Camilo Gutierrez: Developing The Love for The Game & The Process

In this episode, Camilo Gutierrez shares his personal journey from being the smallest player on every team to becoming a dedicated baseball and strength coach. Camilo dives deep into what it takes to develop a true love for the game, focusing on the importance of embracing the process—both on and off the field. From skill development to mental toughness, listeners will learn how passion and discipline can shape a player's career and drive them toward success at any level. Whether you’re a young athlete or a coach, this episode is packed with insights on mastering both the game and the grind.

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- Hello everybody. Welcome to the very first episode of the Youth Sports podcast, where we provide parents with the stories, tips, and expert advice they need to guide their kids through today's youth sports. For our very first episode, I had a great chat with Camilo Gutierrez, a local Sacramento baseball and strength coach. So get this, we're about the same height, which made it even cooler to hear how he made a name for himself as one of the smaller guys on every team he played on all the way up to the University of Texas. So I hope you guys enjoy his episode. Camila's Passion for Baseball really shines through and is awesome to see how he's now helping young players build their skills and love for the game of baseball. All right, enough talk. Let's start the show. All right. We are here, the Youth Sport podcast. Before we start, I asked you to take a look at the VHS's back there. Yes. Tell me why you picked ET back there, bro.- ET was a great movie. That was probably when I was about seven years old. Maybe. It had a little bit of everything.- Yeah. What, what was your favorite part, do you think?- Favorite part, probably the saddest part when you went home after, you know, building up a friendship with Elliot and his family and you know, getting to see that Elliot and his family helping him. Just that that whole relationship, you know, kind of reminds you, you know, it turns it into a story about, you know, friends, helping friends and then helping someone reach their goal. Yeah. You know, whatever it is. Whether it's to get home or, you know, to make a team or, it was just, it was a pretty special movie, man. 'cause- It, it said a lot about people and relationships in that movie. So, so have you watched it since, you know, you're an adult now?- I wanna say I watched it with my boys, Tommy and Max. They're five and six. They're at that- Age. Love it when you're watching it as a kid, you're like, whoa, this is cool. Now you're like, whoa. Like the relationship between the brothers and the mom. Yeah. You know, et gets drunk one time, so there, there's a beer, you know, just stuff like that.- Yeah. A lot of different youth aspects of youth that are introduced to kids at that age are, but that's interesting. Yeah. It is deep because it's interesting that, that they did have a mother who is a single mother and they're like, latchkey kids, prepping what's gonna happen where, you know, the families do work and that kind of goes into youth, youth sports. Yeah. The time required to coach a team or even to get your kids to sports practices. Like a, it has its challenges and me growing up, it didn't seem like that was a challenge back then. It seemed a little easier. It seemed more laid back.- Right, right. Why do you think?- I think just things are different. I mean, obviously there was a, a time when one single income can, you know, you can take care of a family, two kids and live in a decent neighborhood, and now there's two and two parents and they gotta make a certain amount to provide. Yep. And so that's the challenge itself too, you know, so I see that, I see the differences and I grew up in how my boys are, are growing up. And so there's challenges more on the, these parents today because of the, you know, the resources that re it requires to, to raise kids and, and, and spend enough time with 'em to influence 'em in the right way.- Yeah. So, no, for sure. And leads me to one of our talking points of, you know, how do you think playing youth sports prepares for life lessons In today's world?- I, I, sports are very important, especially when they're cutting back on physical education programs. Just physical movement in general for whether you're a kid or an adult. It's very important to stay physical and you develop, you know, certain qualities. Challenging, you know, sprinting, running, carrying heavy things, challenging yourself physically and knowing you can do it compared to like, you know, getting challenge faced with some type of challenge like that and, and not knowing if you can do it or being uncomfortable and then not completing it. So whatever sport they play, they're gonna, that sport's gonna teach them what they need to know as a coach, kind of break it down a little bit more and showing 'em what, like, you know, like showing up on time, showing up early, being prepared. You gotta go out there and give your best effort because you don't, you're not playing for yourself, you're playing for a whole team. And so, you know, just like work, you know, if I'm working with a team that people are relying on me to get a certain job done and I'm not a good team player, then they're not gonna be able to count on me. Yeah. And so we're not gonna, I'm not gonna get to play at play my job at work. Yeah,- For sure.