March 27, 2024 • 26 mins
Paul Jobson is a soccer coach, soccer recruiting consultant, and sports parent. A collegiate women's soccer coach for 17 years, Paul was the head coach of the Baylor University women's program for nine years, helping lead the Bears to back-to-back NCAA Tournament Elite 8 appearances in 2017 and 2018 and earning Big 12 Coach of the Year honors in 2018. The winningest coach in Baylor program history, Paul is Co-Founder of Warrior Way Soccer and a Senior Soccer Consultant at Sports Recruiting USA. Paul joins Nick to discuss the value of working with a paid organization to help with the college recruiting process, academic and athletic college scholarships, and the importance of balance in parenting athletic kids.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Go ahead and figure out the amount of money that
you're going to spend on your kid's travel sport for
the next eight to ten years, and go invest in
That is your best guarantee to have money for college.
It's not putting your kid through sport, because I don't
think it's fair to put that pressure on a kid
to say, hey, you're going to play a high level sport,
You're gonna be committed to it so that we can
pay for your college.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is the Reform Sports Project, a podcast about restoring
healthy balance and perspective in all areas of sports through
education and advocacy. Hi, this is Nick Bonacor from the
Reform Sports Podcast. Today, I'm speaking with Paul Jobson, professional
soccer coach, recruiting consultant, and sports parents coach. Jobson is
a National A licensed coach who finished his fourteenth and
(00:44):
final season at Baylor and his ninth as head coach
in twenty twenty one. He led the Bears to back
to back NCAA Tournament Elite Eate appearances in twenty seventeen.
In twenty eighteen, helped guide Baylor to three of four
Big twelve regular season and tournament titles in program history
and was named Big twelve Coach of the Year in
twenty eighteen. Paul is the co founder of Warrior Way
(01:07):
Soccer and his senior consultant at Sports Recruiting USA. Coach
Jobson and I discussed the value of working with a
paid organization to help with the college recruiting process, academic
and athletic scholarships, and the importance of balance in parenting
athletic kids. All right, back at it. This is a
guest from the past. I want to say guests from
the past, because we first connected had a conversation back
(01:29):
when reformed sports parent at the time was just starting.
He was gracious enough to really give me insight and
his background on the soccer side, and his playing and
coaching experience, and of course being a sports parent, but
really excited to have me set some things going on
that I think are going to be very insightful Coach
Paul Jobson. Coach Jobson, thanks so much for hopping on.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Man, Nick Man. Good to talk to you again.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
For sure, it touched us up to speed. You were
the head soccer coach at Baylor, so was your wife Marcy.
But now you're in a new get what's going to
kind of recap us where you were a year ago,
where you are now, and kind of what's going up?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, what's crazy because time is flying by. We stepped
out of Baylor about two and a half years ago now,
so time is flying. But got to the point where,
you know, I've got four young kids between seven and fourteen,
and just realized time was flying by and I was
missing more than I wanted to. Obviously, the requirements to
be a high level soccer coach are great, and it
(02:27):
was a wonderful time, and Baylor was great to me
and my family. When it came down to weigh and
you know what was most important, was it driving and
leading a soccer team or was it driving and leading
my family? And chose my family obviously. So stepped out
of that about two and a half years ago, and
Marcy and I are running a faith based soccer program
here in Waco as well as some partners in Latin America.
(02:50):
And then I'm also working with an organization called sr USA,
which is a soccer specific recruiting service here as well.
So amongst some other things, those are the basic things
that that we've stepped into. Right now, A.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Monk struggling four kids. I got your beat. I have six.
But either way, well, you know the old analogy, and
I heard it. It's like once you's once you have
more than two and you're playing zone, it don't matter.
I mean, you might as well have ten at that point.
It's insane. It's a blessing. But holy cow, they they
keep you young. But I feel like the days at times,
I feel like I'm aging in dog years. At times
my youngest son, Talent, wears me out.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Absolutely, when we tried to when we played a three
B three basketball last night, the six of us in
the household, I tend to be the least mobile of
all of them. So it's kind of a scary realization.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It's awesome. But congrats on doing what you're doing. It's
like we talked about a little bit offline. I am
really fascinated, coach with your dive into and I had
Don Williams on right. He's uh with with s R
U s A. He gave us great insight. Love Don.
I love the work he does, and I have a
little bit of expressions. I have an experience in this side,
but I from the baseball side, no firsthand that when
(03:58):
it comes to recruiting and recruiting services, and more importantly,
being able to maybe get a kid a look, you know,
a kid a look. Maybe you know from what I
have learned, because I've been able to do it just
not by soliciting, but just from relationships. It's like if
you know someone, like really know someone and have a
relationship and they trust you, that I know plays a role.
(04:22):
But then you see recruiting services out there pay X
amount of dollars a month and it's almost like I
hear college coaches tell me that there's sometimes spam email
that they're almost like pulling the wool over parents' eyes,
like they don't take certain organizations or companies emails or
information seriously while others they do. And Don Williams in
fact told me, you know specifically that his relationships have
(04:44):
gone for twenty plus years of being an NCAA coach.
So break it down, like, and I know you can
speak on soccer specifically, what is the value proposition for
a sports parent for their kid to pay for an
organization to help them in the recruiting and maybe like
what are signs to look out for those companies that
you might not want to get quote unquote in bed.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
With Yeah, Nick, I mean, honestly, a little bit of
background when I was When I was a college soccer coach,
I did not talk to recruiting services forever.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I would delete the emails, I would ignore the phone
calls because everybody had the player that was perfect for me,
but knew nothing about my program, knew nothing about me,
had no relationship with me. So I did not use
them until I met Don Williams. To be quite honest
with you, and Don we built a relationship and it
got to the point where Don would call and just say, hey,
I got a kid who I think might be a
(05:35):
kid you might be interested. Just take a look at
the video, let me know what you think. And I
did that and began to realize that Don knew what
he was talking about, and he never sent me a
video that was so far out of reach that, you know,
I was like, this guy's crazy. So when I got
out of coaching, Don and I still had a great relationship,
and after about a year and a half or so,
I was already kind of, like you said, people are
(05:57):
calling me for advice anyway, Hey, Paul, you're in the
game forever. You know, my kids this, or I have
this friend that needs this advice and I was giving
advice anyway, so it became about those relationships. So I
say that just to say there is a new recruiting service.
