Michael Saunders: The Pressure to Make It Is Changing How Kids Play

Rhett Parker: Hi, and welcome to another episode of Surviving U Sports. And today we have former professional player Michael Saunders. And he is surviving U Sports just like the rest of us. And he's got some really cool things that he wants to talk about that he's trying to do. Welcome to the show. Saundo Athletics: I appreciate you guys having me on. Thanks. Rhett Parker: Absolutely man. So I'm going to get right into it because our kids are very similar in age and. you're kind going through, the sports with your kids. Tell me a little bit about how that's going and what sports they're in and ⁓ and how you're feeling about everything. Saundo Athletics: Yeah, like you said, knee deep in it currently, but I love it. I love it at this point. So all three of my kids, my daughter's 13, volleyball player. My son is 11, soccer player and plays hoops as a second sport. And then my youngest plays organized soccer. She loves it. But as we were kind of talking about earlier, it has run to the litter syndrome where she just wants to do what older brother, older sister are doing and wants to be a part of the crew. So probably my best athlete because of that, to be honest with you. Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Saundo Athletics: And so yeah, they were all born in Colorado. So I have the experience of, ⁓ U sports in America. And then we actually just moved back to where I was born and raised in Victoria ⁓ at end of ⁓ June last year. ⁓ So to navigate the U sports here ⁓ locally I grew up. Rhett Parker: That's awesome. you know what I really like actually, because I keep telling my kids is to just because I play baseball or mom played soccer like you don't it's actually easier for me if you don't play baseball sometimes. ⁓ So none of your play baseball, which is what you played. Do you feel the same way that I do have like, man, ⁓ I kind of like I can just sit and watch the other sports and I know what's going on, I'm not like, ⁓ man, we gotta hit a cut there. I'm not thinking about any of that stuff. Yes. Saundo Athletics: You're not being coached, right? Yeah, that's actually so when my kids it came as a surprise at first to be honest with you. I thought at least I'd have one softball player and my son would obviously play baseball but ⁓ he the faster paced sports and so when he was starting to get interested like he was around the yard he would come to the clubhouse and stuff like that. He was too young while I was still playing at the time but when I was coaching ⁓ and it was with Atlanta. Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Saundo Athletics: I bring him to the clubhouse and everything like that. So he got that taste and felt like he was pretty cool. And I thought that was it. After he got to experience that, he was gonna be all in on baseball. But due to, as we all know, baseball in the US, like the current state, it's just, you're playing all year round, it's travel ball, this travel ball, that. You don't really hear little league anymore, which is what I grew up playing. so when- we were making that decision or he was making that decision. We just wanted to make sure he was all in because I was gone for the summer with work. And so that was obviously gonna be a lot of my wife. And so we signed him up for ⁓ like an eight week program and eight week camp in the off season seemed to be pretty fun and he had all of his buddies going, right? So we're like, ⁓ this is the perfect, perfect opportunity for him to, know, dip his toes into the game. And by like week six, he's like, dad, I'm out. too boring. It's too slow. So like, well, we're gonna finish it off and then we can reconvene like. know, week later or whatever. And he just thought the game was too slow. And I will be the first one to tell you, baseball is not for everybody. And I get it. ⁓ And so he tried it, but it just wasn't, wasn't him. And, and to be honest with you, I was having those, those thoughts about, okay, I'm, I promised myself on the drive home, we're not going to talk about the game at the dinner table. We're never going to talk about baseball, blah, blah, blah. Like I'll help him when I can, ⁓ but it's not to be consuming our family just because I play. ⁓ And like you alluded to before, I don't enjoy anything more than posting up a lawn chair in my sandals, watching my kids practice, watching my kids play. And they're at the level now where they're actually teaching me about these other sports. Like I grew up playing everything, but not to the level that our youth athletes are playing in today's game. Whether it's the coaching or just how popular these sports are ⁓ now. And that's kind of my time to myself and my happy spot. Rhett Parker: I love it. I love it. And you brought up something with baseball that's interesting and, and, and my son plays and I'm coaching him for the last time, last couple of weeks actually, which kind of, kind of makes me sad because it's, it's a really great experience, but he likes to get back sports. That's what I call them where in baseball, you strike out, you ain't getting that back for a while. Cause you got to sit through the, the lineup flipping over, right? Dude. And it's soccer and volleyball and back. Saundo Athletics: You know, so. Rhett Parker: You can get it back immediately. You make a bad put. Yep. And you're just like, okay, I get it. You like to get back sports because you don't have