May 7, 2025 • 36 mins
Doug is joined by his colleague and the founder of EAS Recruiting, Sean Yanes, for an inside look at the 2025 recruiting landscape.
They break down what college programs are really looking for, how recruiting has evolved, and what players and parents need to know. With years of experience on both the scouting and coaching sides, Doug and Sean share real talk and real advice from inside the game.
Visit https://www.easrecruiting.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everybody. I'm Doug mccavidge with the Dugout Podcast.
This week we have a longtime friend of mine, Sean Yannis.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
He is the.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
President and CEO of EES Recruiting. Seawn and I go
way back. I am a part of this, but I
wanted people to understand, as a parent of a high
school player moving down the road the pitfalls and hurdles
of high school to college recruiting. And I think Sean
is a fantastic job. So that being said, here's this
(00:32):
week's guest, mister Shawn Jannis. All right, I want to
welcome a longtime friend of mine, Sean Yannis. He is
the president or you could say with CEO of EES Recruiting.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
A little background here.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Sean and I grew up in the same area, played
little lead together and against each other all the way
up through high school.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
We're almost college teammates at FIU.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I didn't hold my end of the deal on that one,
but come up from the same area, have the same mindset.
Our dads were interchangeable at baseball fields throughout our whole life,
and I think that's where a lot of our passions
come from and the ability to work hard came from
both our fathers. They're always at the yard, taught us
(01:24):
hard work is imperative to everything we've ever done. That
being said Sean Jannis, welcome, thank you for doing this,
and welcome to the dugout. Well, this kind of starts
with I want to kind of talk about what we
do and how we do it. I know we get
these talks all the time from parents right about recruiting
(01:47):
for their kid, the landscape of college baseball. I want
to tie into I want to hear your side of it,
how you got started than this and go from there.
I know you started in medical sales and we're really
successful at that, and then that led into where we
are today.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, I mean I started by accident, really with my
own kid, and I played went that FYU, then went
to a juco ended up at spring Hill College at.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
D two school.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
That's kind of where I belonged. But as you know, Doug,
in the early nineties, recruiting was completely different. We didn't
have cell phones, we barely had internet. There's no video,
so coaches picked up the phone and made phone calls
for you. As my daughter was a freshman in high
school in twenty seventeen, I was getting sworn by recruiting
(02:33):
companies whatever in SR and CSR, whatever the different vernacular was.
They were all over me at tournaments. Hey dad, your
daughter's going to play Division one. They're calling me, texting me,
your daughter's going to play Division one. I go, how
do you know that? Have you seen her? Have you
been under the hood with her? She's five foot two,
one hundred pounds, asn't hip puberty yet I go, there's
(02:55):
one person, maybe two if you include my uncle, who
can say this kid's going to go on, and you're
talking to them Because I see under the hood. I
see what the work ethic looks like. I see what
the hands and feet look like on the five foot
two hundred pounds. I know she's gonna grind more than
any of these other kids out here because of how
she's been raised. So I just said, hey, I got this,
(03:16):
stay back, kept everybody at arm's length. I got this,
and I truly didn't. I spent twenty years post college
in med sales building sales teams. Knew what good looks
like on a paper on a resume, but hadn't really
seen the process. And as I dove into it, I
was like, oh my gosh, this is so messed up.
(03:36):
It's metrics and video and tweets and instagrams and ex
posts and all these socials. Kids think they can get
a scholarship with their thumbs. But simply what I did
with them, I just said, hey, let's have fun with this.
We built her a resume, her cover letter, her intro letter,
and started emailing it out. And the girl's rules changed
a little bit before the boys, so she was already
(03:57):
non untouchable until September. First, I've heard you. So all
she could do is send out emails. So we did
that and right into the inbox where there's ten thousand others.
Nobody was reading them. So I found what he needed
was the same thing I had twenty five years earlier,
was a coach that could pick up the phone and
make a phone call. Because coming out of I was
(04:18):
at Palmetto before Doug left us and went over to Westminster, Palmetto,
we had an old school coach and he was He
sent all those guys to Miami Dade. So I was
going to go play for Charlie Green at Miami Dade.
I walked senior year thinking I'm going to Miami Dade.
Didn't really commit, and then my American legion coach said, hey,
could you catch? Yeah what what? Even fyu once hes
(04:39):
a catcher. Sure, I hadn't caught since Little League. So
I committed FIU as a catcher. I was a middle,
couldn't really run, so like, yeah, he's got hands, he's
got an arm, let's put him behind the plate. Yeah, awesome,
I get to go D one. Yay, happy, happy story.
I get there and freshman year, I mean, I worked
my way into the middle, which is what I typically did,
(04:59):
and my hitting group includes Mike Lowle, and I'm like,
holy shit. I first round of bating practice, I'm like,
I can't do that. He's front foot hitting him four
hundred feet debts. I'm like, wow, okay, that's what. And
he was a second basement believe or not. Back then,
that's where I was gonna play. So I'm like, man,
I'm not gonna play here. So I ended up. I
went to Juco and then ended up at a D two,
played middle, loved it, had a great experience, but baseball
(05:22):
brought me all the intangibles that I carried on for the
rest of my life. So I wanted to kind of
replicate that, and we just started doing that with Emma
and it worked swimmingly. There's we hoped. We coached twenty
girls across our twenty and twenty one class coming out.
They all went D one, D two. There seemed to
be a process in place. Yeah, if it would be
(05:43):
a happy ending, and I continue with my met sales career.
And then COVID hit and I got grounded. I couldn't
get into a hospital, couldn't get on a plane. We
had a great device and was helping veterans, but we
were drop shipping devices to their house so I didn't
have to travel for a year. Was making really good money,
and I started doing eas built a web page, built
a CRM system. Started still not thinking I would just
(06:06):
as a career. It just took off, and I think
what we do and Doug's been a part of this
as well. We personalize things for these kids. You know,
every kid is a dime a dozen, whether you're at
whether you're an SEC kid or a D four kid
playing in Wyoming, you are a dime a dozen. You're
against your peers. So we've just taught these kids how
to personalize their story. And then we become their voice
(06:26):
until they can, and we help guide them through the process.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
That first thing I want to say, like your your
daughter is like we always use the term raised by wolves,
like where we were, we were raised by wolves, our dads,
the area, the competition we played against coin with the
term we always use emma is I say this every day,
like if I could find me and wanting to be
a college coach, if I could find twenty emmas on
(06:53):
the male side, I'd never lose a game.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You're great at the metrics, you're great at the reaching
out all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
But like that's kind of feel like or my niche
is is like, hey, but Kenny, We always say Kenny play?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Can she play?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And that's kind of where I step in and co
talks about coach and give them the coach talk and
be like, hey, yeah, Like I know what the metrics say,
I know what the height and the weight and all
that stuff looks like, but you can't teach what they
have under the hood, and you won't know that. You
can't see that through a video, you can't see that.
And I'm not here blowing smoke. I'm just I'm being honest,
(07:24):
and like we use that every day, whether we're talking
to parents or we're talking to the kid, it's how
do you separate yourself from the other fifteen kids that
look and act and video.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Just like you.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And I thought, I know when I first got on
with you, sEH And I thought, the most brilliant thing
was the Google doc you sent me, and it was
how to teach these kids when they go to camps.
Ask them questions, ask them about themselves. And I know
I use that one time with my son Steele. I've
learned so much through watching you work and us doing
(07:59):
the limited stuff that we done to help kids at
every level. And I want you to go into how
the baseball landscape has changed.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I mean that list I created, I dived into your brain,
my uncle who coached college softball and played minor league baseball.
I dived into a lot of people much smarter than
I am on the ball field. What I had was
twenty I mean I was the guy I was too
slow to this. I made it because of my brain
on the field, I was a grinder all that. I
took that same philosophy into medical sales, so I knew
(08:30):
what good looked like in the real world. I knew
what baseball did for me to help prepare me for
the real world. So some of the lessons we were
sharing was trying to help these kids. And you know,
we had this debate all the time with some of
the guys I coached with, or who help us? Is
can you teach that dog? I don't think you can.
