41 | Coaching Daughters: Insights from Athletics Mercado’s Coach Greg

[00:00:00] There's a fine line too. One, you gotta find a team that fits your level of play, right?

[00:00:04] Because one, you gotta be able to be on the field no matter what.

[00:00:07] But two, you gotta put the work in it because I could pick up the phone, but one, I'm not

[00:00:14] gonna lie. So you are who you are and I'm not gonna pick up the phone for somebody

[00:00:20] who hasn't turned the right for me to phone for them to advocate for because I'm not

[00:00:25] gonna put my reputation on the line and no coach words at fault. And that's one

[00:00:29] reason why we have so much success or in the recruiting aspect is because when I

[00:00:34] talked to XYZ school and who I've known for 10, 15 years and I tell them

[00:00:39] something they know it's gonna be accurate. Hello and welcome to Catching You, a dad

[00:00:43] and daughter softball journey. I'm Rusty, a dad who's been in the dug up and on

[00:00:48] the sidelines. And I'm Lacie, the daughter whose journey through softball has

[00:00:52] been filled with incredible wins tough losses and so many lessons both on and

[00:00:56] off the field. For the past 16 years we've navigated the highs and lows of

[00:01:00] softball together from the local fields to national term is and everything in

[00:01:05] between from the challenges of recruitment during COVID to the mental and

[00:01:08] emotional roller coaster that comes with being a student athlete. We will be

[00:01:12] sharing the perspectives of both the parent and athlete and firsthand

[00:01:15] experience of the impact of sports on mental health and the importance of

[00:01:19] support from the sidelines. Oh welcome back everybody to Catching You.

[00:01:24] I'm your co-host Rusty Ham. My other co-host Lacie. She is off. We've given her the

[00:01:30] day off but I do have a special guest with me. I have coach Greg from

[00:01:34] Athletics Mercado but she was actually one of Lacie's, your 16 year

[00:01:40] coach at one point. So welcome Greg. I appreciate you coming on. Yeah of

[00:01:45] course glad to do it. Yeah thank you. So just a little bit background of

[00:01:49] yourself. Did you play obviously I want to assume that you play sports but what

[00:01:54] kind of sports did you play and where'd you grow up? What kind of sports did

[00:01:58] you play and then what led you to entering into the softball field? Sure

[00:02:04] just like everybody else anybody my age or older you played everything growing

[00:02:07] up and you found what you liked and ended up playing baseball was my

[00:02:12] first passion and love. I started as a catcher ended up as a pitcher and

[00:02:16] that just was beloved but more importantly right when I got out of

[00:02:20] high school I started coaching and I was coaching baseball at 18, 19 years old in

[00:02:26] that range and I never stopped. It's actually how I met my wife was through

[00:02:31] coaching and little league and then my our oldest daughter my step daughter

[00:02:38] Kendall one day decided she wanted to play softball so I'm like okay cool

[00:02:43] signed her up for the local rec league and I was watching what the coach

[00:02:46] was doing and I'm like we're not doing that man. I jumped in and next you know

[00:02:52] you fall in love with the sport the speed the athleticism and I did the

[00:02:56] rec ball in the all-star thing for a couple years and took our league's

[00:03:01] first team over to the ASA Nationals and thought I had it all figured out

[00:03:06] then I jumped in the travel ball world right around I don't know 2007

[00:03:10] 2008 something like that and just never left. Yeah it's a it's been an

[00:03:15] interesting journey to say the least but you never expect the I figured I'd

[00:03:19] coach baseball all the way through and all that stuff and I got into softball

[00:03:24] and never wanted to leave. That's right yeah so we have a few more

[00:03:28] sympathy by the way. What's that? Softball. Baseball should be. That's

[00:03:32] exactly yeah I tell everyone once you go to softball you don't want to

[00:03:36] go back to baseball because it's the whole boring. No I love baseball but the

[00:03:40] nuances of it but softball is so much faster and yet you still have those

