What happens when faith collides with youth sports? How can we ensure that our children are not only developing their physical abilities, but also their spiritual ones? As a former college athlete and now a coach, I've had to wrestle with these questions and many more. Join me in this episode as we examine the world of fall baseball, club sports, and the far-reaching effects they can have on our children.
We kick off the episode reminiscing about the hilarious Vintage Jesus videos from our college days, before diving into a more serious discussion about the impact injuries can have on a team dynamic. We debate the potential pitfalls of false confidence gained from competing in lesser leagues, and the importance of focusing on development rather than winning. The conversation takes a critical turn as we scrutinize the integrity of club sports, discussing the need for intentionality when creating a club or organization, and the necessity of being mindful of our surroundings.
As we venture into the intersection of faith and sports, we reflect on the potential repercussions of missing church services in pursuit of a sporting career and how sports can also serve as a form of worship. We stress the need for courage in sports ministry and discuss how we can challenge the status quo in club sports and initiate a positive shift. Are you ready to challenge the narrative with us? Tune in and let's change the world of youth sports together.
What happens when faith collides with youth sports? How can we ensure that our children are not only developing their physical abilities, but also their spiritual ones? As a former college athlete and now a coach, I've had to wrestle with these questions and many more. Join me in this episode as we examine the world of fall baseball, club sports, and the far-reaching effects they can have on our children.
We kick off the episode reminiscing about the hilarious Vintage Jesus videos from our college days, before diving into a more serious discussion about the impact injuries can have on a team dynamic. We debate the potential pitfalls of false confidence gained from competing in lesser leagues, and the importance of focusing on development rather than winning. The conversation takes a critical turn as we scrutinize the integrity of club sports, discussing the need for intentionality when creating a club or organization, and the necessity of being mindful of our surroundings.
As we venture into the intersection of faith and sports, we reflect on the potential repercussions of missing church services in pursuit of a sporting career and how sports can also serve as a form of worship. We stress the need for courage in sports ministry and discuss how we can challenge the status quo in club sports and initiate a positive shift. Are you ready to challenge the narrative with us? Tune in and let's change the world of youth sports together.
Hello and welcome to the Kingdom coaching podcast, where we discuss the world of club sports through the lens of Christ. I am your host, micah B. Hey, hey, hey, what's going on everybody? Thank you again for tuning in to the Kingdom coaching podcast. I'm sitting here with the one, the only, brandon Kenny. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:I had to do you right this time, I like that, my God, is that real good?
Speaker 1:And I found that I'm like that is.
Speaker 2:That is really I like that.
Speaker 1:That's a good one, that's a fun one, for sure, so, yeah, so this is going to be the first episode of kind of something new we're going to do here, where it's just going to be like once a month, kind of a lighthearted, kind of like a spin off of what we're normally doing. I want to be kind of just kind of topical. I want to have some fun with it. And there is this. It was driving in this morning and I was thinking about my mind's so weird, brandon. It just rabbit trails and just sees something, and I correlated. I think it's something real funny. And there were these videos that we used to watch in college and they were called vintage Jesus. Have you heard of these? Yeah, all right, all right. So I'm going to show you this video.
Speaker 3:Yeah, please, so okay here.
Speaker 1:Let me we spend your mic around here so I can get that on the computer so that people can hear it, and I'll put the link in the in the description here. But this is ooh, I don't want to break that here. Come right here real quick. It's like a three minute video, so you can. You can have a lot of fun just by listening to it, but it's it's a parody of the old like Jesus video.
Speaker 3:Here are the rules. Rule number one spend all of your free time in church. Rule number two you're not allowed to have any fun unless you're laughing at how dumb the devil is. Rule number three wear t-shirts with my face on it, always, smile and act happy and finally, wear a stylish beard like mine. I knew it, jesus. No one told me about this meeting and my stressor said you said I could be a Christian if I gave up all my fun and grew this beard. Look at my beard. Well, I've heard that you missed the prayer meeting for a silly game, but I had tickets to the Super Bowl. Jesus, it was incredible.
Speaker 3:The easier life throw down, kick the field, throw the rest of your hands, be quiet. Football, no, I love football. Yeah, I can't believe. My dad showed up. How embarrassing, oh crap, my fake beard fell off. They're totally going to kick me out. Wait, what's he saying? We're all going to play football or something. Yeah, football, yeah, all right, stop, stop crying, rise. And so funny how, mr Burn all of your footballs and have our, mr Trichigan.
Speaker 1:Promise. Yeah, oh boy, yeah. So there you have it. Folks, I mean, if you're out there and you're wondering what it means to go, you know what it means to get salvation. There it is. I mean, burn your footballs, right. So there's like four or five of those branded, so I want to break each one of those down each month. So it was, oh, it was, it was, it was so great in college. We, we came across those videos and the college I was, I was at was a Bible college and the professors were just like you can't watch that. That's blasphemous. We'd be watching that in class and like I was like get out of here bro. Like yeah, yeah, no fun. No, exactly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:They kept being. They kept asking like just just stupid questions and I was constantly like that's a clown question, bro.
Speaker 2:That's a clown question bro.
Speaker 1:That's a clown question, bro Gosh, I love Bryce Harper, I love it. But yeah, they were constantly on our backs about it, but we found those and and I had a lot of free time in college and. I'm, you know, really good at throwing my voice, and so I was constantly just like memorizing these and just making up the different voices and just, oh, it was just.
Speaker 2:That's funny man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah it's it's fun, you know it's. It's not bad. Yeah, it's just yeah. You got to find ways to have fun.
Speaker 2:I agree, I completely agree with that man.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so for those of you listening, hopefully it was funny, but I'll put the link to that video in the in the comments so you can watch it and and enjoy it. But yeah, there's, there's four or five others that will will watch, each like one a month, and we'll just kind of break it down a little bit and just kind of have some fun. So, but yeah, so, it's, it's it's been a few weeks, yeah. So yeah, man, football season is concluded.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, last tournament was in Des Moines last weekend.
Speaker 1:Okay, so so tough one Feel pretty good right now, Like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Outside of small injuries that we had from a couple of our main guys, super tough. It's like every year we go down there, man, we always get our top guys are just injured, man, either down there or the game right before we head down there. So it's super tough, but you know, the kids have fun. It was super, super, super, super cold, but it really builds that what I want to call that mental toughness too as well, because every other year has been like decent weather than bad weather, decent weather than bad weather. So so I mean the biggest thing is right the kids having fun, the parents having that time to spend with each other and the hotel just hanging out by now. Then all the coaches get their gifts from the the players throughout the year. So I got a lot of bags of candy and different things like that. So it was super fun, man, super fun.
