Episode Description

Youth sports are supposed to belong to the kids. But somewhere between travel teams, rankings, private training, recruiting, money, and adult expectations, it can become difficult to tell whose experience it really is.

Frank Decembrino, founder of Clubhouse Baseball Academy and longtime leader of the Boilermakers baseball program, joins Rhett for a candid conversation about the business and culture surrounding youth baseball. Frank brings the perspective of a former teacher, high school coach, program director, business owner, and father who recently watched his own son finish high school baseball and move on to the college level.

They talk about transparency in travel sports, development versus marketing, private equity entering youth sports, parents trying to remove adversity, and why adults sometimes interfere with the very experiences that could help kids grow. For parents and coaches trying to navigate a complicated system, this conversation is less about finding the perfect program and more about asking better questions.

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Guest Resources

• Clubhouse Baseball Academy

• Instagram: @clubhousebaseballacademy

• Instagram: @decembrino7

Key Takeaways

• Being profitable and profiteering are not the same thing. Sustainable programs need money to invest in coaches, facilities, and development. Exploiting families simply because the market allows it is something different.

• Marketing can make it difficult for parents to know who actually developed an athlete. Being part of one weekend in a player’s journey is not the same as being responsible for everything that came before it.

• Parents can accidentally remove the most valuable part of sports by constantly intervening. Playing time, positions, mistakes, accountability, and uncomfortable conversations can become part of how athletes learn to navigate life.

• Not every kid needs the biggest travel organization or highest-profile opportunity. Little League, town baseball, development programs, national organizations, and different competitive levels can all have value for different athletes.

• Parents cannot manufacture an athlete’s passion. Eventually the drive to keep playing has to belong to the player, especially as the game becomes more demanding.

Soundbites

“There’s a big difference between being profitable for sustainability… and there’s profiteering.”

“If you’re fortunate enough to be a part of that story, celebrate it. But don’t try to make it look like it’s because of you.”

“You only get one time in your life to play for your town or your school.”

“Sometimes you gotta let those experiences happen without interference.”

“You can’t force passion and the mentality of a high-level athlete.”

Episode Breakdown with Timestamps

Watch on YouTube or Listen on Apple or Spotify and follow along

[00:00] From Teacher and Coach to Building a Baseball Program

• Frank shares his background as a health and physical education teacher and longtime high school baseball coach.

• His first camps were not created as a business strategy. They started because he wanted younger players in his community to receive better instruction.

• What eventually became Clubhouse Baseball Academy and the Boilermakers grew slowly through relationships, teaching, and demand from families.

• Frank explains why education remained the foundation even as baseball became his full-time business.

[03:47] Building the Boilermakers Without Knowing His Son’s Path

• Frank’s son Frankie grew up around the program, but Frank emphasizes that the organization was not created specifically for him.

• Early Boilermakers teams grew organically from players and families already connected through training.

• Frank describes intentionally keeping the program small and developing coaches before expanding.

• The conversation highlights how different youth sports can feel when growth happens because families trust the people involved rather than because an organization is chasing scale.

[09:44] Why Travel Baseball Isn’t Automatically Good or Bad

• Rhett and Frank discuss how travel sports often get reduced into simple categories: travel ball is bad, Little League is good, or vice versa.

• Frank argues that bad actors often receive the most attention while quietly responsible programs get grouped into the same criticism.

• Their larger point is that families need to evaluate the people, values, environment, and promises of an individual program.

• Youth sports rarely fit neatly into the categories adults want them to.

[10:58] Profitability vs. Profiteering

• Frank explains why youth sports businesses have to generate enough revenue to survive and reinvest.

• He makes an important distinction between earning a sustainable profit and exploiting demand simply to increase margins.

• Facilities, coaches, programming, insurance, infrastructure, and staffing all cost money.

• Transparency becomes especially important when families are being asked to make significant financial commitments.

[13:17] The Questions Parents Should Be Asking

• Rhett argues that transparency has very little to do with social media posts, rankings, or a 13U team’s record.

• Families should understand costs, expectations, roster construction, coaching, pickup players, playing opportunities, and what an organization actually provides.

• A polished online presence can sometimes hide the questions that matter most.

• The conversation challenges parents to look beyond winning percentages and marketing when deciding where their child belongs.

[14:13] When a Kid’s Journey Becomes Someone Else’s Marketing

• Frank discusses his discomfort when organizations take too much credit for an athlete’s success.

• Coaches and programs can absolutely contribute to development without pretending they created the player.

• Rhett points to the common practice of organizations claiming successful athletes who may have only played a handful of games with them.

• Celebrating an athlete is different from using that athlete’s success to sell a program.

[17:02] Why Development Needs Somewhere to Happen

• Frank explains why a facility became an important part of the Boilermakers’ development model.

• Having a consistent home gives athletes opportunities to train both independently and with coaches.

• Development is more than putting together a team and entering tournaments.

• Frank also acknowledges that the right environment looks different depending on geography, resources, and the needs of the athletes.

[19:42] It Takes a Village to Develop an Athlete

• Frank pushes back against the idea that one coach, program, or organization deserves all the credit for a player’s success.

• Athletes may learn something meaningful from someone who coaches them for ten years or someone who works with them for one weekend.

• The strongest reputation often comes quietly through former players telling others, “Go there. They’ll help you.”

• Genuine relationship currency cannot easily be manufactured through marketing.

[21:05] The FOMO Driving Youth Baseball

• Frank describes the emotional weight carried by people who genuinely care about running youth sports programs.

