16 | The Evolution of Softball Recruiting: What's Changed Since Coach Margo's Collegiate Days?

[00:00:00] My dad and I won his relationship with me on the field. It was always so good. You know,

[00:00:08] like it was more of what can we do as a team not like, he would just do it just always

[00:00:13] be like, he looks like I know what you want and this is what you told me and I know

[00:00:18] how to get you there. So, trust me, and that's kind of what our was like from eight to eight

[00:00:24] years ago. You know, and he knew when to outsource the coaches. He knew like, hey look,

[00:00:29] like we can older and he needs a hair from somebody else. It wasn't like a total power of

[00:00:34] like under dad, you know, it was so much more about just like keeping our relationship

[00:00:38] healthy, making sure that we work in. And it was such a great time with us to be together.

[00:00:43] Hello and welcome to Catching You, a Dad and Daughters Softball journey. I'm Rusty,

[00:00:48] a Dad who's been in the dugout and on the sidelines.

[00:00:52] When I'm Lacey, the daughter who's journeyed through softball has been filled with incredible

[00:00:55] wins, tough losses and so many lessons both on and off the field.

[00:01:00] For the past 16 years, we've navigated the highs and lows of softball together from

[00:01:04] the local fields to national tournaments and everything in between.

[00:01:08] From the challenges of recruitment during COVID to the mental and emotional road coaster

[00:01:12] that comes with being a student athlete, we'll be sharing the perspectives of both the

[00:01:16] parent and athlete and first-hand experience of the impact of sports on mental health

[00:01:20] and the importance of support from the sidelines.

[00:01:23] Welcome back, everybody to Catching You. I'm your co-host Rusty Ham with me is my other

[00:01:28] co-host Lacey Ham, my daughter, Lacey's Day Hi.

[00:01:32] Hi everybody.

[00:01:33] And we have a special guest with us. Her name is Margot Kurt and I want to get the last

[00:01:40] name right.

[00:01:42] Off-stark, a starkey.

[00:01:44] Did I say it right? Margot?

[00:01:46] You got there. You were not playing there.

[00:01:48] And it had a hard right turn off-stark, sticky. It's kind of like I think I always tell

[00:01:54] people like it's like off-stridged, like off-stark, sticky but yeah, no worries.

[00:01:58] Just call me Coach Oz. That's the easier way to go or Coach Margot.

[00:02:02] Coach Margot, right? We'll get into that in a second. So Coach Margot, she played for

[00:02:08] Texas A&M, Corpus Tristy out there in Texas.

[00:02:11] Yes.

[00:02:12] 2010.

[00:02:13] Right.

[00:02:14] Go Islanders.

[00:02:15] Go Islanders. Yeah, and she currently shoots a head coach at Decan Baptist School because

[00:02:21] the head is off-roadcooked there. And you coach volleyball too, right? Is that what it

[00:02:25] reminds me of?

[00:02:26] Yes.

[00:02:27] We get to have the privilege of coaching two sports and volleyball is the next best thing

[00:02:33] I know about the converts. So in it's a lot of fun and it's only it's middle school.

[00:02:38] So I mean, a lot of it is just, you know, the introducing into the sport too.

[00:02:42] Yeah. And then Coach Margot also has a very large following on TikTok. I think you're

[00:02:49] nearing 27,000 followers. It's under softball with Margot, right? Can you describe that

[00:02:56] a little bit?

[00:02:58] So what happened was that I was training people like full time. I was doing that when

[00:03:05] I was single and then I got married and I had babies in just the time frame of like me

[00:03:09] going and like training full time and being like full time in place in the world was not

[00:03:13] obtainable whatsoever. So I just like, you know what? After I got like my bearings with

[00:03:17] the second trial that was like, let me just like start posting videos online and see like

[00:03:21] if anybody remotely hears what I have to say. And come to find out it's helped out like

[00:03:28] you know, a couple people and that's really what the goal is. I mean, there was no actual

[00:03:32] like plan of attack for like this is my company. Well, it was more like I have a fast

[00:03:37] effort is I can't be there physically. So what can I do to help this work grow and share

[00:03:41] my experiences good and bad? And people can relate to that stuff. And if you're real

[00:03:47] and you're like a genuine person on that app, I feel like it will come right back to you

[00:03:52] 10 full. So try to posting videos and didn't really know what the heck I was doing. I'm

[00:03:57] not like the social media guru by any means, but as you do them and you learn,

[00:04:02] people are going to get better at anything you're doing multiple times, you know?

