May 12, 2025 ā¢ 14 mins
šļø Real Recruiting, Real Relationships
In this Significant Recruiting bonus episode, Matt Rogers sits down with Wade Wilson, Head Softball Coach at Texas Lutheran University and one of the most respected voices in Division III athletics. With a national championship and years of success behind him, Coach Wilson opens up about what really matters in the recruiting processāand what families often overlook.
This conversation dives deep into:
- Why Coach Wilson recruits like heās adding a daughter to his family
- What he looks for in film and how he screens athletes with limited travel
- How a strong network and authentic connections shape his entire roster
- Why personal emails and persistence matter more than mass marketing
- His candid take on travel ball, summer burnout, and letting kids still be kids
If youāre a student-athlete or parent navigating the world of college recruiting, this episode is packed with raw, real, and refreshingly honest insights.
šÆ For more weekly recruiting advice, visit coachmattrogers.com to subscribe to the newsletter, get the book Significant Recruiting, and schedule a one-on-one strategy session.
Learn more and connect with Matt Rogers here: https://linktr.ee/coachmattrogers
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to SignificantRecruiting with Matt Rogers.
The bonus edition of theSignificant Coaching Podcast
where we talk directly about thecollege recruiting journey, what
matters, what works, and whatfamilies need to hear.
Before we jump in, be sure tovisit coach matt rogers.com.
You can grab your copy of mybook, significant Recruiting.
(00:27):
Subscribe to the free weeklynewsletter for updates and tips,
and schedule a one-on-onestrategy session to help your
family navigate the recruitingprocess with clarity and
confidence.
Today's guest is Wade Wilson,head softball coach at Texas
Lutheran University.
Coach Wilson has built one ofthe top D three programs in the
country, but what stands outeven more is how he recruits
(00:50):
with heart honesty and deep carefor his players in this episode.
We talk about the real things,like what he's actually looking
for in recruits, how personalconnections shape his roster,
and why he sees his athletes ashis daughters, not just his
players.
If you're a family navigatingthis process, this conversation
(01:11):
is a must.
Listen, here's my conversationwith our focus on recruiting
with Wade Wilson.
Coach, recruiting has becomesuch a different part of the
world that we live in.
As coaches, I want to just askyou a few questions about how
you recruit and how you buildyour program because I think
(01:31):
it's really good for families tohear that.
As hard as it is for you torecruit, at the end of the day,
what you're looking for is kidsthat you wanna bring into your
house, you want to introduce toyour children.
Absolutely.
You wanna introduce to yourwife, right?
You want these young women areyour daughters and you're wanna
make sure that you're bringingin another daughter, right?
(01:54):
That's not gonna mess up theculture that you have that can
maybe make that culture better.
I think hard noses is the numberone thing we're looking for.
When they're on the field,they're playing the game the
right way.
The extra bases, the extraeffort, the extra, the
competitiveness, the all of thatstuff.
The X factor.
And I remember a kid asking meone time, what did you like
about me when you saw meplaying?
(02:15):
I was like, I just liked the wayyou received the ball.
She was a pitcher.
She goes, the way I received it,I just, the way you caught the
ball, I liked it.
And she did end up being a verygood player for us, but she was
a great kid and I still likedthe way she received the ball.
She just didn't get very manypeople out.
Yeah.
I counted the other day.
I think of, we have 29 playerson our team right now.
26 of'em.
I never saw'em play until theygot here.
we recruited a little different,I've got such a huge network in
(02:37):
Texas that I pretty much cancall somebody and say, and
they're like, yep, she's yourkind of kid, or, nah, she's not
gonna make it.
She wouldn't make it with you asecond.
And wow.
It makes it so easy.
And then once we get that listidentified, then we do a little
research as far as.
watching some video.
Yep.
She's got some tools here andreally it's boiled down.
If she can run, she can help us.
Yeah, we can.
The rest of the stuff.
(02:57):
I don't know that we'renecessarily the, a great model,
for people to do.
Yeah.
I think a lot of it now with thesuccess that we've had, we've
got people coming to us.