• Coaches and operators worry about development, families, finances, expectations, and whether athletes are getting what they need.

• Meanwhile, families are constantly exposed to messages suggesting their child may fall behind.

• Frank explains why the program still tries to protect opportunities for younger kids to play community baseball rather than turning every season into travel baseball.

[22:33] Your Kid Doesn’t Need Every Opportunity

• Rhett talks about being criticized for allowing his son to continue playing Little League.

• Frank and Rhett agree there can be tremendous value in local baseball and tremendous value in national-level programs.

• The difficult part is accepting that those environments are not meant for every athlete.

• Sometimes youth sports becomes unhealthy because adults assume more exposure, more travel, or a bigger logo must automatically mean better development.

[23:07] Private Equity Enters Youth Sports

• Rhett introduces the growing conversation around outside investment and private equity in youth sports.

• Frank does not dismiss investment completely. Capital and infrastructure can help strong operators grow.

• His concern is what happens when unrealistic financial expectations collide with relationship-driven youth sports businesses.

• Raising prices without increasing value eventually puts families and programs in an uncomfortable position.

[24:15] Why Youth Sports Doesn’t Scale Like a Normal Business

• Frank explains that many youth sports organizations were built organically around one coach, leader, facility, or community.

• Injecting capital does not automatically make those organizations easy to scale.

• The number of athletes, geography, relationships, staffing, coaching quality, and local competition create natural limits.

• Trying to force rapid financial growth can pull operators away from the very thing that made the program successful.

[26:26] The Economics Families Rarely See

• Frank recalls putting his own house on the line to secure his first facility.

• He explains that many respected youth sports operators are not becoming extraordinarily wealthy.

• Margins can be thin while the emotional responsibility remains enormous.

• The conversation adds nuance to the common belief that everyone charging money in youth sports must be exploiting families.

[27:30] Do the Adults Running the Program Actually Care?

• Rhett reflects on his years running tournaments and the stress that came when something went wrong.

• Umpires, coaches, fields, parents, schedules, and athlete experiences can all create problems that someone has to solve.

• One useful question for families is whether the people leading the organization genuinely lose sleep when they fail to deliver.

• Caring does not guarantee perfection, but indifference tells families something important.

[30:13] Why Parents Assume the Worst

• Frank discusses how difficult it becomes when parents view every decision through the lens of their own child.

• At younger ages, playing time and positions can feel enormously important to families.

• As athletes get older, communication often shifts naturally toward the player.

• That autonomy can create a healthier relationship between athletes, coaches, and programs because the athlete begins owning the experience.

[33:40] What Parents Are Getting Wrong

• Frank’s biggest message to parents is surprisingly simple: sometimes you have to surrender your child to the experience.

• Parents do not know everything happening inside the dugout, at practice, or in conversations between teammates and coaches.

• Constantly trying to manage playing time, positions, or outcomes can remove opportunities for athletes to advocate for themselves.

• Frank acknowledges how difficult this can be when you love your child and naturally want things to go well.

[34:08] Don’t Snowplow the Adversity Away

• Losing a position or sitting after repeatedly missing a sign may feel painful in the moment.

• Frank believes those experiences can teach accountability that reaches far beyond baseball.

• He makes an important distinction between normal competitive adversity and legitimate safety or welfare concerns.

• The goal is not to ignore problems. It is to recognize which problems kids may actually benefit from navigating themselves.

[36:35] Coaching Your Own Kid Without Controlling Everything

• Frank explains how he handled coaching around his own son.

• He intentionally removed himself from certain decisions, including the batting order.

• He admits that watching your own child compete creates emotions no parent can completely eliminate.

• The challenge becomes recognizing those feelings without allowing them to control decisions affecting everyone else.

[38:12] Youth Sports Still Needs Parents Willing to Coach

• Frank pushes back against the idea that knowledgeable parents should avoid coaching simply because their child is on the team.

• Community sports desperately need coaches, volunteers, and umpires.

• Coaching your own child comes with complicated dynamics, but that does not mean parents should automatically stay away.

• The challenge is learning how to separate the roles of parent and coach as much as possible.

[39:09] Stop Making Everything Easier

• Rhett defines the “snowplow parent” as someone constantly clearing adversity from their child’s path.

• Eventually athletes reach environments where parents cannot fix the lineup, call the coach, or negotiate their role.

• Learning to ask questions, communicate, respond to disappointment, and solve problems becomes increasingly important.

• The irony is that adults trying hardest to protect their children can sometimes remove the experiences that prepare them for independence.

[39:53] You Can’t Make Your Kid Want It

• Frank closes with one of the hardest realities in competitive sports.

• Parents can provide training, encouragement, transportation, resources, and opportunity.

• They cannot manufacture the internal drive required to keep pursuing the sport at a high level.

• Around the teenage years, athletes often begin revealing how deeply they actually want the journey for themselves.

• And if they choose another path, the years spent playing sports can still have tremendous value.

Final Reflection

Adults spend a lot of energy trying to create the perfect sports experience for kids.

The right team. The right trainer. The right exposure. The right position. The right opportunity.

But some of the most meaningful parts of sports may be the pieces adults cannot control: sitting the bench, earning something back, figuring out how to talk to a coach, realizing how badly you want it, or realizing you don’t.

Maybe surviving youth sports sometimes means caring deeply while resisting the urge to clear every obstacle from the road.

Call to Action

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Share this episode with a parent, coach, or program director trying to navigate the complicated space between development, business, expectations, and letting kids own their experience.

If you have a youth sports story or perspective worth sharing, we’d love to hear it.