The Truman Charities Podcast
Truman Charities is the only podcast that donates $250 to each of our guests' charity of choice.
Jamie Truman, connects with individuals who are making a significant impact in their communities. From New York Times bestselling authors to innovative farmers, we share the untold stories of those who are shaping the world around us. We feature trailblazers, influencers, and innovators who are driving positive change, such as the lawyer who fought Dupont for two decades to protect our water and the vital work of an organization dedicated to supporting women who have been trafficked within the United States.
Jamie Truman is the co-founder of Truman Charities, an entirely volunteer-run organization. Since its inception in 2010, Truman Charities has successfully raised over $2 million for a variety of charitable causes.
In addition to her work with Truman Charities, Jamie is also the author of the bestselling book "Vanishing Fathers: The Ripple Effect on Tomorrow's Generation." This book has generated over $80,000 for charities supporting at-risk youth, as 100% of the book's proceeds are donated to these vital organizations.
The Truman Charities Podcast
Year-Round Sports, Early Burnout: What Every Parent Should Know | HoopEd Founder Jonathan Scribner Ep. 145
The difference between youth sports today and what we grew up with?
In this episode, Coach Jonathan Scribner helps us unpack why youth sports has changed and how year-round training, early specialization, and over-scheduling are affecting our kids. We discuss the decline of pickup games, rising competition, and the risks of burnout and injury.
Plus, Jonathan has great advice for parents — including what age is best to specialize and how to make sure your children are having fun even when they're competing. He also shares how his organization is addressing these issues, developing crucial skills, and helping kids enjoy sports again. Tune in to see how you can get your kids involved with their summer camp and school day off programs!
Learn more about Coach Jon's partnership with the Whatever We Imagine Foundation, or donate to support student athletes, at https://www.whateverweimagine.org/.
Connect with HoopEd:
Connect with Jamie at Truman Charities:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Website
YouTube
Email: info@trumancharities.com
This episode was post produced by Podcast Boutique https://podcastboutique.com/
Welcome back to the Truman Charities podcast. I'm your host, jamie Truman, and today's episode is one that I've been wanting to do for a long time, because if you're a parent, coach or even just someone who's played sports growing up, you probably noticed youth sports have drastically changed. Our kids are playing earlier, training harder and sometimes traveling further than we ever imagined, and the question is is it all too much, too soon? I'm joined today by Coach John Scribner, an award-winning basketball coach, founder of Hoop Ed and someone who's been on the front lines of youth sports for over two decades. Today, me and Coach John talk about the rise of year-round sports and whether it's actually helping kids.
Speaker 1:When is it too early to specialize in one sport, why fewer kids are playing pickup games and how that's affecting their development. And yes, we even get into burnout. That's becoming all too common. Whether your child is just starting their athletic journey or you're navigating the high stakes world of high school competition, this conversation is definitely for you. Before we talk to Coach John, please take a minute to rate and review our podcast. Truman Charities, as you know, is 100% volunteer-based organization, and so the reviews are really an essential way for us to grow our podcast, so please scroll down, click the five stars and then rate a short review on why you enjoy this podcast. All right, now let's welcome Coach John to Truman Charities. Hi John, thanks so much for coming on to talk with us today about youth sports, which is something that I've wanted to do for a while now.
Speaker 2:My pleasure. Glad to be here.
Speaker 1:Right. So you have a lot of experience, you know you've been named WCAC Coach of the Year twice and also USA Today Coach of the Year twice, and also USA Today Coach of the Year for Washington DC, and you have had a lot of experience playing sports and coaching and I am, as I mentioned, so excited to talk about youth sports and travel and just parenting, you know 20 years ago versus now with athletics and all of this great stuff. But first I want to talk a little bit about you, so everyone knows a little bit more about your background, the sports that you played growing up and why you decided and why you were inspired to become a coach yourself.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Well, from a very young age all I wanted to do was play. I remember just growing up in our neighborhood we had organized games in our neighborhood back then we would. We would organize basketball games against the next block. We would organize our own little wiffle ball leagues. Much different time back then when we were just, you know, out in the yards playing.