time to sit there and go and I'm preaching the choir here with you, but like, man, God, I struck out on that pitch. God. All right. Now I gotta go sit in a dugout. I gotta go cheer my teammates on. Okay. All right. I'm just gonna be 40 minutes before I get another at bat. Okay. Well, hopefully the ball gets hit to me in the field so I can go make play, but it might not happen. And you're right. Saundo Athletics: Go win the ball back. Rhett Parker: It's not for everybody. It's not for everybody because it can be mentally just draining, especially on kids and our kids age where everything's right in front of you. was explaining to what a VCR was to my kids the other day and ⁓ they at me. Yeah, ⁓ what? what? You can't just watch your shows. like, no, man, like, ⁓ that's not how works. But ⁓ little league you and I actually didn't know this until Saundo Athletics: sure that went over well. Rhett Parker: today played in the Little League World Series. Saundo Athletics: I did, man. I was blessed. Yeah, absolutely. I got an opportunity to represent Canada in 1999. Rhett Parker: So awesome. And all your friends played, right? Saundo Athletics: Yeah, that's why I joined baseball in the first place, you know? And I just remember, one practice a week on a Wednesday and then you play maybe a doubleheader on Saturday. And it's like, hey, what else are we doing now? we get to be kids. Baseball never consumed my life until much later, ⁓ much later in life. ⁓ Rhett Parker: Oh, but wait a minute, cause I think there's a disconnect with a lot of parents. If it didn't consume your life at 12, how the heck did you play in the big leagues for what? Eight years? How did you possibly do that? Because you have to do it at 12, right? That's, that's the perception. Saundo Athletics: Yeah, the perception is the fear I feel like of your kid getting left behind, right? ⁓ Just because these kids are doing it day in and day out, I mean, I'm willing to bet you the statistics will show that they get burnt out and they walk away from the game or they quit or they even if it's not for another sport, I think eventually it becomes because my parents want me to play. know, whether that's true or not, I think that that is a huge misconception of like, You have to do it every single day, otherwise you're gonna be left behind, and that's just not true. ⁓ I'm a massive advocate of multi-sport athletes, ⁓ not only just for injury purposes and everything like that and training different muscles in your body, but all the things that you learn from other sports. Like I watched my son, he plays competitive soccer, and I watched him take the defensive mindset of ⁓ if... I got to pick up a check if my buddy gets beat or I have to make a decision here on the basketball court and he's taking things that he's learning from soccer and through whether it's offense or defense and he's applying it to basketball. I think ⁓ eventually you will choose what you want to do if you continue with athletics, right? And give it a go. But all your experiences, ⁓ not on the court, but dealing with different people, ⁓ whatever it may be and learning to navigate that. There's things that youth sports teach you that you'll never learn anywhere else in my opinion. know, leadership, ⁓ adversity, failure, resilience, dealing with certain situations. all these are life lessons that I feel like you're not gonna find anywhere else. And that's why I'm an advocate of doing as much as you can while you can. What season is it? ⁓ And that's what I'm gonna do. ⁓ gone are days where I could just get on my bike with my buddies like the sand lawn. ⁓ have a bat and throw my glove and spikes on there and go find whatever it may be, like a yard, go play with the ball, something like that. ⁓ Rhett Parker: We grew up the same. We grew up the same. We grew up, I didn't play organized 14 maybe. And then I think I was like senior legion, man. And I was big enough, right? Because physical attributes matter. mean, people are just like the best 12 year olds are the biggest. I mean, that's just the reality of it. nine times out of 10. But man, like I got really good by playing wiffle ball with my older brother and all his crew. And a lot of them play college and even if you play professional baseball, like. Saundo Athletics: Mm-hmm. Rhett Parker: Man, I mean, that's how I got good. I mean, they're just beating, beating on me, right? And, and we're going to this field and then we're playing hardball and we played, I didn't play little league, but I played Metro Tacoma rec, like, 15 games that my dad would coach, right? I was good enough to play, not at the levels you did, but like, I was good. It didn't matter. everybody's path is different. Saundo Athletics: Mm-hmm. Rhett Parker: some people might have to choose earlier. I was just having this conversation with somebody else. Some people have to choose earlier because they're not a good enough athlete to play maybe at the highest level when they're 15 and play another sport. And that's okay too. But let them decide. If they just want to be good at two sports and not great at one, that's okay. Saundo Athletics: Absolutely, 100%. 