Brandon Harmon: The Youth Sports Blender

Rhett Parker: Hi, and welcome back to another episode of surviving youth sports. I'm your host, Brett Parker. And today we have Brandon Harmon. pitching coach, recruiting coordinator, what 11 new basketball coach, Gonzaga, Spokane. mean, we can pick a tie. You're not a title guy, harm, but we can pick a title, I guess. But welcome to the show. Brandon Harmon: I'm fired up to be here and to take some of our many conversations that we've had in private and I guess make some of public. ⁓ Rhett Parker: 100%. And, and we're in a very similar boat. Actually, want to say it was a summer or two ago, I think we were talking about, ⁓ playing career against this person. And then we found out, we played against each other in the West Coast League, and pitched against each other, I probably won't go over the box scores. I don't think it was good for either one of us. But, it's just such a small world. And over the years, we've had so many conversations because I have two sixth graders a third grader and kindergartner and you have a fifth grader, a third grader ⁓ and kindergartner. And so, I think you texted me something the other day and you said something that got me thinking you're in the blender ⁓ of youth sports. you're in the blender ⁓ of youth sports. also with with your job because I guess it's amateur still college is still amateur but what do you mean by blender? ⁓ what do you mean by blender? Brandon Harmon: Yeah, I think just we're all in it's I go from our practices here and that's obviously my my first priority. But if I had a hobby right now, it's yeah, it's going to tonight at 630 to coach a third grade girls basketball team and and get every piece out of that, you know. That I can before we really start traveling. It's my my 11 year old. We did a baseball workout last night with his team. And then the rest of the nights it's getting them we're all in to their other practices. We have something good or bad seven days a week, games or practices. And as a family, we love it. People ask us over here if ski and I kind of just smile at them like, no, that's not on our radar because ⁓ we are full in ⁓ on them on they want pursue. We have something good or bad seven days a week, games or practices. And Rhett Parker: you're the car all the time because it's 15 minutes and then rotating to the next person. cause last night I go, what'd I go? Taekwondo drop off, run somebody else over to basketball. back to Taekwondo pickup, run back home, grab two people for soccer, rotate it back around, pick the best, I didn't get out of the car. And I'm sitting there, like, God, I should just Uber other people around or go Uber each on my way to pay for all the gas. It's, yeah, it's. Brandon Harmon: Yeah. It, it's interesting about that though. And I, I think this is kind of a full circle thing, but you, when I started off this college gig of coaching, giving private lessons was a big part of the deal, right? That's how you survive your first four or five years. And I remember at that time I didn't have kids and I made a comment to a dad who actually suddenly ended up being a division one baseball player down the road. But I'm like, man, you guys drive a lot. That's gotta be old. And, and he made a comment to me at the time of like, Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Brandon Harmon: Sometimes that windshield time is the best time I get with my kids because there can be no distraction, right? You take a device away from them. And I thought about it just as you're saying that last night, we have about a minute drive home from the campus to our house. And me and my 11 year old, we got 25 minutes, there's just me and him talking, which as you when you have multiple kids, when does that ever happen? So that's a secondary benefit that I've actually really come to enjoy where at times it's, yeah, it's My wife might not share those sentiments when she's running around like a chicken with her head cut off on some days, especially here. I tell everybody these next, these next four months, I'd become a real deadbeat dad because we're, we're gone. we're, in our season. So. Rhett Parker: Yeah. Yeah. No, and that's, it's, it's interesting because it sometimes you just feel so rushed. When you only have one in the car, you just take a breath and you're like, Hey, how was this? And you do try to do that catch up when you when you have multiple kids and but man, it a blender though, like you just, or it's waves crashing down on you. I obviously coach my oldest son's 12 year team and man, I'm like, I do think about you and there's some other coaching friends I have. I'm like, God, how do you go from Hey, by the way, hey, we need to locate 95 mile an hour fastball here. Okay. Hey, where's your grades? we doing what we're doing in the weight room? Okay. All right. Third grade basketball. Okay. No, chest pass, not bounce pass like the transition sometimes of what you guys have to go through. ⁓ my God. it's a 180. ⁓ Brandon Harmon: Yeah. It times though, that for it's, it becomes like really refreshing though too, because yeah, like you said, going in coaching third grade girls basketball tonight, there's no, you haven't seen a jump ball. It's a lot of jump balls. ⁓ but you do, and you get to start to see it for the peer part of just learning. And I think it keeps you fresh. And I think inherently, like, I love to coach like, but at