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Speaker 1: Be consumed with developing and becoming a winning championship player,

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Speaker 1: not just being a great skills player, being a winning

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Speaker 1: championship player, what it takes to help your team win.

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Speaker 1: Don't ever lose sight of that, whether you commit as

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Speaker 1: a ninth grader or your opportunity doesn't come until you

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Speaker 1: after your senior year in high school. Keep developing, being

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Speaker 1: consumed with getting better. This is the Reformed Sports Project,

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Speaker 1: a podcast about restoring healthy balance and perspective in all

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Speaker 1: areas of sports through education and advocacy. HI. This is

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Speaker 1: Nick Bonacore from the Reformed Sports Project podcast. My guest

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Speaker 1: today is the head baseball coach from the University of Virginia,

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Speaker 1: Brian O'Connor. After leading the Virginia baseball program to its

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Speaker 1: first n c a A National championship in two thousand fifteen,

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Speaker 1: five time a CC Coach of the Year and three

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Speaker 1: time National Coach of the Year, Brian O'Connor has built

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Speaker 1: his program into a college baseball powerhouse and turned Virginia

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Speaker 1: Baseball into a national brand. Coach O'Connor and I dissect

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Speaker 1: early sports specialization, snowplow parenting, and the fear of missing

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Speaker 1: the recruiting runaway train. I got another awesome guess he's

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Speaker 1: just another stunt. Really pumped having one of the top

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Speaker 1: programs in the country, and I'm just to the death

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Speaker 1: that having the head coach University of Virginia, Virginia Cavaliers

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Speaker 1: and quite frankly, what I think is one of the

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Speaker 1: most beautiful campuses in the country. Brian O'Connor coach, thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for hopping on man. Hey, Nick, thanks thanks

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Speaker 1: for having me. Um, It's it's really an honor. I've

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Speaker 1: I've listened to a few of the conversations that you've

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Speaker 1: had with other coaches. Great stuff. Man, you're doing great work.

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Speaker 1: And um, you know this whole coaching thing, Nick, is

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Speaker 1: we're all learning from each other, right, Um, I mean

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Speaker 1: I'll learned from this conversation. I learned from you know,

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Speaker 1: we all have mentors in our in our coaching life,

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Speaker 1: but you know, we're all constantly learning from each other

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Speaker 1: and involved it as we go along. So it's always

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Speaker 1: fun to have these conversations and learn from each other.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you. You just made me feel you're gonna

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Speaker 1: learn from me. This is great. This is great. So

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Speaker 1: we're talking youth sports, athletic development, parenting and all of

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Speaker 1: these things. Something you know a lot about from all

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Speaker 1: your experience, and where I love to start this is

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Speaker 1: this whole topic of early sports specialization. Um, where it starts.

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Speaker 1: If your kid can kick a soccer ball really well,

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Speaker 1: or swim really well, or hit a baseball well and

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Speaker 1: their six, you know, it's like, oh my god, it's

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Speaker 1: the next Tigerant, it's the next Trout Phelps. So in

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Speaker 1: order to reach that level, ditch everything else, year round specialized,

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Speaker 1: let's go. It just seems that's the formula that's being preached.

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Speaker 1: Yet every athlete I play with is meant to the

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Speaker 1: highest level, or I've spoken to every coach seems to

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Speaker 1: really like the diversity, especially young ages of multiple sports.

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Speaker 1: What's your thoughts on the whole early sports specialization versus

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Speaker 1: sampling and playing a variety of sports. Well, Nick, you're

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Speaker 1: you're hitting a hot topic with me because you know

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Speaker 1: this is something that you know, all of us have

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Speaker 1: been dealing with for years, and it's a really tangled

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Speaker 1: web mess. Quite frankly, I've got some pretty strong feelings

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Speaker 1: about it. Um. You know, it's it's You're exactly right.