I think you guide it or not. You can nurture it,
(08:51):
you can bring it out, you can help, but it's
us parents who have to. Because I wear three hats.
I was a player, a coach, and a parent. The
parent hat has done is expressed as well as the
hardest one to wear. When's your kid? Because you lay
in front of a train for your kid, you see
your kid get told no where you see your kid
have their dreams feel that's tough. So we've created this
to help guide all three facets. Because as Doug mins's
(09:14):
a lot of changes coming increased amounts of scholarships, decrease rosters,
transfer portal allows these kids to jump up down laterally
three times in one year. There's like when we play,
we always joke the game told you where you belonged,
and it might tell you it's time to go. Okay,
well go get a job, Go become a fireman, go
(09:35):
go go finish school whatever. Now that doesn't these kids
are jumping up and down. There's an AI Rosters with
twenty twenty five year olds that are grizzly bear men.
So think about Bobby coming out of high school seventeen,
one hundred and sixty five pounds, soak and wet. He
can't compete with a man that's got a couple hundred
(09:56):
college at bats. He's two hundred and forty pounds of
jack beards whatever, whatever he's been doing for the last
seven years. He's a machine. These kids can't compete. So
it's making it much more difficult for the moms and
dads on their Facebook posts to say Johnny's gonna go
play it taking their talents to Division one, Tennessee. Those
(10:16):
kids are are not happening anymore. You have to go
put in your time. So I think it's it's gonna
be a renaissance for Juco, It's gonna be a renaissance
for Anaia. You're gonna see a lot of kids just
trying to get on a field somewhere and build up.
It's hard on these coaches though, because I talk to
them every day. Imagine being a coach at even a
mid major Division one. You can't compete with the resources
(10:38):
of Tennessee or LSU or A and M. Those schools
are are are fact, they're the Yankees, Dodgers in Red Sox.
They've got they've got the funds, they've got the process,
they've got this stuff dialed in. So I have mid
major coaches telling some of my kids, hey, come here
for two years, we'll give you some nil money, we'll
give you a four ride, and then two years will
help you, will help you transfer. That sounds like a JUCO,
(11:02):
but it's a mid major D one. So it's about
three as it's about educating parents and if kids and
through this process because the process is changing weekly if not.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
And even like even the kids that do come out
the fortunate one percent of the high school kids that
go D one at the ACC of the SEC level,
that's just for the fall. Like I mean, my son
saw seven to eight transfers from SEC ACC schools that
came to his JUCO in January. So like, it's not
(11:34):
about where you start, it's how it was where you finish.
And that's another thing too, it's it's these like it's
tough to swallow, right, I get it. Juco's not the
most wonderful thing you.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Want to go through.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But at the end of the day, you look at
you look at the final product process of this. We
call them junkyard dogs for a reason, Like they didn't
get the free cleats, the free bats. They're grinding. You
call it a business trip. It's a business trip and
it's a place to play. And at the end of
the day, you're building your resume to where when you
become when when you become more physical, and that's what
(12:10):
they want. Now you have the skills and the data
to boot and the and the numbers to boot to
go here, this is what it looks like. And so
it's you know, and that's that's the hard part in this.
And like I said, for us at the as I
do the eighteen U national team, and yes, these kids
are phenomenal, they're big, they're physical, but they make the
(12:30):
same mistakes the younger kids make, the less physical kids make.
And at the end of the day, a lot of
those kids they end up either getting past in a
couple of years or they're right there where they need
to be.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
The biggest farce in sports right now?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Is the level of actual play at these quote unquote
lower levels of aren't d one are really damn good?
And they don't realize that until they get to that point.
Going shit, these kids can play too. So I want like,
at least for me and my eyes, I want to
keep it's like a it's like Pro Bowl. I want
them to go a ball, double, a triple ay and
don't come back.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Most of these kids, majority nine nine point nine percent,
are not gonna play where you played, right, They're not
gonna make it to that level. So we build this
off of four four things. First and foremost is education academics.
Do you know what you want to be when you
grow up and you can't say baseball player? That's that's
let's find you. If you want to be an engineer,
Georgia Tech's a great school. If you can't play. George
Tech Ogle forbe is a Division III in Georgia has
(13:27):
a great engineering program. So we specify what do you
want to do? What do your grades look like? Are
you a four point two with A with a thirty
four years c T. All right, there's a lot of
money in that. We're gonna get your money through your grades.
Are you a two point six that didn't take their
SA team? You got to go Juco if you if
you want to play. So that's number one. Second dary
of that called logistics, and this is more so sometimes
(13:47):
with the girls, like do you want to be where
they got a football team? Do you want to have
I want to be in Florida because you got Florida prepaid.
You need to stay in Georgia because of the Hope scholarship.
You want to be near Grandma out in the mountains.
Do you want to do you not care? Is this
d one or bus? All these questions logistically kind of
line up where you need to go? Are is there
a Christian affiliation? Right? Third is cost? What come mom?
(14:08):
And data Ford because not all these are free rides,
most of them are not. When we couple education along
with your game, there's a chance to get some really
good packages together. But that's kind of the first three
metrics we look at or parameters we look at. Then
your fourth is your game. You know, if we tell
a story around those first three, then we allow baseball
or softball or golfer and any other sports to be
(14:30):
the con doit to deliver that experience then then we're
cooking with gas here. And I would use my own
story here. I mean a D one Juco D day.
I got a great business degree, a great education. My
father was a firefighter. We were blue collar. I wasn't
around white collar affluence. So I got the college. I'm like, damn,
I want some of this. Like some of my teammates
(14:51):
are driving forces to school. How do I get that?
So I started buckling down in school. I never gave
a crap about school. I was party and playing baseball.
Those are my two priorities. And like, okay, this is
coming to an end. I'm not going to play at
the next level. You better get your your grades right
and your degree right. So baseball delivered me an experience.
Has really nothing to do with my on field accolades.
(15:13):
It's it's it provided me with an education, with an
opportunity to meet friends for life and to be around people.
Starts the network and I still today network through my
you know, thirty forty plus years.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
In baseball, for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I mean, I tell you, I tell Steele, like college,
baseball is about the friendships you make. It's not about
so much where it's at. It's about who you meet
tell them again that I want people to hear this.
How where's the number at as far as people, we've
gotten people, we've gotten a place to play.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Yeah, probably over three hundred and sixty total kids with
the as now and we have one hundred percent place beIN.
So really every yeah, every kid that comes in get
finds their spot and it's us working with them. But
that's you know, that's because as we care, and that's
because it's very specific, to be specific on the side
of my hat. I mean, that's what we do. We
allow their story to guide them and then we hustle,
(16:09):
like health, with that old school mentality to help them
find I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Keep going back to steel because that's my that's my
dad hat, right, And we went through that and we
held off giving like Steel's story because there's a there's
a like a we go with data.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
You have the portal thing that we you developed and
it basically tells you, like the metrics and it kind
of breaks down sec what conference, what they look for,
what are the parameters and you and for for parents
to see that and players to see that and be
like okay, well I don't do that, and you go
down and yeah, it's a little on the high end.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I get it, but like, that's reality.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And if you want to play this game and you
want to succeed at life, sometimes you got to swallow
that ego, You got to swallow that pride, be like, yes,
it's not where I want to be, but I can
use this as a stepping stone to get to where
I want to go. And I think that's where I
think the most magic for me of doing and being
a part of this is seeing the beginning, the first
(17:08):
conversation where they're like, I want to go to Tennessee.
It's Arkansas or bust. And yet we walk them kind
of on back to reality a little bit. And I'm
not saying that it's not possible, it's just not possible
right now.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And then it's our job is not to be dream killer,
but it's to give it a sense of reality. And
most of the times it's more so with the parents.
The parents are and this sounds half tongue in cheek,
but they're looking for a Facebook post. They're looking at
After all, we've spent tens of thousands, We've probably paid
for two or three years of college just through our
(17:43):
travel ball experience and We've got all these friends who
we're trying to compete with in the travel ball Facebook landscape,
and they want to put that post. Everybody knows Tennessee's
at Division one school. I'm taking my talents to Tennessee
Division one. Yeah, okay, we got that, But what about
the D three or the NAI or the juco is?