Speaker 1:No, that's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I bet it's. I mean it's, it's one of those things, because I'm the same way with baseball. When baseball is over, it's kind of like a relief. Yeah, at the same time it's just kind of like it's it's like a sad relief.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Man, it's over, but at the same time, your body's like it's. It's a good thing, yeah, cause there's there's only so much your body can do, so it just you need breaks, your body needs time off, and you know athletes, coaches, you know owners of it.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, it's just, it's, it's a lot, it's a lot. And then equipment check in and all that that's coming up. It's like oh man, oh man, oh man yeah.
Speaker 3:But it comes with it. You said it comes with it, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can't be in that if you don't expect to do those things that are just and in in it. I won't even call it tough. Yeah, a tedious if you want to call it, but that's what comes with the territory. Yeah, cleaning helmets, making sure that the good, making sure the pants are good, it's like it sort of comes with it.
Speaker 1:It just comes with it. Yeah, no, I get that. It was funny. I was talking to a parent the other day and I don't know how your name, your name came up for some reason, like I was talking about talking about you, talking about alliance. Yeah, and they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we, we, one or two of his sons go through it. Yeah, and he's like, yeah, it's so cheap. And I'm just like, yeah, like like I know it's, it's. It's a shock in the club world that you can have competition, you can have excellence, without having, you know, a dollar sign, dollar sign dollar sign dollar sign yeah, there's, there's a balance.
Speaker 1:And you know it was just funny. His reaction he was like it was so cheap. And I'm just like, well it's, it's that way for a reason. Like Brandon's a good dude, he's not trying to get rich off of kids development, and it's funny because I was having a conversation with my wife this weekend about youth sports. Obviously I mean it. Just it takes up my entire life Right.
Speaker 2:It's just all my conversations at home you see videos of your little man, dude. He looks good. Oh, dude, he looks very good. Thanks, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, but so we're. So we're having a conversation and it's again going back to how many businesses, how many clubs, how many trainers, how many organizations, all these things exist and people are getting so rich off it right. And I told my wife's like when you, when you break it down, that you are making a good living off youth sports, that should be a humbling, humbling thought. 100% You're making money off kids. I mean, they're not paying you off.
Speaker 2:Of course, but but still yeah.
Speaker 1:And so there's. There's that sense of responsibility and duty. You know that some people take very seriously, like yourself. You know where it's just like hey, I need to keep the lights onto my house. Yeah, I need to feed my family. Yeah, we need to keep our doors open. You know all these things, but I don't need to be driving around, bougie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't need to be. I love that, like I love that I love it.
Speaker 1:I don't need to be bougie at all.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, when I said that out loud to my wife, I was like I wonder how often people think about that, the severity you know of they're making. You know great living. Some of these guys, I mean multi, multi million millionaires. I mean they got multiple houses, multiple cars and you know Carpe diem, you know manifest destiny, all that stuff's good, but you're making money off kids and again, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but like it should be. You know, check yourself in the mirror and you know at at what point are you in it for yourself more than you are for the kids. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you could make that argument for for a lot of organizations, a lot of trainers. You know it's just. You know it's one of those things. You know, and I was, my son and I, we didn't do any fall baseball. You know this is. This is definitely going to offend some people, but I'm sorry, but but I really don't care. I think you know fall baseball at his age is absolutely ridiculous. I do, I think it's. I think. I think it's ridiculous, I think it's a it's, it's a money grab, even more so than spring and summer baseball.
Speaker 2:Especially being in Nebraska. Yes, with it not being, you know what I mean, you just endure and you just work around that stuff and it's like then it takes precedent over the sports that are in season, right, basketball, um, and different football and different things like that, and it's just like, dude, we just got through baseball in the spring.
Speaker 1:And and and again, like he's a teaster own.
Speaker 2:Like, if you love baseball, awesome, but like this year round stuff and this is like well, and then the the reality too, especially at this age.
Speaker 1:Because I would say, you know, and I've talked to I'm not going to name drop but several of my friends that have played pro ball and they would say the same thing that fall baseball is, is is nonsense up until a certain age. Because, yes, there's a certain point where it's about showcase teams and you know furthering, you know that kind of stuff. So that's, that's fine.
Speaker 2:But like at nine, 10, 11, like that's kind of crazy, and you know.
Speaker 1:the other thing to consider too is the competition is not as good. So they were out there going to Kansas city, going to all these these tournaments, and they're like getting all this, you know, false confidence, quite frankly, because you do have a lot of those multi sport athletes that they're missing tournaments.
Speaker 1:I mean my, my son.
Speaker 1:So we we didn't play football, you know, because he pitches and he, his, his main spot is, is a catcher, and so a lot of wear and tear on his body, a lot of wear and tear on his arm, and I don't even let him work on pitching until like December or January.
Speaker 1:I was like, dude, just rest. You can, you can work on hitting, you can work on your mechanics, you can grind, you can work out, you can work on your stamina, your cardio, all those different things which are going to help put you on the line and you're going to help put you above the curve anyways, if you want to, but I mean throwing you know, a thousand more baseballs. You know, in the next three months it's going to do nothing for you, except for, I mean you're, you're young, your growth plates are not finished developing yet, your body is still growing and you're just putting that much more wear and tear. And, quite frankly too, a lot of these kids don't have the best mechanics, so they're putting on, you know, the wrong kind of stress On the foundation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yes, they agree with you on that man. That's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so it was. This was so funny so I put that. I put a video of my son on Facebook and I think you saw it, yeah, and so the funny part about it, and I didn't post a big, a big deal about it on Facebook because I didn't want to like make everyone too mad. But like my son, he didn't play any any fall games, right, and depending on the league, it was a thousand dollars for fall baseball and that's just local stuff, brandon, like double headers every weekend here, local, where it's just, you know, keeping the kids fresh. And then they had a couple of different leagues where they would have, I think, six or seven tournaments and that was like $2,500 for like two months. And so my son didn't play.
Speaker 1:His team's got a different understanding. You know a lot of the kids they play basketball, they play football, they, you know, play hockey. So they, you know, they understand they want the kids to be kids at this age and so, like my son's team, they practiced, I think, three times this fall, which was enough. My son, he, you know, definitely was practicing probably eight, 10 hours a week by himself. So he's grinding, he's developing. You know we're still doing stuff with his, his private, his private coaches and stuff, you know.
Speaker 2:Again focusing on that, on the real, real development.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. And he and he subs in for a game and the first, the first, the first, the bad, he gets pegged right in the head and I thought, I thought it was hilarious you know man because the coach came up to me and said, uh, cause, my son, he, he really stays inside the ball.