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Speaker 1: We get these young kids that you know, sometimes whether

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Speaker 1: it's parents feel like, you know, hey, little Johnny can

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Speaker 1: be the next great basketball player, football player, baseball player,

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Speaker 1: whatever it is. Uh, that drives part of it. But

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Speaker 1: there's also this industry that's driven it as well that

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Speaker 1: I believe Nick has had a big impact on it,

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Speaker 1: and that is, um. You know, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: people that are you know, profiting, making money, live their

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Speaker 1: livelihoods depend on this specialization. This playing volleyball year round, right, um,

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Speaker 1: twelve months out of the year, and you know, girls

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Speaker 1: not playing you know, basketball and other sports as well.

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Speaker 1: And it's, uh, you know, we've we've evolved. I really

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Speaker 1: believe in the last two decades of there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of people that you know, specialize in these types of

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Speaker 1: things and they're part of driving this. UM. A lot

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Speaker 1: of the parents, you know, end out believing in it

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Speaker 1: and going that direction and believe that they're putting in

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Speaker 1: kind of a corner in a boxing Nick that they

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Speaker 1: believe that if they don't do this, that they don't

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Speaker 1: play travel volleyball twelve months out of the year or

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Speaker 1: travel baseball, then I'm hurting my son or my daughter.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I'm sad to see it. Because I

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Speaker 1: think it's totally the wrong thinking. I really do. I

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Speaker 1: just you know, you're talking to a guy that played

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Speaker 1: multiple sports in high school growing up, and in high school,

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Speaker 1: I played football, basketball, and baseball. I would give anything

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Speaker 1: to go back and play one more high school football

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Speaker 1: game on Friday night, right. I mean, it was, you know,

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Speaker 1: just an experience that I treasure and so um. But

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Speaker 1: we've kind of as a society, we've went away from

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Speaker 1: that for many of the reasons that I talked about.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I think, you know, the the downside

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Speaker 1: of this, of this small thinking of specialization is you know,

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Speaker 1: if you're always training, right, then you're not learning how

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Speaker 1: to play to win and how to compete. One of

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Speaker 1: the advantages of playing these multiple sports is you're playing

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Speaker 1: to win more often. Right, let's talk our sport to baseball.

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Speaker 1: You know, you're playing in the spring, you're playing in

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Speaker 1: the summer, you're playing in the fall, and in the winner.

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Speaker 1: You're training or your training all around that. But when

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Speaker 1: you're training, you're not you're not competing, you're not learning

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Speaker 1: how to play to win right like you would be

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Speaker 1: on the football field of the basketball court. Right. And

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Speaker 1: so that's one negative of this specialization. The second one

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Speaker 1: I would say, and possibly the most important, would be,

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Speaker 1: you know, when you're playing basketball, you're playing football, there's plays,

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Speaker 1: there's defenses that you have in order for the team

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Speaker 1: to execute a play on either side of the ball

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Speaker 1: and to be successful, to ultimately win the game. You

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Speaker 1: have to do your part as an individualist part of

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Speaker 1: a group. Right. If we're playing zone defense in basketball

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Speaker 1: and I don't do my job in my position, well

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Speaker 1: the whole thing breaks down and they score and we

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Speaker 1: might lose the game. So there's this personal responsibility that

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Speaker 1: you have as an individual to make the football play work,

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Speaker 1: to make the option play work, or that basketball play

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Speaker 1: or whatever it is. That that's there's great teaching moments,

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Speaker 1: a great value in that. You don't get that by

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Speaker 1: training in a gym, right, And so that individual responsibility

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Speaker 1: back to the group for it to work is so

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Speaker 1: incredibly important. And then the third thing that I would

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Speaker 1: with you, Nick, is is the leadership. Right. You're not

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Speaker 1: learning leadership hitting in a cage all winner or training

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Speaker 1: with a trainer, right, You're learning leadership on a basketball court,

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Speaker 1: a football field, or whatever it might be, volleyball, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is that you play right, that you're having to

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Speaker 1: lead others, You're you're having this responsibility that you have

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Speaker 1: to step up and we don't get that in a

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Speaker 1: training session. Now that said, is there a training component Nick,

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Speaker 1: that I think is an important part of a athletes development?