Speaker 2:But I grew up playing football, basketball and baseball and you know, it was a kind of thing where, you know, in the fall it it was football season so you could play football. Second, football ended it was basketball season, so you started playing basketball. And as soon as basketball season ended it was baseball season, so you went and played baseball and it was sort of, you know, all of the year-round stuff hadn't really begun at that point and so you just played the sport that was in front of you, you know. And then in the summertime it was a little of everything until I went on to college and of course you play in intramurals and do all that kind of stuff while you're in college. But when I got out of school I got an opportunity to work with a training company called One-on-One Basketball, and this was in the mid-90s and One-on-One Basket basketball was a very sort of unique and new concept because it focused on individual training for team sports. Ok, so you know, back then that didn't exist. I mean, you had individual coaches for tennis and golf and piano and guitar, but not for, like, team sports. You know, nowadays everybody's got a trainer. You know you want to be a volleyball server, you can hire a trainer to teach you how to do volleyball serving. But back then it was a very, very unique concept.
Speaker 2:Doing individual training for, again, for team sports involved three things I was very passionate about. First of all, youth being around kids. I was a camp counselor. My very first job was a 12-year-old was in a sundial camp with three and four-year-olds. So I had been working in camps and working with kids my whole life and it was sports which was obviously my passion and continues to be my passion. And then it was an entrepreneurial opportunity. So I jumped at that and I did that for 12 years. With one-on-one basketball. We grew that to having a national presence with offices across the country, and then in 2007, I left us to form my own version of one-on-one basketball which was called the Hoop Ed, which is what we have been working with and running since then.
Speaker 1:Right, and so right now, though, you are the varsity coach for St John's women's basketball team, correct?
Speaker 2:Correct, correct. So, that was an interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how'd you land to? Yeah, that was an interesting development.
Speaker 2:One of my former football coaches, a man named Don Swaggart, had a daughter who was at National Cathedral School and their basketball program was in shambles. And you know I was currently working with one-on-one basketball at the time and he approached me with would I be interested in applying for the National Cathedral School head girls basketball coaching position, which I did, and they were just finishing up a brand new, beautiful facility and so I started coaching at NCS in addition to my role with one-on-one basketball at the time, and you know we had great success over the six years I was there. And then the St John's job came open and you know I didn't think twice about it. But a couple of people approached me for, you know, would you be interested? You know I sort of thought to myself no, no, no, I'm just doing this for fun, I don't want to get too deep into the coaching track, and St John's level is way higher above what National Cathedral was at the time. But it was also coincided with the exact time that I had left one-on-one basketball and started hoop head. And after thinking about it a little bit, I thought, man, this could be a really, really good booster for not only my coaching career but also reputation wise, as I tried to build this company and business, had the opportunity to experience and make relationships with hundreds of great, great athletes, parents, families.
Speaker 2:It's just really been. It's been a special run. We've had multiple seasons where we finished in the top five in the country. We've, you know, we've won the toughest league in the country, the Washington Catholic Athletic Association or conference. I should say We've won that eight times. We've won the DC City title eight times. We've put 40, 45 student-athletes into Division I programs. I feel very blessed about the opportunities I've had, the people and the kids that I've had a chance to be with and be around and coach.
Speaker 1:So tell me what are your thoughts, if there are any differences? And if there are, what are they? The differences between coaching boys versus girls teams?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a great question and that's a deep one. I could probably write a book about it. I just think that it's a very it's a little bit of a different game because you know the girls are not going to be playing above the rim the way the boys are. So what does that mean? Well, it's just athleticism dunking and playing up over the rim and you know, for the most part, you know girls and some women in the WNBA are able to do that, but for the most part it's a below the rim game and at the high school level you just have to focus on different skill sets and really, you know, train to be the most fundamentally based you can be and the boys can kind of mask some mistakes by just sheer athletic prowess. Not that the girls don't have the same athletic prowess, because they do.