I feel like popping up every week, honestly, And there
are a million out there, and I can't speak to
(06:17):
every single one of them, but I think the things
that you're looking for as a family, I'll say this,
and this is what I say the people that I'm
talking to on a daily basis is, listen, you may
not need my service, but what we're gonna do is
we're gonna have a conversation. We're gonna figure out if
you do or not. Because there are plenty of families
that can navigate this process by themselves plenty, but there's
others who are like, man, I just don't feel comfortable
(06:39):
navigating this huge decision that our family is going to
go through on my own. And I equate it to
things like, hey, listen, I have an accounting degree, I'm
pretty good with finances, but I have someone who manages
my finances for me. I have a financial person that
I that I call for advice before I make financial moves,
right like there's an expert. You want an expert, then
there are great companies out there that have experts that
(07:01):
have you know, twenty thirty. You know, as an organization,
we have over three hundred years of college coaching experience
that we can help with our families. So I say
that to say, listen, not everybody needs a recruiting service.
But I think what you need to do is you
need to make sure that if you're contacting these organizations
that they're having a real conversation with you. They're asking
(07:23):
you the right questions, and it's not just you asking
them questions as well. They're getting to know you. They're
getting to know kind of what your ideas are, what
your thoughts and processes are, and what relationships do these
services have. You know, like I said, s or USA,
our organization has a work three hundred years of college
coaching experience. Say most if not all, of our people
are former college coaches. Those are relationships. You know, I'm
(07:46):
one phone call away from just about every college coach
in the country, whether I have them in my phone
or somebody in our organization does, right, So it is
about relationships, so you know, and being able to evaluate talent,
not to find out who the most talent the kids are.
But where does that talent fit? And you know, if
you're talking to me, Nick, and you like, hey, my
kid's a d one uh soccer player, you know, And
(08:08):
I watched the video and I don't I don't think
so my job is to tell you that as the professional,
and if Nick, you and I can't agree on that,
I can't work with you. Right, So there's got to
be some give and take, right, Hey, I'm the expert
on where I think we're going to fight hard to
find the right fit for your kid academically, athletically, socially,
all of those things. And those are the things I
(08:28):
think that you're looking for for for an expert, not
someone who's just trying to take your money and move on,
but somebody that's willing to, you know, put the work
in and the time in quite honestly, to to to
help you help you find the right college fit.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You mentioned video, and actually, you know, I had a
couple of folks who I've passed a long video as
like as a friend, you know, like, hey, I have
relationships and coaches and but see, for me, I don't
consider myself an expert like, there's levels, right, So so
you mentioned is my kid a D oneccer player, whatever,
whatever the sport is. I sent a video or two
(09:03):
or three to two different coaches at different levels. I'm like,
what do you think of this? And it's a thirty
second clip. Coaches. Coaches can look at certain things, you know,
in baseball, they can look at a swing, they can
look at the way the body moves. They can look
at the way a kids throw these little things and determine, hey,
that's something that might be interesting. You know. Can you
have the kids send me their schedule or find out
when they play? And then there's certain levels like some
(09:25):
you know, a D three coach may say I love
that kid. Do you want to say, listen, it looks fine,
but it might not translate to our level. So I
feel like people get this misconception like coaches watch video
and there are things you can see. How objective as
a parent. I feel like it's not easy to be
objective as a parent. Do you need that somebody to
be honest? How often are people not honest and they
(09:45):
try to sell you up the river? Like everyone could
play at Division one?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, parents cannot be objective, I really don't think so.
Even it was funny. I was laughing the other day.
I'm out at a field and you know, my wife
and I are You'll probably you know, our soccer experiences
is pretty good, I'll say. And we're saying that they're
watching our seven year old.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That's putting it very humbly. By the way.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, I'm watching my seven year old play who I
think is a really good soccer player, and I'm talking
to the coach and I said, hey, listen, man, I'm
just going to stop talking because in this moment, I'm
absolutely the parent and I had to stop myself right
because I cannot be objective. I just can't. It's my kid.
I think the greatest things about my kids. So I
think that most parents are going to need some kind
(10:28):
of expertise. Now, I do think that his parents are
able to trust the process of putting their kids. If
they have the ability and the time to invest to
do the work to put their kids in front of coaches,
they can allow the coaches to make the determination of basically,
let the market determine your value, so to speak, if
(10:48):
they have the time and the energy to do that.
But I do think I'm an expert to look at
video and say, hey, listen, I think you're wasting your
time with these schools. I had a client one time said,
I said, send me your list of schools. I said, hey,
and you've got to take these four out because I
really don't think that you're going to be able to
play at that level. She questioned it. So I happen
to be friends with one of the coaches I sent her.
(11:09):
I sent her video to that coach. He responded back
kindly like, yes, I just don't think she's going to
be a great fit at this level for that under her.
And then obviously obviously there's some credibility, right, so sometimes
you have to do the extra work. But I don't
think that parents really can assess their children best because
another thing, too, is this, like you watch your kid
all day long, every day. You have an opinion. You
(11:31):
see every move and everything and every good and bad,
and you can make an excuse for every bad thing
that happens, and you can praise every good thing that happens.
But at the end of the day, the coach on
the other side of this has to be able to
make a decision based on what they see, not based
on your ten years of knowledge about your child. Right,
So parents, sometimes you get frustrated, like I know how
good my kid is. I'm like, well, I'm sorry that
(11:53):
that has to somehow we have to be able to
communicate that to the other side of this coach who
has limited knowledge. And that's where an expert comes in
to say, hey, I've also watched the film, this is
what I think, or I've seen this player in person.
That's a lot what we do at That's for you
to say is we're at these events evaluating kids in
person for the most part, and that gives a lot
of credibility to say, you know, as a college coach, hey, hey, Nick,
(12:17):
thanks for calling me about this player. Have you seen
her play? And if you said yes, I'm like, oh, okay, great,
let's talk about it. If not, then you know, I
can only go based on what I see on video
to see if I'm interested in seeing him or her
more in person.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I love how you said let the market determine. I mean,
I think that goes along with the old adage if
you're good enough, they'll find you at the end of
the day. If you're good enough to play the Division
one level, Division two, Division three, those coaches are going
to you know, they're they're going to weed themselves out.