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Speaker 1: Sure there is, right, but there's I think there's crossover

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Speaker 1: that you can get a lot of that training through

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Speaker 1: playing other sports. I don't even want to get into

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Speaker 1: and ill finish with this. I don't want to get

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Speaker 1: into Nick talking about, like, you know, the the medical

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Speaker 1: side of it. Are we training these muscles and training

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Speaker 1: these things in one sport twelve months out of the year,

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Speaker 1: and is that leading to these injuries? Right? I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's a whole We're gonna need an hour to talk

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Speaker 1: about that. I know we don't want to get into that,

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Speaker 1: but that's something to consider as well. Right, So, I

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Speaker 1: think you can get that training on these other athletic

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Speaker 1: fields while learning to compete in your leading and you're

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Speaker 1: playing to win. I love that, And you're right about

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Speaker 1: the injury part. There's another aspect of it that I

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Speaker 1: kind of want to circle into here is that you

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Speaker 1: talked about briefly the injury you know, overuse, or whatever.

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Speaker 1: But then you talk about the mental side, right, and

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a scenario and then we go

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Speaker 1: from here, because this is what's happening a lot. You know,

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Speaker 1: in order playing a certain travel team or whatever you gotta,

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Speaker 1: it's expensive, so now it becomes this investment or you know,

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Speaker 1: my kid needs lessons or whatever, and parents have you know,

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Speaker 1: you know this is we have fear, you know, we

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Speaker 1: fear our kids gonna miss out. Oh my god, they're

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Speaker 1: not gonna get offers, they're not gonna get this. So

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, they leave a training center or whatever,

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Speaker 1: and they just spend a hundred dollars an hour whatever

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Speaker 1: it is, and the kid wasn't going hard or after

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Speaker 1: a game, and we're in that car ride. They often

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Speaker 1: say kids lose interest in sports in the car ride

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Speaker 1: and at the dinner table by parents be rating or

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Speaker 1: being overzealous with their own coaching, YadA, YadA, YadA, but

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Speaker 1: also undermining the coaches or undermining other kids talking bad

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Speaker 1: about Can you talk a little bit about that, because

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Speaker 1: that's a lot of pressure for young kids to have

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Speaker 1: to deal with. Wound neck. I mean, how did you

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Speaker 1: know when you called me that you're gonna hit these

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Speaker 1: hot spots with me. I love your questions. They're they're

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Speaker 1: spot on and there and they're real issues, right, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know they I'll say this about the parent in

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Speaker 1: the car ride home and the dinner table. Right. There's

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Speaker 1: a real balance. I really believe that because you know,

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Speaker 1: we can't we can't be apathetic about what we do, right.

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Speaker 1: You want your young person to enjoy what they're doing,

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Speaker 1: have fun, but also learn the concept of playing to

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Speaker 1: win and the value of competition and winning right and

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Speaker 1: having successful I think it's a really really fine line

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Speaker 1: for parents out there of how to handle that. You know,

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Speaker 1: Encouragement is what I the word I'd like to use, right,

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Speaker 1: you know, because encouragement also you know, you can encourage

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Speaker 1: your youngster, but you can also be honest and reel

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Speaker 1: with them about, you know, where they need to continue,

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Speaker 1: approve and things like that. So that's a really really

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Speaker 1: tough one as far as is how to handle it.

