Episode #69: Taylor White on Recruiting

🎙️ Building a Powerhouse Through Recruiting 

In this bonus episode of Significant Recruiting with Matt Rogers, we’re joined by Taylor White, Associate Head Baseball Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at the University of Texas at Tyler. Known across Division II as one of the premier recruiters in the country, Coach White has helped build UT Tyler into a national contender through relentless evaluation, development, and relationship-building.

Coach White shares the strategies behind building top tier NCAA D2 recruiting classes, what he looks for in prospective student-athletes, and how his approach to coaching infielders, hitters, and baserunners has transformed individual careers and the UT Tyler program as a whole.

With over a dozen players turned professionals and an unmatched track record of All-Americans, Gold Glove winners, and top-tier recruiting classes, Coach White reveals what it takes to build a program that lasts—and players who thrive.

 🔹 Why player development is just as important as player identification
 🔹 How UT Tyler recruits with both grit and purpose in the D2 landscape
 🔹 Advice for high school athletes hoping to stand out to college recruiters

Whether you’re a parent, athlete, or coach, this episode gives you an inside look at the recruiting engine behind one of the most successful programs in D2 baseball today.

 🔗 Learn more at CoachMattRogers.com — where you can grab a copy of Significant Recruiting, read the weekly recruiting blog, or schedule a free one-on-one strategy session with Matt. 

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 to the first. Significant recruiting with Matt Rogers podcast. Yes, you heard me correctly. The Significant Recruiting Podcast is a bonus recruiting focused edition of the Significant Coaching Podcast. Each week we'll go behind the scenes with college coaches and college recruiting insiders. To explore the strategies that shape successful programs while giving great advice to recruits, parents, and club, and high school coaches. Today's guest is Taylor White, associate head baseball coach and the recruiting coordinator at the University of Texas. Tyler, one of the top minds in division two baseball, and a proven leader in identifying and developing high level talent. This exclusive segment is available only to subscribers, so you can visit coach matt rogers.com or significant coaching with Matt rogers.buzz sprout.com to sign up by subscribing. You'll also get exclusive access to my this week and significant coaching newsletter that will provide you with weekly coaching, recruiting, and parent tools and resources, as well as special opportunities that will be available only to subscribers okay, let's get started. Here's my conversation with Coach Taylor White. Coach White. I'm so excited to talk recruiting with you. Remind me again, how long have you been with Coach Porsche at UT Tyler? this is year seven. Six or seven, yeah. A while. Were you were with the National championship team? No, my last, I was at Tyler Junior College before this, and I was there in 18. We actually. Lost in the national championship and UT Tyler won it and, came on over right after they won it in 18. I love it. Coach, you've been a huge part in helping coach Porsche transition the program from division three to division two. You guys have done unbelievable work building that program, uh, from what was a championship caliber D three program, and so quickly you've turned it into a division two. Powerhouse. I know how hard that is 'cause I had to do the same thing at Maryville 15 years ago and we didn't have near the results that you guys are having. So I wanna talk with helping our audience really understand the difference in what you're looking at at different levels. So let's start there. What, how do you recruit a division two kid compared to a Division three kid? For sure. Yeah. I think first off and foremost is we're looking for quality individuals to begin with quality. Quality baseball players, as far as the character that they have. And then also their families too is, especially in our program, is, this isn't just about just the baseball player, but it's about the whole family. This is something that obviously, their families are backing these players and, we want 'em to come from good families that they're taught. what's right, what's wrong, and how to handle adversity regardless of the level of baseball, whether it's junior college, division three, division two, division one NAIA we're looking for players that, come good places where, The things that they learned growing up are things that they're gonna have in this program as well. and so regardless of what level guys are playing at, I think first and foremost is, they know what hard work is. They know what it looks like to, have a good work ethic. and so obviously as you get up, the different levels Those things. the gap is a little bit smaller in each of those. And so I think first and foremost, obviously you gotta be talented, but you also gotta have