[00:04:06] And here we are now talking on a y'all's podcast. So it really been not just a great way to like

[00:04:13] share knowledge, but it's also been an awesome hobby to be creative and use my brain like a different

[00:04:18] way because world is changing. You have to be good at social media to get out there. And I've met

[00:04:23] a lot of cool people including you know? So it's really been in my husband and I have

[00:04:29] gotten to experience a lot of cool things like literally like we would spin up in the end as like

[00:04:34] two months in December just like killing with them in Corpus. And we've gotten to do like a ton of

[00:04:40] it. I would have you can't even like pay for, you know? Just experiences that we've had. So

[00:04:44] it's definitely it's definitely a cool one. Very cool. So talk about talk about the

[00:04:50] beginnings of Coach Margo the early days, you know, the wreckball days. And then just kind of just

[00:04:57] describe your journey as a softball player and how you got to college with it. Yeah. So I started

[00:05:03] playing when I was little of course like anyone else. My dad was like a huge part of that. And

[00:05:09] he was, I've always been a hard worker but my dad was even more a harder worker than I was. And so

[00:05:15] when I wanted to you know take off or whatever he would just kind of let like piece the mind behind

[00:05:19] and be like, Hey, like if you want this like we're here and well, help you. But if you don't, you know

[00:05:23] like you're only going to get whatever you put into this sport, you know out of it. So

[00:05:28] you know, obviously play high school ball. When I was playing there was really like no 14s or 16s.

[00:05:33] It was like 12s or 18s. And so that was like a really big difference than compared to what it is

[00:05:38] now because you either went from like playing like literally 12 you like little kidball and then

[00:05:42] your fun with the big girls like you were just like thrown in this like a barcy sport. Wow. And

[00:05:47] as the other day we, so I played in high school. We didn't really play travel ball that much when

[00:05:51] I was in like 10 you 12 you we played literally not what we did. And because there really wasn't

[00:05:56] that many girls playing in this sport is grown exponentially since then. But played in high school,

[00:06:02] we had a we have a very competitive high school district where I grew up in Texas. And it

[00:06:08] about getting recruited to you. Ain't no purpose play there for four years. I consider myself

[00:06:14] super blessed to have that opportunity to be on scholarship to have those experiences meet those

[00:06:19] girls. I mean all the things that you could ever think of like I found my best bit at a

[00:06:24] random corpus. It wasn't the biggest place I could have gone but it was exactly where I needed

[00:06:30] to be academically, athletically like I played every single game but two games like my bowl four

[00:06:35] years you know. So that just goes to show you like it's not really about how big you go. It's

[00:06:41] like what fits your needs. After that I immediately dumped into coaching. It was like what am I

[00:06:47] going to do now? Like I'm nothing you know like my life is softball like I love it so much. And so

[00:06:52] I started doing private lessons. I mainly focus on pitching and hitting that's like my forte.

[00:06:57] That's what I did in college. I did and then I hit for the pitchers that didn't hit. And obviously

[00:07:03] some of the hardest skills that you could have is pitching and hitting. And so I just

[00:07:07] howling silly how to get better at it. And you know always even if you're playing in college,

[00:07:11] you don't always have the like the coaches that you need to get for those hurtled and hums and

[00:07:16] something like that. Like I didn't even have a pitching coach my junior senior year in college.

[00:07:20] They had three folding like two building coaches that I had coached so you know you're struggling

[00:07:25] with your snaps and you're struggling with your you know like breaks like hey girl hope you can

[00:07:29] figure it out. Yeah yeah. You know what's something so it definitely stopped at the time or was

[00:07:34] unfortunate at the time but in the long run like it made me learn how the canyx are how my

[00:07:40] fingers should be all that kind of stuff. So as it made me a better coach I guess down the road

[00:07:44] that's what I'm trying to say. Yeah so got me select teams going started doing that did that for

[00:07:50] a long time. I had like a 12 you hit a 16 then I had a 14 then a 18 then I would just rotate

[00:07:56] weekends and I was at the ballpark all the time go in your finger and you have nothing else.

[00:08:00] So I mean what are you gonna do but we have the ballpark? And then and then I found like

[00:08:05] all of my life so I kind of like kind of pick back seat to that because I want to spend time with him

[00:08:10] at babies and then here we are. There you are. So yeah um the goal is obviously to let

[00:08:17] every girl know like they can be whoever they want to be in this work but also like how much

[00:08:21] work it takes because as you know and as lacy knows like this is a game of extreme

[00:08:27] extreme failure. Like I've learned still like to about working hard through it you know and it's

[00:08:33] it's the most fair sport you can have because you know it never you can have a little luck but

[00:08:39] mostly it's gonna be work that you put into it. Right yeah I think later on we're gonna ask you

[00:08:45] some questions about the recruiting because you have some TikTok videos on recruiting and