100%. And not only that, I think people, especially parents, I think that their aspirations are higher than a lot of kids are, where they live vicariously through their kids. And I think that gets the family dynamic in trouble as well, allowing their kids to navigate their own path of life and doing what they wanna do. And in turn, they're gonna be better for it and throw athletics aside, just those decisions that they... Rhett Parker: ⁓ Saundo Athletics: they have to make on the day in and day out. ⁓ It's important to their life journey ⁓ that they are capable of making that without having that thought of, ⁓ well, what about mom and dad? What are they gonna think? ⁓ Rhett Parker: I trust me, I do. it's sometimes even in our household, we're thinking in the future instead of living in the moment. And it's like, guys, just go have fun. And it's okay to fail. And mom and I, I get it. you've met a lot of cool people. And a lot of cool things, kind of like you said, bringing your kid into the clubhouse and, that's awesome, but that doesn't define who you are. ⁓ And you want good people, right? Saundo Athletics: No doubt. Good people, man. And that's what I tried to teach. you know, when I got back into coaching at the professional level, that was one of the things that I really tried to harp on is baseball is what we do. It's not who we are, you know, good or bad. My average is not who I am. You know what I mean? Like there's so much more. And so something that we try to get across with Saundo athletics is it's person first, player second. And it doesn't matter what sport you're playing, where there's many more. Rhett Parker: I do. Saundo Athletics: important things in life and yeah in the moment it may not seem like it but in the grand scheme of things this is just a small thing of what I'm doing currently I'm going to live in the moment but don't lose sight of the big picture here of it's not who I am it's what I do. Rhett Parker: Talk to me about Saundo athletics and what you got going there and sort of what your goals are. And love it because we're pretty close in age and actually ⁓ Washington state, like grew up in similar areas. And we just, ⁓ to keep doing good things ⁓ our kids and spreading the good word of ⁓ athletics mean. Saundo Athletics: Absolutely. and speaking of that, that's one of the reasons why we didn't want to call it, or I didn't want to call it Saundo baseball ⁓ or And for anybody that doesn't know Saundo, I get that question a lot. That is my nickname. ⁓ It just happened organically, right? So ⁓ essentially what Saundo athletics is and the goal that I set out to do, and again, my kids don't play. Rhett Parker: Yeah. Right. Saundo Athletics: ⁓ Baseball is a part of my essence and I love it. I'm very passionate about it. ⁓ So my goal with Saundo athletics is to provide opportunities for youth that I wish I had growing up. ⁓ And I just feel like it's something I'm meant to do with all of my experience, walk of life through the game of baseball, the good and the bad, mainly the bad is to try to ⁓ just provide solid information, whether it's coaching or whether it's life or whatever that may be and it's something that ⁓ Essentially, I wish that I had when I was growing up or just those opportunities Rhett Parker: So it sounds like it's twofold, right? There's some athletic, physical things happening with coaching and ⁓ then the mental side and just helping people go in the right direction. Is that ⁓ a assessment? Because man, especially that second piece ⁓ is lacking. So my forget baseball in all of the sports games, games, games, games, games, train, train, train, train. Okay. Well, and, you, you, you and I know this and, and, and our producer play college baseball and your partner, Mitch was one of my former players play college baseball. The mental part is what separates people, at this level and this level and this level and this level, just as much, if not more than the physical. Saundo Athletics: Mm-hmm. ⁓ Absolutely. I think it's more to be honest and like something that not a lot of people know who Yogi Bear is, right? But the yogi isms of this game is 90 % the mental and the rest is in your head. Like nothing's more true. These physical ⁓ gifted players that fail all the time. It's like, first rounders in baseball, I don't know what the percentages of they'll get pushed because they got a lot of money and they got a big draft pick. But you I mean, the amount of first rounders that don't stick. ⁓ Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Saundo Athletics: in Major League Baseball is astronomical. And then you have all these other people that, had to earn it everywhere that they went. And I bet you they had to earn it at a young age too. And they learned something that, that the physically gifted and the guy that just dominated at all these levels never learned at a young age, because there's something that when you get kicked in the mouth for the first time, like you can go one of two ways with it, right? ⁓ So, I mean, baseball is a Gameplayed by a bunch of average joes it truly is The best compliment I could ever give anybody is that he's a ballplayer and what I mean by that is he's Averaged to good at literally everything on the field and he puts winning above everything He puts his teammates above everything and he puts just being a pro ⁓ Above everything else, ⁓ and not all the time Do they stand out on the field in a uniform because they look like the Under Armour mannequin, right? ⁓ But it's because I truly believe that they had to learn something at such a young age where, they had to earn their food at the table ⁓ from the beginning of it, right? ⁓ One of the things that I truly believe, and I learned this my first year getting into coaching ⁓ by one of my