some work ethic, in there as well. I work with high school kids from North Carolina to Hawaii on their recruiting journey, and I mentor 'em and guide 'em and really try and teach 'em the things you're talking about. It starts with your character. Yeah. Starts with your commitment to your academics for sure. You building routines, all those things you're talking about. But then we really jump into. How important it's to understand your value. Now, doesn doesn't mean your value can change, right? But there's only so many Aaron Judges and Vlad Guerrero's and Kyle Tuckers for sure, right there. There's only so many kids that can play at higher levels, right? So when you're talking to families about you guys aren't middle of the road. You guys are on track to be, one of the best teams in all of division two. When you're talking to these families about how to self evaluate. Yeah. Are you a kid that right now can look at UT Tyler and get a positive response or any other D two? What does that ability look like and how do we self, self-evaluate? Yeah. I think that's tough. I was actually talking, to a dad on the phone this morning. you know about his son. And, it was an honest conversation as far as, man, it's hard. Obviously you want the best for your son, you want him to go to the best place possible. but you also gotta take a step back and look at reality of the situation is, how does he run? what type of athlete is he? I was honest with what we're looking for in athletes that we're bringing in, is this, is he a good baseball player? Yes. But what type of tools does he have that we're looking for? and that can change from year to year as far as, in our league is the wind blows a lot. Sometimes it's out, sometimes it's in. And so we're trying to build a roster, of guys that can run for, if the wind's blowing in, they can play small ball. but also have bangers that can challenge fences when the wind's blowing out. And so it, it changes. And so for some families it's man for us and this year it's not a good fit because we're needing a guy that can really go bang the baseball We need a guy that can really run and play some more defense. It just depends on that current situation of that student athlete. and also what does that family want? are they wanting to go to a place that's gonna win? And you may have to, develop more. Once you get there, it may not be a place that you want to go into, because you do have to wait. And that's what I try to tell families is, man, If you want to go somewhere where you're gonna play right away you may need to change your sights on what you're looking for in a place, or if you're okay with, sitting, but you go to a program that has a little bit more of a winning tradition and has some really talented players that you're gonna have to sit behind. just know that going into it. And that's okay. Neither one of those is right. Neither one of those is wrong. It's about what is that certain family looking for in their experience. That's great. I'm gonna push you a little bit okay. Because I know how hard this is. Yeah. and I get it. let's talk about third baseman, Okay. Kid's got a good arm, good glove. He can stand over there and handle that a hundred mile an hour rocket that's coming his way. How do you know he can play for you? How do you know that? he's probably needs to look at a level, and maybe you're gonna give that a level down. Maybe you're gonna give that family that advice. For sure. Let's talk about what that third baseman looks like to be able to play at your level compared to Trinity. Could D three program. Yeah, for sure. What's that? What's that look like to you? Man, that's a good question. For us, you gotta be able to field the baseball. You gotta be able to make the routine play. if you look at championship teams, what do they do really well? they defend and you're only gonna be as good as your infield is when it comes to defending, and winning championships. And so for us, we've the last couple of years we've had. this year for instance, Mason Hammonds, really good defender. a little bit more of an athletic body, to where he's not gonna be a third baseman, that's just crushing the baseball over the fence. It's gonna be more of a singles doubles guy, but he can really play third base and he has the arm strength, to make a deep backhand play down the line, but he's also really good coming and getting a bun. and then our third baseman before him, the last couple years. Austin Ochoa, who's playing professional baseball now. he was a bigger bodied guy, but he could really defend, field the baseball, had a really good arm, but could also still come and get the slow roller in the bunt. And, when you're building the roster, especially at that position as. you think towards the postseason small ball. it may not be played every weekend throughout the year, but when it gets down to postseason close baseball games there's a tendency for teams to play a little bit more small ball. And so for us with the end goal in mind of playing for championships You're gonna have to have a guy that