Speaker 2:I mean I actually find the girls game to be as entertaining, if not more entertaining, because it's a pure form of the game. But you know. So you just focus on, you know, a little bit of different stuff. You understand you don't want to waste your time on things that are maybe above the level of athleticism or above the rim that you would with the boys, and I think that's been a big secret to some of our success is making sure that we're we're working on the things that are applicable to our game and at the high school level, and of course you get to the college level and then onto the pros. It ratchets up in all realms, but at the high school level just creating a real solid, fundamental base, understanding the nature of the game of basketball versus just the X and O's of basketball, and so we spent a lot of time on that stuff and I think that's been a big key to some of our success.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of that, and so you're saying that the girls are kind of and that makes a lot of sense once you're explaining it kind of under the rim, above the rim. So when do you think it's the appropriate age to then separate the girls and boys in the game? Because I know when they're younger, right like soccer, they'll play like co-ed and they'll play co-ed sports. So when do you think it's appropriate?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. I would say keeping the boys and the girls together up till probably 10, maybe 11 years old. And at that point, as I think about our basketball camps, for example, like we run co-ed camps all the time up to about 10, 11 years old, I think in general they probably separate the boys and the girls for official leagues that the county or the city may be offering, probably younger than that, but I think they can all kind of play together until probably 10, 11 years old.
Speaker 1:That makes sense, like right around, like once puberty starts to hit, like within those years, makes sense. Yeah, so let's go back. So when we were first talking, I mentioned that you mentioned when you were growing up you did a different sport for each season. And this is what kind of got me thinking about youth sports is when I had my oldest son and he was in hockey when he was like six he's almost nine now but and they asked us, they said, oh, do you want him to try out for like some sort of team? And I was really confused. I was like, what are you talking about? He's six. And they were like, no, it's like a year round body six. And they were like, no, it's like a year round.
Speaker 1:And I was like, well, why would he want to play year round? This is a winter sport. He has this baseball, he has flag football or whatever he wants to play in the fall. So what are your thoughts about? And I've noticed this. So, for instance, when I was growing up to now that when I was growing up, everybody did the same as you and did different sports throughout the year. Why do you think that now that has changed and when do you think it is why, and what are your thoughts on it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I hate to start the answer to this question with potentially a negative thought, but it starts with money, and these sports and these youth programs have become very, very big business, whether it's hockey or basketball or whatever it has been. So I think that there's some of that driving the year-round stuff and to get kids into these programs and these travel programs and they're selling that this is going to be elite and we're going to develop you, and I think that there's an attractiveness to that. And then the thought that my son or my daughter, you know, has a chance to maybe, if they specialize in this sport and can get a college scholarship and go play in a college and maybe even beyond. You know, I think that that's a lot of the driving force behind the year-round singularity of sport. But I mean, obviously there's also there's a desire and a need for getting kids into the highest level of competition that they can get.
Speaker 2:And you know, it's just I don't know what changed, to be honest, jamie. I don't know when it changed into this, but it just became prevalent and now it's really pervasive across all the sports, I mean, whether it's cheerleading, okay, or whether it's, you know, like you said, hockey. My nieces and nephews play hockey. It's year round. You know basketball is most certainly year round and you know parents are driving all over the city and going 45 minutes to practices and two to three days a week and spending three out of every four weekends and out of town at tournaments and in hotels and having to eat out and it's just big business.
Speaker 1:So do you think that there is an issue with overscheduling a child and burning out on the sport? I personally, like some people in my family and I know some friends and their kids, were doing year round for so long and some of the families that you mentioned, and it seems that the kids got burned out pretty easily. Like around late high school they were really done with that particular sport. And then also on top of that, you had mentioned when you grew up that you used to play a lot of pickup games. I don't see kids. We live apart, like as in our backyard, and I never really see that happening. Do you think that there's a downside and if so, what, to kids not just getting together and playing their own games that aren't scheduled or managed by adults?
Speaker 2:I mean you're hitting the points right on. There were multiple questions there, but that's okay, no, that's okay.
Speaker 2:I completely agree that the playground as a place where the kids in the neighborhood go to get together and make up their own games is a lost. It's not something that happens very often anymore and you know you can drive by some of the courts I grew up playing on where you just knew if you showed up at 3 o'clock on a Wednesday there was going to be a bunch of people there and you just jump in and you play a game and sadly, I think that that has really hurt the game a lot. I mean, I can just think about our own team. You know some of the just natural instincts that you learn growing up about how to, how to just call your own fouls and how to play the game without any instruction, without any adults looking around, and as really it has stunted the growth of just in my particular expertise, which is basketball, you can see it.