[00:03:43] strategies and all that kind of stuff. We have similar stories like once I

[00:03:47] graduated high school I started coaching basketball right when I was 19 years old

[00:03:50] and then have stopped so pretty cool that we have similar stories there. You

[00:03:56] are now how long you've been with athletics Mercado? Probably like seven

[00:04:00] eight years I don't know they all run together after a while. Yeah I remember

[00:04:04] when you guys first started because Lacey's a bat buster and then with the

[00:04:07] athletics Mercado and then you guys actually are in our backyard so it was

[00:04:11] cool to see you grow to where you guys are at now. Do you have a daughter

[00:04:16] currently now? Her name is Lauren at the University of Kentucky congratulations

[00:04:21] on that it's awesome. This is a father daughter podcast as you know

[00:04:27] I've had a couple stories with different podcasts at our podcast where I

[00:04:32] put a lot of pressure on her as a father because of the organization she was

[00:04:37] in and she was a bat buster and I was putting pressure on her to perform

[00:04:42] because if she didn't perform it looked bad on me. I look as a father she

[00:04:47] didn't perform then I thought I failed her as a father and so I was

[00:04:51] putting so much pressure on her and we were doing pitching lessons and then

[00:04:55] when we're doing a bullpen at our house I didn't treat her very well

[00:05:00] when she had a bad bullpen session I'd get super upset with her because then

[00:05:05] I'm like oh she's gonna now go to these games she's gonna suck and Campbell's

[00:05:09] gonna not just gonna sit here and she's not gonna get a scholarship. So all

[00:05:12] these things going on my head as far as the father right and so I pushed

[00:05:17] that onto her and she broke right one day as Toby Dole she was in the

[00:05:22] kitchen crying like why are you acting this way? Why are you treating

[00:05:25] this way? So we had a good those are good breaks for us I'm not sure

[00:05:30] what your relationship was Lauren did you coach her? How long did you coach her?

[00:05:36] Why didn't you coach her? And then we can get into some others some other things as far as the father

[00:05:40] daughter. It's a little different for me and Lauren just for the sheer fact that

[00:05:45] she grew up on the dirt and all that I was already coaching travel on a very

[00:05:49] high level when and she was born and actually not what she was born but

[00:05:53] now her formative years say three four five years old got pictures with her

[00:05:58] in Colorado with Bay at a bands and all this good stuff but yeah other than like the

[00:06:03] wreck ball hey we're gonna I'm gonna coach that team and get them started off the foot

[00:06:08] we made a conscious effort that I did not coach her this way I can still be dad

[00:06:13] and I did take her team for two years in four teams just for the recruiting

[00:06:20] piece because we weren't going to leave that part to anybody else to trust

[00:06:25] that they had the connections I had or anything else like that so I did coach her

[00:06:29] for four teams and then once she was done 14th we kicked her straight up to our 18

[00:06:34] gold team and went back to 16th full-time and that's right around the time when

[00:06:39] Lacey was playing for me but that was a goal is also the family was for me not

[00:06:44] to coach her directly and I took a different approach with her where

[00:06:52] I would show her the hey this is the avenue you should think of but she was also the kid

[00:06:58] that you got to slow down because she was gonna go 110 at an all-time in and she was

[00:07:03] a pitcher when she was young best day ever is when she stopped pitching uh because

[00:07:08] you could empathize with this I'm sure every single pitch matters so much and I could not

[00:07:13] understand why I'm like I've been around this game forever and I'm having anxiety over you

[00:07:18] so the best day ever was when she stopped pitching but she did the the EM training

[00:07:25] twice a week they did it their batting practice they did she's going six days a week Friday

[00:07:30] was her only day off unless we had games or something like that and so but I tried to do

[00:07:35] the best to let her choose her own path and it not be you know the thumb down on her

[00:07:42] for lack of a better term to some degree I wish I would have been a little bit more

[00:07:47] but at the same time it worked out just fine for her god's good not ours