can defend it over there. and so obviously we're gonna want to get the best offensive player, that we can get, but it may change between being more of a power third baseman or a guy that, is just a good baseball player. And so that can depend on availability and what makes sense in that year for us. When you're looking at your roster coming back next year, what you assume will come back. Because, we never know anymore Are you looking at your roster going, we need a third baseman, but man, we really need a guy that can bat third for us. We really need a guy that can give us. 60 rbis in a season. Does that play a role in your head or do you go, God, that kid can flat out pick it? He's probably gonna be our number eight hitter, but he can flat out pick it. are you having that argument in your head Yeah, absolutely. That's, we return our shortstop, our second baseman. our first baseman, we return a bunch of really good pieces on offense. And so for us, first and foremost is, man, we're gonna want somebody that can defend it over there. and offensively, we've done a good job of developing hitters over the years and whether it's a junior college transfer or a transfer portal, guy. that for us is gonna come first is can he play the position? regardless of whether he is gonna hit in the three hole or the eight hole, or anywhere in between there, the priority for us is a guy that he's gotta be able to do it over at third base for sure. I love it. I love it. I don't think any family truly understands what we're going through when we're watching a kid play. We can fall in love with a kid and I think parents are like he made four great plays at third. He did everything right and there were no errors. He threw everybody out. He went two for four with a double and two rbis. That's not the end all for you, is it? A hundred percent. A hundred percent. You saw that kid play a great game. you went and watched him play live. You've seen him on film. What are you still needing to make before you guys? We'll even think about making an offer. Yeah, I think, man, baseball's a small game. More likely than not, we're gonna have some connection to whoever we're going to watch play, whether it's his junior college coach or if it's a high school kid, his high school coach, his summer ball coach, or his teammates. Maybe it's a player that's already in our program. the guys that are in this program. That played with them, they're gonna know 'em really well, not just on the baseball field, but probably how they are off the field. sometimes our best asset in the recruiting process is our own players. hearing what they have to say about 'em. obviously we're gonna check the kids' character, what type of teammate are they? what's their work ethic those things in our program are so super, super important to us. if you don't have, a strong work ethic man, you're gonna get left behind. and you're first, you're gonna get challenged, man to be better. but you're gonna be held accountable to that as well. And so that's something that on the front end, before we, get down the road Of an offer bringing a kid in on a official visit is, man, we're gonna do our homework. We can obviously see the stuff on the field, but we're gonna try to find out as much information from as many people as possible on, on everything about you. Give me a list of the type of people you've called on a kid. I'd call an English teacher. Yeah. I'd call the guidance counselor. Yeah. Gimme a list of some of the people you've called on a kid, man. just the other day I was on the phone with one of our players, one of his dad. They played some, the kids played summer ball together back in the day. And it may have been. Three, four years ago, but I knew there's a connection. And man, tell me, what did you see as a person on the outside looking in? man, I've called anybody. It may be a next door neighbor. just anybody that has a connection to the kid, man, we're gonna exhaust every resource we have, just to gather as much information, as we possibly can. I love it. you just don't wanna make mistakes. You're looking at so many kids and you wanna make sure. You don't bring a kid in, from your perspective, you don't want the kid to be in the wrong place. For sure. A hundred percent. The kid's not gonna be able to handle your culture. Yeah. Or I was an intense coach, I would tell 'em I'm really intense. Talk to my players, ask them those questions. Make sure that you're comfortable playing for a guy like me, and they'll tell you the truth. My guys would tell you the truth about me. Yeah. No doubt. I'm not your guy. I'm not, don't come here you, I want you to figure some of that out first for sure. how much, when you're talking to people, do you ask about the parents? man, we do, to an extent. yeah, is, that's something that, it's a valuable piece, especially in our program. man, we had a really cool deal the other night celebrating all of our seniors. the other night we did a banquet with them and their parents. we made the seniors when they got called up, their parents went up front with