Yeah.
And then we can pick and choose,but usually it's a phone call or
I call so and and they're like,there's three kids you need to
look at.
And then we'll do a littleresearch And then we'll have,
talk to'em.
And more times than night just aphone call.
(03:18):
I don't know, with a kid theother day and I called and I was
like, we gotta get this kidright here.
Yeah, she just nailed it.
It was easy talking.
It was I'm on it.
So then you find connections.
All of our kids that are on ourteam, for the most part, we have
a connection to somehow, throughsomebody.
And then you find thatconnection, and then that's your
end right Now, they can speak onyour behalf.
They're gonna talk on theirbehalf.
(03:39):
and we did it last night.
I had a kid, that guy I went tocollege with had no clue.
We lost touch.
It was before cell phone, beforeemail.
And I get a kid and I talk toher and she goes, my dad.
I'm like, who's your dad?
And she said, quest.
I said, oh my goodness, how didI not put two and two together.
Where is he now?
And I hadn't seen him since midnineties, and so now he's do you
know this kid?
Yep.
I know her.
Great family, good kid.
(03:59):
She love her great personality.
She's a doll.
And now we're on her.
And so it just leads from one tothe other, it's all connected in
that sense and it's worked forus.
So is it a model that would beworked for somebody else?
I don't know.
And that's, so many times you'llsee out of state people hired in
Texas and I'm like, they'renever gonna make it'cause it's
they're tough, especially at theD three level.
Let's talk about that because Iwanna hear your opinion on this.
(04:21):
'cause you obviously have aprogram that's got a really deep
system and you haverelationships, so it's easy for
you to fill your roster.
But let's say my daughter's nota softball player, let's say she
is and wants to, she's hungry toplay in Texas and loves the idea
of Texas Lutheran.
Is there value in her sendingyou an email with some, Phil, is
there value in her making aphone call to you and saying,
(04:43):
Hey coach, I really wanna playfor a coach like you.
I'd love to get your thoughts onme.
Absolutely.
The thing we're seeing now, it'sall that, AI generated stuff you
can read right through thosewhere they Yes.
Have the, they have their AItype up what they want to do.
And so you can read through mostof those, but I think it's
persistence.
(05:03):
If I see an email, I've got52,000 unread emails in my email
box right now, 52,000 unread.
yep.
So getting to everybody isimpossible.
So I think persistence is there.
if so many of the emails that weget though are from the
services, Sports recruited andall that stuff that they're
just, they're sending it to.
(05:23):
2000 other coaches as well.
But when you see that personalemail, like I always tell the
kids, make sure you putsomething in the title.
Hey, I know you from thisperson, put your coach's name,
or something like that.
Yeah.
Whether there's a connectionthere.
We've got kids, we talked to akid the other day whose mom went
to school here.
She was from, the mom was fromFlorida, just on a whim, ended
up at Texas Lutheran, and nowthe daughter wants to come back
here.
So we've been with her.
(05:43):
And then once that, once thefirst initial, then we start
doing a little research and thenit's we've got kids on our team
that I've told, you'll neverplay for us, you'll never play,
you'll never get on the field.
They're still a TLU and they'regreat teammates and they're
great kids.
But, and so we try to be honestwith him before that.
And give them the informationthey need, then they have to
make the choice, yeah.
You're not gonna play for us.
You're not good enough.
There's too many people in frontof you.
(06:04):
But Te OU is a great school andwe're, it's a great group of
people.
We've got a soccer kid on ourteam right now whose older
sister played for us.
She's just on our team.
'cause she transferred asemester.
Come be a part of us.
You're gonna have 28 friendsimmediately.
It's gonna help break the icefor you next semester when
you're playing soccer.
And she shows up at practiceevery day.
She sits in the dugout, shewears a uniform.
She don't practice.
Every now and then I'll put herin a run, but that's it.
(06:26):
And she's just, she's got 28sisters now that's gonna help
her with a transition and maybemake it a little better for her
in soccer next semester.
That's fantastic.
It's a good family.