- Or play on the field. So I kind of correlate that, you know, if I need a guy, you know, just correlate to baseball. If I need a guy to bunt, have him understand that I'm not having a bunt because he's a bad hitter, I'm having a butt. Because it helps.- Yeah.- It helps pressure the defense, it helps with our offense, you know, and then I correlate, you know, sometimes you're gonna do things you don't wanna do, but it's, it's for the, it's for the team. It's for work or it's for family. Right.- The greater- Good. Yeah. The great. Yeah.- So when you hear parents' goals versus what kids really need to succeed, what does that mean to you?- I played baseball. I had, I, you know, I'm lucky to have two, two boys because I'm like, oh, they can play baseball. Well,- Yeah,- I, I never pushed it on 'em. Like, they gotta play and there's, you know, probably some dad that like, yeah, you gotta play. Like, you know, like I did. I just put out bats, gloves, and balls when they're little, had it around them. And if they don't wanna play, then kind of not push it, but always kind of encourage, have them do things that they're gonna enjoy. So they both enjoy soccer. They both enjoy flag football. They both enjoy baseball. It's what sport they, they they gravitate towards.- Yep. - But also it's, it's nurturing the baseball too. And they want to go out there and they wanna play on their own.- Yeah. - Like Max, he wants to play catch every day. Yeah. So we're out there every day playing catch and he wants me to back up. He wants me to like throw the ball hard to him. He is like, no, that's too- Easy. That's your 5-year-old.- Yeah, 5-year-old. Yeah. So he got the bug and he's starting to hit and he's starting to crush.- Yeah.- And it's, it's like, man, dude, like I'm getting tired bro. And I go, but it's at the same time, I'm like, he wants to go out there and do it. I'm gonna go out there and play catch and then,- Right.- It's really just letting 'em make bad throws, good throws and just like, I'm just catching for a man.- Now you have experience playing the game. You have your kids, you train other kids. What is being a person first and an athlete second mean to you?- My son got hit with a pitch. He didn't want to go out. I'm like, dude, like, you're not gonna, you're gonna sit the bench, you're not gonna play. So I talked to him and had him see that he needs to go out and play defense with his team because he is, they're both really good. It's not babying him and giving him special treatment because they're good. It's pushing him through and expecting more from them and being a part of the team. Because I can easily say, oh, like, you know, he's this good. So he, he he can get special treatment? No, he's just a regular person, man. Like, he still has to, he has to, you know, conform to the team rules and what we're doing.- Yeah.- 'cause 'cause I had to teach him about picking up balls. Like he hits- Shagging,- Like, dude, yeah, you gotta go shag, man. Like, come on.- Yeah.- So just like, no one's gonna want to hit with you if you don't Shaq balls or if you don't help them get better. Oh, back to playing catch.- Yeah. - So I'll play, I'll play catch with Max, he's five and just let him throw and make bad throws. But he's, he's pretty good. He's like, oh, sorry for bad throw. I'm like, don't worry about it.- Yeah.- Make, let him make bad throws. Mm. Because that's what practice is.- Yeah, yeah. Yeah.- Making bad throws in practice and then obviously just doing what you do in the game.- Yeah. Yeah.- But Tommy, I'm like, dude, like he tries to pitch. Yeah. Like Dennis Eckersley, he'll try to throw like different pitch. I'm like, and then I'm like, dude, this took me a strike.- Yeah. Yeah.- So I kind of like, Hey dude, just throw me some strikes today, man.- Yeah. Yeah. - I don't feel like wearing it off the knees today, but little stuff like that.- Yeah. That's interesting that you say that.'cause the last time J and I went out and played some catch, he was kind of throwing it all over the place and I easily got frustrated. So I take a second and tell myself, all right. You know, that's why we bring'em to coaches like yourself. But it's really good to hear that, you know, practice, this is what it's for. Right. Like you said, what's your approach in working with kids? You know, having patience like that.- My approach is that this game is very hard. And so, and I also looked at the long, the long game is me building a relationship with my sons. And so- Yeah.- I'm not gonna put baseball ahead of the relationship. Yeah. And if anything, it would be like, Hey, we can share baseball. They might not be good at it, but we can go to a ball game and enjoy that little window of communication where going to a ball game or talking about baseball can bring us together to open us up to other conversations about life and what, you know, love that. What, where they need guidance at. And so, yeah. I looked at it as like, Hey, it's something we can do and share together for a lifetime. Yeah. Whether they're good at it, it's, it doesn't matter. The relationship I have between my boys is first.- Yeah.- So Max is probably playing more catch in baseball. Then Tommy, Tommy will get out there now they fight over time.- Yeah. - Like, oh dad, I want you to just play with me.- Right- Now. They're sharing time, but Max is probably getting more reps in. And then Tommy is, he likes to pitch more than hitting. Yeah. So I'm like, I just like let it go. Yeah. If he wants to go out there and hit and hit, but we go to the cages, we go, we do the baseball camps and- Stuff. Yeah.