Is that is that less? Maybe depends on your perception.
(18:06):
For me, it didn't. You're getting to play college baseball
or softball. And now as they see my daughter start
as a freshman in high school and she's come out
the back end and graduating next weekend or this weekend,
I'm seeing it come to fruition, seeing what this game
can still give to these kids. And it's about the
experience and the education and the friendships. She's got friends
for life. I've never seen her cry on on a
(18:29):
softball field. And she she got out of her last
at bat was walking because time run was she she
was a time run. She was trying to a big fly.
She said three in her in her college career, but
they thought that was gonna be number four. And tears
is to come out of her face. Wasn't because she
struck out his cousin was over her. Girls are looking
at her. She's walking back to Doug. And that's that's
what I just about lost it because I know what
(18:49):
that feeling is like the last time you strap it
on is it is the is, then yours is different, Doug.
But most of us don't make it to that point. Say,
it's about the friendship. It's not not getting to play again.
But I put my glove away for three four years,
like I see to step away from this. But it
was about the memories of friendships, the bus rides, all
the stuff that you said, it's.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Tough no matter what level is that I can do
it and stuff, and like to give ma more props,
you send me a picture of her six thirty in
the morning. I think twelve hours after she busts her nose,
she still had blood drobe on her nose. What's she
doing going for a run. It's like that's the difference,
Like it's just that the again, we're not getting the
show pony. We're not getting the metric you know t
(19:32):
Rex the dinosaur, right, We're not getting the kid that's
absolutely can't miss.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
He looks like a Donis uniform.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
We're getting kids that can play that may have you
know that don't match up to the kid going to LSU,
which is fine, but I promise you a lot of times,
the kid that's not the giant when they go head
to head, the little one always out plays the big one.
It happens all the time. You saw it. It's just
because we're not afraid. And that's the way I think. Well,
(20:01):
that's the short time i've been with the as. I
love the moo of the kid that we get because they're.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Just Yeah, that's kind of the process. Whether you're because
it's starting already, transfer portal is gonna be out of control.
We've got I already got some grad students that have
hired us. We've got Juco kids that are trying to
beat the transfer portal rush. So whether you're that kid
or the twenty twenty eight freshman who's not even close
to being physical yet, we're building your profile, and your
(20:28):
profiles are at different stages. So once you get to college,
it doesn't matter what you did in perfect Game, what
you hit in high school. They flip over your baseball card.
Who are you? You're at a Juco in Florida, you
hit three twenty, you got ted pumps. Okay, yeah, you're
a guy. You can go play D one. You're at
a juco in West Virginia. You hit two forty two
(20:50):
home runs, you can play college baseball. You're not going
in the sec ACC. So when I get these profiles,
and you know, we're still lean enough where I know
all of our kids, whether they're my assigned to me
or not. But I still handle all of our transfer
kids because there is that immediate sense of urgency, and
I message coaches. I text them usually is where we start.
Do you have interest and you have a need? Is
(21:11):
the first question they may have interest? Yeah, three twenty
ten pups, we got an All American catcher. We get two,
so there's no need, right, So that's the question ask
about from all these coaches. And then what we do
is we go back into our dashboard and we update
their notes, which there's not I don't think there is
another company that I've seen that does it like this.
And this comes from my medical sales background. Is everything
(21:33):
is that we're accountable. It's empowered analytics sports, but we're
accountable to our families. And I know which dads and
moms are business men and women because they're all over this.
They've seen CRM systems, they've tracked results, they're up my
career end. Hey, what's happening here, what's happening there? They're
they're working this harder than the kid. I know that's happening,
but everything is there. Hey, you spoke to coach Smith
(21:55):
at ABC College. Not a fit right now? Next? Not
interested to move them off the list? Boom Next, I
don't want you to add one hundred schools to our dashboard.
Give me fifteen or twenty that makes sense academically, logistically,
all those things we talked about, and then let's let's
get very specific dialogue along with them to see if
there's a need and yeah, okay, then then we'll start
(22:18):
the next step. Because there's all the different rules. The
parents sures held a home, the kids don't really know them.
I don't even know them all because they're changing every day,
but we know most of it right, so we're helping
guide them and put them into the right spot.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And even that too, it's like you put I'm trying
to give it from a person that works here, who
wants to be a college coach and as a parent,
so all three things. But I love the way it
was like red, yellow, green, Right, it's simple dots, boom, yes, no, move,
keep going. So green's a yes obviously, just like a stoplay.
So and the crazy part is now more than ever
(22:51):
that if the relationship's huge, because there's four or five,
maybe six years of contact with this guy about this
specific player. I've always said this. I said this when
I was a Florida state to our recruiter or Jamie Shoop,
I said, do me a favor, go down to Miami
and find the dirtiest kid's uniform at a tournament that's
(23:16):
down there, and give him a scholarship. That kid is
gonna play circles around any kid anywhere else in the state.
I can promise you that they're just different. It's a
different it's a different mindset. These parents down here, they
mean business like they're taking out they're getting second jobs
to private lessons and to get them to showcase these
(23:37):
kids from the age of seven on. So like this
is not a this is not a it's not oh,
let's just have fun. No, No, this is there. They're
trying to make it so like this kid is the
best of the best. And I think that, yeah, there's a.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
We we've talked about this and joked about this. You know,
being from South Florida, mumps really South Miami, growing up
a lot a lot of island kids that we grew
up with. We were thrown into, you know, the deep end,
which is the game played at a faster pace, and
we played little We played Cory League back then. We
didn't have travel ball. Our Corey Leak was could probably
(24:11):
go around and beat our all Star team every every summer,
would beat most of the travel ball programs right now,
just because we were a bunch of just rug rats.
But South Florida it's still hadn't changed a whole lot
from that. There's still very affluid areas. But when I
go down there to watch games, it's different. It's it's
scott the island flavor. It's faster, it's it's dirty, and
not not in a bad way. It's it's just kind
(24:33):
of what I grew up playing up here. Up here,
and I'm in I'm in Woodstock, I'm in nor Northwest Atlanta,
a fluid area, and there's a lot of warehouse kids,
and we asked, what what is what is the warehouse kids?
The warehouse kids got a hitting coach, a pidgy coach,
a dietitian, a strength coach. He's got a psychologist. He's
those kids when they get punched in the mouth, they
don't always know what to do. They're they're they're warriors
(24:55):
on Instagram what they're And we were joking about this
last night. The kid when he's a three to zero
slider with the game on the line, dribbles one, they
thrown away and he wins. I go yeah, And he's
probably posting on Instagram about about his walk off last night, right.
I don't know. It's a fine line because some of
those warehouse kids do make it quicker than the kid
(25:15):
that can't afford our service and down in Hilia or
in South Miami. But at the end of the day,
you line them all up. I'm still gonna bet on
that Higalia kid when when the dust settles, or that
grinder kid that's gotten his ass kicked by this game,
because until you get punched in those you don't know
what you don't know how you're going to react, and
when you're coddled and everything's done for you, sometimes it
(25:38):
doesn't play out the way you would like it.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I remember we had an organization.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
And while we have a meeting every day in pro
Ball as managers, and we because we have to go
over the day before the day starts, then we have
one after the day's over to kind of go get
ready for the next day. And we're having this discussion
about are One of our field coordinators said that Latin
American kids don't play well in big games, and I
(26:05):
literally started dying laughing, and.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I said, hang on a second, I.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Said, those kids have played under I go, if you
took a kid from Venezuela who plays in the Venezuela
and Winter League and put him in Omaha, he would
laugh his ass off at Omaha. At the end of
the day, these parents have to take these coaches take
kids from all over the country, sometimes all over the world.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
They have to be able to trust you. They have
to be able to trust you. First.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You can have the all of twent in the world
and some most coaches, some coaches will take you no
matter what kind of person you are. Majority of the
coaches you ask him point blank, what's the number one
thing you worry about?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I got to be able to trust this kid.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, and that's kind Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
So you know, that's that's another yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
With with with him this year going in and she
played shortstop last year going into this fall, She's like,
I think I may lose beat beat as shortstop, Like
who cares to play second? You play their old life
Like there was a lot of freshmen up the middle.