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Speaker 1: But the you know, I'm I'm a parent, right, I'm

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Speaker 1: a parent of three, two in college now. But then

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Speaker 1: I have a young, aspiring fourteen year old baseball player, right,

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Speaker 1: and he plays other sports too, but you know, he

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Speaker 1: he wants to be the best baseball player he can be,

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Speaker 1: and so my responsibility as I got it really challenging

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Speaker 1: as somebody that's in the sport right and is a coach,

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Speaker 1: and so a lot of times my son asked me

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Speaker 1: for for my input, and I need to give him

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Speaker 1: my honest input for him to improve. But you know,

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Speaker 1: when the game's over, you know I'm going to his

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Speaker 1: game tonight. When the game's over, I'm his dad. Right

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Speaker 1: when he gets to the car and drives him home,

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Speaker 1: I don't need to be talking about why he didn't

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Speaker 1: make that player, didn't make this play. I can talk

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Speaker 1: about and give him positive encouragement for him to still.

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Speaker 1: Like you said, I love to play. They've got to

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Speaker 1: want to do it. A lot of times these parents

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Speaker 1: are the ones that are driving the ambition of their child, right.

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Speaker 1: And so it's I just believe that, you know, you

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Speaker 1: make it fun, You give them good encouragement and support them.

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Speaker 1: You know, in no matter what happens out there on

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Speaker 1: the field, you know, if you hear this all time

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Speaker 1: right here, you hear the snowplow pair, I quite frank,

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Speaker 1: I don't even know what the definition of that is

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Speaker 1: or no no snowplow. I think it's lawnmower or something.

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Speaker 1: You knocked down everything in front of him, clear the

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Speaker 1: path for maybe the snowplow, and then helicopter. We come

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Speaker 1: in and rescue them all the time. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I'll give you a good example. I'll let you go

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Speaker 1: with it. My son, my two older boys or wrestlers.

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Speaker 1: My younger one of the two loves to play sports,

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Speaker 1: but I think he's potentially the quintessential intramural athlete in college. Like,

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Speaker 1: he loves playing, but he does not like to work

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Speaker 1: very hard. Um my second one is ultra competitive, and

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Speaker 1: like when he works hard, he's the opposite of me.

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Speaker 1: When he's really physically getting active, he gets pissed and

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Speaker 1: he wants to go harder. It's not me. And he's

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Speaker 1: really talented in the sport. And this past year he

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Speaker 1: has done a really good high school team and on

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Speaker 1: ninety plus percent of the team is probably in the

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Speaker 1: country or in the state. My son would have been

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Speaker 1: the starter at the hundred and six pounds. He's he's

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Speaker 1: pretty good on his team. They're pretty good. The one

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Speaker 1: oh six kid went fifty one and oh is the

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Speaker 1: day champ. So but I had people leading up to

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Speaker 1: it going hold them back a year. You know, I

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Speaker 1: have him going from wait and I'm sitting there going

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Speaker 1: why the hell for what? Like what that me? Like?

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Speaker 1: What are you gonna run away from competition? Like number one?

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Speaker 1: Who get better being in that environment with that kid

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Speaker 1: there and too he'll learn from that, he'll figure out

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Speaker 1: what he needs to do to get to that level.

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Speaker 1: And my point is nowadays coach so and so is

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Speaker 1: not starting shortstop catcher getting enough innings on their twelve

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Speaker 1: you team, the dad starts another team, they quit, they

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Speaker 1: go here, they go there. So the pat's being arranged

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Speaker 1: for the kid as opposed to fighting through, working through

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Speaker 1: the adversity. And can you talk a little bit about

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Speaker 1: that whole scenario, the value and maybe sitting the bench

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Speaker 1: of the way in your turn, I don't know, No,

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Speaker 1: there's I mean, that's the other thing in our culture

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Speaker 1: that there's so many examples nickels. You know we're trying

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Speaker 1: to do it for right. There's there's so many parents

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Speaker 1: out there that they want their they don't want their

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Speaker 1: child to hurt, they want their child to be successful

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Speaker 1: so bad. Maybe in a lot of cases more than

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Speaker 1: you know, the player does their their son or daughter

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Speaker 1: does that. They're trying to pave the way for them, right,

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Speaker 1: and sadly, we are teaching these young people the worst

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Speaker 1: lessons we can teach them in life, right that when

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Speaker 1: things get hard to hey, just hit reset. Right. I

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Speaker 1: mean the kids are used to that culture because all

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Speaker 1: the video games. Right, if the video games not going

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Speaker 1: my way, I can just the reset and start over. Right.

