Speaker 1: In our clubhouse, there's a saying right above the hallway
Speaker 1: to the girls locker room. It says person and bold
Speaker 1: all caps letters and then align and then athlete. So
Speaker 1: person first, athlete second, and the sooner they realize that
Speaker 1: it is the god honest truth that they're more important
Speaker 1: to me as a person than an athlete. That's when
Speaker 1: the magic happens.
Speaker 2: This is the Reform Sports Project, a podcast about restoring
Speaker 2: healthy balance and perspective in all areas of sports through
Speaker 2: education and advocacy. Hi, this is Nick Bonacor from the
Speaker 2: Reform Sports Podcast. My guest today is Patrick Murphy, head
Speaker 2: softball coach at the University of Alabama. Coach Murphy has
Speaker 2: helped build the Crimson Tide program from the very beginning,
Speaker 2: leading the team to a national championship victory, twenty four
Speaker 2: straight NCAA appearances, and seventeen Super regionals. Entering his twenty
Speaker 2: eighth year on the university's coaching staff, Patrick and I
Speaker 2: discuss why the best teams experienced vis curious, joy and
Speaker 2: other people's success, reminding his players that they are people
Speaker 2: first and athlete second, and why he has to saying
Speaker 2: in his program, can you handle thirty seconds? Of embarrassment
Speaker 2: for a lifetime of learning. Man, I got another awesome
Speaker 2: guest super up to have him head softball coach University
Speaker 2: of Alabama coach Pat Murphy, Coach, thanks so much for
Speaker 2: hopping on man.
Speaker 3: Nick, Thanks lot, coach, I got it.
Speaker 2: Mean congratulations Alabama Hall of Fame, Sports Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Last year, I think thirteen trips to the college. You know,
Speaker 2: the softball College World Series Women's College World Series national
Speaker 2: title in twenty twelve. Congrats, Like just an absolute dynamite program.
Speaker 2: A lot of coaches, a lot of sports parents, a
Speaker 2: lot of student athletes will listen to this, and coach,
Speaker 2: I got to ask, with all that success that you've had, like,
Speaker 2: how the hell do you start it? Like, I know
Speaker 2: you've been with the program since the mid nineties, is
Speaker 2: an assistant at Alabama, but like, how do you get
Speaker 2: the sustained success that seems to be the secret of
Speaker 2: the secret sauce that everyone's finding wanting to find?
Speaker 4: I should say, exactly, you know, this is starting year
Speaker 4: twelve at the University of Alabama for me, and I
Speaker 4: spent my probably first hour and a half of the
Speaker 4: morning texting anybody that has been with me for that long.
Speaker 1: Every boss so I've had at Alabama my current boss,
Speaker 1: doctor Karen Lee greg Burn, the athletic director at Alabama now.
Speaker 1: But it's just been a labor of love for sure,
Speaker 1: from day one, and it's been really really cool to
Speaker 1: be able to start a Division one program from scratch.
Speaker 1: And like you said, I was an assistant for the
Speaker 1: first two years and then I took over in July
Speaker 1: of ninety eight as the head coach.
Speaker 3: And been here ever since.
Speaker 1: But I think one of thet things is my associate
Speaker 1: head coach, Alison Habits. She's been here for twenty five years.
Speaker 1: She's been with me since I've been as head coach.
Speaker 1: So the consistency in our program, our string coach Michelle Dilts,
Speaker 1: she'sy to go on on year eighteen or nineteen with us.
Speaker 1: So that consistency and the staff, the people, I think
Speaker 1: that means a lot to the young ladies that come
Speaker 1: here because you know, once you get used to our system,
Speaker 1: we're pretty much going to be around, you know, for
Speaker 1: your entire career. And you know, I remember the first
Speaker 1: time we won the SEC And one of the coolest
Speaker 1: traditions at Alabama is you get a ring at halftime
Speaker 1: of a football game that next fall after you win
Speaker 1: a conference championship.
Speaker 3: So here we are out of.
Speaker 1: The fifty yard line, the athletic director and the president
Speaker 1: at the time are handing out rings to everybody on
Speaker 1: the team, the staff, and then as we're walking off, Malmore,
Speaker 1: the ad at the time, kind of puts his arm
Speaker 1: around me.
Speaker 3: And he was a backup quarterback when Joe Naman played.
Speaker 1: At Alabama and he's been around Alabama athletics for a
Speaker 1: long long time, and he kind of looked at me,
Speaker 1: and I know it wasn't a negative thing, it just
Speaker 1: was matter of factly he said, yeah, it's pretty cool,
Speaker 1: you know, first SEC championship, but it takes a really,
Speaker 1: really good program and a really good coach to win
Speaker 1: another one. And you know, I kind of looked up
Speaker 1: at him and I said, yes, sir, and then I thought,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to win another one, and
Speaker 1: just year and year out. I look for the same
Speaker 1: type of kid when we recruit. We want kids who
Speaker 1: want to be here, because when they want to be here,
Speaker 1: they're not going to look over their shoulder and think,
Speaker 1: what if.