And I think what gets lost in translation quite often
is the significance of the academic piece of it. I mean,
(12:50):
I know for me, and I'll never forget it. Miss
Jennings sacred our high school. Like nineteen ninety five or six,
I did not take school seriously, and quite frank, I
was very mature. I just did not care. I was like,
give me some c's, just let me get out of here.
I didn't like it, but she told me I was
a junior in high school. I wasn't the best athlete,
but I was able to play in college and she
knew I aspired to. And she was nick, you're literally
(13:11):
eliminating like a level of potential schools that you might
be interested in competing it, even if you won't be
able to get in there academically. And of course I probably,
like you know, laughed and told the joke. Afterwards. I'm like,
who cares? But I'm telling the story now because I
remember it. I don't know what it meant then, and
it's absolutely true, Like how significant, Like let's say a
kid wants to I think schools like the IVY league
(13:33):
speak for themselves. But there's tiers where like don't you
have to vet right away, Like, hey, you want to
go play at Columbia or whatever the school is, you
need to see the transcripts right away before you can
even approach about from the from the soccer standpoint, right.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean your IVY is, like
you said, they speak for themselves, and that's going to
be the case, you know, no matter what. But then
you've got some schools that are high academic standard schools
that compete at the Division one level or any level.
But if you can't, if you can't get in on
your own merit, you know you're not gonna be a
play soccer. But the other side of it, too is
this stick. I know. I remember as a coach, if
I'm looking at two kids and if I'm evaluating from
(14:06):
a soccer perspective and personality, they're the same, and I'm
trying to make a decision between the two, the one
that has the better grades, I'm going to go with
that one because that's just another another advantage that that
kid has. It brings to my program for a couple
of reasons. One, they're probably going to be able to
get some kind of merit aid, merit award or academic
money right, which which helps the family, right, which also
(14:28):
helps my team from springing out the scholarship a little
bit too. So you've got you've got that piece. I mean,
I I've had clients that you know at school is like, hey, listen,
like we do not have any scholarship available for their class.
So if they're going to come, they're going to have
to come on their own merit at least the first year. Well,
then they start running their academics and realize, oh my gosh,
this kid's going to get like sixty percent academic aid
(14:49):
at our university all of a sudden. For the family,
it makes sense. For the team, it makes sense, and
a spot was basically created on the team because they
didn't need the athletic scholarship. Is that, hopefully that makes
sense to everybody, Is that, Hey, if this family needs
soccer soccer money or athletic aid, we don't have it
for that class right away. But if they can come
in with, you know, if it helps the family, we
(15:10):
can we can look at what the merit aid is
going to be from that academic standpoint and it opens
more doors. So absolutely, I mean the academic piece. Anytime
I do a talk with any high school kids and
you're trying to catch them as early as you can
their freshman year to say, hey, this is important if
you want to play college athletics. This is going to
be something that makes a difference even in your freshman year.
(15:30):
You do not want to look back and go, man,
I wish I had just not fluffed off that one
semester or two semesters, because it's really impacting my GPA,
my class rank, things like that. It can really affect
you know, what you can what you can get from
a financial standpoint, and your your marketability. So to speak
to those schools.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
When we return, Paul and I dive deeper into college scholarships.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
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this season. Where we left off, Paul and I were
about to discuss the challenges with college scholarships and his
approach as a sports parent.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I feel like I talk about this fairly often, but
I haven't really dug into it too too much here
recently in the episodes. It's that not every sport is
a you know, full rot right like basketball and football.
I think they're called headcount sports where if you I guess,
if you play for the team, you get a full scholarship. Well,
I know, in baseball and a fully funded Power five
school like the University of North Carolina or whatever the
(17:26):
heck it is. You get eleven point seven scholarships and
they carry thirty five players. I don't know exactly the
numbers in soccer, but you kind of just touched on
not having enough money. Like some people say, oh, that's
you know, that's not true. Well, let people understand, like
there aren't scholarships for every kid available. How do you
go about deeping that up? And I think, isn't it.
I think in baseball the minimum you could give out
(17:46):
is twenty five percent. What's it look like in soccer?
Is it similar to how many are are available per team?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah? On the soccer side. It's also was considered an
equivalence to sport, and you're right. You know your basketballs
and your footballs are headcount. You're either on a full
scholarship or you're a walk for your equivalency sports you
can give uh, Well, obviously baseball is little bit diferent.
In soccer, you can give one percent to one hundred percent,
any percentage that you want. There's no limit on there's
not a minimum percentage you can give in soccer. In
(18:13):
the women's game, they're about every you know, fully funded
team is going to have fourteen with roster sizes of
you know, twenty eight give or take a few summer
up to thirty five, and on the men's side's a
little bit less as nine to nine and a half
something like that, I believe on the men's side, and
the roster sizes are the same. So yeah, the dollars
are limited for these coaches. So getting creative is something
(18:37):
that coaches usually pride themselves in of how they divvy
up their scholarships. And if you come in as an academic,
a high academic kid, and you you get academic aid.
You know, I had kids at Baylor that, you know,
their total package was a full scholarship, but maybe you know,
forty or fifty percent of that was academic. So for
my team, that freed up another forty or fifty percent
that could put into another player. So it extends your
(19:00):
dollars a little bit. So yeah, it's it's not cut
and dry, it's not easy. And then you've got things
like you know, the transfer portal, right, like our coaches
putting aside money, you know, every year so they can
get a transfer a more experienced kid to bring into
their roster. And you've got on the other side of it,
you're losing kids to the transfer portal. So you know,
obviously money gets freed up. You've got injuries that happen,
(19:22):
You've got you know, all kinds of different things that
fluctuate that number from year to year that you have
to be aware of as a coach.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
How old are your kids?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
My kids are seven, ten, twelve, and fourteen, all.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Right, so a little spread out. But you fourteen? I
mean getting ready to go to high school or freshman
high school.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Currently, yeah, eighth grader all right.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So I would imagine you know, athletes in there, maybe
the soccer, but I have no idea. You could tell
me here in a second, But like, how are you
approaching this? Are you able to keep the hats differently?
Are you able to separate yourself? Because I know Marci
both of you are highly you know six, like you
put in mildly. I think she played for like the
USA women's national team, and and you're a stud in
your own right. So are you able to separate your
(20:03):
own competitiveness from your kids? How do you navigate it?