times like the college gig is it's a job like, and there's pressures and there's. Rhett Parker: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Brandon Harmon: extra outside things that are you got to deal with. Whereas sometimes that hour you get to just go coach a bunch of nine year olds. It's about just going and having that hour and then you get to cut it loose, which is really fun for me. And obviously seeing it through your kid's eyes is pretty special. Rhett Parker: I'll give you the flip side though, if you're somebody that is is like me that's been a college coach and scouted and sometimes when all you do, essentially, and obviously in the fall, I get to be around some higher level high school kids, which is, is I'm sometimes the opposite because I'm really only around youth. And sometimes I'm like, man, I want to talk approach. I want to sit there and like, what I mean? At where I'm like, God, I just want to sit and have a conversation not about how to, how to load our hands or, to get balanced, but like, Hey, what's this guy trying to do? He's trying to throw change up. Like, what are you thinking? It is the opposite for people like me of like, God, I just want to be around some high level people ⁓ right now and have real legitimate like conversation with somebody that's going to go play college or professional baseball. Brandon Harmon: Right. Rhett Parker: ⁓ so I do think that times it, the wares are different, right? I always take a look and I go, would I want my kid to play for that it's not just college, it's high school. by the way, you made the list. Congratulations. Um, but do you ever have those feelings of like, I'll teach him the baseball stuff. I, that's not a problem. Is that person going to make my son a man or, or, or my daughter, a strong independent woman or like, do you ever have those thoughts? Brandon Harmon: I mean all the time and I think we if I put on my coaches my my Zags cap now I think the that we talked about the time you can go play for anybody if you're winning right winning covers up. But what's it going to be like when things aren't? ⁓ Rhett Parker: I won't say, I, yep, I, Brandon Harmon: But what's gonna be like when we lose and we get our hearts ripped out and you lose a game, we still wanna be around each other? And I think ⁓ tries to be how I wanna define it. And I think ⁓ obviously play a huge role in the that they're gonna project. At end of the day for our family, that's gonna come from hopefully my wife and I and our inner circle. But I'm also aware not everybody has that background. And so I look at my own upbringing and talking about youth sports and Rhett Parker: Hmm? Brandon Harmon: my little league coach, my high school coach, my college coaches, my summer cleats, all those like, I was very, very blessed to have the people that surrounded me. So I think about that all the time. I mean, that's part of our, our role is to let's treat people with respect. Let's let's talk about things that are going to translate to when you, you show up as an 18 year old that doesn't know anything. And by the time you're 22, hopefully you have some ideas of how to go and function and be treated like an, like an adult, which is I think that's one of the easiest things, be honest with people and treat them with respect. Rhett Parker: But where college athletics is going and it's a trickle down effect, it's going away. It's not everyone. I'm there's going to be some things that we say over the course of ⁓ trying do what we're doing here that definitely offend some people and people that I even know. But the reality is, and I've said this to you, think I said this to you in the fall, where I'm watching people get dropped the day before signing day. Kids, why are you a coach? Like if you do that, why are you coaching? And we're not talking about people that are competing for a national title either. And I know you got to, there's a fine line, professional and the dad, but like. I don't want my son to play for somebody like that or daughter. kids and I get it. It's getting professionalized. Youth sports and college sports. I understand it. And you see it firsthand with basketball where you coach. mean, guys are getting paid, I would imagine pretty, pretty well ⁓ at But there has be a point where you step back and like, okay, Why am I doing this? Because I feel like when people like you got into coaching, it was way more altruistic than it is today. Brandon Harmon: Yeah, I think at times that it's obviously switched. mean, we're hope not on the end where it's just this nothing but transactional relationship. But it's, I think there's been some, sites have been reset to have like, let's really lean in. You might only have this, this group for one year. Right. And so it's like, okay, how do we make their experience the best you can and try to give them opportunities? And, it's different than what it was. I guess when I started, it was almost 15 or 16 years ago now. I think the of the day, I think the majority of coaches are still in it to build relationships with players and we're all trying to win. can't survive in this game if you're ⁓ competitive, you don't have that. ⁓ there is a process of how, ⁓ guess even if someone's maybe not good enough to play or the fit isn't right, there's still I think a- Rhett Parker: I do too. I... I agree. Brandon Harmon: a way to treat people with respect and have conversations and try