Speaker 2:It's very clear and you know it is a scenario whether it's parents' fear of safety or whether it's just the society that we're in, that everything that kids do in today's world seem to be run and orchestrated by adults. So there's very little just freedom and flexibility for kids to just be on their own, just freedom and flexibility for kids to just be on their own and create their own. For me, I just think the learning lessons that come with being forced to learn the rules of a playground, to deal with confrontation, to deal with adversity, to you know, without adults orchestrating and managing and overseeing it's a lost art for our kids. And you know, I don't know if it's going to ever go back, but there definitely was a shift and again I couldn't pinpoint what year or what decade even it was, but there's definitely a shift where everything is structured and organized and very little do you see kids just being out on their own and having to come up with their own rules or their own guidelines, orchestrate and organize themselves and just play the game.
Speaker 1:Do you think if kids were to play at more pickup games and go to the park and find their friends, that would actually help and improve that, improve their skills when they go to play on a team.
Speaker 2:A thousand percent and I'll give you a little side, like this spring. You know, as we reflected on our season, that we just had. We had a great season but we didn't win championships this year, which is fine. But one of the things that we are doing at St John's or planning on doing at St John's is we're going to orchestrate a three-on-three league where we're going to put all the girls that are in the program and there's, you know, 20, 25 girls total, top to bottom. We're going to make the teams and then we're just going to say, every Tuesday and Thursday, or Wednesday and Friday, whatever it is, you guys got to play two games of three-on-three on your own. We're not coaching.
Speaker 2:We felt that our team and our kids, more than any training on dribbling and shooting and they just need to play and they need to play and figure some things out on their own. We're going to try to implement that this spring and summer, you know, just as a growth opportunity for their just basic instincts on the court, because I do think that, as we're discussing, this is an issue where they're always just following directions Okay, you do this. And then they say, okay, great. Okay, you do this. And then they say, okay, great, I'll go do this, I'll dribble around these cones, because you told me to dribble around these cones, but where's the why and where's the how? Does this apply in a real game? And you know, I just think that's a lost, and I can really only speak about basketball, but I just think that's lost in sports in today's society.
Speaker 1:So I want to go back a little bit to the question I had before. So I want to know your thoughts on the burnout of kids. Do you see that a lot? When one child plays one sport for such a long time, year in, year out, do you see that burnout happen?
Speaker 2:I do, 100%. I do and I tell all of my parents and my kids is I'm very cognizant of the burnout, because you can't really say, oh, johnny is an eight burnout and Mikey is a four burnout. You can't really gauge what a burnout is. So getting some space and getting some time away, and again. So let's just take my kids, for example. We start September 5th. We have a full fall program of on-court yoga, lifting right. Then our season starts November 8th. We play 35 games and it ends March 3rd or 2nd, whatever the first Sunday in March is right. So that's a six-month grind right.
Speaker 2:And so I always tell all of our kids like it's time three weeks off, right, just you got to get away from basketball, you got to let your brain and your mind and your body sort of heal and just take a break. The problem is is that AAU tryouts start March 4th. The problem is is that AAU tryouts start March 4th. So as much as they want to hear my advice, they're finishing this grind with me on March 2nd or March 3rd and they're going to tryouts on March 4th for an entire another six-month season. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:It's just a lot. Maybe not six months, but you're talking about, you know, april may, june and july another four months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wanted to ask you a little bit about so. I remember with my son we had him in hockey. We started him early in skating and you know he just said the winner and then he'll play. He used to play lacrosse but now he's baseball. But people when he first started he was little coach said he's really really good at. When he first started he was little Coach said he's really really good at lacrosse. I could tell who our hockey players are when they get on the lacrosse field. So do you think that playing multiple sports actually will help them? So, for instance, if they really want to be like a baseball player, sometimes playing basketball in the winter month might actually help their baseball game.