Speaker 3: They're going to be better academically, They're.
Speaker 1: Going to be better socially and they're certainly going to
Speaker 1: be better athletically.
Speaker 3: So we kind of stuck with the same formula from
Speaker 3: day one.
Speaker 2: You know, as you're talking, it got me thinking about,
Speaker 2: Like I mentioned to you before, I was fortunate enough
Speaker 2: to play for Mike Fox and Scott Forbes and Charlie
Speaker 2: Long and such at North Carolina Wesley and before coach
Speaker 2: Fox took the job at University of North Carolina, and
Speaker 2: we you know, it was Division three, but I mean,
Speaker 2: we were in the World Series every year and we
Speaker 2: were fortunately win a national title in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2: But I remember when I was a sophomore, one of
Speaker 2: our freshmen at the time, we were about to win
Speaker 2: the conference championship. You know, we're sitting there on the
Speaker 2: edge of the dugout or whatever, and you know, you're
Speaker 2: getting ready to, you know, go celebrate with your teammates,
Speaker 2: and one of the freshmen looks at one of the
Speaker 2: upper class was actually the ace of our staff and says, so,
Speaker 2: what are we gonna do? You know, we're going to
Speaker 2: dog pile and all that, and and the upper classman,
Speaker 2: Sean Fleming shout out says to him, dude, we win
Speaker 2: the conference championship. Here we dogpile for regional and national championships.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: You know, we just expect we're gonna go out there,
Speaker 2: we're gonna shake hands, we're going to stop. But we
Speaker 2: don't dog pile for that. And I've never forgotten that
Speaker 2: story because you know, that was just the culture that
Speaker 2: was created. It was an expectation to go back to
Speaker 2: what you know, what you were describing, but that took
Speaker 2: time for the coaching staff to build. What I have
Speaker 2: found from my experience having played at a school that
Speaker 2: where that was the expectation is that wasn't an expectation
Speaker 2: put out by the coaching staff. That was an expectation
Speaker 2: that the players understood, and really it was led by
Speaker 2: the upper classmen, you know, getting the underclassmen in line.
Speaker 2: How do you create that? Is that when you have
Speaker 2: something really cooking, when when the players themselves or the
Speaker 2: athletes themselves are kind of leading that mentality.
Speaker 3: Definitely, I think you said it perfectly.
Speaker 1: When a team's player led, I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be a really really good team. And this was example
Speaker 1: this year where we had a really good senior class,
Speaker 1: including you know, Montana Fountain, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: best pitchers in the country and Ali Shipman dashing praying
Speaker 1: Faith Hensley, and you just kind of like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think one of the best things we do at Alabama,
Speaker 1: and we've done it for probably twenty years at least.
Speaker 1: I don't even remember the last time we didn't do it.
Speaker 1: But we do something called class dinners, And I used
Speaker 1: to have the entire team come over to my house
Speaker 1: the first week of school and I cooked dinner, and
Speaker 1: you know, there'd be thirty thirty five people there. The
Speaker 1: staff was invited and every time though, the new freshmen
Speaker 1: would be sitting in a corner by themselves, like the
Speaker 1: shyest kids at the junior high dance, scared of everything
Speaker 1: and wouldn't say a peep, and you know, it was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, we got to do something different. So
Speaker 1: the next year I did class dinners, where one class
Speaker 1: at a time would come. So the seniors come to
Speaker 1: my house first, I cooked, the juniors go to my
Speaker 1: associate head coach's house, she cooked dinner. Sophomores go to
Speaker 1: my pitching coach's house. They cook dinner, and then the
Speaker 1: freshmen come to my house as well. And I read
Speaker 1: one time in a book, and it was an educational
Speaker 1: administration book, and I don't remember the name of it,
Speaker 1: but there was a stat in there that just blew
Speaker 1: me away, and it was if a freshman at any
Speaker 1: college steps foot in a house within that community where
Speaker 1: the college is, they're like eighty eight percent more likely
Speaker 1: to return to that school the next year just by
Speaker 1: feeling at home one time. You know, that doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if it was a professor, a coach, whatever. And so
Speaker 1: I want the freshmen to feel at home immediately. And
Speaker 1: it's the first week of school. Some of them might
Speaker 1: already be feeling homesick, but I want them to be able
Speaker 1: to come to a house, you know, feel at home.