Are you just mom and dad coach all these things
as especially as they approach these years of you know,
where they may want to go play a quote unquote
the collegiate level a few years.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, it's funny. You know. We are a mom and
dad on the sideline, and we try really hard to
be a calm example of what I think parents should
be on the on the sideline. We're not always great
at it, but you know, I think I had a
parent tell me one time, like, oh wow, like, you know,
you're really calm. How do you how do you keep
so how do you keep so quiet? But I'm sure
you see things like this all the time, the craziness
(20:36):
of the sidelines. I said, listen, I've never never seen
anything so crazy on the sideline. It's it's crazy what
parents are yelling on the sidelines these days. But my
emotions are inside, you know. I'm trying to to coach
inside my own brain, inside my own heart, and if
my kid is open to some suggestions, I'm happy to
do that. But at the same time, like I'm like
(20:58):
any other parent, my kids don't don't always think that
mom and dad know anything about soccer, so we kind
of have to defer to the other coaches at times,
but we step in when we think it's appropriate our kids.
None of our kids currently play any type of travel sports.
The dynamic of our family is priority number one. If
our kid is showing that they absolutely love and desire
(21:21):
and feel like they've been given a gift from God
to do something really special and want to go after it.
We have certain criteria that we think have to be
filled to be on a travel squad, and the commitment
to that that our kids have to make is pretty
high level because the commitment it takes from a family
is very high level. So we're navigating that, and it'll
be different for every kid. Anyone has multiple children, know
(21:42):
that every personality is different and you have to approach
every kid somewhat differently, but your standards at home have
to be the same. So we are navigating parenting athletic kids.
I think in a unique way where I think if
you saw our dynamics, I don't think people from the
outside would go oh wow, like those are high level,
high achieving athletes and coaches. I just I don't. I'll
(22:05):
give this example, Nick, I've said this before at a
Q and A and got some funny looks. But I
had a parent ask they said, hey, you know, what
is the best way for us to guarantee that our
kids are going to get a college scholarship. They're going
to get money for college through through sports. I said, okay,
your goal is to pay for college. They said yes.
I said, okay, how was your kid? The kid was
pretty young. I said, go ahead and figure out the
(22:27):
amount of money that you're going to spend on your
kids travel sport for the next eight to ten years,
and go invest in. That is your best guarantee to
have money for college. It's not putting your kid through sport,
because I don't think it's fair to put that pressure
on a kid to say, hey, you're going to play
a high level support you're going to be committed to
it so that we can pay for your college. We
want you to play sport because it's fun. If you
(22:48):
end up being a high level player and it pays
for college, great, But I can't tell you any how
many conversations I've had from college athletes are like I
just realized, coach, and through my freshman year of college
and I realized I was playing because my parents love
game more than I did.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I heard that story all the time, man, and I
get you almost gave me goosebumps as you were telling it.
And is there any way that you know I think
it's fascinating that your kids don't play travel sport. You
would think in this in this era, it's like you
got to be there, so you're not racing. You're almost
like using your experience as we don't need to do that.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We don't, I mean, I don't. Listen again, I've got
younger kids, so my my seven and ten year old.
You know, they haven't decided if they want to play
basketball or soccer, or run track or play baseball like wrestle.
I mean, we're gonna do all of it. You know,
we're gonna We're gonna see one it's gonna make my
better overall athlete, because I believe the different sports give
them different tools in their toolbox, so to speak. So
(23:40):
we're gonna do all of it. But if they get
to a point like my fourteen year old, I think
he's pretty much decided he's gonna he's gonna play school sports.
Hey that's fine. Hey he wants to play you know,
school football, almost to play school soccer and run school track.
I'm one hundred percent before that if that's what he
wants to do. But if they want to take the
next level and do something higher level, they've got to
do want to put in the extra work, because I
(24:01):
think that if you're going to if you're going to
play travel sports, and you're going to put in the
finances to do that, I think the best thing for
your team to be the best is you've got to
do extra. You know, you don't play college athletics. Just
showing up for practice scheduled practice is not enough to
be a high level college athlete. It's just not. You've
got to do extra and you got to put in
the work. You got to eat right, you got to
(24:22):
take care of your body, and those are things that
we're trying to navigate with our family to say, hey, listen,
we're going to support whatever sporting endever you want to,
but knowing that at every level there's a different type
of commitment to it.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Coach, I love it. It's refreshing to hear someone who's
been to your level, you and your wife like kind
of sitting back and not caught up in the and
I find the correlation man, people that have the experience
that have either competed their own self at the highest
levels or coach or whatever, they seem to have a
knack for taking their foot off the gas and going
I'm going to let my kids kind of come into
their own. It's almost like it seems like the folks
(24:54):
who don't have experience are more susceptible to get caught
up in the in the foma that doesn't That's not
every example, but it's refreshing, and I think it's so
powerful to hear from someone of your caliber be able
to be an example and say, hey, I've been there,
I don't need to do this. I don't feel because
I think a lot of people fall for that and
they get nervous. And it's tough enough being a parent,
let alone when you're trying to keep up with everyone else.
(25:15):
So it's very refreshing. Coach, where could people connect with you?
What are your social handles content the sr USA like
let us know where they can connect and maybe reach out.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, I appreciate that, Nick. I'm at Coach Jobson on
most social media basically Instagram is where I hover the most.
I'm trying to take a step back from social media
a little bit, but at Coach Jobson is where I
am on social media. Martina and I. Our organization we've
run is called Warrior Way Soccer, So at Warriorway Soccer
as our social media and Warriorwaysoccer dot Com is our website,
(25:47):
and through that we're basically trying to teach kids how
to merge their faith in their sport because ultimately, we
feel like if we can can get the core things
right and foundation of who we are and we want
our children to be we think wants them to be,
then when soccer or sport disappears, we guests some core
values in place that help us be great people to
(26:09):
impact the world in a positive way.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I love it, coach. I can't thank you enough for
taking the time to come on. I really appreciate you.