them, while that senior talked, and so It's an important piece, this program. That's something when we bring kids and families in on a visit, and we sit 'em down in this room that I'm sitting in right now, is that something that we talk about is, it's not just about the baseball player that's coming to play here, but it's about your whole family is we want everybody to be invested in this thing because it's so much bigger, than just. This coaching staff or our support staff and the players. our parents do so much behind the scenes as well in supporting our program, and they're a big part of this thing too. I love it. All right, coach. let's talk some, let's get down into the dirt here a little bit. how many kids do you guys like to carry on your roster? We try to stay at no more, than 40 half of those 20 to 24 of those being pitchers, you can't have enough pitching. this past year we went and added a few more guys late with the whole Juco Covid 21 with all the division one guys that had an extra year You just didn't know how many of those were gonna want to keep playing baseball. and then, as it kept unfolding, and more and more of them were going into the transfer portal and we knew that they could make us better, we added a few more on this year's roster. But in an ideal world, we would love to stay at no more than 40. Not every year is an exact number, but we try to keep it under 40. How many of those kids will see the field? Man. one piece of that is injury. Just looking at a roster is you're gonna have injuries every single year. some of those may be season ending before the season even starts, with the way baseball is nowadays, especially with arm injuries, surgeries are more and more common every single year, and that's something that you can't predict. And there's gonna be freshmen that come in that red shirt. And so there's always gonna be a couple red shirts in the program. And then injuries. And so I would say at least 30 guys are gonna see the field, anywhere between 30 and 35 guys at some point, whether it's a pitcher that gets some innings. and it may not be a big amount, but, I wouldn't be surprised just looking on our roster if we've had over 30 guys appear in games this year. 17 hitters and 19 pitchers. Okay. That is really impressive, coach. Yeah. And we're not talking about a whole lot of one inning, one game you've got, I think you're, you've had one pitcher pitching th two pitchers pitching three games. Okay. And you and banning wise, you've had, you've had one hitter in four games and one in eight, and everybody else is 30 plus yeah. Yeah. That's really impressive. do you and coach Porsche, do you have that concerted effort saying, these kids are here, they're busting their tail for us, we're asking so much of them. We know we've got a double header coming up that we should dominate this team. Are you thinking about we gotta get this kid in as a pinch hitter, I gotta get, we gotta get this kid ings at second base. You think about that long term for sure we do. goal one is winning, but also too looking big picture over the course of a season where we're playing four game weekends, that's a lot of baseball. That's a lot of wear and tear on bodies and, What you have to be able to do those things is depth, is where the gap of player. and fortunately for us is, we've got a lot of guys that work extremely hard to develop their game, to make themselves better, to where, A guy that's in the lineup every day, that needs a break. we can give him a break and the drop off is not significant. And having guys in the program that can spot start, pinch, hit, pinch, run, defensive replacement, you know that's so valuable in a program, right? A hundred percent. You gotta have guys that can do it all. and those guys that can. Stay in a mindset of, man, I'm gonna keep working and I'm gonna be ready when my name is called. and that goes back to, the culture of this program is that you have to have guys, there's only nine guys that can be on the field at a time. there's only nine guys that get to hit at a time. and so there's a lot of guys that, are on the outside looking in. But, Our guys have done a great job of staying in a place to where, when their name is called, they've been ready, which is awesome. What's really amazing is you've got, what, nine, 10 kids batting over a thousand OPS, man. Yeah. if typically if you have one or two of those guys right, you've got a pretty good lineup. You've got nine or 10 that have all played 30 plus games. The fact that you're getting so many kids into games with so many great hitters, that's even doubly impressive. So that's really cool. All right. you talked about half of the 40 you want to be pitchers. What are you looking at least, sometimes you might have 22, 23, get it right night, especially when you got four game weekends where you may use 15 pitchers, 16 pitchers in a weekend. For sure. Let's talk about. your utility. what are you looking at when the roster's all said and done? It's September 1st. What do you want it, are you looking for two first base and two