Speaker 1: I usually cook one of their favorite meals and we
Speaker 1: get going that way. But the seniors when they come over,
Speaker 1: as the dinners get older, the biggest team throughout it
Speaker 1: all is leadership. And basically the entire senior class dinner,
Speaker 1: all we talk about is leadership and how we're going
Speaker 1: to do it this year and how they're going to
Speaker 1: do it. And I asked specific questions of what do
Speaker 1: you think is holding you back right now as a
Speaker 1: really good leader, And every senior has to say it
Speaker 1: out loud and we take notes. It's very open. It's
Speaker 1: sometimes it gets vulnerable with their answers, but we want
Speaker 1: to hear that, so that consistency.
Speaker 3: Year after year after year.
Speaker 1: They started as a freshman at my house, we talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about leadership. Then we go to the
Speaker 1: sophomore class, talk about leadership there, junior, even more senior.
Speaker 1: All it is about leadership, and I think it's helped
Speaker 1: us year after year after year. And you know, we'll
Speaker 1: do tweaks in the itinerary, but I've handled those out
Speaker 1: and coaches clinics, and I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: have found that they're very valuable for their team as well.
Speaker 2: So it just seems to use the word vulnerable, you know,
Speaker 2: being vulnerable, or it sounds like you're trying to create
Speaker 2: a safe space. So I make it comfortable. I know
Speaker 2: what it's like to be a freshman, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's very it's just new, right, it's new. It's it
Speaker 2: could be overwhelming. There's a competitive piece in there. You're nervous,
Speaker 2: you're trying to feel it out. You're no longer the
Speaker 2: big fish in a small pond. Now you're just a
Speaker 2: You're just a fish. Women with a usually just a
Speaker 2: little fishwoman with a bunch of sharks trying to figure
Speaker 2: it out and could be very intimidating. Do you let
Speaker 2: some of it happen organically? Like do you do you
Speaker 2: really try to coach your upper classmen how to handle
Speaker 2: the underclassmen or is that something that evolves over time?
Speaker 2: I mean, and I guess the next step of that
Speaker 2: question is how much effort goes into on a day
Speaker 2: to day basis really trying to build as much of
Speaker 2: a relationship you can with those freshmen as they're onboarding
Speaker 2: into the fall.
Speaker 3: Well, I think first thing.
Speaker 1: One of the things we do at the junior class
Speaker 1: outing is we do this role playing game and there's
Speaker 1: I think there's five scenarios that we have come up
Speaker 1: with that have actually happened in the history of our program.
Speaker 3: And some of it's not so good. You know. Some
Speaker 3: of it's typical of a team where somebody.
Speaker 1: Is complaining in the dugout that they don't get to
Speaker 1: play or they don't get to hit or something. And
Speaker 1: you know the people that hear that the most are
Speaker 1: the kids, the teammates.
Speaker 3: They're usually not complaining in front of the coach.
Speaker 1: Right, So how do we equip the young ladies to
Speaker 1: kind of deal with that? How do they respond to
Speaker 1: somebody that says, you know, why aren't I playing? You know,
Speaker 1: I hit really good in practice the other day and
Speaker 1: it's happened. They're all like true stories. So the junior class,
Speaker 1: we do this little game in front of my assistant
Speaker 1: coaches fireplace.
Speaker 3: It's like the stage and two of the coaches are
Speaker 3: the actors. We grab a junior. She goes up on stage.
Speaker 1: The two coaches talk about whatever the situation is, and
Speaker 1: then they start to engage the junior and she has
Speaker 1: to come up with what she would say to her
Speaker 1: teammate in this situation. And it takes about five to
Speaker 1: ten minutes each each little scenario, and then the others
Speaker 1: clap for her and they sit down and we go.
Speaker 3: Okay, how do you think she handled it?
Speaker 1: Does anybody have something maybe that they would do differently
Speaker 1: or say differently? How would you do it? And then
Speaker 1: the coaching staff gives their opinions. Man, Nick, you handled
Speaker 1: that perfectly. What you said at that time, that's money
Speaker 1: right there. That was a perfect response.
Speaker 3: And then we go from there.
Speaker 1: So that is definitely something we do and it's usually
Speaker 1: first week of September, so.
Speaker 3: They kind of have a little practice under their belt
Speaker 3: with that.
Speaker 1: I forget the second part of your question, but we
Speaker 1: do a lot of We have a team retreat in
Speaker 1: the fall. We do a ton of team building. I
Speaker 1: have a classroom actually in our building. Everybody's assigned a
Speaker 1: chair at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2: So that includes a freshman as well, like do you
Speaker 2: go out of your way with freshmen in particularly just
Speaker 2: keep it all together?
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: We also do like separate things for just a freshman,
Speaker 1: and I'll pick like or four words that really mean
Speaker 1: a lot to our program, like grit, legacy, Moodida, servant leadership,
Speaker 1: and just the freshman will come to the classroom. I
Speaker 1: literally set a timer on my phone and I'll say, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is going to be twenty minutes.
