Episode #75: Kyle Crookes on Recruiting

🎙️ Significant Recruiting with Kyle Crookes, Head Baseball Coach at University of Central Missouri

In this special bonus episode of Significant Recruiting, Matt Rogers sits down with Kyle Crookes, Head Baseball Coach at UCM, to talk about what really matters in the college recruiting process.

Coach Crookes breaks down the intangibles he looks for in recruits, how coachability and competitiveness separate serious players, and the biggest mistakes athletes and families make when trying to get noticed. Whether you’re a parent navigating the journey or a player chasing your shot, this episode is packed with real-world insight from one of the best in the business.

💻 Visit coachmattrogers.com to schedule a free recruiting strategy session and access tools to help you stay organized, prepared, and confident throughout the recruiting process.

📘 Don’t forget to check out Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes, and keep an eye out for sport-specific recruiting journals — coming this summer.

Significant Recruiting Resources — Take the guesswork out of college recruiting with Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes, sport-specific Recruit’s Journals, and the Significant Recruiting Launchpad. Practical tools to help families research schools, stay organized, and build a smarter recruiting strategy. Learn more at CoachMattRogers.com.

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Welcome back to Significant Recruiting with Matt Rogers, the bonus segment of the podcast where we get straight to the heart of the recruiting process with college coaches from every level. Today I'm joined by Kyle Crooks, head baseball coach at the University of Central Missouri, one of the top division two programs in the country. And this episode, coach Crooks shares exactly what he looks for in a recruit, why coachability and strength matters more than flash. And how players can separate themselves in a crowded recruiting class. Before we get started, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and visit coach matt rogers.com where you'll find tools, guides, and the chance to schedule a free recruiting strategy session to help you and your family build a smart, personalized plan for your college journey. Alright, let's dive in. Here's my conversation on recruiting with Coach Kyle Crooks. Coach, I'm really looking forward to talking, recruiting with you and getting your insights. But we ended our last segment and I asked you about if there was somebody that you would wanna share a dugout with, and you gave me a great answer. You gave me Kevin Brooks, but I. After we stopped that segment, we talked a little bit more and, and it came to you that there was somebody else that you wouldn't mind sharing a dugout with, and I thought it was a really great answer and it's a great coach to share with our listeners. Yeah. I read the book, and it's just ans endurance a long time coach at University of North Carolina Women's Soccer. That's inarguably, maybe the most successful coach in the history of college athletics. But. Build a program from the ground up and just dominate for 30, 40, 50 years, however long he was a coach there. I know he just stepped down, retired. His personality, what he did for practices, how he addressed his teams, everything. not just a day in the dugout, but man, a year watching that guy coach would, I don't even know if that'd be enough time, but that's somebody that I truly admire I didn't wanna leave that one off. The slow processing happened. it's such a great answer. And it's one that I often forget about, but when I think about it, I'm like, oh my gosh, that might be the guy that we all, esteem to be. Oof. Man, that's tough. There. I know they're the John Wooden's of the world in the wrong poles. Yeah. By no means do I wanna disrespect any of them. But the personality that I feel like that came through, at least the book that I read with about Anson do just seems to me like and I'm a not a secret. I love soccer. Yeah. And boy, I, I would, I think I would really learn a lot, but get a lot out of that and enjoy a lot of it too. Very much agree with you there. And if you haven't read that book, it's a great one for young coaches to read too. It's just an amazing approach. Yeah. All right, coach, I want to jump into recruiting with you. I wanna do about 15, 20 minutes, and really this is for the student athletes out there, that 14 to 18-year-old, that mom and dad that are going through the recruiting journey, that high school coach, who really is trying to help their kids get to the next level. you've built a nationally ranked recruiting classes at Central Missouri. What traits separate a D two difference maker from just a good player? Because you see a lot of good players. Just about every kid I'm sure that you see at your camp is a good player. What does that D two difference maker look like? What? What are those characteristics? I think there are a couple things