[00:07:51] yeah so a great point on on just being wanting to be at a dad a lot of dads out there want to coach

[00:07:57] the kid because they want to have total control throughout their whole journey right it's because

[00:08:03] they know they're out yeah yeah some don't trust other people maybe they had a bad experience with

[00:08:09] a team so that like screw it I'm gonna I'm gonna take it and I'm gonna take my daughter

[00:08:14] and a lot of people get upset because daddy ball and she's the source out she's batting second

[00:08:19] when she's probably not very good when Lauren was on your team for the 14th first year and second year

[00:08:25] 14th what was that like coaching your own daughter number one and then number two you

[00:08:33] talked about the recruiting part your connections I want to touch on that a little bit because

[00:08:38] maybe she had a different situation prior to getting with you and I wanted to talk about that as well

[00:08:44] but when you have Lauren on your team what kind of advice would you give other dads that has

[00:08:50] our kids on their team don't do it don't do it yeah no it's a it's a different dynamic and

[00:08:57] we had a really good squad we're you know as good as it got at that particular age group

[00:09:02] we finished top five in pgf as the first year 14th and then our second year we were ranked number one

[00:09:09] whatever those rankings were we didn't finish it off but there's a couple of instances where I can

[00:09:15] look back and I should say hey you know what I should have pulled Lauren in this situation

[00:09:20] and I didn't make that move now it wasn't because I was playing daddy ball but was just

[00:09:27] one of those things where you probably do get a little bit worried about that ride home a little

[00:09:31] bit with your wife or something like that as you pull her or something there's like one instance

[00:09:37] really that I thought and it was a tournament up in northern California the pgf ultimate shoot out

[00:09:42] or whatever we're down or we're tied 1-1 with this team that had no business playing with us but

[00:09:47] they're getting and my screen doesn't go wide enough for the zone that they were this umpire

[00:09:52] was getting he had to be straight out of wreck ball never did travel ball in his game

[00:09:55] he's not only in the batter's box he's getting midpoint of the other batter's box

[00:10:00] and but lefties were hitting this kid really well and I had Maya Perez who's at Texas A&M now

[00:10:06] on the bench because she wasn't in the line of that particular one in eyes in a situation of

[00:10:11] no Lauren's been clutched she's always been through she's making hard contact in this game

[00:10:14] it's fine I should pitch to her right there for Maya Perez

[00:10:18] yeah so it's it's wild things because even if you are doing everything right and you're

[00:10:27] being totally across the board and they always say that coaches are harder on their own kids than

[00:10:32] anybody else and at the same time there's just that perception that would be happened from anybody who

[00:10:39] isn't in your shoes that they it's a tough area to navigate sometimes they have only had to do it

[00:10:45] once and I'll never do it again see yeah I guess my advice yeah it's exactly my advice

[00:10:51] the father is just treat them just like any other player I know it's hard because you're the father

[00:10:58] sometimes you need to take a step back and be the coach rather than being a father

[00:11:01] and because there's a lot of dynamics you have people tripping in your ears probably all the time

[00:11:05] oh why is she playing all this good you know dad is the coach or whatever funny story though you

[00:11:10] said that you guys were top five in first year 14s I don't know if you remember but you beat

[00:11:15] our team I did Campbell you Campbell's team lacey actually that was she just got back from her injury

[00:11:21] and pgf was her first tournament from her injury her head injury and she happened to happen she got

[00:11:28] the starting nod against your team and didn't fare too well but yeah but congratulations I want to

[00:11:34] explore what that game was but I do remember it yeah I think she walked the first four batters

[00:11:40] and Campbell's okay you're out but she's just kind of off an injury and that's her first tournament so

[00:11:46] gotta give her a little break and honestly I get it that's one of those things pgf it just

[00:11:52] it happened so fast it happens so fast yeah I do want to thank you I don't know if I ever

[00:11:57] officially thanked you for taking on lacey on your team because the teams that she was on Campbell