I wish you nothing but continued success you and Marcy
and the kids, and I'm grateful for you. I know
you're busy. Thanks for coming on, Mannick.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Thanks so much for what you're doing. Keep doing it, man,
I appreciate you bringing me on.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
That's Paul Johnson, former head coach of women's soccer at
Baylor University, co founder of Warrior Way Soccer, senior consolan
at SRUSA, and sports parent. Thanks for listening to the
Reform Sports podcast.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
If you've enjoyed this episode, we would appreciate it if
you took a moment to rate and review our podcast.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
As we work to grow our community.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Of supporters and advocates for more reform sports content, please
subscribe to our newsletter and blog at Reformsports Project dot com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Go ahead and figure out the amount of money that
you're going to spend on your kid's travel sport for
the next eight to ten years, and go invest in
That is your best guarantee to have money for college.
It's not putting your kid through sport, because I don't
think it's fair to put that pressure on a kid
to say, hey, you're going to play a high level sport,
You're gonna be committed to it so that we can
pay for your college.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is the Reform Sports Project, a podcast about restoring
healthy balance and perspective in all areas of sports through
education and advocacy. Hi, this is Nick Bonacor from the
Reform Sports Podcast. Today, I'm speaking with Paul Jobson, professional
soccer coach, recruiting consultant, and sports parents coach. Jobson is
a National A licensed coach who finished his fourteenth and
(00:44):
final season at Baylor and his ninth as head coach
in twenty twenty one. He led the Bears to back
to back NCAA Tournament Elite Eate appearances in twenty seventeen.
In twenty eighteen, helped guide Baylor to three of four
Big twelve regular season and tournament titles in program history
and was named Big twelve Coach of the Year in
twenty eighteen. Paul is the co founder of Warrior Way
(01:07):
Soccer and his senior consultant at Sports Recruiting USA. Coach
Jobson and I discussed the value of working with a
paid organization to help with the college recruiting process, academic
and athletic scholarships, and the importance of balance in parenting
athletic kids. All right, back at it. This is a
guest from the past. I want to say guests from
the past, because we first connected had a conversation back
(01:29):
when reformed sports parent at the time was just starting.
He was gracious enough to really give me insight and
his background on the soccer side, and his playing and
coaching experience, and of course being a sports parent, but
really excited to have me set some things going on
that I think are going to be very insightful Coach
Paul Jobson. Coach Jobson, thanks so much for hopping on.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Man, Nick Man. Good to talk to you again.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
For sure, it touched us up to speed. You were
the head soccer coach at Baylor, so was your wife Marcy.
But now you're in a new get what's going to
kind of recap us where you were a year ago,
where you are now, and kind of what's going up?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, what's crazy because time is flying by. We stepped
out of Baylor about two and a half years ago now,
so time is flying. But got to the point where,
you know, I've got four young kids between seven and fourteen,
and just realized time was flying by and I was
missing more than I wanted to. Obviously, the requirements to
be a high level soccer coach are great, and it
(02:27):
was a wonderful time, and Baylor was great to me
and my family. When it came down to weigh and
you know what was most important, was it driving and
leading a soccer team or was it driving and leading
my family? And chose my family obviously. So stepped out
of that about two and a half years ago, and
Marcy and I are running a faith based soccer program
here in Waco as well as some partners in Latin America.
(02:50):
And then I'm also working with an organization called sr USA,
which is a soccer specific recruiting service here as well.
So amongst some other things, those are the basic things
that that we've stepped into. Right now, A.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Monk struggling four kids. I got your beat. I have six.
But either way, well, you know the old analogy, and
I heard it. It's like once you's once you have
more than two and you're playing zone, it don't matter.
I mean, you might as well have ten at that point.
It's insane. It's a blessing. But holy cow, they they
keep you young. But I feel like the days at times,
I feel like I'm aging in dog years. At times
my youngest son, Talent, wears me out.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Absolutely, when we tried to when we played a three
B three basketball last night, the six of us in
the household, I tend to be the least mobile of
all of them. So it's kind of a scary realization.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It's awesome. But congrats on doing what you're doing. It's
like we talked about a little bit offline. I am
really fascinated, coach with your dive into and I had
Don Williams on right. He's uh with with s R
U s A. He gave us great insight. Love Don.
I love the work he does, and I have a
little bit of expressions. I have an experience in this side,
but I from the baseball side, no firsthand that when
(03:58):
it comes to recruiting and recruiting services, and more importantly,
being able to maybe get a kid a look, you know,
a kid a look. Maybe you know from what I
have learned, because I've been able to do it just
not by soliciting, but just from relationships. It's like if
you know someone, like really know someone and have a
relationship and they trust you, that I know plays a role.
(04:22):
But then you see recruiting services out there pay X
amount of dollars a month and it's almost like I
hear college coaches tell me that there's sometimes spam email
that they're almost like pulling the wool over parents' eyes,
like they don't take certain organizations or companies emails or
information seriously while others they do. And Don Williams in
fact told me, you know specifically that his relationships have
(04:44):
gone for twenty plus years of being an NCAA coach.
So break it down, like, and I know you can
speak on soccer specifically, what is the value proposition for
a sports parent for their kid to pay for an
organization to help them in the recruiting and maybe like
what are signs to look out for those companies that
you might not want to get quote unquote in bed.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
With Yeah, Nick, I mean, honestly, a little bit of
background when I was When I was a college soccer coach,
I did not talk to recruiting services forever.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I would delete the emails, I would ignore the phone
calls because everybody had the player that was perfect for me,
but knew nothing about my program, knew nothing about me,
had no relationship with me. So I did not use
them until I met Don Williams. To be quite honest
with you, and Don we built a relationship and it
got to the point where Don would call and just say, hey,
I got a kid who I think might be a
(05:35):
kid you might be interested. Just take a look at
the video, let me know what you think. And I
did that and began to realize that Don knew what
he was talking about, and he never sent me a
video that was so far out of reach that, you know,
I was like, this guy's crazy. So when I got
out of coaching, Don and I still had a great relationship,
and after about a year and a half or so,
I was already kind of, like you said, people are
(05:57):
calling me for advice anyway, Hey, Paul, you're in the
game forever. You know, my kids this, or I have
this friend that needs this advice and I was giving
advice anyway, so it became about those relationships. So I
say that just to say there is a new recruiting service.