they can do to be that. I will tell you strength, like the weight room is a big deal. Like the sooner you can be physical, the better. Because that's what separates a lot of time, the young from the old. you got a 23-year-old, year senior that's just possesses man strength, but also five years in the weight room that you don't, as an 18-year-old coming into college, But you can handle that. If you know that, when you start your high school career at 14, you've got four years to build the best version of your body that you possibly can. And I'm not, whatever that is. I would encourage guys to do that. I think that puts you in a position to be somebody that, for us, can see the field. Soon, everybody's talents that they've been gifted, may vary, but you can be strong player. You can be a strong physical player that can impact the game, through your work in the weight rooms, through something you can control, and I think that's a big thing. That makes you a difference maker because you can impact the game right away. We don't have to wait on you to develop physically, even though your skillset may be there. 'Cause you're playing, at any level. when you transition from high school, you're playing at a different level. You're playing at a higher level and you're playing against older dudes who don't care that you're 18. They just wanna beat you. That's right. So like you better be physical. people talk about slowing the game down a lot. And I think, those definitions probably run the gamut in terms of what that means. But there's a way to go about playing that I think really lends itself to having success for us immediately. And that becomes like the maturity of how you go about doing everything that you do to prepare to play. And it shows up when kid's play. there's intentional reps versus just reps. everything's got intentionality. And I think that's something that a lot of people just don't know. ignorance's not a terrible word. It literally means you just, you're not aware. You just don't know. You haven't been told, you're not taught. And I think a lot of people are ignorant in terms of what, an intentionally prepared player looks like. And those things separate too. There's some guys that have an elevated sense of maturity that are more ready to help this program sooner because. A lot of the things we're doing are in sync with how they've been thinking since they've been in high school. And then there's a lot of guys that they don't know why they're doing what they're doing. They're just doing what they're told and they do as little as they need to, 'cause they're pretty talented. And they move on. And then when they get here, it doesn't matter who you are. Like, I don't care how physical you are, we're gonna ask you to do these things. And if you're not used to intentionally approaching practice in a certain way, it can be a challenge. We're investing a whole, there's a lot of emotional and. Mental investment in what we're asking you to do, a lot of understanding that we're asking you to do. And if you're not used to thinking about the game, you've just been better than everybody your whole life. That makes it tough. So it's, it's the physical side of it that you can control. And then, the understanding of like actual preparation for what we are going to do as a team. And some guys like really have a great feel for the game and probably their fathers and or mothers or both. Played the game at a relatively high level. Yeah. So those conversations are, being had at home About how they practice versus or they had an older brother that went through either the program or another program. I think, finding people that have that background helps a little bit. It's a leg up, I think, on on impacting a program right away for that parent that's listening to this. Use one of your seniors as an example. What does that intentional prep look like? Give an example of what from one of your kids that's been with you for four or five years compared to a freshman walk in the door. Vance Tobel, who's our starting left fielder every day has always been pretty physical. That's what got him here, I think. And he always just had a really good habit of, finding hits. We weren't really sure what position he was gonna play. And he registered his first year. And he continued to work on his body, but that was a strength. So I think that was something that he felt good about doing 'cause he was good at it, but his intentionality became okay. I'm no longer the biggest and the strongest anymore. I can see that I need to find a way to be more of a com. Like just touching the ball and being stronger doesn't work anymore. What do I need to do to be a great player? Or, for Central Missouri? And first was finding a position. So like he was always a hitter, so they just shoved him at third. They'd shov him at first. I think he pitched some in high school, just all over the place. Find a position and own that position. And it took him a couple years because nobody really likes