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Speaker 1: The life doesn't work that way. But what we are

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Speaker 1: doing as parents, in too many cases, we are doing

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Speaker 1: that for our children. We are you know, and I

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Speaker 1: know it's out of love and you don't want to

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Speaker 1: see your your your child hurting or not be successful.

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Speaker 1: But you've got to reflect back. We've got to reflect

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Speaker 1: back as parents and what has helped us be successful? Right?

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Speaker 1: What helped our our parents parents be successful? You know,

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Speaker 1: there is a little bit. There is hardship and life, right,

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Speaker 1: there is failure. Stop trying to do it for them, right,

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Speaker 1: Let them do it, because let me tell you, they're

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Speaker 1: smarter than we give them credit for it. Well, we

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Speaker 1: continue to try to do it for them. Nick. They

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Speaker 1: know they're smart kids, right, and to think that they

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Speaker 1: don't see that and know that that we're changing the

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Speaker 1: situation aastion that we're just gonna go ahead and say,

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Speaker 1: like your example, he he's got the sharting shortstop on

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Speaker 1: this team. You know we're gonna go travel three miles

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Speaker 1: to play for this team and pay more money to

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Speaker 1: go do this because they promised him that he'd be

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Speaker 1: the starting shortstop. They've promised him. You know, I deal

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Speaker 1: with it recruiting all the time. I told kids and

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Speaker 1: families all the time. They listen, I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: promise you anything other than you're going to be treated

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Speaker 1: fairly and honestly, and we're going to do everything as

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Speaker 1: a coaching staff of the program to support you and

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Speaker 1: your team needs to have the best possible winning experience

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Speaker 1: and you can develop as humanly possible. But if you

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Speaker 1: want me to sit here and tell you that you're

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Speaker 1: gonna be a starting shortstop, you're talking to the wrong guy. Right.

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Speaker 1: Why is that? It's not because they don't want the player, right.

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Speaker 1: I don't want him to go somewhere else. But if

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Speaker 1: he is ever going to achieve greatness, and he's ever

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Speaker 1: going to be the best player he can be and

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Speaker 1: ultimately maybe realize his dream and play at the major

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Speaker 1: league level. He has to earn it period in the story, right,

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Speaker 1: and if you just give it to them or change

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Speaker 1: their situation, they're gonna know. They're gonna know that they

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Speaker 1: didn't earn it, right, And so your scenario about your

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Speaker 1: son let him fail, right. I know it's hard as

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Speaker 1: a parent. I know it's very, very hard because you

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Speaker 1: don't want to see your son or daughter art, But

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Speaker 1: you're actually doing the best thing you can for them

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Speaker 1: because that's life, right. Nobody's going to hand them anything

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Speaker 1: in life. So let them work through that. When they

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Speaker 1: come out of it and ultimately are successful and win

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Speaker 1: the job or become the best player they can be,

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Speaker 1: then they will have true self confidence and really believe

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Speaker 1: that they achieve something, not that somebody just changed the

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Speaker 1: situation for them to uh to play it. The other

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Speaker 1: thing I want to I want to just go back

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Speaker 1: a little bit, Nick, And you had mentioned that your

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Speaker 1: question before about you know sometimes parents or players, you know,

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Speaker 1: the complaining about the coaches and things like that. You

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Speaker 1: brought this up at the end of your last year's Right.

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Speaker 1: Let me tell you, I'm amazed at this all the time. Nick.