- It's not as regimented. It's still where they, it's their choice. Like, Hey, we're gonna play. But they understand. I really reiterate like, Hey, if you wanna practice, if you practice, you're gonna get better.- Yeah. - You're gonna practice, you're gonna get better.- For sure. Oh, that reminds me, we went and visited an all-star event for Pocket Little League last season. They had really cool music playing. They were taking photos, team photos. They had food. It was kind of like, like a pot lot picnic. And Geo just had a really good time watching the older kids. The one thing when we were leaving, he said, I want to be an all star. And I was like, yeah, cool. Like, those kids were having some fun, right? But I guess it was that he wanted to draw on the window of a car with a marker, his number and his name. So we really like that. So again, anything that you know, gets them going Right.- That's the experience of it. And that's what the kids will take home. It's like, Hey, I want to hit a home run'cause I wanna take a ball home. Yeah. Like that could be a, a good motivator.- Right.- Tommy and Max got to go to Land Park, the TOC, they won TOC with eight players and like, it was pretty awesome to watch. And so they're, they come from the losers bracket. And then the very last game, there's like, there's a lot of fans there for the TOC and the last pitch of the game. You know, the, the last out, all the kids run onto the field and that's an experience. And my boys are there. They get to watch it to see like, hey man, like you can experience this like, you know, this, this fun game at a high level. Even if it's little league man, you still gotta do, whether you're in big leagues are t-ball. You still gotta throw the ball. You gotta catch the ball. Gotta hit the ball.- Attention supporters of youth sports, were on the lookout for sponsors who share the same passion for empowering athletes and educating parents. Each episode we bring you tips and insights from coaches, parents, and players all focus on character development and safe and positive sports environments. We need people to join our mission by sponsoring our show. Please reach out to me, Aaron Zaragoza at az producing@gmail.com and let's team up and make a difference in use sports. Now let's get back to the show. Are you an Ace fan or- I'm a baseball fan. I grew up watching the Ace'cause they're on tv Yeah. All the time and the Giants. So- Yeah.- And now when people ask me, I'm like, I'm just a, like, if there's a game on, I just appreciate the game for sure. I don't really have like a specific player. Yeah. I mean maybe Aaron Judge or some guys that I know, but if there's a game on, I'll watch- It. That's cool. Yeah, for- Sure. But it's not like, yeah. Like I gotta, I watch all these games. Yeah. But when I get time I'll, yeah. I like to enjoy a game.- I think it was Nick. Yeah. Nick was like, I tell Jackson, pick one player and just watch that player the whole time. Okay. And how that person is holds himself. I think he was at the Rivercat game. Yeah. And that's what he told him. Just pick one of these players and just watch that player.- Yeah.- The whole game. And I was like, oh, that's cool. And- Nick said that, or you said, Nick said that. Nick. Nick said that. Yeah. That's, that's interesting.'cause I, I grew up watching guys that were my build my style play or who I wanna play with. And I watched 'em. Like I, I kept track of all the guys who got drafted outta Sacramento. I kept track of all the middle and fielders in the major leagues. What are they bring, what are they bringing? Who they, who, who's coming up. That's cool. I look for all the guys that didn't have a lot of height, but were competing for jobs. I'm like, so I knew that, okay, it's gonna open up for me. And it's, it's getting guys to use visualization and see something that they like believing in something that they cannot see and working towards it every day. And know that it's gonna come to Fruitation if they continue to work. And getting guys to, to believe that and work, work that much harder, knowing that each day gets 'em better, gets 'em closer to their goal.- Right.- And that will happen.- Where did you play and and how far did you go with past youth- Sports? So I grew up, my, my neighbors, my childhood friends, we played in the front yard and we played, we just played pickup ball. I think I was like five, four or five when I started. We just go out there and play and I would just go out there and play. And then I think I, I, I started playing either eight or seven, which nowadays is like late- Right.- Because I started my boys at four.- Right, for sure.- And they were young.- Yeah, yeah. Yeah.- And they just pushed 'em out there and did it. So there was Oak Ridge Little League, which is located right off of Sutterville, right behind the children's receiving home. And they had a good setup. They had a minor league filled, which is a little bit shorter than the 12 u minor major league, the majors division. And then they had a senior division, which was the big field's, 90 foot bases. It was a pretty good league. And I played there. I played farm, which we played in jeans, trucker hats, and just like,- Yeah.