Speaker 3: And if I'm still talking and my phone goes off,
Speaker 3: you're free to go. We're done. And I usually have
Speaker 3: a little story, I have a video.
Speaker 1: We'll maybe have an alum call in and have her
Speaker 1: say what grit meant to her, what servant leadership meant
Speaker 1: to her, what Medida means to her, and modida is
Speaker 1: having vicarious joy in someone else's success, So the opposite
Speaker 1: would be jealousy or envy, and we don't want any
Speaker 1: of that in our clubhouse and our sport because I
Speaker 1: think that's where teams die, when somebody becomes jealous and
Speaker 1: then they become detached from the program and the team,
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 3: Just not a good thing.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure you realize that, but we really try
Speaker 1: to teach the culture to the freshman right away.
Speaker 3: So then smooth sailing for the next three years?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 3: Modida Moudita named you.
Speaker 1: D I t a.
Speaker 2: I've never heard that before, and I got to tell you,
Speaker 2: you know, because I've seen it in my professional life,
Speaker 2: and it's like it doesn't matter whether it's a professional
Speaker 2: life or whether it's in a locker room. And I
Speaker 2: never understood this. I never took pleasure in seeing someone
Speaker 2: else struggle, like I want to see someone succeed because
Speaker 2: that reassures me that I can too. I just need
Speaker 2: to do what they do. It's like I just got
Speaker 2: to do what this person is doing. But there are
Speaker 2: people out there, particularly in sports, people will pull for
Speaker 2: someone to struggle, you know what, I mean, to get
Speaker 2: their shop that I don't believe. I don't know of
Speaker 2: anyone that ever succeeded as a result of that. But
Speaker 2: that is something I'm so glad you brought that, something
Speaker 2: that is real, and it goes on. How do you
Speaker 2: balance that because, let's face it, in order to have
Speaker 2: a really successful program, even for me in my last
Speaker 2: couple of years, when I was the number one catcher
Speaker 2: and I knew I was going to start, But you know,
Speaker 2: coach with Tom, hey, we're bringing this other kid in.
Speaker 2: It's almost like you want to keep some one on
Speaker 2: the edge of their seat a little bit right, keep
Speaker 2: a little sense of urgency so there's no complacency. But
Speaker 2: how do you juggle that competition because you're recruiting new
Speaker 2: players and everyone wants to start. But keep them where
Speaker 2: they can balance the team aspect that and put aside
Speaker 2: their ego if they just didn't win the job.
Speaker 1: Yes, so number one, we have to teach them what
Speaker 1: the bigger picture is. You always have to have the
Speaker 1: bigger picture of mind, and that's getting degree from the
Speaker 1: University of Alabama, being a successful business person for forty
Speaker 1: fifty years after you graduates.
Speaker 3: That's number one. You see the bigger picture.
Speaker 1: Way too many kids and parents only see what's ten
Speaker 1: feet in front of them, and that is just so
Speaker 1: upsetting me when that happens and they don't realize the
Speaker 1: bigger picture is what really truly matters, So we try
Speaker 1: to hammer that home from the very beginning. The second
Speaker 1: thing is, and sometimes this is more for parents than kids,
Speaker 1: but we try to get our young laby. He needs
Speaker 1: to understand they do not have to be on the
Speaker 1: field to help us win. They do not have to
Speaker 1: be playing in a game to help us win. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna love you no matter if.
Speaker 3: You go zero for four, four for four, or are.
Speaker 1: The pinch runner in the sixth inning room. We need
Speaker 1: to run, okay. And you know, in our clubhouse, there's
Speaker 1: a saying right above the hallway to the girls locker room,
Speaker 1: and it says person in bold all caps letters and
Speaker 1: then align and then athlete. So person first, athlete second,
Speaker 1: and it's in gold letters, and it's the only thing
Speaker 1: in our entire clubhouse that's written in gold. Okay, because
Speaker 1: it's not important to us, And the sooner they realize
Speaker 1: that it is the god honest truth that they're more
Speaker 1: important to me as a person than an athlete, that's
Speaker 1: when the magic happens. The sky's the limit with the team,
Speaker 1: the young lady, but I have to do things. I
Speaker 1: have to say things, the team to say things.
Speaker 3: We're really really.
Speaker 1: Big in affirmation, and it just it kind of has
Speaker 1: snowballed over the years. But this fall or last ball,
Speaker 1: when we started, it was team twenty seven, which is
Speaker 1: the twenty seven to year valve by the Softball At
Speaker 1: the very first team meeting, I remember saying I want
Speaker 1: affirmation to be just as easily talked about as accountability.
Speaker 1: So we do something called prompts and own its at
Speaker 1: the end of every practice.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to give Nick.