mentors was, ⁓ athletes want to know three things, in my opinion. And they want to know, do you care about me? Can I trust you? And can you make me better? And typically the first one, that you're able to break down the other two barriers was, you care about me? Once they realized that, and that goes back to the essence of the human being. And once they realized that, yeah, this guy cares about me off the field more than he cares about me on the field, all of a sudden that barrier is broken where now I can get to him. Some are harder than others. You never know where people come from and what their past looks like. But ultimately this game leaves us eventually. if I could leave a stamp on any of these guys, it's hey, Saundo cared about me. He cared about the person more than he did the player. ⁓ So that's a big deal for me. And going back to baseball is what we do. It's not who we are. ⁓ life lessons that we can learn from athletics is something that we can't learn anywhere else. ⁓ But ultimately, it's about being a great person. Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. I'm going to touch on that because and we had to move ⁓ this one because my little brother who's like family to me got called up JR Richie. ⁓ And man, checked on him the other day because ⁓ this you play at the highest level, right? People just pick at you. Pick, pick, pick, pick, pick. And they want this and someone wants this and they want Saundo Athletics: you Rhett Parker: this time from you and this and this autograph and this person now wants tickets that you haven't talked to in three years and and he's 22 years old and you're just sitting back as somebody that's really close to him because I've told him and other guys, I don't care if you play baseball, you're going to do something really special in your life because of who you are and the way you treat people. And I want my kids to be like you, not, not necessarily as an athlete, but as a person and to watch it, the last few weeks here, just upfront, man, it, it, It makes my stomach just churn a little bit of like, damn, there are so many people that just want you not as the person, not as Saundo but as Saundo the ball player, because they wouldn't necessarily care about you if it was just Saundo, right? What, I mean, this is getting into this, we just had a big mental health panel. How do you deal with that, man? And I know that's surviving youth sports, we're talking about a big leaguer, but it does equate down, right? As a great high school player or middle school player, whatever. How did you deal with that? Because it makes me feel, it's hard to explain, it just makes my stomach turn, Saundo Athletics: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And I had to learn that early because, coming up, I ended up playing and getting drafted by the Seattle Mariners, which is like basically my backyard, despite growing up in Canada. Logistically, I'm a 20 minute flight, to Seattle compared to a five hour flight east to Toronto, despite ⁓ being in the country. Right. So, I was lucky where I was really grounded at young age, thanks to my mom and dad and my family around me. Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Saundo Athletics: ⁓ Just continuing to remind me like, hey man, like, yeah, you're really good, but that's not what we care about. Right? They, so I was lucky in that aspect where I know not everybody is, you are a product of where you come from as well. And some people are given a little bit of a headstart, let's just say. ⁓ But I think best thing and the best advice I can give you is when people start coming out of the woodworks and I'm sure JR is, is, seeing that right now is surround yourself with people care about you. Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Saundo Athletics: and lean on them and allow yourself to be vulnerable and ask the right questions of like, I'm struggling with this. How would you handle this? This kind of thing. And thank God for my wife. was your, I learned the hard way after one half season in the big leagues, I got my check for how much I paid for in tickets and what people don't realize. And I hope people are watching this when this airs and you have a new found respect for in baseball, you pay for your tickets. Keep that in mind. Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Saundo Athletics: All right, and it's hard for a young guy with all the excitement that he's new to getting up there and he feels like he doesn't want to rub people the wrong way or whatever it may be. I'll never forget when I got my end of my season, like year to date of what I've spent on tickets and it was close to $30,000 just on straight tickets because I said yes to everybody and people I know started, ⁓ once I said that, Rhett Parker: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You That's crazy. Right. Mm-hmm. Saundo Athletics: they all of a sudden they just wanted to watch the game rather than people I knew care about me. They're like, no, man, we got it. We came here to watch you. We'll buy our own ticket. I just think that, uh, that's a field factor on people that are close to you and your inner circle. Cause people will start coming out of the woodworks. And I think I can speak on behalf of the 100 % of pro athletes that get to that level. All of a sudden kid that sat behind you in third grade and math was like, yo, remember me, man? Hey, Rhett Parker: Yep. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Saundo Athletics: Can you get me on field for BP? No, I can't. Sorry. know, remember, remember who helped you get to that point, right? ⁓ So thank God for my wife, because she said, Michael, I'll take this, you worry about what you need to do on the field. And she actually ended up writing a mass email of, hey, we can get you discounts. This is what it's going to cost you for this section. This is what it's going to cost you for another section. We're happy to get you tickets, but it's going to cost you and we get a discount for you. Rhett Parker: So, all right. Right, right. Mm-hmm. That's funny. Right, right, Saundo Athletics: Obviously that's not my family, my close friends, they got hooked up. But that's how we handle that situation. Because I just learned the hard way, right? And I wish, I wish somebody when I stepped in that clubhouse for the first time, pulled me aside to say, hey, Ruck heads up, dude, this is what's going to happen. But I think, I think more light has been brought to that situation, whether it's that exact situation or social media or mental health or all of that stuff. I think there's just. Rhett Parker: So, so. Saundo Athletics: so much more emphasis on all that now than I was sort of at that tail end of when I first got called up where there was those hard-ass veterans that made sure you were uncomfortable, you learned the way the hard way, this kind of thing, don't step out of line, be seen, not heard, right? But now I think people are just allowed to be themselves and knowing that when I'm myself, I'm having fun, I produce better. ⁓ So I think there's a combination of both, but I'm glad to see that it's heading in that direction. Rhett Parker: Hmm. Mm-hmm. probably pretty with, ⁓ I'm say probably ⁓ six guys professional baseball at all levels right now. And a couple of them have a chance to go to the big leagues, a couple are in the big leagues. ⁓ And I want people to hear this, because it's not just the big leaguers, minor leaguers, it's college guys, it's high school guys. Hey man, especially if they're good. The last thing they want to talk to you about if you really care about him is baseball or basketball. and I never have conversations about, ⁓ God, hey man, you hit that pitch the other night. You I get the occasional text, there's a kid that's struggling in AAA and he had a good outing yesterday. And I was like, hey man, hey, know, good outing, great job, man. I'll talk to you later. Like just to know they're supporting, but man. Saundo Athletics: No doubt. Rhett Parker: And I tell people this too, when I go watch my kids play, and I'm not anybody special, but I'm in baseball, right? I don't want to talk about baseball when I'm just watching my kids play a sport, or whether it's baseball or not. I want to, I'm a dad, just like you, and you probably get bugged a hell of a lot more than I do, but like, God, I just here as a dad, I don't want to talk to you about your older kid and their recruiting and, but like, I just want to stand here and enjoy what I'm doing. Saundo Athletics: No doubt. Rhett Parker: And it's so hard. And I don't think a lot of it's malicious of people's intent, but they can't help themselves, man. Like, they just can't. Saundo Athletics: You can't teach feel, right? I say that all the time. You have to have like a feel coordinator in a business, right? It's like someone steps out of line, go see Rhett in his office for a feel lesson. But that's the thing too. those are the guys that we're talking about surrounding yourself with. Like you're playing, especially in professional ball, it's every single day. And that's why it's a mental grind. And everyone's like, ⁓ baseball is not physical. It is physical. Rhett Parker: I'm gonna steal that. Thanks That's a one. That's a good one. Saundo Athletics: You're playing every day. may not be put on some pads and go, you know, slam each other around on, know, the gridiron or anything like that. But it's more so of a mental grind, especially when you start in it, you'll never hear me use the word slump because for me, that's just a pure mentality struggle. That's different. Everyone can see your street. I'm struggling a little bit. I'm not seeing the, or whatever it may be. You'll never hear me say the word slump, but they need those outlets to exhale. Like you said, I think you use the word exhale. Like, no man, like You need to be here for me to talk about whatever, fishing or let's go have a beer or whatever that may be. It's like, you're my outlet away from this game to allow me to recharge the batteries. And those guys and those family members, they're the unsung heroes. They really are. ⁓ Is allowing a professional athlete, I'm sure I can speak on behalf of other sports too, but allowing a professional athlete. Rhett Parker: Yeah. Yeah. Agree. Saundo Athletics: Outlet into normalcy again because what they do is different There's no question and to perform on the highest stage in front. It's not just 40,000 but That's live like on TV all the time People don't realize like it's a 7 o'clock game You're there at 1230 and you don't leave till midnight almost and it's every single day like Be the outlet that they need and they don't always want to talk about their sport. Hey, that's what you're alluding to it, Rhett Parker: They always they never. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And that's I love that you said that and going back to youth athletes, pro athletes, same thing. We're people, they're people, they're kids, they're kids or they're probably they are everyone's a person just because they can't sit down and have a meal as a pro athlete without getting bothered doesn't mean they're not a person doesn't mean they didn't want to just sit there sometimes. Saundo Athletics: And it's just about getting back to normalcy and being a person. Rhett Parker: The kids want to go run and go swimming and go fishing and do these things. And it's not, oh, you gotta go train. We have to start to shift the narrative of how we treat people from the highest levels all the way down. And you don't. So I'm going to, I want to go right back. Saundo athletics. I want to take that as an example. What, what can we expect from this to help with that? Where we're Saundo Athletics: Mm-hmm. Rhett Parker: putting people here and the athletic part here. And by the way, I love the fact that you're not doing it about just baseball because it is youth sports in general. It's not just baseball, right? So how are you achieving that with what you're trying to do? Saundo Athletics: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so essentially currently we're doing two camps in July, two camps in August. ⁓ And it just, again, it goes back to something that I am very convicted about is, do you trust me? Or sorry, can I trust you? Do you care about me? And can you make me better? Right? ⁓ The care factor of really emphasizing the fact that I care about you more off the field than on the field. immediately will break down that wall. And at the end of the day, my aspirations for my own kids is not professional because it's just unrealistic. may come to that eventually one day. ⁓ But my aspirations is, hey, go out there, compete, control what you can control, which is your effort, being a pro as much as you can be at that age, and ultimately being a great teammate and ⁓ really trying emphasize those factors to the point where The goal is to alleviate pressure of you to perform. ⁓ Giving back to the community. So where we're hosting these is actually in my old Little League park of where I grew up playing. ⁓ It's like a full circle. ⁓ And for us, in the crawling stages of Saundo athletics. We want to crawl before we walk, walk before we run. ⁓ Ultimate goals, ⁓ don't know. We want to be where our feet are right now. ⁓ And really, Rhett Parker: Very cool. Saundo Athletics: provide a service to the youth sport community here on the island. ⁓ We've been getting a little bit of questions from the mainland over in Vancouver. Are we planning on coming there? Are we planning on coming up the island? ⁓ But really focusing on home base right now. ultimately, want to make sure that fun and development coincide in the same sentence with Saundo athletics. ⁓ and our goal is to basically have these kids complete a camp and can't wait till the next one starts, ⁓ the following year, ⁓ build the love for the game of baseball, right? ⁓ we are currently only are doing baseball and something I'm very excited about is we've had a couple of girls sign up, and, come out, which I'm stoked about. They just started an all girls team up in central Sanich, which is, up by the fairies, ⁓ in Victoria, which is a huge deal. ⁓ a league of their own, so to speak, at the youth level. ⁓ But that's the goal, is just to build confidence, build the love of the game, and not just confidence in the box or on the dirt, but confidence as a young female and a young male ⁓ athlete, and everything that athletics, and basically umbrellas. Rhett Parker: That's great. Well, anything I can do, we can do to help because our philosophies and not everyone I have, you know, we have on the show, our philosophies don't always align, which is okay because some things that we align on, right, might not work for somebody else, might not work in a different part of the country, might not work in their household, which is great. But I love what you're doing. ⁓ And I want to support it any way that I can for sure. are you a website? Do have any social medias? Where can people follow along with what you got going on? Saundo Athletics: Yeah, absolutely. So Saundo Athletics dot CA is the website where you can go on and you can actually sign up for the camp so you can get introduced to our coaching staff. And we've got a phenomenal staff here locally here in Victoria. We've been getting support from Baseball Canada, which is a huge deal. And Greg Hamilton out there on the East Coast ⁓ and then Saundo Athletics or at Saundo Athletics for Instagram. We're starting to build out our Twitter and our Facebook page. But essentially we want to open our arms for people to come and enjoy the ride with us. Rhett Parker: Absolutely. we, actually there's a couple of episodes coming up with some people in other sports in Canada ⁓ that are trying to do similar things of growing the game and growing people's participation in the right way. So I love what you're doing, man. I appreciate you taking the time come on and chat about you sports and Saundo athletics. Saundo Athletics: Love it man, love it and good luck to your kids. sounds like they're all doing pretty amazing things. So, apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Thanks to your wife, I guess. Rhett Parker: Awesome. ⁓ 100 % it ain't me. It's definitely her definitely her. Well, I appreciate that Yeah, Saundo Athletics: Awesome man. Well, thanks a lot for having me Red. I appreciate you guys.