[00:08:50] you know what teams are playing on and you know what teams did you play on if you want to go to

[00:08:55] certain colleges right? Right. That's what it's like to me your content because I you're starting

[00:09:01] to talk about you know who to play for at your local home or if you want to go to Oregon you

[00:09:07] have to play in these games on laced laced and that bit. Yeah so I mean I was a bad luck

[00:09:14] to your my whole life oh wow so I had those those certain colleges were the ones that like we're

[00:09:22] kind of sheltered into but like later on as I started playing for different teams and started

[00:09:29] noticing like my athletic ability it was never it was more like all right like these are the

[00:09:36] these are the schools that I'm looking at these are where the opportunities are this is where I'm

[00:09:40] gonna play get playing time um get a good education so now and then I found myself at channels

[00:09:47] I state so and I'm going into my senior year almost so um but like recruiting wise my junior year

[00:09:54] was was COVID like right right when my junior year started COVID happened we all went shut down

[00:10:01] no coaches allowed at our games so my whole thing was like posting videos on Twitter and emailing

[00:10:08] coaches nonstop so um and I mean you touched upon how social media is pretty important now

[00:10:14] I mean TikTok wasn't as big as it is now. No it's very global yeah yes yes so like it was more

[00:10:22] just like funny videos of people but now girls are like going on there and posting their content

[00:10:26] and posting their highlights and like sending it to coaches so it's like it's definitely grown

[00:10:32] a lot more since I was recruited and I mean my recruitment process was a complete mess so um

[00:10:39] I love to hear your insight on like just a recruit like recruitment like some advice you'd give

[00:10:44] some girls um just moving forward with the recruiting process now that social media is like

[00:10:50] even even bigger than it really was yeah I think there's a lot of variables and I don't think

[00:10:55] there's like one path to ever take and I think that's what people want to hear is like

[00:11:00] the duet then you be then you see and it'll all work out and that's just not the case at all

[00:11:05] the point of the recruiting videos that I post is like it's not rockets there's only 24 hours

[00:11:10] in the day there's only so much miles you can have budgets to use uh people that you know

[00:11:15] and people are gonna go with who they know who they can trust so patty gato only has so many

[00:11:21] people like more work for her right and how many people did she have to filter through

[00:11:25] sending her people oh my gosh this girl so good this girl so good like she's gotta go with what

[00:11:29] she knows and that's just that's just like reality I guess that's what I was trying to like

[00:11:34] portray these people it's like it's not this magical potion that you drink or meat or whatever

[00:11:39] like don't give me wrong there exceptions the rule but at the other day like you're only gonna be

[00:11:44] recruited by so many people because of where you live where you play how good you are how good your

[00:11:50] grades are you could be a freaking stunt right but if you can't get into the school the school don't care

[00:11:56] they still gotta make your grades and there's so many other girls playing now so like when we were

[00:12:01] getting recruited back at 2005 2006 the the narrative was like oh why I'm meeting at

[00:12:08] athletics with our ship clowns or about macadabre and that's kind of what like my dad's generation

[00:12:12] was with the generation before me was like dude I'm an athlete I don't have I'm not to be smart

[00:12:16] well ninth be smart and you have to get the sport because they're just so much competition

[00:12:21] and for girl sports especially like there's way too many girls that care about their grades like

[00:12:25] any athletic um you know we had on campus their GP is with the roof through the roof the

[00:12:31] girl's work work work now boys little different right so what I would say is um and I made a video

[00:12:38] kind of like this is important but this is more important this is important it's more

[00:12:42] more than that you know and so there's a lot of things to look at I would say one like um

[00:12:48] if you are a a catcher and they've already recruited three catchers why are you looking at the

[00:12:53] you know why are you gonna why are you gonna go be the fourth catcher on a team like

[00:12:56] you can look up all this level in line if not rocket science where you can dissect their line up

[00:13:01] dissect their roster it's all right there if they if you live it's gonna see and they've never been

[00:13:07] to Oklahoma they're sure true you can listen no stuff okay and that's the exception

[00:13:13] but these people only have a very short window now expected with division one

[00:13:17] now when it comes through the so-called media stuff it's a double-exort okay because

[00:13:23] you could be posting too much about your swing your motion or whatever and they're like we don't

[00:13:28] like that we don't we don't know how to fix that if we have to fix it so in your recruiting process

[00:13:34] that was the only out there you had to post that because you quickly couldn't go and meet right

[00:13:39] because it was co- yeah now it's like okay you can go to these recruiting things and you can be seen

[00:13:45] in person but if I can watch someone's video multiple times all i'm doing is dissecting how bad it

[00:13:50] and that's kind of one of those things that you have to really really be careful because