Speaker 2:I mean I just emphatically say 100%, yes, okay, I mean, you look at it. There's so many cross skills, muscle developments. You know you're going to use different types of movements with. You're going to be on the cross field or the football field or the volleyball court or ice hockey, like you said, and there's so many great skill development pieces from playing all the sports. It all will always apply to whatever your main sport is.
Speaker 2:And so to hear that hockey players are really good lacrosse players, well, of course they are. And honestly, basketball and lacrosse they're very, very similar sports in concept and strategy. And just think about different type of muscle groups that you're going to use. You know the types of muscle groups that you're going to use to play football as opposed to playing basketball. I think some of this specialization where you're only developing the muscle groups again, I'm not a doctor, this is just from my observations over here watching kids but I feel like it could potentially lead to injury because you're just constantly training and stretching and producing just whatever those muscle groups are for that particular sport, whereas if you're spending three months in a different sport you're developing some balance across your physiology. I think the singularity in sport has increased. I'm sure there are studies and I'm sure we could do some research and studies on it. I know I read a study once that the NBA put out that they did not recommend kids zero in on just basketball until they were 15 or 16 years old.
Speaker 1:You know. It's interesting that you mentioned that, because I've interviewed two NFL players. One is retired and one, I believe Justin Pugh. I think he still is in the game and plays for the Giants. But when I was talking to Justin, he mentioned to me which I thought was really interesting. He said I didn't even step onto the football field. I believe he was either 12 or 13. He played hockey and other sports, which I thought was really interesting. And the other NFL player that I interviewed as well, he also didn't specialize until later, like you were saying yeah, so I want your opinion. When it comes to travel sports A, are they necessary for your child to play? So, travel sports A are they necessary for your child to play? And B, if you think that they are beneficial, what age do you think it is appropriate for them to start thinking about it?
Speaker 2:and playing it Sure. Well, that's a great question. Is travel sports necessary? It has become necessary. It's just a part of the fabric of youth sports now. So people are going to play it, they're going to sign up, they're going to feel like, if they don't, they're falling behind the Joneses. Now there's a whole other side part to this, which is college exposure. You know so, once you get into the high school ranks, you know, when you're doing all this travel, all this travel play, you're getting opportunities to play in front of college coaches and that's all the sports. So in that regard it's it's a very necessary part of youth sports. It's a little different for us in st john's because when the college coaches are coming into the dmv area, they they're going to the top five or six schools here and they know who all of our players are. So they get our kids, get a lot of exposure by playing for a team like St John's, Whereas, you know, if you're a kid that plays in the public school in Howard County, for example, right, it's not going to get those opportunities. Then the travel piece becomes very important in terms of getting that college exposure. So it is a necessary piece of the pie, the two, high school and travel can coexist, Although in some sports they do.
Speaker 2:Like soccer, I think there's a lot of conflict. I mean, if we're up to me, not until seventh or eighth grade it would be necessary. I mean, do I need to take my fourth grader to Spooky Nook three out of every four weekends? And people do it. But I think that you know if you're getting serious about your sport, you know by the time you get to seventh, eighth grade, that's probably the very, to me, the earliest that you really want to invest so much time, so much money, so much exhaustion, so much risk of burnout.
Speaker 2:You know, if you're starting this stuff in third and fourth grade, I mean, the truth of the matter is third and fourth graders are doing it, Fifth graders and sixth graders are doing it, so it's got huge participation. But when I talk to parents and they ask my advice, you know if you could find a local club where you're. You know it's around the corner at your YMCA where the practices are and you're playing in a local league, Okay, that's where the practices are and you're playing in a local league Okay, that's one thing. But to take your eight nine-year-old and fly all over this country and drive 45 minutes to practices three days a week. It just seems too much. They don't even know what they want to do yet they should be playing, experiencing multiple level sports and seeing what their real, true niche is.