Good family.
Her sister was good kid.
Parents are good people andshe's not hurting us at all.
Since you don't go out much andrecruit, you don't go to many
tournaments and high schoolgames like that.
What are you looking for in afilm when you see, if you're
(06:47):
gonna open up an email andyou're gonna watch film on a
kid, What are some of the thingsyou want to see?
There's things that we seeimmediately that we can rule a
kid out, okay, what are thosethings?
Like a kid swings the bat andthe bat comes backwards after it
hits the ball.
They're just not strong.
It, there's too many holes inthe swing.
Hitters is either you get mathor you don't get math.
People that don't get math, yougotta work really hard at it,
(07:08):
right?
Yep.
Yep.
You're not a very good hitter.
You're gonna have to work reallyhard at it.
Where there's kids that don'thave to do anything.
They go out there and they hit400, right?
if they're fast, thatautomatically gets'em through to
the next round.
because we can, you can alwaysuse that.
We can teach the other things.
but, and pitching.
If every video clip that yousend me pitching there's runners
on base, then you're probablynot a very good pitcher.
(07:29):
I don't need to see on base.
I've never heard that before,but it's makes so much sense.
Yeah, but don't, you're clippingand showing me what you want me
to see.
Don't have runners at second andthird though.
Every pitch that you throw,that's not good.
So there's things like that andjust and if I see a video I as,
I would rather see it from thebelly button view.
I don't wanna see behind whereyou're looking through a fence,
then an net and a catcher.
(07:49):
In an umpire, you can't seeanything.
So I want the angle there andthey, and we can see a swing and
you, yeah, there's something towork where there, the ball's
jumping off the bat, armstrength is big and athletic.
If you're athletic, you alreadyhave an advantage, being
athletic.
I love that.
And those things are soimportant for softball.
Do you prefer game footage overpractice footage?
Practice footage?
Because for me, when I wasrecruiting for baseball and
(08:11):
softball, I wanted to seerepetition.
I didn't wanna see, I didn'tknow what that pitcher was
throwing 40 mile an hour and itwas a joke.
I wanna see what can you do overand over again?
What's that?
Follow through mechanic part ofit.
That's all we're looking at.
There's a mechanic.
if we need to see you, we'regonna watch a game where we can
see those kind of things.
Like out filters, they'll sendit from home plate or something.
I can't see anything out there.
It is wasted time right there.
(08:32):
There's nothing there.
So I'd rather see that from youdoing that out there.
Your feet work good, you havegood arm strength and are you
catching the ball where you needto and not basket catching every
ball that's hit to you.
Those kind of stuff.
So it's not, it's not rocketscience by any means.
And parents with iPhonecapability, you could take a one
minute video that getseverything that needs to be seen
in a one minute video and uploadit and send it, and it takes you
no time at all.
(08:53):
That's right.
You do it inside.
A lot of it can be done inside.
It doesn't have to be outside.
I think the biggest thing forkids is persistence and make you
a list of places that ifsoftball was not on the table,
you could see yourself going toschool.
Yeah.
And then concentrate on thoseschools, right?
Because softball may not bethere.
You may have an injury, you maynot be good enough, whatever it
is, but you're still going toschool and you're happy where
you're at.
That's right.
(09:13):
and then pursue the athleticside of things.
And D three, we don't tellanybody.
No.
If they show up here, we don'ttell'em.
No.
If they're not doing thingsright out there, which we've
never, I think in my years here,we've had two kids we're this is
not the right fit for you.
Yeah.
Just, you probably need to gofind something else to do.
As long as they're pulling therope in the same direction,
we're not telling'em No, comeon.
Be a part of it.
We do good things out here.
All right.
Last question.
(09:34):
I'm gonna take you to 30,000feet here.
You got all these families thatare trying to get their kid
recruited.
All these kids that wanna playcollege softball.
Forget Texas Lutheran for asecond.
What advice.
You give parents and kids asthey're starting this journey to
get recruited, what do you wantthem to know?
What do you want them to bethinking about?