[00:13:55] you only want to put out your absolute best not some BS 5-6 hole hit you need to hit a bomb and

[00:14:02] then post that and you see something like extreme to post because guess what they don't care

[00:14:09] that you can hit 5-6 hole what they want it is they want the long ball they want you to be fast

[00:14:12] perform deferred and they want you to look like a freaking ass because if you cannot run move

[00:14:18] laterally be an athlete in like if they recruit you as a shortstop and you have to leave left

[00:14:22] field that's what they want they want to see those things so I would say your era of like

[00:14:30] posting in whatever has probably narrowed down into like that flat as it doesn't weigh as heavy

[00:14:36] you know compared to going in front of these coaches having someone call on your behalf some like

[00:14:42] that yeah I mean there is um there was a time I was being recruited by one school and they

[00:14:48] it was during covid and they're like well we can't really we can't offer you anything unless

[00:14:53] we see you in person and we can't see you in person so i'm like okay so what are you all should

[00:14:57] do yeah you're like okay cool so like do I get like an abundance you and I give them the big ball

[00:15:02] then what do I do like yeah yeah yeah that's tough that's really tough five-week sending videos

[00:15:08] of my pitching lessons of my games i'm like wearing a mask while i'm playing a game so it's like

[00:15:14] come on guys like what do you want me to do but like you you mentioned how it's like the people

[00:15:18] you know and my coach at the time when i was getting recruited he knew the incoming coaches at

[00:15:24] San Jose State and he's like there's all these openings here at San Jose State you need to reach out

[00:15:29] you need to do this business and i mean i got pretty quick contact with those coaches and was offered

[00:15:36] a good good amount of money so it's like it's definitely about people you know and i'm kind of

[00:15:41] learning that along the way and um definitely plays a factor on who you play for i mean i was

[00:15:49] thanks like grew up in southern california where softball was huge i mean you played in a very

[00:15:54] competitive high school district my high school district was extremely competitive as well

[00:16:00] the ended up going to quarter finals of cif my uh my senior year which was really fun and awesome

[00:16:06] but um yeah definitely about connections and for you play for where you live totally agree with that

[00:16:13] yeah lacy lacy that was that was what's it the semi finals right oh semi finals yes and uh and the girl

[00:16:20] that hit the whole run is now at Oklahoma so don't don't feel bad about that um yeah so margo you and

[00:16:27] devon arm on did a thing on the pros and cons of of the video of social media you can touch

[00:16:34] on that the cons of the social media and they you get some positives but yeah look at the cons is

[00:16:42] you know yes you're posting these things you want coaches to see your your swing or your pitch

[00:16:48] but then there's also some negatives with social media what can you touch on that a little bit

[00:16:52] we all take a risk of posting things online right so like i get post something and people can hate me

[00:16:57] and they get totally destroyed my life whatever okay like there are keyboard or they call

[00:17:03] keyboard uh bullies or whatever okay yeah but here's what i think too if i'm playing at an at a

[00:17:11] high level and i'm seeing multiple swings from this person i have more ammo to work with right

[00:17:17] the other things he was like if you are dish let's just say you fail what you're going to

[00:17:23] in a softball game and it's posted people are just they're just leased i mean they don't even care

[00:17:28] who you are there's like you're not even a human so i think you can get really caught up in like

[00:17:32] what people are saying about you even though they have no input or say like how to fix it who you are

[00:17:38] as a person like how how it's working put into it so i never had that pressure as an athlete

[00:17:45] no one even read about my game and the paper other than people that lived in corpus and my mom

[00:17:49] my dad you know any mean it maybe like my friends that once it falls so now these girls are playing

[00:17:54] on these big big huge stages like i'm seeing their film like right after or right during you know

[00:18:01] people are filming it and making their own opinion i mean i do that literally on six up we're like

[00:18:06] what's the living now you know so i think it is you can get really caught up in like a really deep

[00:18:12] spiral if you let it i think another thing is like when other colors posted like i mean if i have

[00:18:18] a game footage of a full team playing like there's so many things you can look at like bad habits

[00:18:24] you can pick up on that they have right um oh wow like they got three in side pitches that first

[00:18:29] that bat like or she goes inside every single first bit strike you know so there is a lot more

[00:18:34] information now hand your players like use that information it'd be successful i don't know i

[00:18:42] like it's funny because like we'll be coaching these high schoolers and none of my high schoolers

[00:18:45] are like hardcore girls they're just they're gonna play this board and have fun and like one of my

[00:18:49] thing coaches was like oh yeah she's gonna drop in every time and then she goes up i was like you

[00:18:53] know what don't tell them because that might be a little too much information to think about i was