second, two short, two third, five or six outfielders? Two, three catchers. What is your makeup of that other 20? That are playing the field. Yeah. one of the things that every single year is, like you said, we wanna be at least too deep at every spot. A catcher that can also play first base is awesome. just because. in our league, going back to it is you can't catch four games in a weekend. No. that's a lot of innings to catch and a lot of wear and tear. being able to have. at least two, or more catchers that can really do it behind the plate. we have five on the roster this year. that's, we need five guys. There's a lot of innings to go around. There's a lot of bullpens to be caught. A lot of live pitcher, catcher, hitters. but for us is having a catcher that has the ability to go play first base can dh, and then, having, a lot of times it's having infielders. Every single year we have an infielder that's transitioned to at least playing some in the outfield. And so that is, always having guys that. can play multiple spots on the infield. I think recruiting shortstops, whether it's a high school kid, or a junior college kid, if they can play shortstop, they can most likely play the other two on each side of 'em, for instance, this year, Bryce Jewel, who's, a high school shortstop, went to another school before coming back, to Tyler Played third, has been primarily a third baseman for us. our first baseman went down with a hamstring injury. and he's been our everyday first baseman, for, two thirds of the season. and it's great to have a first baseman that can play anywhere on the infield. and he's done a great job of making that transition, and winning us some games with his defense at first base. That's awesome. Yeah, and it's, you gotta have the depth, 'cause you guys are gonna play over 50 games this year. Yeah. You're playing sometimes six, seven games in a week and it gets really good competition. When I look at your roster, it's really Texas heavy. Which I don't blame you at all because when you got that much talent around the Tyler area and the Houston, Dallas, Austin area, you don't have to go too far. But you do have some kids that are from far away. Yeah. You've got a couple international kids, you've got some kids that in Colorado. What is your approach in terms of. Not just bringing in talent, but culture building, creating a melting pot, bringing kids in from different parts of the country. are you guys really focused on having 80% of your kids in Texas or is that just the way it happens? Yeah, that's just the kind of the way that it's happened. obviously we have a ton of good baseball in the state of Texas for us, a big thing in recruiting is video is great. Technology is great. Having TrackMan information on kids from other places. All of those things are nice to have. but we love to put our eyes on a guy and watch games, before we like to make a decision. Obviously that's changed a little bit with the transfer portal in the summer is, sometimes all you have is video. A kid may not be playing summer ball. but for us, especially in the fall is. summer and fall is, man, we're out a ton. our whole staff gets out a bunch and we like to put our eyes on guys as much as possible. And so that's why we have some Kansas guys, guys that play junior college baseball, in Kansas. And so we get up to Kansas every fall, spend some time up there. We have. some junior college coaches in Kansas that we have some really good relationships with. obviously if we can't get up there and see 'em, we have some people up there that we can really trust to help us, that we know is gonna give us a good evaluation if we can't make it up there. And that's how the rosters worked out. we've had some international kids over the years. a lot of those internationals. we're junior college kids at some schools in Texas. We have great relationships with the coaches that are there and we trust them. that's just how the rosters worked out, is we're gonna cast a wide net to everywhere that we have connections and contacts shrink that list down and what's left. Coach my, I live in Minnesota. I'm just gonna give you a hypothetical. My son's a really good ball player. Yeah. He'd love to go to Texas. Loved to play at UT Tyler. How do you want him to reach out to you? For sure. Yeah. I think obviously, email is. The probably the best way, especially if there's, I don't have a connection that I don't if there is a connection, obviously that connection is gonna help. We get so many emails every single day, hundreds of emails on kids from all over the world. the biggest thing is, having video, when those emails are sent is huge. if I just see some numbers that, hitting three 50 or whatever the number may be, I don't necessarily know what level of competition that's against, and so how to trust the number. A hundred percent. Yeah. And so being able to, give us as much information about who that student athlete is, numbers, academics, how are they doing in the classroom. And then, video being attached to where I'm not having to go search, search and