Speaker 1:He was really aggressive up there and he gave his his elbow guard away recently to a friend who needed a more heated. And so that that's just my son, yeah. And uh, he gave it away to a kid. And uh. So the coach came up to me and he's like, hey does, does he normally wear an elbow guard? And I said I said yeah, but he gave it away. He's like, okay, I notice he stays really inside the ball. I just don't want him to get hit today. And so it was so funny, like first pitch, he just gets, gets just pegged, and uh. So I kind of chuckle and I'm just like it doesn't matter. And so, um, we go through like the first couple innings and then he gets up to bat again and first, first pitch, first pitch swings. I mean the first time he swung on a pitch the whole day and just just demolished it, whoa.
Speaker 1:I mean it just I mean center field, it just, I mean it just was huge. And I just kind of laughed to myself because, at, you know, I'm sitting there looking at all these families that have, you know, spent all the extra money for fall ball and these kids and a lot of the kids on that team kind of they either, like, played with him last year or subbed in last year. And you know, I had a couple of parents come up to us afterwards and it's like like what was that? I'm just like in my mind I just wanted to scream I'm just like you don't need fall ball. You understand, like you, a lot, a lot of your kids, I mean, like you know, my, my son did not hit a home run at all in the regular season.
Speaker 1:He didn't Wow, he takes off a little bit of time, you know, just just grinds, just focus on his development, on his development a little more gets up there first hit and just I mean just crack. You know, and I'm not saying kids can't get better through, you know, through their fall ball, you know seasons, I mean you definitely can. I've seen that. But you know, my, my point is there's so much, so much more I think you can accomplish, I mean without having to fall, fall into the trappings. Yeah, you know, I, I think base. I don't know any other sports do that, brandon, I know. But so baseball does the fall ball.
Speaker 2:Hmm, football doesn't do anything like that, I would say the only thing possibly would be Like seven on seven, okay, and that's that. That's so new too. In a sense Okay, especially to people here in Nebraska, and Omaha Obviously is more Popular on the coast and down south and different things like that. But it's still not a. Like you said, man, it's not a. It definitely does help because it gives you a different perspective of the game. It gives you the more the backhand with DB's and safeties and running up and running routes and different things like that. But again, it's one of those things like if you want the reps, awesome. If not, you still can be. You know, you can still be out there throwing a football and running routes by yourself for right. You know, working little cone drills and different things like that, right. But it still shouldn't be regardless in my opinion. Obviously, you know this is like just a pricing of all that stuff. You know it's just a. I hate to call all this stuff money, money grab.
Speaker 2:It's so funny because I was talking to one of the Youth coach that we were getting ready to possibly play this week after Des Moines and we just both came out with just super bad injuries there, played in a championship game, we came back and it was just like, man, we really want to play it. But yeah, it just doesn't make sense right now. And I was super boned about it because I gave him my word. I told him we were gonna do it, let's do it. But I mean, when I, when he started talking about injuries, I'm like, wow, we on the same page. But as we started to talk more, I was just so encouraged by our conversation because I mean, you know, I mean no disrespect at all when I say this, but I just think it's so it, the the lake has been tainted so bad with so many bad coaches and so many Prideful people and fathers in this game that I just assume all of them are bad. Man, I just like, if I'm not doing it, then I don't trust any of them.
Speaker 2:No, that's fair and and and when I was talking to this man, like it was all going out the window and I'm like dude, you sound like me, like this is so Encouraging to know, like people are being taught this and they understand this and they understand the foundation of this. And it's not just about trying to get some type of money or patting our pockets and doing whatever it may be, but it's just no. What are we wanting to do to serve this young man, this young woman and and whatever sport that she's in, to just show her that more is out there and you don't got to go above and beyond to get it, man, yeah you know what?
Speaker 2:I'm saying so it was. You know, I hate thinking like that about everything body, like that, because people will feel some type of way and I get it like I completely kid, because it's probably a coach out there that think the same about other you.
Speaker 1:So I'm in that you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Until you meet the person, yeah, um, but it's just, it's been discouraged and seeing a lot of this stuff where you just think like what are we doing, man? Yeah, what are we doing.
Speaker 1:No, I know, but it's, it's. It's hard to always see that until you've already crashed, right, yeah, and I feel like that's that's how a lot of these organizations work, and like I have conversations with Individuals that started clubs and they're not no longer running that because it got out of hand, yep, and that's, that's a big, that's a big issue, right. I mean, I think I, I, I want to give the benefit of the doubt to all these people who create clubs that they want to put a quality product on the field, they want to focus on development, they they their hearts in the right place when they start, but then it just, you know, they don't, maybe they don't have the right people around them, they don't have the right people speaking life into them, right, and all of a sudden it just gets away from them. I mean, it happens to Christians too, yeah.
Speaker 1:I've seen that like yes, it's like no fault of their own other than they. You just if you know How's that old saying go, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, man right.
Speaker 1:Man man and, and that's that's kind of what I think about like, you know, you you go into a club season and you, you have two teams one year and then you have, you know, everyone knocking on your door and you potentially have 20 the next, like, if your infrastructure is not set up, if you're, you know, if you don't have enough people in place to help hold that accountable, you know, and if, at what point are you willing to say no to money because that's not a product you want to put on the field, because that's that's where we're at right now with club sports per, you know, compared to where it was 15 years ago, where I hate to say this, but I mean select meant something. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, it's. Select meant something. So different 15, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago than it does now. Come on, man, it's, it's wild.
Speaker 1:And I was having a conversation with who? Was I talking about this? With someone? Um, now, hey, somebody, it doesn't matter. Yeah, but how many kids now and parents believe that their kids are involved in a select sport, that they're a select athlete, that they, they're competing, you know in their division, that they and if and if they're successful in their division they are, they're the best of all worlds. Yeah, and again it kind of goes back to a feeding into that identity, in, in, I don't want to say in a worse way, but almost in a worse way. Yeah, it's bad enough to put your faith in your identity and anything other than Than Jesus. Anything man-made will fail you absolutely. But I mean that's a false, and even more like false, sense of identity where you know what I mean. Like there's, you know, you take two athletes, one person, just God-given abilities you know, like. You know, like yourself, right? Yeah, god-given abilities that you know, and your identity was, was, football.
Speaker 1:Yes, and everything and then let's say you had someone like me who I loved football but I didn't have the same abilities, that it wasn't my identity. But let's play and say it was. And then I go to high school and I'm just like why am I not being recruited? I was like I was the top player in my area right, and it's like it's almost worse, I feel.
Speaker 1:I feel almost worse for those kids, you know, and I.