- Jerseys. We were the Dodgers and I, I wore jeans and some white rubber turfs from Payless. Crazy. Yeah. For sure. And for sure pitched and played. I loved the game. And played, I think I was eight or seven and then went to minors, played there and just, just fell in love with the game man. That's it. That's all I wanted to do is just play baseball. I share a lot of the, the process, like no matter what, like really good baseball players, they just like to play catch. Yeah. And if it's taking ground balls or hitting, they're enjoying that for enjoying that. Like even when I'm playing catch with my sons, I go, man, I go, I'm probably playing catch with a major. I'm, I get to play catch with a major leaguer.- Yeah. - So I'm already filling his mind with like, you're gonna be a major leaguer. That's cool. Like, you're gonna do this. Like this is gonna happen. Now obviously there's gonna be distractions, but enjoying playing catch Yeah. For the sake of just playing catch.- Yeah. - Because I know that, oh, I can really go, oh well we're doing this to get here. That has to be the, it has to be reversed.- Yeah.- Play catch to play, catch- Nice- And enjoy playing catch.- I like that.- Yeah. And enjoy hitting like hit, hit the ball.'cause he's getting to a stage where hitting the ball is fun. Like, I'm just making contact. Like Yeah. It's fun- Right- Now he's starting to drive the ball.- Yeah.- And now he's, he's grown now he's like, oh, that's a foul tip. Okay. But it's getting guys to, to, to love the process.'cause a lot of nowadays is like, I'm doing this to get this. Yeah. If we love the pro, like you love the process of doing this, setting up the video.- Yeah.- Putting a film, telling a story. Right. And seeing the conversation unfold. Like that's pretty cool. Like, I'm like, and just going through my podcast and I'm like, man, this is kind of like a serious podcast. Like it is like it's flowing and it's good because we're just in the moment chilling and we're sharing like some good information and I'm like, okay, I'm not trying to be anything that I'm not. I'm just sharing information. It's like a genuine conversation, which is like pretty cool. Yep. But going back to the eight u and I, I go, man, the coaches were like, yeah, it's kind of a different game'cause it's coach pitch, so it's more offensive and you gotta have a defense that can catch fly balls and get it back to the pitcher.- Yeah.- So it's like, yeah. So it's a different's baseball, but a different game. Right. So I'm like, okay, we're going to, you know, put the best lineup out there and get these guys ready. And so we got to the final game. We beat the team that beat that won it last year, which was East Sacramento. We beat him and then we got a, and then we, and then we played for the last game. And then we didn't, we didn't have it, man.- Yeah. Who, who- We ran outta gas isac. So we beat him.- Then you had to beat him again- And we had to beat him again in the last game. Right. So we played like six games and like eight days. But I shared on my Instagram posts, I go, man, this is like, there's no difference between playing at University of Texas, SAC City or McClatchy because like, this is the game. Yeah. This kid, like some of'em might not play next year. This is the memory that they're gonna remember this awesome game that they'll remember for the rest of their life. And so, and we still like, we gotta play catch, got those strikes, gotta put the ball and play and there's no difference. And I go, man, it was like a roller coaster to see these guys play really good baseball. Right. And so I go, man, I was just really happy to be a part of that experience and help and share that experience with these, these kids that can experience this type of baseball.- Yeah.- Which is pretty cool.- Could tell you care. You know? And that's really cool to hear.'cause you know, I always, what comes to mind going back to video world, right? Making short films in high school, making things in college with no money, going on a independent movie with worth$50,000. You know, they're taking it seriously. Like that person's lighting, that person's doing this.- Oh yeah.- And then go in, I spend my- Time. Yeah. You're meeting people at different that love to do it what they- Do. But this is the kicker, what you just said when you said University of Texas, I found myself in LA working on a remake movie. I was a pa you know, a little guy on set of a $25 million movie. The same thing when I experienced this is just making a movie. People coming together love for the love of collaboration, film acting writers. The biggest difference was, you know, dressing rooms and ac and food.- Their approach felt the same. Approaches the same. Yeah. Their their their attention to- Detail. Yeah.- Because that's a part that's their, that's their creativity.- Right.- And even if- Anything, it is almost lost in the Hollywood because, because of the too much money. You know- What I mean? Well, well they're trying to push a- It's a business.- Yeah. It's a business. And they want to push a certain story to create a certain result. Which is like, you know, they know that they could produce this story with these actors and they already got the data to like, if we just post this, then we'll get a certain minimal we'll get is this and we'll make enough money. Exactly. 'cause I go the difference between like eighties and even like earlier movies, like 67, there's a storyline. Yeah,- That's true.- Like storyline. Yeah. And it was so much different. And I can see it's just like so fast. Like it's like,- Dude, it's funny you just said that.'cause this movie was the remake of fame,- The- Eighties, I think it was the eighties was the storyline. Yeah. And this remake was crap. Sorry,- I can well- Not say crap. It was just too fast. I know You mean it was a music video, bro.