Speaker 1:And so tell me if you think this is true. I've talked to a lot of several different people about this, but what their experiences and what their thoughts are on it is that you really don't know where your child's going to land until they hit puberty. So when you're saying like that, eighth grade, seventh grade, when they're going through that, that's when you're really going to see where they're strong in a certain sport, because they may be really really good when they're nine or eight years old. But then when they hit puberty, you don't, you know, some kids might skyrocket up a foot, you know, and you just you don't really know until that happens, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:100% accurate. My son, for example, was always the best player on all of his teams and he ended up still having a really great career in both football and basketball, but he only ended up being 5'9", so that exact fact sort of hit him. I'll tell you an interesting story. We hosted a seventh, eighth grade elite event for an Under Armour Invitational, like top 40 players on the East coast, yeah. So we hosted this at at St John's and you know you got seventh and eighth graders and these guys all look like they're on on track for the NBA, literally. I mean, you know dunking and just so.
Speaker 2:I went to my friend who was the event organizer and I was like how many of these kids are NBA potential? He was like none of them. None of them. He was like you have no idea what any of these kids are going to be until they're 16. Like they haven't even gone through it. So it's exactly what you just said, like you just have no idea you could have, you know, a kid that, like you said it is, you know, behind the eight ball and then goes through puberty, gets bigger, stronger, develops, and we've seen many internet star nine and 10 year old basketball players that don't end up amounting to anything on any kind of a bigger scale. So it's 100%. It's just kids. Until they get to 15, 16 years old, it's just kids running around with a ball.
Speaker 1:All right. So, oh my gosh, we've already been talking 30 minutes. We have so much more to get to. So I'm going to try to get through everything, because I want to talk about Hoop Ed 2 and all the great stuff that you're doing there, and then, of course, the charity that you chose.
Speaker 1:But I have to ask you this question, and this is actually when I really started thinking about this, and this is before I had my two kids, but I just met Jerry, my husband, and so his son, zach, my stepson Jerry was the coach for his soccer team. And I'm sitting and I'm watching the soccer team and I look over and it's I mean, it's sunny, it's fine, or you know, just a regular day and I see one mom like come over to the sun and like hold an umbrella under him and I was like what is going on? So then I had to ask Jerry and I was like what is happening over there? And he's like I can't talk about this. And then so do you think that parents are getting a little bit too involved within the game?
Speaker 2:If I say yes in sports, then I have to say yes in parenting, because that's just the way society has gone and you know, you can use all your catchphrases of you know lawnmower mom or dad or whatever, you know helicopter parents. That's just the nature of where society has gone and developed and parents are going to want to coddle their kids and protect them and then they're also going to get too much. They're going to get too far involved, I mean, and too vested.
Speaker 1:So do you think that that inhibits their growth within sports? And then also, on top of that, I want to know your opinion on, say, the other side, where you see a lot of parents that are maybe on the sidelines just screaming at their kids the whole time. Is that something that you think hinders or helps or is helpful for the child?
Speaker 2:Wow, I can tell you in my experience, a good percentage of the kids that end up playing all the way through at St John's wouldn't be playing if it weren't for their parents, if they didn't feel like they were letting their parents down. And it's a sad thing to watch and you can tell with certain kids that they're getting a lot of pressure at home and they have parents that are really, really tough on them. And it's just a reality. It's an unfortunate reality that exists. It's hard to watch and, in my experience as a high school coach, when you tap into that a new kid and they actually start to admit that that's happening, it's painful, right. It is very much a hindrance. In my opinion.
Speaker 2:I've had an interesting experience because, like you, my son was a pretty elite level athlete as a young kid and I was a pretty high level coach, and still am, and so I really worked very hard, very, very hard as a parent and a coach, to not put that pressure on my son. You know, to be there for him when he wanted me to be there for him and to leave him alone when he needed to be left alone and not be that sort of you know that overbearing coach parent and I hope I, you know the dividends won't be told until 10, 15, 20 years from now. You know what I'm saying. But you know that overbearing coach parent and I hope I, you know the dividends won't be told until 10, 15, 20 years from now. You know what I'm saying. But you know, I hope I did a decent job of it, because but I was I was definitely very aware of not wanting to be that screamer and yeller on the side and put that pressure and it's his journey, man, it's not, it's not my journey, it's his journey, it's his world. And you know, if you wanted me to go out and shoot with him, I would go any, I'd go 24 hours a day, but I wasn't going to be like we got to go out and work out, we got to go do this and do that.