Speaker 1:There's a greater set, the responsibility, I think, for those parents that they're not wanting that, they're not telling their kids and they're probably not telling them because they don't want to hurt their feelings. Right, I think their hearts are in the right place, but at a certain point they're gonna see that and I've noticed it because, like so, my son, he's, he's a cage rat, so there's, there's a batting cage facility just up the way here, really great place, and so my son, he'll kill this, live there, mm-hmm. And he's got a. He's just a solid little athlete. He just he goes up there and grinds and he'll be in one of the cages where it'll pitch up to 80 miles an hour Just to kind of, you know, help his time, you know, and so just kind of challenge him a bit. And he's up there and he's hitting, he's doing really well and he's swinging, he just got really good mechanics.
Speaker 1:And I see kids come in that are 13, 14, 15, 16, that are playing, you know, select ball still, but they're there Again, I hate to drop classification, but like they're like single-a players and they're looking at this kid, you know, and I'm not trying to like build up.
Speaker 2:You know my son's ego, but, but, but it's the, it's the reality.
Speaker 1:They're coming in and you know, you see the look on their face like who is this kid? You know what I mean and it's not that my son is is an anomaly. Like there's a million of my kids, of boys, like like my son, out there that are 11, 12 years old, that you know they grind, they have good development, they've got good, good baseline, yeah. And so I think when people, when kids of the same age or even older, see kids like that that are in a whole different level from them, mm-hmm, the first time they see that, I mean I can't even imagine how much that much shake their world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it's like whoa, I've like well, did not do. Yeah, is he doing that?
Speaker 1:and I guess yeah, exactly because, like when, when my son played his first year of double-a baseball Again, I hate to use classifications, but you know those, those same kids you know we, we didn't see. You know top, top athletes. I mean we competed with that, with the same teams that were just like us, mm-hmm, and you could go through that your entire, you know youth career, thinking you're the greatest. You know picture in Omaha, and I think a lot of kids and a lot of families do that where they stay, you know single a, double a or whatever it is, but they believe that they're the best. And then all of a sudden they go into high school and they're competing with all these other kids that played at a whole different level.
Speaker 1:We're a world forum and you know and I may be a little off here, I don't know, but I just feel like the statistics, I mean there's, you know, there's not that many more high schools in Omaha today as there were, I mean, like like last week, they're not. They're not. High schools aren't like clubs, right? They're not building new high schools every every year, right? Yeah, so there's only X amount of spots on these teams and by the time these kids get to high school, it's just like. It's like it's been a whole lie, the whole, it's been a whole lie. And I mean, for me, I blame the parents for that. Yeah, it's just like there's nothing wrong with the recreational nothing at all, and there's nothing wrong with yeah.
Speaker 1:Nothing wrong with, like you know, like low a double a, yes, like by any means, and I'm not saying Triple a majors as the end, all yeah, but there's, there's a reason. Oh, a lot of those kids that are playing triple a majors ball like they, they have a higher sense of Drive. Yes, they, they just do, especially at a certain age. They, they just do yeah and it's, it's fine. I mean, like you can have your kids, but I think it that that sense of responsibility, you know, it's just like. Hey, understand that there's, there's always someone better. I tell myself that all the time. Yes, I mean absolutely, you know, I, I think it's, you know the. The one humbling factor about travel baseball Is I had a conversation with a coach down in Texas this week and I asked I was like, what do you guys do differently down there? Because the joke is and it's really not a joke but like, single-eyed, double a baseball in Texas is better than majors baseball in Omaha. Wow.
Speaker 3:It's, it's.
Speaker 1:I mean it's kind of a joke, but it's kind of true, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's wild, brandon, I mean it's just night and day and I know they get to play outside. You know a lot more, which which is a factor, but but there's more to it. There has to be more to it than that. You know, we, we went down and played against a it was Arkansas this last year, and so the team my son played on last year was triple A, and as we went down in Arkansas, we played against the number one triple A team in Arkansas. Hmm, and every single and this, this team.
Speaker 1:It was so fun to watch them because there wasn't just like One or two studs and a lot of teams here at Omaha that I see that's typically what it is. It's built around one, two, three, three stud athletes and we'll just bring, you know, other kids on. I mean there, there are outliers in there, where it's it's there are. There are solid teams, but for the most part, that's that's what I've seen. Yeah, but you have this team down there and there wasn't just one at. They were all so Fundamentally sound, they didn't make mistakes, they were just like robots, I mean like in a good way.
Speaker 1:I mean like they, yeah, they were man and they were just so humble about it, so cool about it, and I mean we got run ruled. I mean we got run ruled right away. I mean they, they murdered us. I mean we, we put our best pitching up against you know, we didn't change anything, you know, except for, like you know, I think we pushed our, pushed our boys a little harder, like, hey, go out, go out. This. This is different.
Speaker 2:This is not.
Speaker 1:This isn't just regular baseball up in Omaha and so you know my, my son, saw that and you know it was. It was kind of discouraging, you know, cuz you get, you get beat that bad, you know. But I always tell him like, no matter what the outcome is looking like, you always have to do your job, like we talked about before. Right, that center has to know what the score is. He's not scoring the touchdown, he has to just fulfill his, his duty to the best of his ability. And and I told my son that and it was, it was really cool.
Speaker 1:After that actual game we were walking away we're all kind of kind of distraught but then the head coach came up and pulled my son aside actually and Complimented his catching and just like his, you know his athleticism, his ability, and I said, see, that's why you give a year everything you, you I mean Again, I don't want this to come across as like you're doing it for that, for that false sense of hope, those Acculates from human effort, you know, but you, but at the same time, like you're out there doing your absolute best, regardless of the outcome. If you're doing your best, somebody's gonna notice. Yeah, and that was encouraging to him. That changed his mindset on the whole deal down there, where it was just like, oh man, we just got murdered. We got murdered the whole time. Yeah, yeah, let's do.
Speaker 2:It's different and I think you're doing your son such a great service, man, because you're being honest with him about it, you're giving him perspective and you're not putting too much on him, right, like not making him play fall baseball, these different things. Again, I'm in Omaha and you know and I hate that I have to keep saying this, but I mean no disrespect to anyone but, like you said, man, what I've seen here with parents and the way that we look at club ball and travel ball and different things like that, it's like the perspective is just completely different and we're just lost here because we're behind and it's like the same.
Speaker 2:That means the same thing for us. We played football from third grade to sixth grade and we, you know, we were really, really bad. And then we got better and we got better and we became, you know, champions and one of these different leagues, and it's like, okay, we got a little swagger about ourselves, a little confidence. Okay, we've beaten enough teams here. Yeah, okay, let's challenge ourselves a little bit. Okay, let's go travel now. Like, is this something you all want to do? Yep, you know, coaches, parents, kids on board Okay, cool, let's do it. Then it happens, and you see these big old boys right, yeah, just different Just different dudes right A lot of inner city, kids too as well, yeah.