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Speaker 1: Any recruit that we offer and comes to campus, we'd

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Speaker 1: always sit down with the parents or the player and

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Speaker 1: we talk to them, get to know them. I'd have

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Speaker 1: a series of questions for them and things like that

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Speaker 1: to get to know each other a little bit. But

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Speaker 1: ultimately decided, am I going to offer this young person

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Speaker 1: an opportunity to come to the University of Virginia. You know,

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Speaker 1: I am amazed how many people through our conversations and

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Speaker 1: I intentionally asked them, Hey, tell me about your your

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Speaker 1: high school coach, you know, uh, to tell me about

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Speaker 1: your travel ball coach. Talk to me a little bit

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Speaker 1: about that. Well, I'm not asking them that nick to

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Speaker 1: find out like what they truly I'm asking to see

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Speaker 1: what do they say about their coaches? And I am

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Speaker 1: shocked to hear how many parents and kids will, you know,

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Speaker 1: say not positive things about their coaches. And I sit

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Speaker 1: there and think, as a college coach, Well, I'm a coach.

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Speaker 1: I'm sitting in a chair across room and what are

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Speaker 1: what is what is he or his parents going to

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Speaker 1: say about me when maybe their experience doesn't go smoothly

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Speaker 1: right out of the gate, right, How are they going

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Speaker 1: to feel? Right? So it's it's you know, hey, you

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Speaker 1: make a decision to play for a program. You make

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Speaker 1: a decision to play for a coach. Loyalty to those

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Speaker 1: coaches is vital. And for the parents out there to

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Speaker 1: support those coaches. And when their son or daughter comes

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Speaker 1: home and starts to talk about this coach of that coach,

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Speaker 1: you have an opportunity to teach them about respect, right.

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Speaker 1: We have an opportunity to teach them how it valuable

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Speaker 1: that is and their development as an athlete and as

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Speaker 1: a person. When we come back, Coach O'Connor and I

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Speaker 1: discussed recruiting. Welcome back where Coach O'Connor and I left off.

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Speaker 1: We were about to dive into recruiting and the fear

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Speaker 1: a stokes and parents and athletes that they're missing out. Coach,

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Speaker 1: you know, you brought up the recruiting and and and

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Speaker 1: my experience. I wasn't the best baseball player that was

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Speaker 1: a little bit above average. I developed later. I was

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Speaker 1: definitely a later bloomer. So I didn't really start getting

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Speaker 1: looks to like literally my senior again, this is so

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Speaker 1: it's a little different nineties. I start getting some football

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Speaker 1: looks and and then all of a sudden, I start

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Speaker 1: getting you know, contacted for baseball. We we had a

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Speaker 1: really good year my senior year, and you know, I

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Speaker 1: get a letter from North Carolina Wesley and from coach Fox.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, you know, I go see him play.

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Speaker 1: Make a long story short. You know, at that time,

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Speaker 1: my ability, my development, that was the best place I

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Speaker 1: can go and I can play, I mean, and I

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Speaker 1: felt like I can play there, and we were competing

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Speaker 1: for national titles. But now forget it. If kids get

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Speaker 1: D two D three letters and it's like, dude, to

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Speaker 1: throw him in the garbage. And I think back my

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Speaker 1: D one team. I mean, I've played with Tim Levi

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Speaker 1: like we were in the same wood. Wouldn't bad lead together?

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Speaker 1: Guy was an a al a C C shortstop and

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Speaker 1: through I'm sitting there catching him, like what this guy's

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Speaker 1: out of his mind. He's so good. But it wasn't

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Speaker 1: like I was like that bad. You know. We won

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Speaker 1: the Coastal Playing League championship that year. My point is

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Speaker 1: I developed that was two years after, you know, it

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Speaker 1: was two years later. And I think it's important people

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Speaker 1: don't understand, like, not everyone's getting offered in eighth grade.

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Speaker 1: But I think that's what drives a lot. So parents

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Speaker 1: will point to the power five D one coach and say,

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Speaker 1: you say one thing, and I'm playing Devil's advocate here.

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Speaker 1: You say one thing, but yet you do this, And

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Speaker 1: I argue, in a minute, there's like twenty kids in

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Speaker 1: the country that get that, that are that good. Like

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Speaker 1: I don't mean that literally, but there's not that many.