to talk about defense or how to be great at it, but that's like a number one priority for us when we're shoving guys out on the field. So Hey Vance. And it took him a while. So he was an all American DH for us before he was our left fielder. You only get, there's only one DH in the lineup. So you're really, you don't wanna put yourself in that pigeon hole in high school, right? So find a position, own it, be great at it, at all the details. And he has found a way to do that. Now, he is our starting left fielder every day. And actually the beginning of the year, he had done so well that I started him in center. He is, he's a fantastic athlete, but he's really grown himself, defensively. And it, honestly, the biggest change he made was how intentional he was when he was a practice defending. When you're around a bunch of people that you love, it's really easy to talk and I don't know, just not focus on the details that are right in front of you and you could, I can see it, I could see it in him from the day he made the decision to do it. And for the last two to three years, he's been as diligent, a worker as anybody defensively. But it took him two years to get there. And then offensively he found a routine. He's a very gifted hitter. That doesn't mean you get to just show up and hit. The other guy that's on the mountain is on scholarship too, and he's probably gonna pitch you big, strong guy a certain way, and you better be really good at understanding what that is and how to, and how to combat that, so to speak. So he's found himself an incredibly good routine. He shows up to the park before everybody else. He goes through his t routine, his flip routine is machine routine. And the best part about this is he normally drags somebody in with him. So they Have to work with him, which is awesome 'cause he's paying it forward. That's great. And so that guy's learning that diligence and he's doing it and he did it before his All American DH year and he hasn't stopped doing it since. So that's three years of every day of being the first guy in the building to do what he needs to do to prepare to be ready for practice. To then to prepare to be ready for a game. And he does it before every practice and before every game. And he hasn't changed in three years. And that's what, to me, it looks like, to grow up in this program and find a routine and a process that works for you, that pays attention to the details that you learn, that we care about and that you learn are gonna help you have success. And I think, it's turned him into the player that he is today. Like 3 74 with 19 home runs and 64 rbis Wow. That's a hell of a year. And it's hitting in the middle of the order and it's playing the outfield every day. it's from a place where when he got here, we weren't sure where he was gonna play. We weren't sure what he was gonna do. And he did it. Intentionally and grew himself into being what he is. man, can't be more proud. And he's a leader because of how he does it. He doesn't have to speak about it, he's not any of that. But as I said, he drags people early, work with him. And they're better because of him. And he's teaching them routines and how much it matters. And guys that have grown up with him that are the same age as him know how he's transitioned from being. We don't know a position to being a dh, to being an everyday outfielder for us. And they've watched the growth process too, so other people can speak on what he was and what he's grown into. And he becomes an example for this program. Sounds like the definition of a multiplier to me. Yeah. That's a great word for him. And ain't nobody else you want in your group pushing a sled other than him. I can tell you that right now. That's great. He will bring the wall for everybody and they would do the same for him. Love it. I'm sure you've seen this movie, but it's one of my favorites, the love of the Game. Kev Koon. Yeah. my favorite part of that movie is when he can step on the mound and go clear the mechanism. And it just sounds like this young man and yours, he gets that he's able to find that funnel that he can get into before a game, before he steps in the plate and he can clear the mechanism. And you just see that we talked about Kyle Tucker, before we start, you just see it's all of a sudden it's like they get a bubble around them and they're not gonna let anything affect that routine and that discipline. Yep. Yeah, you can feel it, it's way harder in a game to do that. But what he does is he puts himself in a position to be as white as he can possibly be for every game. Love it. And he knows it. And yeah, man, when he's locked in the box, everybody in the park knows and there's no avoiding it. So fun to watch. It's, real quick, I wanna go back to lifting and strength training. Yeah. High school weight rooms. Kids' bench, squat, curl. are there things that you want a baseball player doing now to keep those core muscles, the bleaks, the adductors, abductor? Is it yoga? Is it Pilates? Is