play at a four year school if they had five years of eligibility until you were 26 or in some cases even 27 which would be insane, but where you know, if you would have told me I'd have 2425 year olds in college, I would have laughed, and here we are, that's kind of the new norm, but I will tell you that the JUCO world is bursting at the seams, bursting at the seams, there's there's not as many JUCO schools, as you think now, West Coast, California, Arizona, they're kind of like their own animals, and the Division Two, they don't have housing, the Division One schools and JUCO have housing, but my point is, is that there's 303 current Division One, you know, NCAA Division One baseball programs, you know, there's slightly more. We only have 55,000 you know, slots at college baseball. You know, even if we said there's 60,000 okay, 60,000 is not a big number when we go from 19 to 24 or 25 year olds, so therein lies the bigger issue. Is Major League Baseball next year probably is going to eliminate half the rounds of the Major League draft. We've gone from 60 to 40, now we're at 20. It's probably going to go to 10 or 15. There's going to be a combination of the international and the high school students, the draft is right now 83% college athletes. So all that's going to do is push more athletes into college with, you know, lesser spots. So if you think it's tough now, in about two years it's going to be really, really tough. It is

 

Speaker 1  54:06

definitely something that's difficult to navigate. It really is. And I hope that a lot of this information lands and gives you places to seek out advice, you know, seek out people that know what they're talking about, because the landscape is shifting. You know what? What I learned in the process with my kid, not six months ago from when this episode is airing, is starting to shift already, and I don't know how you keep up with it, other than, you know, trying to read as much as you can online, but also seek out the advice of people who really know what they're talking about, and we always end the mental approach by giving our guests a chance to leave the audience with something they can carry with them. So here it is, one piece of advice from each of the coaches and experts who joined us for this series. I hope you enjoy.

 

Rob McCoy  55:00

I would just say to the kids, work as hard as you can work to get as good as you can get, and and let your play speak for itself. I mean, there's no amount of bidding or whatever that's gonna get an opportunity that your play isn't gonna speak for.

 

Beth Krysiuk  55:17

I think it's allow, allow your student athlete to be who they are, don't force them into a box of this is what a competitor looks like, or all of those things. And if, if they're a little bit silly, let them be a little bit silly. If they're really serious when they play, be really serious when you play. If you're the kind of person that needs a minute after a strikeout, go get a cup of water and get back on the fence with your team, like that's okay too, because that puts you in a better mental state to be present for your team and getting them the space to figure that out, that's what high school is for, and so many of our girls are really figuring that out now, and that's okay too, but it's because growing up they really were told, like, if you want to play division one, this is what it looks like, this is what you have to act like, this is what that looks like, and so now they're like, wait a minute, I can crack a joke and I'm not gonna have to run for it. I'm like, yeah, you can crack a joke, and you're not gonna have to run for it. Like, it's okay now. If I'm upset, and it's not the moment we just miss five ground balls in a row, not the time. But, like, you know, you're allowed to have fun when you play, and you're also allowed to be serious when you play. Like, it just figure out what works best for your mentality and your performance, and I think there's no right or wrong way to be successful in sports, and figuring out who you are at your core and what brings you joy, and figure out how to bring that into your sport. I think is so important,

 

Tracy Joiner  56:41

probably to be really present and just be great where you're at. It's really easy, especially in sports, to think you know long term and think about like what's next, and it doesn't allow you to really thrive in the environment that you're in if you're always having one foot out the door, you're always looking for the next best thing. I think in my career as a coach, I got that, I got that advice really early on, was just like, a, our jobs are crazy, right? Like, we only get upward mobility when someone gets fired or retires, you know, or moves on. So, you could be the best coach in the world, but, like, you might not get an opportunity, like, for a long time, because there might not be something that opens, and so really just to like dig your heels in and be very present, just be great where you're at, like lock in, commit to it, and when a door opens, because of the work that you put in where you're at, hopefully that door opens and you're the one walking through it, but if you don't do the work where you're at, like you can't worry about the next thing, because you're not going to be prepared for it when the doors open.

 

Mike Eversole  57:45

Be yourself, be yourself, you know. Coaches, coaches recruited you for a reason, and you know they didn't ask you to be anybody except yourself, you know. So be yourself and work hard and be available to older players. I think the days of the older guys just trying to put the young guys through it, you know. I do. I think those days are over, you know. I think older guys, and I've seen it, you know, I'd say five out of the last six years that I've been doing this at the college level, you know, I saw older guys like always try to take in those younger guys and do a really good job with that. So just be yourself, be available, work hard, don't talk about high school, nobody cares, you know, and just, and just take advantage of the opportunity you have in front of you, you get to do this once, don't give yourself an opportunity to regret something one day,

 

David Wood  58:38

keep everything you have to this game, it's going to get taken away from you at some point, whether it's on your terms or someone else's terms. If you want it bad enough, make sacrifices in your life to get every ounce out of yourself and reach whatever level you're capable of. Unfortunately, not every player is capable of Vision One, but give everything to this game. It's an amazing game. There's so many lessons that you can learn in life from this game. So, just give everything you have to it for as long as you can. You'll be able to catch up on all the other things after you've done, and don't be frustrated, right? Like, stay positive through the journey, because I think that with frustration can come a lot of negative, you know, ideas in your head. Stay positive, keep that head down. Think about the outcome with a positive, you know, because I talk about, talk about my guys, about having there's bad events in our life. How do we respond to those events? It's either above the line response or below the line response. Have an above the line response, and hopefully that leads to a positive outcome for you. So stay positive, keep riding, go get, go get everything out of it that you want,

 

Speaker 2  59:45

that is okay. It all is going to fall into place. They just have to stay the course. For families like that, it's because they really want to do well. They want their student athlete to go to the next level. So stay the course and understand that. It's going to all fall into place at the right time.

 

Speaker 1  1:00:04

Well, that's our recruiting series. Nine coaches and advisors across baseball, softball, and soccer. The message is clear: be honest with yourself, do the work, take care of the things you can control. Let your play speak for itself. If you found value in these episodes, share them with a family that's going through the process. And remember, the mental approach just isn't about the game, it's about the journey. Please like and subscribe on socials, Instagram at The Mental Approach underscore youtube.com backslash. backslash at the mental approach, and please subscribe to download on all your podcast platforms. I'm Todd Arkell. Thanks for listening.

 

Matt Cundill  1:00:52

Thanks for listening. For more including resources and more about the show, go to the mental approach.com

 

Speaker 2  1:01:00

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