I feel like popping up every week, honestly, And there
are a million out there, and I can't speak to
(06:17):
every single one of them, but I think the things
that you're looking for as a family, I'll say this,
and this is what I say the people that I'm
talking to on a daily basis is, listen, you may
not need my service, but what we're gonna do is
we're gonna have a conversation. We're gonna figure out if
you do or not. Because there are plenty of families
that can navigate this process by themselves plenty, but there's
others who are like, man, I just don't feel comfortable
(06:39):
navigating this huge decision that our family is going to
go through on my own. And I equate it to
things like, hey, listen, I have an accounting degree, I'm
pretty good with finances, but I have someone who manages
my finances for me. I have a financial person that
I that I call for advice before I make financial moves,
right like there's an expert. You want an expert, then
there are great companies out there that have experts that
(07:01):
have you know, twenty thirty. You know, as an organization,
we have over three hundred years of college coaching experience
that we can help with our families. So I say
that to say, listen, not everybody needs a recruiting service.
But I think what you need to do is you
need to make sure that if you're contacting these organizations
that they're having a real conversation with you. They're asking
(07:23):
you the right questions, and it's not just you asking
them questions as well. They're getting to know you. They're
getting to know kind of what your ideas are, what
your thoughts and processes are, and what relationships do these
services have. You know, like I said, s or USA,
our organization has a work three hundred years of college
coaching experience. Say most if not all, of our people
are former college coaches. Those are relationships. You know, I'm
(07:46):
one phone call away from just about every college coach
in the country, whether I have them in my phone
or somebody in our organization does, right, So it is
about relationships, so you know, and being able to evaluate talent,
not to find out who the most talent the kids are.
But where does that talent fit? And you know, if
you're talking to me, Nick, and you like, hey, my
kid's a d one uh soccer player, you know, And
(08:08):
I watched the video and I don't I don't think
so my job is to tell you that as the professional,
and if Nick, you and I can't agree on that,
I can't work with you. Right, So there's got to
be some give and take, right, Hey, I'm the expert
on where I think we're going to fight hard to
find the right fit for your kid academically, athletically, socially,
all of those things. And those are the things I
(08:28):
think that you're looking for for for an expert, not
someone who's just trying to take your money and move on,
but somebody that's willing to, you know, put the work
in and the time in quite honestly, to to to
help you help you find the right college fit.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You mentioned video, and actually, you know, I had a
couple of folks who I've passed a long video as
like as a friend, you know, like, hey, I have
relationships and coaches and but see, for me, I don't
consider myself an expert like, there's levels, right, So so
you mentioned is my kid a D oneccer player, whatever,
whatever the sport is. I sent a video or two
(09:03):
or three to two different coaches at different levels. I'm like,
what do you think of this? And it's a thirty
second clip. Coaches. Coaches can look at certain things, you know,
in baseball, they can look at a swing, they can
look at the way the body moves. They can look
at the way a kids throw these little things and determine, hey,
that's something that might be interesting. You know. Can you
have the kids send me their schedule or find out
when they play? And then there's certain levels like some
(09:25):
you know, a D three coach may say I love
that kid. Do you want to say, listen, it looks fine,
but it might not translate to our level. So I
feel like people get this misconception like coaches watch video
and there are things you can see. How objective as
a parent. I feel like it's not easy to be
objective as a parent. Do you need that somebody to
be honest? How often are people not honest and they
(09:45):
try to sell you up the river? Like everyone could
play at Division one?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, parents cannot be objective, I really don't think so.
Even it was funny. I was laughing the other day.
I'm out at a field and you know, my wife
and I are You'll probably you know, our soccer experiences
is pretty good, I'll say. And we're saying that they're
watching our seven year old.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That's putting it very humbly. By the way.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, I'm watching my seven year old play who I
think is a really good soccer player, and I'm talking
to the coach and I said, hey, listen, man, I'm
just going to stop talking because in this moment, I'm
absolutely the parent and I had to stop myself right
because I cannot be objective. I just can't. It's my kid.
I think the greatest things about my kids. So I
think that most parents are going to need some kind
(10:28):
of expertise. Now, I do think that his parents are
able to trust the process of putting their kids. If
they have the ability and the time to invest to
do the work to put their kids in front of coaches,
they can allow the coaches to make the determination of basically,
let the market determine your value, so to speak, if
(10:48):
they have the time and the energy to do that.
But I do think I'm an expert to look at
video and say, hey, listen, I think you're wasting your
time with these schools. I had a client one time said,
I said, send me your list of schools. I said, hey,
and you've got to take these four out because I
really don't think that you're going to be able to
play at that level. She questioned it. So I happen
to be friends with one of the coaches I sent her.
(11:09):
I sent her video to that coach. He responded back
kindly like, yes, I just don't think she's going to
be a great fit at this level for that under her.
And then obviously obviously there's some credibility, right, so sometimes
you have to do the extra work. But I don't
think that parents really can assess their children best because
another thing, too, is this, like you watch your kid
all day long, every day. You have an opinion. You
(11:31):
see every move and everything and every good and bad,
and you can make an excuse for every bad thing
that happens, and you can praise every good thing that happens.
But at the end of the day, the coach on
the other side of this has to be able to
make a decision based on what they see, not based
on your ten years of knowledge about your child. Right,
So parents, sometimes you get frustrated, like I know how
good my kid is. I'm like, well, I'm sorry that
(11:53):
that has to somehow we have to be able to
communicate that to the other side of this coach who
has limited knowledge. And that's where an expert comes in
to say, hey, I've also watched the film, this is
what I think, or I've seen this player in person.
That's a lot what we do at That's for you
to say is we're at these events evaluating kids in
person for the most part, and that gives a lot
of credibility to say, you know, as a college coach, hey, hey, Nick,
(12:17):
thanks for calling me about this player. Have you seen
her play? And if you said yes, I'm like, oh, okay, great,
let's talk about it. If not, then you know, I
can only go based on what I see on video
to see if I'm interested in seeing him or her
more in person.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I love how you said let the market determine. I mean,
I think that goes along with the old adage if
you're good enough, they'll find you at the end of
the day. If you're good enough to play the Division
one level, Division two, Division three, those coaches are going
to you know, they're they're going to weed themselves out.
And I think what gets lost in translation quite often
is the significance of the academic piece of it. I mean,
(12:50):
I know for me, and I'll never forget it. Miss
Jennings sacred our high school. Like nineteen ninety five or six,
I did not take school seriously, and quite frank, I
was very mature. I just did not care. I was like,
give me some c's, just let me get out of here.