Speaker 1: A prompt and then you say what you loved about Nick, okay,
Speaker 1: And then when everybody's done with the props, I'll say, Okay,
Speaker 1: somebody have an own it. And that means they're going
Speaker 1: to take accountability for maybe a mistake that day, or
Speaker 1: maybe they didn't go so hard for a ground ball
Speaker 1: or a fly ball, or they didn't die for a
Speaker 1: ball or whatever it is. So the props are really
Speaker 1: quite easy and they flow, and it's awesome to see
Speaker 1: and they're really good at it.
Speaker 3: You know. I was really proud of this team.
Speaker 1: But then when you come to the own it's it's
Speaker 1: not as many, and usually it's maybe one, and then
Speaker 1: maybe the third day there's two, and then maybe the
Speaker 1: two weeks into it, there's like four people, and then
Speaker 1: you know, I really believe that if I can affirm
Speaker 1: the behavior I love in you, Nick, I should be
Speaker 1: able to turn around and say, Nick, you got to
Speaker 1: be better, dude. We need you to win because I
Speaker 1: just affirm something that truly truly love in you. And
Speaker 1: another thing that we always say is you can't be
Speaker 1: fake about it. You have to be genuine with either
Speaker 1: your praise or you know, let's.
Speaker 3: Get your head out of your butt.
Speaker 1: So if they realize that they're coming from a good place,
Speaker 1: and when they affirm you, it should be the same
Speaker 1: exact thing when they hold you accountable for something. I
Speaker 1: think it's really really hard for kids nowadays to be
Speaker 1: able to accept the criticism.
Speaker 3: They can take the praise right, but to be able
Speaker 3: to take the accountability and.
Speaker 1: The criticism as easily as the affirmation. It just does
Speaker 1: wonders for a team, and this team this past year
Speaker 1: for us was probably one of the best I've ever
Speaker 1: had with those two words.
Speaker 2: When we come back Coach Murphy and I discuss self
Speaker 2: esteem and how parent egos can negatively impact their child's success.
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Speaker 2: Team Snap customers with mid to large size organizations. Where
Speaker 2: we left off, Patrick and I were about to talk
Speaker 2: about why he values the intangibles that potential recruits bring
Speaker 2: to the team and the importance of athletes taking eight
Speaker 2: weeks off throughout the year. You're kind of you're getting
Speaker 2: me fired up, because I mean, I love when I hear,
Speaker 2: especially folks at your level who are so successful, say
Speaker 2: things that it's like God, you know, I believe in it,
Speaker 2: you know, and I've lived it, and it's what I
Speaker 2: try to be. And you're not perfect at it. But
Speaker 2: you know, as a parent and as someone I have
Speaker 2: six kids, a lot of the audience knows that anywhere
Speaker 2: from my oldest is eighteen, youngest is going to be
Speaker 2: five here soon. It's like, you love your kids. Now,
Speaker 2: I'm a little bit different. I don't like to see
Speaker 2: them struggle, but I look at struggle as a gift,
Speaker 2: you know. I look at struggle as a learning opportunity.
Speaker 2: I look at struggle as this is an opportunity to
Speaker 2: get better and no matter what it is. But it
Speaker 2: is very different, especially in the youth. And I hear
Speaker 2: a lot of nightmare stories in the travel softball realm
Speaker 2: where everyone's chasing that thing and and that scholarship piece
Speaker 2: or whatever, and you know, and that god that chase
Speaker 2: starts a day nine ten years old. With parents, and
Speaker 2: you know, it's hard as a parent of times to
Speaker 2: not look at your kid as if they can't do
Speaker 2: any wrong right, the world revolves around them. How important
Speaker 2: isn't though, for parents to allow coaches to coach their
Speaker 2: kid and to allow them to struggle. And have you
Speaker 2: had experiences where you've had kids come on campus where
Speaker 2: they've had very little, if any adversity, and they've been
Speaker 2: told they're great their whole life, and they get there
Speaker 2: in the first sign of struggle that they fold. And
Speaker 2: the opposite, how many kids have you seen really really struggle,
Speaker 2: had to really work their tail off, and then they
Speaker 2: click on all cylinders when they get on campus because
Speaker 2: this isn't a new struggle for them.
Speaker 3: Both of those.
Speaker 1: But the thing that I still like would bring to
Speaker 1: the forefront with all this is the parent has to
Speaker 1: realize that, you know, the coach.
Speaker 3: Is going to love their kid no matter what she does.
Speaker 1: So it's okay if she's hitting two fifty because the
Speaker 1: coach is okay. I think way too many times, self esteem, ego,
Speaker 1: you name, it is all wrapped up in batting average
Speaker 1: or eer and I've heard it, I've seen it. You know,
Speaker 1: I've seen a young lady give up a home run
Speaker 1: and a travel ball Toronto and the dad literally punches
Speaker 1: a tree that's next to him.