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Speaker 1: That's a very small fraction. Isn't there something to be said?

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Speaker 1: Aren't there still kids that develop as sophomores junior seniors

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Speaker 1: in high school that still get attention and looks or

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Speaker 1: is it like everyone's afraid of missing this runaway train?

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Speaker 1: Can you talk a little about that? Yeah, you know this,

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Speaker 1: this is tough, you know, the whole the whole recruiting

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Speaker 1: college baseball recruiting because it's it's it's transitioned to be

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Speaker 1: in so early and early, and so it starts to

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Speaker 1: get people this feeling that, well, Jesus, I'm not getting

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Speaker 1: offers when I'm in ninth grade or tenth grade. Maybe

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Speaker 1: I'm not a major Division one player or things like that,

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Speaker 1: and it's totally wrong, it's incorrect, right, And so you know,

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Speaker 1: we're still recruiting players that you know, I mean, we're

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Speaker 1: still looking for one more senior player right now, right,

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Speaker 1: and so you know we're watching, you know, what's going

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Speaker 1: on in Perfect Game down in Jupiter to see if

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Speaker 1: somebody pops at maybe we add another player to our

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Speaker 1: recruiting process. So I don't believe it's ever too late. Um,

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Speaker 1: what I would encourage people to do is two things. Okay. One, develop, right,

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Speaker 1: don't get caught. It's dreams and goals are fine. There's

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Speaker 1: nothing wrong with having dreams and goals of aspiring to

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Speaker 1: play at the highest level. And whatever your sport is,

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Speaker 1: that's great. We need to have kids to have that.

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Speaker 1: But that can't drive everything. What needs to drive everything

407
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Speaker 1: is two things. One your development as a player, all right,

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Speaker 1: Even those kids that commit in the ninth grade, Hey,

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Speaker 1: guess what nick I mean? You know this, if they

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Speaker 1: don't develop by the time they get to those college campuses,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna get passed by and they're not gonna play.

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Speaker 1: So first and foremost development can't can't stop be consumed

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Speaker 1: with developing and becoming a winning championship player, right, not

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Speaker 1: just being a great skills player, being a winning championship player.

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Speaker 1: What it takes to help your team win, all right,

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Speaker 1: don't ever lose sight of that. Whether you commit as

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Speaker 1: a ninth grader or your opportunity doesn't come until after

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Speaker 1: your senior year in high school, keep developing, be consumed

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Speaker 1: with getting better. Just because you get that opportunity at

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Speaker 1: a young age doesn't mean that you haven't figured out.

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Speaker 1: You've got to keep keep progressing, moving forward. The second

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Speaker 1: thing I would share it would be there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of great options out there. Yeah, there're two Division one programs. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: sure they are, But that doesn't like as you said,

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Speaker 1: that wouldn't provide too many opportunities across this country, and

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Speaker 1: now you know, not the worldwide of opportunities kids to

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Speaker 1: come to play college baseball. So there is incredible, incredible

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Speaker 1: opportunities at division to Division three in AI a junior college.

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Speaker 1: Never turn your nose up to an opportunity, right, because

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00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:46,440
Speaker 1: you can have a great experience no matter where you're at. Hey, Nick,

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00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:50,960
Speaker 1: you know the Division three coach in Nebraska that has

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00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,520
Speaker 1: his Division three program in Nebraska. He cares just as

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00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,919
Speaker 1: much about his baseball program as Bryan O'Connor does about

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Speaker 1: the University of Virginia, right, no question, and he gives

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Speaker 1: his kids a great experience just like they have here.