Speaker 2:And they play the game differently, man. So it's like we go here and we get 50 ball, 50 ball here, 50 ball here, 50 ball. And I'm just like look man, this is.
Speaker 2:some of y'all walk around here talking about D1, this, and I watch this on YouTube and this is that and other. Look how they play. Now, they're not always coached the best, but they're just athletically gifted, yeah. And our boys get so intimidated by it because they've never seen it, because they're building up this false whatever here in Omaha thinking like, oh my God, this is. It's just like we will never have a chance to compete against SEC states, pac-12 states, these big 12 downs. I mean we just don't have a chance.
Speaker 2:If you, if we're thinking we're just about to line up in football from the end of July to the end of October and then that just be it, with no training, with nothing on the back end at all, it's like the attitude is starts with, to begin with right Of just saying like, hey, those kids are the same as you. They put on the cleats the same, they put on the plans the same. I'm not telling you you got to go out and win every battle within the lines. I'm telling you to just give it your all every time. So if you're going to lose, something, for sure. But I'm just asking you to come back and continue trying. And that was a big thing for me this year. Man, too, as well, because I caught myself a lot. You said this earlier it's like Christians when they dabble and go back like I felt myself like worshiping the winds and wanting it so bad. Yeah, it's easy.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:So easy it is so easy to do it from coming from winning so much. And then you go out to travel and in my heart, in my mind, I'm like dude, I got the best team, we're really really good, yeah. And then you line up and it's like and it's, it's, it's a. I don't want to, it's not the kids, but it's just a disappointment every time. But it it. It reels you back in to showing that whatever faith you put in outside of Jesus is going to always fail you. Man Cause. I come in thinking, yeah, we're just top team and we get beat. Then you start seeing the boys effort, you start seeing their mindsets out of the plan and you're like and you get so discouraged and disappointed, like, oh my goodness, I thought I thought way more and that's wrong of me to put that on them that much.
Speaker 2:Right, it should just be hey, let's go in here and compete. Yeah, let's work our butts off and let's let the score be with the score. This is new to us, let's just go figure it out. Oppose the thinking like, we got these dudes what you should do. It should be a good balance of it, but I caught myself a lot this year, man, just really having to reel it in, like you know what this is what it's about. This is what the message is Like. This is what we want to show and why we're different that we can, after a big loss.
Speaker 2:We can hold our composure, we can go tap their hands, we can go ask do you want to pray after the game. We can do all that. The coaches can talk to each other after the game, cause you know what? Yeah, you onside kicked it 20 times and you got it every time, and your fans is yelling everything else, but it's like we didn't do nothing to stop it, so keep doing it. Do I want these people parents to be quiet in the stands and these fans and for them to stop on? Stop it then. I'm not about to go out there and make some rough like. You're up 30 points. How dare you stop onside kicking it? No, man, play football as a part of the rule. Yeah, play football, dude, we need to get our butts. So a lot of the boys really took heed to that. They came back home and some of these trips and were like you know what, coach, I want to go to the weight room. I need to get bigger and I'm like yes, sir Wind, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like coach, I want to do offseason track, wind, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So it's like those are the little seeds that are planted just to give them perspective, because you little Johnny can't think again playing football from October. I mean, I'm sorry, it's like a lot of people who are playing football today, they're playing football in October. They can't think that he's going to go into this, these, these, these big schools, these high schools and start varsity and whatever sport. And I'm going in the NFL and I'm going to college. It's like, dude, you ain't seen nothing yet. Yeah, you've only seen local locally talent.
Speaker 2:That isn't terrible, but there's a difference between Kansas City.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's different boys out there that you haven't seen, but you got this false. I'm not like it's funny. Some of these teams I played for Kansas City. I went to school with some of their parents, yeah, and I know what they've had to endure. They parents had to endure growing up, and I know what they're enduring with it now. And when you see him play you you watch him play like that because this is an escape. Now, I'm not saying nothing is wrong with inner city to suburbs or whatever. What I'm saying is that you need to prepare yourself, though, to come into this arena, knowing this kid is like hey, I'm fighting for a meal, I'm trying to get out.
Speaker 1:You know, what I mean, right.
Speaker 2:It means something. It means something you can still live where you live, whatever else, but like I just need you to know that's his attitude and you better come prepared or you're gonna take everything you got yeah you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So it's been. I'm with you a thousand percent on it, man. I I'm not here to try to change Omaha football. I'm not trying to act like I'm some savior. What I'm trying to do is just bring some clarity and perspective to. If you want to be good and you want to push yourself with, this is the way that you can do it. There's nothing wrong with wreck. You don't have to become a travel team to be successful. That doesn't make your youth, you know, professional Whatever. Like if you just serve, if you, I just play wreck all the way through. Awesome, great job, man. Like that's great. Allows, the kids are learning fundamentals and figuring it out that's awesome. But like, if you want more, you want to push yourself more. You don't just want to line up and win all the time and you want to be challenged. I got something for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know absolutely cuz, oh, and I'm sure it's the exact same way in football, like basketball, baseball, yeah, there's that. There's kind of that age cut, the age cutoff, where you can get by with Raw size and raw talent, cuz certain kids develop earlier, right, where you have those 10 year olds that just look like freaks. Yeah, okay, wow, you developed pretty quick so you can just kind of get away, yeah, kind of kind of skate buying, kind of kind of be you know, kind of a head and shoulders above. You know a lot of kids you play with and then after, after puberty, you know, around that time you know those kids are developing, show it all of a sudden, if you don't have, you know, a strong foundation, if you don't have those fundamentals, if you don't have, you know, if you don't have that, they're gonna leave you in the dust.
Speaker 1:You know, and that's that's something I see a lot too. You know it's just there's, there's a you know there's so many kids out there that is kind of floating by on their side. It's like people are gonna catch up to you. You know what, like you're, you're not that guy. You know you're not Bryce Harper, who I think he was like six, one, one, seventy and twelve. Twelve years old Brandon. Yeah, that's not normal.
Speaker 1:Yes, like he was a freak yeah. I was throwing like 70 miles an hour as a 12 Son like those kind of things when he thinks he's doing it. I was like remind you, cuz he's like I'm tall, I'm like when Bryce Harper was your age, he was sick. He was almost my size, it's like, so don't even yeah, so just just stop. You're not that guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah, it's, it's just crazy, you know. And another, another funny conversation I've been having a lot recently with Honestly it's, it's, it's depressing to say it, but with a lot of pastors, a lot of Christian, christian friends of mine that have been saying, you know, we talk about club sports and it's like well, I'm pretty anti club sport. I'm like okay, okay. Let me, let me this is good, I love this.