to help people even at the time they might be mad at you, but you can still pick up the phone for them you can still, because on the flip side, guys are going to leave us at times that like, yeah, it's tough. Yeah. Rhett Parker: Yeah. And, and, you, not to put your blast here, but you've been offered jobs as well in other places and you have to make a decision for you. What's in your best interest. So I'm not saying it's black and white in terms of dropping somebody or signing somebody or leaving. Cause coaches have the opportunity to, leave and stuff too. But I think the worry that I do have a little bit and we've seen it, with kids that have gone to Gonzaga. the trickle down is really into the youth stuff where people are jumped teams and this coach is trying to recruit this player. And and and and and I lost our best player for the for our 12 year team because he was getting recruited. And I'm like, what? What? I've never met a 12 year old that like should be recruited. and granted, I'm not trying to make money and go Brandon Harmon: Yeah. Rhett Parker: win tournaments at 12. But it was I kind of took a step back. I was like, well, this is weird. And obviously, it's happened forever, right? People want to win. they have facilities and different things. And it's again, it's not everybody. But like, do you see the trickle down with your kids? As it correlates ⁓ that? Brandon Harmon: Yeah. Yeah, I guess I, so like full circle, like I referenced when I started college coaching, I was, I did three years of like, no five, four years, four to five years of 18U club ball. Yeah. So for me, it was, I started the Spokanexpos program. so, yeah. So at the time we said two teams and it was, yeah, there was, was, there was movement there. And I honestly feel like some of Rhett Parker: ⁓ I didn't know that. ⁓ I didn't know that. Brandon Harmon: that stuff is trickled, the, the AAU effect. I know that's basketball term, has maybe kind of that looks like to me, the AAU effect looks like what college athletics is now where it used to be, there was penalties if you left and there was that where, the AAU is Wild West. You can hop, hop around. Um, I haven't seen that as much so far at the youth level for my kids. I'm, but I can also say on that one, like it, my kid's lucky enough that I think he's at a spot where we've Rhett Parker: Okay. Brandon Harmon: we might be one of the teams that other people are wanting to go to. I look at, you look at parents sometimes like, why are you doing that? Well, a lot of parents don't know what they don't know. I've got a couple of kids that are in our circle that are younger, and they're not, it's a different gender. And so I don't have anything that I can help offer them, but there's one I know that they're driving all the way up to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, which is about a 45 minute drive to go get, Rhett Parker: Yeah. Brandon Harmon: this sport of that blows my mind. I'm like, why? But I think then today they're trying to do what they think is best for their youngster that they're going to get the best experience. And that's a one for me to be critical of it if I don't have something to tell them that's a better option or whatever it might be. that's, so yeah, it's tough because I think all of us, we're all biased towards our children. We're all trying to give them the very best experience and everything's shiny and Yeah, if we could all go back, community part of it, when it clicks, I think realizes that's special. But when it doesn't, it's like, well, I'll go out and get ours. ⁓ Rhett Parker: Yeah, and it's it's so hard because I would say I have been accused of that a little bit with one of my kids. But at the end of the day, I think the way I look at it. ⁓ really don't want my kids to be the best players on their teams. I them to. Not fail too much where they hate the sport. But I really do want them to fail. Because I believe in my kids lives are easy enough in my opinion, my wife's too. Okay. Sports is the vehicle and the vessel that we have here where they got to fail a little bit. whether it's playing them up, or going a little bit further, and it depends on the sport depends on the kid. It's not a all throughout this is ⁓ every kid is the in our household, but it is okay to fail. And it's okay to challenge them. And then you see it. Hey, do they really want to be good? Or do they just want it to be easy and be good. it's a real fine line, especially when you've played. And know that I get competitive sometimes ⁓ when watching my kids. And I you're in the same boat. Talk to me about the competitive aspect of watching your kids, cause if you're a college coach at your level, you're a competitive human being period. And especially if you've done it for as long as you can, God, how do you translate it? And how do you make sure that your kids what they need on ⁓ fronts? Brandon Harmon: Yeah, I've got a couple of examples of that. You just said you love me in the stands. really good when I'm on the field, whether I'm the head coach or the assistant. Man, process, it's positive. Rhett, I suck watching in the stands. ⁓ You just said you love me in the stands. I'm really good when I'm on the field, whether the head coach or the assistant. Man, it's process, it's positive. Rhett, I suck watching in stands. ⁓ Rhett Parker: All sports, baseball or all sports? Brandon Harmon: Well, mean, baseball and flag