I teach them, teach them all. Give them everything you have,
everything I've given you, you give to those kids. And
she ended up there's a second basement. Breaks in the
(27:09):
second basement is an actual center fielder. But now she's
playing second base and kid can hitch. She's gonna be
really good. A couple of weeks. Guys, she said, Emma,
thank you, and that was like for what it's like
for helping. I've learned to play second basis by watching
you at practice. Kid hadn't really played much to me
as a dad as a coach, like, hell yeah, who
cares a kid beat you out? I don't care. She
(27:32):
got back in at the end, and it all worked
itself out. The game works itself out. Do the right
things every day, go out there and bust your ass
every day, and the game reward you. The gods of
baseball or softball, whatever will reward you. It does it everything.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I remember, I had people Justin Morneau. I was in Minnesota,
and Justin Morne I knew early on. My rookie year
was ninety nine. Justin Morneau was drafted that year in
a pre draft. He came to the Metrodome as a
high school senior, was blasting balls in the upper deck.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
So I remember watching him take VP.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And I'm going ninety nine, two thousand, two thousand and one,
two thousand and two. Okay, so four years of school kid,
two thousand and four will be my last year as
a twin because I knew this, this kid was just
a freak. And it was two thousand and three, two thousand,
it was two thousand and three and two thousand and four.
We call Justin up and uh, we're working early work
(28:24):
at first base because obviously I could play defense. Justin obviously,
if he would have been as good defensively as he
was offensively, he'd have been the best first baseman ever
that guy ever created, because he was that good offensively.
But I was out there teaching him like he asked
me for help, and like people in Minnesota were dumbfounded,
like they were like media was like, what are you doing.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I'm like what, like we're on the same team, Like
what this is what we do?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Like they I'm gonna teach him everything that I know,
whether he picks it up or not. I'm not going
to hand you my job. You're gonna have to get it.
But at the same token, like that's what being a
ballplayer is. Like, you teach him, you go out there,
you help him. Hey, I don't want to leave, but
there's twenty on other clubs that will need a first
basement if justin you're the guy.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Hey, my relationship with you as an individual.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Means more to me than me trying to hold onto
the job as a first basement. And and I mean
I wasn't that didn't take a it didn't take a
baseball executive to see that he was.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Better than me and he was gonna be better than me.
And I'm not I'm not stupid. I'm confident, but I'm
not an idiot like I was, like, obviously this kid's
can wan an MVP.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I knew he's It doesn't mean I'm gonna not be
a human being and teach the kid everything I know,
because I mean, he taught me stuff offensively that I
didn't know. But that's that's part of what this game
does for you, right, It's like you help you do
the best you can you be, your character will be.
Character is hard to ever forget, and character doesn't go
(29:54):
away when you put the spikes away. Characters that when
you're six and people still remember things like this that
we're talking about. Emma will be remembered by that girl
for the rest of her life. And that means a
lot more than how many hits Emma or how many
diving places she made at second base.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I mean, that's that's the word in our family's character.
You know, we talk about that all the time. And
I've now as she's in her final or she was
in her final quarter, I'm watching and everything she's doing,
I'm able to teach her on what this looks like
at your next step because she's going in the medical
device medical sales. She's already kind of interviewing, so she's
(30:33):
going to have a career. There go all these lessons
you've learned in this dugout trans transferred to the real world.
One of the freshmen kid kept popping up. Every time
she pop up, she drop her head and walked down
the first baseline. I said do not allow that. Well,
but it's a no, no, no, no, you're a senior. I
don't want to bully. You're not bullying. This is this
(30:54):
is what this conversation looks like. When you get when
you're leading people and mets where somebody's paying you half
million dollars a year to deliver results, you're not allowed
somebody to walk down the first baseline. So you can start. Now,
start with these conversations now as the senior and a freshman,
because you still remember your seniors. You're freshman, you're at FSU,
(31:15):
I remember my scenior. Those seniors are revered by a freshman,
no matter if they're better than you were worse. It's
there's that relationship, that dynamic. So start to learn. Let
this game teach you. I have another life lesson because
you look around, there's life lessons every day in a
game of baseball, softball, basketball, golf, whatever whatever. Sports.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Sport definitely helps. Sports definitely help. I mean, there's no
two ways about it. Dealing with failure. I used to
use the line, that's not how we do things here,
right like you jog No, that's not what we built.
You're not gonna come in here, and deter that that's
not how we do things here.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Let's go you're better than that whatever.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
And that's and that's the scary dynamic of where we
are the game in society now. Like she's worked out
bullying some money, that's not bullying us being a leader.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So leaders do leaders are?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I mean, you look at CEOs of fortune five hundred companies.
They're not all liked and that's hey, you're not supposed
to be liked. There's a reason why they're different. They're savages.
That's the one thing I tell my son, it's never
been easier to be a savage than this today. You
don't have to be rude, but if you just refuse that,
you put your head down and keep grinding, like you
(32:22):
look different.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
That's just what it is now.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
And I know you want to coach, and I I
feel for the coaches these days. I feel for how
how can you? How can you address a kid? How
can you handle kids? Because coaches are bullies. This kid
he's a bully. No he's not. He's holding your kid accountable.
Like I wouldn't last as a coach. Stuff in my
eyes at this time, you're more on softballks. I'm kind
(32:48):
of following my daughter around. These coaches aren't bullies or
they're just they're just hold their kids accountable. But the
kids now are all looking to turn the coach into
an ad because he kicked a bucket or yelled at
me or I told my daughter. So you tell a
coach that he can yell you and every once if
he gets pissed off and once to yell, have him
yell at you because he can't say any to you
(33:09):
that I have already said ten times over. I was
harder on you when you were ten. Then this guy
is the whole season long, not because I'm an asshole,
because I was holding you accountable. That's why you're That's
why you're so good because you're held accountable. And that
that's the frustrating part. I don't know how I couldn't
do it. I'm I'm excited to watch you, watch you
transform into into that one.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Picking everybody's brain. I'm picking everybody that I know his brain,
and it's gonna be hard for me. It's gonna be
really hard. I don't get me wrong. I as a
college coach, I'm gonna trust me. I I pimped Homer's
I I threw the bat flips. I did all of it,
but I never let it. I never pulled it away
from my own team. I think now that you know
with umpires telling them to get kicked out of games,
(33:52):
like that's you go overboard, you hurt your team. We
need you on the field. So that's I'm I'm hell,
I'm in interested to see how I developed into that,
into that regard could just sit here and say like, oh,
that's just not the way.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
It's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Then you're gonna have You're gonna look out on the field.
There's not gonna be anybody out there because I don't
want I never liked the robot player. I liked emotion
within reason. I mean, emotion means you care, right and
that you know that's that's.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Well, you're gonna you're just gonna tap into that dog
with these kids. You're gonna know exactly what what you
need from that kid. I mean, you're you're gonna do
help with John. I can't wait to watch it.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I appreciate that, but I mean that that's that goes
ties into this thing as what what you do and
like there's not enough.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Of you there really isn't.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
There's like to give these kids an opportunity that they
probably felt like they were staying at the bottom of
Mount Everest. And that's that's what I think about when
I think of you know, even for me personally, I
was lost.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
I didn't know what to do with steel.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I was I didn't know how to You know, everybody
thinks you have all the I didn't have one, and
so to you to tap in and do this and
you're just you're just scratching the surface of this thing.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
And uh, I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
For what you do, for what you did for my son,
and what you do for kids that that probably thought
the world was ending when they didn't get the offer
they thought they deserved. So I can't thank you enough
for this. And I can't wait to see where this,
what becomes of this.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, man, we appreciate you for having us. I mean,
this is a labor of love and you taught me this.
The biggest statement I can tell families we got you,
and I use it all the time. We got you.
You're good and you can just see the Okay, well
everything's going to be okay. Yeah, I can breathe and
we do one hundred percent. I tell families one hundred
percent what keeps me up at night. That's the one
because it can only go one direction, but it's not
(35:50):
gonna know on your kid if you do this the
right way.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
All right, everybody, that's going to wrap up this week's
edition of the Dugout Podcast. Wherever you listen to your
favorite podcast, Apple, Spotify, and if you would do me
a favor, hit that liking subscribe button to help us out.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Until next time.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
This is Doug mccavage and the Dugout Podcast signing out.