[00:12:03] and stiff those guys colleges they didn't necessarily go to colleges they never called

[00:12:10] colleges said hey I have this girl right it was mainly hey you're coming to us whoever you need

[00:12:18] then you come to us so that was rough for lacey because they didn't really they didn't really go to

[00:12:24] colleges weren't looking at lacey the time she's throwing high 50s maybe low 60s and so

[00:12:31] that colleges were only coming for her so she wasn't getting any looks and then I wanted to thank you

[00:12:36] for taking her on because once we got on your team you immediately started calling the coaches and

[00:12:42] we immediately got into we watched North Carolina at a visit which was super cool and then COVID

[00:12:48] hit and I think COVID screwed a lot of that up but I wanted to thank you personally for for taking

[00:12:53] her on and advocating for her because I think for people that are listening you need to find

[00:12:58] the right organization that's going to advocate for your daughter obviously your daughter has to

[00:13:02] put in the work right yeah I know a lot about your organization you don't take girls that are

[00:13:09] they just half-ass it you're you're you're gonna take girls that are gonna go after it

[00:13:14] themselves but you're also going to advocate right you're going to it's almost effort for

[00:13:17] effort right you're going to pour gas on those girls that are kicking some butt right absolutely

[00:13:22] there's a fine line too one you got to find a team that fits your level of play right

[00:13:26] because one you got to be able to be on the field no matter what but two you got to put the work in

[00:13:33] and be because I could pick up the phone but one I'm not gonna lie so you are who you are and it

[00:13:40] and I'm not going to pick up a phone for somebody who hasn't earned the right for me to pick the

[00:13:45] phone for them to advocate for because I'm not gonna put my reputation on the line and

[00:13:49] no coach worth it salt is and that's one of the reasons why we have so much success

[00:13:54] in the recruiting aspect is because when I talked to XYZ school and I've known for 10 15 years and I

[00:14:01] tell them something they know it's gonna be accurate or it's good wrong or indifferent my opinion

[00:14:07] matters because they know I'm not trying to sell them a bill of goods for lack of a better term

[00:14:13] that they know what they're getting in in that process but that's only built up through

[00:14:17] years of building relationships and just being open and honest with people and that includes

[00:14:22] the player because everybody's got those top 10 lists oh I want to go to Oklahoma I want to go to UCLA

[00:14:26] I want to go though but you don't have that type of talent level you need to relay that to the

[00:14:32] player so they can adjust their expectations of where their current talent level is at that's

[00:14:37] really what the most important part of recruiting is just being open and honest

[00:14:41] I could be wrong right but not often no I've seen it I first time right you guys are

[00:14:50] in our backyard and a lot of your girls went to the high school that Lacey went to and I see

[00:14:55] there's you're just pumping them out and these girls are going to some really good colleges

[00:15:00] so September 1st just happened what advice do you give because Lacey was devastated

[00:15:06] September 1st because it never happened all right and I'm sure there were some girls

[00:15:12] September 1st were expecting a phone call 12.01 and it never happened and then they

[00:15:16] expected a phone call right before they go to school and it never happened what kind of advice

[00:15:20] would you give those girls because there's a lot of girls that have unrealistic expectations they

[00:15:27] think they play on a travel ball team and they're going to get a call at 12.01 what kind of advice

[00:15:33] would you give those girls not everyone's going to get called that I get a call that's such a good

[00:15:38] point so one thing I try to do is I get a pretty good gauge on where the athletes are

[00:15:44] before September 1 hits and I usually schedule two calls one with the no-brainer so I know are

[00:15:52] going to get 10 15 calls we've had plenty of those kids through the years and we give them a list

[00:15:57] of questions that hey these are the things that you should be thinking about when you're talking

[00:16:01] to schools and what's important to you and then I have another call with the question marks

[00:16:05] and I don't mean to label them as question marks but I just don't know if any school call

[00:16:11] you're going to get five calls hey we might need to go to work and reevaluate and you'd be surprised