football, I'm in the dugout or on the sideline with them. which I am admittedly was not good, wasn't a sport I played. Yeah, my wife doesn't like sitting next to me and I don't like sitting next to anybody else because I'm not good at it. And so I'm working on that. ⁓ But ⁓ I'm in the mix with them though, it's positive. It's we're focused on things, watching from the outside. I need to keep working on that. ⁓ Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. We're all working. We're all working to be better. Brandon Harmon: ⁓ in terms of, yeah, I want them to fail at times. And that's hard to say, especially when you're in the moment, because there's so much, so much growth that can happen from failure. And I think it's a fine line. And I got two examples for that we're doing with our own kids. ⁓ I keep referencing my 11 year old, but he's a nice little player. And so he's actually playing, he plays up a grade for, for hoops and he's a, he's a fit on that team. There's growth. mean, a fifth grade body and a sixth grade body, there's some, like puberty starts to kick in and he's learned so much from it and he's gotten some adversity. But then at times I want him to get in a different environment where he is the main piece. You learn how to deal with some other stuff. And so we've, you that's challenged. It's cause he ends up playing on a couple of teams and you're balancing that. But our baseball group, they didn't fail enough last year. It was unrealistic. I think they went 45 and four. Rhett Parker: Very different. Brandon Harmon: Good, probably didn't get him a good enough schedule. So this year at our parent meeting we said, hey, we are going to we want them to fail. Hitting 600 isn't a real thing. It means you're not facing good enough. And hopefully, but we're also trying to keep in perspective that. We don't need to be in Seattle every single weekend or whatever, that's. There 11 this really really matter, so we're going to try to balance that out and put him in spots that yeah, there's. ⁓ Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Brandon Harmon: Hopefully some adversity. Hopefully we learn if you lose, it sucks, but it's not the end of the world and we still can go to Dairy Queen afterwards and still be positive. Like that's, that's what we're trying to create with, with our group. Cause I, yeah, to think that you're on a team that just constantly wins, man, unless you're that NAIA from down in Louisiana right now, that's a, you better learn how to bounce back the next day in sports and life. So. Rhett Parker: Correct. Correct. Correct. could talk about that, that NAI in Louisiana and the age of their players too, if we wanted to, but I think we'll move on to something else. But I do it's a balance. And I think just different for every group, for every person. And you said, does it really matter? ⁓ I think it in the context that want it to. It matters that you want them to have enough success where they love the sport and they want to keep playing. But then they need to fail enough to go, wow, I need to get better. If I want to keep having success when the, when it starts to get here and people start to get better and I have to deal with, that. And I think there's people and there's, there's kids that I've coached that have been to Gonzaga that haven't failed enough. I mean, there's two in my head right now where I remember some conversations their freshman year of like, what did you think was going to happen? Yeah, you're you're not throwing for two weeks because the last time you threw, you gave up six and you walk five people. You're not like what did you do? What have you done? then? I'm talking college, but you can you can equate it to 11 year olds or third graders or high kids. It doesn't matter. Okay, you didn't like walking five people and you want to play more. Okay. What have you done to get better to not do that? Have you talked to coach Harmon? Well, I kind of mentioned, but we're in season. He's busy. go, dude, go kick his door down and be like, I need, I want to play. And some, kind of funny because the two kids in my mind right now, one did that and one didn't. And they had very different careers and very different success and some that guns ag and some not. And I'm like, man, it triggered it now. And I take a lot of the experiences I had coaching other people's kids and I, and I use the failures to try to help my kids and other people's kids that I'm coaching. it is okay to fail. And you trust me, you want to fail when you're 13, not 22, and and no offense to the Gonzaga pitching staff, but if you walk five people in the next month in an outing, it's gonna be tough to get the ball back. Like you want to learn how to deal with that when you're 1113 15, like it's it's the reality. Brandon Harmon: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, you could go down that. mean, you just look at the of high school baseball at times right now, too, of there's some kids that you see them all day. All you see on them is a ⁓ inning clip it's all highlights and it's like, see my pitch six innings anymore. And that's the college is part of the problem on that because, you're trying to just go in and watch. And but then you see some of these kids that have really made jumps. I mean, we have a We have a junior this year is gonna be a nice draft pick that he didn't do. I don't even know if he did the PNW games. Probably just