(09:55):
I want them to think about beinga kid.
We've given up our summers tochase this crap and it works out
for very few of them, right?
Yep.
Now, if, and once kids commit tous, I'm like, take the summer
off.
Go enjoy your family becauseit's over with.
You're not gonna have thisopportunity ever again.
Go be a kid, go enjoy thesummer, go travel, go do
something other than softballinstead of your parents spending
(10:17):
$20,000 chasing you all over thedamn country playing in
tournaments that they're justafter your money.
I'm not a big travel ball fanand me neither several guys on
our staff that's how they make aliving, I respect that.
It's a business model.
My kids didn't do anything inthe summer.
None of'em were college athleteseither though.
So I'll qualify with that.
But yeah, they had a chance to,I'm like, you go tell them thank
(10:37):
you, but we're gonna be a familyin the summertime.
We're gonna travel, we're gonnago see the country and do those
things.
And so we made a decision.
we just didn't think we hadenough parents.
There was two of us and three ofthem that we could chase them
all over and be fair to all ofthem.
So yeah, we just decided weweren't gonna do that.
So I think that's my big advice.
If you're good enough,somebody's gonna find you.
Yeah.
The kids are so stuck right nowplaying D one or bust, and then
(10:59):
they get there and then they endup being nothing.
They end up doing nothingbecause it's not all that.
And so we're really after thekids, and that's one of the
questions we ask is it have tobe D one.
If they're chasing D one, thenwe're not it, we just move on.
Thank you for saying that.
And that was my topic this weekis just ride a bike.
Go bowling, go swimming, go dosome sleepovers.
(11:20):
If your weekends, that's allyou're doing is playing softball
and you never get to be withyour friends and you never get
to, go on a picnic or go to themovies with your family, then
there's so much you're missing.
That's small Town America backin the eighties when we grew up.
We had some great times and someof my best memories were doing
that.
I live and breathe sports, Iplayed, but I never played on
(11:42):
any travel teams.
We had stars and when that wasover with early in the summer,
it was over with, and then wegot to be a kid for the rest of
the summer until school startedback.
And, yeah, baseball season was15 or 20 games.
I don't remember ever playingmore than 15 or 20 games.
This season they play everyweekend this summer they'll play
every weekend.
A lot of people will everyweekend.
And it's just the price of it.
Holy cow.
(12:02):
I couldn't imagine what their,you could pay for your college
education two or three timesover if you'd just invested that
money, I took the IV out forthis interview that's been
draining from my daughter'svolleyball clubs.
So usually they just take acouple pints of blood every day.
Absolutely.
I'm with you.
I'm one of the suckers, but mydaughter, she doesn't have any
dreams of playing collegevolleyball a whole lot.
And she just loves thecompetition and loves the, and
(12:24):
it's right for her.
That's good.
I don't have any problem withthat.
I need to compete.
Yeah, compete.
I get it.
It's hard for me to say no tothat, absolutely.
Because I love what she'sgaining from that as a human
being.
No Doubt.
Coach, thank you so much foryour time today.
It has been an honor to get toknow you and I hope you don't
mind if I call you a friend.
'cause I feel like you're goodman.
Really enjoyable.
I'm, got a little emotionalthere and I was afraid that
might happen'cause it was stillfresh with this and, it's what
(12:46):
it is, it's what, it just tellsme how much you love it.
And how much you love these kidsand how much they mean to you.
And it's the reason you keepdoing it and to keep doing it as
well, if not better thaneverybody else.
So thank you for what you'redoing.
I'm gonna be cheering for hecklike you, for you and the girls
going forward and hope you getanother national, another Natty
(13:07):
title under your belt.
Thank you Matt.
Appreciate your time too.
Thanks coach.
Alright buddy.
Bye-Bye.
That was Wade Wilson, one of themost genuine voices I've ever
had on the show.
He remind us that greatrecruiting isn't about hype,
it's about character,connection, and fit.
If you're a student athlete,coach Wilson's advice is gold.
(13:28):
I.
Be persistent, be personal andbe real.