[00:16:16] I have kids right now in the sec that are starting in the sec didn't get any calls in

[00:16:22] September 1st they didn't commit till October November of their junior year after we got

[00:16:28] back on the recruiting trail it's definitely one not the end of the journey it's the start of

[00:16:34] the recruiting period which is a big change when Lauren came through she committed the very last

[00:16:39] day before the rule changed in the eighth grade that's we started the process really early with her

[00:16:44] but that's the biggest thing is one it's just a starting point it's not the ending point and I

[00:16:49] understand how social media works and the anxiety level that these kids are feeling and the pressure

[00:16:54] that like hey I was supposed to be committed now yeah I think it's lightening up a little bit I

[00:16:59] hope because when they shut off the water valve from the recruiting rule changed that's it

[00:17:06] 21s and 22s were the ones that were like oh my god I was about to commit and I could think of a

[00:17:12] couple of kids that went to Lacey's high school that they would have let the rule open they

[00:17:17] would have had their pick of the litter come fall of their freshman year whenever it was their

[00:17:22] sophomore year and once that rule changed all right their commitment level didn't remain the

[00:17:28] same and they didn't go to a school until very recently and like JC stuff I know you're talking

[00:17:36] about yeah yeah some of the most talented kids that were at that age group I do the rule change to

[00:17:43] the junior year to digress a little bit but that's my biggest thing and then two don't jump at the

[00:17:50] first offer no matter if you didn't get a call straight away take your time as much as possible

[00:17:55] because the transfer portal is a real thing and we want to keep you out of it and that is also what

[00:18:01] the other biggest piece of the puzzle is so many PSAs potential student athletes that are coming up

[00:18:09] through high school have no idea they are competing against every single kid in college

[00:18:13] right now and for that same scholarship dollars now there's some things that are coming down

[00:18:19] the pipe where it looks like we might be moving into headcount sport which was awesome which is

[00:18:26] really even the playing field a little bit you have more money available for the schools that are

[00:18:31] going to be able to have it for more potential student athletes rather than just the transfer

[00:18:36] portal so that's exciting I'm very interested to see that I don't think every school is going

[00:18:41] to do it because they're not everybody's going to have the budget for it but your power fours

[00:18:46] the fact that we call it power four now is funny oh yeah bigger dollar mid majors that

[00:18:53] have good programs they'll be just fine that is exciting for the sport I think it should be a head

[00:18:58] count sport as well yeah very cool yeah power four just going on that we just recently spoke with

[00:19:04] now Deservera went to Oregon state and she said the story that Oregon state offered her right on

[00:19:11] the spot and she says oh I need to think about that she called you and you said did you take

[00:19:15] it she says no he goes what are you talking about and she you told her to take that deal

[00:19:20] right away but you're like what how many pack files and how many pack 12 teams have offered you

[00:19:26] and she says no and she goes okay and then you need to take it she's okay I'll take it

[00:19:29] but speaking of the transfer portal go ahead real quick on Desi wasn't about her taking

[00:19:35] the offer because I'm always the you never commit on site but she had all these big guys she was that

[00:19:41] oh I went Oklahoma and all this stuff I'm like you got all these mid majors but you want

[00:19:45] power five this is your one power five and she got a great offer share a great deal I do want to

[00:19:53] touch on the what you said about the question marks right and there's definitely more question mark

[00:19:59] girls out there than there are the ones that are going to get the 15 calls and like that

[00:20:04] I appreciate and this is why I wanted to bring it up is I appreciate that you're making the

[00:20:09] calls to those girls say hey here's the expectations right this is where I see you

[00:20:15] and this is where I see colleges this is the these are where I see

[00:20:19] colleges that you will go to you may not get a call if you work hard you might go to these

[00:20:24] colleges that you want to but you also need to be looking at these other ones I I I

[00:20:29] wouldn't I just wanted to bring that up I appreciate that because not every coach

[00:20:32] is going to call the question mark to say hey you might not get a call so I would