Welcome back everybody. I'm Doug mccavidge with the Dugout Podcast.
This week we have a longtime friend of mine, Sean Yannis.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
He is the.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
President and CEO of EES Recruiting. Seawn and I go
way back. I am a part of this, but I
wanted people to understand, as a parent of a high
school player moving down the road the pitfalls and hurdles
of high school to college recruiting. And I think Sean
is a fantastic job. So that being said, here's this
(00:32):
week's guest, mister Shawn Jannis. All right, I want to
welcome a longtime friend of mine, Sean Yannis. He is
the president or you could say with CEO of EES Recruiting.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
A little background here.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Sean and I grew up in the same area, played
little lead together and against each other all the way
up through high school.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
We're almost college teammates at FIU.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I didn't hold my end of the deal on that one,
but come up from the same area, have the same mindset.
Our dads were interchangeable at baseball fields throughout our whole life,
and I think that's where a lot of our passions
come from and the ability to work hard came from
both our fathers. They're always at the yard, taught us
(01:24):
hard work is imperative to everything we've ever done. That
being said Sean Jannis, welcome, thank you for doing this,
and welcome to the dugout. Well, this kind of starts
with I want to kind of talk about what we
do and how we do it. I know we get
these talks all the time from parents right about recruiting
(01:47):
for their kid, the landscape of college baseball. I want
to tie into I want to hear your side of it,
how you got started than this and go from there.
I know you started in medical sales and we're really
successful at that, and then that led into where we
are today.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, I mean I started by accident, really with my
own kid, and I played went that FYU, then went
to a juco ended up at spring Hill College at.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
D two school.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
That's kind of where I belonged. But as you know, Doug,
in the early nineties, recruiting was completely different. We didn't
have cell phones, we barely had internet. There's no video,
so coaches picked up the phone and made phone calls
for you. As my daughter was a freshman in high
school in twenty seventeen, I was getting sworn by recruiting
(02:33):
companies whatever in SR and CSR, whatever the different vernacular was.
They were all over me at tournaments. Hey dad, your
daughter's going to play Division one. They're calling me, texting me,
your daughter's going to play Division one. I go, how
do you know that? Have you seen her? Have you
been under the hood with her? She's five foot two,
one hundred pounds, asn't hip puberty yet I go, there's
(02:55):
one person, maybe two if you include my uncle, who
can say this kid's going to go on, and you're
talking to them Because I see under the hood. I
see what the work ethic looks like. I see what
the hands and feet look like on the five foot
two hundred pounds. I know she's gonna grind more than
any of these other kids out here because of how
she's been raised. So I just said, hey, I got this,
(03:16):
stay back, kept everybody at arm's length. I got this,
and I truly didn't. I spent twenty years post college
in med sales building sales teams. Knew what good looks
like on a paper on a resume, but hadn't really
seen the process. And as I dove into it, I
was like, oh my gosh, this is so messed up.
(03:36):
It's metrics and video and tweets and instagrams and ex
posts and all these socials. Kids think they can get
a scholarship with their thumbs. But simply what I did
with them, I just said, hey, let's have fun with this.
We built her a resume, her cover letter, her intro letter,
and started emailing it out. And the girl's rules changed
a little bit before the boys, so she was already
(03:57):
non untouchable until September. First, I've heard you. So all
she could do is send out emails. So we did
that and right into the inbox where there's ten thousand others.
Nobody was reading them. So I found what he needed
was the same thing I had twenty five years earlier,
was a coach that could pick up the phone and
make a phone call. Because coming out of I was
(04:18):
at Palmetto before Doug left us and went over to Westminster, Palmetto,
we had an old school coach and he was He
sent all those guys to Miami Dade. So I was
going to go play for Charlie Green at Miami Dade.
I walked senior year thinking I'm going to Miami Dade.
Didn't really commit, and then my American legion coach said, hey,
could you catch? Yeah what what? Even fyu once hes
(04:39):
a catcher. Sure, I hadn't caught since Little League. So
I committed FIU as a catcher. I was a middle,
couldn't really run, so like, yeah, he's got hands, he's
got an arm, let's put him behind the plate. Yeah, awesome,
I get to go D one. Yay, happy, happy story.
I get there and freshman year, I mean, I worked
my way into the middle, which is what I typically did,
(04:59):
and my hitting group includes Mike Lowle, and I'm like,
holy shit. I first round of bating practice, I'm like,
I can't do that. He's front foot hitting him four
hundred feet debts. I'm like, wow, okay, that's what. And
he was a second basement believe or not. Back then,
that's where I was gonna play. So I'm like, man,
I'm not gonna play here. So I ended up. I
went to Juco and then ended up at a D two,
played middle, loved it, had a great experience, but baseball
(05:22):
brought me all the intangibles that I carried on for the
rest of my life. So I wanted to kind of
replicate that, and we just started doing that with Emma
and it worked swimmingly. There's we hoped. We coached twenty
girls across our twenty and twenty one class coming out.
They all went D one, D two. There seemed to
be a process in place. Yeah, if it would be
(05:43):
a happy ending, and I continue with my met sales career.
And then COVID hit and I got grounded. I couldn't
get into a hospital, couldn't get on a plane. We
had a great device and was helping veterans, but we
were drop shipping devices to their house so I didn't
have to travel for a year. Was making really good money,
and I started doing eas built a web page, built
a CRM system. Started still not thinking I would just
(06:06):
as a career. It just took off, and I think
what we do and Doug's been a part of this
as well. We personalize things for these kids. You know,
every kid is a dime a dozen, whether you're at
whether you're an SEC kid or a D four kid
playing in Wyoming, you are a dime a dozen. You're
against your peers. So we've just taught these kids how
to personalize their story. And then we become their voice
(06:26):
until they can, and we help guide them through the process.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
That first thing I want to say, like your your
daughter is like we always use the term raised by wolves,
like where we were, we were raised by wolves, our dads,
the area, the competition we played against coin with the
term we always use emma is I say this every day,
like if I could find me and wanting to be
a college coach, if I could find twenty emmas on
(06:53):
the male side, I'd never lose a game.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You're great at the metrics, you're great at the reaching
out all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
But like that's kind of feel like or my niche
is is like, hey, but Kenny, We always say Kenny play?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Can she play?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And that's kind of where I step in and co
talks about coach and give them the coach talk and
be like, hey, yeah, Like I know what the metrics say,
I know what the height and the weight and all
that stuff looks like, but you can't teach what they
have under the hood, and you won't know that. You
can't see that through a video, you can't see that.
And I'm not here blowing smoke. I'm just I'm being honest,
(07:24):
and like we use that every day, whether we're talking
to parents or we're talking to the kid, it's how
do you separate yourself from the other fifteen kids that
look and act and video.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Just like you.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And I thought, I know when I first got on
with you, sEH And I thought, the most brilliant thing
was the Google doc you sent me, and it was
how to teach these kids when they go to camps.
Ask them questions, ask them about themselves. And I know
I use that one time with my son Steele. I've
learned so much through watching you work and us doing
(07:59):
the limited stuff that we done to help kids at
every level. And I want you to go into how
the baseball landscape has changed.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I mean that list I created, I dived into your brain,
my uncle who coached college softball and played minor league baseball.
I dived into a lot of people much smarter than
I am on the ball field. What I had was
twenty I mean I was the guy I was too
slow to this. I made it because of my brain
on the field, I was a grinder all that. I
took that same philosophy into medical sales, so I knew
(08:30):
what good looked like in the real world. I knew
what baseball did for me to help prepare me for
the real world. So some of the lessons we were
sharing was trying to help these kids. And you know,
we had this debate all the time with some of
the guys I coached with, or who help us? Is
can you teach that dog? I don't think you can.
I think you guide it or not. You can nurture it,
(08:51):
you can bring it out, you can help, but it's
us parents who have to. Because I wear three hats.