Speaker 2:I love where this is going.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I'm like I'll hear you out. I want to know why, and you know it's usually this the same M. Oh, I'm just kind of tired of, you know, seeing people you know just waste their, waste their money.
Speaker 1:You know they're spending all this extra time, all this extra money, you know traveling around mis-en-church, all these different things and and you know I'm not saying that the pastors actually said this, but like I feel like there's an underlining concern of like well, instead of spending 10 grand in baseball, why can't you just give it to the church? I wonder, wonder if that's, if that's some of the heart issue with some, with with some churches, but they don't want to voice it Honestly. I don't know, but but I think there's there. Is that that real concern?
Speaker 2:Yes, so there's underlining all there is.
Speaker 1:There is that real concern and you know, I kept hearing that same narrative from from several different, you know, pastors, christians, you know even, there's even people, people that are non-christians. I would share that same view. Yeah, it's like you're, you're, you're expecting way too much your kids, you're, you know, practicing three days a week, all this stuff through you know, 10, 10 through high school, right, it's just just too much time, too much money. And I got to thinking about that, you know, and I was like okay, how many of those people that have those concerns and comments have their kids and piano lessons?
Speaker 2:Yeah, have their violin lessons, violin lessons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, you want to talk about expensive. I'm sorry, but like piano lessons, violin lessons, I mean those experts, those experts actually like went to college, I mean you can get a degree in violin. Yeah, man, those, those experts cost way more per hour than a baseball coach, than a football coach. They just do, and the amount of hours that those kids are practicing and again, I'm not saying you know that any of that's bad. I feel like I want to, you know, kind of pose that question. Now back to anybody who would you know say to me, or you, or Anybody, as a Christian who's in the club world trying to change the status, yes.
Speaker 1:I'm saying, hey, club is fine, like it is fine to be competitive, it is fine to push yourself, because God has designed you To, to, to be athletic. You know, some people are what it's more naturally gifted, yeah, and I think it's. I think it's a slap in the face to God when you're telling somebody who's naturally gifted and that's their form of worship, that you should not be spending this much time Practicing. I'm just like, really, come on man, really Okay, like, yes, there is that healthy point where I agree, agree, if you're spending more time in your, your child yourself, as, yes, got more Development under their belt as far as athletics, but then they do spiritually.
Speaker 2:Yes, like there's there's, there's, there's, there's conversations Can't become your guy conversations to be had there.
Speaker 1:but how many of those people have something very similar to club sports in their lives?
Speaker 2:It goes hand in hand and I so I have so much respect for my pastor Eddie man. He used to serve at FCA as well. Shout out to pastor Steve sweat. But you know he made. He's a big sports guy, big, big sports guy. I don't know what he's gonna do when his daughters and this starts getting the sports.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be very interesting because I keep telling him like dude you got a spot at the lion's dude, I'm just ready.
Speaker 2:But it's like he said one day he had hit. I'm always texting them stuff and we always texting back and forth just clips of these athletes. Yeah, just like when they get on there to get their platform and they get on camera, like the first thing they do is they give in glory to God. You're like my lord and savior, like shouting them out and I'm just like wow. And one time he said in the church and from the congregation he's like if we want, if we want Christians in these different aspects of life, if it's law, if it's the government, if it's sports, like they're going to mischurch, they're going to mischurch If we want that, if we want to see that when they get on that platform worshiping God, like the only time that they have to play, these things are on those weekends and different things like that.
Speaker 2:Now I think it is obviously our responsibility to keep those conversations going, planting those seeds of Christ and whatever it may be, if it's studies, if it's youth groups, whatever it may be, if it's our off season, and we, you know, like, just like us, like when our church knows, when we're in season, this is, we're serving our ministry. We're serving our ministry. Y'all not going to see us at all. Like a lot. Now we may come, do you know?
Speaker 2:Bible studies throughout the week and different things like that, but like church, it won't see us right, cause I do announcements at church and it's so funny cause they're always like, hey, are you here this Sunday? We need announcements, are you here? I'm able to come back to church this week and it's like, but their understanding of like dude, this dude is serving Like the sports world is a mission field right To go out there and serve and it's even cooler because it's a it's a cooler mask, if you want to call it right Of sports, opposed to just going to church and sit down and listen and do this so it'll be more fun. So now you can gauge it. You can also teach them lessons throughout the lessons, right and losses and wins and different things like that. So when he said that it was so true, it was like these kids got to go to law school, right To be if we want the right people in government we have to push that, so they're going to miss things.
Speaker 1:They're going to come to all the events.
Speaker 2:They not going to do this.
Speaker 1:They got stuff, they got to do.
Speaker 2:So it's like and in another sense that's church Like when we are out here on this field and we are playing and we are giving our praise to God through our act, like, through our ability. This is us glorifying him. This is a form of church, of worship, man, we're out here doing together. It's family, and I cannot tell you, mike, how many families, how many young kids that we've had asking these questions, especially this year of like who's Jesus? Or I want to know more, or I want to go to church. Or my wife was just in the Bible study at our church on Wednesday and she was like several of the women was like, yeah, I'm here because of BK and his wife in the lion's, like that's how we start coming here, so it's like when you hear those types of things.
Speaker 2:It's like dude. No, I'm not, because the devil can make you feel that you ain't at church. You ain't doing this and it's like no man like we're serving and, as we talked about before, worshiping is subjective.
Speaker 1:Worshiping to everybody is not the same. Worshiping is just giving your creator just uninterrupted glory, right? I mean, you're just, you're giving him your everything and for some people like that is singing, for people like myself, like it's not.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I don't like singing. I enjoy listening to others sing. I don't play any instruments. I'm kind of counter opposite. I prefer to usually sit down with my hands out. I mean kind of however, the life is moving a bit and that's okay, yes, it is, that's okay Again.
Speaker 1:It just it can become so legalistic. You know, I know I shared the story with you, I think at lunch last time, where, when I was in Bible college and I told him my testimony because I thought that's what Christians do, you want to tell him your story? So they kind of walk alongside you and bear your burdens and they're like, okay, we gotta lock this dude up. And so they put me on probation and whatnot. And then you know, it was like a curfew. I had a curfew. I was 20 years old and I'm like you ain't giving me a curfew, you ain't giving me a curfew, get the heck out of here.
Speaker 2:You ain't giving me no curfew.
Speaker 1:You get out of here, yeah and it was so funny I had such a chip on my shoulder there, brandon, my roommate for the first year. Taylor Klinch loved the dad, the great, great dude. He's a missionary over in Kenya.
Speaker 2:Africa, right now.
Speaker 1:He's the one he gave me this. This is actually a. It's a Christmas ornament made by the ladies over in Kenya. And then one of the villages and so dude, so super crazy guy, he and I are so much alike and we just fought and he was trying to tell me all that stuff. I was like, dude, I'm older than you, I'm bigger than you, I will knock you out and I told him that. I told him that right away when he tried telling me what to do.