[00:20:39] hopefully more and more coaches are taking inventory of that I imagine anybody

[00:20:43] has been doing it for a number of years and then you're especially up in those 16s and 18s

[00:20:47] that you feel for this you really do I used to be able to tell you exactly when a kid would go

[00:20:52] so to speak oh you're gonna go follow your sophomore year you're gonna go spring your

[00:20:56] junior year you're gonna have to sweat it out a little like you can usually get a gauge of that

[00:21:00] but more so now that the rule changed there's no reason not to have a continual

[00:21:04] lot of conversations with your athletes and your families and just prepare them the best you can

[00:21:12] let's take a quick break if you want to leave us a message use the link in the show notes

[00:21:19] and if you want us to respond leave your name and email address also please rate us in or

[00:21:26] leave a review as we're trying to grow this show every day finally lacey and I both love coffee

[00:21:31] we would greatly appreciate any contribution to the show that link is also in the show notes

[00:21:37] thank you take care

[00:21:43] yeah let me ask you this on the transfer poll all right obviously it's a big deal

[00:21:48] tons of girls are transferring obviously with the pack 12 breaking up that's

[00:21:52] that was gonna happen right there's a couple of girls at especially Oregon State

[00:21:56] and Washington State they're like what about us they're not gonna hang out in the west coast

[00:21:59] and play San Jose State and those type of plays those teams but talking about the transfer

[00:22:07] to me what i'm seeing is that it's almost being used as a higher end jc where they

[00:22:15] they commit to a certain college knowing that they're gonna transfer to the college that

[00:22:21] they actually want to go to around for a couple years oh jas is that safe to say am i overreaching

[00:22:28] there a little bit no like i'm sure there's probably some aspect of that to whereas a kid

[00:22:34] thinks that they have power for power five talent but for whatever reason they didn't have spots

[00:22:39] available or what and think that they can go put up numbers for a year somewhere and then be able

[00:22:45] to move up to a higher school as far as a mid majors i do see that as a let's be real the

[00:22:51] big fish are eaten up the the best players on those teams to come to them so that is a real

[00:22:57] thing though the hard part is the amount of kids who think that just by putting their name

[00:23:05] in the portal that there's gonna be a school waiting for them on the back side with no numbers

[00:23:10] because you sat all year you're gonna have to rely on a relationship of your old travel or

[00:23:15] somebody who was recruiting you back in the day and hope that they have money on that

[00:23:20] the number of kids that just blindly go in their portal because things are hard

[00:23:23] or things weren't just oh they didn't type the bow in my hair right or whatever the case may be

[00:23:29] that jump in there for silly reasons is that's a problem and that's one thing that i don't think

[00:23:35] enough people really understand that their does is a perfect example not that she jumped in for

[00:23:41] right wrongs reasons or whatever but she had to sit out for a whole semester because she didn't

[00:23:48] find the right fit when she jumped in there there's definitely aspects of that now she's

[00:23:52] at a great school she's doing great and all that now but that's my biggest thing with the portal

[00:23:56] itself is i've had kids jump in the portal then call me afterwards hey i'm in the portal can you

[00:24:02] help and why'd you go help me yeah they don't really have a solid answer and it's hard getting

[00:24:08] them recruited once and now you're doing recommend nouns and i guess for you i'd be like i mean i

[00:24:23] don't know that would probably be the best just because we never want to encourage anybody

[00:24:29] going to the portal you want to encourage them to hey figure it out you committed to this school

[00:24:33] for a reason right they were your dream remember i saw all these posts your family's facebook

[00:24:38] feed was all i don't want to single out of school but a school for two and a half years what changed

[00:24:44] oh it got hard because now they're actually coaching you you've got to do six a.m waits

[00:24:48] you got to do study halls and all this stuff and oh you didn't realize that living in a dorm

[00:24:52] sucks sometimes yeah right we've had x we've had x players we've had we had delaney spaulding on here