Speaker 3: That's just not good.
Speaker 1: Or the young lady goes oh for four and on
Speaker 1: the ride back to the hotel, not a word is
Speaker 1: said in a car, So all she's thinking to herself
Speaker 1: is my dad only loves me.
Speaker 3: If I go four for four or gets a hit.
Speaker 1: That's just not a good, good path to go down
Speaker 1: as a parent. You know, one of the books that
Speaker 1: I recommend to any gentleman that has daughters. And our
Speaker 1: equipment manager just told me yesterday that he's having a daughter.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, dude, I got a book for you.
Speaker 1: And it's called Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, as by a
Speaker 1: doctor Meg Meeker, and it's m E E K E R.
Speaker 1: And I've read it probably ten times, and it seems
Speaker 1: like and I don't know how many girls you have
Speaker 1: or what's the ratio of the kids, but.
Speaker 2: I got five boys, one girl, a lot of testosterone
Speaker 2: in my house.
Speaker 1: Usually my baseball buddies, that's the opposite. They have three girls,
Speaker 1: four girls, five girls, one boy or no boys. So
Speaker 1: that's why I always recommend this book. But if the
Speaker 1: parent is okay with the kid being a role player,
Speaker 1: the kid will be okay with it.
Speaker 3: It's very, very.
Speaker 1: Difficult to get a kid to buy in to be
Speaker 1: a member of the team, to be a part of
Speaker 1: something bigger than what she is if the parent is
Speaker 1: not okay with it, and that is just unfortunately, because
Speaker 1: usually the kids are okay. The kids are fine, we
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about the young lady. It's it's
Speaker 1: unfortunately some parents that the ego gets in the way
Speaker 1: and kind of ruins a good situation for the young lady.
Speaker 2: The pushback on that would be coach, you know, my
Speaker 2: kids on a great team, and they need exposure because
Speaker 2: they're not going to let the coach. Murphy's not gonna
Speaker 2: see my daughter if they're not getting the same amount
Speaker 2: of playtime. And I'm also paying big bucks, you know
Speaker 2: for this, and it's just not fair and YadA, YadA, YadA,
Speaker 2: YadA YadA, because let's face it, the exposure piece is
Speaker 2: what I mean. I'm sorry, it seems like that is
Speaker 2: exactly what drives a lot of this. The whole entire travel,
Speaker 2: youth sports tourism industry that's you know, growing by leaps
Speaker 2: and bounds, and it's a thirty billion dollar roughly industry.
Speaker 2: It's projected by twenty twenty nine to be upwards of
Speaker 2: an eighty billion dollar industry. So it's like, you're spending
Speaker 2: all this money I want to return on my investment.
Speaker 2: How do you coach to the life lessons when it's like,
Speaker 2: because not for nothing, A lot of these parents are
Speaker 2: being pitched the idea that hey play for me and
Speaker 2: I got an in with coach Murphy or I'm just
Speaker 2: using it as an example, but that happens all the time.
Speaker 2: So a lot of times parents are are being manipulated
Speaker 2: in some ways. You know, not in all cases, but
Speaker 2: how do you navigate that?
Speaker 1: You know? And when we have camps and clinics, I
Speaker 1: always say, if you want to play.
Speaker 3: At the next level, there's this for everybody.
Speaker 1: And you know an AIA schools win national championships, there's
Speaker 1: JUCO national championships. Every level has a national championship, so
Speaker 1: there's places for everybody. But you have to be honest
Speaker 1: with yourself in terms of where is the spot where
Speaker 1: I need to be?
Speaker 3: Okay, we have a.
Speaker 1: Saying in our program, can you handle thirty seconds of
Speaker 1: embarrassment for a lifetime of learning? Because what I'm about
Speaker 1: to tell you, Nick, you might be a little embarrassed
Speaker 1: about it, but it's probably going to help you for
Speaker 1: a lifetime, So I'll say that probably the first week
Speaker 1: of school I'll use that saying, and then maybe in
Speaker 1: the fall there's a time where I need to say,
Speaker 1: you're a little short on this whatever the whatever the
Speaker 1: situation might be. And then I'll say, do you remember
Speaker 1: what I said about thirty seconds of embarrassment because it
Speaker 1: could happen right now, But do you want a lifetime
Speaker 1: of learning? And you know what the answer always is, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: let me hear it. So you know, and we always
Speaker 1: say you have to be truly honest to your teammates
Speaker 1: in order to be a really good friend. You know,
Speaker 1: you cannot beat around the bush. You have to be
Speaker 1: able to be one hundred percent honest with your teammates
Speaker 1: to help them out. That's that's what they want to hear.