Speaker 3:And he ended up moving out of the room.
Speaker 1:He ended up moving out and you know, we're really good friends to this day, but we were too much alike. That's funny, you know. But so they gave me that curfew and I was serving the homeless. We were hanging out with homeless people, yeah yeah, yeah, downtown till, like you know, one, two in the morning, or whatever I come in and there was always an RA, an RA or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and so they'd be sitting there on the couch waiting for me to come in to write me up. I kid you, not Coming from serving, coming from serving because I broke curfew and I was like you're kidding me, so that's why I was kicked out of college. I was kicked out of college because I was breaking curfew on a repetitive and I said I'm not going to stop breaking curfew and they took that as defiance and I was like, okay, well, I mean, it's similar defiance to you know that Jesus had towards you know a lot of the Pharisees so.
Speaker 1:I'm good with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and I think of the same thing. You know, when there's churchgoers and certain pastors that will hold that same thing above our heads. You're at a club tournament this weekend. Why aren't you at church? I'm writing you up, like what? Like get out of here with a nonsense, dude. Like I am serving, you know, and my kid is worshiping. You know, like we are taking our time, like we are serving the Lord as he has called us.
Speaker 1:You know, what I mean, it's just, it's so important, I think, to have that register in some people's heads but it just doesn't. But I, you know, I think again, like how many of those, how many of those parents you know their kids are stressed out to their minds. Their parents are pushing their academic wise. My wife was one of those. I mean, she wasn't an athlete growing up. She played a little basketball but she's not athletic.
Speaker 1:I love her to be athlete, thank God my kids got some of my genes, so otherwise they would, they wouldn't have a pre-agreement in sports at all. But she had a huge amount of anxiety growing up around around academia and she, you know, even took it with her into college a bit too. And I'm just like that's the same stress that we're seeing in youth athletes. You know, just because my son, you know, plays, you know travel, baseball and does all these things and we miss, you know, five, six Sundays, you know a summer. You know we're bad people, like our priorities are mixed up. I've had pastries say that to my face. You know that your priorities are out of whack. You're living vicariously through your kid and I'm just like whoa, jump back, jump back. You don't. You don't know, you don't know me. There's always gonna be idiots out there, doesn't matter. There's idiots in church, there's.
Speaker 2:Christians too? Yeah, they don't be. Yes, yeah, there's idiots everywhere.
Speaker 1:Someone's always gonna judge you. I tell my son that all the time. Yep, I'm like, no matter how good you are, no matter where you're at, someone's always gonna hate. The sooner you can learn to deal with that, the better you are. And as long as you can look yourself in the mirror and you know that your priorities are right where they're supposed to be, it does not matter what anyone else thinks.
Speaker 2:Amen brother.
Speaker 1:You know, it just doesn't.
Speaker 2:Being bold in that too, man, because you think sometimes, like I always play this game with myself I'm like, okay, lord, am I trying to validate this, am I trying to make it right? Because it's like no man. No, like this is the mission field, like this is what he called us to, because sometimes I even think I used to think what I first became a Christian. Like man, do I gotta go out and go do a mission strip? Like, am I a real Christian If I don't go over to another country?
Speaker 2:to do a mission strip and I was like I would play this game with myself, like my first year being saved, and I finally, like he finally gave me clarity on like dude, like I'm calling you when I call you to go, you go and you do what I'm asking you to do. If you're staying at the foot of the cross and you're doing everything that you can to stay there, I'm going to show you and I'm going to be in communication with you to do so. So if that was it, then cool, that's what I'll be doing. But it's like Micah, I didn't even wanna do what I'm doing now. Like this wasn't even the thing now, it was never wanting to work with kids, it was never wanting to do these things. So to be called and then to hear it and say I don't know what you mean by this, but I'm just going to go do it because I'm seeing myself already starting in it and you're going to do something within it and to show himself now completely in these three years of alliance, I'm like got it, like okay, like I understand, I get it. So it's like never a questioning thing. It's saying Lord, I'm just going to follow you. So I'm going to do that boldly.
Speaker 2:If you don't like that, then I'm sorry, but like this is, I'm serving these young children, like these parents.
Speaker 2:This is the funnel that's being created because from all of this, like we just talked about, when those spiritual questions do arise, where they do like, have thoughts and concerns like I've gotten it on multiple occasions with parents and from kids of like, hey, we want more, I want my kids more spiritual, but I don't know where to start, just all types of things and it's like, okay, well, let's do youth night or let's come here or come to church or let's do this.
Speaker 2:And it's like, dude, that's huge, because some people come to church and just feel out of place, they come for the first time and it's like, and it sucks so bad because you like church is right, you want to, you want to greet everybody, you want to make people feel at home, but it's that person is going to always find something. Oh, the greeters was in my face too much, I didn't like that, or they asked for this too much, or they, they're always going to find something, man. So like, if I can get them outside of that arena, in this arena, and make them feel more comfortable in coming there, and then they see me when they come there and they see how loud and goofy and weird I am of like dude, come to church. Dude, don't worry about if you were to have, if you were to come to church, man, just come.
Speaker 1:But that seed's got to be planted outside a lot of times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, agreed.
Speaker 1:Especially nowadays.
Speaker 2:Especially nowadays where the church and stuff is at.
Speaker 1:It's just it's not as common, it's not as normal anymore for kids, for families, to take their kids to church anymore, because we we've become so busy with one thing or another. And so, you know, I I think it's, it's, I mean honestly, I think it's it's arrogant and they mean even to a point, like I said before, kind of a slap in the face to God for anyone who's a Christian to say that you can't be out there doing anything that's you know, outside, like on a Sunday, like your priority is Sunday morning service. I was like I'm not, there's nothing wrong with that, like that's a huge component. I mean, god wants us to be part of community. He does.
Speaker 1:But if, if we forget about Our non-Christian brothers and sisters and we forget about these areas Because we just want them to go away, because I really believe that is us, that is a common share, that is a shared narrative between a lot of churches and a lot of Christians out there that they would just Rather the clip sorts would just go away, and I'm like, well, guess what? It's not going to? Yeah, neither were bars. Alcohol is not going to go away. Homelessness is not going to go away.
Speaker 1:Come on, man, come on these issues are not going to go away, so are we just gonna Just try to ignore them? That's so good man, you know. We're just gonna try to say hey.
Speaker 2:You only want to be on the sports side of but you, yeah, we're ignoring this other stuff over here. It's like you can't, you can't have it that way. No, and To me that shows the spirit of God and someone on how they can handle those conversations and always be like you know what, like hey, but whatever the Lord is calling you to do, yeah, you go do, opposed to just going left immediately, like dude that was the first thing that came to mind that you thought, like to say or to like pour into or I know, really, yeah one, and I think to myself too.