- Yeah, yeah. No, I know that because fame that, that's a good, that was a good, it's deep stuff. TV show deep, deep. Like- Yeah.- That was real,- Real.- That was real good acting. Yeah. Real good stories.- Yeah. Stuff.- Those are people doing their craft. Yep. And getting the, they're getting the best of the best. Yep. And now I don't, I mean, it's different man. Yeah, yeah. It's, it's different. It's- Different for sure. Going back to those kids. I feel like I saw that with the Land Park All Star team this year, the 12 view. Yeah. It was just like they didn't make it. But that's such a successful season- I feel. Oh yeah. Just to experience. So I'm on the, I'm on the board and I wanted to share, I go,- Yeah,- They're, they're playing their best, giving their best effort. And I go, what they truly got outta that was that if we play our best every single pitch of every out, I can be really good every day. And so one of the things that I leave with, with my guys, I go, if you give your best effort every day, you're the best. Yeah. And they're like, yeah, you're the best. Every coach is gonna wanna put you in because they can trust you that you're giving your best. That's, that's it, man. And if you give your best effort, you're gonna surpass your limitations and you're gonna improve over a period of time. Rick Rubin talks about the same concept of like, he's all there. You know, it's just a love of what you do. And there's no timeframe of getting there too. It's just like you get there when you get there. Right. And it's really, the hard work is just a side effect of the, the labor of love of what you're doing and what you're applying to. And then they get there. So one story I work with Justin Peoria's, like uncle or cousin, he's a family member from Woodland and he talks about how Justin like gets

to the park at like 8: 22:48

00 AM

or 9: 22:50

00 AM He's working out, taking ground balls, hitting, doing all this base preparation for the game at night. And then he's like, he's all, that's the, that's the favorite stuff. He loves, he loves just take doing extra bp Gotcha. Ground balls hitting- Yeah.- Being there early. So he's there from in the morning until night. Yeah. Until the game. And he's all the game is just icing on the, on the cake.- Yeah.- And that's, that was like, that hits me. Like, I was like, wow, that's pretty awesome man. So it's me learning. I'm like, oh man, I, and they go, I could have put more in, I could have put more in.- Right. - Even learning about Albert ols, they said that he, he did like, he took like 500 swings before the game. Yeah. Geez. I was like, dude. Yeah. So that shows me, I'm like, I coulda did way more.- Now before we let you go, we like to end this episode with a question, very important question. Camilo, why do you coach?- I'd say this like, I was able to maximize my talents because I just loved the game and I believed in the game and I, I was right there. I was right there and I made some, some bad mistakes in my, in, in college, but I was always the smallest on every team. But I was a starter and I competed at a high level. I played for the best coaches. And if I can do it, like I just share the message that if you're willing to just work and love the game and you know, deal with the ups and downs of the sport, that you can make it really, like my mission is to help get guys to the major leagues play at the highest level. And it's really, it's really not even that too, it's play at the highest level that they want. So they wanna be awesome and in little league then they can do that. If they wanna be awesome in travel ball, then they can do that and know that, that that's a good goal. If they wanna be awesome in high school or make the team, then they can do that. It's getting guys to believe in themselves and to play as long as they can. And that there's always, there's always coaches looking for guys that are willing to give their best effort and, and help the team. And so yeah man, I, I did it and I'm the smallest dude on the team competing against major leaguers at University of Texas and, you know, and so I've been there, I've done it. And I get to share my experience with, with the youth baseball in Sacramento. Yeah. Because that's, that's where it's at. It's growing, growing ball, ball players up. Yeah. And that's it. So- Yeah. I love it, bro. Well thank you again for sharing. Alright. You know, again, this won't be the last time we'll have you on. I'm sure we could go down many a rows. We'll have Nick on sometime soon.- Oh yeah,- There's that, the third spot right there for him.- I know, Nick.- Yeah. Where you in now? What's up? We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll chat more about other things, man. But appreciate your time and your input. I hope people learned out there and yeah. We'll, we'll go onto the next one, man. Thank you. All right. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for listening to the very first episode of Youth Sport Podcast. A big shout out to Camilo for joining us. We hope you all gain valuable tips and insights and don't forget to subscribe on wherever you get your podcasts. We are also on Instagram, and you could watch a video version of the show on our YouTube page. Links are in the show notes. Most importantly, join us next time as we continue to explore diverse voices in youth sports. Keep supporting and empowering young athletes. We'll see you on the field.