[00:18:58] like we're like in this mindset where you just like need to see the ball hit the ball you know

[00:19:02] like less is more um i would also say that um there could be you know we don't want anyone to feel

[00:19:10] like they're being attacked 24-7 online but there are some like crazy i posted a video recently and

[00:19:16] it's it's on viral of these three little girls their just like a little girl doing a dance

[00:19:21] and people just like totally whipping the slide to shreds i'm like like like it's late it's fine

[00:19:27] it's a pop-up slide i don't know what's happening you know so um i would say you you can be very

[00:19:33] vulnerable you know online and we i bet we've all learned that you know the hard ways like some people

[00:19:38] just love to tell you what they think even it is nice yeah let's pivot a little bit again this

[00:19:44] is a father daughter podcast right um you know i caught my daughter when she started when started

[00:19:50] when she was seven years old describe your relationship with your father he cats you when you're

[00:19:55] kissing you have you know you know you had a bad session that he had bad mind you know my poor dad

[00:20:03] and his shin you know all those balls hit that push shins i mean he did hit that flu best

[00:20:09] and really when i got hold from college he's like i'm not catching anymore do like we're gonna

[00:20:13] well let's get you one of your friends like i'm not taking that beating uh yeah my dad and i

[00:20:20] uh one his relationship with me on the field was never like it was always so good you know like it

[00:20:28] was more of like what can we do as a team not like oh working hard enough he would just do it

[00:20:32] just always be like hey look like i know what you want and this is what you told me and i know how

[00:20:37] to get you there so trust me and that's kind of what our relationship was like from eight to eight

[00:20:44] you know and he knew when to outsource the coaching he knew like hey look like he's getting older

[00:20:49] and he needs a year from somebody else it wasn't like a total power that was like on your dad you know

[00:20:55] it was so much more about just like keeping our relationship healthy uh making sure

[00:20:59] outspending the work in and it was just such a great time with like breast to be together you know

[00:21:04] what you know you're so lucky lazy to have a dad that like truly i don't really like most of the

[00:21:09] uh dad like the dad is like so great you know it is so cool you know my dad is like that so

[00:21:19] awesome yeah i mean he uh i mean because we kind of would listen to the coaches a little bit more on

[00:21:28] like the process and like how recruiting works or like you should switch pitching coaches because

[00:21:35] i mean we were kind of all it once we got into the recruiting process it was kind of like new to us

[00:21:41] so like right dad like we would we would listen to my travel ball coaches on what we should do

[00:21:47] and um like how let's how we should go about um like switchy pitching coachier is or like what

[00:21:57] i should work on outside and i feel like uh it was it was really good relationship i feel like

[00:22:04] um because he did was like an assistant coach on my high school team and i mean he would sit in the

[00:22:08] corner and just do like our little book like he wouldn't really say anything while i was pitching but

[00:22:13] like maybe you should have walked the first batter of the inning maybe you should spray a

[00:22:18] pair of that's fair and heard that well like my head coach um like come on at least he like don't

[00:22:23] walk her don't walk her and he'd be a little more more harsh but my dad would be like hey

[00:22:28] like it's okay just don't do that next time i know you're better than that

[00:22:32] like just keep going yeah it wasn't always bad it wasn't always that well no i was i got on her a lot

[00:22:39] right i i was not i my body language is bad i was throwback hard at her if she had a bad

[00:22:45] and yeah it was it was it was human too yeah yeah like i understood later i mean i was only 12

[00:22:56] of a time but um later that he just wanted he knew i could be better than that so he showed it in a

[00:23:02] different way um and i understood that later but that right then and there i'm like oh she thinks

[00:23:08] i'm like a bad player like i i need to be better in this situation and i just want to impress my dad

[00:23:15] like all the time i just want to impress my dad um but it kind of got it got better um where he was

[00:23:23] like you're a hard worker i know you can do better than that like it's okay um like i have teammates

[00:23:28] talks me about how their dads were just screaming at them after a game like you went on for well

[00:23:33] well i like they would always hear the car right home and like after a bad game of mine i just sit in

[00:23:38] the passenger seat and we'd be silent for like the first first 30 minutes and then i'd be like okay

[00:23:44] can we talk about the game grow um and then he's like okay now we can talk about it um so it was very

[00:23:50] it was definitely more civil and calm and i don't i didn't feel pressure from him specifically i would

[00:23:57] mostly put the pressure on myself so um like coming off that like was there like a specific

[00:24:04] obstacle you would face um like a moment college and high school and like any type is there a specific

[00:24:11] obstacle you found yourself like struggling to get past or like you needed to you need help to get

[00:24:17] passed i mean i still call my dad like every day so yeah every day there's something that he could