Send film, follow up and focuson schools where you'd be happy.
Even without sports and parents,don't sacrifice your whole
summer to that grind.
Let your kids be kids.
If they're good enough, theright coach will see the ability
and make the connection.
(13:48):
To get more weekly recruitingtips and tools, head over to
coach matt rogers.com.
You can subscribe to the freenewsletter, grab the significant
recruiting book, or schedule aone-on-one strategy session with
me to take your next step withconfidence.
Hey, thanks for listening andthanks again to Coach Wilson for
reminding us what truly mattersin this journey.
Welcome to SignificantRecruiting with Matt Rogers.
The bonus edition of theSignificant Coaching Podcast
where we talk directly about thecollege recruiting journey, what
matters, what works, and whatfamilies need to hear.
Before we jump in, be sure tovisit coach matt rogers.com.
You can grab your copy of mybook, significant Recruiting.
(00:27):
Subscribe to the free weeklynewsletter for updates and tips,
and schedule a one-on-onestrategy session to help your
family navigate the recruitingprocess with clarity and
confidence.
Today's guest is Wade Wilson,head softball coach at Texas
Lutheran University.
Coach Wilson has built one ofthe top D three programs in the
country, but what stands outeven more is how he recruits
(00:50):
with heart honesty and deep carefor his players in this episode.
We talk about the real things,like what he's actually looking
for in recruits, how personalconnections shape his roster,
and why he sees his athletes ashis daughters, not just his
players.
If you're a family navigatingthis process, this conversation
(01:11):
is a must.
Listen, here's my conversationwith our focus on recruiting
with Wade Wilson.
Coach, recruiting has becomesuch a different part of the
world that we live in.
As coaches, I want to just askyou a few questions about how
you recruit and how you buildyour program because I think
(01:31):
it's really good for families tohear that.
As hard as it is for you torecruit, at the end of the day,
what you're looking for is kidsthat you wanna bring into your
house, you want to introduce toyour children.
Absolutely.
You wanna introduce to yourwife, right?
You want these young women areyour daughters and you're wanna
make sure that you're bringingin another daughter, right?
(01:54):
That's not gonna mess up theculture that you have that can
maybe make that culture better.
I think hard noses is the numberone thing we're looking for.
When they're on the field,they're playing the game the
right way.
The extra bases, the extraeffort, the extra, the
competitiveness, the all of thatstuff.
The X factor.
And I remember a kid asking meone time, what did you like
about me when you saw meplaying?
(02:15):
I was like, I just liked the wayyou received the ball.
She was a pitcher.
She goes, the way I received it,I just, the way you caught the
ball, I liked it.
And she did end up being a verygood player for us, but she was
a great kid and I still likedthe way she received the ball.
She just didn't get very manypeople out.
Yeah.
I counted the other day.
I think of, we have 29 playerson our team right now.
26 of'em.
I never saw'em play until theygot here.
we recruited a little different,I've got such a huge network in
(02:37):
Texas that I pretty much cancall somebody and say, and
they're like, yep, she's yourkind of kid, or, nah, she's not
gonna make it.
She wouldn't make it with you asecond.
And wow.
It makes it so easy.
And then once we get that listidentified, then we do a little
research as far as.
watching some video.
Yep.
She's got some tools here andreally it's boiled down.
If she can run, she can help us.
Yeah, we can.
The rest of the stuff.
(02:57):
I don't know that we'renecessarily the, a great model,
for people to do.
Yeah.
I think a lot of it now with thesuccess that we've had, we've
got people coming to us.
Yeah.
And then we can pick and choose,but usually it's a phone call or
I call so and and they're like,there's three kids you need to
look at.
And then we'll do a littleresearch And then we'll have,
talk to'em.
And more times than night just aphone call.
(03:18):
I don't know, with a kid theother day and I called and I was
like, we gotta get this kidright here.
Yeah, she just nailed it.
It was easy talking.
It was I'm on it.
So then you find connections.
All of our kids that are on ourteam, for the most part, we have
a connection to somehow, throughsomebody.