it ball work? Are there things that your strength conditioning coach is doing? I think there's tiers of this. I don't think people lift enough, in high school. I just don't think they take the opportunity to do it. We have certain KPIs, like key performance indicators that we use and we hand out to the guys that we recruit, right? if you don't front squat 400, if you don't bench 2 25, if you don't deadlift. I can't remember what it I don't know if it's 3 85 or 4 85. Like those are the top performers in our program. Like strength means something. Yes. So like the Olympic lifts matter. If you don't want to clean, I get it. High pole, but move white and get strong please. And if somebody's willing to Pilates and they're willing to yoga and they're willing to, water bag and rotate and, do rotational movements and stability movements and some things that become more, specific to the movements we make as baseball players. Awesome. But I would encourage people to get under a bar and move heavy weight I'll give the disclaimer, I don't want anybody to hurt themselves, and I'd rather you move the weight Properly, than just breaking yourself to move weight. you need to move weight. You need to squat, you need to put a bar on your back. or on your shoulders and squat, you need to deadlift you need to bench Because they're resilient bodies. You're loading your spine and your body becomes more use to handling the stress. That heavier lifting. Produces whether it's high volume, but I think safely moving into higher weight is a thing. And I think we've gotten so far down the rabbit hole of baseball specific training that guys forgot that big leaguers are. Huge. And they're strong. And yes, they move well, they're incredibly good movers and that does come with it. And there's something to understanding that. But if you're a great mover and you're gumby and you're totally weak. Who cares. unless you're Chris sale, I don't know that it matters. And most of the people we're dealing with aren't that, so you gotta get strong. And you can do that. It takes zero skill to get under a bar and squat. Do it repeatedly three times a week for four years in high school and watch what happens. You're the best looking dude in a uniform. You feel pretty good about yourself. You're pretty strong. And when you make contact, the ball's probably gonna go. Or if you throw the ball's probably gonna go faster or whatever. You're gonna be a better runner. You're gonna be a better everything because of it. And I see guys go to trainers and facilities and stuff all the time, and these facilities are like. Cool. You're shaking a water bag on one leg. Like I get it, but I'm sure there's a need for that, but does the 14-year-old need to do that, or does he just need to get strong? Let's get him strong and let's see what he can do, after he achieves a certain amount of skill and then you can make him shake a water bag. Cool. But. What all that does for injury prevention. it's volumes of how a kid's gonna stay healthy throughout his career playing 40, 50, 60 games in a season. If you're not strong, your body's gonna break down your joint. we lift during our season. We lift three times a week during our season. We lift four times a week in the off season. 'cause what's the point of lifting four times a week if you're not gonna lift during the season anyway? Yeah, we do. And we lift heavy weight in the season and we do a bunch of ply stuff and our strength guy does a really good job. But it matters. And this is about being recruited too, like Yeah. What do you look like in a uniform? That's right. I. That's, and again, this is things that I didn't know and I didn't do well enough as a player in high school. I did. Me too. Me too. I'm telling other people because I think it's valuable. Yeah. Yep. I didn't get it till I saw a story on Michael Jordan bench pressing 45 minutes before playing a basketball game, and I'm like, oh my God, he just bench pressed 400 pounds before I went and played a basketball game. Yeah. And then, made six threes. I want to talk to families about this. So there's a lot of parents that don't get this. The numbers you throw out for bench and your squat and what you're looking for, that's 18 to 24 months of work. If you haven't done a lot of that it's a development. So if you're 14, man, you might only be benching 60 pounds. 80, 80 pounds, but yeah, whatever. It's, every two, three weeks, can you add five pounds to that, and do it right. If you're gonna work with a trainer, find somebody that's gonna teach you how to do it, right? So I love that coach. I'd rather them spend time in the weight room with a trainer than with a hitting coach at that point. Like 'cause one, like figure out the skill once you're strong enough to do it. Yep. All right. When you're talking to a recruit what singles to you that the kid is actually coachable and you talked about parents nod their head and not just saying the right things. Is there things that you hear and see in a recruit that tell you, this kid's ready to be coached? Man, I wish I had that answer. And maybe there's a red flag for you. so I guess I go to that and this is directed at the parents. Parents become the red flags if the parents are speaking for the child, the 18-year-old man at this point in time, or 17-year-old boy or whatever. If they're doing most of the talking, that's problematic for me. 