I was a player, a coach, and a parent. The
parent hat has done is expressed as well as the
hardest one to wear. When's your kid? Because you lay
in front of a train for your kid, you see
your kid get told no where you see your kid
have their dreams feel that's tough. So we've created this
to help guide all three facets. Because as Doug mins's
(09:14):
a lot of changes coming increased amounts of scholarships, decrease rosters,
transfer portal allows these kids to jump up down laterally
three times in one year. There's like when we play,
we always joke the game told you where you belonged,
and it might tell you it's time to go. Okay,
well go get a job, Go become a fireman, go
(09:35):
go go finish school whatever. Now that doesn't these kids
are jumping up and down. There's an AI Rosters with
twenty twenty five year olds that are grizzly bear men.
So think about Bobby coming out of high school seventeen,
one hundred and sixty five pounds, soak and wet. He
can't compete with a man that's got a couple hundred
(09:56):
college at bats. He's two hundred and forty pounds of
jack beards whatever, whatever he's been doing for the last
seven years. He's a machine. These kids can't compete. So
it's making it much more difficult for the moms and
dads on their Facebook posts to say Johnny's gonna go
play it taking their talents to Division one, Tennessee. Those
(10:16):
kids are are not happening anymore. You have to go
put in your time. So I think it's it's gonna
be a renaissance for Juco, It's gonna be a renaissance
for Anaia. You're gonna see a lot of kids just
trying to get on a field somewhere and build up.
It's hard on these coaches though, because I talk to
them every day. Imagine being a coach at even a
mid major Division one. You can't compete with the resources
(10:38):
of Tennessee or LSU or A and M. Those schools
are are are fact, they're the Yankees, Dodgers in Red Sox.
They've got they've got the funds, they've got the process,
they've got this stuff dialed in. So I have mid
major coaches telling some of my kids, hey, come here
for two years, we'll give you some nil money, we'll
give you a four ride, and then two years will
help you, will help you transfer. That sounds like a JUCO,
(11:02):
but it's a mid major D one. So it's about
three as it's about educating parents and if kids and
through this process because the process is changing weekly if not.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
And even like even the kids that do come out
the fortunate one percent of the high school kids that
go D one at the ACC of the SEC level,
that's just for the fall. Like I mean, my son
saw seven to eight transfers from SEC ACC schools that
came to his JUCO in January. So like, it's not
(11:34):
about where you start, it's how it was where you finish.
And that's another thing too, it's it's these like it's
tough to swallow, right, I get it. Juco's not the
most wonderful thing you.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Want to go through.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But at the end of the day, you look at
you look at the final product process of this. We
call them junkyard dogs for a reason, Like they didn't
get the free cleats, the free bats. They're grinding. You
call it a business trip. It's a business trip and
it's a place to play. And at the end of
the day, you're building your resume to where when you
become when when you become more physical, and that's what
(12:10):
they want. Now you have the skills and the data
to boot and the and the numbers to boot to
go here, this is what it looks like. And so
it's you know, and that's that's the hard part in this.
And like I said, for us at the as I
do the eighteen U national team, and yes, these kids
are phenomenal, they're big, they're physical, but they make the
(12:30):
same mistakes the younger kids make, the less physical kids make.
And at the end of the day, a lot of
those kids they end up either getting past in a
couple of years or they're right there where they need
to be.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
The biggest farce in sports right now?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Is the level of actual play at these quote unquote
lower levels of aren't d one are really damn good?
And they don't realize that until they get to that point.
Going shit, these kids can play too. So I want like,
at least for me and my eyes, I want to
keep it's like a it's like Pro Bowl. I want
them to go a ball, double, a triple ay and
don't come back.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Most of these kids, majority nine nine point nine percent,
are not gonna play where you played, right, They're not
gonna make it to that level. So we build this
off of four four things. First and foremost is education academics.
Do you know what you want to be when you
grow up and you can't say baseball player? That's that's
let's find you. If you want to be an engineer,
Georgia Tech's a great school. If you can't play. George
Tech Ogle forbe is a Division III in Georgia has
(13:27):
a great engineering program. So we specify what do you
want to do? What do your grades look like? Are
you a four point two with A with a thirty
four years c T. All right, there's a lot of
money in that. We're gonna get your money through your grades.
Are you a two point six that didn't take their
SA team? You got to go Juco if you if
you want to play. So that's number one. Second dary
of that called logistics, and this is more so sometimes
(13:47):
with the girls, like do you want to be where
they got a football team? Do you want to have
I want to be in Florida because you got Florida prepaid.
You need to stay in Georgia because of the Hope scholarship.
You want to be near Grandma out in the mountains.
Do you want to do you not care? Is this
d one or bus? All these questions logistically kind of
line up where you need to go? Are is there
a Christian affiliation? Right? Third is cost? What come mom?
(14:08):
And data Ford because not all these are free rides,
most of them are not. When we couple education along
with your game, there's a chance to get some really
good packages together. But that's kind of the first three
metrics we look at or parameters we look at. Then
your fourth is your game. You know, if we tell
a story around those first three, then we allow baseball
or softball or golfer and any other sports to be
(14:30):
the con doit to deliver that experience then then we're
cooking with gas here. And I would use my own
story here. I mean a D one Juco D day.
I got a great business degree, a great education. My
father was a firefighter. We were blue collar. I wasn't
around white collar affluence. So I got the college. I'm like, damn,
I want some of this. Like some of my teammates
(14:51):
are driving forces to school. How do I get that?
So I started buckling down in school. I never gave
a crap about school. I was party and playing baseball.
Those are my two priorities. And like, okay, this is
coming to an end. I'm not going to play at
the next level. You better get your your grades right
and your degree right. So baseball delivered me an experience.
Has really nothing to do with my on field accolades.
(15:13):
It's it's it provided me with an education, with an
opportunity to meet friends for life and to be around people.
Starts the network and I still today network through my
you know, thirty forty plus years.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
In baseball, for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I mean, I tell you, I tell Steele, like college,
baseball is about the friendships you make. It's not about
so much where it's at. It's about who you meet
tell them again that I want people to hear this.
How where's the number at as far as people, we've
gotten people, we've gotten a place to play.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Yeah, probably over three hundred and sixty total kids with
the as now and we have one hundred percent place beIN.
So really every yeah, every kid that comes in get
finds their spot and it's us working with them. But
that's you know, that's because as we care, and that's
because it's very specific, to be specific on the side
of my hat. I mean, that's what we do. We
allow their story to guide them and then we hustle,
(16:09):
like health, with that old school mentality to help them
find I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Keep going back to steel because that's my that's my
dad hat, right, And we went through that and we
held off giving like Steel's story because there's a there's
a like a we go with data.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
You have the portal thing that we you developed and
it basically tells you, like the metrics and it kind
of breaks down sec what conference, what they look for,
what are the parameters and you and for for parents
to see that and players to see that and be
like okay, well I don't do that, and you go
down and yeah, it's a little on the high end.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I get it, but like, that's reality.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And if you want to play this game and you
want to succeed at life, sometimes you got to swallow
that ego, You got to swallow that pride, be like, yes,
it's not where I want to be, but I can
use this as a stepping stone to get to where
I want to go. And I think that's where I
think the most magic for me of doing and being
a part of this is seeing the beginning, the first
(17:08):
conversation where they're like, I want to go to Tennessee.
It's Arkansas or bust. And yet we walk them kind
of on back to reality a little bit. And I'm
not saying that it's not possible, it's just not possible
right now.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And then it's our job is not to be dream killer,
but it's to give it a sense of reality. And
most of the times it's more so with the parents.
The parents are and this sounds half tongue in cheek,
but they're looking for a Facebook post. They're looking at
After all, we've spent tens of thousands, We've probably paid
for two or three years of college just through our
(17:43):
travel ball experience and We've got all these friends who
we're trying to compete with in the travel ball Facebook landscape,
and they want to put that post. Everybody knows Tennessee's
at Division one school. I'm taking my talents to Tennessee
Division one. Yeah, okay, we got that, But what about
the D three or the NAI or the juco is?
Is that is that less? Maybe depends on your perception.