dig to try to find information. and just giving us as much information in an email as possible is great. Okay. You have a ton of emails. I've sent you an email. I don't get a response. What's your advice to me? I know I want to play for you. I know. I want feedback from you. I haven't, I've sent the email. Two weeks have gone by. Yeah. What do I do? I'll be the first one to say I'm guilty of it happens. Me too. I was too. Yeah. And man, if it's a place that you really want to be, that you think it's somewhere, call my o we have an office phone, the number's listed on the school website, or if you know somebody that knows us, making that connection, trying to find a connection of some sort to where, hey. if I see a number on my phone and I know who it is, I'm a lot more likely to pick up the phone than if it's just a number from Minnesota that I don't know who it is. and so that, and then man, I know there's camps that are out there, whether it's a recruiting camp at our place, or whether it's a tournament that's in Texas. And I think reaching back out, say, Hey, I see that you have a camp coming up. Looking at my video, is this something to where there's interest in that you would like to see more? And so that's another way that's not always an ideal situation. but getting in front of us sometimes is the best evaluation that we're gonna get. 'cause I can only, like I said, is we can only do so much from video. I teach my kids, my baseball recruits. if you're gonna reach out to you. Ask for feedback. Do you think I have the skillset to play for you? Are there things that you think I have to develop if I wanna play at that level? Are you guys open to giving that 32nd, two minute evaluation? For sure. Yeah. I mean I, we're obviously a lot more likely to do that not in the postseason right now, in, in, we're trying to maybe not send you an email in the middle of the playoffs, right? That's right. Yeah, exactly. So we're, working on scouting reports and trying to make sure that we have every piece of information that we can get on that. But man, if it's a summertime, we're out recruiting, we're in recruiting mode in the summertime. And, that's something that I've done before and I think. if I get a video and it's a junior that's throwing 78 miles per hour, That's not gonna be a good fit for us, right? It may be for some, and there's programs that, you know, that, that may be interested in that. being willing to do that, but also being okay with, okay, this isn't an option. and moving on to the next school on the list. I preach this to kids and to parents. When you reach out to a coach, you're looking for three outcomes. They wanna recruit you, they like you, and they wanna start that journey. Yeah. They don't like you and or they just don't have a fit for you. But they've, they're telling you that for sure. Or they're willing to give you any type of advice or feedback on your game. Strengths, weaknesses, whatever. All those are golden nuggets. If you can get that from a coach and if they tell you they're not interested, you need to celebrate that because that's now a program you can take off your list. You don't have to worry about it. Yeah. Move on to the other schools on your list. For sure. and I think the big, a big piece for us is having a summer schedule, especially if it's summertime or fall schedule because, we're out a ton and if you send me an email and I have some video, I may just be like, ah, I don't really have a good eval from video, but. If you also send your schedule and I see that you're gonna be at a tournament that we're gonna be at. I'm gonna make a note in my folder of that, okay, hey, this kid was interested in us. when I see that team play, I at least know that kid's interested. I'm gonna pay a little bit more attention, to that player when he's on the field versus a kid that he doesn't know anything about our program. but I like him, versus a kid that I know he is interested, so I'm gonna pay that kid a little bit extra attention, to see if it is a good fit. Yeah, that's right. You don't have to convince him to look at your school. they've done research, right? They've sent you everything you need. All right, two more questions, coach. I'm gonna let you go. You've been awesome. video. I just hated it when kids sent me game footage. I wanted repetition. I wanted to see, can you repeat it? Yes. You can hit a double off the wall against a kid throwing 72 mile an hour. I don't know what this kid can do on the mound. What do you want to see on film? and technology's grown a ton in the last, decade especially. Hitters at times can be more difficult to evaluate on film than pitchers. if it's a pitcher is man, if you have game footage, is having a radar gun in the video to where it's not game film and then typing, Hey, I was. 89 and 92 in this game is if it's possible to game footage with a radar gun in the video to where I can see, okay, there's a stalker radar gun right there. And that pitch was actually 89. if it's game footage and it's a pitcher, I think that's important, to be able to have that