I didn't like it, but she told me I was
a junior in high school. I wasn't the best athlete,
but I was able to play in college and she
knew I aspired to. And she was nick, you're literally
(13:11):
eliminating like a level of potential schools that you might
be interested in competing it, even if you won't be
able to get in there academically. And of course I probably,
like you know, laughed and told the joke. Afterwards. I'm like,
who cares? But I'm telling the story now because I
remember it. I don't know what it meant then, and
it's absolutely true, Like how significant, Like let's say a
kid wants to I think schools like the IVY league
(13:33):
speak for themselves. But there's tiers where like don't you
have to vet right away, Like, hey, you want to
go play at Columbia or whatever the school is, you
need to see the transcripts right away before you can
even approach about from the from the soccer standpoint, right.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean your IVY is, like
you said, they speak for themselves, and that's going to
be the case, you know, no matter what. But then
you've got some schools that are high academic standard schools
that compete at the Division one level or any level.
But if you can't, if you can't get in on
your own merit, you know you're not gonna be a
play soccer. But the other side of it, too is
this stick. I know. I remember as a coach, if
I'm looking at two kids and if I'm evaluating from
(14:06):
a soccer perspective and personality, they're the same, and I'm
trying to make a decision between the two, the one
that has the better grades, I'm going to go with
that one because that's just another another advantage that that
kid has. It brings to my program for a couple
of reasons. One, they're probably going to be able to
get some kind of merit aid, merit award or academic
money right, which which helps the family, right, which also
(14:28):
helps my team from springing out the scholarship a little
bit too. So you've got you've got that piece. I mean,
I I've had clients that you know at school is like, hey, listen,
like we do not have any scholarship available for their class.
So if they're going to come, they're going to have
to come on their own merit at least the first year. Well,
then they start running their academics and realize, oh my gosh,
this kid's going to get like sixty percent academic aid
(14:49):
at our university all of a sudden. For the family,
it makes sense. For the team, it makes sense, and
a spot was basically created on the team because they
didn't need the athletic scholarship. Is that, hopefully that makes
sense to everybody, Is that, Hey, if this family needs
soccer soccer money or athletic aid, we don't have it
for that class right away. But if they can come
in with, you know, if it helps the family, we
(15:10):
can we can look at what the merit aid is
going to be from that academic standpoint and it opens
more doors. So absolutely, I mean the academic piece. Anytime
I do a talk with any high school kids and
you're trying to catch them as early as you can
their freshman year to say, hey, this is important if
you want to play college athletics. This is going to
be something that makes a difference even in your freshman year.
(15:30):
You do not want to look back and go, man,
I wish I had just not fluffed off that one
semester or two semesters, because it's really impacting my GPA,
my class rank, things like that. It can really affect
you know, what you can what you can get from
a financial standpoint, and your your marketability. So to speak
to those schools.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
When we return, Paul and I dive deeper into college scholarships.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
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(16:16):
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this season. Where we left off, Paul and I were
about to discuss the challenges with college scholarships and his
approach as a sports parent.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I feel like I talk about this fairly often, but
I haven't really dug into it too too much here
recently in the episodes. It's that not every sport is
a you know, full rot right like basketball and football.
I think they're called headcount sports where if you I guess,
if you play for the team, you get a full scholarship. Well,
I know, in baseball and a fully funded Power five
school like the University of North Carolina or whatever the
(17:26):
heck it is. You get eleven point seven scholarships and
they carry thirty five players. I don't know exactly the
numbers in soccer, but you kind of just touched on
not having enough money. Like some people say, oh, that's
you know, that's not true. Well, let people understand, like
there aren't scholarships for every kid available. How do you
go about deeping that up? And I think, isn't it.
I think in baseball the minimum you could give out
(17:46):
is twenty five percent. What's it look like in soccer?
Is it similar to how many are are available per team?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah? On the soccer side. It's also was considered an
equivalence to sport, and you're right. You know your basketballs
and your footballs are headcount. You're either on a full
scholarship or you're a walk for your equivalency sports you
can give uh, Well, obviously baseball is little bit diferent.
In soccer, you can give one percent to one hundred percent,
any percentage that you want. There's no limit on there's
not a minimum percentage you can give in soccer. In
(18:13):
the women's game, they're about every you know, fully funded
team is going to have fourteen with roster sizes of
you know, twenty eight give or take a few summer
up to thirty five, and on the men's side's a
little bit less as nine to nine and a half
something like that, I believe on the men's side, and
the roster sizes are the same. So yeah, the dollars
are limited for these coaches. So getting creative is something
(18:37):
that coaches usually pride themselves in of how they divvy
up their scholarships. And if you come in as an academic,
a high academic kid, and you you get academic aid.
You know, I had kids at Baylor that, you know,
their total package was a full scholarship, but maybe you know,
forty or fifty percent of that was academic. So for
my team, that freed up another forty or fifty percent
that could put into another player. So it extends your
(19:00):
dollars a little bit. So yeah, it's it's not cut
and dry, it's not easy. And then you've got things
like you know, the transfer portal, right, like our coaches
putting aside money, you know, every year so they can
get a transfer a more experienced kid to bring into
their roster. And you've got on the other side of it,
you're losing kids to the transfer portal. So you know,
obviously money gets freed up. You've got injuries that happen,
(19:22):
You've got you know, all kinds of different things that
fluctuate that number from year to year that you have
to be aware of as a coach.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
How old are your kids?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
My kids are seven, ten, twelve, and fourteen, all.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Right, so a little spread out. But you fourteen? I
mean getting ready to go to high school or freshman
high school.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Currently, yeah, eighth grader all right.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So I would imagine you know, athletes in there, maybe
the soccer, but I have no idea. You could tell
me here in a second, But like, how are you
approaching this? Are you able to keep the hats differently?
Are you able to separate yourself? Because I know Marci
both of you are highly you know six, like you
put in mildly. I think she played for like the
USA women's national team, and and you're a stud in
your own right. So are you able to separate your
(20:03):
own competitiveness from your kids? How do you navigate it?