'cause yes, we're recruiting the whole thing. The kid is going to be going to school here and if he can't communicate with me because the parents are too busy doing everything, that's a red flag. How the kid interacts with his parents, good and or bad is a red flag too. So if they don't treat their parents well, I have an issue with that. If they speak to their mother, their father in a certain way that I would consider disrespectful. And it's hard for me to be specific, but I've heard it. Like when somebody says something that makes me cringe, I'm like, no way my dad would hit me if I said that exactly. But, so those two things become red flags, eye contact, body language, facial expressions are all things that we'd like to see. I'd like to engage the player in and of himself and ask his opinion on a couple things. And if he can respond. And there, it's not always easy, but if he can respond in a clear, concise answers or he has, there's been a bunch of kids, honestly, that we've recruited that have had really good conversations about what their processes are and we haven't signed a bunch of 'em or they've gone other places. But those are kids I think that are gonna end up having a decent amount of success because they understand already. Hey this is my process and we may adapt it or we may, hone it or refine it a little bit. But having a process for how they succeed now is a pretty good indicator of them being willing and open to doing that later. I think red flags are probably more what we look for because what we're doing is we're watching a kid play and he's shown us he can play at a level that we think will help us two or three times. So now it's about, okay, are there things that stand out once we get a chance to meet him and his family that would deter us from recruiting him any further? and for all my kids out there that I coach and work with on your recruiting, you just heard it from Coach. So you wonder why we work on your process so much and why you do what you do and what drives you and why you work the way you work. that's why we do it because coaches wanna understand, Did we just catch you on a good day? if that's the case, then we got our one. That's probably, we're gonna need more than that. So if you can repeat what you did, that's a big part of it. And our job is to help you with that too. But man, if you already have an idea as to what that is, boy, that's huge. Love it. Is there a common reason why you stop recruiting a kid with a ton of talent? Kid that's throwing 93 mile an hour, a kid that's already in the weight room already doing, bating four 50 and killing. Is there a reason? he told us he's not coming. Probably that's, that would be, oh, he is going to Angelo State or Tampa, or he is gonna go to Mizzou or ku. but why would you pull away from a kid? Why would you stop recruiting a kid with that talent? watching him play and realizing what the talent is, but then he acted in a way that was really not in line with what our values are. He's a selfish teammate. I think Tim Corbin did a really good job of taking the lid off this a long time ago. How does he interact with his teammates? how does he handle success? How does he handle failure? How does he handle the umpires? What is he doing in between innings, is he engaged with his mom in between innings? That's a problem. I don't want that. Some of those things I think they'd be egregious. I think most people would probably see those things and say the same thing. And then, honestly, on your recruiting trip, who are you? If you're doing us a favor by being on this trip, then sorry, that's not what this is. That's probably gonna be, what it is a feel for whether, God's gift has, made himself available for us to recruit him. And if that's what it is sorry. I'll take the blue collar kid that's still got work to do. I'm laughing coach. 'cause you're answering three questions for everyone I ask. It's awesome. You're knocking down everything on my list. For recruits hoping to play at a top tier D two, like UCM, what's the one thing they should be doing right now that most aren't? Depends on how old they are. I mentioned the weight room. I think you need to care about catch play. If you're a position player, that's awesome. You gotta be able to hit. That's a tool that's really difficult, to teach and to be successful with. So saying there are eight positions on the field to play as a hitter, and. being really good at defending in one of those positions is probably your best way to get to us. Athleticism makes a huge difference. Your ability to make outs. That's the name of the game. we