Speaker 1:I mean, so you on, on any given Sunday, when you drive, drive by many church parking lots, and they're not especially like when when club sports is going on, which which I guess is year-round anymore, depending on the sport, but you know, like baseball season-wise, you drive by, you know a big tournament, you know, and those parking lots are completely full packed, and you know the church parking lots aren't nearly as full. So why would we force any Christian or not not even force, why would we impose guilt on any Christian that is in that world to leave, to stop, to take that light? Essentially, you're taking that light out of the darkness and bringing it to church around a bunch of other light. Again, church is not bad, but you're, you're, you're doing the exact opposite of what Jesus was wanting us to do. You know, and again I can't say it enough, it it always comes down to heart, a heart condition.
Speaker 2:Yes, man.
Speaker 1:That's all that it is. You know, I, I think there's people out there that that are Christians, and then they're, you know, but they're lying to themselves or hearts in the wrong place, and they're, they're doing these sports because they're they. They have their own selfish.
Speaker 2:It is that yep and selfish does desires to and we can't judge that, michael like, if that's much like, if that's what you're doing, then you I mean you- know, it until it becomes a situation. Maybe that's affecting, but like the Lord will judge you, yeah, he'll do that.
Speaker 1:The Lord, lord's gonna convict you.
Speaker 1:You know, and my witness can just be, you know, hopefully an encouragement too. But I just think about how many people are out there, you know, on, you know during a, during a football tournament, baseball, basketball, and they're, they're able to see. I mean just just imagining, you know, if you decided, well, we're not gonna play on Sundays at all anymore, yeah, and so all the times that you guys pray with your team, that is a Huge. I mean, I can't even emphasize that is a giant witness because, regardless Someone's viewpoint, they're gonna watch because it's, it's weird.
Speaker 1:It's weird to just sit down on. You know, to take, take a knee on a court on a field wherever yeah it's not normal anymore. Yeah it's like holding a door open for an old lady. They, it's not. Yeah, man. So when you see it, you're just gonna like what are you doing yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's just. It's one of those things that is so important that we continue to pour into Into that world of sports, because it's not gonna go away, it's getting, it's gonna get bigger, bigger and bigger. And if we want to just hand it over to the devil and say, hey, you know what, run with it, who cares, and we're gonna stay comfortable and safe in our own little building, and just kind of point and say those people are bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I want you to go back to the Gospels and I want you to, you know, put yourself in one camp for the other. Are you in the camp of the Pharisees? Are you in the camp of Jesus and his disciples? Yeah, where you're kind of breaking the norm. That's all the time we got for today's episode, guys. Again, thank you so much for tuning in. I appreciate you guys sticking with us.
Speaker 1:I know it was a little bit more of a hot button episode, a little more controversial than some previous episodes, and I'm sure we ruffled some feathers, you know. Probably, you know, offended a few of you, you know. But at the same time you have to understand there's that level of expectation that when you're having a conversation around something as controversial as club sports is, you're, you're gonna come Across opposing opinions and it's so important that we as adults start modeling what it looks like to handle adversity correctly. And if you're the kind of person that hears something that's opposing to your opinion and you just get all but hurt and and walk away and turn, you know, absolutely just turn it off because it can't be right, because it's not your, it's not your viewpoint, viewpoint You're, you're modeling a very dangerous set of habits for your kids and your, your, the kids on your team or in or in your classroom, to really pick up on. And that was really the whole point we were trying to make earlier, oddly enough, when we were talking about our issue. You know, in the in the low-level Sports world with, you know, parents, coaches and adults not wanting to expose their kids to any, any real adversity, not wanting to expose them to anything more than what they see on a on a regular basis, year after year, and Giving them that false sense of security that they take with them, I mean, I mean sometimes all the way up until high school. You know, and the fact is we're not doing our kids any favors when we're protect, when we're protecting them, you know, from Uncomfortable situations, but rather it should be our goal. I know it's my goal as a parent and as a coach to identify opportunities for my kids and athletes to to see Uncomfortable situations, to introduce appropriate levels of adversity, because we have that opportunity as parents, adults and coaches to walk through and help them navigate those waters. Because everything we're doing as adults parents, coaches and teachers is preparing these kids for for the real world, and you know you're either doing it in a positive way or or in a negative way. And you know that's something I do.
Speaker 1:I want to challenge everyone, everyone with right now is our are we? Are we protecting our, our, our kids? Because we ourselves never knew how to handle adversity correctly? You know, because if, because, if that's the case, I mean seek some counsel out on that, I mean there, you're never too too old to learn, you know, and especially if you have kids, there's something greater at stake than you or I. I mean we're, we are preparing the next generation. Like I said on a previous episode, we are teaching the, the upcoming president. We are teaching the upcoming, you know, senators, doctors, lawyers, you know Senators, like we are preparing these individuals for for life. You know to to change the world, and if we are denying them opportunities, you know to to grow and to better adults through sports, by allowing them to be exposed to adverse situations. If we're denying those opportunities, we're only hurting them and and ultimately, we're only hurting the world. And so that's that's what I really wanted to clear up.
Speaker 1:I felt like there was probably some level of controversy there where people took it out of context, and Context is so vital, it's so important, you know. So I just Again, I love all of you guys. I appreciate you guys taking time to listen to this. I don't my goal isn't ever to make anyone overly upset, but my but my goal is to kind of push that level of comfortability, because you can't grow as as a human, if you stay in that level of comfort. Your muscles cannot grow if you don't push them. You know, and so that's that's what I.
Speaker 1:I try to try to act as I try to act as that catalyst, you know, and in an appropriate way, to to kind of push and pry, you know, at you guys and and see if we can't, you know and you know, encourage one another to Start challenging our status quo so we can ultimately benefit the world of club sports, because that's what we, that's what we're here to talk about.
Speaker 1:We, we want to improve the world of club sports, we want to change the status quo, and we can't do that If every time we get offended, we just get all but hurt and just walk away, but rather we need to start having more of these conversations, especially with people that we don't agree with, and Find out ways that we can improve the broken world that we know as Club sports today. So again, you, you guys are a huge blessing to me. You'd be an even bigger blessing to me if you would leave a comment, if you would like or share the podcast. We really want to get this thing out there for more people to hear and see. You know, just kind of talk more about this narrative, you know of what the world of club sports is and what we, what we are proposing it could be. So again, drop us a like, drop us a comment. You know, just yeah, I appreciate you guys. So again, you guys are blessed, go out there, be a blessing.
Speaker 3:Be good.