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Speaker 1: It's just a little bit different resources. We got a

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00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:09,600
Speaker 1: little bit bigger of a stadium. We might have to

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00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:12,119
Speaker 1: create three more sets of uniforms that they have. But

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00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,960
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that you can't have an unbelievable experience

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00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:17,800
Speaker 1: like you had playing for Coach Fox at Wesleyan. Right,

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00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:20,200
Speaker 1: you can have a great experience and it can help

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00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:22,880
Speaker 1: mold and develop you. And hey, who knows that might

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00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:26,200
Speaker 1: lead to the major leagues, that might lead to opportunities, right,

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00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:28,840
Speaker 1: So don't turn your nose up to anything. And remember

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00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:32,680
Speaker 1: development never stops. You never know when that opportunity is

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00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:35,600
Speaker 1: gonna come your way. Coach, you're crushing it. You got

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00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:37,320
Speaker 1: me fired up. Tell me that you've got a room

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00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:39,840
Speaker 1: full of ninth grade of tenth graders and their parents

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00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,320
Speaker 1: in a room. You know, they're looking at you, they're listening, like,

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00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:45,920
Speaker 1: what can kids and their parents do to get themselves?

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00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: What can the parents do to help the kids get

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00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,920
Speaker 1: themselves in a position to become college athletes? They might

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00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:52,959
Speaker 1: not be full scholarship. Do you want kids? But they

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00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 1: can play somewhere? Right, Well, I think it first starts

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00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:59,320
Speaker 1: with us as parents, right that one, You know, like

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00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:01,679
Speaker 1: I had mentioned earlier, they'll try to do everything for

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00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:03,800
Speaker 1: them right, make them figure out. I talked about in

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Speaker 1: every camp, every camp that we that we have, you know,

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00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 1: I talked about failure and letting them fail, right, and

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00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:13,400
Speaker 1: that that's good, and not trying to do everything before them. Right.

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00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 1: The other thing that I would say, Nick, is, uh,

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00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 1: you know, you've got to try to put them in

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00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:23,199
Speaker 1: the most competitive environment that they can develop in. That also,

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00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 1: you know, gives them opportunities if they so choose to

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00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,080
Speaker 1: play other sports, like we talked about at the beginning, Right,

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00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:31,280
Speaker 1: don't believe that you live in this silo and it's

467
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:34,280
Speaker 1: got to be this one thing, right. Get them in

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00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:38,479
Speaker 1: an environment where their challenge every day that they they

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00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 1: step on the field of the court, right, that they're

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00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: surrounded by coaches that are passionate about what they're teaching.

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00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of coaches are telling that they

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00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,959
Speaker 1: have the answers, right, nobody has all the answers in

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00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:53,000
Speaker 1: this game, right. But does that coach have passion? Does

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00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:56,480
Speaker 1: he teach with passion? Is he there to challenge your

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00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:59,760
Speaker 1: player and have them continue to develop every day to

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00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: be the best player that they can be. I also

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00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 1: would say that be consumed with being a great teammate.

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Speaker 1: People ask me all the time, Hey, coach, you know,

479
00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 1: what does it? What do you look for in a player?

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00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: That's a really tough question. There's a lot that goes

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00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:15,800
Speaker 1: into that. But first and foremost, we want guys that

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00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 1: want to be great teammates, right, And secondly, we want

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Speaker 1: guys that are winners. Right. We want guys that love

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00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:24,720
Speaker 1: to compete and win. You know, we could talk all

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00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:28,480
Speaker 1: about you know, our players were prepared now than they

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00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:30,880
Speaker 1: were twenty years ago to play and win the game

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00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,080
Speaker 1: in college and things like that. You know, a lot

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00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:35,480
Speaker 1: has been done on that, right. You know, just do

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Speaker 1: everything you can to have your young person learn how

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Speaker 1: to be a great teammate and learn how to compete

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Speaker 1: and win. That's Brian O'Connor, had baseball coach at the

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Speaker 1: University of Virginia. Thanks for listening to the Reformed Sports

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00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,679
Speaker 1: Project podcast dom Nick Boncourt and Our goal is to

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00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 1: restore a healthy balance and perspective in all areas of

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00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 1: sports through education and advocacy. For updates, please follow us

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00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:01,159
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Twitter, and in Instagram, or check out our

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00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,720
Speaker 1: website by searching for the Reform Sports Project