talked about the lifting side of it. I think that lends itself to the speed side of it. And care about the entire part of the game, not just the hitting side of it. Hitting's the most fun, it's the least successful. So I get it. when you have a bad game, what do you go to the cages and you go Cool. But. If you can't defend, what am I gonna do? There's only one spot in the dh, role. So again, like catch plays a huge deal. Your ability to handle the glove, handle the ball. We play in the Midwest, there's wind everywhere, all over the place. If you can't throw into a 30 mile an hour headwind, you can't play the infield for us. Or for anybody probably. But those are things that I don't know that high school kids are aware of. And so you better value the baseball. You better make outs and balls that look like they shouldn't be outs into outs. And you better learn how to dive. You better learn how to give effort. You better learn that's something that matters to me and matters to us and make it matter to you. Because. It's gonna be the difference in the game more than likely. And we feel if you possess the ability, to hit a little bit, but you can really defend and we got a spot for you. But like I said, I think the weight room and the value of the entire game, not just. Not just the, I can hit part of it. 'Cause what if I go watch a play two, two times you get eight at bats and you go oh, for eight. But then your next four at bats, you're four for four. You're four for 12 at that point in time, and you're hitting 3 33, which is good. And we all know that. But if you didn't defend at all. After you're Oh, for eight. I'm like yeah, I didn't really do anything else either, yep. What do I go do? Yeah. You're always defending, you're doing that. You know the game's three hours long, you're at bats. Take two minutes a minute. Yeah. Where you doing for the other two hours and 50 minutes? You better be defending and playing catch at a high level. Yeah, go look at the Boston Red Sox. They had a world class, 200, $300 million, third baseman, and he didn't feel very well last year and they just went and signed another guy to come in and play third and moved him to dh. That translates all the way up the board. Yeah. Sorry, Mafi. Yeah. Last question, coach you, you've been great and I so appreciate your time. Sure. I'm gonna give you a little hypothetical. I'm a small town kid, town of 2000 people in Northern Illinois. Okay. I'm a catcher. I about four 20. I got a 1.8 pop time. The leader of my team, I have great grades. I'm a high character kid. I play three sports, but I'm in a town of 2000 people and nobody knows I even exist. How do I get you to recruit me? Because you're not coming to Northern Illinois. You're not coming to my tiny little conference. How do I get you to recruit me? You send me an email yourself. I don't, to no offense, no NCSA or any of the other stuff. No, you're with, you're speaking my language. Send me an email. I really don't care about stats myself personally. I don't. I would care. And part of it is because God loved the managers and the coaches or whoever that are putting those stats together, but none of 'em are accurate. So it doesn't matter. So corresponding video, please let me see what you are and then let me say, okay, I see. Like we can tell how you move. We can tell how you throw a ball. We can tell how your swing works to some degree. I can't tell you exact everything, but then we have a decent idea. And then we can say, okay, come to camp. Will you come to camp? Are you interested enough to make the six and a half, seven hour drive from Edwardsville, Illinois to our camp and come camp with us? Where you'll showcase all your tools and talents and on metrics, and then you'll play in a game. And we'll get a chance to watch you compete and we'll see how you engage in other people that are somewhat strangers, which is what college is gonna be. We'll see how your skills apply to the field in game and outta game. You'll interact with us as coaches and we will be the genuine versions of ourselves, and hopefully you are too. And then we'll probably have a conversation afterwards. And if we like what we see and we're hunting that position, then you know, you just got yourself recruited. And that happens to us a lot. And people, I think scoff at camps because they, I can see like they're, money makers for a bunch of places. But for us, I think we have 16 or 17 guys on our roster from camp. We invite people to camp that we wanna see that we can't see during the spring. 