And then you find thatconnection, and then that's your
end right Now, they can speak onyour behalf.
They're gonna talk on theirbehalf.
(03:39):
and we did it last night.
I had a kid, that guy I went tocollege with had no clue.
We lost touch.
It was before cell phone, beforeemail.
And I get a kid and I talk toher and she goes, my dad.
I'm like, who's your dad?
And she said, quest.
I said, oh my goodness, how didI not put two and two together.
Where is he now?
And I hadn't seen him since midnineties, and so now he's do you
know this kid?
Yep.
I know her.
Great family, good kid.
(03:59):
She love her great personality.
She's a doll.
And now we're on her.
And so it just leads from one tothe other, it's all connected in
that sense and it's worked forus.
So is it a model that would beworked for somebody else?
I don't know.
And that's, so many times you'llsee out of state people hired in
Texas and I'm like, they'renever gonna make it'cause it's
they're tough, especially at theD three level.
Let's talk about that because Iwanna hear your opinion on this.
(04:21):
'cause you obviously have aprogram that's got a really deep
system and you haverelationships, so it's easy for
you to fill your roster.
But let's say my daughter's nota softball player, let's say she
is and wants to, she's hungry toplay in Texas and loves the idea
of Texas Lutheran.
Is there value in her sendingyou an email with some, Phil, is
there value in her making aphone call to you and saying,
(04:43):
Hey coach, I really wanna playfor a coach like you.
I'd love to get your thoughts onme.
Absolutely.
The thing we're seeing now, it'sall that, AI generated stuff you
can read right through thosewhere they Yes.
Have the, they have their AItype up what they want to do.
And so you can read through mostof those, but I think it's
persistence.
(05:03):
If I see an email, I've got52,000 unread emails in my email
box right now, 52,000 unread.
yep.
So getting to everybody isimpossible.
So I think persistence is there.
if so many of the emails that weget though are from the
services, Sports recruited andall that stuff that they're
just, they're sending it to.
(05:23):
2000 other coaches as well.
But when you see that personalemail, like I always tell the
kids, make sure you putsomething in the title.
Hey, I know you from thisperson, put your coach's name,
or something like that.
Yeah.
Whether there's a connectionthere.
We've got kids, we talked to akid the other day whose mom went
to school here.
She was from, the mom was fromFlorida, just on a whim, ended
up at Texas Lutheran, and nowthe daughter wants to come back
here.
So we've been with her.
(05:43):
And then once that, once thefirst initial, then we start
doing a little research and thenit's we've got kids on our team
that I've told, you'll neverplay for us, you'll never play,
you'll never get on the field.
They're still a TLU and they'regreat teammates and they're
great kids.
But, and so we try to be honestwith him before that.
And give them the informationthey need, then they have to
make the choice, yeah.
You're not gonna play for us.
You're not good enough.
There's too many people in frontof you.
(06:04):
But Te OU is a great school andwe're, it's a great group of
people.
We've got a soccer kid on ourteam right now whose older
sister played for us.
She's just on our team.
'cause she transferred asemester.
Come be a part of us.
You're gonna have 28 friendsimmediately.
It's gonna help break the icefor you next semester when
you're playing soccer.
And she shows up at practiceevery day.
She sits in the dugout, shewears a uniform.
She don't practice.
Every now and then I'll put herin a run, but that's it.
(06:26):
And she's just, she's got 28sisters now that's gonna help
her with a transition and maybemake it a little better for her
in soccer next semester.
That's fantastic.
It's a good family.
Good family.
Her sister was good kid.
Parents are good people andshe's not hurting us at all.
Since you don't go out much andrecruit, you don't go to many
tournaments and high schoolgames like that.
What are you looking for in afilm when you see, if you're
(06:47):
gonna open up an email andyou're gonna watch film on a
kid, What are some of the thingsyou want to see?
There's things that we seeimmediately that we can rule a
kid out, okay, what are thosethings?
Like a kid swings the bat andthe bat comes backwards after it
hits the ball.
They're just not strong.
It, there's too many holes inthe swing.