Speaker 1: They want to hear the honest truth. And I think
Speaker 1: it was was it Joe Madden that had the quote
Speaker 1: where it said, you know, if I lie to my players,
Speaker 1: they're going to hate me for life. If I tell
Speaker 1: them the truth, they might dislike me for two weeks. Sure,
Speaker 1: you know, just got to tell them the truth all
Speaker 1: the time, all right.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you this as a legend in coaching,
Speaker 2: but obviously in the sport of softball. Set the record
Speaker 2: straight for softball parents, like, does it matter if a
Speaker 2: kid is a multi sport athlete or does it matter
Speaker 2: if the kid's been playing softball year round since they're eight?
Speaker 2: Do you have a preference? Do you think there is
Speaker 2: any correlation to being a multi sport athlete or a
Speaker 2: kid that specialized and plays a softball year around that
Speaker 2: they're better or worse or is it all an individual
Speaker 2: case by case? Like where do you stand and is
Speaker 2: there a right or wrong?
Speaker 1: I absolutely love multi sport kids. Boy girl, I feel
Speaker 1: like once you're done with your softball, baseball, basketball, whatever
Speaker 1: it is that you play that you're like primary. I
Speaker 1: think it gives your entire body, your mental outlook, everything,
Speaker 1: a chance to be able to just take a deep breath.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Let's say you play baseball in the summer in the
Speaker 1: fall and then you want to play basketball, Go for it.
Speaker 3: Do it.
Speaker 1: It's different muscles, and you know, one of the coolest
Speaker 1: things about it is you might not start in basketball.
Speaker 1: You're probably the top dog in baseball or softball, but
Speaker 1: when it comes to basketball, you love it. But you're
Speaker 1: like the six seventh to eight person. You know how
Speaker 1: many life lessons you're going to learn there. But you know,
Speaker 1: one of the questions we always ask every recruit is
Speaker 1: have you always been in the starting lineup? And if not,
Speaker 1: how did you handle that?
Speaker 3: What happened?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: And almost every single time, obviously they start it in softball, but.
Speaker 1: Then the young lady will say, well, you know, I
Speaker 1: did play basketball, and shoot, I really got on the court.
Speaker 1: And then I said, well, how did you handle that?
Speaker 1: She said, I loved it, I loved the team. We
Speaker 1: were really good. So you know, you try to ask
Speaker 1: all these leading questions because what I'm getting at is,
Speaker 1: if you come here and you don't play, what is
Speaker 1: it going to be like? Because best case scenario, Nick,
Speaker 1: you're going to start every gamut catcher. Yeah, case scenario,
Speaker 1: you're not going to play. How do you handle it?
Speaker 1: And I don't think a lot of people think about it.
Speaker 2: When you you mentioned the recruiting piece of it, like
Speaker 2: how much of an impact for you are the parents like?
Speaker 2: Did an impact? Negatively? If dad is punching the tree,
Speaker 2: are you like, dude, I don't want that guy? That's
Speaker 2: that that could be a problem.
Speaker 1: Yes, Unfortunately, that's not something that we would recruit. That's
Speaker 1: not somebody we would recruit for sure. I like to
Speaker 1: see they go over four and they strike out three times.
Speaker 1: I'm usually trying to go as close to the dugout
Speaker 1: as we possibly can to see how she's handling that.
Speaker 3: Does she go to the end of the dugout out
Speaker 3: and throw her stuff or does she put her stuff, you.
Speaker 1: Know, in the helmet rack, put her bat down, take
Speaker 1: her batting gloves off, and then get in the front
Speaker 1: of the dug out and start cheering for the next kid.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I think you tell a lot by watching a kid
Speaker 1: when they fail versus you know, the starters shoot, they
Speaker 1: love and everything. Right, that's easy to be a starter.
Speaker 1: The hardest thing is to not be a starter and
Speaker 1: still pull for the team, you know, and can you
Speaker 1: do that?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: And you know, the role player to me is the
Speaker 1: reason why we win championships and why we're successful because
Speaker 1: they have good vibe about them and they cheer for
Speaker 1: the person in front of them. Now, they don't give up,
Speaker 1: and they don't settle. Like you said at the very
Speaker 1: beginning of this, I don't want anybody settling because then
Speaker 1: it's kind of a waste of a spot on the roster.
Speaker 3: I want you to push the starter.
Speaker 1: Of the time and make her better because if you
Speaker 1: both get better, the team is going to get better.
Speaker 3: Coach.
Speaker 2: As we wrap up here, you got the mic right,
Speaker 2: You're a set in the stage, You're on the podium.
Speaker 2: You're speaking to a room full of five hundred at
Speaker 2: student athletes and their parents in there. You know, there
Speaker 2: anywhere from eighth grade to a junior in high school.
Speaker 2: These are all kids that want to come play at Alabama.