[00:24:22] tell me how to be better but the thing to is like i have two sisters and we we are all three so

[00:24:29] different so like my sister uh the older one is like a brainiac like she had a totally different

[00:24:34] my mom and my dad never compared me and my sister then i have a younger sister who was like a

[00:24:38] truck she's a thrower she did uh hammer uh chocolate disc gets whatever and she what's oh how it's

[00:24:44] safe for them they knew how different we were personality wise and they knew how to pivot and also

[00:24:51] like what went on in our lives like stress or uh relationships we had outside of friend boyfriends

[00:24:57] you know whatever and so i think my dad would just do his best because um he would just check in

[00:25:02] you know i would tell you um my transition from high school to college was tough um just like

[00:25:11] being mature enough to handle as many innings as i was getting i wasn't truly ready for that

[00:25:17] and i didn't know when i got recruited i was gonna get literally half of the inning you know

[00:25:22] and um they didn't have anybody else i they had to recruit that at you know you committed to

[00:25:28] code transfer and so she was supposed to share the time with me at least that's what my understanding

[00:25:32] was and come to find out like she didn't come and so i'd have it like either you can stop and be

[00:25:38] like old for you or we could just go to horse and i'm like okay let's go to work so that's what we

[00:25:42] did we went home we got you know with our pitching coaches and we definitely got better but

[00:25:47] it was never something that like i felt um i could have do it now like i needed my dad there

[00:25:53] you know and i needed his not maybe physically there but mentally like hey like i'm struggling

[00:25:57] with this like what should i do and he's like let's get a game you know um you know growing up

[00:26:02] i think like when you're saying like 12 of course your dad's still trying to like make you into those

[00:26:07] just hold on your dad's still trying to make you into a great person and he's still trying to

[00:26:12] hold you into a hard worker and all this up and like be um annoying like to be tough when you

[00:26:17] have to be tough and you can be sad when you need to be sad and i think that's what my dad was

[00:26:21] trying to do at 12 like there were some cart rides i was like oh my god like we lived him is from the

[00:26:26] fields and i'm like this is the longest ride of our lives you know he's like you were trying well

[00:26:31] why but really he was just like setting the stage for me to push myself when i was by my

[00:26:37] and i feel like after 12 when he gets the 14 that's more of like okay now we're managing

[00:26:41] we're not like micro managing now we're just like okay you know like you had to have that what do

[00:26:45] you think what'd you learn you know whatever it also made me really a lot better player like

[00:26:50] to make those decisions for myself like knowing like dude uh you need to work on the curveball

[00:26:55] you're not hitting your curveball like and then you're like well i can do this and then you

[00:26:59] start evolving into whoever what player you are with guided not micro managing but with guidance

[00:27:05] and that's very hard because men love to fix things especially dad so they're like how can we

[00:27:12] fix it let's buy our new baths how can we fix it let's get our new you know pushing coach or whatever

[00:27:16] and really the idea is just like my i was like dude like it's not so we need to just get better at

[00:27:21] our craft and i mean that's kind of where um i felt like i am now even with like my job like there

[00:27:28] are some things that i'm like extremely humble when it comes to coaching high school girls

[00:27:33] and i just think it to myself like okay i'm a life learner i'm a life learner like

[00:27:36] i might think that i know and in this case i don't you know and so that's pretty humbling i mean

[00:27:42] it's also like having um like a Christian background and having that like total pride

[00:27:48] taking away from you like at times you're like whoa that was hard because that was so humbling

[00:27:55] i thought i was gonna win or i thought i was gonna be right or whatever and then you come back

[00:27:59] and you're like this is what all that was about you know and you're just like a better human

[00:28:03] because your dad was so great and i have a great mom too so um it's just so shout out to mom too

[00:28:09] story but my mom was catching bullfits but um yeah but yeah so i would say making that like i

[00:28:18] would say like from 10 to 12 you're kind of like this as a parent and then you're hoping all that

[00:28:23] work pays off so in high school you're just like hey let's make the good toys so that you know

[00:28:28] you needed me and that's how i kind of solid i'm excited it sounds familiar right i mean i was on

[00:28:34] you pretty hard lace and then it four teens i just kind of backed it off and you know that's when

[00:28:38] you kind of started thinking of being as far as a picture yeah i mean because 14s i transitions

[00:28:45] you playing for mark Campbell so like he would be a kid of me like hard work and dedication and

[00:28:53] you don't do this you're not going anywhere like um so i mean i started at an early age knowing that

[00:29:00] if you don't put in the hard work behind the scenes you're not you're not going to be successful

[00:29:05] and you're not gonna be where you want to go yeah right so uh pivoting to your coaching now