[00:25:01] we've had some next pro players on here and it's lacy senior year a lot of and and it coincides

[00:25:09] with what we're just talking about some girls their senior year they just wanted over with

[00:25:15] because maybe they had a bad experience and it is it just they just want it they just want

[00:25:19] the season to be over with and just want their softball career to be done some are like this

[00:25:24] was the best time of my life and i don't want it to end and i possibly want to go pro what advice

[00:25:31] i don't know if you have any advice lacy just wants to have fun this year she also wants to

[00:25:35] be successful because she's very competitive but it this seems like because softball there's usually

[00:25:42] an end right there's not a lot of girls go on to the pros and quite honestly i don't think they pay

[00:25:47] enough for the pros and i don't know why some of these girls will go because they're they're

[00:25:52] getting pennies on the dollar but what should they have some sort of expectation their senior

[00:25:57] like i don't know what kind of advice would you give somebody that is a senior that is it's

[00:26:02] about to end like their season their softball career is about to end yeah and that's gonna be

[00:26:07] different for each individual kid for sure this is a fantastic sport that does so much for so many

[00:26:15] people and it really is a vehicle for so many kids to get their degrees to go to grad school to

[00:26:23] become lawyers or doctors or whatever the case may be of what they want to actually do in life

[00:26:29] and vast majority of athletes in general that's what they end up doing going into the

[00:26:35] workforce in some manner my personal just enjoy every second of it if you're not playing for whatever

[00:26:44] reason enjoy the process of it and understand that you just did the hardest thing that you

[00:26:50] might ever do in your life and that not everybody can do it and if it was easy everybody would

[00:26:57] do it but it is really just watching even as a father watching what my daughter's going through

[00:27:04] obviously i've been around this for a long time i've had hundreds of kids go off the

[00:27:08] college through routines one way or another but you still don't get an idea of how hard it is until

[00:27:12] you see your kid going through it and really what they are actually doing day in day out

[00:27:17] have to grind that they are going in for you to go through whether you played every

[00:27:22] single inning you played part-time or you're a role player whatever the case may be you just

[00:27:26] accomplish something and hopefully you made the best out of it no matter what your situation was because

[00:27:34] it's a fast four years it really is and here people say oh it goes by so fast it goes

[00:27:39] you don't think about it but and it really goes by fast yeah it's a great point too because

[00:27:47] especially being with the mcconnows or bad busters knees high and the expectations

[00:27:52] and what they're they go through every year yeah so yeah for us it was always okay it's national

[00:28:01] title not national title or a bus but it was we're gonna get a national title and then the recruiting

[00:28:07] will come with it because if you're a top team and you're buying for a national championship

[00:28:12] colleges are gonna be like okay i don't want to look at that team and i want some of those girls

[00:28:16] but what i think of what you were saying is these girls it's just grind and then all

[00:28:23] sudden it just stops yeah and then that mindset their mental health and a lot of

[00:28:27] at least she's getting into a lot of the mental health aspect a lot of it's grind grind it stops

[00:28:32] and then they're they look up in the air okay now what so for some girls it's hard is Lauren

[00:28:39] thinking about that kind of stuff now or is she just trying to enjoy them over

[00:28:44] wants to go to law school after this okay will become a lawyer and she had an internship to help

[00:28:50] that this past summer like she's yeah don't get her wrong she's in there in the thick of it fighting

[00:28:55] competing but i don't think there's any aspirations to do anything beyond college she knows

[00:29:01] that this is the last two years of her softball career at the moment let's be real they probably

[00:29:07] don't know what they want for breakfast tomorrow we'll see what happens but at the end of the

[00:29:10] day she's definitely under the hey i want to go get to the world series and set up myself for

[00:29:17] the best i can for the rest of my life and then so as a father do you how often do you try to make

[00:29:23] everything do you have certain tournaments that you try to make to go see i know you took a

[00:29:29] couple of days i know you took a couple years off to yeah i watched her right i still what i