'cause guess what we're doing during the spring? We're playing. So if you can't drive to Illinois when you're playing high school baseball in the spring, like it's not gonna happen. And in the summer, unless you're coming to KC or say, if you're playing in a tournament in St. Louis, like there's probably gonna need to be another reason why I'm there to see you. But you'll be one of the many. And if it works out that way, great. But if you wanna leave it the chance, then that's what you're doing. Or you can communicate with us directly. Come to camp, tell us you care. Show us you care. Let us see. And that's a guaranteed way of getting in front of us for us to say, yes, no, maybe this is what you would have to do. If it's maybe, and I think it's like an unofficial visit. You get a chance to see the facilities. Everything else you get a chance to learn us. The whole thing, I just, I could not be a bigger proponent of camps when they are set, at least for us as a program and for players. And that's what they, I got a 16-year-old son. That's what I tell 'em to do. You're, if you wanna go play, go show up to the places that you think you wanna play at, and go to one of their camps and make an impression. And, then you'll know, and maybe you'll come back and say, I hate that place. I don't wanna go there. Or maybe you'll come back and say, I wasn't good enough. They don't want me, whatever the case, but at least, whereas, if you don't, you just hope, then I don't think that's a strategy. Yeah, you're probably getting 200 of those emails a week, I would imagine, somewhere in that world, right? We get, yeah it's in the hundreds for sure. If I can delineate that it's from an individual specifically, not from an organization, massive. You want it from the mass organization, then I'll read 'em all. If they have video closed I'll watch. And then if it's video that I find intriguing and I can gather enough info on, just watching them move, then I'll invite 'em to camp. And I do it myself. I don't have anybody else doing it. It's me, coach Backas, coach McFadden. Come to camp. And, let's check it out and see. I just got one from, a left-handed yesterday, and I like, I wanna see him. The video looked good. a hundred feet away. Oh yeah. It's terrible. It doesn't mean no good. And I get it, we're not supposed to all be videographers and everything, but I gotta be able to see what I need to see. But he, it was like, okay, this is pretty intriguing and there's something we need to look at. Yeah. Please, Wesley, come to camp. Come to camp. Yeah. If you're a lefty pitcher, I gotta give you an extra look. I just gotta, yeah. And the arm works good. He's a pretty decent athlete. He took a good swing. It he moves, right? There's something to grow with. And what's fascinating about, the added part of this is what other people say about you? And there's another kid that played against him that happens to be on our team, and he's man, he's a really humble kid. And it's a, it's a small enough world where. Your actions are gonna speak to enough people where it'll get back around. I couldn't tell you how much I enjoy hearing that somebody's a humble kid. That's a good player. Love it. I'm with you. Good person, good boyfriend, good son. Whatever it is. It's way easier to go on that than it is to, something that's not, It's always great to hear when somebody can say, I don't know what we're gonna do without him, or man, I don't wanna stop coaching or teaching this kid. I don't want this kid to leave. That says volumes, doesn't it? It does. Yeah. Yeah. No question. He makes us better, he does. Yeah. what a great teammate, man, is there a better compliment than that? Coach, it was fantastic. I love talking to you. I love your perspective. Thank you so much for the advice you've given to parents and these kids. The more they understand the reality that you're a human being, you're empathetic, you have compassion, but you're running a program, it's a big business you're in charge of, and you got a lot of people you're responsible of and who you bring into that school, that organization, that culture is so important to you. So thank you for sharing those things. I don't think families can hear it enough what you shared today. Those conversations need to be had. Between children and parents and coaches and everybody else. the more of those they have and the less they avoid, I think the better for everybody. Thank you for everything, coach, and again, good luck the rest of the way. We'll be cheering for you and the guys, and, we know great things are coming. Thanks so much. Appreciate your time. And that's a wrap for this bonus episode with Coach Kyle Crooks. Whether you're a player, parent, or coach, I hope you're walking away with clarity on what it really takes to get recruited at the high level. Thanks, coach Crooks for sharing all those great insights. If you found this episode helpful, make sure to subscribe and leave a review. And head over to coach Matt rogers.com to explore all the tools available, including my five star rated book, significant recruiting, and the chance to schedule a free strategy session to map out your next steps. I'd love to work with you and your family and at least get you started on this journey the right way. Thanks for listening. And remember, you don't need hype. You need a plan that removes mere chance from your equation. Make your recruitment journey a significant one, and we'll see you next time.