Are you just mom and dad coach all these things
as especially as they approach these years of you know,
where they may want to go play a quote unquote
the collegiate level a few years.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, it's funny. You know. We are a mom and
dad on the sideline, and we try really hard to
be a calm example of what I think parents should
be on the on the sideline. We're not always great
at it, but you know, I think I had a
parent tell me one time, like, oh wow, like, you know,
you're really calm. How do you how do you keep
so how do you keep so quiet? But I'm sure
you see things like this all the time, the craziness
(20:36):
of the sidelines. I said, listen, I've never never seen
anything so crazy on the sideline. It's it's crazy what
parents are yelling on the sidelines these days. But my
emotions are inside, you know. I'm trying to to coach
inside my own brain, inside my own heart, and if
my kid is open to some suggestions, I'm happy to
do that. But at the same time, like I'm like
(20:58):
any other parent, my kids don't don't always think that
mom and dad know anything about soccer, so we kind
of have to defer to the other coaches at times,
but we step in when we think it's appropriate our kids.
None of our kids currently play any type of travel sports.
The dynamic of our family is priority number one. If
our kid is showing that they absolutely love and desire
(21:21):
and feel like they've been given a gift from God
to do something really special and want to go after it.
We have certain criteria that we think have to be
filled to be on a travel squad, and the commitment
to that that our kids have to make is pretty
high level because the commitment it takes from a family
is very high level. So we're navigating that, and it'll
be different for every kid. Anyone has multiple children, know
(21:42):
that every personality is different and you have to approach
every kid somewhat differently, but your standards at home have
to be the same. So we are navigating parenting athletic kids.
I think in a unique way where I think if
you saw our dynamics, I don't think people from the
outside would go oh wow, like those are high level,
high achieving athletes and coaches. I just I don't. I'll
(22:05):
give this example, Nick, I've said this before at a
Q and A and got some funny looks. But I
had a parent ask they said, hey, you know, what
is the best way for us to guarantee that our
kids are going to get a college scholarship. They're going
to get money for college through through sports. I said, okay,
your goal is to pay for college. They said yes.
I said, okay, how was your kid? The kid was
pretty young. I said, go ahead and figure out the
(22:27):
amount of money that you're going to spend on your
kids travel sport for the next eight to ten years,
and go invest in. That is your best guarantee to
have money for college. It's not putting your kid through sport,
because I don't think it's fair to put that pressure
on a kid to say, hey, you're going to play
a high level support you're going to be committed to
it so that we can pay for your college. We
want you to play sport because it's fun. If you
(22:48):
end up being a high level player and it pays
for college, great, But I can't tell you any how
many conversations I've had from college athletes are like I
just realized, coach, and through my freshman year of college
and I realized I was playing because my parents love
game more than I did.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I heard that story all the time, man, and I
get you almost gave me goosebumps as you were telling it.
And is there any way that you know I think
it's fascinating that your kids don't play travel sport. You
would think in this in this era, it's like you
got to be there, so you're not racing. You're almost
like using your experience as we don't need to do that.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We don't, I mean, I don't. Listen again, I've got
younger kids, so my my seven and ten year old.
You know, they haven't decided if they want to play
basketball or soccer, or run track or play baseball like wrestle.
I mean, we're gonna do all of it. You know,
we're gonna We're gonna see one it's gonna make my
better overall athlete, because I believe the different sports give
them different tools in their toolbox, so to speak. So
(23:40):
we're gonna do all of it. But if they get
to a point like my fourteen year old, I think
he's pretty much decided he's gonna he's gonna play school sports.
Hey that's fine. Hey he wants to play you know,
school football, almost to play school soccer and run school track.
I'm one hundred percent before that if that's what he
wants to do. But if they want to take the
next level and do something higher level, they've got to
do want to put in the extra work, because I
(24:01):
think that if you're going to if you're going to
play travel sports, and you're going to put in the
finances to do that, I think the best thing for
your team to be the best is you've got to
do extra. You know, you don't play college athletics. Just
showing up for practice scheduled practice is not enough to
be a high level college athlete. It's just not. You've
got to do extra and you got to put in
the work. You got to eat right, you got to
(24:22):
take care of your body, and those are things that
we're trying to navigate with our family to say, hey, listen,
we're going to support whatever sporting endever you want to,
but knowing that at every level there's a different type
of commitment to it.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Coach, I love it. It's refreshing to hear someone who's
been to your level, you and your wife like kind
of sitting back and not caught up in the and
I find the correlation man, people that have the experience
that have either competed their own self at the highest
levels or coach or whatever, they seem to have a
knack for taking their foot off the gas and going
I'm going to let my kids kind of come into
their own. It's almost like it seems like the folks
(24:54):
who don't have experience are more susceptible to get caught
up in the in the foma that doesn't That's not
every example, but it's refreshing, and I think it's so
powerful to hear from someone of your caliber be able
to be an example and say, hey, I've been there,
I don't need to do this. I don't feel because
I think a lot of people fall for that and
they get nervous. And it's tough enough being a parent,
let alone when you're trying to keep up with everyone else.
(25:15):
So it's very refreshing. Coach, where could people connect with you?
What are your social handles content the sr USA like
let us know where they can connect and maybe reach out.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, I appreciate that, Nick. I'm at Coach Jobson on
most social media basically Instagram is where I hover the most.
I'm trying to take a step back from social media
a little bit, but at Coach Jobson is where I
am on social media. Martina and I. Our organization we've
run is called Warrior Way Soccer, So at Warriorway Soccer
as our social media and Warriorwaysoccer dot Com is our website,
(25:47):
and through that we're basically trying to teach kids how
to merge their faith in their sport because ultimately, we
feel like if we can can get the core things
right and foundation of who we are and we want
our children to be we think wants them to be,
then when soccer or sport disappears, we guests some core
values in place that help us be great people to
(26:09):
impact the world in a positive way.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I love it, coach. I can't thank you enough for
taking the time to come on. I really appreciate you.
I wish you nothing but continued success you and Marcy
and the kids, and I'm grateful for you. I know
you're busy. Thanks for coming on, Mannick.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Thanks so much for what you're doing. Keep doing it, man,
I appreciate you bringing me on.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
That's Paul Johnson, former head coach of women's soccer at
Baylor University, co founder of Warrior Way Soccer, senior consolan
at SRUSA, and sports parent. Thanks for listening to the
Reform Sports podcast.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
If you've enjoyed this episode, we would appreciate it if
you took a moment to rate and review our podcast.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
As we work to grow our community.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Of supporters and advocates for more reform sports content, please
subscribe to our newsletter and blog at Reformsports Project dot com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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