(18:06):
For me, it didn't. You're getting to play college baseball
or softball. And now as they see my daughter start
as a freshman in high school and she's come out
the back end and graduating next weekend or this weekend,
I'm seeing it come to fruition, seeing what this game
can still give to these kids. And it's about the
experience and the education and the friendships. She's got friends
for life. I've never seen her cry on on a
(18:29):
softball field. And she she got out of her last
at bat was walking because time run was she she
was a time run. She was trying to a big fly.
She said three in her in her college career, but
they thought that was gonna be number four. And tears
is to come out of her face. Wasn't because she
struck out his cousin was over her. Girls are looking
at her. She's walking back to Doug. And that's that's
what I just about lost it because I know what
(18:49):
that feeling is like the last time you strap it
on is it is the is, then yours is different, Doug.
But most of us don't make it to that point. Say,
it's about the friendship. It's not not getting to play again.
But I put my glove away for three four years,
like I see to step away from this. But it
was about the memories of friendships, the bus rides, all
the stuff that you said, it's.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Tough no matter what level is that I can do
it and stuff, and like to give ma more props,
you send me a picture of her six thirty in
the morning. I think twelve hours after she busts her nose,
she still had blood drobe on her nose. What's she
doing going for a run. It's like that's the difference,
Like it's just that the again, we're not getting the
show pony. We're not getting the metric you know t
(19:32):
Rex the dinosaur, right, We're not getting the kid that's
absolutely can't miss.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
He looks like a Donis uniform.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
We're getting kids that can play that may have you
know that don't match up to the kid going to LSU,
which is fine, but I promise you a lot of times,
the kid that's not the giant when they go head
to head, the little one always out plays the big one.
It happens all the time. You saw it. It's just
because we're not afraid. And that's the way I think. Well,
(20:01):
that's the short time i've been with the as. I
love the moo of the kid that we get because they're.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Just Yeah, that's kind of the process. Whether you're because
it's starting already, transfer portal is gonna be out of control.
We've got I already got some grad students that have
hired us. We've got Juco kids that are trying to
beat the transfer portal rush. So whether you're that kid
or the twenty twenty eight freshman who's not even close
to being physical yet, we're building your profile, and your
(20:28):
profiles are at different stages. So once you get to college,
it doesn't matter what you did in perfect Game, what
you hit in high school. They flip over your baseball card.
Who are you? You're at a Juco in Florida, you
hit three twenty, you got ted pumps. Okay, yeah, you're
a guy. You can go play D one. You're at
a juco in West Virginia. You hit two forty two
(20:50):
home runs, you can play college baseball. You're not going
in the sec ACC. So when I get these profiles,
and you know, we're still lean enough where I know
all of our kids, whether they're my assigned to me
or not. But I still handle all of our transfer
kids because there is that immediate sense of urgency, and
I message coaches. I text them usually is where we start.
Do you have interest and you have a need? Is
(21:11):
the first question they may have interest? Yeah, three twenty
ten pups, we got an All American catcher. We get two,
so there's no need, right, So that's the question ask
about from all these coaches. And then what we do
is we go back into our dashboard and we update
their notes, which there's not I don't think there is
another company that I've seen that does it like this.
And this comes from my medical sales background. Is everything
(21:33):
is that we're accountable. It's empowered analytics sports, but we're
accountable to our families. And I know which dads and
moms are business men and women because they're all over this.
They've seen CRM systems, they've tracked results, they're up my
career end. Hey, what's happening here, what's happening there? They're
they're working this harder than the kid. I know that's happening,
but everything is there. Hey, you spoke to coach Smith
(21:55):
at ABC College. Not a fit right now? Next? Not
interested to move them off the list? Boom Next, I
don't want you to add one hundred schools to our dashboard.
Give me fifteen or twenty that makes sense academically, logistically,
all those things we talked about, and then let's let's
get very specific dialogue along with them to see if
there's a need and yeah, okay, then then we'll start
(22:18):
the next step. Because there's all the different rules. The
parents sures held a home, the kids don't really know them.
I don't even know them all because they're changing every day,
but we know most of it right, so we're helping
guide them and put them into the right spot.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And even that too, it's like you put I'm trying
to give it from a person that works here, who
wants to be a college coach and as a parent,
so all three things. But I love the way it
was like red, yellow, green, Right, it's simple dots, boom, yes, no, move,
keep going. So green's a yes obviously, just like a stoplay.
So and the crazy part is now more than ever
(22:51):
that if the relationship's huge, because there's four or five,
maybe six years of contact with this guy about this
specific player. I've always said this. I said this when
I was a Florida state to our recruiter or Jamie Shoop,
I said, do me a favor, go down to Miami
and find the dirtiest kid's uniform at a tournament that's
(23:16):
down there, and give him a scholarship. That kid is
gonna play circles around any kid anywhere else in the state.
I can promise you that they're just different. It's a
different it's a different mindset. These parents down here, they
mean business like they're taking out they're getting second jobs
to private lessons and to get them to showcase these
(23:37):
kids from the age of seven on. So like this
is not a this is not a it's not oh,
let's just have fun. No, No, this is there. They're
trying to make it so like this kid is the
best of the best. And I think that, yeah, there's a.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
We we've talked about this and joked about this. You know,
being from South Florida, mumps really South Miami, growing up
a lot a lot of island kids that we grew
up with. We were thrown into, you know, the deep end,
which is the game played at a faster pace, and
we played little We played Cory League back then. We
didn't have travel ball. Our Corey Leak was could probably
(24:11):
go around and beat our all Star team every every summer,
would beat most of the travel ball programs right now,
just because we were a bunch of just rug rats.
But South Florida it's still hadn't changed a whole lot
from that. There's still very affluid areas. But when I
go down there to watch games, it's different. It's it's
scott the island flavor. It's faster, it's it's dirty, and
not not in a bad way. It's it's just kind
(24:33):
of what I grew up playing up here. Up here,
and I'm in I'm in Woodstock, I'm in nor Northwest Atlanta,
a fluid area, and there's a lot of warehouse kids,
and we asked, what what is what is the warehouse kids?
The warehouse kids got a hitting coach, a pidgy coach,
a dietitian, a strength coach. He's got a psychologist. He's
those kids when they get punched in the mouth, they
don't always know what to do. They're they're they're warriors
(24:55):
on Instagram what they're And we were joking about this
last night. The kid when he's a three to zero
slider with the game on the line, dribbles one, they
thrown away and he wins. I go yeah, And he's
probably posting on Instagram about about his walk off last night, right.
I don't know. It's a fine line because some of
those warehouse kids do make it quicker than the kid
(25:15):
that can't afford our service and down in Hilia or
in South Miami. But at the end of the day,
you line them all up. I'm still gonna bet on
that Higalia kid when when the dust settles, or that
grinder kid that's gotten his ass kicked by this game,
because until you get punched in those you don't know
what you don't know how you're going to react, and
when you're coddled and everything's done for you, sometimes it
(25:38):
doesn't play out the way you would like it.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I remember we had an organization.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
And while we have a meeting every day in pro
Ball as managers, and we because we have to go
over the day before the day starts, then we have
one after the day's over to kind of go get
ready for the next day. And we're having this discussion
about are One of our field coordinators said that Latin
American kids don't play well in big games, and I
(26:05):
literally started dying laughing, and.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I said, hang on a second, I.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Said, those kids have played under I go, if you
took a kid from Venezuela who plays in the Venezuela
and Winter League and put him in Omaha, he would
laugh his ass off at Omaha. At the end of
the day, these parents have to take these coaches take
kids from all over the country, sometimes all over the world.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
They have to be able to trust you. They have
to be able to trust you. First.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You can have the all of twent in the world
and some most coaches, some coaches will take you no
matter what kind of person you are. Majority of the
coaches you ask him point blank, what's the number one
thing you worry about?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I got to be able to trust this kid.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, and that's kind Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
So you know, that's that's another yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
With with with him this year going in and she
played shortstop last year going into this fall, She's like,
I think I may lose beat beat as shortstop, Like
who cares to play second? You play their old life
Like there was a lot of freshmen up the middle.