Speaker 2:And unfortunately, I do think that there are a lot of parents that are very, very tough on their kids and they put a lot of pressure and it it does increase burnout and you know I've had players that, unbelievably, when their parents don't come to the game, they play way better, believe it or not. So I can think of examples right off the top of my head where that was the case. So it does happen, and I don't mean to indict parents Everybody loves their children but it's just. Sports are that kind of a thing and parents get so vested into it, whether it's because of the time, the money, but it's their child. They want to see them successful. It's just where it's at.
Speaker 1:What would your advice be? Your number one suggestion to parents to help your child while they're playing sports.
Speaker 2:The greatest cheerleader you could ever be Sit in the stands and cheer and support, Get them what they need, Make sure they have their equipment, their shoes, their stuff, Drive them to the practices. My old athletic director said he always wanted to write a book called the Car Ride Home, which was in some kids it's like the worst part of the day every day is the car ride home, you know, because they get in the car from the game and the parents just start talking, start talking, start talking. Like I never talked to my kid about the game after his game, unless he wants to talk about it. You know so. But I think that that be a cheerleader, support him or her or her if they want, if they ask you for your input, you give it.
Speaker 2:I think it's just a really important teaching lesson for parents with kids in sports, particularly at elite levels, where all the stakes are higher and higher and higher. I mean, you know, if you get a college scholarship as a female basketball player, that's $300,000. You know that's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of pressure, it's a lot of reward. If they're not allowed to grow and not get burnt out on it, then those opportunities just go away anyway.
Speaker 2:We're running out of time here, but I want to talk about HoopBed. So tell us a little bit about that Great Well, hoopbed, you know I founded in 2007 and you know it was based on trying to provide opportunities for families on school days off. So parent-teacher conference days, professional days, holidays, you know Veterans Day, winter break, spring break, you know, just as an opportunity where, you know, working parents don't necessarily have those days off but the kids are out of school. So we started that as sort of the baseline of what the company exists to provide. And then those are sort of need-based programs. We're putting them through a great full day of sports. It's basically like a recess camp, whether it's just basketball or our all sports and games model.
Speaker 2:And then we then tried to compete in the summer camp market, which is obviously way more competitive because there's a thousand camps. So those are more choice-based opportunities and fortunately, over these 18 years we've been successful and we've now expanded out into. So we have a basketball version, we have a kind of a playground sports and games version, but now we're we offer non-sports related activities like art and science and cooking and Spanish immersion camps. And you know we've just kind of turned this thing into a year round business where you know we're providing safe and fun and affordable and fun and affordable and neighborhood where kids can get on their bike.
Speaker 2:And it's kind of the whole philosophy of what I started this conversation, jamie, is, if you read the write-up about all sports and games, remember the old days right, where you just went to the park and played all day and we were trying to recreate that, obviously with supervision and the counselors and coaches there, but trying to recreate that kind of an experience where they may play some capture the flag or kick the can or their dodge ball or some pickup basketball or you know, and they'll just have different things and you'll meet friends and you're just at the park all day. And so we've done that and we've expanded it a whole bunch of different versions of camp programs and year-round programming. And this coming Thursday and Friday, dcps is out of school, for I think one's a professional day, I think one's a parent-teacher conference, and so we got four or five locations all throughout the city and parents will drop their kid off and go to work and we'll keep them out to send them home tired, sweaty and dirty and that's a dream for a parent, a dream.
Speaker 2:It's been a good run.
Speaker 1:That sounds like the absolute, perfect, perfect thing for your child to do on a day off. I love it. I love the concept that you kind of put into effective. It's like the olden days and they're at a park and they're just playing with their friends. I love that.
Speaker 2:The opening line of the description is remember the good old days. I love that.
Speaker 1:And then it goes on and describes what the can't day looks like. All right, so tell me if I was interested. I'm listening to this. I'm a parent. How do I get? How do I get in contact with you?