Speaker 2: They want to play softball for you, or they just
Speaker 2: want to get to the next level. What do they
Speaker 2: have to do to get on your radar? What are
Speaker 2: the things that you're looking for to be a part
Speaker 2: of your program.
Speaker 3: Well, I think number one is.
Speaker 1: And it's probably the most boring thing in the world,
Speaker 1: but be good at the fundamentals of anything in whatever
Speaker 1: sports you're playing. So when a coach sees you, they
Speaker 1: secret things and everything you know, and softball and baseball
Speaker 1: season for me, throw run hit field, you know, like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. And you should be able to walk
Speaker 1: past a field and say, shure, that's an athlete. Wow,
Speaker 1: look at her. I'll give you a little background on
Speaker 1: that too. Is one of the questions we ask everybody
Speaker 1: is if you come to Alabama, what type of intangible
Speaker 1: would you bring to the program? And then I always say,
Speaker 1: do you know what an intangible is? And sometimes they don't,
Speaker 1: sometimes they do. Tangible is something you can't see, touch
Speaker 1: or feel, and it's something inside you. A tangible thing
Speaker 1: is when I walk across the field and I look
Speaker 1: over my shoulder, I see, wow, she can throw, she
Speaker 1: can hit, she can feel as an athlete, she can run.
Speaker 1: But that's easy. Anybody can see that. You know, my
Speaker 1: mom could walk across the field and say, wow, she's
Speaker 1: a good athlete. But what I want to know is
Speaker 1: what's inside you, which is the bigger picture. What would
Speaker 1: you bring to the program if you came to us
Speaker 1: that I don't know yet, Like what's inside your heart?
Speaker 3: What type of kid are you? What type of person
Speaker 3: are you?
Speaker 1: What type of leadership trade could you bring that I
Speaker 1: don't know about you? And when I asked that question,
Speaker 1: the parents are just they know everything about the young
Speaker 1: lady and they want to talk for her, and sometimes
Speaker 1: they even like sit on their hands.
Speaker 3: Because they're about to talk.
Speaker 1: And I realize that the young lady needs to answer
Speaker 1: the question. And some of the answers and Nick had
Speaker 1: just been would just blow you out of the water.
Speaker 1: It's just unbelievable. And those are the kids I want
Speaker 1: in the program. But see the bigger picture. Work hard
Speaker 1: on the fundamental obviously, kind to have the grades, you know,
Speaker 1: to get any school, be a well rounded kid, because
Speaker 1: there's way too many injuries nowadays, you know, after done
Speaker 1: in high school, in summer ball, it's just way, way
Speaker 1: too many.
Speaker 3: It's overused.
Speaker 1: You know, the best orthopedic in the world was doctor
Speaker 1: Andrews and Birmingham and yeah, he had come over to
Speaker 1: Alabama one time. They talk to all the string coaches
Speaker 1: out like trainers and coaches because there was this rash
Speaker 1: of shoulder injuries. And I'll never forget if he said,
Speaker 1: you know, every athlete needs to take eight weeks off
Speaker 1: of their activity in a year. Eight weeks, so put
Speaker 1: down the football, put down the baseball, put down the bat,
Speaker 1: whatever it is.
Speaker 3: And he didn't. He didn't mean he had to.
Speaker 1: Do it consecutively, like two months off, but just sit
Speaker 1: it down and stay in shape.
Speaker 3: Whatever.
Speaker 1: And when I say that at coaches clinics, almost every
Speaker 1: single time I get a coach who's usually a dad
Speaker 1: that comes up and says, did you say eight.
Speaker 3: Days or eight weeks? And I spent eight weeks.
Speaker 1: Just take some time off, And it just it drives
Speaker 1: me nuts when I see the tweets that say hashtag
Speaker 1: no days off. Yes, there needs to be days off,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them.
Speaker 2: I freaking love it. Doctor Andrews, that's the goat in
Speaker 2: this space, and I've read his research and seen his works.
Speaker 2: It's mine about Coach. I can't thank you enough for
Speaker 2: coming on and sharing. You sound a lot. You and
Speaker 2: coach I have Coach Tim Corbin on episode one, and
Speaker 2: you guys have a lot in common. He talks a
Speaker 2: lot about the classroom and you know, with his coaching,
Speaker 2: philosophy and teaching, you remind me a lot of Coach Corps.
Speaker 2: So guys are both stud So I can't thank you
Speaker 2: enough for coming on to Sharon. This has been freaking awesome.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, and that's a great comparison. I respect
Speaker 1: the heck out of Coach Corbyn.
Speaker 2: Well, I wish you the best of luck, and you know,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you're gonna have another hell of a year.
Speaker 2: But I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 3: Coach, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: That's Patrick Murphy, head softball coach at the University of Alabama.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Reform Sports Podcast. If you've
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