[00:29:34] did is i didn't take any teams i didn't take a team last year i just stayed with our gold team

[00:29:38] and was an assistant so i had a little bit more flexibility to come go watch as many series as she

[00:29:44] as i could the year before i was supposed to do the same thing but i ended up going back and taking

[00:29:49] a 16 year team because we had a team that we needed uh some help with so i ended up taking a team

[00:29:55] when i wasn't supposed to it was one of the funnest years i had we weren't the top team in our

[00:30:01] program or anything like that but yet we were one out away from finishing top 10 at nasadals

[00:30:06] we had a great chemistry great parents it was awesome and those some of those kids are starting

[00:30:12] their freshman year in college now but it was really a fun year and actually it's one of the

[00:30:18] best teams i've ever had not in the sheer aspect of how good we were but it reminded me of why i

[00:30:25] got into coaching and that's actually why this year i'm dropping down and going to 12 years so i can

[00:30:30] keep on reaching again no so i'm gonna take a 12 year team for the first time of you know they were

[00:30:36] really good they were in the pgf finals and 10s and now they're going up the next division and i'm

[00:30:41] taking over that squad oh boy we're gonna have some fun there you go when they know it better

[00:30:46] yeah exactly i'm glad you said pgf pgf or alliance they're pgf probably every day for myself

[00:30:55] man that's always the high preference and the main reason for that is i don't think that

[00:31:01] it is a spoiled aspect perspective for me is we're in southern california there is no reason why we

[00:31:09] need to jump on the plane when pgf has the best weather it has great competition there's some

[00:31:14] things their balls are horrible and they do not fly they need to do something about that but

[00:31:20] that's a whole other story that's the only thing wrong tournament but i was not a fan of the split in

[00:31:26] general but i i get it yeah i've done both as far as alliance or pgf and i just i'd like the pgf model

[00:31:33] so much better just personally i understand different people have different ideas what this

[00:31:38] sport needs to be or what they can get out of this sport and whatever works for each other i like

[00:31:43] the thought of the model of ball like the the women's culture world series model but

[00:31:48] at the end of the day you could go to alliance and finish in the top 10 and only play three teams

[00:31:54] three different teams if you did the model in a certain way i think it might have modified a little

[00:32:00] bit when they added the extra team into the super regional rounds but when it was just two teams

[00:32:05] you could just go through play three teams and you're finishing the top 10 but you got bounced

[00:32:10] or whatever so that's one thing i wasn't necessarily a fan of and the way they do the rankings

[00:32:16] oh one through 16 leaves a little bit to be desired of oh how did this team okay i'll give you

[00:32:23] a break so my 16 and under year three years ago we were the number one ranked team okay went into

[00:32:30] alliance number one ranked we were really good that we just won colorado we were mowing we won

[00:32:36] trip crown nationals and then we run up against texas blaze in the super regional round they

[00:32:44] have taylor talz in the kid that's on the us national team going to florida they have ak 47 i

[00:32:50] can't remember her real name but she's koalski or something like she's at florida now they were

[00:32:55] really good you're telling me that's the 16th reg team when i don't want to throw some of the

[00:33:02] other teams out there that were like in a different thing where i'm like no those guys are horrible

[00:33:06] how are they not that put in right hey they took us out in three games so we didn't make the elite

[00:33:12] eight as the number one ranked team and it's all speculative but that's the same i know they put them

[00:33:18] there for a reason just saying yeah very cool i appreciate your time greg again thank you again for

[00:33:27] coming on number one number two thanks for having lacey on your team and buying for her and advocating

[00:33:33] for i appreciated that and i respect athletic micado you guys are in our backyard and i see a

[00:33:40] lot of the girls that come through our high school and they're all good girls and they do a good job so

[00:33:45] i appreciate you coming on good luck this season and good luck next i will need the patience so

[00:33:51] i can pray for me i know we'll pray for you all right uh greg take care and we'll see you later

[00:34:00] sounds good all right thanks man good stuff