fell through the cracks, kind of guy, three sport guy that he had to do everything. Everything for every team and I think some of those things really created some skill sets for him that were are really shining through right now. And so it's a balance on that. I the specialization in sports, I'm not saying it's good or bad. because we have both on, we had a prospect camp on Sunday and a parent asked me, what do you think about two sport athletes? And I'm like, well, my boss played football and baseball at Stanford. I liked playing football in high school. We're supportive of it. But our roster would tell you there's probably, half of our 34 might've just been baseball guys and that's fine. it comes down to what our answer to being like, do what you Do what you really love and enjoy and like, don't let someone tell you you can't play football. If you love it and you're a big part of your team, go do it. If you're just doing it to check a box, that might be a different, different equation. But I think, it kind of gets back to that, your inner circle of like, what experience are you trying to have? What's, what are you trying to get out of this? And I think we set it off there, but FOMO is a real thing. Rhett Parker: Hmm. Brandon Harmon: Everybody thinks they're missing out on this opportunity. And sometimes maybe there are, because there are some experiences for whether it's a 11-year tournament, a 16-year-old tournament that are really cool. They're experiences. I didn't say they're showcases. I said they're experiences that, I know you take a group back to, Minnesota and you guys went back east Baltimore and you ask kids that do that, they're like, man, that was... Rhett Parker: Baltimore. Baltimore. Yeah. ⁓ Brandon Harmon: Do they even, they might remember the first year what their outing looked like, but then five years are like, man, you remember what we did to Johnny in the hotel? And we went to this and that and man, Rhett taught me everything about life, the whole deal. Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, hopefully not too many of those guys want to get zag ⁓ I'm teaching them about life, but in FOMO, if you're out I believe a lot of that leads to the specialization. ⁓ sometimes the kids want it. And sometimes they don't. And think that ⁓ one of the things that I preach, you have to read your kids. And I can't read your kids, you can't read someone else's kids, you have to do it as a parent and understand that you might think your kid wants this and they don't. Now, fine line. If I let and we got kindergartners, especially. I mean, if I said, hey, eat as much cookies as you want every day, that dude's gonna go in there and just do whatever he wants, right? So there's a fine line of like, hey, you need to do this for x, y, z reason as a parent. But man, sports, you ⁓ feel like you really need to support what your kids want. And you need to know when to push the button, and when to back off. And man, I feel like it's such a, a fine line as dad to do that. Brandon Harmon: 100 % yeah, because you all comes back to I don't think there's any parent that doesn't they are trying to do the best for their Children I think inherently they're trying to put them on the best path and sometimes you get some blind spots there that you miss on but I Think you're 100 % on that we I got a reference back to when I used to do private lessons I remember there were some I just I loved them because you could tell the kid Loved being there and those that that hour flew by and it was good And then you knew you had one coming up at seven o'clock on Thursday. That was like, he has no want of being here and his dad's going to sit on the bucket and I'm going to need to tell the dad he needs to stop because I'm the instructor and he felt bad for the kid because he was getting forced to be there and it's. Yeah. Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Oh, that's the worst. I did it, dude. You don't have to tell me I did it. When I was pitching coach at Green River and I was playing any ball, because I need the money. And you're just sitting there and man God, even the half hour lessons. I mean, you just keep looking at your watch like, oh my god, it is like molasses. And you do feel bad for the kids because they don't want to be there. And the parents want it and Brandon Harmon: Yeah. Thank you. Rhett Parker: ⁓ it kind made you sad to a degree. ⁓ had trust me. I was in the same boat that you were probably right around the same time. Brandon Harmon: Yep. Yeah. Rhett Parker: it is a blender man. a blender. When you're a private instructor, when you're a college coach, when you're a third grade girls basketball coach, and we're on which is why we call it surviving sports because people might think, ⁓ there's Brandon Harmon, Gonzaga coach has done all this and this and this, dude, you don't have to figure it out. I mean, we none of us do. And anyone that says they do dead wrong. Brandon Harmon: you Rhett Parker: And anyone that deals in absolutes, dead wrong, because every kid is different. And it's just, it's not again, it's not black and white. What do you want to tell people about, youth sports that they can take? And, I'm going to give you the first two parter on this one. Cause you have to wear different hats and people don't understand that sometimes you got Gonzaga baseball coach and then you got 11 you baseball coach third grade. Have you