in there. does that same with practice footage? Yeah, even practice footage. If it's a bullpen and there's a radar gun in there, whatever. Yeah. Practice footage, a scrimmage or whatever is. us being able to see data in a video, that's gonna catch my attention more than some game footage with you typing in. And then, a lot of places, training facilities nowadays or junior colleges, They have Rapsodo technology, track man, those sorts of things is being able to attach. Maybe it is a bullpen. and then you get your PDF report of your bullpen or your inner squad that day. Just now we're getting into. if it's a pitcher, knowing that it's a 90 mile per hour fastball, but is it a four seam ride fastball, that really spins, or is it a sinker ball that really sinks and having the data to back that up? And then also, if it's a hitter and you have Soto is, how hard are you consistently hitting the baseball? what's your max exit be low? That exit velocity isn't everything, but it gives us a better idea of. how hard is a guy impacting the baseball? Absolutely. I love it. Coach, give one piece of advice to families are going through this recruiting process. we could take UT Tyler out of it. what do you think a family needs to hear when they're starting this journey and their kid really wants to play at the next level. What piece of advice would you give them? Man, that's. I think the biggest thing is I would talk to the student athlete first to make sure, man, is this what you really want to do? and if the answer to that is, I. I don't know. It's, man, you need to make sure that this is what you want to do before you start exhausting, whether it's your personal time to, to put in the time that you need to develop as a baseball player. if you're not sure if you want to, you're gonna end up at some place. And man, if you don't really want to do it and you really don't want to get up for 6:00 AM waits or 7:00 AM waits. You're not gonna last. I think that's the biggest thing for the student athlete. First is man, make sure it's really what you want to do before you start going down this road. especially if your parents are gonna be willing to spend a bunch of money taking you to tournaments, getting you lessons, buying you really nice equipment, making sure that it's something that you want to do first off. When I was a junior college coach, for example, when, we had guys in our program that were going to the next level, it was, Hey man, gimme the top five division one schools. You want to go to division two, division three, NAIA. So build out that list Everybody wants to go play division one baseball. Everybody wants to play in the big leagues, right? Not everybody's going to, and so be open to a bunch of really good options at a bunch of really good levels. I don't care if it's division one, division two, division three NAI, junior college. The top of all of those divisions is really good baseball. It doesn't matter which one it is. And so then it becomes, man, are you good enough to play at this level? Or, I'm not good enough to play at this level, but I'm good enough to play over here. and being open to different options. If you're just dead set on one thing, chances are more likely than not, it's probably not gonna reach out if you only have five schools that you're willing to go to. odds are that those five schools, you aren't gonna be a good fit for them. And so being willing and open to being realistic to your options is a big piece, of the puzzle. I wrote this book, coach significant recruiting. You just talked about chapter one and chapter two, so thank you. what families need to understand is kids get drafted out of all of those divisions Every single year. Yukon who made the World Series two years ago, had nine kids that transferred Division three To Division one. To help them get to the national championship. It says a lot about your program and how you guys go about your business. Coach, thank you so much for your time today. It was great advice. It was great insight and any family that's listening to this, if you're not paying attention, this is how college coaches recruit and they're caring about your kid and they're caring about your journey. So great stuff, coach. Thank you. Matt, thanks for having me on, man. I really appreciate it. I can't wait to see the next three, four weeks for you guys. We'll be cheering for you. Awesome. us too, man. We're excited to get after it and get rolling. Good luck, coach. Thank you. That wraps up the very first significant recruiting bonus episode. A big thank you to Coach Taylor White from UT Tyler for sharing his perspective on what matters most in today's recruiting process and how he helps student athletes succeed at the next level. If you're not yet a subscriber, head to coach matt rogers.com or the podcast page to join us for weekly recruiting insights. While you're there, you can grab a copy of significant recruiting, check out the latest blog or schedule your free one-on-one session with me. Thanks again for listening. Let's keep building your journey with significance.