Hitters is either you get mathor you don't get math.
People that don't get math, yougotta work really hard at it,
(07:08):
right?
Yep.
Yep.
You're not a very good hitter.
You're gonna have to work reallyhard at it.
Where there's kids that don'thave to do anything.
They go out there and they hit400, right?
if they're fast, thatautomatically gets'em through to
the next round.
because we can, you can alwaysuse that.
We can teach the other things.
but, and pitching.
If every video clip that yousend me pitching there's runners
on base, then you're probablynot a very good pitcher.
(07:29):
I don't need to see on base.
I've never heard that before,but it's makes so much sense.
Yeah, but don't, you're clippingand showing me what you want me
to see.
Don't have runners at second andthird though.
Every pitch that you throw,that's not good.
So there's things like that andjust and if I see a video I as,
I would rather see it from thebelly button view.
I don't wanna see behind whereyou're looking through a fence,
then an net and a catcher.
(07:49):
In an umpire, you can't seeanything.
So I want the angle there andthey, and we can see a swing and
you, yeah, there's something towork where there, the ball's
jumping off the bat, armstrength is big and athletic.
If you're athletic, you alreadyhave an advantage, being
athletic.
I love that.
And those things are soimportant for softball.
Do you prefer game footage overpractice footage?
Practice footage?
Because for me, when I wasrecruiting for baseball and
(08:11):
softball, I wanted to seerepetition.
I didn't wanna see, I didn'tknow what that pitcher was
throwing 40 mile an hour and itwas a joke.
I wanna see what can you do overand over again?
What's that?
Follow through mechanic part ofit.
That's all we're looking at.
There's a mechanic.
if we need to see you, we'regonna watch a game where we can
see those kind of things.
Like out filters, they'll sendit from home plate or something.
I can't see anything out there.
It is wasted time right there.
(08:32):
There's nothing there.
So I'd rather see that from youdoing that out there.
Your feet work good, you havegood arm strength and are you
catching the ball where you needto and not basket catching every
ball that's hit to you.
Those kind of stuff.
So it's not, it's not rocketscience by any means.
And parents with iPhonecapability, you could take a one
minute video that getseverything that needs to be seen
in a one minute video and uploadit and send it, and it takes you
no time at all.
(08:53):
That's right.
You do it inside.
A lot of it can be done inside.
It doesn't have to be outside.
I think the biggest thing forkids is persistence and make you
a list of places that ifsoftball was not on the table,
you could see yourself going toschool.
Yeah.
And then concentrate on thoseschools, right?
Because softball may not bethere.
You may have an injury, you maynot be good enough, whatever it
is, but you're still going toschool and you're happy where
you're at.
That's right.
(09:13):
and then pursue the athleticside of things.
And D three, we don't tellanybody.
No.
If they show up here, we don'ttell'em.
No.
If they're not doing thingsright out there, which we've
never, I think in my years here,we've had two kids we're this is
not the right fit for you.
Yeah.
Just, you probably need to gofind something else to do.
As long as they're pulling therope in the same direction,
we're not telling'em No, comeon.
Be a part of it.
We do good things out here.
All right.
Last question.
(09:34):
I'm gonna take you to 30,000feet here.
You got all these families thatare trying to get their kid
recruited.
All these kids that wanna playcollege softball.
Forget Texas Lutheran for asecond.
What advice.
You give parents and kids asthey're starting this journey to
get recruited, what do you wantthem to know?
What do you want them to bethinking about?
(09:55):
I want them to think about beinga kid.
We've given up our summers tochase this crap and it works out
for very few of them, right?
Yep.
Now, if, and once kids commit tous, I'm like, take the summer
off.
Go enjoy your family becauseit's over with.
You're not gonna have thisopportunity ever again.
Go be a kid, go enjoy thesummer, go travel, go do
something other than softballinstead of your parents spending
(10:17):
$20,000 chasing you all over thedamn country playing in
tournaments that they're justafter your money.
I'm not a big travel ball fanand me neither several guys on
our staff that's how they make aliving, I respect that.