done the kindergarten stuff yet by the way? Brandon Harmon: ⁓ yeah, had kindergarten boys for. Rhett Parker: ⁓ my god. ⁓ I did basketball this year. ⁓ that's a yeah, that's that's one I felt. mean, 40 minutes. ⁓ I I felt like I'd been there five hours. Brandon Harmon: I'll just say the kindergarten basketball one. And maybe I'm a little bit intimidated because I've done this a lot and like, okay, he's got it dialed in a few times. I looked over and looking at some dads being like, you want to jump in here and tell Johnny to quit, I could use a hand here. Rhett Parker: Yeah, so my kids the one my kids the one doing it so high, high balancing that and trying to coach. So Gonzaga have you sports? What's the biggest takeaway you want people have? And then, Brandon Harmon, the dad and ⁓ the coach. Brandon Harmon: Yeah. Ooh, the Gonzaga hat on it. think just, I think being realistic to what your experience you're trying to have. I think whether it's chasing tournaments, whether it's like I really believe the recruiting side of things, especially in today's day and age is going to, at at our level is going to take care of itself. you UW and Oregon, Oregon state, they're going to Gonzaga, Washington state. They're going to go wherever you are to find you. And the word of mouth is gonna is gonna go. That's where the obvious guys now. If you're the fringe guy, I think that's where the you that's where you get caught into. Where do I? Where do I put my time? Where do I put my resources? But I just think so many guys start to put the card ahead of the. Of the horse on that one and like I gotta go do this and that and then they kind of lose perspective of being a teammate. Of being with your friends ⁓ having experiences that are valuable. And they get soured on it. Like how many kids have we run into there just like this is This is not good because I think you go into it with the perspective of like I have to get a scholarship out of this I have to do that and by the time they're recruitable Junior senior year. They're like is this really what I want to do and that's sad So I think trying to do your best to surround yourself with people who are gonna give you Honesty, but also, help get you on that right path and I know that that's not easy like Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Right. Brandon Harmon: Easy for me to say, I'm well, well connected in this city that I'm going to be in that. But if you're Johnny, who's from a single parent, does that information come from? And that's, ⁓ where there's some Rhett Parker: I'll interject being a fringe division one baseball player or fringe division one athlete. And I had a parent say this to me, whose son ended up getting to a division one at the very end of a cycle few years back. And now he's playing professional baseball in Australia. It's purgatory. It is purgatory because You kind of, I mean, I remember him saying this to me, you kind of have to do everything because like, but I want to point this out to parents of, of, of, all athletes. If I took a thousand high school baseball players. And just to say the Northwest. 50 of them are good enough to play Gonzaga. I'm talking about the top people. Let's just say 50. Okay. 20 are ⁓ Maybe 30 not even you won't get 100 all in. Understood you just said it be realistic if your kid is a senior in high school and is a good pitcher that throws 84 miles an hour he's right handed. You don't need to do everything. Brandon Harmon: Right, I mean, that's where and as soon as soon as he pops his first 90. I don't want to put an objective number, but you get what I'm saying. Like something that's something that's exciting like that. Yeah, I don't think Eddie at Udub is going to be bashful. I don't think coach was is going to be bashful. Like we're not going to be like you're going to try to move on it, but I ⁓ a real thing. And I, I think that's a you're 100 % right on that. Like Rhett Parker: Yeah, I do, I do, I do. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Brandon Harmon: You if the local JC isn't calling you, do you really need to travel up and down the West Coast to go to every prospect camp? Probably not. Unless you want to, unless you, unless your objective to go into is like, Hey, yeah, I have the resources to go do this. But if you're going in and putting all your eggs in that basket, that's probably not, that's probably not realistic. And it creates a heck of a lot of stress, which is, part of the deal at times. That's a big decision, but it's also like, man, that's, you almost get jealous of the kid. That's just like, yeah, I'm kind of naive. I don't know. And I'm going to go to. ⁓ Rhett Parker: Unless you want to. Brandon Harmon: I'm gonna to CBC or Spokane for two years and see how good I can get. And those guys, that's kind of that pure. ⁓ Rhett Parker: Or the kid that plays on some of these select teams that knows they're not playing colors. That's just a decent player or doesn't want to go play at the local JC or or any I are division three Lake and it's like man, I'm having a blast. And I want to win a state title and I want to have a good summer with my friends and and then I'm done and then I'm going to go be a student in Gonzaga or Washington. So give me the flip side. Give me the. Give me the blender. Give me the blender view. Brandon Harmon: I still think the end of the day and I need to check myself on this all the time, but the end of