[00:29:11] right and your tiktok games so um how do you balance between coaching on the field and creating

[00:29:18] engaging content on tiktok how do you balance those two you know some we are so easy on like

[00:29:24] through this is the back like i'm killing it on tiktok i'm filling it on the field that be the best

[00:29:28] mom ever and there are some weeks like i don't have it and like i've learned kind of like if

[00:29:34] i'm pressing right but like i'm like the the content's not coming on as easily you know like

[00:29:40] i don't really write scripts i just kind of like shoot from the hip kind of thing at times um and

[00:29:46] if it doesn't feel organic i'm like do they're gonna know like i'm just like i'm not so i'm not

[00:29:50] i have like a probably a thousand videos on my draft that i just need to delete because i'm never

[00:29:53] gonna post you know but a lot of things happen on the field and i'm like okay this is so good for

[00:30:01] people to hear and um and there's some weeks that are just crazy and you just don't have time you

[00:30:06] know um but i do believe that um when you're doing it for the right reasons and you're not trying to be

[00:30:12] fake or you know whatever like it'll all just come out you know like experiences you're having

[00:30:16] lazy like i would just always write them down and then you can kind of like go through those it's

[00:30:21] the because you're not gonna remember like you're gonna be like cool yeah it's a great idea

[00:30:25] and then you're like what was that some of them

[00:30:29] you want me to see okay some of the like i would i do with my system is like i text myself

[00:30:36] like what the idea is right like oh you know keckers screaming or or something funny that's not

[00:30:41] i'm like oh that'd be hilarious if we did that right and then i like read them back i'm like

[00:30:46] i don't know i'm curious what i meant by that text because it doesn't make any

[00:30:53] but yeah i think um i think it's like an ebb and flow i also think um people are not interested in

[00:30:58] hearing about softball stuff in December or i think it's a there's definitely like a pee

[00:31:03] you know from febbi where it's to june and july um and then it just kind of drops off because

[00:31:08] people get into volleyball and other sports and that's fine because then that gives us that's

[00:31:13] conclinatory time to analyze what we're doing what's doing good what's not doing as well as we want

[00:31:18] just like any sport right you have some offseason time and then you uh you hit the ground running

[00:31:23] and really what i do in the offseason is i network with other people like y'all have did y'all

[00:31:29] go to this football convention this one i share no y'all gotta go this next year it's in

[00:31:34] December it'll be in dollars um it's a great networking just like you go up to vendors like hey i

[00:31:40] do content like what you know what are y'all trying to do with your products because of you believe

[00:31:44] in the product you know and you look at it you're like you that would help a lot of people um or like

[00:31:49] you know it would devin like i don't know devin other than on social media stuff and now one of like

[00:31:56] some of the girl like i text her probably like every couple days you know like look at this like

[00:32:01] this is crazy you know so um it is but the fun network to get really good

[00:32:07] very cool while speaking of that um if someone wants to uh listen to you and ticktock

[00:32:15] social media what are some of the some of the ways that they can contact you or they can watch you

[00:32:21] or let's do what are those things yeah at worst can they get to see you on

[00:32:28] yeah the the majority of the stuff is on ticktock that's where i post the most some of my

[00:32:32] stuff most of my stuff i mean now instagram i'm working at it but um i feel like it it takes a

[00:32:38] whole other format for the videos to look like instagram me i guess the best spated but it

[00:32:43] so um just the time of that that takes then i just i don't know i like the ticsok app better in

[00:32:49] editing the videos and all that kind of stuff in there i think it's easier for me um we are trying

[00:32:54] to go live on ticktock every monday when cherry naldi gets back in the town um and we just talk about

[00:33:01] that stuff like whatever she has going on she's a recruiting service so she's a lot of good

[00:33:07] insight on recruiting stuff and like things are happening right now i mean she's helping kids

[00:33:11] get recruited to any level any sport and she's in it i mean do you think that you know a lot of

[00:33:18] people in subwooley it was cherry because she knows all of them and she has like a billion little

[00:33:23] tidbits that you can tell people how to get recruited that aren't taking advantage of her services

[00:33:28] you know okay yeah and that it's called softball with margo right that you're talking margo yet

[00:33:34] yeah okay very cool um yeah that in the recruiting part too you know because lacy was part of

[00:33:39] the bat busters and uh their whole thing when they would go to like a showcase was uh they're

[00:33:46] gonna come to me we're not gonna go to the meeting they wouldn't put out flyers and they would

[00:33:51] put out you know the little things that coaches would take in encircled i you know oh you are

[00:33:57] cool yeah yeah they never had that because they had certain colleges that would come watch a

[00:34:02] midi way and then they would they would they didn't need it i didn't need to yeah and so