It's a business model.
My kids didn't do anything inthe summer.
None of'em were college athleteseither though.
So I'll qualify with that.
But yeah, they had a chance to,I'm like, you go tell them thank
(10:37):
you, but we're gonna be a familyin the summertime.
We're gonna travel, we're gonnago see the country and do those
things.
And so we made a decision.
we just didn't think we hadenough parents.
There was two of us and three ofthem that we could chase them
all over and be fair to all ofthem.
So yeah, we just decided weweren't gonna do that.
So I think that's my big advice.
If you're good enough,somebody's gonna find you.
Yeah.
The kids are so stuck right nowplaying D one or bust, and then
(10:59):
they get there and then they endup being nothing.
They end up doing nothingbecause it's not all that.
And so we're really after thekids, and that's one of the
questions we ask is it have tobe D one.
If they're chasing D one, thenwe're not it, we just move on.
Thank you for saying that.
And that was my topic this weekis just ride a bike.
Go bowling, go swimming, go dosome sleepovers.
(11:20):
If your weekends, that's allyou're doing is playing softball
and you never get to be withyour friends and you never get
to, go on a picnic or go to themovies with your family, then
there's so much you're missing.
That's small Town America backin the eighties when we grew up.
We had some great times and someof my best memories were doing
that.
I live and breathe sports, Iplayed, but I never played on
(11:42):
any travel teams.
We had stars and when that wasover with early in the summer,
it was over with, and then wegot to be a kid for the rest of
the summer until school startedback.
And, yeah, baseball season was15 or 20 games.
I don't remember ever playingmore than 15 or 20 games.
This season they play everyweekend this summer they'll play
every weekend.
A lot of people will everyweekend.
And it's just the price of it.
Holy cow.
(12:02):
I couldn't imagine what their,you could pay for your college
education two or three timesover if you'd just invested that
money, I took the IV out forthis interview that's been
draining from my daughter'svolleyball clubs.
So usually they just take acouple pints of blood every day.
Absolutely.
I'm with you.
I'm one of the suckers, but mydaughter, she doesn't have any
dreams of playing collegevolleyball a whole lot.
And she just loves thecompetition and loves the, and
(12:24):
it's right for her.
That's good.
I don't have any problem withthat.
I need to compete.
Yeah, compete.
I get it.
It's hard for me to say no tothat, absolutely.
Because I love what she'sgaining from that as a human
being.
No Doubt.
Coach, thank you so much foryour time today.
It has been an honor to get toknow you and I hope you don't
mind if I call you a friend.
'cause I feel like you're goodman.
Really enjoyable.
I'm, got a little emotionalthere and I was afraid that
might happen'cause it was stillfresh with this and, it's what
(12:46):
it is, it's what, it just tellsme how much you love it.
And how much you love these kidsand how much they mean to you.
And it's the reason you keepdoing it and to keep doing it as
well, if not better thaneverybody else.
So thank you for what you'redoing.
I'm gonna be cheering for hecklike you, for you and the girls
going forward and hope you getanother national, another Natty
(13:07):
title under your belt.
Thank you Matt.
Appreciate your time too.
Thanks coach.
Alright buddy.
Bye-Bye.
That was Wade Wilson, one of themost genuine voices I've ever
had on the show.
He remind us that greatrecruiting isn't about hype,
it's about character,connection, and fit.
If you're a student athlete,coach Wilson's advice is gold.
(13:28):
I.
Be persistent, be personal andbe real.
Send film, follow up and focuson schools where you'd be happy.
Even without sports and parents,don't sacrifice your whole
summer to that grind.
Let your kids be kids.
If they're good enough, theright coach will see the ability
and make the connection.
(13:48):
To get more weekly recruitingtips and tools, head over to
coach matt rogers.com.
You can subscribe to the freenewsletter, grab the significant
recruiting book, or schedule aone-on-one strategy session with
me to take your next step withconfidence.
Hey, thanks for listening andthanks again to Coach Wilson for
reminding us what truly mattersin this journey.
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