Speaker 2:Great. So the website's wwwhoopeducationcom, hooped being sort of the smaller version of that hoopeducationcom, and you can go on there If you subscribe to our newsletter. We send out stuff almost not every day but two or three times a week about our upcoming programs. You can email me directly at Jonathan at hoopeducationcom that's J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N at HoopEducationcom or info at HoopEducationcom, and just see where we got going and we got exciting, exciting showcase of summer camps. We have locations all throughout the DC Maryland area. So you know we're not like a destination camp where people are going to drive or get bus to. We're in the neighborhood, man, that's. The whole point is to be in the neighborhood. We're affordable and maybe parents on Sunday night who didn't have a camp plan for their kid that week can say, hey, you know what? We got a lot of work to do this week. We can put Alice into bed. It's right around the corner, it's affordable and that's kind of been where we've created our little niche.
Speaker 1:Perfect, we'll have all of that in the show notes, so if you missed any of that, just scroll down and you'll see all the information on how. Didn't touch with John. So for as a thank you, truman Charities we donate to a charity on your behalf and so you're able to choose that charity. The charity that you chose was Whatever we Imagine Foundation, so tell me why that charity is meaningful to you. Fantastic, so Whatever we Imagine Foundation, so tell me why that charity is meaningful to you.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. So Whatever we Imagine is a foundation that provides what's called GAP tuition assistance to striving athletes, artists, musicians, kids that bring a certain skill that they're passionate about. You can apply to a private school and they're gonna give you tuition assistance, but in most cases it's not really. It often doesn't actually fulfill the real need behind what a parent or a family needs to make this private school or this opportunity where they can get specialization and training and whether it be sport, music, art, whatever factors they are in. So you can apply to whatever we imagine and, if you're selected, that they provide that gap tuition assistance to make those dreams come true. So they have supported several of my athletes over the years and made St John's actually be a possibility for them when otherwise it wouldn't. I'm extremely grateful to whatever we imagine and they continue to support our athletes, and so that's the reason I chose that.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, we'll also have that down in the show notes so everybody can take a look at that, and if you are feeling inclined, please donate to that organization as well. So, john, you know, before I let you go, is there anything that we haven't covered that you think someone should know?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's been pretty, pretty extensive. I think it's been pretty, pretty extensive. I think it's an amazing topic and I think that there's a lot of education that can be out there to help. I mean, listen, this is, you know, this is all about raising our kids and our youth to be able to be successful in an ever-changing and seemingly more difficult world that we're all facing.
Speaker 2:And and sports man, sports can go a long way to teach a lot of the lessons. You know they say the life lessons, but I can remember taking my bike to the basketball court and no adults, and having to navigate who I was going to play with and can I get on your team, can I play after you? And then having to earn your way on the court. And those are things that are just, you know, they're irreplaceable and so, but they can also be it can also be negative if it's not handling handled properly, you know. So I don't know. I think it's a great topic. I'd love to continue the conversation. I'm in. Sports have given me everything I have in my, in my life, you know, from my business to my passion, to my children, everything. So I love the topic. I appreciate you having me on and and getting a chance to flush some of this stuff out.
Speaker 1:I know. Thank you so much for coming on. I've been so interested in having some professional coach come on and talk more extensively about some things that I've just been seeing and reading about and just kind of noticing throughout my time with my kids, throughout sports, and there's just so many benefits of sports, and so I agree with you, it is really great to see all the great things that they're learning from playing sports. So I want to thank you again for coming on. And then I want to thank everybody for tuning in to another episode of the Truman Charities Podcast. I'm so glad I finally spoke with someone who knows all this information about youth sports. I feel like since becoming a parent, I've just been so confused about what's best for your kid, what should we be doing as parents? So I'm glad I had this conversation with Coach John and I feel like I could have talked to him for hours and hours. There's just so much to talk about. So I hope you really enjoyed this podcast.
Speaker 1:Again, if you enjoyed it, please rate and review this podcast. It means so much and I read all of the reviews, so please make sure to write a short one for us and if you'd like to follow us. You can follow us on Instagram at Jamie underscore, truman Charities. Facebook at Truman Charities. Linkedin, you can follow me, jamie Truman, and so you don't miss any of our future events. Go to TrumanCharitiescom. Sign up for our newsletter so you will get notifications about our upcoming charity events and our Bethesda's Best Happy Hour. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of the Truman Charities Podcast. Until next time.