[00:34:08] definitely for those yeah for those that are not in the bat buster organization or marcaro how

[00:34:15] whether kind of things do you recommend for them to do as far as putting their name out there and all

[00:34:21] I can uh it all depends on like kind of where you live and what your resources are i mean there

[00:34:26] there's a Texas girl that lives literally like 40 minutes from my parents house in like the

[00:34:31] hill country and she flies kelp you know every month to practice their play with her team or whatever

[00:34:35] she's on the bat bus i think like that's an extreme don't give me wrong but there are so many

[00:34:41] just like allocated programs within probably three hour driving distance that you can get on

[00:34:46] you just have to start doing your research you know and if it's not like feasible free to get on those

[00:34:51] teams then you gotta start networking and getting to know some of these people and no telling what

[00:34:56] people can do for you maybe like if it's a financial thing they maybe they have financial aid for those

[00:35:00] teams but if you sit there and lean on the excuses you're gonna be the exact same spot just a little

[00:35:07] bit more bitter you know i think that there is so many people in the sub-bottom industry and like

[00:35:12] community that are so more than welcome to helping people out i mean it is a very like middle class

[00:35:19] like you know like we have the same interest so we're like for friends immediately kind of thing

[00:35:24] um i know that there's a lot of teams in the Texas area that are have also different levels

[00:35:30] and i don't know if the bat bus there's few have that like because we have like a gold team

[00:35:34] bombers like you know silver plate whatever um and that makes a big deal like a big difference

[00:35:40] is being on certain teams and like having that last name on the end of that seat you know so

[00:35:48] i think you have to do your research and i think you need to start wreaking out to tip people

[00:35:52] also getting with if you don't have any of those things getting with the recruiting service where

[00:35:57] you can maybe guess play or get on the field somewhere where you can get in front of people because

[00:36:02] that's the only thing you can control is like what your what output you're you know putting out

[00:36:06] and through that in the game yep well i appreciate it uh we're gonna we're gonna end it here

[00:36:11] lacy have any vital thoughts or any i don't think so i was just um very very insightful

[00:36:20] with like the recruiting process how it how it changes from like

[00:36:25] from year to year it changes every year so um i think the girls and parents like listening

[00:36:32] to this podcast could benefit from a lot of what you said and i mean

[00:36:37] um and i i really enjoyed having you on oh yeah we have to do it again and not at the

[00:36:43] effect of the aquarium dumps he's been okay and that's on me we we act belly uh like we have

[00:36:49] belly in town and like i told him i had his it's either i was like well be back in time and then all

[00:36:53] said and he would be 30 i was like we ain't going to be back in time yeah no worries no worries no

[00:36:58] appreciate you having on margo again it's uh it's soft old margo on tic-tac you can just

[00:37:04] put and then she has a i think a link to like a website and you can like that as well

[00:37:10] but thank you for coming on and and uh you know yeah we'll have you on again

[00:37:15] and talk about some other stuff because i know you have a lot of contents like i think we just

[00:37:19] touch fun a little bit of what you can bring the table so i appreciate that when we need

[00:37:25] a we need to meet up again because i i think well no i think tect is my take this year oh you is

[00:37:31] kind of they're like dippled ablin and they're doing a good job but i think there's going to be

[00:37:36] maybe walking fence i don't know but like it's it's gonna be different this year i don't think

[00:37:40] it's gonna be like a clean sweep that's my that's my forecast that's your forecast okay

[00:37:46] it's three four eight five go ahead people are helping for it um i mean my team

[00:37:54] i think we were in we were in fullerton and uh they were it was very no uh

[00:38:02] though breezy and again and we're like watching the school are we like

[00:38:08] but it's so funny that everyone's kind of rooting a genk that team when um i mean

[00:38:14] i mean i'd played with pretty much like half their starting lineup on the bat vusters so it's

[00:38:21] pretty wrong super talented but i think there might be a new champion this year

[00:38:26] i think so well thank y'all so much they appreciate it and thanks for being so patient and kind

[00:38:32] with me um and let me know if i can do anything for y'all in my end like whether it's a question you'll

[00:38:37] have or maybe like a collab like i could maybe me and lacy could do some stuff like

[00:38:42] player to coach and then coach to dad and like how people can navigate that water

[00:38:47] like how to have the conversations but be um professional about it and i'll have to brainstorm some stuff

[00:38:53] at me we can start like a group of tech mix oh that's a good idea this is something i've struggled with

[00:38:56] and blah blah blah you know um that kind of stuff would really i think go a long way

[00:39:01] yeah perfect i appreciate your time thank you margo

[00:39:05] and take care race love you love you

[00:39:12] bye