I teach them, teach them all. Give them everything you have,
everything I've given you, you give to those kids. And
she ended up there's a second basement. Breaks in the
(27:09):
second basement is an actual center fielder. But now she's
playing second base and kid can hitch. She's gonna be
really good. A couple of weeks. Guys, she said, Emma,
thank you, and that was like for what it's like
for helping. I've learned to play second basis by watching
you at practice. Kid hadn't really played much to me
as a dad as a coach, like, hell yeah, who
cares a kid beat you out? I don't care. She
(27:32):
got back in at the end, and it all worked
itself out. The game works itself out. Do the right
things every day, go out there and bust your ass
every day, and the game reward you. The gods of
baseball or softball, whatever will reward you. It does it everything.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I remember, I had people Justin Morneau. I was in Minnesota,
and Justin Morne I knew early on. My rookie year
was ninety nine. Justin Morneau was drafted that year in
a pre draft. He came to the Metrodome as a
high school senior, was blasting balls in the upper deck.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
So I remember watching him take VP.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And I'm going ninety nine, two thousand, two thousand and one,
two thousand and two. Okay, so four years of school kid,
two thousand and four will be my last year as
a twin because I knew this, this kid was just
a freak. And it was two thousand and three, two thousand,
it was two thousand and three and two thousand and four.
We call Justin up and uh, we're working early work
(28:24):
at first base because obviously I could play defense. Justin obviously,
if he would have been as good defensively as he
was offensively, he'd have been the best first baseman ever
that guy ever created, because he was that good offensively.
But I was out there teaching him like he asked
me for help, and like people in Minnesota were dumbfounded,
like they were like media was like, what are you doing.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I'm like what, like we're on the same team, Like
what this is what we do?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Like they I'm gonna teach him everything that I know,
whether he picks it up or not. I'm not going
to hand you my job. You're gonna have to get it.
But at the same token, like that's what being a
ballplayer is. Like, you teach him, you go out there,
you help him. Hey, I don't want to leave, but
there's twenty on other clubs that will need a first
basement if justin you're the guy.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Hey, my relationship with you as an individual.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Means more to me than me trying to hold onto
the job as a first basement. And and I mean
I wasn't that didn't take a it didn't take a
baseball executive to see that he was.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Better than me and he was gonna be better than me.
And I'm not I'm not stupid. I'm confident, but I'm
not an idiot like I was, like, obviously this kid's
can wan an MVP.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I knew he's It doesn't mean I'm gonna not be
a human being and teach the kid everything I know,
because I mean, he taught me stuff offensively that I
didn't know. But that's that's part of what this game
does for you, right, It's like you help you do
the best you can you be, your character will be.
Character is hard to ever forget, and character doesn't go
(29:54):
away when you put the spikes away. Characters that when
you're six and people still remember things like this that
we're talking about. Emma will be remembered by that girl
for the rest of her life. And that means a
lot more than how many hits Emma or how many
diving places she made at second base.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I mean, that's that's the word in our family's character.
You know, we talk about that all the time. And
I've now as she's in her final or she was
in her final quarter, I'm watching and everything she's doing,
I'm able to teach her on what this looks like
at your next step because she's going in the medical
device medical sales. She's already kind of interviewing, so she's
(30:33):
going to have a career. There go all these lessons
you've learned in this dugout trans transferred to the real world.
One of the freshmen kid kept popping up. Every time
she pop up, she drop her head and walked down
the first baseline. I said do not allow that. Well,
but it's a no, no, no, no, you're a senior. I
don't want to bully. You're not bullying. This is this
(30:54):
is what this conversation looks like. When you get when
you're leading people and mets where somebody's paying you half
million dollars a year to deliver results, you're not allowed
somebody to walk down the first baseline. So you can start. Now,
start with these conversations now as the senior and a freshman,
because you still remember your seniors. You're freshman, you're at FSU,
(31:15):
I remember my scenior. Those seniors are revered by a freshman,
no matter if they're better than you were worse. It's
there's that relationship, that dynamic. So start to learn. Let
this game teach you. I have another life lesson because
you look around, there's life lessons every day in a
game of baseball, softball, basketball, golf, whatever whatever. Sports.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Sport definitely helps. Sports definitely help. I mean, there's no
two ways about it. Dealing with failure. I used to
use the line, that's not how we do things here,
right like you jog No, that's not what we built.
You're not gonna come in here, and deter that that's
not how we do things here.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Let's go you're better than that whatever.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
And that's and that's the scary dynamic of where we
are the game in society now. Like she's worked out
bullying some money, that's not bullying us being a leader.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So leaders do leaders are?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I mean, you look at CEOs of fortune five hundred companies.
They're not all liked and that's hey, you're not supposed
to be liked. There's a reason why they're different. They're savages.
That's the one thing I tell my son, it's never
been easier to be a savage than this today. You
don't have to be rude, but if you just refuse that,
you put your head down and keep grinding, like you
(32:22):
look different.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
That's just what it is now.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
And I know you want to coach, and I I
feel for the coaches these days. I feel for how
how can you? How can you address a kid? How
can you handle kids? Because coaches are bullies. This kid
he's a bully. No he's not. He's holding your kid accountable.
Like I wouldn't last as a coach. Stuff in my
eyes at this time, you're more on softballks. I'm kind
(32:48):
of following my daughter around. These coaches aren't bullies or
they're just they're just hold their kids accountable. But the
kids now are all looking to turn the coach into
an ad because he kicked a bucket or yelled at
me or I told my daughter. So you tell a
coach that he can yell you and every once if
he gets pissed off and once to yell, have him
yell at you because he can't say any to you
(33:09):
that I have already said ten times over. I was
harder on you when you were ten. Then this guy
is the whole season long, not because I'm an asshole,
because I was holding you accountable. That's why you're That's
why you're so good because you're held accountable. And that
that's the frustrating part. I don't know how I couldn't
do it. I'm I'm excited to watch you, watch you
transform into into that one.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Picking everybody's brain. I'm picking everybody that I know his brain,
and it's gonna be hard for me. It's gonna be
really hard. I don't get me wrong. I as a
college coach, I'm gonna trust me. I I pimped Homer's
I I threw the bat flips. I did all of it,
but I never let it. I never pulled it away
from my own team. I think now that you know
with umpires telling them to get kicked out of games,
(33:52):
like that's you go overboard, you hurt your team. We
need you on the field. So that's I'm I'm hell,
I'm in interested to see how I developed into that,
into that regard could just sit here and say like, oh,
that's just not the way.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
It's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Then you're gonna have You're gonna look out on the field.
There's not gonna be anybody out there because I don't
want I never liked the robot player. I liked emotion
within reason. I mean, emotion means you care, right and
that you know that's that's.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Well, you're gonna you're just gonna tap into that dog
with these kids. You're gonna know exactly what what you
need from that kid. I mean, you're you're gonna do
help with John. I can't wait to watch it.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I appreciate that, but I mean that that's that goes
ties into this thing as what what you do and
like there's not enough.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Of you there really isn't.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
There's like to give these kids an opportunity that they
probably felt like they were staying at the bottom of
Mount Everest. And that's that's what I think about when
I think of you know, even for me personally, I
was lost.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
I didn't know what to do with steel.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I was I didn't know how to You know, everybody
thinks you have all the I didn't have one, and
so to you to tap in and do this and
you're just you're just scratching the surface of this thing.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
And uh, I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
For what you do, for what you did for my son,
and what you do for kids that that probably thought
the world was ending when they didn't get the offer
they thought they deserved. So I can't thank you enough
for this. And I can't wait to see where this,
what becomes of this.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, man, we appreciate you for having us. I mean,
this is a labor of love and you taught me this.
The biggest statement I can tell families we got you,
and I use it all the time. We got you.
You're good and you can just see the Okay, well
everything's going to be okay. Yeah, I can breathe and
we do one hundred percent. I tell families one hundred
percent what keeps me up at night. That's the one
because it can only go one direction, but it's not
(35:50):
gonna know on your kid if you do this the
right way.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
All right, everybody, that's going to wrap up this week's
edition of the Dugout Podcast. Wherever you listen to your
favorite podcast, Apple, Spotify, and if you would do me
a favor, hit that liking subscribe button to help us out.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Until next time.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
This is Doug mccavage and the Dugout Podcast signing out.
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Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com