the day, our biggest responsibility as youth coaches is that they are excited to come back again to the next day. next practice next game. Yep, you want to try to find that balance of getting them is in this competitive environment that's appropriate for their individual and team skill level. But I made the comment earlier like does this ⁓ 11 years year old stuff really matter? To some degree it does, but take myself for an example. I was an okay youth player and then between my freshman and sophomore summer, I went from being six foot to six four and my VELO probably jumped eight or nine miles an hour. I loved to play. I couldn't tell you what, loved play and I some genetics that puberty hit me at the right time and that was good. And so I think that that's. Rhett Parker: Hmm. I'm sorry, say that say that for the people in the back genetics. Okay. I just with I've used that word a bunch on here because it is so important to understand that. Sorry. Brandon Harmon: Yeah. And every kid, there's going to be, there's going to be great players that don't have a parent that ever touched a ball, at any point in their, in their life that are going to be really good players by just having positive experiences and wanting them to, I don't know what the burnout rate is, but I know that for our sport, specifically in baseball, I know that transition from fifth grade till about ninth grade. mean, that's where the game gets hard. gets, curve balls start becoming the thing. The field gets bigger. ⁓ It's a boring sport compared to some others, just slow. It's inherently, yep, failure and it's inherently slow. So as coaches, what can we do to make them still enjoy it, to love the nuances of that all these baseball guys just that we latch onto, but we got to make it that they're, want to come the next day that it's not, you they're not out chasing. I'm not going to say any other sports, but that they're wanting to be there and whatever sport it is. think that's what we have to. ⁓ Rhett Parker: Failure. Failure. Failure. Brandon Harmon: we have to have that culture and you add in the acquisition. And, but like I said, some of that stuff, when are they truly ready to have skill acquisition? Like to me, that's, gotta, you gotta create that environment that they're still loving it. When that time comes that they're truly learning that when those intersect, that those are both at their highest peak. Rhett Parker: Mm ⁓ I I definitely say fans of the sport, you're saying same thing in a different in a different way that it's so important that they enjoy what they're doing. Yeah, so and I would definitely say in I didn't enjoy at least a year or two as much as I should have because I'm thinking draft and I've been drafted a couple times and I don't have any regrets. None. Would I have done some things differently? I think me and you've had conversations about some places that I decided to go to college versus ones I really loved, right? Because I transferred a couple times. I don't have any regret though. Would I do things differently? Absolutely. And I think I'll add to what you just said to everything. Don't have regrets. Parents, players, coaches don't have any regrets. Put all your eggs in. Would you do different things? if I coach first grade boys basketball next year, I get a different plan for a couple things. I definitely will have PTSD if I don't change some things, but no. There you go. Brandon Harmon: Get your Fox 40 whistle and use that thing. Rhett Parker: There you go. And by the way, I, my kindergarten, I will be, I have to coach him pretty much in everything because he doesn't listen to anybody else. And that's a whole nother thing. And this person, most, one of the most competitive people I know it, it's stressful for me too, and I, so we're all going through the blender. I I'm going to use that now. I'm going to steal that, don't copyright it, uh, before we get off, uh, get off. Okay. I like it. I like it. Brandon Harmon: When you make a shirt, just make sure I get one of them. Rhett Parker: man, ⁓ for joining us today. you I would say I ⁓ really do our friendship. because we are really in similar boats with our kids ages. And obviously, we grew up on opposite sides of the state of Washington, but it's a small world ⁓ and, I appreciate all that you're doing and, know, on a light hearted note here, ⁓ you're on the list. You're on the list. My kids, kids will play for you. I guess we'll play for you, ⁓ Brandon Harmon: Let's get it. Let's get it. Whether they're If we can just get this PNW games where we have, the side field that would check a lot of boxes for me. Rhett Parker: I think, shout out coach Brosman at Santa Clara, who's I think, I think one of these years, PNW games has, it's a big event in the Northwest for a lot of the best baseball players from a bunch of the States and British Columbia. But one of the running jokes is, when our kids get to that age and you see Harmon Jersey with Harmon on the back and coach Brosman and coach Valentine from, Michigan and Parker, you're going to be like, This is an appetism team. at all these guys. ⁓ start training shows kids but ⁓ it is a community. it's a small community of people care and we're all kind of in this together. So I appreciate your time. good luck to start the season and yeah, let's ⁓ just keep surviving, surviving new sports together brother. Brandon Harmon: Have fun. Thanks, Rhett. Appreciate it.